Brian Welter, trans., Either Catholicism or Liberalism: The Pastoral & Circular Letters of St. Ezequiel Moreno y Diaz (Waterloo, Ontario: Arouca Press, 2022)
St. Ezequiel Moreno y Díaz was a friar of the Augustinian Recollects and bishop of Pasto, Colombia. Canonized in 1992, he was, according to St. John Paul II, a model evangelist. In 1975, St. Paul VI spoke similarly at the bishop’s beatification: “His indefatigable zeal never let up when he preached the Word of God … and firmly defended his flock from the errors of the day. Yet he also expressed great love and gentleness for those who had been misguided.” (233) These saintly popes have set St. Ezequiel before the eyes of the faithful as a man of heroic virtue and a zealous pastor.
In the volume Either Catholicism or Liberalism, Arouca Press presents a new English translation of some of the saint’s letters, together with a biographical sketch, the above-excerpted remarks from his beatification and canonization, along with Moreno’s last will.
Because so few know of the life of this holy pastor, it is worth retracing the main contours of his biography before considering the content of his letters in more detail. Ezequiel Moreno y Díaz was born in Spain in 1848. For fifteen years, from 1870-85, he was a missionary to the Philippines as an Augustinian Recollect. After a few years working in Spain, he was sent by his order to Colombia in 1888. In 1894, Pope Leo XIII appointed Moreno a bishop, assigned first as Vicar Apostolic of Casanare, before being transferred a year later to the diocese of Pasto in the southwest of Colombia, near the Ecuadorian border. This was a time and place of great political and spiritual turmoil. Colombia was in the midst of a religious revival, returning to greater public expressions of its Catholic identity, after years of “liberal-led decay.” (xv) However in 1895, neighboring Ecuador had its own liberal revolution, affecting considerably the members of Moreno’s flock.
Contained in this volume are a total of ten letters from St. Ezequiel’s episcopal ministry. In his letters he often draws upon the authority of the Syllabus of Errors, which had been promulgated by Bl. Pope Pius IX in 1864. Of particular influence was Pius’ condemnation of the proposition: “The Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization.” (n. 80) Moreno also makes frequent reference to Leo XIII’s 1888 encyclical Libertas, in which this pope wrote: “Many there are who follow in the footsteps of Lucifer, and adopt as their own his rebellious cry, ‘I will not serve’ … usurping the name of liberty, they style themselves liberals.” (Libertas, 14) Following this, St. Ezequiel consistently refers to liberals as “Lucifer’s imitators.”
This holy man understood the struggle against liberalism to be of paramount importance for Christians in the modern world. He wrote in his last will and testament:
I desire that in the hall in which my remains are exposed, and even in the church during the funeral rite, a large sign be placed so that everyone can see and on which is written: “Liberalism is a sin.” (230)
When St. Ezequiel boldly proclaims: ‘Liberalism is a sin,’ he is not engaging in bombastic rhetoric. He is, in his mind, defending his flock against a pernicious heresy, as he would surely have done against movements of such heresies as Donatism or Arianism should they have arisen his diocese.
He writes:
The Church, then, spoke so energetically, expressively, and categorically of the prohibition of reconciliation between Catholics and liberals that there is not the smallest doubt. If, then, the Church has addressed and condemned this reconciliation, no one can propose or accept doing so, and those who propose or accept such reconciliation are working against what the Church teaches and desires. It is necessary to teach this doctrine in such a loud tone so that all hear it, and hear it clearly, and that all understand it. … Reconciliation between Jesus Christ and the devil, between the Church and its enemies, and between Catholicism and liberalism is not possible. No, let us be firm: either Catholicism or liberalism. Reconciliation is not possible. (173-4)
And yet, since those who are prepared to reject the formal condemnations of liberalism by Bl. Pius IX will probably not be persuaded by the words of the holy bishop of Pasto, in today’s context, of what use is such a text?
What is most striking in this collection of letters is what Popes Paul VI and John Paul II noted of the saint: his pastoral zeal. St. Ezequiel does not approach the problem of liberalism as a philosopher, abstractly identifying its inner contradictions and tracing its varied history. Much less does he engage these problems as a political ideologue. There is not the least sense of mere partisanship in his writing. Instead, in these letters one unmistakably hears the voice of a shepherd and a father—at times heartbroken, at times moved to anger, but always filled with love.
Anti-liberalism has come to take many forms in the twenty-first century. It is my hope that the Catholic post-liberalism of our day might take on the spirit of St. Ezequiel. He never shrank from bold, forceful, and clear condemnations of error, but above all he never lost sight of what is truly at stake, namely eternal life. In his tone, I cannot help but be reminded of St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, in which the Apostle, with a wide range of emotions, is so evidently motivated by the salvation of souls.
As a demonstration of his pastoral spirit, and hopefully also as a motivation for Catholics today to read this impressive work, let me conclude with St. Ezequiel’s four practical recommendations for preserving the faith. In a letter to be read in all the churches of his diocese, he gave the following advice:
First, we must practice “a humble obedience to the guidelines of our Holy Mother the Church. The good Catholic humbly accepts and believes everything that the Holy Church orders and teaches. Suspicious of his own judgment, he eagerly follows even the smallest rules of the Holy See, whether these are doctrinal, discipline-related, or other.” (52)
Second, we must be careful to lead a truly Christian life. “Those who enter into sin easily come to lose faith because the existence of the truths that the faith teaches are awkward for them.” (55) Compromises in personal morality cloud our intellect and eventually will lead us into the same errors we now detest.
Third, the company we keep must be prudent. By surrounding ourselves with those who practice or defend immorality, we become compromised, little by little. “At the beginning, perhaps one does not approve of his evil insinuations, and even expresses disgust. But bit by bit, this disgust disappears, and then these are not even thought of as evil. Later, they are regarded as humorous events. Finally, they penetrate the entire soul, and come to occupy the same place that religious beliefs used to occupy.” (58)
Finally, we must always be courageous in confessing our sins—frequenting the sacrament of reconciliation is essential—but so too must we be mindful of the obligation to confess our faith. Among the sins of omission is the cowardice of failing to proclaim the truth when it needs to be proclaimed.
Here Moreno concludes with a word of warning about the effect of the sin of liberalism. He mourns that “liberal Catholics” feel no aversion to “sins against the faith, which even seem for them to be insignificant.” On the contrary, he writes, “being a rationalist, materialist, liberal, etc., is more sinful than being a drunk, thief, killer, or other such things.” (64) And why is this? Because such sins against the faith destroy in the soul the very basis for repentance.
Let us beseech, therefore, the intercession of St. Ezequiel for our contemporary society, continually plagued by liberalisms of every sort. Following his example, let us also look to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as our model and our hope.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I turn to you! I put all my hope in you. You will be my help, my treasure, my wisdom, my strength, and my refuge…. These words will be a continuous and powerful stimulation so that this Sacred Heart will reign everywhere—in families, peoples, and nations—and fill everyone with his sovereign influence. (17)