Interestinly, I just read in Whittaker Chamber's "WITNESS" that he crossed a Rubicon of sorts when he came to the realization that instead of attacking the evil, he should promote the good. Perhaps he presaged Vatican II...
The Church's job has always been two-fold; apostolic preaching (for conversion) and governance/teaching (for perseverance to the end); the goal of both being the salvation of souls. The conscious decision to point the road and effectively ignore the wrong roads is a failure of charity, even if it makes one more popular.
One can not show the way to go without simultaneously showing the way not to go.
A number of times I have been chastized for saying what the Church teaches, and told "The Church isn't God" or something to that effect. I always found this a perplexing comment for a Catholic to make, and now I realize that those who offered it, invariably did so by way of dismissing what the Church has to say, so that they could go their own way untroubled by their conscience. To each who offered such advice, my tongue "cleaveth to the roof of my mouth," as the Lord told Ezechiel, and I was struck dumb. Only now do I realize that the answer is so incredibly profound, involving the mystery of the incarnation, that God would join Himself to sinful flesh, and endow a body till the end of time to speak with the authority of God.
The doctrine of the mystical body of Christ is of an order sublime and difficult to grasp as is that of the Immaculate Conception, the Incarnation, and the Trinity. Before such mystery the pride of man has and always will rise in rebellion, while the humble of heart will bow trembling and say "my Lord and my God."
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