The sixth chapter of Rama P. Coomaraswamy's work addresses, in a forceful and uncompromising manner, the diametrical opposition between the stance of the Catholic Church of all times - the Church of Tradition - and the post-conciliar "New Church" regarding the introduction of novelties and changes in doctrine and rites. The author begins by defining the word "innovation" itself, resorting to Webster's dictionary to recall that its use, although obsolete in some contexts, is equivalent to "revolution and insurrection". The traditional Catholic Church, faithful to its Founder, has always fiercely opposed any innovation, for it understands that Revealed Truth is immutable and perfect. This stance is not exclusive to Christianity; even Plato, before Christ, classified the innovator as "the worst kind of pest", and Cicero noted that the vulgar esteem opinion greatly and truth little (p. 96).
Our Lord Jesus Christ never presented Himself as an innovator. On the contrary, He stated categorically: "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me" (John 7:16) and that He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. St. Paul's warning is equally severe against those who preach a "new gospel", even if it be an angel from heaven (Gal 1:8). The attitude of the Holy Fathers and the early Christians was one of absolute preservation of the deposit of faith. St. Vincent of Lerins, quoted extensively by the author, expresses the Catholic horror of novelty: "The more a man is under the influence of religion, the more prompt is he to oppose innovation". He warns that mixing the new with the old transforms the "sanctuary of chaste and uncorrupted truth" into a "brothel of impious and filthy errors" (p. 97).
Tradition is unanimous: innovating is a characteristic of heretics. St. Augustine teaches that the true Catholic faith is not based on the opinion of private judgment, but on the testimony of the Scriptures and on Apostolic Truth, free from the fluctuations of heretical temerity. The heretic is defined precisely as one who, for vainglory or temporal advantage, "originates or follows false and new opinions" (p. 97). Fidelity to received doctrine is the mark of the Catholic, as reaffirmed by St. Basil: "We accept no new faith... we communicate to all who question us that which the Holy Fathers have taught us" (p. 97).
Throughout the centuries, Popes and Councils have maintained this insurmountable barrier against novelty. Pope St. Stephen I declared: "Let nothing be innovated, nothing but what has been handed down" (nihil innovetur, nisi quod traditum est). The Second Council of Nicaea condemned those who dare "to derogate from Ecclesiastical Traditions and to invent novelties of some kind". Pope Benedict XV, repeating his predecessors, exhorted: "Do not innovate anything. Rest content with the Tradition" (p. 99). There is not, in the history of the Church prior to Vatican II, a single Saint, Pope, or Council that can be cited in defense of doctrinal or liturgical innovation.
However, the author denounces that the post-conciliar "New Church", led by Paul VI, adopted a radically opposite stance, betraying the papal coronation oath that obliged the Pontiff "to change nothing of the received tradition... nor to permit any innovation therein" (p. 99). Paul VI, in flagrant contradiction to this sacred duty, made "novelty" a command and a program. In his General Audience of July 2, 1969, he declared he wished to make his own the words of the Council, defining "novelty" as a "simple word, in common usage, and most dear to the hearts of modern man". He questioned: "How can one fail but to spontaneously reflect that if the world changes, religion should not also change?" (p. 100), thus adhering to the modernist principle that faith must evolve with the times.
This revolutionary mentality was confirmed in 1971, when Paul VI stated it was necessary "to know how to welcome with humility and an interior freedom what is innovative", breaking with the "habitual attachment to what we used to designate as the unchangeable traditions of the Church" (p. 100). Coomaraswamy sentences: "Judas could not have said it better" (p. 67, ref. chap. 4). Innovation, for the traditional Church, is intimately linked to heresy. Heresy is a "deadly poison", and the Church has the absolute obligation to expose and condemn heretics to protect the faithful. Pope Leo XIII confirmed the condemnation of Pope Honorius I precisely because he failed to crush heresy at its inception. The 1917 Code of Canon Law establishes that anyone who helps, in any way, in the propagation of heresy is suspected of heresy.
However, in the post-conciliar Church, the greatest heretics and innovators were not only left uncondemned but were elevated to prestigious positions. Theologians such as Karl Rahner, Hans Küng, and Edward Schillebeeckx, who denied fundamental dogmas of the Faith, were protected and promoted. Paul VI, instead of acting as the "watchman to the house of Israel" (Ez 3:17), declared that the style of his government would be "pastoral, fraternal, humble", seeking to be "loved" instead of obeyed in truth (p. 103). He abolished the Index of Prohibited Books and dismantled the Holy Office, declaring that "formal discipline will be reduced, all arbitrary judgment will be abolished, as well as all intolerance and absolutism" (p. 103), leaving the flock without defense against error.
The author argues that such an attitude, coming from one who claimed to be the Vicar of Christ, is extraordinary and treacherous. The Church must be intolerant of error, for its mission is to proclaim the Truth of Christ. To allow heresy to spread under the banner of "liberty" or "charity" is to abandon the function of shepherd and deliver the flock to the wolves. The "New Church", by refusing to condemn error and by embracing the innovations of the modern world, has separated itself from unity with the Church of All Times.
The text concludes by reaffirming that the post-conciliar Church, by replacing divine and apostolic traditions with human creations and by refusing to defend the Deposit of Faith, follows the steps of the Protestant reformers and not those of Christ. As warned by Pope Gregory XVI in the encyclical Mirari Vos, the authors of novelties seek to lay foundations for a new human institution, causing the Church, which is divine, to become a "human church" (p. 104). Therefore, the faithful Catholic has the right and the duty to reject these innovations and adhere to that which was handed down, for, as St. John Chrysostom said: "Is it Tradition? Ask nothing more" (p. 67, ref. chap 4).
Bibliographical Reference:
COOMARASWAMY, Rama P. The Destruction of the Christian Tradition: Updated and Revised. Bloomington: World Wisdom, 2006.