A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

The Fifth Column March 24, 2011

In historical terms, the ‘fifth column’ was a term that came into use during the Spanish Civil War.  Since that time, it has always implied enemies within – those who would undermine the defense of a thing, and help in its overthrow.  

Have you ever been in a casual conversation with someone about the Church, and perhaps mention some pious practice of yours, and receive a hostile response?  My family and I certainly have?  “Why would you wear a veil?”  “Why fast the entire day before Mass?”  They go on and on.  And then there are those who reject whole swaths of the Faith, those who are wedded to belief in contraception, or abortion, or fornication, or whatever.  Many of these folks actively seek to undermine the Doctrine of the Faith.

Defend Us In Battle has a post on what he terms the greys, but which I think is more aptly termed a fifth column:

I always thought it was because they were lazy, ignorant, or undereducated. I knew for certain the root cause was sin. Just as some of the worst creatures are nothing more than the best of creatures, except in a deformed state, like how demons and the devil are the fallen angels. Except these people who live in The Greys aren’t casting away good, in fact they cling to it by their fingernails. They ultimately want to be “in the light” except they want it on their own terms. As I said, I always thought it was that they were under-informed. Yet, I am more and more becoming of the belief that it is worse than that. I unfortunately believe that they really are so attached to their wants and desires that they will do anything to try and conform the rest of us to their way of thinking. It is as if might makes right for them. If only they can convince enough folks to their beliefs, they then will hold dominion over what are the teachings of the Church on some particular subject. [Many Catholics operate under a delusion that if they can just get enough people to support their favored heresy, the teaching will somehow change.  It’s the underpants gnome theory. – ED] As I said, to them fidelity is not important, but ultimate acceptance is.

It really is a very protestant mentality really, and I don’t use that in a pejorative sense. What I mean by it is that they want to change the Church through opposition and convincing. Take for example the teaching on contraception. There is a very adamant wing of folks that call themselves Catholic but don’t believe that we as humans should abstain from using contraception in marriage. What that means to them, and to the bigger picture is that it shouldn’t be (or isn’t really) a sin. Now obviously the Church doesn’t make something a sin simply by saying it is or it isnt… well, not exactly. There is that whole “what you bind on Earth, I will bind in Heaven” thing… but it isn’t as if Church Teaching is some malleable thing like the legislative texts of a state. Things can’t just be argued and lobbied for until they change.

So what we have is a bunch of people that want 95% of what the Faith offers but as long as they can conform the other 5% to their liking. To them, the Church is all reason, and no faith. God is an intellectual pursuit, and the faith is something to argue for in an intellectual way. To them the teachings of the Church are oppressive and legalistic, so they argue for flexibility, they are crafty. But is that what we really need, or want from our Faith? The Greys? The 90%? The “you’re ok, I’m ok” kind of religion where “as long as we are all happy, and mostly on the same page we are good, cuz God is gonna’ save us all anyways!” Of course it isn’t… at least not what we want, but not those in the Greys.

The Greys want exactly that, a faith where things are very loose and open to interpretation. Moral absolutes, Canon Law, and even Mass Rubrics are much more fluid than firm. Restraint, law, rigidity, rubrics, requirements, absolutes, facts, truths, and other hard and fast things are not what exist [for them].

I’ve struggled with this issue for a long time.  I am certain there are those who are actively planning, conniving, and working to undermine Church Doctrine.  They do it because that Doctrine is counter to the kind of life they want to live, to things they believe in.  They actively work against the Church.  Some of these people may be on your parish council.  Or they may even be your priest. 

Then there is the large swath that is just inundated in the culture and just goes along to get along, putting in a small amount of effort in their faith but for the most part just being part of the world.  I think that describes a large swath of people.

How many of each there are, and how to deal with the former, are the difficult issues.  The latter can hopefully be won over by good preaching, prayer, and general persuasion.  The former, the diehard modernists who want to blow up the Church because they are ideologues for causes that are counter to the Doctrine of the Faith, they are simply implacable enemies who can only be prayed for.  I don’t think human means can change them.   And I might be in that category, too, on some traditional-conservative level.  I hope not, I pray always not, that I am not forcing the Church to fit into some box of my own design rather than conforming myself to the Church, to the Will of God.  It’s not easy being Catholic, it’s not easy conforming yourself to the mind of the Church, and many just can’t/won’t do it.  They’d rather fight against the Church and try to change it rather than themselves.

It’s a story as old as man.  We want to do what we want, not what God wants.