The Progressivist Juggernaut

Consequences of Vatican II

The Progressivist Juggernaut

Lyle J. Arnold, Jr.

In its ritual processions the idol personifying Juggernaut (the Hindu god Vishnu) is transported on a large chariot. Some of its followers are so consumed by a fanatical obsession that they throw themselves under its wheels to be crushed to death, supposedly to acquire a complete mystical unity with that deity. This precedent gave birth to the term juggernaut, which is applied to any massive destructive force, be it religious, cultural or political, that inexorably draws its followers.

The religious origins of the term Juggernaut

Above, Juggernaut's chariot that smashes some people; below, how the term juggernaut has been applied

How the term juggernaut has been applied

If we were to apply it to our religious situation today we could say that legions of Catholics have been victimized by the progressivist juggernaut. A kind of suicidal impetus attracts them irresistibly to the progressivist heresy.

St. Pius X's encyclical Pascendi showed how Modernism was crushing all the vital parts of the Catholic life: Holy Scriptures, dogmas, the Sacraments, theology, philosophy, history, tradition and customs. All these fields of Catholic life fell under that destructive dominating force and were profoundly transformed into something else.

By the time St. Pius X wrote his encyclical, the Western world was already being drawn into the Modernist spirit. The Pope clearly saw that this force had pervaded the souls of "the Catholic laity, and what is much more sad, the ranks of the priesthood itself." (1) We could say the same regarding Progressivism, the heir and continuator of Modernism. Progressivism can rightly be called a "super-force," whose tentacles were spreading into the Vatican during the reign of Pius XII.

Fr. Yves Congar, a theological celebrity at Vatican II (later made a Cardinal), considered the adaptation of the Church to the world as an important factor for that destruction: “The amazing change in the world imposes on the Church a no less amazing effort of revision and renewal ... that does away with Scholasticism, the apologetics of the 18th and 19th centuries, and the scholastic teaching and preaching common at the beginning of this century.” (2)

So powerful and attractive was the modernist juggernaut that St. Pius X labeled it "The synthesis of all heresies." Then, as if to proclaim to the world its lewd censure of Pascendi, Vatican II went beyond that synthesis of all heresies, and created within the sacred walls of the Church an even more forceful juggernaut called Progressivism.

Progressivism, heir of Modernism

If one wants to be precise in terms he would ask: What is the difference between a progressivist and a modernist? I will summarize the definition of A.S. Guimaraes found here:

Progressivism develops the errors of the Modernism, but the consequences are more extensive and their expression is more subtle.
Progressivism is more extensive because, from the liturgical, biblical, patristic and social fields, it extended to modern philosophy, accepting Phenomenology, Existentialism, and German Idealism, and to theology, presenting new interpretations of Church dogmas different than the traditional ones.
It is more subtle because progressivists presented their errors more carefully, trying to avoid the condemnations of St. Pius X in Pascendi and Pius IX in the Syllabus. Therefore, until their victory at Vatican II, it could be more difficult and complicated to catch these errors." (3)

Progressivists present a distorted figure of Christ and the teaching of the Holy Church

Catholics have lived with the revolution in the Church unleashed by Vatican II for half a century. The Church has become like a human body, where every single organ has been crushed to the point of near death.

What explains this phenomenon? Could it be the inexorable force of this juggernaut that caused millions of Catholics to blindly adhere to the New Church of Vatican II, accepting its progressivist heresy without bothering to examine its novelties and compare them with the perennial Magisterium of the Catholic Church? In other words, the Devil in his massive chariot took over the entire Church from the top of her highest hierarchical position to the bottom of the life of the simplest faithful.

This infestation is reflected in the hatred of progressivist theologians towards the Church as she was before the Council. Here is a sample of how they boldly describe the Bride of Christ: She was "sterile," "sclerotic," "the opium of the people." Her liturgy was “filthy” (i.e. the Mass of Trent), she was "coercive," "stagnant" and "putrid." These offenses were launched against Holy Mother Church by a large gamut of known theologians in their books and official pronouncements, accepted by the post-Conciliar Church with a surprising silence. (4)

A recent example shows the radicalism of this heresy. A petition was launched by 144 Catholic theologians in Germany calling for more radicality in the Church. Embodied in the petition were the following points:

To abandon what is left of Catholic morals, termed “rigorist”;
To allow same-sex couples ‘who live their love' to marry and divorced persons to be remarried;
To do away with obligatory celibacy for priests and open the doors for married priests and woman priests;
To increase lay participation in the Church, let the faithful have more say in the election of the Bishops and introduce a more democratic process at all levels of the Church. (4)

The petition has been met with veritable silence from the faithful and Catholic traditionalist movement, and acquiescence from the progressivists.

May Our Lady of Fatima act soon to break the force of this juggernaut, and by the power of Her Immaculate Heart launch the promised Reign of Mary.

1. On The Doctrines of the Modernists, Pascendi Dominici Gregis, July 3, 1907.
2. Y. Congar, Eglise Catholique et France Moderne, apud A.S. Guimaraes, Animus Injuriandi I, Tradition in Action, 2010, p. 188.
3. Liberals, Modernists and Progressivists
4. A.S. Guimaraes, Animus Injuriandi I," Chapter VII.
5. A.S. Guimaraes, "Clergy Celibacy: Boiling Water in Germany,," Bird's Eye View of the News, 2-15-11

Share

Follow us

Posted March 25, 2011

Related Topics of Interest

  How to Distinguish the True Faith from Heresy

  Progressivism's Big Con

  The Newspeak of Progressivism

  How to Act in the Face of Bad Popes

  Liberals, Modernists and Progressivists

Related Works of Interest