Roberto
de Mattei
Corrispondenza
Romana
October
19, 2016
Two
anniversaries overlap each other in 2017: the 100 years of the Fatima
apparitions, occurring between May 13th and October 13th 1917, and the 500
years of Luther’s revolt, beginning in Wittenberg, Germany, October 31st 1517.
However, there are two other much less discussed anniversaries which also fall next
year: the 300 years of the official foundation of Freemasonry (London, June 24th
1717) and the 100 years of the Russian Revolution of October 26th
1917 (the Julian calendar in use in the
Russian Empire: November 8th according to the Gregorian calendar).
Yet, between the Protestant Revolution and the Communist Revolution through to
the French Revolution, the daughter of Freemasonry, there runs an indissoluble
red thread which Pius XII, in his famous discourse Nel contemplare of October 12th 1952, summed up in three
historic phrases, corresponding to Protestantism, the Age of Enlightenment and
Marxist atheism: Christ – yes, Church – no. God – yes, Christ – no. Finally the
impious cry: God is dead; in fact: God has never been”.
The anarchic yearnings of
Communism were already implicitly present in the first Protestant negations –
observed Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: “Whether
from the point of view of Luther’s explicit formation, all of the tendencies,
all of the mind-set, all of the imponderable elements of the Lutheran
explosion, carried already in itself, in a very authentic and full way, even if
implicit, the spirit of Voltaire and Robespierre, Marx and Lenin” (Revolution
and Counter-Revolution, Sugarco, Milan, 2009, pp.61-62).
In this respect, the errors
the Soviet Russia spread, starting from 1917, were a chain of ideological
aberrations from Marx and Lenin which went back to the first Protestant
heresiarchs. The 1517 Lutheran Revolution can therefore be considered one of
the most nefarious events in the history of humanity, on par with the Masonic
revolution in 1789, and the Communist one in 1917. Further, the message of
Fatima, which foresaw the spreading of Communist errors throughout the world,
contains implicitly the rejection of the
errors of Protestantism and the French Revolution.
The start of the centenary
of the Fatima apparitions on October 13th 2016 was buried under a
blanket of silence. That same day, Pope Francis received in the Paul VI
Audience Hall, a thousand Lutheran “pilgrims” and in the Vatican a statue of Martin
Luther was honoured, as appears in the images Antonio Socci published on his
Facebook page. Next October 31st, moreover, Pope Francis will go to
Lund in Sweden, where he will take part in a joint Catholic-Lutheran ceremony
commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. As can be
read in the communiqué drawn up by the World Lutheran Federation and the Papal
Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, the aim of the event is “to express the gifts of the Reform and ask
forgiveness for the division perpetuated by Christians of the two traditions.”
The Valdese
theologian and pastor, Paolo Ricca, involved for decades in ecumenical
dialogue, voiced his satisfaction “seeing
as it is the first time a Pope commemorates the Reform. This, in my opinion, constitutes
a step forward with regard to the important aims that have been achieved with
the Second Vatican Council, which - by including
in its texts and so giving value to some fundamental principles and themes of
the Reform – marked a decisive turning point in the relationships between
Catholics and Protestants. By taking part in the commemoration, as the highest
representative of the Catholic Church is prepared to do, means, in my view, to consider
the Reform as a positive event in the history of the Church which also did some
good for Catholicism. The participation at the commemoration is a gesture of
great relevance also because the Pope is going to Lund, to the home of the
Lutherans; as if he were one of the family.
My impression is, in a way I wouldn’t know how to define, that he also feels
part of that portion of Christianity born of the Reform.”
According to Ricca, the main
contribution offered by Pope Francis is “his
effort to reinvent the papacy, that is, the search for a new and different way
of understanding and living the ministry of the Bishop of Rome. This search –
presuming my interpretation somewhat hits the mark - might take us a long way, since the papacy
– because of the way it has been understood and lived over the last 1000 years
– is one of the great obstacles to Christian Unity. It seems to me Pope Francis
is moving towards a model of the papacy different to the traditional one, with
respect to which the other Christian Churches might take on new positions. If
it were so, this theme might be completely reconsidered in ecumenical circles.”
The fact that this interview
was published on October 9th by Vatican
Insider, considered a semi-official Vatican site, makes one think that this
interpretation of the Lund trip as well as the papal intentions, have been
authorized and are agreeable to Pope Francis.
During his audience with the Lutherans on October 13th, Pope Bergoglio
also said that proselytism, is “the
strongest poison” against ecumenism. “The
greatest reformers are the saints – he added - and the
Church is always in need of reform”. These words contain simultaneously, as
is frequent in his discourses, a truth and a deception. The truth is that the
saints, from St Gregory VII to St. Pius X, have [indeed] been the greatest
reformers. The deception consists in insinuating that the pseudo-reformers,
like Luther, are to be considered saints.
The statement that proselytism or the missionary spirit, is “the strongest poison against ecumenism”
must, instead, be reversed: ecumenism, as it is understood today, is the
greatest poison against the Church’s missionary spirit. The Saints have always
been moved by this spirit, beginning with the Jesuits who landed in Brazil, the
Congo and the Indies in the XVI century, while their confreres Diego Lainez, Alfonso Salmeron and Peter Canisio, at the
Council of Trent, fought against the errors of Lutheranism and Calvinism.
Yet,
according to Pope Francis those outside the Church do not have to be converted.
At the audience on October 13th, in an off-the-cuff response to
questions from some young people, he said: “I
like good Lutherans a lot, Lutherans who truly follow the faith of Jesus
Christ. On the contrary, I don’t like lukewarm Catholics and lukewarm Lutherans.”
With another deformation in language, Pope Bergoglio calls “good Lutherans”
those Protestants who do not follow the faith of Jesus Christ, but its deformation
and “lukewarm Catholics” those fervent sons and daughters of the Church who
reject the equalizing of the truth of the Catholic religion with the error of
Lutheranism.
All of this brings us to the question:
what will happen in Lund on October 31st? We know that the commemoration will include a
joint celebration based on the Liturgical Catholic-Lutheran guide, Common Prayer, elaborated from the document From Conflict to Communion. The Common Catholic-Lutheran Commemoration
of the Reformation in 2017, drawn-up by the Catholic-Lutheran Commission
for the unity of Christians. There are those who rightly fear an
“intercommunion” between Catholic and Lutherans, which would be sacrilegious,
since the Lutherans do not believe in Transubstantiation. Above all, that it
will be said Luther was not a heresiarch, but a reformer unjustly persecuted
and that the Church has to recuperate the “gifts of the Reform”. Those who persist in considering the
condemnation of Luther proper and think his followers heretics and schismatics,
must be harshly criticised and excluded from the Church of Pope Francis. But
then again, what Church does Jorge Mario Begoglio belong to?
Translation: Contributor, Francesca Romana
