www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall "School of Darkness" by Bella Dodd

I've only read commentary on this book - all good so far. Has anyone here read it? The author claims that some 1100 young Communists infiltrated Catholic seminaries in the 20s and 30s and became priests for the purpose of spreading Communist ideology through the Catholic Church, which was seen to be Communism's greatest enemy. I think this is quite plausible, given the liberalism we've seen in churchmen, most especially since the 1960s.

Whether true or not, the claim is well known among Traditional Catholics. How well is it known among Eastern Catholics?

Thanks for any thoughts.

http://genus.cogia.net/

I have never heard of it, nor read it. However, I think some of the seminaries were rotten before this was written.

Yes, that would explain Pope St. Pius X's warnings against Modernism, and even earlier popes' warnings against heresies being taught by churchmen.

Maria,

I haven't read the article you've linked, but I am *certainly* familiar with the idea that if Marxism (or some variant thereof) suddenly became so popular among the young Catholic clergy in the 1960s, it could only have been caused by malevolent infiltrators.

The fact is, however, that Marx's theories have a *tremendous* appeal to young (and not-so-young), idealistic people who believe human society ought to be a whole lot more equitable than it is. Often, such people start out with a starry-eyed notion of the Church having *always* served as the champion of the poor and downtrodden, then undergo a rude awakening when they learn just how many times and places in history this *hasn't* been the case.

When someone reaches this point of spiritual crisis (note that they usually haven't had much by way of real spiritual formation), they become disenchanted with the Church "as it is," and start looking for a way of reforming the Church so that it *will* become a major factor in the reform of society. A person in this state is drawn almost irresistibly to the idea of creating a "new" social order--which usually involves some form of "enforced equality" (in other words, some form of *Marxism*.)

The real problem, IMHO, is that we haven't been raised to look upon life with a proper Christian sense of *mystery*, which means we look at the world around us, at our own lives and at the Gospel itself through a very distorted "lens." Through this lens, we look at all the New Testament teachings regarding the poor, and either see them as "spiritual" (hence, a "soft" obligation, with little or no practical demand on me), or as "practical" (hence, a "hard" obligation to take concrete, visible and measurable steps to relieve the poor).

A proper Christian sense of *mystery*, then, doesn't take concepts such as "spiritual" and "practical," and immediately assume that they're opposed to one another. Rather, it sees them--along with everything else--as part of the entire mystery of creation and redemption. Thus, we lose that sense of "outrage" towards the evils of the world, since we realize that evil dwells in our own hearts as well. We're content to follow the path God has laid out for us, confident that we are doing our part to build up the Kingdom of God in this world.


Peace,
Deacon Richard