"Romano Amerio Defends Tradition from the Grave"

In case you missed it, Br. Andre Marie's article, "Romano Amerio Defends Tradition from the Grave" (Catholicism.org, July 12, 2010): 

Sandro Magister brings our attention to the volume Zibaldone, a posthumously published work of the great Swiss-Italian Philosopher, Romano Amerio. The work is edited by Amerio’s student, Professor Enrico Maria Radaelli, whom we have mentioned on this site before. Like his Iota Unum — which is subtitled “a study of the changes in the Catholic Church in the twentieth century” — Zibaldone presents a frank yet respectful critique of the conciliar and post-conciliar changes. Magister gives us a taste of Amerio’s writing, a passage dated May 2, 1995. Note the defense of “the value of baptism and the entire supernatural order, our whole religion”:

The self-demolition of the Church deplored by Paul VI in the famous speech at the Lombard Seminary on September 11, 1974, is becoming clearer by the day. Even during the council itself, Cardinal Heenan (Primate of England) complained that the bishops had ceased exercising the office of the magisterium, but comforted himself with the observation that this office was fully preserved in the Roman pontificate. The observation was and is false. Today the episcopal magisterium has ceased, and that of the pope as well. Today the magisterium is exercised by theologians who have shaped all of the opinions of the Christian people, and have disqualified the dogma of the faith. I heard an astonishing demonstration of this while listening to the theologian of Radio Maria last night. With boldness and great tranquility, he denied articles of the faith. He taught […] that the pagans to whom the Gospel is not proclaimed, if they follow the dictates of natural justice and try to seek God with sincerity, will go to the beatific vision. This modern doctrine goes back to the ancient Church, but it was always condemned as error. But the ancient theologians, while they held firm the dogma of the faith, nevertheless felt all of the difficulty that dogma encounters, and tried to overcome it with profound thinking. The modern theologians, however, do not perceive the intrinsic difficulties of dogma, but run straight to the ‘lectio facilior,’ sweeping all the doctrinal decrees of the magisterium under the rug. And they do not realize that by doing this they negate the value of baptism and the entire supernatural order, our whole religion. Rejection of the magisterium is widespread on other points as well. Hell, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the immutability of God, the historicity of Christ, the unlawfulness of sodomy, the sacred and indissoluble nature of matrimony, the natural law, the primacy of the divine are other arguments in which the magisterium of the theologians has eliminated the magisterium of the Church. This arrogance of the theologians is the most visible phenomenon of self-demolition.

Magister’s brief article is worth reading.

[Hat tip to JM]