Another Source of Morality?
This chapter details the Catholic Church's struggle with modernism during 1864–1964. This was a century of tension, even conflict, but also one of misunderstanding between the Church and European states. The quarrels affected all of Europe, and they all resulted in disqualifying religion as the source of shared values, although in different ways. Ultimately, in the 1960s, they produced another divorce between Catholicism and secularism, which this time pertained not to the source of values but to the very definition of what is good. The chapter then considers the Catholic Church's reaction against modernism. In the eyes of the Church, the rejection of ‘modernism’ pertained to two essential points: its role in society and its authority in matters of values. The first conflict was political. It pitted the Church not only against secular and anticlerical forces but also against conservative states that professed to be Christian.