ANSWER by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM on June 9, 2004

Dear Kevin: You were not out-of-line and in fact you were right on the money. The RCIA director and others appear to be de facto heretics, if not formal heretics. I would advise that you contact the Pastor about this even if you do not think he will act upon the information. If needed, perhaps even contact the Bishop if the pastor will not do anything. That is your moral duty, beyond that the responsibility will be on the shoulders of the Paster and the Bishop. As are as tolerance is concerned, Bishop Sheen said in an essay in 1931: A Plea for Intolerance “America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance—it is not. It is suffering from tolerance. Tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broadminded. “Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil . . . a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. Tolerance applies only to persons . . . never to truth. Tolerance applies to the erring, intolerance to the error . . . Architects are as intolerant about sand as foundations for skyscrapers as doctors are intolerant about germs in the laboratory. Tolerance does not apply to truth or principles. About these things we must be intolerant, and for this kind of intolerance, so much needed to rouse us from sentimental gush, I make a plea. Intolerance of this kind is the foundation of all stability.” An essay from Louis de Wohl, a devout Catholic, writing about 40 years ago say much the same thing: Tolerance is not a virtue. It is no more than an amiable weakness. Yet it is typical of the confused thinking of our time that many people regard it as a virtue and believe they are giving praise when they say a man is tolerant. To tolerate something means to accept it or to permit it, even though one does not agree with it. Tolerance is an entirely passive concept, and only too often serves as a cloak for indifference and cowardice. It is, as somebody once said, "the lowest form of collaboration"; and for exactly that reason, it entails a great deal of personal responsibility. He who tolerates evil becomes an accessory to it. Truth, because of its very nature, is absolutely intolerant. Two plus two equals four. Truth must protest against any other result of this addition. It will not accept seventeen, and it will not accept three and nine-tenths. Only four. Besides, there is a certain measure of condescension about tolerance. I tolerate your proximity. Nice of me, isn't it? But the worst thing about tolerance is that it knows nothing of love. It is, at best, a pale stepsister of patience. All of this does not imply that intolerance is a good thing. The opposite of a swelling on your head is a hole in your head, and that is not so good either. The Church officially teaches that if we tolerate sin we are an accomplice to that sin. Tolerance is not love. It is a form of condescending pride and arrogance toward the person one is "tolerating". Love rejoices in TRUTH and RIGHTEOUSNESS we are told in 1 Corinthians 13. No where does God say that love "tolerates". In addition, it is a profound foolishness for a person to be so concerned with toleration that they allow themselves or their loved ones to be endangered by falsehoods. What parent "tolerates" their child "hanging" out with the drugies, gangbangers, and criminal crowd? Any parent that does offer toleration for this is not only a fool, but a child abuser. No, God does not teach toleration. He teaches LOVE, TRUTH, & RIGHTEOUSNESS. Yes, we are to hate the sin and love the sinner, but we are never to tolerate the sinner committing his sin. To do that we tolerate the sin too. To tolerate the sinner means that we will not confront the sinner about his sin. This, according to the Church, is a sin on our part. The Catechism of the Catholic Church warns us to avoid finding ourselves as an accomplice to sin: 1868 Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them: - by participating directly and voluntarily in them; - by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them; - by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so; - by protecting evil-doers. 1869 Thus sin makes men accomplices of one another and causes concupiscence, violence, and injustice to reign among them... I also recommend reading the essay: Three Secret Strategies of Satan. This essay explains the overall effect of tolerance in the worldview called Plausibility. This Plausible (tolerant) worldview is the fundamental cause of nearly all the problems we have in our society and in our Church. You did the exact right thing. I applaud you and thank God for you. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary (who prays daily the he will never be tolerant or nice) P.S. the word "nice" comes from the Latin "nescius" meaning "ignorant". In Middle English the word was used to refer to "foolish", "without sense". In the 13th Century it was a word of abuse. By the 15th Century it came to mean "elegant" in conduct and dress, but not as a compliment, rather as "over refined" and "overdelicate". This meaning survives in the word, "fastidious". In essence the term means "false civility", or in a modern philosophical use, "Plausibility", or in common parlance, "political correctness". Political correctness by its very nature is hypocritical, condescending, self-righteous, and foolish.