An Appeal from the Lepanto Foundation
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER...
Twenty-five years ago, on 8 February 1994, the
European Parliament voted on a resolution that invited the nations of Europe to
promote and give legal protection to homosexuality. In his Angelus
address on 20 February 1994, the Holy Father Pope John Paul II appealed to
public opinion worldwide, affirming that “the legal approbation of active
homosexuality is not morally admissible [...]. The Resolution of the European
Parliament has called for the legitimization of a moral disorder.The Parliament
has unduly given institutional value to deviant behaviors, which do not conform
to God’s plan”.
In May of that same year, the Lepanto Cultural Center
[Centro Culturale Lepanto] handed out a manifesto in Strasbourg to
parliamentary representatives, called “Europe at Strasbourg: Represented or
Betrayed?”. The manifesto made an indignant protest against the promotion
of a vice condemned by both Christian and Western conscience, and asked the
European bishops “to unite their voices to that of the Supreme Pastor [John
Paul II] in order to multiply it in their dioceses, by publicly denouncing the
moral fault with which the European Assembly has stained itself and warning the
flock entrusted to their care of the growing attacks of anti-Christian forces
in the world”.
Today, one after another, the
principal European nations, including many of those with the most ancient
Catholic tradition, have elevated sodomy to a legal right by recognizing, under
different forms, so-called “same-sex marriage” and introducing the concept of
the crime of “homophobia.” The Pastors of the Church, who should have formed an
unbreakable dam of opposition against the homosexualization of society promoted
by the political class and by the media-financial oligarchies, have in fact
fostered it by their silence. Even at the highest levels of the Church, the
practice of homosexuality and of a so-called “gay-friendly” culture that
justifies and encourages homosexual vice has spread like a cancer.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, in his historic
testimony of 22 August 2018, denounced - using precise names and circumstances
- the existence of a “homosexual current in favor of subverting Catholic
doctrine regarding homosexuality” and the presence of “homosexual
networks, which are now widespread in many dioceses, seminaries, religious
orders, etc.,” and which “act under the concealment of secrecy and lies
with the power of octopus tentacles, and strangle innocent victims and priestly
vocations, and are strangling the entire Church”.
These courageous voices remain
isolated even until today. The climate of indifference and cover-up which
reigns within the Church has profound moral and doctrinal roots that date back
to the Second Vatican Council, when the ecclesiastical hierarchies accepted the
process of secularization as an irreversible phenomenon. But when the Church
subordinates herself to secularism, the Kingdom of Christ becomes conformed to
this world and is reduced to a mere power structure. The militant spirit
dissipates, and the Church, instead of converting the world to the law of the
Gospel, surrenders the Gospel to the world’s demands.
How we long to hear resounding once again the fiery
words of a new Saint Peter Damian or Saint Bernardine of Siena, instead of the
infamous statement of Pope Francis, “If a person is gay and is seeking the
Lord and has good will, who am I to judge them?” If it is true that the
meaning of this statement was distorted by the media, such misuse should have
been combatted by means of clear and solemn documents condemning sodomy, as St.
Pius V did with the two constitutions Cum Primum of 1 April 1566 and Horrendum
Illud Scelus of 30 August 1568. Instead, Pope Francis’ Post-Synodal
Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia of 8 April 2016 not only was
silent about this most grave moral disorder but also relativized the precepts
of the natural law, opening the path towards the approval of cohabitation and
adultery.
And this is why we now make an
appeal to you, Monsignor.
TO SERVE THE CHURCH
The term “Monsignor” evokes a certain dignity,
not a power or a bureaucratic function. Each one of the bishops, as Successors
of the Apostles, are recognized with the title of “Monsignor,” but simple
priests are also able to receive this title. The word “dignity” seems to have
lost its meaning today, despite the fact that there was an entire declaration
of Vatican II dedicated to it. Dignity means an awareness of a role and mission
given by God. Respect for a person’s dignity is the source of a feeling of
honor. Your dignity, Monsignor, derives from the honor which you have of
serving the Church, without seeking either your own interests or the approval
of the powerful. You have received the dignity of Monsignor from the Church,
not from the men of the Church, and it is to the Church that you must render an
account. The Church is the divine society founded by Jesus Christ, ever-perfect
and ever-victorious, both in time and in eternity. The men of the Church may either
serve the Church or betray her. Serving the Church means placing the interests
of the Church, which are those of Jesus Christ, ahead of one’s personal
interests. Betraying the Church means placing the interests of a family, a
religious institute, or an ecclesiastical authority taken as a private person
ahead of the Truth of the Church, which is the Truth of Jesus Christ, the one
Way, Truth and Life (John 14:6).
We would be insulting your intelligence, Monsignor,
were we not to suppose that you already have a certain awareness of the crisis
in the Church. Certain eminent cardinals, on various occasions, have manifested
their unease and concern over what is happening in the Church. The same unease
is displayed by the common man, who is profoundly disoriented by the new
religious and moral paradigms. In the face of this unease, Monsignor, many
times you have put up your hands, seeking to calm the person speaking to you,
using words like: “There is nothing we can do but be silent and pray. The
Pope is not immortal. Let’s wait for the next conclave”. That’s all we can
do, you say. We cannot speak; we cannot act. You adopt silence as the supreme
rule of your behavior. Is this attitude the result of human self-serving; of a
selfishness that seeks above all else to live quietly; of the opportunism of
those who are able to adapt themselves successfully to every situation? To
assert this would be to make a judgment about your intentions, and a judgment
about intentions cannot be made by men; only God can do this on the Day of
Judgment, when we will each stand alone before Him, to listen to His lips
pronounce the un-appealable sentence that will send us either to eternal
happiness or to eternal damnation.
We who live on earth can only judge facts and words as
they objectively appear. And the words with which you explain your behavior,
Monsignor, at times appear to be more noble than your true feelings “We
ought to follow the Pope, even when he displeases us, because he is the Rock on
which Christ has founded His Church,” you say; or “we ought to avoid a schism
at any cost, because this would be the most serious disaster for the Church".
Noble words, because they
state truths. It is true that the Pope is the foundation of the Church, and
that the Church can fear nothing worse than a schism. But what we would like
you to reflect on, Monsignor, is that the path of absolute silence that you
want to follow will bring harm to the Papacy and will hasten a schism in the
Church.
It is true that the Pope is the foundation of the Church,
but before being founded on him, the Church is founded on Jesus Christ. Jesus
Christ is the primary and divine foundation of the Church, while Peter is the
secondary and human foundation - even if it is true that he is divinely
assisted. The divine assistance does not exclude the possibility of error or
the possibility of sin. In the history of the Church, there has been no lack of
popes who have sinned or erred, without this fact ever prejudicing the
institution of the papacy. To say that “we need to always follow the Pope
and never depart from him,” while refusing to respectfully correct him in
exceptional cases, means attributing to the Church all of the errors which,
over the course of the centuries, have been made by the men of the Church. The
absence of this distinction between the Church and the men of the Church
enables the enemies of the Church to attack her, and many false friends of the
Church to refuse to truly serve Her.
Equally fraught with
consequences is the assertion that to break silence, to tell the truth, and to
denounce – if necessary – the infidelity of the same Supreme Pastor, would lead
to a schism. The word “schism” means division, and never as in this moment of
her history has the Church appeared so internally divided and fragmented.
Within each nation, within each diocese, even within each parish, it is
impossible to agree on a common way of living according to the Gospel, because
each one experiences and lives a different Christianity – both liturgically and
dogmatically – with each one constructing their own religion in such a way that
the only thing remaining in common is the name “Catholic”, but the essence of
Catholicism is no longer present. What are the reasons for this fragmentation?
The star that lights the way has disappeared, and the faithful make their way
in the darkness of night, following opinions and personal sentiments, without
even one voice being raised to remind them of the unchanging doctrine and
praxis of the Church. The schism is being caused by the darkness, which is the
daughter of silence. Only clear voices, crystalline voices, voices which are
entirely faithful to the Tradition, are able to dispel the shadows and permit
good Catholics to overcome the divisions which have been provoked by this
pontificate, and to avoid new humiliations to the Church beyond those which
have already been inflicted upon her by Pope Francis. There is only one way to
save the Church from schism: Proclaim the Truth. By remaining silent we will
only further the schism.
AN URGENT APPEAL
Monsignor, you who enjoy a certain dignity, you who
exercise a moral authority, you who have received an inheritance –what are you
afraid of? The world may attack you with defamation and slander. Your superiors
may deprive you of your authority and external dignity. But it is to the Lord
that you must render an account, as must each one of us on the Day of Judgment,
when everything will be weighed and judged according to measure. Do not ask us
what you ought to do concretely. If you will dare to ask Him, the Holy Spirit
will not fail to suggest to your conscience times, ways, and tones of coming
out into the open, in order to be “the light of the world, a city set on a
hill, a lamp set on a lampstand” (Matthew 5:13-16).
What we ask of you, Monsignor, is that you assume an
attitude of filial criticism, of deferential resistance, of devout moral
separation from those responsible for the Church’s self-destruction. Dare to
openly encourage those who defend the Church from within, and who publicly
profess the entire Truth of the Catholic Faith. Dare to seek out other
confreres who will join you and us in issuing that cry of war and of love which
St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort raised in his “Fiery Prayer” [Prière
embrasée] with these prophetic words: “Fire! Fire! Fire! There is a fire in
the house of God! There is fire within souls! There is fire even within the
Sanctuary!”.
Tongues of fire like those of
the day of Pentecost, as well as flashes of fire like those of Hell, seem to be
hanging over the earth. A destroying fire, a purifying fire, a restoring fire –
destined to engulf the entire world, to consume it and transform it. May the
divine fire flare up within us before the fire of God’s wrath does, which will
reduce our society to ashes as happened to Sodom and Gomorrha. And this is the
reason why, twenty-five years after the unfortunate resolution of the European
Parliament, I now make this appeal to you, for the good of souls, for the honor
of the Church, and for the salvation of society.
Monsignor, please accept this
appeal, which is also an invocation to the Blessed Mother and to the Angels,
that they may intervene, as soon as possible, in order to save the Church and
the whole world.
Dare, Monsignor, to take up
this holy cause in 2019, and you will find us battling at your side in this
good fight!
Roberto de Mattei
President of the Lepanto Foundation
