Athanasius the Hunted Bishop
Easily the best-known and most celebrated opponent of Arianism was St. Athanasius of Alexandria. As bishop of an apostolic see that was also one of the leading cities of the Roman world, Athanasius was the successor of St. Alexander of Alexandria, who had deposed Arius and denounced the new heresy to the Catholic Church.
The Arian network, led by Eusebius of Nicomedia, persecuted Athanasius ruthlessly, repeatedly driving Athanasius from his see by order of the emperors, accusing him of murder, terrorism and witchcraft, and even attempting to have him assassinated.
Athanasius refuted Arianism at length in his writings, but wrote at comparable length about the Arians’ predatory, conspiratorial intrigues.
He did not pretend that he was simply having a discussion about ideas with someone who disagreed with him in good faith. He knew that Arianism -- the crisis of his times -- was about not only ideas, but mostly about power and the goods of this world.
The Modern Arians
The crisis of our times, too, is partly about ideas -- about truth, and the Faith. Today’s Arians believe that the content of the Faith and the nature and life of the Church can and must evolve over time.
They work to revise the Church’s teaching, discipline and message to suit themselves.
But they also collude to amass power and the spoils of victory: preferment, privilege, pleasure.
They comprise a vast, far-flung network of networks, a super-clique resting its great bulk upon the Catholic world. In this way, and not only in terms of a debate with heterodoxy, faithful Catholics today are involved in a struggle like that of the Fathers in antiquity.
The Modern Catholic Resistance
Like the wise Athanasius, today’s Catholics can ill afford to forget that this struggle is not a simple dialogue with an interlocutor who disagrees with us in good faith.
Make no mistake, Catholic resistance today is an effort to roll back, outmaneuver and finally outlast a hostile and powerful cohort determined to hold the institutions they have captured and occupied in the 20th century.
Sean Patrick Kater is a traditional Catholic from the Chicago area, with a background in classical studies and biblical studies. He also enjoys hiking, travelling and, of course,
Regina Magazine.
Photos: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arius
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