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The haughty statement by Léon Bloy is well known: “When I want to know the latest news, I read Saint Paul.” Today we would like to advise all those on the Internet who surf feverishly, click frantically and tweet compulsively to read Fr. Calmel, whose two books have just been reprinted in French by Nouvelles Éditions Latines: Si ton oeil est simple [If your eye is simple, cf. Mt 6:22] and Selon l’Évangile [According to the Gospel].

For those who are worried, with good reason, about the Final Report of the Synod on the Family, for those who are distressed by this supposedly merciful pastoral approach that cosmetically covers up the sin so as to anesthetize the sinner better, it will be beneficial to read the chapter from Si ton oeil est simple on the prudence of the flesh and the prudence of the spirit:

“‘If he is prudent, let him command us,’ declare the cardinals, apparently, who are about to elect a new pope. What does this mean? That he should have the ability to make concessions and condescend to do so? No doubt. But that is quite natural and that is not much. In truth, the prudence referred to here supposes that the newly-elected pontiff will be able to make concessions only by subordinating them to the supreme love, with that degree of purity that is called the folly of the cross. Only then will concessions not be betrayals: forms of procrastination and capitulation, deals and complicity. Christian prudence is crucified and radiant like the vocation to perfect charity in relation to which it is defined. This wisdom is the folly of the cross. We can see a symbol of it in the flying buttresses of Notre Dame in Paris, the superb architectural masterpiece that inseparably joins fearlessness and balance.”

This is the lofty view of Fr. Calmel. At that altitude the world’s atmosphere becomes rarified, its foul smells are dissipated. The soul breathes.

Father Alain Lorans

Interview with Roberto de Mattei : “The Final Report of the Synod is a bad document”