Applying ‘discretion’ as it is understood in ecclesiastical terminology, we have first of all turned our attention to the current situation in the Church. Yesterday’s meditation concluded with some reflections by the philosopher Dietrich von Hildebrand, characterised by his gift for discernment. Without adopting extreme positions, he did observe with great precision the harmful tendencies in the Church, especially after the Second Vatican Council.
Hildebrand and others pointed out that the profusion of negative post-conciliar developments could not be explained simply as isolated errors, but that the enemies of the Church set out to destroy it from within or to transform it into a kind of humanitarian institution. The latter is particularly dangerous, because it may not be immediately noticed, thinking that it is a Christian humanism, as in the case of the encyclical Fratelli tutti, which is capable of confusing the faithful.