The Lethargy of the Guardians of the Faith

The Catholic philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889-1977), known as a student of Edmund Husserl and a decided opponent of both Communism and National Socialism, defended in his published in book form, "The Devastated Vineyard" (Imprimatur Ordinariate Regensburg 1972)the Faith against time errors, but also ruptures from the inside. Not for nothing did Pope Pius XII. call him a "Doctor of the Church of the 20th century".

The first chapter of that work is about the lethargy - better failure - attributed to the Catholic bishops.

Devastated Vineyard, via Publisher Sarto House

"The Power of Evil Lives on the Cowardice of Good"

The first part of this section is all about this motto, in the words of St. Don Bosco. Hildebrand explicitly points out that it is primarily those bishops he has in mind, who destroy the Church or want to turn into something else entirely: "I think of the much more numerous bishops who have no such intentions, but when action is necessary against heretical theologians or pastors or against a blasphemous disfigurement of the cult - they do not make any use of their authority. "These bishops close their eyes to the abuses and ignore all appeals that remind them of their duty to take action against the Church destroyer.."

They give the impression that they are afraid of something.

What are the bishops afraid of?

They fear being "attacked by the press or the mass media and being labelled as reactionary, narrow-minded, to be medieval different."

But the ultimate fear, which would be needed in terms of their own salvation, they do not know: "You fear men more than God."

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