What is Modernism?

Modernism is a synthesis of all heresies, famously condemned by the Church under the indefatigable zeal of Pope St. Pius X. The main documents published against Modernism are the decree Lamentabili Sane Exitu and encyclical letter Pascendi Dominici Gregis (both in 1907). Pascendi described the “Modernist” in seven “roles”: as a purely immanentist philosopher, as a believer who relies only on his own religious experience, as theologian who understands dogma only symbolically, as historian and biblical scholar who dissolves divine revelation by means of the historical-critical method into purely immanent processes of development, as apologist who justifies the Christian truth only from immanence, and as reformer who wants to change the Church in a radical way. Agnosticism, immanentism, evolutionism and reformism are the keywords used by the pope to describe the philosophical and theological system of Modernism. The Modernist is an enemy of scholastic philosophy and theology and resists the teachings of the magisterium. His moral qualities are curiosity, arrogance, ignorance, and falsehood. Modernists deceive the simple believers by not presenting their entire system, but only parts of it.

From The Little Catechism on the Thesis, by Rev. Nicolás E. Despósito.