Five
years after Don Pietro Leone’s first contribution to our site, on the Roman
Liturgy, we are happy to present the following essay on Ecumenism. We also
recommend to our readers Pius XI’s encyclical Mortalium Animos, issued on
January 6, The Feast of the Epiphany, 1928,
which contains everything a Catholic needs to know in order to evaluate ecumenism correctly. Don Pietro
Leone is the pen name of a priest who celebrates the traditional Mass in full
and peaceful communion with his Ordinary somewhere in that great cradle of
civilization known as Italy.
For the anniversary of Mortalium Animos by Pius XI, issued on the Feast of the Epiphany in 1928
ECUMENISM
By Don
Pietro Leone
‘In the beginning was Ecumenism, and
Ecumenism was with God and Ecumenism was above God.’(
Aggiornamento per tutto compreso i vangeli, cap.iv, Ester Maria Ledda, 2013, Bonanno)
In
the Arms and Armoury Department of his Infernal workshop, Satan certainly gives
pride of place to Ecumenism. Ask him to show you on your trip around Hell, if
you ever have the misfortune to end up there. This powerful weapon is of recent
date. It has been elaborated for the present age when Faith is growing cold,
and is designed to speed up the process. Your first reaction will be one of
admiration: ‘What a beautiful artefact!’ you will say. Your second reaction,
when you look at it more carefully, will be one of surprise, to find that it is
completely hollow. ‘All our weapons are hollow’ he will curtly reply. ‘Have you
not yet understood anything at all? What’s
important is the look of the thing. But it’s true’, he concedes after a
moment’s thought, ‘this one is particularly hollow’.
***
Ecumenism
is without substance: it is hollow both logically and morally.
I HOLLOWNESS
1. Logical Hollowness
There are
two forms of Ecumenism. The first aims at the union of all the Christian
confessions, or all ‘religions’ (or ‘faiths’), maintaining that they are all
true; the second aims at this union on the basis of their lowest common
denominator.
We
shall present the logical incoherence of each in turn.
a) The Incoherence of the First Form of Ecumenism
Regarding
the first type, we quote St. Pius X in Pascendi: ‘Modernists do not deny, but actually admit,
some in a veiled manner, others quite openly, that all religions are true.’ The
Pope is referring to a subjectivist conception of religion which is reduced to
the personal experience each person has of God in their own religion, along
with the symbolism that belongs to it. This conception was condemned by him in
the Decree Lamentabili and in the
abovementioned Encyclical Pascendi.
This
does not however mean that there are not many who are pleased to assert that
all faiths and religions are true, even on the objective concept of faith and
religion. It should be replied that this assertion offends against the
principle of non-contradiction, since there is only one reality, and each faith
or religion presents a different and exclusive vision of it. For this reason,
the convinced believer in any religion or faith claims that his vision is right
and the visions of the other believers are wrong: in short, he claims that his
faith or religion is the only true faith and religion that there is.
The One
Holy Roman Catholic Church can go even further and say not only that Hers is the
only true faith and religion, but
that it is the only faith and religion tout
court. For the Church teaches that Faith is a type of knowledge, that is to
say the knowledge of reality: the reality that is God; and since there is only one reality and only one
God, there cannot be more than one knowledge of this one reality, of this one
reality that is God. Furthermore, the Church teaches that only the Catholic Faith
(along with Baptism) unites us to this God, and that therefore the Catholic
Faith is also the only religion, since ‘religion’ means nothing other than that
spiritual system which binds us (ligat
in Latin) to God.
The
popularity of the theory that all ‘faiths’ or ‘religions’ are objectively true
shows us the extent to which the man of to-day has become incapable of rational
thinking – even if the absurdity of such a theory certainly does not render it any
less respectable in the eyes of the Modernists.
b)The Incoherence of the Second Form
of Ecumenism
The
second form of Ecumenism reduces the Faith to an amalgam of different beliefs
which it then compares with those of other ‘faiths’ or ‘religions’ in search of
a common base for union. The One, Holy, Roman Catholic Church, by contrast,
teaches that the Faith constitutes an indivisible unity, whch derives from its
object: God as He is in Himself. For this reason it is not possible to prescind
from any Catholic doctrine whatsoever in the interests of conformity to
others.
2. Moral Hollowness
Ecumenism is presented as a type of spiritual union which aims at a
spiritual good. In a word, it is presented as a type of spiritual love, that
is, among members of the Catholic Church and those outside it. But it does not constitute
spiritual love, since it consists neither in spiritual union (in any
substantial sense of the term) nor in any form of spiritual good.
a)
Lack of Spiritual Union
i)
Now the Catholic Church has been given the mandate by Our Lord of establishing
only one type of spiritual union with non-Catholics and that is the triple
union which consists in:
a) The
union under the authority of the Catholic hierarchy;
b) The union of the seven sacraments;
c) The
union of the Catholic Faith.
This
is the only type of union that the Catholic Church has the mandate to establish
with others, since only this type of union can effect their spiritual good in
the ultimate sense of the word, that is to say their salvation. The union
sought by Ecumenism, on the other hand, is simply a partial union, inasmuch as
one or more of these three elements are missing. For this reason it does not
have the power to redeem.
ii) The
spiritual union sought by Ecumenism is not redeeming, then. But typically it is
not supernatural either, as Ecumenism typically reduces Catholicism to the
Faith (understood simply as an assortment of different beliefs) and, in so doing,
ignores the sacraments, which are the necessary means for uniting us to God
here on earth and in Heaven. We note that in the two documents of the Second
Vatican Council Ad Gentes and Nostra Aetate which refer to the
relationship between the Church and non-Christian religions, the term
‘supernatural’ is nowhere to be found.
iii) The
spiritual union sought by Ecumenism is typically not moral either, as it tends
to reduce the Faith to those doctrines which concern the nature and the Reality
of God. In so doing, however, it neglects the moral doctrines that are an
essential part of the Faith, and which are also necessary for eternal life,
since the Faith is the light that shows us the path to Heaven.
b)
Lack of Spiritual Good
The
type of good promoted exclusively by Ecumenism is not salvation, but merely earthly
peace and happiness, which is not a spiritual good at all. Furthermore, this is
not the primary or essential task of the Church. The Church, as we have just
indicated, was founded for the eternal good of man: for his salvation.
Ecumenism, on the other hand, aims solely at his earthly good. It is not then a spiritual initiative, but
merely a political one. Man’s earthly good is at most a secondary duty of the
Church, as a consequence of Her primary task which is his eternal good.
II SENTIMENTALITY
1. The Nature of Ecumenical Love
Perhaps
some-one will try to defend this false Ecumenism, which is the search for man’s
earthly good, by maintaining that it is nonetheless a form of love, even if not
spiritual, and saying that ‘Love is sufficient’, that in the final analysis love
is the reason for our life and that God Himself is love: in the sense that the
Most Holy Trinity is a mystery of love among the Three Divine Persons.
Let us then investigate in greater detail
the nature of ecumenical love, first the element of union, then the good that
this union is intended to produce.
a)
Ecumenical Union
What is it that unites the parties to
ecumenical initiatives?
Common beliefs and ideals, to the exclusion of
doctrinal differences. This principle is typically expressed with the slogan ‘It
is important what we have in common, not what separates us’. In relation to the
other Religions in particular, it is often expressed by the slogan: ‘We adore
the same God’.
These common beliefs and ideals provide
the basis for ‘Dialogue’, a process not oriented to establishing objective
Truth, but simply fraternal exchange, a process which places the two parties on
the same footing on the implicit understanding that neither will try to impose
his vision of Truth on the other. They provide the basis equally for common
enterprises such as inter-religious or inter-confessional assemblies, or
diplomatic gestures such as tree-plantings and embraces.
What is
remarkable about ecumenical union is that it prescinds from objective Truth.
This however is irrational, for in order to enter into relations with other
Christian confessions or other Religions in a rational, realistic way, we must
clearly take into consideration the whole Truth and not just a part of it: not
only common beliefs and ideals but also doctrinal differences.
In fact,
after a moment’s reflection, we can see that it is not so much that which we
have in common with other confessions and religions which is important, but
that which separates us: since what separates us is the Faith, and Faith holds
the key to eternal life.
Let us
take the example of the other monotheistic Religions: Judaism and Islam. The fact
that they ‘adore the same God’ as we do is irrelevant. For the God that they
adore is the same as the God of the Catholic Faith only in a philosophical sense: as Being Itself, as Creator and End
of all things; whereas the God that they adore is not the same as the God of
the Catholic Faith in a theological sense,
in the sense of the Faith, for God in a theological sense is the Most Holy
Trinity Whom they deny. What is important here, then, as we have just
explained, is what separates us: the belief in the God of the Catholic Faith,
because only this belief is salvific.
b) Ecumenical Good
What
good is envisaged by ecumenism? Man’s earthly, or political, good. This would
indeed justify the ecumenical enterprise were it not for the evils that this
enterprise engenders (cf. section III). In a word, Ecumenism offers man an
earthly good at the expense of his spiritual good.
*
We
conclude that Ecumenism is not the type of love that is appropriate between the
Church and other Religions or Confessions. The appropriate type of love is
rather Evangelization, since, like every form of rational love, it aims at the
true good of the other, indeed at their supreme good which is their salvation, which
it seeks to assure through their conversion.
That the
type of love proposed by Ecumenism is inappropriate may be illustrated by the
following image: A quantity of people are
trying to cross an ocean. A number are travelling on a large boat built to
survive storms and all types of danger and furnished with everything necessary
for a long voyage. Others are travelling in smaller boats: sailing-boats,
rowing-boats; others on rafts or lilos; others are simply swimming. Only the large boat will reach the other side
safely; some of the other boats may arrive but with great difficulty; the other
boats and people on the other hand will certainly not arrive. Those on the large boat do not try to
persuade the others to come on board but just greet them blithely as they
pass. As the reader will have
understood, the big boat is the Catholic Church; the ocean is the world; the
people outside the boat are those who do not belong to the Church, or at least
not to the Body of the Church.
It is obviously easier and also more fun,
at least for the time being, to wave and smile blithely at another from a beautiful
boat, than to tell him that he is making a mistake, to persuade him to leave
his boat (which he probably also quite likes), and to come on board one’s
own. What is more, if he does come on
board, there will be the whole bother of looking after him.
We said that false Ecumenism is an
inappropriate type of love. How might we characterize it more precisely?
Inasmuch as it prescinds from objective Truth, it is irrational as we have
suggested above, and thus does not constitute rational love, but only emotional
love. It may be characterized more precisely as sentimentality. This
sentimentality made its first official appearance in the Church in the texts of
the Second Vatican Council, in their soft and conciliatory language and
attitudes towards other religions and above all towards the contemporary world,
and in a new ethical doctrine, that the primary end of marriage is ‘love’. As a surrogate of true love, that is to say of
the virtue of love, this sentimental love is effeminate and emasculated. In
virtue of the lack of formation and vigilance of the Clergy and the faithful,
it was able to pass itself off in the above mentioned Council as true love.
2. The Metaphysical Error of Ecumenism
The metaphysical error underlying
Ecumenism is the priority that it accords to the Order of the Good over the
Order of the True.
a)
On the Natural Level
The soul of man has two principle
faculties: knowledge and will (or rational love), and both need to be employed
in his acting. The deepest reason for
this is that both of these faculties are necessary to man in order to glorify
God fully. To the objection that ‘Love is sufficient’, then, we respond with
the affirmation that knowledge is also necessary.
It needs to be added moreover that
knowledge has (logical) precedence over love, inasmuch as love is blind, and
needs to be guided by knowledge: before loving, we need to know what to love
and how to love. If a drunkard asks me for a hundred ‘euros’ and I give them to
him, I am not loving him. And if some-one
is trying to cross the Ocean by swimming, I am not loving him by merely waving
at him from my beautiful yacht as I pass.
b)
On the Supernatural Level
On the supernatural level, the knowledge
in question is the Faith, and the love in question is Charity. Both – Faith and
Charity – must be employed in man’s actions. It is not sufficient to have Faith
in order to be saved; it is not sufficient to love in order to be saved: both
Faith and Charity are needed.
Moreover, Faith (as supernatural
knowledge) has logical precedence over Charity (as supernatural love). The
object of Faith is God, the Most Holy Trinity, and we are unable to love Him with Charity (and our neighbor in Him and
for the sake of Him) before knowing Him by Faith.
At an even deeper level, we can say with
Professor Romano Amerio in his admirable book, Iota Unum, that knowledge precedes love in the ultimate sense in
the Most Holy Trinity Itself, since knowledge of God through the Word precedes
the love of God through the Holy Spirit: the Procession of the Son from the Intellect
of the Father precedes the Procession of the Holy Spirit from the reciprocal
Love of the Father and the Son. In this way we may say that God, prior to being
a mystery of Love, is a mystery of Truth. The priority in question here, as
before, is a logical priority: the Father and the Son are consubstantial and
their reciprocal relationships are not temporally distinct.
We
see then that the Ecumenists are wrong when they act as if love is all that
matters, since – we repeat – both knowledge and love are necessary, where knowledge
has logical precedence over love: Faith over Charity: the Order of the True
over the Order of the Good.
III THE EVIL OF ECUMENISM
We have called Ecumenism a surrogate love.
Who invented it if not the Devil, the Imitator of God and the Master of all Deceit?
It is his invention, or rather a new use of a former invention of his, which is
that of the False Religions. For he created the False, or non-Catholic,
religions with the object of drawing man away from his final end which is
Heaven. To this end the Exterminator
was careful to preserve some elements of Objective Truth and Goodness in them,
in order to make his product more attractive and acceptable to his victims. In
the present age he has used these same elements, he has presented these same
elements, as something positive, that is, as ‘What we have in common’ in order
to orchestrate the great Ecumenical Charade
of specious, sentimental love for the corrosion of the Catholic Faith: surrogate
religions for surrogate evangelization by surrogate love.
What evils does this corrosion of the
Catholic Faith comprise?
1) The first evil of Ecumenism is that it
obscures the Faith. Indeed, as a typical modernist initiative, Ecumenism is by
its very nature obscurantist. If the Pope embraces the Dalai Lama, if he prays
with him or some other religious leader; if a Catholic priest recites the words
of Consecration of the Holy Mass along with a Protestant minister, they would
appear to have some spiritual common ground, but in what precisely does this
consist? It is unclear.
What Ecumenism particularly obscures is
the uniqueness of the Catholic Faith. For in putting the Catholic Faith on the same level as other
‘Faiths’ or ‘Religions’ it obscures the fact that it is the one true Faith and
Religion and the only one that can save man, as it contains in itself the fullness
of the doctrines and Sacraments necessary for salvation.
2)
The Catholic who in some ecumenical gesture is interested only in what
he has in common with other Christian confessions or other religions and what unites
him to them, weakens the Faith (his own, and that of any others who may be
witness to the gesture) in those articles that he passes over in silence.
For example, he who is interested only in
that which unites him to the Lutherans, silences and subsequently weakens Faith
in the sacrificial nature of Holy Mass and the seven Sacraments, as well as the
cult of Our Lady; he who is interested in what unites him to the Jews or
Muslims, silences and weakens Faith in the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity as
well as the Divinity and redeeming mission of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which
constitute the very nucleus of the Faith.
3) He who obscures and weakens the Faith,
diminishes the very possibility of salvation (his own and that of any others
who may witness the gesture).
4) Ecumenism humiliates the Church in
placing the Immaculate Bride of Christ on the same level as the inventions of
the Devil.
5) It offends Our Lord Jesus Christ as
Founder of the Church in placing Him on the same level as the founders of the
other ‘Religions’ who deny, reject, or blaspheme Him.
6) Inasmuch as the Ecumenist obscures and
silences the Faith, humiliates the Church, and offends Our Lord Jesus Christ,
he incurs the displeasure of the Lord Who says: ‘For he that shall be ashamed
of me and of my words, of him the Son of man shall be ashamed, when He shall
come in His majesty, and that of His Father, and of the holy angels.’ (Luke 9.
26)
7) He who in this illegitimate process of rapprochement towards other confessions
or religions goes as far as to deny even one single article of Faith, not only
weakens his Faith, but falls into heresy and loses it entirely.
8) He who denies the whole Faith, or the nucleus
of the Faith, falls into apostasy.
9) On the global level, Catholicism, through inter-confessional Ecumenism, collapses, as we are already able painfully to
witness, into a kind of vague Humanism lightly tinged by Christianity.
10) Through inter-religious Ecumenism, by
contrast, Catholicism dissolves into a purely naturalist religion, sealed off
from Grace. This religion may assume one of two forms:
a) an amalgam of all religions, which
becomes a sort of vague humanism without even a trace of Christianity;
b) an amalgam of the monotheistic
religions.
This second form of religion has two
types: the first, a vague deism; the second, a monotheism which retains what
the three great monotheistic religions have in common theologically, that is to
say, at least theoretically, the Old Testament. In this way Catholicism
dissolves effectively into Judaism, or more precisely into the Jewish-Masonic
world religion known as ‘Noachism’. Was this the motive of Our Lord’s
Incarnation, Life, Passion and Death on the Cross amid the most atrocious
spasms of pain?
The evil of Ecumenism is, then in
summary, that it obscures, silences, and weakens the Faith; it diminishes the
possibility of salvation; it humiliates the Church, offends and displeases Our
Lord Jesus Christ; it tends towards heresy and apostasy; it pushes Catholicism
in the direction of Humanism, Deism, and Noachism. It is then not surprising
that at the time of the first gatherings between the various non - Catholic
Christian confessions, the Church declared explicitly through the mouth of the
Roman Pontiff Pius XI (Mortalium Animos
1928) that: ‘… it is clear that the Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part
in their assemblies, nor is it in any way lawful for Catholics either to
support or to work for such enterprises; for if they do so they will be giving
countenance to a false Christianity quite alien to the one Church of Christ.’[8]
Clearly the principle which here applies to relations between the Church and
other confessions will apply mutatis
mutandis to relations between the Church and other religions
Conclusion
We conclude this essay by summarizing
briefly the points on which Ecumenism and Evangelization converge and diverge.
Both Ecumenism and Evangelization have a
pretension to universality. The former term, which derives from a Greek word
for ‘world’, signifies in effect the accommodation of the Catholic Faith to all
other confessions or religions of the world. The latter term, as is clear from
a glance at the end of all the Synoptic Gospels, signifies the catechesis,
baptism, and conversion of the whole world to the One Catholic Faith.
Both Ecumenism and Evangelization are
types of love: both aim at union between parties in view of a prospective good.
Ecumenism seeks union on the basis of shared beliefs, of ‘Dialogue’ understood
as a form of mouvement perpetuel, and
of embraces. It looks towards a merely earthly, or political, good.
Evangelization, by contrast, seeks union on the basis of the One True Faith,
the seven Sacraments, and submission to the Roman Pontiff. It looks towards
man’s eternal good in Heaven.
Ecumenism and Evangelization diverge most
markedly in regard to the Truth. Ecumenism is not interested in Truth;
Evangelization by contrast holds it as all-important, for Evangelization
consists precisely in the announcement of the Truth: in the communication of
the Truth to one who is in ignorance of the Truth, in order that he too might
come into possession of it, and so be saved. This Truth in the ultimate sense
is none other than the Most Holy Trinity, Who has created man in order that
man, and every man without exception, might know and love Him here on earth,
and so attain his eternal beatitude in Heaven. Amen.
Translation: Contributor Francesca Romana
