As painful as it is, we must acknowledge that the Fear felt by Progressive Catholicism is nothing more than the extreme degradation of a weakness that man has suffered since the Fall. Fear became man’s constant companion after his expulsion from Paradise. This fellowship, though, was less rude and crude than the current partnership, which has a somewhat different character.

            Everything seems to indicate that it is fear that leads modern Catholicism to feel cornered by the World and to blush when it is accused of still believing in the historicity of the Gospels, in the person of Jesus Christ, or in the viability of the Beatitudes. These and similar allegations, often impel this Catholicism to turn its face towards man and its back on God. That is why it tries to take refuge in areas of greater security once it has convinced itself that the idea of man is gaining attention at the same time that the idea of God is fading, slowly but inexorably, into the fog of the myths that Humanity has already left behind as outdated.

            Some people may call this Fear of the current Catholicism cowardice. Undoubtedly, Jesus Christ referred to it when He said:  For he that shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him the Son of Man shall be ashamed, when he shall come in his glory (Lk 9:26). That is why Saint Paul confessed openly his attitude with respect to the words of the Lord: I am not ashamed of the Gospel (Rom 1:16).

            The History of spirituality cannot but admit that Fear has been present, sometimes, within the very structure of Christian existence.      It is also true that Fear is a feeling that safeguards human life under special circumstances, something like a sixth sense given by God to man with the obvious purpose of keeping him safe against certain dangers on particular occasions. When that happens, this fear, if it is assumed with a supernatural spirit, can even become an element of sanctification. The fear of death, so connatural to human beings, was accepted by Jesus Christ Himself and made sublime ever since: Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints (Ps 116:15). And we should not forget the reverential and justified fear so wisely recognized by the author of the Book of Proverbs: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom (Prov 1:7).

            However, fear has to be regarded as cowardice when, caused by pusillanimity or by inexcusable ignorance, it leads to surrendering in the face of evil or of error.

            Manichaeism even left its imprint on Christianity, despite everything, in the form of Fear of matter, and more specifically of the body. This Fear appears in the Platonism of some Fathers, who even considered the body as a ballast of or an impediment to the soul. Saint Augustine, for example, thought that the human body was the jail of the soul. It was a strange belief which, in one form or another, has come down to our days and sometimes has been shared even by the great mystics. To the point that it admitted the idea that the Humanity of Jesus Christ is an impediment that has to be dispensed with once one has arrived at the higher degrees of the contemplative life or union with God. This approach, of course, already belongs to History, after the fortunate progress accomplished by Christian anthropology.

            However, the Fear that affects the ecclesiastical world of today, although now its backdrop is the heresy of Modernism, rather consists of a veritable kneeling before the World which Maritain spoke of. There are many who have embraced the positions and criteria of the world because they considered them to be more solid and reliable than the criteria and positions adopted by what they deem as the refuge of Faith. They have arrived, by so doing, at doctrinal conclusions which are strange and even contrary to Christian principles.

            One of the more clamorous chapters of this policy of surrender held by the new Catholic Morality, elaborated on the basis of conceding to and accepting the criteria of the World, took place with regard to the problems raised by the possibility that the Church would legitimize contraception. During the first third of the last century people spoke with enthusiasm about something that was hailed as a great –even triumphant for some people—practical discovery in the field of Morality: the natural method of birth control based on abstention during the fertile days of women. They considered that this new method would definitively solve the problem for those who wanted to avoid the procreation of children, but did not want to use clearly sinful contraceptive methods. With the discovery of such a happy solution, Morality was, at long last, reconciled with the practical aspects of life. Or at least that is what they thought.

            It often happens that man comes to believe himself cleverer than God. There were even people, in those times in which Faith was abundant among the Faithful, who were convinced that they could put the Gospel right. Therefore, what had to happen came to be…