The Joint Declaration cosigned by Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill on 12 February 2016 has been described in any number of ways:
– The signatories themselves anointed it “a sign of hope.”
– Fr. Matthew Schneider (who writes for Catholic Stand), took to Twitter to say that it is “amazing & historical.”
– His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk, Major Archbishop of Kiev and head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, was more realistic, saying that it “creates more questions than answers.”
As I see it, the newly minted Declaration is perhaps best understood as a slap in the face of Our Lady of Fatima delivered by one of the signers in particular – a bishop dressed in white that some have the impression of being the Humble Father.
This is not the first such blow delivered to Our Lady by men who should know better, mind you, just the most recent.
Let’s take a closer look:
The text of the Declaration is at pains to paint the present day schism as a vestige of the past; as if it is somehow comparable to a petty late night quarrel between lovers who have just awoken to a new day with nary a memory of its cause.
For example, the Declaration begins by framing the encounter of the Pontiff and the Patriarch as a “meeting far from the longstanding disputes of the ‘Old World.’”
It goes on to say, “We have been divided by wounds caused by old and recent conflicts, by differences inherited from our ancestors;” pointing to the “historical divergences we have inherited.”
Though the “longstanding disputes” may have originated centuries ago, the fact remains that the schismatic Russian Orthodox presently lack Christian unity; a unity that can only be restored by their “return to the one true Church of Christ … accepting, recognizing and obeying the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate successors” (cf Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos).
In other words, unity is available for all of the schismatics, the Russian Orthodox among them, in just one way; that is, by the grace of God that leads to conversion.
Francis, however, imagines that unity is a fruit of purely human, earthbound, endeavors.
Speaking with the media about his meeting with Patriarch Kirill, he said, “We agreed that unity is created by journeying together.”
In other words, they made a pact to thumb their noses in unison at immutable truth.
Lest anyone fall prey to the fallacy that Francis actually envisions a journey ordered toward the schismatics’ conversion, this idea is nipped right in the bud:
This mission entails mutual respect for members of the Christian communities and excludes any form of proselytism. [Joint Declaration]
Let’s be very clear about what is meant by “proselytism;” not according to my opinion or yours, but according Francis’ own definition.
Recall, if you will, his celebrated Top Ten Secrets to Happiness, wherein item number ten provides the answer:
“But the worst thing of all is religious proselytism, which paralyzes: ‘I am talking with you in order to persuade you’ …”
With this in mind, the Declaration to which Francis agreed can be understood to say:
Persuading the schismatic Russian Orthodox to embrace the fullness of truth that exists in the Catholic Church alone by way of conversion, ‘in any form,’ is excluded.
By contrast, Our Lady of Fatima placed a high priority on the conversion of Russia. She even provided the means by which it will take place; thereby effecting the restoration of Christian unity that the Orthodox presently lack, and all of this by way of one simple request.
Speaking to Fatima visionary Sr. Lucia, she said:
The moment has come in which God asks the Holy Father, in union with all the Bishops of the world, to make the consecration of Russia to My Immaculate Heart, promising to save it by this means.
Along with this request, Our Lady attached a solemn promise:
If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church.
The conversion of Russia, which can only mean conversion to the Holy Catholic Church, is central to the message of Our Lady of Fatima.
Francis, however, will have none of it:
It cannot be accepted that disloyal means be used to incite believers to pass from one Church to another, denying them their religious freedom and their traditions. [ibid.]
As is often the case when Francis denounces some particular group or activity, no real attempt is made to define exactly what or whom is being condemned; i.e., it is anyone’s guess what constitutes “disloyal means.”
The fact of the matter is, in any case, that the “means” have precious little to do with Francis’ protest; it is the act of conversion itself (this “passing from one Church to another”) to which he objects, as well as the resulting loss of “religious freedom” from the authority of the pope that the schismatics believe they currently enjoy.
This much is made plain just a few sentences later:
It is today clear that the past method of “uniatism”, understood as the union of one community to the other, separating it from its Church, is not the way to re–establish unity. [ibid.]
So, what is this “uniatism” that Pope Francis finds so unacceptable?
The short answer is that it refers to the submission of the schismatics to the authority of the Roman Pontiff while retaining their liturgical and canonical traditions; as in the case of the Eastern Catholic Churches.
With respect to the Joint Declaration, it can be understood as referring to the “conversion of Russia” as the schismatics represented by Patriarch Kirill return to the one true faith. [For a more detailed treatment of uniatism, see HERE.]
That Francis considers proselytism (otherwise known as the mission that Christ gave to His Church) to be “solemn nonsense” is old news. What the Declaration makes explicitly clear, however, is that this position necessarily renders Our Lady’s promises of conversion and peace as given at Fatima “solemn nonsense” as well.
In fact, Francis gives every indication of abhorring the very idea that conversion to the one true Church of Christ has anything whatsoever to do with the pursuit of peace:
Differences in the understanding of religious truths must not impede people of different faiths to live in peace and harmony. In our current context, religious leaders have the particular responsibility to educate their faithful in a spirit which is respectful of the convictions of those belonging to other religious traditions. [ibid.]
There can be no doubt that the message is being heard loud and clear by those who cling to any one of the many false religions of the world:
Accept, honor and reverence Christ the King? Reject, mock and denigrate Him? To each his own, but can’t we all just get along?
In spite of his public displays of Marian devotion before the ever-present humblecam, it would seem that Francis does not believe that the Blessed Virgin can deliver the peace that she promised at Fatima, if indeed he believes that she spoke there at all.
He evidently imagines, like his predecessors apparently did (most notably the Assisi popes), that the attainment of peace will be made possible, not by way of adherence to the desires of Almighty God as made known by Our Lady at Fatima, but in bowing down before the conciliar Golden Calf known as “Almighty Dialogue.”
We urge the international community to seek an end to the violence and terrorism and, at the same time, to contribute through dialogue to a swift return to civil peace … Interreligious dialogue is indispensable in our disturbing times.[ibid.]
To make matters worse, Francis even goes so far as to dictate his own will to the Lord under the guise of offering prayer.
For instance, he dares to ask Christ to circumvent His desire to “draw all men to Himself” through His Holy Catholic Church in favor of effecting a “healthy religious pluralism” (cf EG 255) that is truly nothing more than the product of sin:
We lift our prayers to Christ, the Saviour of the world, asking for the return of peace in the Middle East, “the fruit of justice” (Is32:17), so that fraternal co–existence among the various populations, Churches and religions may be strengthened, enabling refugees to return to their homes, wounds to be healed, and the souls of the slain innocent to rest in peace. [ibid.]
Fraternal co-existence: The new mission of newchurch.
Lastly (not because we’ve exhausted the topic, but for the sake of brevity alone), the Declaration includes the requisite homage to the impoverished:
Our gaze is also directed to those facing serious difficulties, who live in extreme need and poverty while the material wealth of humanity increases. [ibid.]
This is a lovely gesture, this gazing, isn’t it?
I suppose it makes the gazer feel rather good about himself, but let’s be Catholic, shall we:
No amount of gazing, or calling for new economic systems, or bellyaching about inequality, will amount to a hill of beans apart from conversion to the one true faith; the only sure way to temporal prosperity.
Pope Leo XIII made this rather plain when he wrote:
Christian morality, when adequately and completely practiced, leads of itself to temporal prosperity, for it merits the blessing of that God who is the source of all blessings; it powerfully restrains the greed of possession and the thirst for pleasure. [cf Rerum Novarum]
The way of conversion, the way of unity, the way of peace, the way of prosperity…
All of these were handed to the Church (and the popes in particular) on a silver platter by Our Lady of Fatima, in return for which Francis has repaid her with yet another slap in the face.
“This is a lovely gesture, this gazing, isn’t it?”
Hysterically funny!
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I will just remind you, Louie, of what you already told us in a previous post (which I would link, but I can’t find it right now) ———
Think like a freemason and you will see that Francis is doing his job perfectly.
“Ecumenism is not the Church’s mission. The Church is not ecumenical, she is missionary. The goal of the missionary Church is to convert. The goal of the ecumenical Church is to find what is true in errors and to remain at this level. It is to deny the truth of the Church. (Archbishop Lefebvre, April 14th, 1978)
Sadly, I’m convinced it will take a “Road to Damascus” experience to convince this pope of his errors. And even more sadly, because of the negligence of the all the Modernistchurch Popes, I expect WW3 on steroids before the Consecration of Russia happens.
Archbishop Lefebvre:
“Let us ask the Blessed Virgin to have faith like hers – to have faith as deep, as firm, as courageous as that of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.”
“But if we follow the Virgin Mary we are sure with her to achieve victory.
This victory that the Virgin Mary desires is a victory against Satan and, consequently, against sin. The Virgin Mary is the symbol of those who do not want to sin, who do not want to disobey God. This is the battle that the Virgin Mary is going to wage through the ages. So it is a great lesson that God gives us in announcing the birth of His Mother, in announcing that we shall have a Mother, a heavenly Mother, a Mother who will do battle. So we shall do battle together with her and we must do battle against the common enemy – Satan, and all those who with Satan are against God.”
“At the very beginning of the period of evangelization of Our Lord, the Most Blessed Virgin is already speaking to us, is already speaking to those who will be the disciples of Our Lord. And when we appeal to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary to ask her what we should do in the difficult circumstance of our lives, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary will answer us, just as she answered the servants at the wedding feast of Cana: “Do all that He tells you. Do the will of Our Lord. Observe the commandments of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If you do the will of Our Lord, if you do the will of my divine Son, then you will be saved. Then your soul, which is perhaps like water, will be changed into wine, a generous wine. Your soul will be filled with the grace of the Lord. Your soul will be filled with all that is necessary for you to fulfill the commandments of God.”
Indeed, fraternity equality and Liberty, and today “co-exist”
Yes ww3 to start anytime now.
I missed the declaration. (not that I care about it).
What I didn’t miss today was the “humble Pope” of mercy, screaming a pilgrims in Mexico. Talk about smelling like the sheep – NOT! If a parish priest does the same, their bishop would call him in and send him off to a shrink to work out his anger issues.
I don’t think Bergoglio is capable of saying or doing anything that could be considered “CATHOLIC”. I wonder if he is even responsible for his actions? Is he mentally fit???
What exactly do you mean “Russia must be converted?”
Do you mean that Russia should cease being Orthodox?
The evidences of the antichristism of the conciliar institution are so plain. I know why Our Lord called people ‘blind’.
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http://www.novusordowatch.org/wire/passion-church-salza.htm
Yes, everyone in the world should convert to the Catholic faith, outside of which there is no salvation. Also universal peace can only come when all nations recognize Christ as king and live by his teachings. After learning about the history of Christianity and what preChristian Europe was like I am convinced that both temporal and spiritual blessings depend on nations and their rulers living according to the Catholic faith.
Dear Truth seeker,
I couldn’t agree with you more….”I am convinced that both temporal and spritual blessings depend on nations and rulers (and may I add the faithful themselves) living according to the Catholic Faith.”
I also appreciate Louie’s quote from Pope Leo XIII which says, “Christian reality when adequately and completely practised, leads to itself to temporal prosperity, for it merits that blessing of God who is the source of all blessings; it powerfully restrains the greed of possession and the thirst for pleasure.”
Your most recent articles on the social Kingship of Christ the King Sovereign Priest and this one are great and inspiring Louie. Keep up the good work.
I read the post you linked and what jumped out at me was the quote by Father Faber:
“But we may forget, and sometimes do forget, that it is not only not enough to love the Church, but that it is not possible to love the Church rightly, unless we also fear and reverence it. Our forgetfulness of this arises from our not having laid sufficiently deeply in our minds the conviction of the divine character of the Church… The very amount of human grandeur which there is round the Church causes us to forget occasionally that it is not a human institution.
Hence comes that wrong kind of criticism which is forgetful or regardless of the divine character of the Church. Hence comes our setting up our own minds and our own views as criteria of truth, as standards for the Church’s conduct. Hence comes sitting in judgment on the government and policy of Popes. Hence comes that unfilial and unsage carefulness to separate in all matters of the Church and Papacy what we consider to be divine from what we claim to be human. Hence comes the disrespectful fretfulness to distinguish between what we must concede to the Church and what we need not concede to the Church. Hence comes that irritable anxiety to see that the supernatural is kept well subordinated to the natural, as if we really believed we ought just now to strain every nerve lest a too credulous world should be falling a victim to excessive priestcraft and ultramontanism [“papolatry”? —N.O.W.].
…Only let us once really master the truth that the Church is a divine institution, and then we shall see that such criticism is not simply a baseness and a disloyalty, but an impertinence and a sin.”
(Rev. Frederick W. Faber, Devotion to the Church [London: Richardson & Son, 1861], pp. 23-24; italics in original; paragraph breaks added.)
Perhaps you could find in that wonderful quote where Father Faber espouses the sedevacantist argument? He says plainly: “Hence comes our setting up our own minds and our own views as criteria of truth, as standards for the Church’s conduct.”
There is objective truth, which well taught Catholics know the hierarchal Church is not following. But Father Faber also says we are not to separate the natural (visible, hierarchal) Church from the Supernatural (Revelation, Tradition etc.). The Mystical Body of Christ is ONE – there is no division between the human hierarchal structure and the body of supernatural truths. This is an awkward way of putting it but I think it can be a way to look at things.
This does NOT mean we should not point out error when it’s done by visible members of the Church, but we can’t say “well, the sins are so bad, let’s just say what we see is NOT the “real” Church….the the quote from Father Faber used by Novusordowatch does not say what they would like it to say.
Can anyone imagine Father Faber ever, ever, ever suggesting that because the visible Church (and her hierarchy) are suffering apostasy and heresy, that She has been put into suspension, and we are to carry on until God rights the barque? Heaven forbid, if I know my Father Faber, and I do.
What you said is exactly what I think, as well.
Wow, Barbara. That is good.
Yes. Well said, Truth Seeker.
Thank you for the Amazon link.
We used it.
People don’t have to imagine the exile of the Church and her doctrine and worship, Barbara. It is happening right before your eyes and mine. Whether one chooses to reinvent what the Church so they can lie to themselves about where the Church is….that’s free will. Lord Have mercy.
PS. And the true Church continues, though in the proportions Cardinal Pie predicted. The fact remains – the See of Peter can be vacant according to the Church’s own teachings, but, according to the Church’s own teachings she can never defect, never be run by non-Catholics/public heretics. Fr Faber was a Catholic. He would most certainly have rejected the Novus Ordo and its heirarchy as non-Catholic. He would have been a sedevacantist and remained Catholic.
I’ll stick to your Father Faber comment because it’s the most obviously wrong and it’s not justice to come to conclusions that serve our desires – in other words to use evidence to prove something that evidence cannot bear.
Point One: We cannot say what he or anyone else would have done. That is wishful thinking. We do know that Father Faber was obedient to the Pope if his day. That’s all we know.
Point Two: Father Faber, like Cardinal Newman and many other intellectuals, came into the Catholic Faith from a religious culture that was virulently anti-Catholic. The Papacy was one particular point that overshadowed many other objections.
Both Father Faber and Cardinal Newman studied for many years before they made that leap of faith into what the Catholic Church teaches about the Papacy. Cardinal Newman especially was a brilliant scholar and he certainly knew Church history, and the writings of the Fathers and Doctors.
For both these men there came a time for a ‘leap of faith’ after their reason brought them to the conclusion that the Catholic Faith was the right faith. The leap came when they had to serve under a Pope.
Do we not have to make that same leap? Do we reserve our service because the current Pope teaches error? Or do we serve him by praying for him, and pointing out in charity where we know he is wrong?
What Faber and Newman would do, in my particular wishful thinking exercise is clear: they would serve and they would know that the Church is still the Church and that God will bring good out of evil.
Mario Derkson (aka novusordowatch) exposed for the fool & liar that he is:
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http://www.trueorfalsepope.com/p/sedevacantist-watch.html
I agree that “it’s not justice to come to conclusions that serve our desires – in other words to use evidence to prove something that evidence cannot bear.” Sedevacantists have been trying wake people up to this for years. Anyone would have to admit Fr Faber was a faithful Catholic who submitted to those shepherds who kept the true faith. If anyone would suggest the Fr Faber, or St Francis de Sales would have anything to do with VII and its heresiarchs, that is an example of a perverted desire ignoring every Catholic teaching. The devil likes blindness, lies and wolves, novelty and Protestantism. The Novus Ordo is his vehicle, and the blind who ride that train, are headed in one direction. This is about fearing and loving Our Lord, and working out the salvation of our souls in communion with TRUTH.
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Does anyone left commenting on this site believe that God doesn’t bluff, kid, or change into something different tomorrow from what He is today?
“Persuading the schismatic Russian Orthodox to embrace the fullness of truth that exists in the Catholic Church alone by way of conversion, ‘in any form,’ is excluded.”
–Gee, I just returned from Low Mass where we prayed the Leonine prayers for the conversion of Russia. Now I’m wondering if I need to go to Confession.