Iota Unum: A Study of Changes in the Catholic Church in the Xxth Century

Rating:
Summary: A magisterial critique of the post-conciliar Church
Review: In the Sermon on the Mount, answering the misconceptions of those who thought he had come to «abolish the law and the prophets», Jesus Christ said: «For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth shall pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished» (Matthew 5.18.) He thereby established the immutability of the Truth, of the Moral Law and of the Revelation from Old Testament times to the Last Judgment.

But immutability does not sit well with modern man, whose fondness for discarding iotas has affected many within the Catholic Church, to the point that one may wonder whether it is undergoing a crisis comparable to the Lutheran secession, the schism of the French clergy during the French Revolution or the modernist heresy at the turn of the 19th century.

Having defined a «crisis» as a rejection of the very principles of the Church *from within*, as opposed to the world at large, Romano Amerio (1905-1997) searches ecclesiastical history for clear-cut instances, establishing standards with which to judge the present situation. He then surveys the preparation for Vatican II, of which he speaks with some measure of authority, since he was the peritus for the bishop of Lugano and «got to know all the documents»; the course of the council itself; and finally the immediate post-conciliar period under the pontificate of Paul VI, a pope whose renunciation of authority made him rather unfit for the post, leading to a proliferation of abuses sheepishly condemned by ineffective words.

The book then adopts a more thematic approach, dealing with such issues as the crisis of the priesthood, liturgical absurdities or increasingly outspoken, heretical and obdurate dissent within the Church. It is easy to picture the author painstakingly collecting thousands of articles from the Osservatore Romano and the religious press, building up his case over two decades of meticulous research. But what he offers us is no mere enumeration, no disjointed «horror file», but a methodical diagnosis of the evils he describes, down to their metaphysical and theological roots.

Amerio has a gift for identifying «-isms», or ideologies that are displacing traditional pillars of Catholic thought. «Mobilism» is the self-contradictory, romantic «mentality that values becoming more than being, motion more than rest, action more than the goal», holding that «to be forever aspiring is better than attaining». Feminism he aptly shows to be a «masculinism». «Discussionism» is the egalitarian cult of dialogue which has replaced proselytism; «juvenilism», the adoration of youth that surfaces in some naive pontifical statements; and pyrrhonism, the root-and-branch skepticism that is engulfing the Church built on a rock.

A master logician, Amerio dissects what he calls (after Giordano Bruno) the «circiterisms» of the reformists- a generic name for the fuzzy, «more-or-less» thinking that characterizes much of post-conciliar rhetoric. He is dismayed by «that dulling of logical thought, which stems from losing a sense of the difference between the natures of things, and which leads to a confusing of one thing with another», as evinced by the non-missionary vocation of modern missions; the «hybridization of faith and hope» in theological discourse; or the priests and married men who perceive their very identity as a constraint on their liberty. Particularly noteworthy is Amerio's discussion of Heaven and Hell as the eternal vindication of the distinction between right and wrong.

*Iota Unum* is more than 700 pages of sheer intellectual brilliance. Not only is Romano Amerio a highly cultured man, and a specialist of such writers as Antonio Rosmini, Campanella (on whom he wrote his PhD thesis) or Manzoni (whose *Observations on Catholic Morality* he published a critical edition of), but he is also a luminously clear, deep and systematic thinker, a distinction which years of teaching philosophy, greek and latin can only partly explain. There is probably no university left in the world where you can learn to think like that.

Considering this work to be definitely one of the best I have reviewed for this site, I have already bought a copy of the author's *Stat Veritas*, a much slimmer volume of commentaries on the apostolic letter «Tertio Millennio Adveniente», fortunately translated in French; but as for the rest of his bibliography, which I would have gladly devoured, Amerio has simply made me add Italian to the list of languages I wish I could read.

Rating:
Summary: A magisterial critique of the post-conciliar Church
Review: In the Sermon on the Mount, answering the misconceptions of those who thought he had come to «abolish the law and the prophets», Jesus Christ said: «For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth shall pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished» (Matthew 5.18.) He thereby established the immutability of the Truth, of the Moral Law and of the Revelation from Old Testament times to the Last Judgment.

But immutability does not sit well with modern man, whose fondness for discarding iotas has affected many within the Catholic Church, to the point that one may wonder whether it is undergoing a crisis comparable to the Lutheran secession, the schism of the French clergy during the French Revolution or the modernist heresy at the turn of the 19th century.

Having defined a «crisis» as a rejection of the very principles of the Church *from within*, as opposed to the world at large, Romano Amerio (1905-1997) searches ecclesiastical history for clear-cut instances, establishing standards with which to judge the present situation. He then surveys the preparation for Vatican II, of which he speaks with some measure of authority, since he was the peritus for the bishop of Lugano and «got to know all the documents»; the course of the council itself; and finally the immediate post-conciliar period under the pontificate of Paul VI, a pope whose renunciation of authority made him rather unfit for the post, leading to a proliferation of abuses sheepishly condemned by ineffective words.

The book then adopts a more thematic approach, dealing with such issues as the crisis of the priesthood, liturgical absurdities or increasingly outspoken, heretical and obdurate dissent within the Church. It is easy to picture the author painstakingly collecting thousands of articles from the Osservatore Romano and the religious press, building up his case over two decades of meticulous research. But what he offers us is no mere enumeration, no disjointed «horror file», but a methodical diagnosis of the evils he describes, down to their metaphysical and theological roots.

Amerio has a gift for identifying «-isms», or ideologies that are displacing traditional pillars of Catholic thought. «Mobilism» is the self-contradictory, romantic «mentality that values becoming more than being, motion more than rest, action more than the goal», holding that «to be forever aspiring is better than attaining». Feminism he aptly shows to be a «masculinism». «Discussionism» is the egalitarian cult of dialogue which has replaced proselytism; «juvenilism», the adoration of youth that surfaces in some naive pontifical statements; and pyrrhonism, the root-and-branch skepticism that is engulfing the Church built on a rock.

A master logician, Amerio dissects what he calls (after Giordano Bruno) the «circiterisms» of the reformists- a generic name for the fuzzy, «more-or-less» thinking that characterizes much of post-conciliar rhetoric. He is dismayed by «that dulling of logical thought, which stems from losing a sense of the difference between the natures of things, and which leads to a confusing of one thing with another», as evinced by the non-missionary vocation of modern missions; the «hybridization of faith and hope» in theological discourse; or the priests and married men who perceive their very identity as a constraint on their liberty. Particularly noteworthy is Amerio's discussion of Heaven and Hell as the eternal vindication of the distinction between right and wrong.

*Iota Unum* is more than 700 pages of sheer intellectual brilliance. Not only is Romano Amerio a highly cultured man, and a specialist of such writers as Antonio Rosmini, Campanella (on whom he wrote his PhD thesis) or Manzoni (whose *Observations on Catholic Morality* he published a critical edition of), but he is also a luminously clear, deep and systematic thinker, a distinction which years of teaching philosophy, greek and latin can only partly explain. There is probably no university left in the world where you can learn to think like that.

Considering this work to be definitely one of the best I have reviewed for this site, I have already bought a copy of the author's *Stat Veritas*, a much slimmer volume of commentaries on the apostolic letter «Tertio Millennio Adveniente», fortunately translated in French; but as for the rest of his bibliography, which I would have gladly devoured, Amerio has simply made me add Italian to the list of languages I wish I could read.

Rating:
Summary: Thorough analysis of change in the Catholic Church
Review: In this exhaustive analysis of the changes in the Catholic Church this century--which he demonstrates to be in the direction of a change of essence (i.e., not just a cultural modification)--Amerio brings out the underlying issues of world-views in conflict. He shows that the Second Vatican Council, in committing the Church to "embrace the world", was operating according to a this-worldly philosophy which ultimately betrays the Church's whole nature and purpose. What of the future? Amerio's outlook is bleak. No easy comfort here. The prospect is one of continued fragmentation of the Church but, bearing in mind Christ's promise (that the Gates of Hell will not prevail against his Church), the Church will survive in integrity, even if in the form of a "remnant".

Rating:
Summary: Fastenating, Thorough, Brilliant
Review: This is a magnificent work on the post-conciliar Church which is THOROUGHLY documented and covers just about every topic that one could think of. It is outstanding to be read from begining to end or simply to be used as a reference. Amero, who was a peritus at Vatican II, is certainly in a good position to know what he is talking about. This book should especially be on the shelf of any priest or seminarian who is looking for an adequate book on the Changes of the Church following Vatican Council II. Again, the best book I have read to date on the subject.

Rating:
Summary: Fastenating, Thorough, Brilliant
Review: This is a magnificent work on the post-conciliar Church which is THOROUGHLY documented and covers just about every topic that one could think of. It is outstanding to be read from begining to end or simply to be used as a reference. Amero, who was a peritus at Vatican II, is certainly in a good position to know what he is talking about. This book should especially be on the shelf of any priest or seminarian who is looking for an adequate book on the Changes of the Church following Vatican Council II. Again, the best book I have read to date on the subject.