Seton Hall Magazine, Winter 2000 - Seton Hall University

T h e C a t h o l i c C h u r c h
In 1879, the English writer and orator,
John Henry Newman, made a
remarkably prescient remark about
the coming 20th century. A convert to
Catholicism, Newman — over the objections
of some who considered him “too
liberal” — had been named a Cardinal
of the Catholic Church by Pope Leo
XIII. In his speech accepting the red hat
in Rome, Newman predicted that the
coming century would be an ominous
period for the Church. In particular, he
put his finger on the issue of “truth.” He
singled out the 19th century’s tendency
to invoke particular truths — the truths
of science and of humanistic good will
— as ways of denying any greater truths,
particularly the truths of religion.
And … it must be borne in mind that there is
much in the liberalistic theory which is good
and true; for example, not to say more, the
precepts of justice, truthfulness, sobriety,
self-command, benevolence, which … are
among its avowed principles, and the natural
laws of society. It is not till we find that this
array of principles is intended to supersede,
to block out, religion, that we pronounce it
to be evil. There never was a device of the
Enemy, so cleverly framed, and with such
promise of success.
From this calculated rejection of religious
truth, Newman foresaw dark and
ominous consequences for the 20th
century. His words echo Dostoyevsky’s,
written at about the same time, “If there
is no God, everything is permitted.”
Without truth, without attention to
the inner voice summoning us to what
is right, no matter the cost, then anarchy
reigns, “the center falls apart”
and violence is unleashed on the land.
The 20th century bore grim witness to
millions dead because of false promises.
Nationalistic feelings easily linked
up with the false promises of scientism,
laissez-faire capitalism, fascism
and Marxism. We are still nursing
those wounds.
30 SETON HALL UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE
From Perilous Times, Words of Comfort
BY MONSIGNOR RICHARD M. LIDDY ’60, S.T.L., PH.D.
“Without truth,
without attention
to the inner voice
summoning us to
what is right, no
matter the cost,
then anarchy reigns,
‘the center falls
apart’ and violence
is unleashed on
the land.”
Of course, at the end of the 20th century,
the history of such ideologies made
people wary of any “truth” at all. For
many, truth — even the search for truth
— has ceased to be an existential category
in their lives. Some, still captured by
the enlightenment ideology of scientism,
reduce all of human consciousness to
neuro-biology and lower levels of reality.
For others in this “post-modern” world,
there are only incommensurate worlds
among which we choose for merely
short-term pragmatic reasons. There is
nothing worth caring about, nothing
truly worthy of extravagant love.
When Beavis and Butthead become
the icons of a culture, we are all in
trouble.
It is chiefly for these reasons that the
Catholic Church will certainly continue
to struggle during the third millennium
— as she has throughout her history.
Certainly she will struggle because of
her own sins and her own arrogance. But
she will also suffer from the tremendous
cultural forces arrayed against her mission
of witnessing to her Lord who
called himself “the truth.” In the third
millennium, as in the previous two, she
will certainly be counter-cultural.
Nevertheless, Catholics believe
that, because of the abiding promise
of their Lord to “be with them until
the end of time,” Catholicism will be
a presence in the new millennium. In
1925, G. K. Chesterton indicated what
kind of presence by telling the story
of his own conversion.
I had been blundering about since my birth
with two huge and unmanageable machines
of different shapes and without apparent
connection — the world and the Christian
tradition. I had found this hole in the world:
the fact that one must somehow find a way
of loving the world without trusting it …
I found this projecting feature of Christian
theology, like a sort of hard spike, the dogmatic
insistence that God was personal, and
had made a world separate from himself.
The spike of dogma fitted exactly into the
hole in the world — it had evidently been
meant to go there — and then the strange
things began to happen. When once these
two parts of the two machines had come
together, one after another, all the other parts
fitted and fell in with an eerie exactitude.
I could hear bolt after bolt over all the
machinery falling into its place with a kind of
click of relief .… Instinct after instinct was
answered by doctrine after doctrine.
And as Newman, peering forward
toward an ominous 20th century, still
had confidence in the Catholic community,
so Catholics on the verge of the
new millennium can take comfort from
his words in 1879.
Such is the state of things … and it is well
that it should be realized by all of us; but it
must not be supposed for a moment that
I am afraid of it. I lament it deeply, because
I foresee that it may be the ruin of many
souls; but I have no fear at all that it really can
do aught of serious harm to the Word of God,
to Holy Church, to our Almighty King, the Lion
of the tribe of Judah, Faithful and True, or to His
Vicar on earth. Christianity has been too often in
what seemed deadly peril that we should fear
for it any new trial now.
Monsignor Richard M. Liddy
’60, S.T.L., Ph.D., is the
University Professor of Catholic
Thought and Culture.