The Council of Nicea teaches that God the Son exists as one substance (homoousian) with God the Father, even though they are different persons of the Blessed Trinity. The word homoousian is Greek for consubstantial in Latin (which you say or sing every Sunday or Feast day at Holy Mass during the Creed.) To deny the persons of the Trinity being consubstantial is to deny both the Divinity of Christ and the Blessed Trinity.
This fact of orthodox Catholicism seems obvious to most Catholics today who have taken even one week of Christology classes at a Catholic University or seminary. But in the fourth century, the heretic Arius denied this, and brought most of Christendom with him. That heretic had several opponents, but the most formidable was St. Athanasius (top left.) In fact, the divide was so pronounced that 4th century Christians around the Mediterranean were either labeled “Arians” or “Athanasians.”
Mr. Michael Davies wrote a book titled St. Athanasius: Defender of the Faith. At the back of the book is a fascinating chronology on the saint’s life. For example, did you know the Egyptian saint spent some of his exile periods in both Rome and Germany? In this chronology at the back of Mr. Davies’ book, I was struck at how subtle was the difference between orthodoxy and heresy that came out in a certain ambiguous Council of bishops. The book on the saint reads:
AD 358 Third Council of Sirmium proposes an ambiguous creed designed to win the support of Catholics and semi-Arians. It uses the term homoiousian, of like substance, in place of the Nicean homoousian, one in substance (consubstantial.) Liberius signs this ambiguous formula, which is a considerable improvement upon the formula of the Second Council, and stipulates that he interprets it in an orthodox sense.
Notice that the Third Council of Sirmium believed that peace could be made between true Catholics and semi-Arians by simply changing just one tiny letter from the Nicene Creed: Adding “i” to homoousian making it homoiousian. This would apparently be done in order to please both parties. You have to give them credit: Wouldn’t peace in the Empire be worth just the little letter “i”?
But it wasn’t worth it for St. Athanasius. He knew that the smallest denial of the truth of Apostolic Catholicism would truly be a denial of the whole Gospel. Thus, he fought all day and prayed all night that the Pope and every bishop and priest and religious and lay person would fully accept Nicea, namely, that Christ is of one substance with the Father. St. Athanasius insisted that merely “like substance” was a heresy. St. Athanasius had to move all of Christendom from homoiousian to homoousian at all costs.
Did lukewarm Catholics in the 4th century whisper that St. Athanasius was “rigorous” or “scrupulous” or “divisive” or “OCD” for his insistence on orthodoxy in Christology so many centuries ago? So also, many mainstream Catholics today cannot see the big deal when traditionalists today maintain that the Church of Christ is the Catholic Church, not merely subsists in it, like another certain ambiguous Council taught more recently.
The Catholic Church has always taught that the only Church of Christ is the Catholic Church. Why then did an ambiguous Council in the 20th century declare that the Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church? But wait. The latter sentence does not seem to deny that the Church of Christ is the Catholic Church, does it? And what is the grammatical difference between “is” and “subsist” anyway? Only a dogmatic curmudgeon would care! And furthermore, even if there were a difference between “is” and “subsist,” then wouldn’t this please Protestants enough to make them want to become Catholic?
Of course, St. Athanasius knew that pandering to heretics would both dishonor God and lose souls—both the souls of orthodox Catholics and the semi-Arians whom he wanted to convert. St. Athanasius realized he would live and die for that single “i” not being added to homoousian even to make peace with the Arians and semi-Arians.
So also, Archbishop Lefebvre (top right) in the 20th century realized he should live and die not making false-peace with heretics who maintained the Church of Christ merely subsists in the Catholic Church. Rather, since his childhood, he had known the Church of Christ is the Catholic Church. False-peace with Protestants or modernists would neither glorify God, nor convert those heretics to orthodoxy.
Archbishop Lefebvre wrote: “We also read that the Church of God ‘subsists’ in the Catholic Church–a suspicious formula, because immemorial doctrine has always said that the Church of God is the Catholic Church. If we accept this recent formula, it would seem that Protestant and Orthodox communions form equal parts of the Church–which cannot be, since they have separated themselves from the one Church founded by Jesus Christ: Credo UNAM sanctam Ecclesiam.”—An Open Letter to Confused Catholics, ch. 12.
The saints can always detect small heresies, and this isn’t because they’re “scrupulous.” It’s because they love God more than the rest of the lukewarm Christians of their day. Thus, it takes a saint (one who loves God more than false-peace with man) who will stand for true orthodoxy on dogma. Heresies start small, but grow very big, usually very quickly. Like weeds or a disease, they must be recognized and eradicated with the light of Truth as soon as possible, regardless of any social consequences. Saints are chosen for this task, and it’s usually people who have no concern for human respect.
Most mainstream Catholics today now have enough hindsight to see there could be no compromise on the part of St. Athanasius with the truth of the Divinity of Christ, even for the sake of a temporary détente with the full-Arians or even the semi-Arians.
So also, I hope more Catholics today will see we can have no compromise on the truth of “no salvation outside the Church” with leftist modernists or even neo-con modernists who want to de-claw the Catholic Church all in order to make friends with the world, the flesh and the devil. As Archbishop Lefebvre saw clearly, such a strategy would neither glorify God nor save souls. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.