Dear Reader,

You’ve probably had a visit from them. They’re very smartly dressed, very polite, and they’ll offer you a free subscription to the Watchtower. They show up at a newly purchased lot at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning and before you can say “day of rest,” there’s a brand new Kingdom Hall in place. They’re the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they know their Bible like the back of their hand. “Mary was not a virgin,” they’ll say, “look here: it says that ‘the brethren of Jesus were there.’” Shakespeare was probably thinking about the Jehovah’s Witnesses with: “The devil can cite scripture for his purpose.”

It might seem a bit odd but the Modernists are a bit like the Jehovah’s Witnesses: true, they’re not very smartly dressed, not quite as polite and they don’t offer freebies, but they tend to use Scripture in the same way. They take one verse out of Scripture that suits them and they forget about all the rest (especially that one that really annoys them —II Pet. 1:20).

Think about it—what’s the most quoted verse from the Gospel in the post-Vatican II springtime? You probably know it … it’s “judge not that you may not be judged” (Mt. 7:1). And this is meant to mean that nobody can say if anybody is committing a sin. Non-Catholics can’t go to heaven? “Judge not.” “He shouldn’t be living with his neighbor’s wife?” “Judge not!” “Sodomy cries out to heaven for vengeance?” “Judge not.” Boy, don’t they look smug when they say that!

Now I wonder are there any parts of Scripture that might throw light on what Our Lord said? Maybe later on in the same chapter, perhaps? “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them” (Mt. 7:15-16). “By their fruits you shall know them”—might that involve judging?

The poor Modernists. They have to make everything up themselves. We can safely follow what the Church teaches: Never make rash judgments (he had a red face when he came out of the bank—he must be a robber); never judge the level of someone’s guilt before God, always say: “if he had as much grace as I, he would be better than I am,” but please, call a spade a spade—if someone is doing something intrinsically evil, you owe it to yourself to judge that action is wrong. Otherwise, why can’t you do it too? Who knows, you might even end up with a brain like a jellyfish—or a Modernist.

Fr. David Sherry