By Bishop Mark A. Pivarunas, CMRI
Feast of St. James the Apostle
July 25, 1999
Dearly beloved in Christ,
As the dawn of a new millennium approaches, we should ponder the tremendous significance of the year 2000 A.D. and be reminded that the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the single, greatest event in the history of mankind and is forever engraved as the focal point of all world history.
Down through the centuries, powerful kings and great emperors reigned over kingdoms and empires with an absolute authority: yet, their kingdoms and empires have long since vanished from the face of the earth and little remains of their influence except the barren memory of them on the pages of history books.
In contrast, Jesus Christ publicly preached in a small nook of the world (Palestine) for only three years and worked miracles of the most stupendous nature to prove to all men for all time that He indeed was the promised Messias, the Redeemer, and the Son of God. His teachings miraculously spread throughout the world and have immutably endured within His Church for twenty centuries.
The one true Church founded by Christ, the Catholic Church, has accomplished that which no other religion or institution has ever been able to achieve. It has united men of all nations, so different in culture and customs, into one supernatural society with one unchanging Faith, with one form of worship (the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass), and under one supreme authority. This Church of Christ has transcended the natural differences and divisions of the various races of the world and has brought together men of all nations into one Mystical Body — the Mystical Body of Christ.
These truths are indelibly marked in the history of the world and they forever remain a guiding light to all men for all times to recognize the one true religion revealed by God and the one true Church founded by His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
How important it is for us to remember these truths in light of the ecumenical events prepared for the new millennium by the Conciliar Church of Vatican II. These activities will not only continue to spread the religious indifferentism taught at Vatican Council II, in particular the Declaration, Nostra Aetate — Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions; the decree, Dignitatis Humanae — Religious Liberty; and the decree, Unitatis Redintegratia — Ecumenism) but also will continue to work against Christ by destroying the true Faith, and in reality, bring about the work of anti-Christ.
Yes, the Vatican II Church promotes the work of anti-Christ by spreading religious indifferentism through its erroneous teachings on false ecumenism and religious liberty. This is exactly that which continues the Great Apostasy from the Catholic Church and this is nothing less than the work of anti-Christ. For religious indifferentism promotes the erroneous belief that all religions are good and praiseworthy and lead men to salvation. This has been condemned by many past Popes.
In particular, Pope Pius IX in his Syllabus of Errors condemned the following propositions:
“Everyone is free to follow and to profess the religion which the light of reason leads him to judge to be the true religion.”
“Men can find the way to eternal salvation, and they can attain eternal salvation in the practice of any religion whatever.”
“There is good reason at least to hope for the eternal salvation of all those who are in no way in the true Church of Christ.”
“Protestantism is simply another form of the same true Christian religion, and it is possible to please God just as much in it as in the Catholic Church.”
Furthermore, Pope Pius XI in his encyclical Mortalium Animos condemned false ecumenism:
“With this object, congresses, meetings. and addresses are arranged, attended by a large concourse of hearers, where all without distinction, unbelievers of every kind as well as Christians, even those who unhappily have rejected Christ and denied His Divine Nature or mission, are invited to join in the discussion. Now, such efforts can meet with no kind of approval among Catholics. They presuppose the erroneous view that all religions are more or less good and praiseworthy, inasmuch as all give expression, under various forms, to that innate sense which leads men to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule. Those who hold such a view are not only in error, they distort the true idea of religion, and thus reject it, falling gradually into naturalism and atheism. To favor this opinion, therefore, and to encourage such undertakings is tantamount to abandoning the religion revealed by God.”
Let us consider the false ecumenical activities prepared to the new millennium by the Conciliar Church and recognize the continued Great Apostasy from the Catholic Church.
In the month of October of this year, an inter-religious meeting will be held in Rome similar to the 1986 meeting in Assisi. Once again the leaders of all the major religions of the world will be invited to worship their false gods. According to the Vatican Press spokesman, Dr. Joaquim Navarro-Vals:
“Having obtained approval for this project, we can now announce that in the second half of October 1999 there will be an inter-religious assembly in Rome whose theme will be On the Threshold of the Third Millennium: Collaboration with the Different Religions. The encounter will unfold with various events over a period of time. There will be plenary assemblies, work sessions, a journey of pilgrimage — probably to Assisi — a final prayer journey that will include a fast and prayer in various places for each religious community, and a closing ceremony in St. Peter’s Square in the presence of the Holy Father” (Vatican Information Service 3/2/98, Internet Site.)
As it was in Assisi in 1986, we will once again witness the sin against the 1st Commandment of God: “I am the Lord, thy God, thou shalt not have strange gods before me.” In the spirit of Vatican II and false ecumenism, the non-Christian religions of the world (Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Shintoists, Jainists and others) will join together in prayer with the Protestants, Orthodox, and the modern so-called Catholics.
Will this not give the world the impression that they all pray to the same God? And this should not come as a surprise when we consider the praise given by the Second Vatican Council to the Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and other non-Christian religions. All we need to do is simply read the Vatican II Declaration, Nostra Aetate:
“Thus, in Hinduism men contemplate the divine mystery and express it through an inexhaustible fruitfulness of myths and a searching philosophical inquiry. They seek release from the anguish of our condition through ascetical practices or deep meditation or a loving, trusting flight toward God.
“Buddhism in its multiple forms acknowledges the radical insufficiency of this shifting world. It teaches a path by which men, in a devout and confident spirit, can either reach a state of absolute freedom or attain supreme enlightenment by their own efforts or by higher assistance.
“Upon the Muslims, too, the Church looks with esteem . . Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet.
“The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions.”
This declaration of the Second Vatican Council exhorts Catholics to “acknowledge, preserve and promote the spiritual and moral goods found among these men, as well as the values in their society and culture.” There is NOT one word in this declaration which exhorts Catholics to work for the conversion of the members of these false religions!
For the year 2000 A.D., a common martyrology is underway which will include with Catholic saints and martyrs the schismatic Orthodox and the heretical Protestant “saints” and “martyrs.” As Archbishop Crescenzio Sepe, secretary general of the Great Jubilee Committee for the Year 2000, stated:
“One will no longer speak only of the Catholic martyrs of the 20th century. We will make an ecumenical ceremony to commemorate the Orthodox and so many others — Christian or not — who gave their lives for others, above all in the decades of the terrors of Communism, Nazism, and other dictatorships. On a day specifically dedicated to the modern martyrs, various names and special cases will be remembered.”
What will be the practical conclusion of this “common martyrology”? By the recognition of schismatics and heretics as saints, there is no need to be a member of the one, true Church of Christ; there is no need to accept all the teachings of Christ and His Church despite the fact that Christ commanded His Apostles “to teach all nations all things whatsoever He commanded” (Matthew 28:19) and added, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved and he who does not believe shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
* Recently the Vatican confirmed that John Paul II plans to travel to Iraq to visit the site of Ur, the ancient place where Abraham began his vocation; he will use this occasion to promote greater relations between the three monotheistic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Mohammedanism). Further plans have also been announced for a meeting of John Paul II with Jewish and Muslim leaders on Mt. Sinai and possibly in the city of Jerusalem.
What does John Paul II wish to accomplish by these meetings with Jewish and Muslim leaders? Does he wish to convert them? Or is it to continue the same religious indifferentism that has been the hallmark of the Conciliar Church since the close of the Second Vatican Council in 1965?
To find the answer to these questions, we can read direct statements from John Paul II. On March 1, 1991 he stated,
“I have great hopes that one day circumstances will permit me to go as a pilgrim to that unique city (Jerusalem) in order to re-launch from there, together with Hebrew, Muslim and Christian believers, the message and charge of peace which was already directed to the whole human family on October 27, 1986, in Assisi.”
In another interview in April, 1994, John Paul II stated:
“We trust that, with the approach of the year 2000, Jerusalem will become the city of peace for the entire world and that all people will be able to meet there, in particular the believers in the religions that find their birthright in the faith of Abraham.”
As Catholics, we must desire the conversion of the Jews and of the Muslims. We must pray for the Jews that they open their hearts and minds to recognize Jesus Christ as the Promised Messias; we must pray for the Muslims to abandon their infidelity and to accept that Christ was not just a prophet, but the Son of God.
We cannot be indifferent to Jesus Christ and to His Church. We cannot pretend that it is not important for the Jews or the Muslims to reject Jesus Christ. It is the mission of the true Church of Christ, the Catholic Church, to teach all nations all things. The false ecumenism of John Paul II accomplishes nothing but the spread of religious indifferentism — that all religions are good and praiseworthy.
No wonder Pope Pius Xl taught that false ecumenism is “tantamount to abandoning the religion revealed by God.” According to the teachings of Vatican II, the false religions of the world and the Protestant and Orthodox Churches are good and praiseworthy; why then should any of the followers of these religions and churches convert to Jesus Christ and to His one true Church?
There can be no doubt that we live in the times of the Great Apostasy which was predicted by St. Paul in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. If we would persevere in these times, we must be uncompromising in the practice of our Faith, and refuse to be indifferent to the truth that there is one true religion revealed by God through His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ — the religion of Catholicism.
In Christo Jesu et Maria Immaculata,
Most Rev. Mark A. Pivarunas, CMRI