My Lenten reading has included an interesting, if somewhat odd, book about the greatest of the Latin Fathers of the Church: Augustine the African by Catherine Conybeare, a philologist currently teaching at Bryn Mawr.
The interesting part of the book reframes Augustine as a North African provincial who sees the world differently—and thus thinks differently and more creatively—than the haughty souls in Rome and Milan, the metropolitan centers of the late western Roman Empire. The oddity is that Professor Conybeare quite misses the crucial importance of the Donatist controversy in which Augustine was embroiled for decades.
In Conybeare’s telling, the controversy was essentially a power struggle pitting the North African periphery against the imperial center. This rather completely miscasts what was at stake in the controversy, which Conybeare’s hero, Augustine, fully understood: if Donatism had prevailed, the Church’s entire sacramental economy, as Catholicism conceives it, would have been wrecked (because of the Donatist claim that only sinless ministers could celebrate valid sacraments); the efficacy of divine grace would have been denied (because sin, in the Donatist view, could cancel the effects of baptism); and Christianity would have been reduced to a small sect of the sinless and perfect, rather than a communion of saints and sinners in which the divine mercy, always available to the penitent, is stronger than Satan, evil, and sin.
All of which is worth recalling today because, like other great heresies, Donatism seems to make a comeback from time to time. And one of those times is now. For there are two sectors of the world Church that currently exhibit an unmistakably Donatist tendency to imagine themselves as the only “real” or “true” Catholics.
When the Lefebvrist movement, embodied in the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), recently announced its plans to illicitly consecrate new bishops without an apostolic mandate from the Vicar of Christ, the Pope, it justified this move — and its rejection of the possibility of a serious theological dialogue with Church authorities in Rome—on the grounds that the texts of the Second Vatican Council are fundamentally erroneous (as are John Paul II’s encyclicals Redemptor Hominis [The Redeemer of Man] and Ut Unum Sint[That They May Be One]). Which is to say, implicitly, that the only “true” Catholics are those who reject as heretical the teaching of Vatican II’s dogmatic constitutions on the Church and on divine revelation, those who reject the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, and those who reject the Council’s teaching on religious freedom as a human right.
And that is a form of Donatism.
So is what has been afoot for some time in Germany. The German “Synodal Path” proposes to reconfigure the Catholic Church’s structures of governance, change its teaching on the moral life to accommodate the sexual revolution, and reimagine the Church’s ordained ministry, creating in effect what Pope Francis once rightly cautioned against: “another Protestant church” that Germany doesn’t need, given the death throes in which German Lutheranism finds itself.
This program amounts to what a German bishop who embodies dynamic orthodoxy, Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau, has called a process of “self-secularization.” That process has been made even more distasteful (not to say, duplicitous) by weaponizing the horror of clerical sexual abuse as an excuse for the deconstruction of Catholic faith, practice, and governance.
However one describes it, though, the path being taken by the great majority of the German bishops and by the Central Committee of German Catholics is a Donatist path, in which the implicit claim is that a Catholicism indistinguishable from liberal Protestantism is the “real” Church and only those Catholics who tailor the Church to the demands of 21st-century culture (including the new Gnosticism—another recurrent heresy—of the transgender movement) are truly Catholic.
The strange, Donatist parallelism between the SSPX leadership and the German Synodal Path illustrates what’s come to be called the “horseshoe effect:” in a moment of cultural turbulence, social fragmentation, and political dysfunction like our own, the extremes of left and right bend toward each other rather than occupying two ends of a linear spectrum. Both divide the world into “us” and “them.” Both wield the anathema with relish. And in this Catholic moment, the extremes are manifesting a common Donatism — a “remnant” mentality that is a grave distortion of the Catholic understanding of the Church.
If every crisis contains within itself an opportunity, though, the new Donatism offers Rome an opportunity for some essential clarifications.
(George Weigel’s column ‘The Catholic Difference’ is syndicated by the Denver Catholic, the official publication of the Archdiocese of Denver.)
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How similar to the current political landscape!
In addition to the permanence of sacramental Baptism, the Donatist Controversy in Africa was also about the permanence of sacramental Holy Orders.
Three comments and a question:
FIRST, a leading issue was whether or not a cleric who had apostatized under imperial persecution or torture (initially Caecilian of Carthage) could be readmitted into office without first being re-ordained. And, therefore, whether sacraments received under such alleged lapsed clerics are valid, irrespective of the moral situation of the ordained priest—i.e., even today [!] as in Baptism, Penance, and Eucharist when conferred by doctrinally or morally compromised priests and bishops? As Weigel stresses, sacramental efficacy is grounded in divine grace rather than the morality of the ordained priest.
SECOND, in nearly all African dioceses there were two parallel bishoprics, one Donatist and the other Catholic. And there were hundreds of dioceses, all under individual bishops (on the scale of today’s local parishes). The famous Conference between Donatists and Catholics was held in Carthage in A.D. 411, convening some 279 Donatist Bishops and 286 Catholic Bishops. In the end, the sacramental order was defended and the Donatists defeated, but the movement still lingered until the Vandal invasion and may have even help enable the 7th-century and permanent Muslim conquest of all of North Africa.
THIRD, because the Controversy politically threatened the Empire itself (as did the Arian Controversy at the time of Nicaea in A.D. 325), the Catholics and Donatists were convened this time by Emperor Honorius, under Marcellinus the Tribune. But the only point that really mattered was which was the True Church?
We read that the “[Donatists] failed lamentably and Marcellinus pronounced his decision in favour of the Catholics. This was followed by an Imperial Edict against the Donatists, January 30, 412” (Hugh Pope, “St. Augustine of Hippo,” Image, 1961). Within the distinct institutional Church, the theological and ecclesial aspects were articulated by St. Augustine with many of his brother bishops. An early condemnation already had been issued a century earlier by Pope Miltiadese. (The physical attacks and mutilations under the Donatists continued when Marcellinus was slain a few months after the imperial Edict.)
QUESTION: Again, the national Synodal Way in Germania threatens to be a parallel Church as were the Donatists chanceries embedded within each local African diocese.
But—with civilization on the ropes—rather than the Emperor Honorius and the Church’s St. Augustine, today do we have only ambiguous cardinals and a muddled process?
Or, also today: all of Africa (that so-called “special case,” plus many others) dissented from the double-speak of Fiducia Supplicans….
Extremism of two opposites as Weigel deftly perceives will tend to converge, the assumption of German Synodal Weg ideologists who complain we’re all sinners by nature making so called sanctity irrelevant, and SSPX insistence on pure white sanctification of clergy.
Both religious ideologies, extreme Right and extreme Left in effect deficient in faith conviction of the purpose and power of grace. Faith in Christ’s gift of grace was the pivotal issue that undermined the theology of the Protestant Reformers. Error has unlimited shelf life in a progressively secularized world.
Whereas the deleterious effect, loss of faith in the power of grace among clergy, has a profound, multifarious effect on the Laity. Bishop Stefan Oster cited by Weigel on the ‘heroes’ of a remnant faithful hierarchy along with Cdl Rainer Woelki et Al perceive self-secularization as the effect of the matter.
What then if not the critical need for action by a Roman pontiff elevated to supreme authority within the Church to defend the faith. He’s got to, as said here with eloquent crudity by some or one of us that he has to show he’s got a pair.
In our impoverished and polluted Church, where we have in our high clerical establishment cases of publicly known (i.e., “manifest” would be the way the Canon Lawyers would put it) Cardinals who publish and teach heresy, while electing pontiffs, why should those faithful who care about loving and obeying Jesus be urged to focus their contempt only the SSPX or the German Synodal Way?
It seems a distraction from more fundamental matters.
But yet…The Word was Made Flesh…this Annunciation Day…some 2025 ir so years ago.
Surely though a “faithful remnant” is a motif also found throughout scripture and church history? Ten of the twelve tribes were lost after all.
The Donatist comparison is inapt in other ways too. The Donatists rebaptized other Catholics, the SSPX do not rebaptize Catholics baptized in the Novus Ordo. The SSPX does discourage attendance at the Novus Ordo but I do not believe they call the new Mass invalid. They They also pray for the Pope and local ordinary at every Mass. Granted the situation is irregular but this is issue is qualitatively different than the issues at stake in the Donatist controversy.
Weigel has an ax to grind against the SSPX because they dared to and continue to question JPII. This is their greatest sin in Weigel’s eyes.
I agree, dear Mortain.
This article is far below the accurate and incisive work we have come to expect from dear George Weigel. Am surprised in got past CWR editors.
Weigel’s other articles are not infrequently tinged with a laissez faire ecclesiolatry. The author of this article seems to be innebriated by that trend or by something.
I wonder if George has ever heard of the fatal sin of ‘presumption’? That is the hope to obtain forgiveness without conversion (CCC 2092).
Yes: the Donatists, German Synodalists, and SSPX, in some regards exceed the limits of Christ’s One True Church. But, otherwise there’s no similarity.
In charity and truth we need to admit that all three have reasonable issues with what has become the norm in Catholicism. It’s just high-handedness that blocks the proper dialogue that should occur between faithful lovers of Christ with different perspectives. Pride has its fall!
Should we be over-focusing on those exterior difference when far worse is flourishng insidiously WITHIN most of our Catholic archdioceses & parishes?
Am not overly worried about synodalists, SSPXers, or even wannabe donatists. AM deeply worried about the many practicing clergy and lay who live unrepentant double lives of indifferentism, unitarianism, universalism, freemasonry, spiritism, witchcraft, new-age buddhism, and even satanism.
In these heretical affiliations our fellow parishoners deny Christ & worship the enemy of GOD and of all humankind.
Their spirits are existentially not The Holy Spirit of GOD.
[Romans 8:9b – without the Holy Spirit of Christ, you do not belong to Him.]
Can such wrong-spirited (un-reborn!) clergy and lay ministers offer anything at all to the multitude of our innocent-hearted faithful?
Now, that’s an issue worthy of the scribal talents of dear George Weigel.
“Can…wrong-spirited…clergy…offer anything at all to…our…faithful”?
This is a deeply Donatist formula, unless it is a rhetorical question.
Yes,OF COURSE, despite their sins, God does not stop using them as channels of His sacramental grace. That is St. Augustine’s basic response to the Donatists.
Dear Rex Kochanski,
There’s a crucial distinction we (including dear George Weigel) all need to appreciate –
Sins are sins and all of us in The Church are touched by them; hence our personal & communal confession at the start of every Holy Mass; and our sacramental confessions for more serious matters.
In contrast: allegiance to Lucifer, as in freemasonry; allegiance to satan, as in satanism & witchcraft; allegiance to a swag of demons as in spiritism, divination, new-ageism, and buddhism, etc. etc. are iniquities that oppose the entirety of our Catholic Christian faith.
Your comment, dear Rex, conflates {1} the Donatist heresy, of rejecting the errant clergy who had repented prior to their re-acceptance into The Church with {2} the scandal of the OBDURATE UNREPENTANCE of the freemasons, satanists, witches, pagans, polytheists, pantheists, panentheists, etc. etc. who today, (not infrequently) we find among our congregants and clergy.
The repentant clergy the Donatists wrongly rejected are one thing.
Catholics who live double lives; apparently following Christ with us in our Catholic liturgies (even in leadership) but who’re actually sworn servants of the enemy, is another thing altogether.
No doubt such contribute to the statistics showing a large percentage of Catholics no longer believe in The Real Presence of Christ in The Holy Eucharist – all unaware that they exclude themselves from eternal life [see John 6:53b “I tell you solemnly, if you do not eat the Flesh of The Son of Man and drink His Blood, you will not have Life in you.”]
As one priest wisely commented in his homily:
“We can’t give you what we don’t have!”
Hoping this helps, dear Rex, in resolving the conflation.
In the grace & mercy of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Sorry, but most SSPX priests do deny the validity of the Novus Ordo Mass even if the Society has not posted explicitly this as an official position explicitly, although wording along the lines that it is dangerous to one’s faith is tantamount to that. This is an important distinction between it and the FSSP. The FSSP’s formation program is more vigilant against the spiritual danger of unrelenting anger, bitterness, and resentment even in the face of legitimate grievances and theological doubts than the SSPX is. Then, again, the SSPX does gives more leeway to fundamentalist tendencies and ahistorical interpretations.
Thank you, George. Always appreciate your writings.
Pope Leo appears be a good and kind man. Praying that he will have the wisdom, strength and courage to address these heresies and other controversies confronting him.
The important point here is not who Dr Eigel can label as “donatist”, but what is the actual truth of the matters raised by the German bishops’ “synodality” or the doctrinal opinions of SSPX. Simply labelling groups as one thing or another is interesting in a way. But the real issue is Traditional Catholicism. Put another way, to what extent do the various opinions of SSPX and the German bishops conform to the Gospel once delivered to the Apostles?
I’ll simply second all the thoughts of Chris in Maryland, Mortain, and Dr. Rice.
George, sometimes you just have to pull your first draft out of your typewriter, wad it up, and take a shot at your waste basket with it. Swish!
Attempting to answer the question:
“Marty, why do those double-minded occultists bother to continue in the church or keep joining our parishes?”
This is difficult to answer except to say there are a diversity of reasons, some of which I’m certain about, others one can only guess at.
From the spiritual perspective: their demons find endless Schadenfreude in whatever mocks at our liturgies, teachings, and morals. Every stumble, every bit of insincerity, every failure to love, every breach of the commandments is like food to them. They are skilled manipulators of circumstances; constantly setting-up traps and pitfalls. Our well-intentioned church activities are made into a bear-baiting carnival of hypocrisies by them. Individual clergy & lay who show real devotion to Jesus in their prayer-life or worship-singing are subject to spiritual attacks. The communal joy that is rightfully present in Holy Mass is quenched by them. They demons cannot be driven away, because they’re inherent of our double-minded occultist catholic congregants.
The evil can be overcome by Catholic congregants that have a deep relationship with King Jesus Christ and who are anointed by The Holy Spirit of GOD. Parish renewal results when more and more congregants are alive in Christ’s Holy Spirit and aware of their part in the spiritual battle. It is in this context that living a clean life bears good fruit that will last.
One of the most heartbreaking realities today is the capture of so much of the leadership of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal by freemasons and spiritist witches.
What used to be a help from Heaven has become a trap from Hell.
From the physical perspective: double-minded, occultist congregants are always proselytizers – they use church gatherings to spot those they can recruit to their freemason lodge, or witches coven, etc. They are by no means passive, happy to be Catholic and whatever else they may be. They are always recruiters into the heresies and abominations that they have been captured by. They are termites that begin small but, unseen, can end-up owning schools, colleges, universities, parishes, ministries, and even archdioceses.
Like mud soaking into a stick of chalk, very hard to get out once they are in.
If clergy are spiritually alive in Christ and alert to the realities of the spiritual battle, they can do marvels by teaching their flock to discern negative spiritual activities and equip them to lovingly counter every attack.
The Holy Trinity provides the armour & weapons but we’re expected to put them to good use. Spiritual passivity is useless.
That is the best answer I know of to the increasing prevalence of double-minded occultists among us.
More and more congregants with a whole-hearted devotion to Jesus and with confidence in drawing on the authority He gives us in The Holy Spirit. More sincere praise and worship songs. More evangelical outreaches bringing fresh new souls into The Church.
The revival path is plain to see. What are we waiting for . . .