For your “Sedevacantists are just Protestants!” file…
Francis: Catholics and Lutherans are “the Faithful People of God”
Beyond heresy: The Modernist Jorge Bergoglio masquerades as Pope of the Catholic Church
It’s that time of the year again when Jorge Bergoglio (“Pope” Francis) receives a delegation of Finnish Protestants so they can blather about walking on the ecumenical journey together.
Vatican News reports on today’s extremely spiritual encounter here, and the video site Rome Reports has put together the following summary:
This ecumenical “pilgrimage” always takes place in January, around the time of the so-called “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity”, which is an ecumenicized version of the traditional Catholic “Chair of Unity Octave”, which was approved by Pope St. Pius X in 1909 and extended to the Universal Church by Pope Benedict XV in 1916. An octave is an observance of eight days, and it is called “Chair of Unity” in reference to the Chair of St. Peter, whose feast is celebrated on Jan. 18.
Whereas the goal of the genuinely Catholic Chair of Unity Octave was the return of non-Catholics to the fold of Christ under the successor of St. Peter (the Pope), the goal of the Novus Ordo counterfeit is some kind of amorphous “Christian unity” that eludes even concrete definition. In fact, the participants in the ecumenical journey are not in agreement even on what they’re trying to accomplish — the only thing they all agree on is that it is not conversion to Catholicism.
Yet, that is precisely what must be the goal, per Catholic doctrine, and this truth is not to be denied or camouflaged. As an instruction from the Holy Office under Pope Pius XII made clear, when conferences are held at which Catholicism is explained to Protestants, it is crucial that
…the <whole> and <entire> Catholic doctrine is to be presented and explained: by no means is it permitted to pass over in silence or to veil in ambiguous terms the Catholic truth regarding the nature and way of justification, the constitution of the Church, the primacy of jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, and the only true union by the return of the dissidents to the one true Church of Christ. It should be made clear to them that, in returning to the Church, they will lose nothing of that good which by the grace of God has hitherto been implanted in them, but that it will rather be supplemented and completed by their return. However, one should not speak of this in such a way that they will imagine that in returning to the Church they are bringing to it something substantial which it has hitherto lacked. It will be necessary to say these things clearly and openly, first because it is the truth that they themselves are seeking, and moreover because outside the truth no true union can ever be attained.
(Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, Instruction Ecclesia Catholica, par. II; underlining added.)
These words from the Holy Office are anathema in Rome today, and would not be acceptable to any of the ecumenical travelers. As we have said in the past, it is a journey to nowhere; it is a false Christian unity:
- Christian Unity without Catholicism: Francis spews Ecumenical Bilge at General Audience
- Ecumenical Journey to Nowhere: Francis and the Lutherans
Against this background, it was not surprising that Francis’ address to the ecumenical delegation from Finland today should be filled with vapid slogans about moving forward together — nothing the world hadn’t heard before, and certainly nothing the world needed to hear.
For example, Francis pointed out that the ecumenical journey they are all on now is one not just towards full communion but in fact “towards ever fuller communion” (italics added). How about that! He also made the profound observation that at times this journey is easier, at other times more difficult. In the latter case, he advised, “let us remind ourselves that we are making this journey not as those who already possess God but as those who continue to seek him.”
Francis commended a representative of the indigenous Sami population in Scandinavia, who was also part of the delegation, for having put into action “the four dreams I had for Amazonia”, that is, the main ideas he had outlined in his 2020 exhortation Querida Amazonia. “Thank you for dreaming!”, he told him.
The false pope then turned to the question of the goal of all that ecumenical journeying, that unspecified “Christian unity” that isn’t Catholicism:
When will unity be achieved? That is the question, no? A great Orthodox theologian who specialized in eschatology once said that unity will come about in the eschaton [=at the end of time]. What is important is the journey towards unity. It is very good that theologians study and discuss; that is what specialists are for. But it is also good that we, the faithful people of God, walk together on the journey. Together. And let us “build” unity through prayer, works of charity and mutual cooperation. I know that you are taking that route and I thank you.
(Antipope Francis, Address to the Ecumenical Delegation from Finland, Vatican.va, Jan. 17, 2022; underlining added.)
Hear ye, hear ye! Francis refers to “we, the faithful people of God”, addressing Lutherans and clearly meaning to include also the Orthodox. As shocking as that is to Catholic ears, it is nothing new for the apostate Bergoglio — at best it is a variation on a familiar theme.
A year ago, on the same occasion, he had declared:
The Report of the Catholic-Lutheran dialogue group for Sweden and Finland, entitled Justification in the Life of the Church, rightly observes that “those who are already baptized can, together with their brothers and sisters, develop their opportunities for holiness, which come from their common justification in Christ. As members of one and the same mystical body of Christ, Christians are bound to one another and must bear one another’s burdens. Since Christ came to redeem the whole world, it is also a mission for the church and for individual Christians, both lay and ordained, to witness to the good news in the midst of their daily life” (No. 203).
(Antipope Francis, Address to the Ecumenical Delegation of the Lutheran Church of Finland, Vatican.va, Jan. 17, 2020; underlining added.)
We posted substantial commentary on that here:
That Bergoglio should now speak of an ecumenical “faithful people of God” is therefore quite consistent.
In fact, the same false pope had declared before that the “People of God” includes not just Christians but also “all other faiths”, and of course in the infamous Abu Dhabi declaration of 2019 he professed his belief that “[t]he pluralism and the diversity of religions, colour, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings”. Later that same year, he misled young people in Mozambique, telling them that their religious differences “are necessary”.
The damage this garbage does to souls is incalculable. There is nothing Catholic left in the Vatican except for some externals. These Vatican Modernists seriously believe that there are “gifts that the Holy Spirit has bestowed on the various Christian communities which are meant for the up-building and unity of all”, and that the arch-heresiarch Martin Luther was a “witness to the Gospel”! All of that is blasphemy!
But hey, with such sterling ecumenical credentials, it is any wonder the Vatican allowed the Finnish Lutherans to receive “Holy Communion” back in 2016, and that Francis has nonchalantly admitted to leading a Lutheran worship service once during his days in Buenos Aires?
Try as you might, you just can’t make this stuff up!
So Francis wants to “build” unity, as he told the delegation from Finland today. The fact of the matter is that the unity Christ desired for His flock is already (and necessarily!) complete in the Roman Catholic Church, which alone is Christ’s Church; and the only way others can be united in Christ is by becoming Catholics. There is no other kind of unity to be had, to be discovered, or to be journeyed to. In this life, the search for unity and truth ends at “the [Catholic] Church, which is truly the house of the Lord and the kingdom of God on earth” (Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Quamquam Pluries, n. 4).
Being united to the Roman Catholic Church is not something that can wait until the eschaton — it is a matter of eternal salvation for every soul at every point in time: “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). Whoever is not attached in Faith, hope, and charity to “the kingdom of God on earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ”, is necessarily part of “the kingdom of Satan” (Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Humanum Genus, n. 1). There is nothing in between. Hence our Blessed Lord exhorts all people to be vigilant: “Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour” (Mt 25:13).
While it is not absolutely necessary for everyone to be joined to the Catholic Church as a member, each and every soul, in order to go to Heaven, must at least, at the moment of death, be inside the Church through Faith, hope, and charity, that is, through sanctifying grace:
…[T]hat one may obtain eternal salvation, it is not always required that he be incorporated into the Church actually as a member, but it is necessary that at least he be united to her by desire and longing.
…
But it must not be thought that any kind of desire of entering the Church suffices that one may be saved. It is necessary that the desire by which one is related to the Church be animated by perfect charity. Nor can an implicit desire produce its effect, unless a person has supernatural faith: “For he who comes to God must believe that God exists and is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). The Council of Trent declares (Session VI, chap. 8): “Faith is the beginning of man’s salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God and attain to the fellowship of His children” (Denzinger, n. 801).
(Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, Letter to the Archbishop of Boston, Aug. 8, 1949)
In his landmark encyclical against ecumenism, Pope Pius XI lamented that “although many non-Catholics may be found who loudly preach fraternal communion in Christ Jesus, yet you will find none at all to whom it ever occurs to submit to and obey the Vicar of Jesus Christ either in His capacity as a teacher or as a governor” (Mortalium Animos, n. 7).
Indeed, and in our times it does not even occur to the (fake) “Vicar of Jesus Christ” himself!
The Vatican II Sect currently led by “Pope” Francis is an infernal den of apostasy.
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