Tuesday, November 20, 2018

"Troubles gathering below the horizon"

"UNDOUBTEDLY, the history of the Church shows some splendid phases. One of them was the phase running from about 1860 to 1960. It was a phase of unusual cohesion in the Church. Just before it got under way Newman could already register that "never was the whole body of the faithful so united to each other and to their head. Never was their a time when there was less error, heresy, and schismatical perverseness among them." But in the same breath he also saw troubles gathering "below the horizon." In fact during the last twenty-five years of his life, he repeatedly voiced his apprehension about a very trying phase to come in Church history."

~Stanley L. Jaki: "Peter's Chair: A Professional Chair?" in The Gist of Catholicism and Other Essays.