tively, to its feminine, and political,nmode. Thus, Robert’s homosexuality isnfurtive, introverted, tasted but once, asnif out of profound guilt, and paid for forna lifetime, in the suffering his wife experiencesnat neglect, sexually and emotionally,nand in the literal symbol ofnthe burden of wrong, the disease whichnreduces him to the most pathetic ofnphysical specimens before killing him.nIn coritrast, Caroline’s homosexual lovenis honest, sustained, celebrant, and, asnI say, ostensibly founded on principlesnequally applied to connubial love.nAnd it is ideology, no less perniciousnfor being couched ingenuously, whichnleads Mrs. Grumbach to wonder,nthrough her narrator—and, as I havenpointed out, there is nothing separatingnthe two—how manynTimelessness andnthe Itch of ModernismnJames Hitchcock: Catholicism &nModernity; Seabury Press; NewnYork.nby Christopher Manionn”In former days, the heretic was proudnof not being a heretic. It was the kingdomsnof the world and the judges whonwere heretics. He was orthodox… allnthe tortures torn out of forgotten hellsncould not make him admit that he wasnheretical. But a few modern phrasesnhave made him boast of it.”n—G.K. Chesterton,nHeretics, 1895nIn every age Catholicism has challengednthe “spirit of the times.” It hasnpresented to the world a set of standardsndesigned not to make believers morendear to the world, but to lift them abovenit, to offer them a glimpse of eternitynMr. Manion, a graduate of Notre Dame,nis Assistant to the Director of the RockfordnCollege Institute.n”truths of the secret lives of womennare lost to history in the still, socialnafternoon air that hovers between twonwomen as they reveal the small singlenessesnof their sex, the behavior ofntheir husbands as lords, as lovers.’nQuickly said, revealed in a breath, innlow tones, even whispers, such specialntruths are quickly buried and forgotten.nAnd yet they hold more valuablenhuman reality for the searcher afterntruth than the dates of history andnthe narratives of the lives and deathsnof kings.”nThe falsity of this last statement, I submit,nis demonstrated by Chamber Musicnitself. Dnfrom the perspective of homo viator,nman the pilgrim. And in every age thenworld has responded to this challenge bynenunciating “a few modern phrases”—nand by going about its business of distractingnpotential saints from their callingnto till the soils of the eternal garden.nThe “modern phrases” confronting thencontemporary Church received their baptismnof fire in the French Revolution;ntoday, they constitute a systematic vocabularynwhich threatens to wrest itnfrom the eternal realm and subordinatenit to the spirit of our times. Iii 1907 PopenPius X warned the Catholic faithful ofnthe “partisans of error . . . not onlynamong the Church’s open enemies, butn… in her very own bosom”; “reformersnof the Church” were employing then”cleverest of devices” in “presentingntheir doctrines without order and systematicnarrangement, in a scattered andndisjointed manner, so as to make itnappear as if their minds were in doubt ornhesitation, whereas in reality they arenquite fixed and steadfast.” (Pascendi, I)nJames Hitchcock, president of the Fel­nnnlowship of Catholic Scholars and Professornof History at Saint Louis University,nhas rendered the modernist spirit (andnits critics) a great service: in its ownnterms, derived from an analysis of modernismnin the Catholic Church in Americansince Vatican II, he has penetrated itsn”scattered and disjointed manner” andnpresented it in a coherent formulationnand critique. This certainly will invite anresponse from the modernist camp;nwhile we might expect no early reply, wenshould nonetheless welcome this analysisnas a seminal contribution to the understandingnof our own era.nThe Second Vatican Council, conceivednby John XXIII and concludednunder Paul VI in 1965, was the focalnpoint of the crisis in the Church which isnthe subject of this study. In 1971,nHitchcock outlined the expectations ofnthose who hoped that Vatican II wouldnbring the Church into the 20th century:n”In the heady days of the Council itnwas common to hear predictions thatnthe conciliar reforms would lead to anmassive resurgence of the flaggingnCatholic spirit. Laymen would benstirred from their apathy and alienationnand would join enthusiasticallynin apostolic projects. Liturgy and theology,nhaving been brought to life andnmade relevant, would be constantnsources of inspiration to the faithful.nThe religious orders, reformed tonbring them into line with modernity,nwould find themselves overwhelmednwith candidates who were generousnand enthusiastic. The Church wouldnfind the number of converts increasingndramatically as it cast off its moribundnvisage and indeed would come tonbe respected and influential in worldlyncircles as it had not been for centuries.nIn virtually every case the precisenopposite of these predictions has comento pass.”nTo the bitter disappointment of thenliberal forces, the Vatican Council producedna set of documents calling fornrenewal of the timeless efforts of thenChurch to proclaim the gospel of salvationnto all men and rejecting modernistnmmmm^mmmmm^mmUnJanuary/February 1980n