The Asymptotic Magisterium

It used to be said that Pius X described Modernism in Pascendi better than any actual Modernist could have done himself. Those days are gone. The 'Pontificator' has posted an article by someone called Alvin Kimel whose description of Catholicism is so perfect an account of Modernism as could never be rivalled.

History might go on for ages, we are told, and so we might well still live in the early church. The church progresses in it's knowledge of the truth and so can never really know accurately even the truths necessary for salvation. For two thousand years it has been believed that infant baptism was essential because without it any infant who died would be excluded forever from the beatific vision. But now we are watching 'the development of Catholic doctrine in action' and it turns out all human beings are automatically saved unless they reach the age of reason and commit an actual sin. Doctrines, even doctrines necessary for salvation, shift their meaning by 180 degrees. But don't worry coz this isn't 'a counter-example to the claim of the Catholic Church to be the authoritative and reliable steward of revelation'. After all, 'what is truth' as an early modernist once said. How ignorant the Apostles, Fathers and Doctors were, how wrong Pius X was when he said,

"The absolute and immutable truth preached by the apostles from the beginning may never be believed to be different, may never be understood in any other way."

Fr Kimel (a former anglican vicar and implacable foe of ' St Augustine and his Calvinist and Jansenist followers') tells us that,

"…the paragraph of Laetentus caeli that addresses baptism and original sin is not formulated in the language of solemn definition: it does not call for an irrevocable act of faith ..."

Allow me to quote the text,

Laetentur caeli, Decree of The Ecumenical Council Of Florence (1438-1445)

"In the name of the holy Trinity, Father, Son and holy Spirit, we define, with the approval of this holy universal council of Florence, that the following truth of faith shall be believed and accepted by all Christians and thus shall all profess it: … that the souls of those who depart this life in actual mortal sin, or in original sin alone, go down straightaway to hell to be punished, but with but with unequal pains. We also define that…."

Not a whiff of the extraordinary magisterium there clearly….