1. The spirit of liberalism is condemned.
The so-called modern errors begun around the 1800. Unlike the earlier heresies, the modern errors are a combination of several errors put together. Sometimes it is a combination of all errors against all the teachings of the Catholic Church put together….an example is the heresy of liberalism. This can be aptly be represented by the statue of Liberty, the sister of the prostitute raised by the French revolutionaries. Some authors had called liberalism the religion of America, of Europe, South America, China, Japan, etc..It has worldwide membership because all men were born with original sin. All men are born member of this religion. And as we have shown, liberalism is nothing else than ‘original sin’ deified.
But Christ had come. He had freed us from this slavery and showed us the way to eternal life. But men had preferred living on earth for all eternity rather than dwell with God for all eternity. The trouble is there is no such thing as life on earth for all eternity. There is death; then judgment. Then either eternal life or eternal condemnation. It had been very difficult to convince men of these truths that God revealed to us and are found in the teachings of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
But that is the role of the Magisterium of which the Pope is the official spokesman. And Pope Gregory XVI did a good job. He confessed his times were difficult times ‘because the power of darkness are winnowing the elect like wheat. Man had transgressed the law, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant,’ he wrote describing liberalism.
He did not say that this is the beginning of the victory of Satan. He said; this was a winnowing period for the Church. So it is God’s work of testing the Church. And Pope Gregory was helping the Church passed the test with his encyclical ‘Mirari vos,’ on liberalism. Like a good teacher, in it, he was telling us what was the right answer and what was the wrong answer to God’s test.
Pope Gregory XVI reviewed for us all the previous teachings of Christ; keep the Faith, respect the discipline of the Church, respect the canonical degrees of the Popes, defend celibacy, defend marriage, there must be union of church and state in Catholic countries and unceasing prayer for God’s help. Then the Pope condemns a practice based on the heresy of liberalism. And that is the popular practice of ‘People’s Power.’
2. An expression of liberalism is ‘People’s Power.’
The Pope wrote; ‘We have learned that certain teachings are being spread among the common people in writings which attack the trust and submission due to princes.’ It is treason for the faithful to go against elected officials whoever they may be. This treason is being practice everywhere today. Small or large groups of people demonstrating against governments. Government against other governments, U.N. against foreign governments. And the removal of heads of states by other bully governments are common.
The heresy of liberalism is when people, following their own personal and private desires impose these desires on the head of states and on others in complete disregard to the Will of God. The head of a nation is always God’s will either as a chastisement for their infidelity or a reward for their fidelity. You get the head that you deserve. Who the head is is always the Will of God, direct or permissive, as St. Thomas would say. So their authority, whether he is Nero or Constantine the Great is from God. And the Christian should respect that.
The admonition of the Apostle is clear; ‘there is no power but from God and those that are, are ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God . And they that resist, purchase to themselves damnation.
Pope Gregory decries the world wide practice of deposing heads of states for the silliest reasons. The head of state cannot be removed for any reason. Because he is there by the Will of God. To do so is to go against the Will of God and will purchase for himself damnation. This is the spirit of liberalism condemned by the Church; sadly introduced by the state and had backfired on the state, itself, world wide.
Let us take one example on how the heresy of liberalism removed one head of state in this country, in fact, they repeated this heresy three times. The three were removed because a small group wanted to be liberated. They were not even clear from what. Pope Gregory states; they were liberated from God’s Will because they wanted to insist on their own will. That is the heresy of liberalism and will purchase for themselves damnation. Pope Gregory continues ; ‘both Divine and human laws cry out against those who strive by treason and sedition to drive heads and force them from their government.’ The U.S. does that as a government policy. But they are Protestants and would not know Catholic Doctrine. But the Philippines is supposed to be Catholic. A small group wanted to impose their own private will against God’s Will on a head ruling with God’s authority. Their intention was clear; to impose their own will on the state and on the nation, completely is disregard to God’s Will. This is the heresy of liberalism. To make matter worse; they were encouraged by a Catholic cardinal to go against Catholic teachings. Worse, the demonstrators were led by seminarians and nuns who had no idea whatsoever about Pope Gregory XVI and the encyclical ‘Mirari Vos.’ And; probably it would not go worse than this; that most of the priests, bishops and cardinals stood silent as the president was deposed. This silence made them participant in the deposition of a head and in the heresy. The newspapers became part of the heresy of liberalism that engulfed the whole country. Considering that liberalism is the denial of Faith and Charity, the entire country had, indeed, committed apostasy from the Catholic Faith. And we celebrate that apostasy from the true Faith every year!
3. The heresy of the mob was that they insisted on their own private selfish will without finding out first what is the Will of God. Though, they had no idea what was God’s will anyway. The Cardinal made a mistake on what was the Will of God because he was ignorant of ‘Mirari vos.’ that should have guided him. He, himself, followed his own private opinion having fallen into liberalism himself. He should have studied the teachings of God as revealed in Divine Revelation and the writings of previous Popes.
4. People’s power is against God’s Will as shown by the Apostle Paul and the tradition of early Christians.
The first Christians served their pagan emperor faithfully in everything; except when commanded to disobey God. When told to disobey God, they did not depose their leaders but, instead, were willing to be martyred. They would not depose the emperor even if they were huge in number to do so.
They were the best soldiers of the emperors when defending their countries. St. Augustine wrote; Christian soldiers served an infidel emperor. But when the issue is Christ they acknowledge Him alone. St. Mauritius of the Theban legion served a pagan emperor. With his own soldier he could have deposed the emperor and lived freely as a Christian. But no. He fought for the emperor. But when made to chose between God and idolatry, instead of rebelling and deposing the emperor, he chose to be martyred with his legion. Remember he had a legion enough to overthrow the emperor.
The deposing of heads of states around the world were never for spiritual reason. It is for political reason which is an invalid, liberal reason that is against the teachings of the Catholic Church. All the elements in deposing a head of state were sinful. Confiscating of their properties without legal procedure, destroying of their reputation, inability to forgive their sins if there were, rash judgments, made up evidences, etc. etc.Every step in the process of removing them was sinful and worthy of condemnation, Look at the total lack of Charity led even by the Church leaders.
5. Because of the above teaching of the Church, rulers are made to know that it is to their great advantage that they have many true Christians. The more true Christians they have the less enemies they have. Thus the union of Church and state is of great advantage for the state. But of course, if the Christians are not truly Catholic this union will have bad repercussions.
6. The guilt of those involved in removing a head of state goes far and wide. The ordinary secretaries who typed the orders of deposition, the police and army who executed the deposition, the foreign countries who help physically removed the rulers, etc. Then there are the courts and offices who confiscated illegally the possessions, the newspaper who defamed the ruler. There is no end to those who are to blame and are worthy of condemnation.
Most of those involved in disobeying this command of God are now old and close to death. Others have died. Where are they now knowing that Scriptures have words of condemnation in store for them.
7. A bishop who has liberalism tendencies will tend to have priests and followers who are, also, liberal. The probability is great that because the bishop and his surrogates are guilty of liberalism, most of the members of the diocese are guilty of liberalism. Recalling the definition of liberalism the whole diocese could be Protestant; since Protestantism is the first fruit of liberalism in the Church. Manila could have been Protestant then. But more so now because that was several years ago. It could be worse today since liberalism tend to continuously corrupt the soul it possesses.
8, Demonstrations, mobs, rebellions are rampant today. Attempts to remove duly elected heads of states are a daily occurrence everywhere. The world is awashed with the spirit of liberalism. And since liberalism is Satan’s ‘I will not serve.’ Pope Paul VI was right in saying that the devil have controlled the whole world. As a consequence the world will not escape the just condemnation God has stored for such treason. Being liberal, the Catholic world lost all her visible signs of Catholicity mentioned in the Nicene Creed; because she had fallen into that primal heresy…..liberalism, wherein souls went against all Catholic doctrines in believing that conscience is free and; that absolute truths, that there is a God, does not exist.