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Mirari Vos: On Liberalism & Religious Indifferentism. In the early 1800s, the Church in France, infected by the Revolution of 1789, turned to its charismatic philosopher and apologist, Abbe Fr. Felicite …More
Mirari Vos: On Liberalism & Religious Indifferentism.

In the early 1800s, the Church in France, infected by the Revolution of 1789, turned to its charismatic philosopher and apologist, Abbe Fr. Felicite-Robert de Lamennais, promoter of a movement to "catholicize liberalism." He expounded an alien philosophy based on a new theory of certitude claiming truth does not belong to individual reason, but to the universal consent of mankind. According to him, certainty of truth was not determined by evidence, but by the authority of mankind. The True Religion, he concluded, is that which can put forth on its behalf the greatest number of witnesses. He originally espoused ultramontanism and aimed to create an organized body of opinion to campaign against Gallicanism, (the control and influence of the state in church matters)as the movement with Dom Gaurange , founder of Solesmes.
Les Progrès de la revolution et de la guerre contre l'église (1828) marked his complete renunciation of Royalist principles and from that time on he advocated on behalf of a Theocratic democracy for France.
Abbe Lamennais founded L'Avenir, the first issue of which appeared on October 16, 1830, with the motto "God and Liberty." The paper was aggressively democratic, demanding rights of local administration, an enlarged suffrage, separation of church and state,(seen as treasonous towards the Social Kingship of Christ and rights of Church in a State, from a Papal perspective at the time), universal freedom of conscience particularly with regards to rights to worship or not, freedom of instruction, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press. Styles of worship were to be criticized, improved or abolished in absolute submission to the spiritual, and not to the temporal authority of Church or State. With the help of Montalembert, he founded the Agence générale pour la défense de la liberté religieuse, which became a far-reaching organization with agents throughout France who monitored violations of religious freedom. As a result, the periodical's career was stormy and its circulation opposed by conservative bishops.
In response, Lamennais, Montalembert and Lacordaire suspended their work and in November 1831 set out to Rome to obtain the approval of Pope Gregory XVI. After much opposition, they gained an audience, but only on condition that their political project should not be mentioned. A few days later they received a letter from Cardinal Pacca, advising their departure from Rome and suggesting that the Holy See, while admitting the justice of their intentions, would like the matter left open for the present.
Lacordaire and Montalembert departed immediately, but Lamennais stayed on until Gregory's letter to the Polish bishops, which denounced the Polish revolution against the Tsar, dashed his last hopes. While staying in Munich, Lamennais received the 1832 encyclical Mirari vos, which condemned religious pluralism in general and certain of Lamennais's ideas advanced in L'Avenir without metioning his name. After this, Abbe Lamennais and his two lieutenants declared that out of deference to the Pope they would not resume the publication of L'Avenir and dissolved the Agence générale as well.

His opinions on liberty of press, conscience, revolt, and democratization of the Catholic Church, were receiving popularity in France and Spain. This caught the attention of Pope Gregory XVI, who condemned them in Mirari Vos (15 August 1832). Abbe De Lammenais refused to submit and renounced his priesthood and the Catholic Faith. Lamennais sympathized with the Revolution of 1848 and was elected a deputy for Paris to the Constituent Assembly. He drew up a plan for a Constitution, which was rejected as too radical. After this, he confined himself to silent participation in the sessions. He also started the newspapers Le Peuple Constituant and' La Révolution démocratique et sociale', espousing radical revolution. Both papers quickly ceased publication. He was also named president of the Société de la solidarité républicaine. He remained a deputy in the legislative assemblies until Napoleon III's 1851 coup, which depressed and isolated him once more. After 1851, he occupied himself with La Divine Comédie, a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy and refused several attempts to reconcile him to the Church. He died in Paris in 1854 and was buried according to his own directions at Père Lachaise without funeral rites, mourned by political and literary admirers.He died unrepentant and unreconciled with the Church.
"From this poisoned source of indifferentism flows that false and absurd, or rather extravagant, maxim that liberty of conscience should be established and guaranteed to each man - a most contagious error, ..." -Pope Gregory XVI in Mirari Vos.