What exactly is the “sum of all heresies” called “Modernism,” and is it still with us today? It’s a long story but let me give it a whirl. And yes, it’s still with us. Pope St. Pius X was not the first pope to expose and describe this heresy to end all heresies, but his Pascendi Dominici Gregis is probably the most famous condemnation of it.

Far be it from me to improve upon a saintly pope, but the label “Modernism” can be a bit obscure. The best way to think of this title is that whatever time we are presently living in (since Modernism reared its ugly hydra head) is the “Modern Times” ripe for Modernism. Modernism is directly concerned with attacking the Catholic Church from within because Jesus Christ entrusted the fullness of truth to her. 

Modernism primarily makes the case for perpetual change, rather than for promulgating what Our Lord entrusted to us with regard to doctrine, morals and worship. Therefore, it is imperative—if you want to be a full-on Modernist—to believe wholeheartedly in Evolution. There’s a reason I capitalized “Evolution.” Those without faith in God put an awful lot of faith in Evolution, often speaking of it in personified terms. I cancelled my subscription to a news magazine whose writers couldn’t help gushing about what “Evolution is revealing to us” in almost every article across multiple topics, including the “fact” that monogamy isn’t good for humans.

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For materialists, Evolution applies to matter alone. But what if someone is religious and/or believes in the existence of the soul and spiritual realities? In 1954’s Humani Generis, Pope Pius XII taught that if Catholics choose to favour the idea of the Evolution of matter and the human body, they must believe that at a specific time, God created human beings with an immortal soul, and continues to create/infuse each human soul at conception. 

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But there are huge problems with the various unproven theories of Evolution itself. Many scientists find no hard evidence for it, but rather for the opposite: sudden appearances and disappearances of species on earth (the Cambrian Period, for example). We can agree on micro-evolution (species adapting within themselves over time), but macro-evolution (one species becoming another)? Prove it. Science is supposed to deal in proof. Most troublesome of all is that Darwin’s “Origin of Species” does not answer the question implied in its title.

One big temptation for religious types when it comes to “Evolution,” is the belief that soul/spirit/the spiritual is also evolving (meaning, automatically becoming better and even transforming into some great unknown). I never bought this, even as a kid. The First World War? The Second World War? Better? Really?

Maybe we’re gaining technological knowledge, but progressing in the ethical use of science, in virtue, morality and the milk of human kindness? These religious types also tend to mush matter and spirit together, as though they are not distinct entities. Even worse, there is an unqualified, naïve, total openness to just about anything supposedly coming down the cosmic pike in the future, a sense that we need to move beyond “religion,” Jesus (!) and “outdated” texts like the Bible (!). But public revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle. The Bible is not open-ended. God capped it with the Book of Revelation/Apocalypse. We know how it ends.

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Human beings are created with a human nature (that which makes us human). Catholics must also believe (as Scripture relates) that our first parents fell and our human nature became fallen—a state which is passed on by generation, also called “Original Sin.” Another way to think of fallen human nature is a fall from grace, a fall from friendship with God, a damaging, a wounding. Heaven was closed to human beings because atonement needed to take place. When Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, paid the price and established the Catholic Church, He also instituted the means of grace to wipe away Original Sin (baptism) and enable us to live in a state of grace, friendship with God, restored and healed. 

Human nature only changed thrice and will only change thrice: the Fall of Man, our Redemption by the God-Man and His/our Glorification. His Seven Sacraments accompany us throughout life in order for us to make progress in holiness and Christification. This, of course, is the true and only evolution of spirit.