True And False Ecumenism

Since the Great Apostasy that was the Second Vatican [Robber] Council of 1962-1965, ecumenism has become a dirty word for those who retain the Catholic Faith. This is rightfully so, as one need only think of the Assisi abominations which took place in 1986, 1993, and 2002 (all under John Paul the Great Apostate), in 2011 (under Ratzinger), and in 2016 under Bergoglio. All the false religions of the world were invited to gather together and pray to their false gods for "peace." These religions included: Islam, Buddhism, Sikhismo, African Tribal "Witch Doctors," Hinduism, Tenriko, Shintoism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and Confucianism. The problems with such a meeting is manifold as it teaches several heresies:

• God hears the prayers of false religions
• There is no difference between the God of Catholicism (the True God) and false gods like "Allah," the moon god of the Mohammedans 
• error has "rights," the alleged "right" to worship whatever they choose, anyway they want
• violence is always wrong and never permitted (e.g., a just war or personal self-defense)
• Christ is not the Prince of Peace, and by submission to His One True Church you do not obtain peace, rather "peace" is some "coexistence" to get along and solve humanistic problems
• Christ and His Church is not the exclusive way to salvation. All beliefs are more or less good and praiseworthy, all systems of morals are more or less acceptable (as long as you "try to be a good person") and all paths lead to salvation
• The True Church is "divided" and needs to "reunite" with false sects calling themselves "Christian," and then all religions must "unite as brothers and sisters" in a One World Religion 

The Novus Bogus "mass" is ecumenical in nature as a result of the heretical Vatican II ecclesiology. To give but a few examples:

• It resembles the Protestant "Lord's Supper" with singing and hand-holding around a table
• The role of the "priest" is more or less that of a Protestant minister. "Homilies" and self-help talks is mostly all they do
• Belief in the Real Presence (which they no longer have anyway) is virtually obliterated by people standing for "communion" and putting it in their hand, while being dressed immodestly or like a slob
• The "priesthood of all believers" is seen by laymen and laywomen handing out "communion;" the laity reads the "lectionary;" and married "deacons" are doing almost everything the so-called priest does

The Vatican II sect is also ecumenical in what they omit in their teachings and "homilies." You will never hear:

• There is no salvation Outside the One True Church
• Islam is Satanic in origin
• Catholicism should be the State religion
• Error has no rights

All of this comes as a result of the heretical ecclesiology of Vatican II that teaches there is a Church of Christ distinct from the Roman Catholic Church. The Church of Christ is present in its "fullness" in the Roman Catholic Church, but it is present in various degrees in false sects according to how many "elements of truth" they possess. To have all the elements is best, but just having some is good too, and leads to salvation. If you look back at the examples of ecumenism I gave, it's easy to see how they are the logical result of this false ecclesiology (or "teaching on the nature of the Church"). You often hear about someone being or entering into "full communion" with Modernist Rome, which clearly implies you can be in "partial communion." This is why Wojtyla (John Paul II) could kiss the Satanic Koran; because it contains some "elements of truth." By the same logic you could kiss the Satanic Bible because it has "some truth" in it too.

Therefore, it is no wonder that ecumenism is rightfully seen as a dirty word. Many will be surprised that there is a truly Catholic ecumenism! The correct concept of ecumenism will be explored in this post. The information below is, in large part, condensed from Catholic Ecumenism, Catholic University of America Press, 1953 (published with full ecclesiastical approval) by theologian Hanahoe.

The Authentic Ecumenism Taught By The Church

1. Unity. The Church was not only numerically one from the Will and intention of Christ, but She also has ever been one and shall be one until the end of time, as it is one of the Four Marks of the Church. Pope Pius XI taught:

This Church, after being so wonderfully instituted, could not, on the removal by death of its Founder and of the Apostles who were the pioneers in propagating it, be entirely extinguished and cease to be, for to it was given the commandment to lead all men, without distinction of time or place, to eternal salvation: "Going therefore, teach ye all nations." In the continual carrying out of this task, will any element of strength and efficiency be wanting to the Church, when Christ Himself is perpetually present to it, according to His solemn promise: "Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world?" It follows then that the Church of Christ not only exists to-day and always, but is also exactly the same as it was in the time of the Apostles, unless we were to say, which God forbid, either that Christ our Lord could not effect His purpose, or that He erred when He asserted that the gates of hell should never prevail against it. (See Mortalium Animos, para. #6). 

The Church is incapable of being divided. Those who leave are not "other churches" because Christ founded only one Church. Nor are those sects "part" of the Church. They are groups of heretics and/or schismatics that have no right to exist and are a means of damnation. The True Church is not "divided" or "less unified" because some leave and call themselves "churches." As Pope Leo XIII taught: 

The Church of Christ, therefore, is one and the same for ever; those who leave it depart from the will and command of Christ, the Lord - leaving the path of salvation they enter on that of perdition. "Whosoever is separated from the Church is united to an adulteress. He has cut himself off from the promises of the Church, and he who leaves the Church of Christ cannot arrive at the rewards of Christ....He who observes not this unity observes not the law of God, holds not the faith of the Father and the Son, clings not to life and salvation" [S. Cyprianus, De Cath. Eccl. Unitate, n. 6]. (See Satis Cognitum, para. #5). 

2. The proper approach of ecumenism. Catholic ecumenism looks from a position of unity in possession, whereas false ecumenism looks for unity as not yet possessed. The false view looks for theories and means of obtaining unity, while true ecumenism aims to share a divinely-given unity which already exists. The primary question should not, therefore, be "How can unity be achieved?"--but rather "How did Christ will His Church to be one?" The answer is to be found in the words of Pope Leo XIII:

Wherefore Jesus Christ bade all men, present and future, follow Him as their leader and Saviour; and this, not merely as individuals, but as forming a society, organized and united in mind. In this way a duly constituted society should exist, formed out of the divided multitude of peoples, one in faith, one in end, one in the participation of the means adapted to the attainment of the end, and one as subject to one and the same authority. To this end He established in the Church all principles which necessarily tend to make organized human societies, and through which they attain the perfection proper to each. That is, in it (the Church), all who wished to be the sons of God by adoption might attain to the perfection demanded by their high calling, and might obtain salvation. The Church, therefore, as we have said, is man's guide to whatever pertains to Heaven. (See Satis Cognitum, para. #10). Therefore, unity is to be had by converting to the One True Church. This conversion must be individual, as corporate reunion is impossible on several grounds.

3. What is "corporate reunion"? Formal corporate reunion may be defined as that act whereby a society of baptized persons, professing the Integral Catholic Faith, enter the Church through a judicially authorized action of legitimate representatives (e.g. Eastern Schismatics who are allowed to retain the Byzantine Rite of Mass, and certain ecclesiastical customs). Material corporate reunion is the return to the Church by a group of people who receive no status like the Easterns. It's just like-minded people professing the Integral Catholic Faith. It is not "a Church joining the Catholic Church" in either case.

Heretical Conceptions of Corporate Reunion

 1. The "Branch Theory." The Church is a "tree with three branches:" the Catholic Church, Eastern Schismatics, and Anglicans because of a valid hierarchy and closeness of doctrine. This theory is CONDEMNED by the Holy Office in the decree Quod vos, and any idea of Anglicans having valid orders was rejected by Pope Leo XIII, who declared Anglican Orders "absolutely null and utterly void" in the Apostolic Constitution Apostolicae Curae of 1896. 

2. "Mutual recognition." According to this heresy, two religious bodies, acting as "sovereign states," provide for intercommunion while maintaining independence (such as agreements between the Old Catholic sect and the Anglican sect). This diametrically contradicts the dogma of the unicity of the Church as well as the absolute necessity of the Church for salvation. As such, it stands CONDEMNED.

3. Compromise. This heresy would agree on "certain fundamental doctrines" which must be accepted, and allowing members to accept or reject all other doctrines as "non-fundamental" and unnecessary to salvation. Pope Pius XI CONDEMNED this notion: "...in connection with things which must be believed, it is nowise licit to use that distinction which some have seen fit to introduce between those articles of faith which are fundamental and those which are not fundamental, as they say, as if the former are to be accepted by all, while the latter may be left to the free assent of the faithful: for the supernatural virtue of faith has a formal cause, namely the authority of God revealing, and this is patient of no such distinction. For this reason it is that all who are truly Christ's believe, for example, the Conception of the Mother of God without stain of original sin with the same faith as they believe the mystery of the August Trinity, and the Incarnation of our Lord just as they do the infallible teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, according to the sense in which it was defined by the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican." (See Mortalium Animos, para. #9). 

Of interest, theologian Hanahoe singles out censured Modernist theologian, Fr.Yves Congar for promoting another false concept of "unity." He quotes Congar, "We cannot say that any dissident Christian body whatever is a member of Una Ecclesia. Nevertheless, it would seem to the present writer that the various dissident Christian bodies, each in a varying degree, may be regarded in some fashion as elements of the Church." (See Catholic Ecumenism, pg. 101; Emphasis in the original). In response to Congar, theologian Hanahoe writes, "There is no justification to be found in papal documents for these declarations...The evidence as to what constitutes a person as a member of the Church is unequivocal and definite." (Ibid; Emphasis mine). 

  

We see clearly that the "elements theory" of "participating in the Church" by various degrees according to the amount of "elements" a sect possesses, was CONDEMNED. Just eleven years later (1964), Vatican II would adopt this condemned and heretical theory in Lumen Gentium. Who were the periti (i.e., "theological experts") commissioned by Montini (Paul VI) to draw up that document?  Arch-heretics Gerard Phillips, Karl Rahner, Jean Danielou and Yves Congar.

4. Summation of Catholic Ecumenism. For a whole false sect to be swept into the One True Church by an act of its leaders is inconceivable for the most part. The Church has too high a regard for the bonds of membership which She communicates to those converted to Her; She has too great a respect for the dignity and intelligence involved in the freedom of the act of Faith. Ecumenism must be by the individuals submitting, fully and without reservation to the One True Church of Christ. In the words of the Instruction of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office (December 20, 1949) regarding Catholic Ecumenists:"The whole and entire body of Catholic doctrine is, therefore, to be proposed and explained. Nothing embraced in the Catholic truth concerning the true nature and means of justification, the constitution of the Church, the Roman Pontiff's primacy of jurisdiction and the only real union effectuated by a return of dissidents to the One True Church, must be passed over in silence or cloaked in ambiguous language...All this must be truly set forth clearly and intelligibly for the double reason that they are really seeking the truth and that outside the truth no true union can ever be attained."

Conclusion

You have just read the true teaching on Catholic Ecumenism, and the heretical non-Catholic teaching which was always condemned. I'm going to conclude this post with a few quotes from official Vatican II documents, and statements of the post-Vatican II "popes." Ask yourself, "Is this true or false ecumenism being taught?" No commentary from me will be necessary.

"Pope" John Paul II: "The elements of this already-given Church exist, found in their fullness in the Catholic Church and, without this fullness, in the other Communities, where certain features of the Christian mystery have at times been more effectively emphasized. Ecumenism is directed precisely to making the partial communion existing between Christians grow towards full communion in truth and charity." (See Ut Unam Sint, para. #14). 

Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, para. #15: "The Church recognizes that in many ways she is linked with those who, being baptized, are honored with the name of Christian, though they do not profess the faith in its entirety or do not preserve unity of communion with the successor of Peter."

Vatican II, Unitatis Redintegratio, para. #3: "It follows that the separated Churches [sic] and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church." 

"Pope" John Paul II: "Christ's Mystical Body is not exclusively identified with the Catholic Church." (See L'Osservatore Romano, May 6, 1980).

"Pope" Francis: "I believe in God - not in a Catholic God; there is no Catholic God."

(See https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/pope_francis_571226)

And therefore, "Proselytism is solemn nonsense."