JV: In your talk, you spoke of the modern notion of "personalism" as the philosophical error of the Second Vatican Council that has corrupted the doctrine of the Church.RELATED ARTICLES
BTM: This error corrupted the so-called Declaration on Religious Liberty, saying that everyone has the right not to be prevented from worshipping the Divinity according to his own mind. This comes directly from personalism.
The true definition of the human person was given by Boethius: an individual substance of a rational nature. The Thomist insists on “the rational nature”, because man has an intellect that is made to discover, to grasp, the truth; and to hold the truth. Thus the perfection of the intellect is to know the truth, because the truth is the object of the intellect. Thus the perfection of the human person consists in possessing the truth.
But now, the new “personalists” take the same definition of the human person, but stress rather the “individual substance”. The person consists of being an “individual”, so they must have rights according to their individuality. That is to say, to have liberty without consideration of the truth. By stressing the “individual substance”, the human person has the right of an “individual”, his own principles, his own choices, without consideration of the truth. The possession of the truth is not essential in the new definition.
This was the teaching of Jacques Maritain in France, who was a Thomistic philosopher, but converted to “personalism”. He had great influence on Pope Paul VI and on the Second Vatican Council.
Personalism insists that the individual must be free, must be independent, must choose by himself. In this consists “human dignity”. And this was condemned by Pope St. Pius X Letter to the French Bishops against Sillonism.
On the Doctrinal Discussions with Rome - From Father Paul Morgan, District Superior of the Society of St. Pius X in Great Britain
Rome-SSPX: Background to the Doctrinal Discussions by John Vennari
Vatican II and the Components of Liberal Catholicism – A Review by Michal Semin
Archbishop Lefebvre and Vatican II - The Council in light of Tradition? by John Vennari
The Second Vatican Council and the Rejection of the Social Reign of Our Lord by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
"I Have Handed on What I Have Received", a fuller treatment of Archbishop Lefebvre
4 comments:
From Dr. Mario Ramos-Reyes
Grossly mistaken my friend......this is what Maritain used to say.."rumminants of the Holy Alliance..".....they have not even read what Maritain said...alas I have not much time now to counter this but...let see in the weeks ahead..
Thanks you for keeping this blog alive..it is very helpful to judge reality...wake up peeple
In Christ
Mario
David, thank you for another interesting post. I have come to think we make a mistake if we either ignore general trad concerns or exaggerate them.
If we urge constructive corrections or adjustments, ala some very legitimate trad concerns, we do well as sons and daughters of the Church, but also avoiding any bitter cynicism which becomes an easy temptation (which I know well).
A book I have found to be extrmely on point is Von Hildebrand's marvelous The Charitable Anathema
http://www.marianland.com/romancatholicbooks/charitableanathema.html
That man addresses my every concern, alpha to omega! How I wish I had seen it earlier.
Thank you my dear friend for your very helpul comments (as is normal for you!) and your book recommendation.
From Emmanuel Mounier's book called Personalism:
"Man in the abstract, unattached to any natural community, the sovereign lord of a liberty unlimited and undirected; turning towards others with a primary mistrust, calculation and self-vindication; institutions restricted to the assurance that these egoisms should not encroach upon one another, or to their betterment as a purely profitmaking association--such is the rule of civilization now breaking up before our eyes, one of the poorest history has known. It is the very anti-thesis of personalism, and its dearest enemy.
For this reason 'the person' is sometimes opposed to the 'individual'."
That does not sound like the caricature that was put forth by Tissier. He also seemed to put forth an argument against the anthropology of personalism without giving fair consideration to the personalist argument as personalist's present it. Personalism is a critique of individualism and communism, it emphasizes community not collectivism. Personalism roots social structure in a community of persons, made in the image of the divine persons of the Trinity. Now, what this good priest may be objecting too is something more pastoral in its significance, though not without its theological issues. Unfortunately, where the SSPX seems to go wrong often involves their politics and their approach to relating to other faiths. I don’t see how the author of Veritatis Splendor can be seen as ignoring the role of truth in understanding the dignity of the human person.
I always listen to the tradies when they present a reasonable concern in a fair manner. But often its not presented well or with fairness.
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