“…Although they express their astonishment that We should number them amongst the enemies of the Church, no one will be reasonably surprised that We should do so, if, leaving out of account the internal disposition of the soul, of which God alone is the Judge, he considers their tenets, their manner of speech, and their action. Nor indeed would he be wrong in regarding them as the most pernicious of all the adversaries of the Church. For, as We have said, they put into operation their designs for her undoing, not from without but from within. Hence, the danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church, whose injury is the more certain from the very fact that their knowledge of her is more intimate. Moreover, they lay the ax not to the branches and shoots, but to the very root, that is, to the faith and its deepest fibers. And once having struck at this root of immortality, they proceed to diffuse poison through the whole tree…”

Note: If even otherwise good and important Popes like John Paul II and Benedict XVI allowed this most important encyclical to fade from theological and philosophical discussion, thinking they would approach modern man from different angles and points of departure, we have lived see to what effect neglecting it altogether may have led us, culminating especially during the dizzying pontificate of Pope Francis.

It is time for Catholics (especially conservative scholars) to reread this most important of encyclicals, written as a warning to us at the very dawn of the 20th century, and to take its analysis and admonitions to heart, and, especially, back to the classrooms of the world, if we are to find our way out of the apparent juggernaut of subjectivism and Progressivism, which, as St. Pius X wrote, has certainly poisoned the entire tree of Catholic theology and philosophy, and made Catholicism without this anchor appear an irrelevance to serious minded thinkers the world over. Surely it is time for Catholics to —in the words of G.K. Chesterton — “rethink our way back to thought”— Stephen Hand

Read Pascendi Dominici Gregis

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+ See also John XXIII, Benedict XVI and Francis. 2015.