©2025 Victor R. Claveau, MJ
Aimlessness and superficiality, coupled with indifferentism in fundamental issues, are the predominant traits of modern humanity. While the ingenuity of man has achieved astounding results in the field of science and discovery, his deficiency in the spiritual realm is calamitous beyond dispute.
Modern man exhibits a sad spectacle when he poses as a rational being and lays claim to an education without ever having seriously attempted to answer the paramount question of man’s ultimate destiny! Millions are living in blissful ignorance of their final goal. Others again, to whom religion once gave a definite answer to life, have been browbeaten into relinquishing their Faith by writers and lecturers whose method is to stress their own intellectual and cultural superiority.
Another source of confusion is the multiplicity of religious sects, cropping up like mushrooms, each claiming to embody the pure form of Christianity in spite of the most glaring contradictions. Some worshippers are perfectly satisfied to continue along their way without definite beliefs as long as no demands are made upon their intellect. Others, who entertain doubts as to their convictions, reason that: “One religion is as good as another.” Those who take this view, and their number is legion, believe that religion is a matter of tradition, choice, taste, or sentiment.
As long as people are satisfied that all religions are equal in the sight of God there is faint hope of their seeking after one which will bind their intellect to definite doctrines and burden their will with difficult obligations. If all religions are equally true it follows that any self-appointed and self-anointed founder of religion is equal to Christ and even greater than He. Indeed, these new creeds carry with them the assumption that Christ’s attempt was a failure. Of course, many founders of religions carried over good and noble ideas into separate religious organizations of their own. They were right in some ideas, but wrong in the separation for which they were responsible. Religious individualism, so far as it approves all forms of religion, has neither the sanction of God nor of His revelation.
Consequently, the advocates of religious tolerance can hardly plead their cause by appealing to Christ or Christian charity. God is Charity, but He is also Truth and truth is not relative or subjective.
There is truth in all religions, but the full truth exists in only one, and so, according to God’s plan, the certified way to eternal salvation can be only one. Call this intolerance, if you wish, but a religion, which is not intolerant in its teachings, is merely an opinion, or else a philosophy at most. The majority of people who consider themselves religiously tolerant are willing to sacrifice truth for the price of peace.
All who still retain a sense of objectivity realize more and more that our spiritual life cannot be built on the quicksand of contradictory opinion but must stand firm on the granite of unswerving dogmas. Any spiritual structure will be doomed to destruction if it lacks the “Rock” foundation of unshaken basic truth. Mature study and investigation is required to arrive at the truth of the one true Church established by Christ. Impartial study and zeal for the cause of God may lead a person out of Protestantism, but never out of Catholicism.
Commentary on Present Day Trends
©2025 Victor R. Claveau, MJ
Aimlessness and superficiality, coupled with indifferentism in fundamental issues, are the predominant traits of modern humanity. While the ingenuity of man has achieved astounding results in the field of science and discovery, his deficiency in the spiritual realm is calamitous beyond dispute.
Modern man exhibits a sad spectacle when he poses as a rational being and lays claim to an education without ever having seriously attempted to answer the paramount question of man’s ultimate destiny! Millions are living in blissful ignorance of their final goal. Others again, to whom religion once gave a definite answer to life, have been browbeaten into relinquishing their Faith by writers and lecturers whose method is to stress their own intellectual and cultural superiority.
Another source of confusion is the multiplicity of religious sects, cropping up like mushrooms, each claiming to embody the pure form of Christianity in spite of the most glaring contradictions. Some worshippers are perfectly satisfied to continue along their way without definite beliefs as long as no demands are made upon their intellect. Others, who entertain doubts as to their convictions, reason that: “One religion is as good as another.” Those who take this view, and their number is legion, believe that religion is a matter of tradition, choice, taste, or sentiment.
As long as people are satisfied that all religions are equal in the sight of God there is faint hope of their seeking after one which will bind their intellect to definite doctrines and burden their will with difficult obligations. If all religions are equally true it follows that any self-appointed and self-anointed founder of religion is equal to Christ and even greater than He. Indeed, these new creeds carry with them the assumption that Christ’s attempt was a failure. Of course, many founders of religions carried over good and noble ideas into separate religious organizations of their own. They were right in some ideas, but wrong in the separation for which they were responsible. Religious individualism, so far as it approves all forms of religion, has neither the sanction of God nor of His revelation.
Consequently, the advocates of religious tolerance can hardly plead their cause by appealing to Christ or Christian charity. God is Charity, but He is also Truth and truth is not relative or subjective.
There is truth in all religions, but the full truth exists in only one, and so, according to God’s plan, the certified way to eternal salvation can be only one. Call this intolerance, if you wish, but a religion, which is not intolerant in its teachings, is merely an opinion, or else a philosophy at most. The majority of people who consider themselves religiously tolerant are willing to sacrifice truth for the price of peace.
All who still retain a sense of objectivity realize more and more that our spiritual life cannot be built on the quicksand of contradictory opinion but must stand firm on the granite of unswerving dogmas. Any spiritual structure will be doomed to destruction if it lacks the “Rock” foundation of unshaken basic truth. Mature study and investigation is required to arrive at the truth of the one true Church established by Christ. Impartial study and zeal for the cause of God may lead a person out of Protestantism, but never out of Catholicism.
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