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No Crisis in the Church? That’s a question
that would get an enthusiastic “You’ve got to be
kidding” from most traditional Catholics these days.
And it’s also the title of Simon Galloway’s new
book.
No Crisis in the Church? is a well-researched
and logically presented volume that, among a wide
potential readership could well serve two main
purposes. First, if you’re a Church historian or
researcher looking for doctrinal pre- and
post-Vatican II comparisons, you’ll find that much
of your work has been done for you between these
covers. But it will probably find its greatest value
among run-of-the-mill faithful Catholics concerned
about the direction the Church has taken (and
continues to take) since that fateful conclave. It
is for them that Galloway’s eminently readable “side
by side” format deals with a wealth of important
topics by exposing the monumental differences in
Church teaching before and since the Second Vatican
Council.
Underscoring the authenticity of these comparisons
is the fact that they are not made in Galloway’s
words, but in those of the Church hierarchy, then
and now. And for those Catholics who may feel ill
equipped to search out these comparisons on their
own, this prodigious feat of research and
compilation will enable them, virtually, to become
“instant” experts on the countless details within
such wide-ranging general topics as Christian
Ecumenism, Religious Liberty, The New World
Religion, as well as a myriad of subjects devoted
specifically to Faith and Morals.
The book is an outgrowth of Galloway’s own spiritual
journey, one that for 10 years had taken him through
all the superficial appeals and enticements of the
New Age Movement in his native England. It was not
until he had regained his senses and, as he puts it,
been “reconverted to the faith” in 1998 that he
became aware of the “disturbing” goings-on in the
Catholic Church. Shocked and saddened at how many of
the new-Church practices reminded him of the
heretical movement he had just forsaken, Galloway
began to feel that no sooner had he returned to the
Church than he was losing his religion all over
again.
For his struggle, and for his desire to convince
others to cling to the “old Church” as he had known
it, Galloway earned the nickname “Simon the zealot.”
And it was at this time that he began years of
intensive study that kept bringing him back to
Vatican II as the source of the liberal “renewal” –
the aggiornamento – in the Church. He
followed this with an in-depth review of all the
modern papal teachings, and a scrupulous comparison
to those of their venerable counterparts from years
and even centuries before the “revolution” that was
known as the Second Vatican Council.
What Galloway found as he amassed these comparisons
was the application (or the misapplication, if you
will) of a principal described in the book’s
foreword by Dr. David Allen White. In endorsing
No Crisis in the Church? Professor White makes
reference to Aristotle’s Principle of Contradiction,
which, in its simplest terms, says that two
contradictory ideas cannot both be true at the same
time. This, Galloway realized, was the precise
situation his research had led him to. In the
preface he says, “The Fifth Lateran Council applied
this seminal law to Catholic theology when it stated
‘every assertion contrary to a truth of enlightened
faith is altogether false, because the truth cannot
possibly contradict the truth.’”
As an illustration of the “law,” Galloway points out
that Pope Pius IX, in his 1864 The Syllabus of
Errors, infallibly condemned the proposition that
man should be free to follow the religion of his
choice. Yet the Second Vatican Council document,
Dignitatis Humanae, maintains in part that “the
human person has a right to religious freedom…”
Galloway restates the obvious when he concludes,
“two contradictory statements cannot be true at the
same time.”
In addition to a treasure trove of such comparisons,
No Crisis in the Church? includes seven
valuable appendices covering such topics as “Jewish
Freemasonry on the Infiltration of the Church and
State,” “The Permanent Instruction of the Alta
Vendita Masonic Lodge…” and “Jewish Freemasonry on
the Subversion of the Catholic Church and State.”
Where appropriate, the appendices are fully
referenced and annotated.
Earlier on in this review, mention is made of the
usefulness of this book among “run-of-the-mill”
Catholics. That should not be taken to mean only
traditional Catholics. No Crisis in the Church?
would make an excellent gift, and/or teaching aid,
for those “luke warm” Catholics (traditional and
Novus Ordo alike) that we all have within our circle
of friends who would benefit from such a precise,
yet reader-friendly look at the timeless truth of
Catholic teaching, and how it pales in comparison to
its modern counterpart.
Galloway closes his preface with some irrefutable
truth of his own. “Ultimately the Catholic faith
must make sense logically, or cease thereby to be
taken seriously. I can only provide you with
evidence pertaining to this important question, but
you must decide the verdict for yourself…”
No Crisis in the Church? makes a compelling
argument for what that verdict must be. |
