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Francis misleads Eastern Orthodox Monks
Always has his mouth open, especially when he has nothing to say: Jorge Bergoglio aka “Pope” Francis
On June 3, 2022, the Argentinian apostate Jorge Bergoglio (“Pope Francis”) received into his presence a delegation of young priests and monks who are members of the Eastern Orthodox religion. His address for the occasion was relatively brief, but long enough to fill it with the usual ecumenical blather about the common “journey” towards that “unity” that comes only from the “Spirit”.
In this post we will briefly examine Bergoglio’s insufferable twaddle.
The false pope starts out by making an odd remark. He tells the non-Catholic monks gathered before him that he hopes that “we shall be able to celebrate [the Eucharistic celebration] together on the day of the Lord’s coming.” He does not elaborate; he does not clarify why he mentions “the day of the Lord’s coming” as the point in time when he wishes for them to be united in one and the same doctrine, government, and worship.
As their meeting takes place two days before Pentecost, Bergoglio says: “I would like to offer you four brief reflections inspired by this great feast. They concern the full unity to which we aspire.”
As is typical for a Vatican II ecumenist, the “unity” he has in mind is not that demanded by traditional Catholic doctrine, which can only be had by conversion of non-Catholics to Catholicism in the one true Church of Christ, but some other vague notion of unity that is never quite defined and that even all the parties at the ecumenical table cannot agree on.
In its 1949 instruction on the ecumenical movement, Pope Pius XII’s Holy Office reminded the bishops that “the only true union [is] by the return of the dissidents to the one true Church of Christ” (Instruction Ecclesia Catholica, n. II). That is a position that has long been rejected by the Modernists in charge of the Vatican structures today, but it remains the only true Catholic position nonetheless, for the nature of the true Church of Christ cannot change.
Francis goes on:
The first thought is that unity is a gift, a fire from on high. Certainly, we need constantly to pray, work, dialogue and prepare ourselves to receive this extraordinary grace. Yet the attainment of unity is not primarily a fruit of earth, but of heaven. It is not primarily the result of our commitment, our efforts and our agreements, but of the working of the Holy Spirit, to whom we need to open our hearts in trust, so that he can guide us along the path to full communion. Unity is a grace, a gift.
(Antipope Francis, Address to Young Priests and Monks from Oriental Orthodox Churches, Vatican.va, June 3, 2022; italics given.)
This is a very common theme in post-conciliar ecumenism: unity as a gift of the Holy Ghost that will one day be given to all the members of the Mystical Body.
In actual fact, however, unity is one of the marks of the Church founded by Christ; which is, after all, one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. It is a property which “the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church” cannot lose (Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Mystici Corporis, n. 1). This unity pertains to her government, her worship, and her doctrine. There is no doubt that this unity is a gift from God, but it is a gift He bestowed on His Church from the very beginning, as one of her essential properties.
For that reason Pope Pius XII called it the Church’s “divinely-given unity, by which all men of every race are united to Christ in the bond of brotherhood”, and he expressed the hope that non-Catholics “with the guidance and assistance of divine grace will long to share in the same union and charity” as that possessed by Catholics in the true Church, and will cooperate with that grace and convert (Mystici Corporis, n. 5).
Francis continues:
A second thing that Pentecost teaches us is that unity is harmony. Your Delegation, composed of Churches of various traditions in communion of faith and sacraments, is a good illustration of this fact. Unity is not uniformity, much less the fruit of compromise or fragile diplomatic balances of power. Unity is harmony in the diversity of the charisms bestowed by the Spirit. For the Holy Spirit loves to awaken both multiplicity and unity, as at Pentecost, where different languages were not reduced to one alone, but were taken up in all their variety. Harmony is the way of the Spirit, for, as Saint Basil the Great says, the Spirit is harmony.
(italics given)
So Francis admits unity is not the fruit of compromise — good to know! But then what is the Vatican’s “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification”, also known as the “Lutheran-Catholic Accord” of 1999?
Francis continues further:
A third teaching of Pentecost is that unity is a journey. It is not a plan to be devised or a project to be worked out around a table. Unity does not come about by standing still, but by moving forward with the new energy that the Spirit, from the day of Pentecost, impresses on the disciples. Unity is attained along the way: it grows by sharing each step of the journey, by facing its joys and struggles, and experiencing its unexpected surprises. As Saint Paul told the Galatians, we are called to walk by the Spirit (cf. Gal 5:16.25). In the words of Saint Irenaeus, whom I recently proclaimed the Doctor of Unity, the Church is tõn adelphõn synodía, “a caravan of brothers”. In this caravan, unity grows and matures: a unity that – in God’s quiet way – does not suddenly appear as an overwhelming miracle, but quietly emerges in the patient and persevering progress of a journey made together.
(italics given)
So here Francis was able to work two of his favorite concepts into his address, that of journey and that of moving forward. Perfect! The only thing missing was encounter, but then he also needs to leave something for next time.
Francis claims that unity is “attained along the way” as a consequence of “moving forward with the new energy that the Spirit, from the day of Pentecost, impresses on the disciples”. This is nonsense, of course. The unity which is an essential property and a mark of the true Church always inheres in it; and those who are not part of the Church can attain to this God-given religious unity by converting to her — and only by converting to her.
It has nothing to do with “sharing each step” of some journey, with “facing its joys and struggles”, nor by “experiencing its unexpected surprises.” Francis or some other Novus Ordo theologian simply made that up.
It is touching to see Bergoglio embrace a figure of speech that goes back to St. Ireneaeus. Now it would be good if he could embrace also the religion of this great saint, not just his vocabulary. That, of course, Francis will never do, for then he would have to renounce his entire Modernist program.
Alas, the false pope has more to offer:
A final aspect. Unity is not simply an end in itself, but is closely tied to the fruitfulness of the Christian proclamation: unity is for mission. Jesus prayed for his disciples that they “may all be one… so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21). At Pentecost, the Church was born as a missionary Church.
(italics given)
Bergoglio appears to reduce the significance of the unity of the Church to a matter of mere utility: Evangelization works better if the Church is united in Faith. No kidding! That is indeed one of the reasons why our Blessed Lord endowed His Church in her essential constitution with precisely that unity Francis claims the Mystical Body must still attain!
In his magnificent treatment of the question of religious unity approximately ten years before Vatican II, Fr. Edward Hanahoe (1913-1994) contrasted the only possible Catholic notion of ecumenism with heretical conceptions of ecumenism, as follows (guess which of the two the Novus Ordo idea of ecumenism resembles):
Catholic Ecumenism looks out from a position of unity in possession; non-Catholic Ecumenism looks for unity not as yet possessed. Hence, their approach to the question is considerably different. The non-Catholic looks for theories and means of obtaining unity, while the Catholic aims to share a divinely-given unity which already exists.
(Rev. Edward Francis Hanahoe, Catholic Ecumenism: The Reunion of Christendom in Contemporary Papal Pronouncements [Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1953], p. 76)
The only Catholic way to have unity among all Christians, so-called, is for all non-Catholics who truly wish to follow Christ, to renounce their heresies, embrace the Catholic Faith, and convert to the Catholic Church. This is not a terribly difficult concept to understand; although it is, of course, extremely anti-ecumenical, in the sense in which the word “ecumenism” is understood in our day.
Francis continues:
Today too, the world is waiting, however unconsciously, to hear the Gospel message of charity, freedom and peace. It is a message that we are called to bear witness to with one another, not against one another or apart from one another. In this regard, I am grateful for the common witness offered by your Churches. I think in a special way of all those – and there are so many of them – who sealed by their blood their faith in Christ. Thank you for all the seeds of love and hope you have sown in the name of the crucified and risen Christ in all those places that continue, sadly, to be marked by violence and by conflicts that are too often forgotten.
(italics given)
Notice how the papal pretender here defines the Gospel as a “message of charity, freedom and peace.” While not wrong, this definition is clearly insufficient and deliberately vague enough to be compatible with a Naturalist understanding, which basically reduces the Gospel to mere humanitarianism with liturgy. The true Gospel, however, is inherently supernatural and concerns itself chiefly with spiritual things: It concerns divine grace, Faith, sin, redemption, and eternal salvation in Heaven as the goal of man’s existence.
Francis tells his Orthodox interlocutors that this “message of charity, freedom and peace” is something “we are called to bear witness to with one another, not against one another or apart from one another.” The simple fact of the matter, however, is that the Orthodox, as Orthodox, aren’t “called” to preach anything. As non-Catholics, they have one job and one job only, namely, to “repent, and believe the gospel” (Mk 1:15) and join “the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15). That is their true calling, inasmuch as God calls everyone to the Ark of Salvation (see 1 Tim 2:4).
The idea the Argentinian apostate is floating — that of a “common witness” to which Catholics and non-Catholics are supposedly all equally called by God — is complete rubbish, a lie made up by the Vatican II Sect. God has not charged heretics or schismatics with preaching the Gospel but only His true Church.
The New Testament does have a message, however, for those who preach “a gospel, besides that which you have received” — they are to be “anathema” (Gal 1:9). They are the “lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition, and deny the Lord who bought them: bringing upon themselves swift destruction” (2 Pet 2:1). So much for a “common witness” or “shared mission”!
Bergoglio’s appeal to his “ecumenical martyrdom” heresy will not be able to help him here. We refuted it back in 2015:
Once again we see how far removed from the pre-Vatican II traditional Catholicism are the Novus Ordo ideas about ecumenism and religious unity. These differences are not superficial and inconsequential but profound and serious. They are not developments, they are contradictions. If one position is true, the other is false — necessarily.
In short: Either the Catholic Church until Vatican II was wrong, or the “Catholic Church” since Vatican II.
Few things are easier to figure out.
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License: Riccardo De Luca – Update
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