From Jim Duffy on Teilhard de Chardin. (Letters to the Editor).

In the Catholic Register of February 10, 2002, there is a letter from William S. Watson defending the writing of Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. This letter needs correction.

William Watson admits that Teilhard's writings were never approved but implies from a quote in the Prairie Messenger of June 21, 1981, that Cardinal Cassaroli, Secretary of State, approved Teilhard's works when he wrote to Archbishop Poupard on the 100th anniversary of Teilhard's birth. This ambiguous letter was followed by a statement from the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office printed in L'Osservatore Romano of July 20, 1981, that repeated the warnings of the 1962 banning of the writings of Teilhard and did so "against rumours that it no longer applied."

Cassaroli's letter gives the impression that they were not disapproved. Yet, from 1926, when Teilhard's Jesuit superiors forbade him to teach, he was the object of many warnings from his order and from the Holy See. Popes Pius XI, Pius XII, John XXIII, and Paul VI tried to prevent the spread of his errors. By the authority of Pope John XXIII, all Ordinaries, Superiors, and Rectors were asked to "effectively protect--especially the minds of the young--against the dangers of the works of Father Teilhard de Chardin and his followers" (Acts of the Apostolic See, August 6, 1962).

As Jacques Maritain said in The Peasant of the Garrone (p. 264), on the writing of Teilhard de Chardin, "We are in the realm of 'Great Fables.'" We are not surprised that Pope Pius XII called his writings "a cesspool of errors." The Church's condemnation of the works of Teilhard remains in force.

Brampton, ON