The inconceivable thing is that this conspiracy exists within the Church, that there are bishops and even cardinals, and many priests and religious, who play the role of Judas. That such a “fifth column” exists is not merely my unauthoritative private opinion; on the contrary, a number of cardinals, bishops, and prelates have declared in private conversations that no one who is not blind can overlook this incredibly tightly organized “fifth column” within the Church. Of course the number of religious who belong to this “fifth column” may be comparatively small, but they have a clear aim, coupled with the kind of intelligence that one finds in all Soviet and Chinese embassies, which should be more precisely characterized as slyness and cunning, to distinguish it from true intelligence.
It must be emphasized from the outset, however, that the destruction of the Church is being sought from two completely different motives. In one case it is the conspiracy which has existed at all times to undermine the Faith and destroy the Church, with the sole difference that those involved do not want to undermine the Church from without, but rather from within. This is precisely the system of the “fifth column.” People who pretend to be Catholics, who assume offices in the Church, are seeking from within, under the banner of reform and progress, to destroy the Church.
Completely different from these people are those who do not want to destroy the Church as such, i.e., who do not seek the disappearance of the Church, but who rather want to transform the Church into something which completely contradicts her meaning and essence. This includes all those who wish to make the Church of Jesus Christ into a purely humanitarian society, to rob her of her supernatural character, to secularize and desacralize her. They share that camouflage of the enemies of the Church which comes from using the shibboleths of “reform,” “progress,” and “adaptation to modern man.” But they do not want to eliminate the Church. The catchwords “reform” and “progress” are not mere tricks which they use; they really believe them.
The result of the activity of this group is the same as that of the first group; only their motives are different. This latter group would vehemently protest if one were to accuse them of intending the destruction of the Church. But they have lost the true Christian Faith to such an extent that they do not clearly understand that the secularized, humanitarian organization which they want to make out of the holy Church would have nothing left in common with the Church of Jesus Christ. They do not see that if they were to reach their goal, it would amount to the destruction of the Church.
Henri de Lubac, S.J., pointed this out with forceful and penetrating words:
“One becomes conscious that the Church is confronted with a grave crisis. In the name of a “new” Church, a “post-conciliar” Church, some people are attempting to found another Church than that of Jesus Christ: an anthropocentric society, which is threatened by an ‘immanentist apostasy,’ and which can be drawn into a movement of general surrender under the cloak of rejuvenation, ecumenism, or adaptation.”
- Dietrich von Hildebrand, The Devastated Vineyard, Introduction, p. xii-xiii.
