Is Feeneyism Catholic? - Society of St. Pius X

2 I S F EENEYISM C ATHOLIC?
nor on the right. The teaching Church must “religiously guard
and faithfully explain the deposit of Faith that was handed down
through the Apostles,…this apostolic doctrine that all the Fathers
held, and the holy orthodox Doctors reverenced and followed”
(Vatican I, Dz. 1836); all members of the Church must receive
that same doctrine, without picking and choosing what they will
believe. We may not deny a point of doctrine that belongs to the
deposit of Faith–though not yet defined–under the pretext that it
has been distorted by the Liberals.
Moreover, there is at stake a whole attitude of mind in front
of the truth of Faith. The Catholic Church teaches that Faith is
the adhesion of the intelligence to the truth revealed by God,
Who can neither deceive nor be deceived, which truth is faithfully
taught by the Catholic Church. Faith therefore is a humble reception
of Truth, a submission of the intelligence. This Catholic attitude
of the faithful is called by St. Paul “the obedience of Faith”
(Rom. 1:5, 16:26, Acts 6:7). Hence, when one sees so many holy
Fathers, holy doctors, popes, saints and approved theologians
teach as unanimously a doctrine as this one, the proper Catholic
attitude is to receive it with docility, striving to understand it “in
the same sense and in the same words.” 4 It is not a Catholic attitude
to reject one point of Faith, under the pretext of holding fast
to another point of Faith, pretending that they are incompatible.
The compatibility between both has been taught from the beginning,
and wonderfully explained by the Doctors; it is not Catholic
to reject the Doctors’ doctrine, claiming to “improve upon the
teaching of some of the Doctors.” 5
This book was first printed by Angelus Press with the title:
Baptism of Desire. This second edition has been so deeply reworked
that it could be fairly called a new book(!), though the
whole material of the first edition is still found here. More research
has been done for it, more Doctors and theologians have
been consulted, all of them being found in perfect agreement
with the traditional doctrine. I want to thank especially Fr. Joseph
Pfeiffer and Mrs. Mary Buckalew for their research on this matter,
which proved invaluable.
4 Eodem sensu eademque sententia, I Cor. 1:10, quoted by Vatican I, Dz. 1800.
5 Brother Michael, letter of March 3, 1986.