Characteristics of a Fervent Catholic – Characteristics of Lukewarm Catholics

Extra meeting (excerpts), December 1, 1963

“A Roman and Apostolic Catholic, the author of this text submits himself with filial devotion to the traditional teaching of Holy Church. However, if by an oversight anything is found in it at variance with that teaching, he immediately and categorically rejects it.”

 The words “Revolution” and “Counter-Revolution” are employed here in the sense given to them by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in his book Revolution and Counter-Revolution, the first edition of which was published in the monthly Catolicismo, Nº 100, April 1959.

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

We will now undertake to describe the characteristics of fervor of the Catholic Spirit as opposed to lukewarm Catholicism. From there we may draw our conclusions.

What are the characteristics of a fervent Catholic?

1) A fervent Catholic must have, above all, the disposition to abandon everything that is opposed to the Catholic Faith. Not having this disposition he can never be a fervent Catholic.

2) He needs to be convinced that all things need to be arranged according to the principles and interests of the Church.

3) He must be convinced that the doctrine and interests of the Church should never be sacrificed for anything. Therefore, no one should ever demand that the Church change it for any reason. The Church is the rule and measure of all things. This is corollary to rule no. 2.

4) He should only find people and things agreeable to the degree they are imbued with the spirit of the Church. This is one of the most important characteristics of a true Catholic. If I meet a person that does not have the Catholic spirit and I find his company simply delightful, this should immediately set off an alarm signal in me. I should say to myself, “My subconscious is profoundly intoxicated, because I found pleasure in someone/thing that is not Catholic.” This alarm signal should immediately ring in my conscious. Why? Because this attraction reveals something in me that is not Catholic.

5) Finally, one should apply total rejection or, at least a policy of “Cold War” (shoulder) to all that opposes the Church. The true Catholic is intransigent! If there is something that is opposed to the Church, he rejects it completely. And if, for some reason of the moment, to avoid a greater evil, or for some other reason he cannot effectuate this complete rejection, he penalizes it by giving it the cold shoulder.

Characteristics of Lukewarm Catholics

1) One of the characteristics of the lukewarm Catholic is that he only refrains from arriving at express error. He does not become Protestant, for example. But as far as the rest, he goes along with it all the way. The best example of this is Brazil, where Protestant propaganda obtains no results, where no one changes their religion, yet no one takes seriously the religion they have. It is a monument of tepidity. It is exactly the people Our Lord spoke of when He said, “If you were either hot or cold I would judge you, but because you are lukewarm I will vomit you from my mouth.”

Let us imagine a conversation with a person of this nature. It might go like this:
“Do you love the Church?”
“No.”
“Will you abandon Her?
“Neither”
“What is your position towards Her?
“Remain within Her without loving Her.
“Why?
“Oh, because my only concern is for myself. I have no desire to love the Church or even the anti-Church for that matter. It is too much of a shock for me to break with all my habits, that is to say, either too hard or boring.”
And thus they come with that sickly sweet formulation, “I will simply follow the religion that my parents had.”

2) He only fights the errors and the vices that Public Opinion finds excessive. This is especially characteristic of the lukewarm Catholic. For instance, there is a scandal in the city and everyone deplores it. The tepid Catholic will say, “One is sorely tempted to worry about the future of humanity. Thank God that Providence still helps us.” However, if public opinion doesn’t take notice, neither does he.

3) He has the tendency to adapt himself to everything, to every circumstance, to all things. And for this reason, when it is the fashion to wear short sleeves, he thinks it is fine, and only if the sleeves were shorter than the fashion of the day permits, would it be wrong. Then when the clothes used by people at large begin to expose the persons back with simply a strap on each shoulder, he says, “Its understandable, we have to follow the style, we can’t live in the past.” And he thinks, “It’s not so bad; After all, we shouldn’t speak badly about others.” Things might end up falling into nudity, yet he always finds a way to justify the going style.

4) In relation to certain incubated larva errors he has a declared sympathy, or is at least neutral in face of them. For example, in the face of Communism he is against it from the start. However, in the face of Socialism, which is nothing more than a candy coated form of Communism, he says, “Something, one needs to concede.” And in the end he adapts. In any case, when he reacts against evil, he reacts timidly and discretely.

Nothing is more amusing than a liberal Catholic reprimanding his child, or a student or an employee. The employee made a gross mistake and he calls him in and says to him, “Friend, I have been so good to you…” Follows a silence full of doubts. “Have I not given you several demonstrations of my generosity towards you…. I would like to ask you not repeat this unfortunate error again. Besides listen, it is for your own good that I do this, for you yourself this is bad.”
The employee gives three weak excuses as to why he did it and if the moderate Catholic is quite a bit more energetic, he might say, ” Listen, you need to give me a better reason than that.” This is the super accommodated Catholic.