The Popes and Democracy - Part V. the Attitude of Catholics in a World of Errors 48. Warnings given by the Popes

 The following warnings should be a matter of deep concern for every Catholic. They make plain a fact which is all too often studiously ignored, namely, that many Catholics have been contaminated by the errors of our times. "The partisans of errors are to be sought not only among the Church's open enemies; but, what is to be most dreaded and deplored, in her very bosom, and are the more mischievous the less they keep in the open. We allude, Venerable Brethren, to many who belong to the Catholic laity, and what is much more sad, to the ranks of the priesthood itself ... thoroughly imbued with the poisonous doctrines taught by the enemies of the Church." (St. Pius X, "Pascendi Dominici Gregis") Three years later, St. Pius X gave another warning, especially intended for the priesthood: "Let not the Priesthood be misled by the miracles of a false democracy into the maze of modern ideas; let them not borrow from the rhetoric of the worst enemies of the Church, the high-flown phrases, full of promises, which are as high-sounding as unrealisable." ("Our Apostolic Mandate") In 1942, Pius XII felt compelled to issue a similar warning: "Not a few of those who call themselves Christians, bear some share in the collective responsibility for the aberrations, the disasters and the low moral state of modern society." (Christmas 1942) Warnings like these should induce every one of us to closely examine his social and political beliefs.