First published in The Reign of Mary, Issue #122
This startling heresy has come more sharply into focus in the last twenty-five years or so. Although not explicitly contained in Nostra Aetate of Vatican II, it was there implicitly (after all, in the spirit of false ecumenism, we can’t be teaching the necessity of salvation in the one true Church founded by Christ). One of our readers, Edward L. Pugh, Ph.D., noted what Robert Sungenis had to say on this point in the New Oxford Review of October, 2005. There, Sungenis listed five “outlandish claims concerning the Jewish people” that came after Vatican II:
- “The Old Covenant has never been revoked” (John Paul II, 1980).
- “The Jewish wait for the Messiah is not in vain” (Pontifical Biblical Commission under Cardinal Ratzinger, 2001).
- “The Church believes that Judaism, i.e., the faithful response of the Jewish people to God’s irrevocable Covenant, is salvific for them” (Cardinal Kasper, 2001).
- “To proselytize [Jews] is not an attitude of love, nor is it one of knowledge!” (Cardinal Willebrands, 1992).
- “Campaigns that target Jews for conversion to Christianity are no longer theologically acceptable to the Catholic Church” (Cardinal Keeler, 2002).
Mr. Pugh then contrasts these with the correct view as expressed in Thomas A. Droleskey’s commentary on Fr. Zigrang’s suspension by “Bishop” Joseph A. Fiorenza (The Remnant, 8/15/04):
“Bishop Fiorenza’s assertion that the ‘Old Testament Covenant God established with the people of Israel’ is enduringly valid is itself heretical. No human being can be saved by a belief in the Mosaic Covenant, which was superseded in its entirety when the curtain was torn in two in the Temple on Good Friday, at the moment Our Lord breathed His last on the Holy Cross. It is a fundamental act of fidelity to the truths of the Holy Faith to resist and to denounce the heretical contention made in person by Bishop Fiorenza to Father Zigrang last year that Jews are saved by the Mosaic Covenant. Were the Apostles, including the first pope, St. Peter, wrong to try to convert the Jews? Was Our Lord joking when He said that a person had no life in him if he did not eat of His Body and drink of His Blood?”
Needless to say, not only was Bp. Fiorenza’s statement heretical, but also the five “outlandish claims” listed above (Dr. Droleskey, at the time, seemed to be quite unaware that his “pope” was preaching the same as Bp. Fiorenza, although he came to see it later. Consequently, he came to the conclusion that Benedict XVI is not a true pope.) We thank Mr. Pugh for reminding us that the Old Covenant has been replaced by the New, and we add these words of St. Paul (Hebrews 8:8-13):
“For, finding fault with them, he saith: Behold, the days shall come, saith the Lord: and I will perfect, unto the house of Israel and unto the house of Juda, a new testament:
“Not according to the testament which I made to their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt: because they continued not in my testament: and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
“For this is the testament which I will make to the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my laws into their mind, and in their heart will I write them. And I will be their God: and they shall be my people.
“And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them.
“Because I will be merciful to their iniquities: and their sins I will remember no more.
“Now in saying a new, he hath made the former old. And that which decayeth and groweth old is near its end.”
St. Paul continues a couple of chapters later (10:8-9):
“In saying before: Sacrifices and oblations and holocausts for sin thou wouldest not: neither are they pleasing to thee, which are offered according to the law.
“Then said I, Behold, I come to do thy will, O God: He taketh away the first, that he may establish that which followeth.” (The Confraternity version of Scripture reads: “Behold, I come to do thy will, O God; he annuls the first covenant in order to establish the second.”)
Could it be any clearer, then, that the Gospel is for all, and necessary for all, that they may be saved? “There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus“ (Galatians 3:28).