The Jansenist
March 18, 2021
Cornelius Jansenius (1585–1638) was the Dutch Catholic bishop of Ypres in Flanders and the father of a theological movement known as Jansenism.
FROM the remarkable letters of the late William Strojie, who wrote during the 1970s and ’80s about the Revolution in the Catholic Church:
The Jansenist takes a dim view of God’s mercy; he expects that only a few will be saved, but feels quite certain that he will be one of those few (of the remnant or elect) who have earned the right to Heaven, mainly by his spiritual works. This is what makes him frantic when Mass and Sacraments are no longer regularly available. It is what makes him chase after those charlatans and cash operators who promise to provide a substitute church for him in our time. And he takes with him many good Catholics who are simply confused. There are many degrees of that state of mind, soul and temperament, a kind of pietism, which I here call Jansenism. It is, as most writers agree, a thing difficult to pin down, which I am not trying to do precisely. My main purpose in all this is to alert some, who might read this paper, that it is possible to appear very Catholic without being quite so really.
[…]
In the U.S., six or more traditionalist organizations are definitely Jansenistic. They are impressively Catholic in the appearance of their chapels, as are their priests in the performance of the Mass; and generally in the publications it is difficult for Catholics unread in these matters to see where they deviate from the Catholic balance or center. There exists, among them, as the Dictionary writer put it, a certain rigorism, a scrupulosity, and the self-righteousness of an elite. Some of them affect military postures — knights, berets, capes and banners; they incline toward a sectarian spirit. The John Birch Society attracts many, with its respectability, civic righteousness, inside knowledge, as they think. I have nothing against inside knowledge and companionship and the right kind of organization, bearing in mind Christ’s words, “without Me you can do nothing.” Yet, to those disposed to trust my judgement in these matters, I say have nothing to do with present traditionalist organizations — their “priories,” “oratories,” “cities of Mary” and like communities, their chapels. As Catholics concerned with salvation before spiritual comfort, as I am certain most of my regular readers are, you are on safe ground in rejecting these things in our time. They are on dangerous ground who join or support them, for these organizations have no authority to command the faithful — that papal authority which always accompanies a legitimate setting up of a chapel, priory, etc. The fact of a false pope in the Vatican does not change this, for the law of Jurisdiction, of the Power of the Keys, always remains, even when there is no pope, as has happened for two to three years, more than five times. What the presence of a false pope does, unfortunately and dangerously for many well-intentioned Catholics, is to lend credibility to the claims of the outwardly impressive Jansenistic pseudo-Catholic defense of the Faith.
