Heretics Anonymous

 My spiritual father, the late, great Fr. Gommar A. DePauw, JCD, the first Traditionalist and a peritus (i.e. "theological expert") at the Second Vatican Council, fought the Modernists alongside Bishop Blaise Kurz and Cardinal Ottaviani. He founded the Catholic Traditionalist Movement in 1964. When I had inquired as to how the vast majority of prelates could have apostatized at Vatican II, his answer was clear and to the point: "They didn't become bums overnight." Truer words were never spoken. Many Traditionalists think all was dandy prior to the Council (1962) or at least prior to the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958.

 The "synthesis of all heresies," Modernism, had been brewing for quite some time. Thanks to the efforts of the ecclesiastical giant, Pope St. Pius X, they were driven "underground," but had certainly not been eradicated. They were crafty and cunning, like their master Satan, waiting for  an opportune moment to strike. They did all they could to influence members of the hierarchy with the false teachings and principles of Modernism. One such wolf in sheep's clothing was arch-heretic Fr. Karl Rahner. Few people realize he was called the "mind of Vatican II" and was a driving force behind ecumenism; especially the idea of universal salvation. Few people have heard of this man, and still fewer realize the impact he had on both the creation of the Vatican II  sect as well as the Fenneyite reaction spawned by his pernicious ideas. I thought I would write this post for the benefit of all of us who need to remember the axiom "Know Thy Enemy."

Rahner's Beginnings

  Karl Rahner was born on March 5, 1904, in Freiberg, Germany. He was ordained a Jesuit on July 26, 1932. In the twentieth century (beginning in the late 1930s), Rahner, along with theologians  Henri de Lubac, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Yves Congar, Hans Kung, Edward Schillebeeckx, Marie-Dominique Chenu, Louis Bouyer, Jean Daniélou, Jean Mouroux and Joseph Ratzinger (later "Pope" Benedict XVI) began a Neo-Modernist movement that despised the Neo-Scholasticism which had served the Church so well. The movement was called "Nouvelle Theologie" (French for "New Theology") by the great anti-Modernist theologian Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, often pejoratively called "the sacred monster of Thomism" by his enemies because of his love of the philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas and his hatred of Modernism.

 In 1946, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange wrote a scathing criticism of the movement (which liked to call itself  ressourcement ---"return to the sources"), because they claimed they were "returning to patristic thought." Garrigou-Lagrange demonstrated that the theologians of the movement did not "return to the sources" but deviated from the long-standing theological tradition of the Catholic Church, thus creating a "new theology" all their own, and a disguised resurgence of Modernism. In 1950, Pope Pius XII responded with his great encyclical Humani Generis which condemned many of their errors, such as rejecting the traditional dogmatic formulations that emerged throughout Church history as a result of scholastic theology, re-interpreting Catholic dogma in a way that was inconsistent with tradition, falling into the error of dogmatic relativism and criticizing biblical texts in a way that deviated from the principles of biblical hermeneutics outlined by his predecessors (principally Pope Leo XIII).

Rahner's "Anonymous Christians" and Vatican II

 Almost all the theologians of the "new theology" were under suspicion of Modernism by the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office under Cardinal Ottavianni. Rahner was no exception. Before the death of Pope Pius XII, Cardinal Ottaviani tried unsuccessfully three times to convince the ailing Pontiff to have him excommunicated. In November 1962, "Pope" John XXIII appointed Rahner as a peritus at Vatican II. The heretic Rahner thus had complete access to the Council and numerous opportunities to share his heresy with the bishops.  Rahner's influence at Vatican II was widespread, and he was subsequently chosen as one of seven theologians who would develop Lumen Gentium, the dogmatic Constitution on the Church, which created the Vatican II sect with its damnable new ecclesiology. The Church of Christ is not identical to the Roman Catholic Church, but it is a separate entity which "subsists in" the Catholic Church, as well as false sects. 

 From this false notion of the Church came Rahner's most infamous heresy, that of the "anonymous Christian." According to Rahner:

"Anonymous Christianity means that a person lives in the grace of God and attains salvation outside of explicitly constituted Christianity… Let us say, a Buddhist monk… who, because he follows his conscience, attains salvation and lives in the grace of God; of him I must say that he is an anonymous Christian; if not, I would have to presuppose that there is a genuine path to salvation that really attains that goal, but that simply has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. But I cannot do that. And so, if I hold if everyone depends upon Jesus Christ for salvation, and if at the same time I hold that many live in the world who have not expressly recognized Jesus Christ, then there remains in my opinion nothing else but to take up this postulate of an anonymous Christianity." (Karl Rahner in Dialogue, p. 135)

This was encoded in the heretical Catechism of the Catholic (sic) Church, citing Lumen Gentium:

"The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day." (See Catechism of the Catholic Church, New York: Doubleday, 1995, nos. 839-848)

We DO NOT adore the false "god" of the Mohammedans---"Allah."

In the document Dominus Iesus (2000) written by Ratzinger and (falsely) hailed by "conservative" Vatican II sect members as a "reaffirmation" of the Catholic Church as the One True Church, is really just full of more Rahner-inspired heresy:

"Nevertheless, God, who desires to call all peoples to himself  in Christ and to communicate to them the fullness of his revelation and love, "does not fail to make himself present in many ways, not only to individuals, but also to entire peoples through their spiritual riches, of which their religions are the main and essential expression even when they contain ‘gaps, insufficiencies and errors'". Therefore, the sacred books of other religions, which in actual fact direct and nourish the existence of their followers, receive from the mystery of Christ the elements of goodness and grace which they contain."

In other words, false sects and their false books/teachings, merely have "gaps, insufficiencies, and errors," and yet contain "elements of goodness and grace" from the "mystery of Christ" which will "nourish and direct" the existence of their followers. According to the concept of Anonymous Christianity, the "Mystery of Christ" is contained in varying degrees in non-Catholic religions. Therefore, salvation is also available in those other (false) religions.

This document ostensibly affirms Catholicism as the only way of salvation. However, it also locates Jesus (albeit imperfectly) in other sects, including those that do not even reconize jesus Christ as God. They deny Jesus (Judaism), call him a mere prophet (Islam), an ascended master (Buddhism), or know nothing of him (voodoo, Wicca,  animism, etc.). These other concepts of Jesus are not merely imperfect revelations of Jesus, but are, in fact, various forms of denying Jesus Christ.

 You can see how the Fenneyites began. It was a reaction to the heretics of the "New Theology," teaching that "Baptism of Desire" (BOD) covers anyone. It was a false and distorted (heretical) notion of BOD to which Leonard Feeney was reacting. This led him into the heresy of denying BOD and BOB, even when properly understood, by going to false and exaggerated extremes to defend the truth "No Salvation Outside The Church."

Rahner in his own heretical words

The following quotes are all taken from the book, Karl Rahner in Dialogue his words in red:

How would you characterize the neo-scholastic theology before the Second Vatican Council?


Rahner: It had "a kind of defensive mentality, a certain defensive turning of the Church in on itself against the world… The Church certainly had great missionary success, but in fact only by exporting Western European Christianity to all the world… I also believe that one can say that neo-scholastic philosophy and theology, for all their accomplishments, are quite passé today."

So do you believe that the Holy Spirit works through other religions?

Rahner: "Certainly."

What do you think about the question of the ordination of women?

Rahner: "When the Vatican declaration against the ordination of women (even in the future) came out a few years back, I published an article saying that it failed to convince me. (Of course, it was not an infallible definition). Rome is digging in its heels, it seems to me, against the development that one ought to admit calmly might not be a bad thing."

What about clerical celibacy?

Rahner: "The obligation of the Church to provide sufficient clergy is of divine right and takes precedence over the ecclesiastically desirable law of celibacy. If, in practice, you cannot obtain a sufficient number of priests in a given cultural setting without relinquishing celibacy, then the Church must suspend the law of celibacy, at least there."

There you have it folks. A rabid heretic preaching universal salvation. He died in 1984, just after his 80th birthday. I wince when I think of the most probable fate of his soul, and the millions he has helped lead to Hell.

 In today's world there is no more sin and no more character flaws. There are only "addictions" and "sicknesses" which compel behavior. Hence, when former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was caught frequenting prostitutes, he wasn't an adulterous sinner in need of repentance, he was a "sex addict." He went to "Sex Addicts Anonymous" and was nearly elected NYC Comptroller only five years later. People seem to take pity and love a poor "victim." You can now be an out-and out sleeze-bag, and be loved in spite of it if you claim a compulsion.

Perhaps the Vatican II sect can go beyond their "anonymous Christians" and start a "Heretics Anonymous" group so they don't need to pretend they are Catholic anymore. I can just imagine the first meeting. An old guy in a white cassock gets up and says, "My name is Jorge, and I'm a heretic." To which the worldly people will respond, "We love you anyway, Jorge."