+  Ave Maria
25 September 1986

Dear Friends and Readers,

This month of October will see the Assisi meeting of all religions to pray for peace. Which God will they pray to? Cardinal Etchegaray, responsible for the organization of this day, said in a press conference on June 27th, "But how [can] believers from such different religious backgrounds pray together? To be true, one should not expect a common prayer, but we shall be together to pray!" What does that mean? He continues, saying: 'The important point is to respect one another's prayer, and to allow each one to express oneself in the fullness of his own belief….Each great religious family, in a proper place, will be able to develop its own prayer in the fidelity of its own tradition." If we truly have faith in the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, how can we "respect" the prayers of idolaters like some of the African cults? Or how can we "respect" the prayers of Buddhists, Muslims or Jews, who reject Our Lord, while He said: "No one cometh to the Father but by Me"?¹ Their prayers cannot "come to the Father" because they reject the "only Mediator, Jesus Christ."²

As the Cardinal continues: "All the Christians shall be together in San Ruffine's Cathedral." Such prayer "together" tends to make the faithful and the whole world think there is no difference between the "Christian denominations," and leads to general indifferentism. This is opposed to the Catholic attitude by which our prayer should always be a Catholic prayer, manifesting clearly the Catholic Faith, tending to the conversion of non-Catholics. Moreover, we must not forget that non-Catholic Christians deny this or that point of Faith, thereby offending Our Lord who taught them; and, what is more grievous, they all refuse to belong to the Catholic Church, which is the Mystical Body of Our Lord. They claim they accept the Head, but they refuse the Body; this is like decapitating Our Lord, separating Him, the Head, from His Mystical Body, the Catholic Church. Speaking of the great mystery of the union between Jesus Christ and the Church, St. Paul says it is the model of marriage. Now if Our Lord said, "What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder,"³ this is much more true of the exemplary model of marriage, so we can say about Christ and His Church: "Let no man put asunder what God hath united! Let no man say he accepts Christ if he refuses the Church, the holy Catholic Church!" It makes us ache to see that the very ones whose duty it is to protect, defend and promote the good of the Catholic Church are, in fact, promoting scandalous meeting where Our Lord Jesus Christ is put aside and His Church is put on an equal level with heresies or even non-Christian religions.

Let us recall the teaching of Holy Scripture. Psalm 95 says: "All the gods of the pagans are devils!" Can we "respect" prayers addressed to the devil? Our Lord says in the Gospel, "I am the door…";⁴ there is no other entry into heaven. St. Paul says, "For although there be that are called gods, either in heaven or on earth (for there be gods many, and lords many; yet to us there be one God, the Father, of whom all things are made, and we unto Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him…"⁵ And again he says, "There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all."⁶ This "One Lord" is no one else than Jesus Christ Our Lord: "You call Me Master, and Lord; and you say well, for so I am."⁷

Our Lord Himself said, "Everyone therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven."⁸ One could say that the Pope does not explicitly deny Our Lord. True but, by this ecumenism, the Pope does not preach Jesus Christ as the only Savior and His doctrine, which he received the duty to guard; he is "ashamed of Him." Now if Our Lord will deny those who denied Him, He will also be ashamed of those who were ashamed of Him! He said, "He that shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him the Son of Man shall be ashamed, when He shall come in His majesty, and that of His Father, and of the holy angels."⁹ Reading the context from which this passage comes is important because Our Lord speaks in these verses precisely of the ones who do not want the persecution of the world: "and He said to all: If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever shall save his life, shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall save it. For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, and cast away himself. For he that shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him the Son of Man shall be ashamed, when He comes in His majesty, and that of His Father, and of the holy angels."¹⁰ In one word, if one wants to please the world, he does not deny himself. In order to please the world he must not speak of Our Lord Jesus Christ and so Our Lord will be ashamed of him at the Last Judgment. He who, on the contrary, is not ashamed of Our Lord Jesus Christ but will confess Him, then he shall be persecuted by the world. He might lose his life here below but Our Lord will confess him before His Father in heaven.

It is impossible to find God outside Our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, Our Lord said: "The Father is in Me and I in the Father."¹¹ Thus St. John can say very truly: "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath no Father. He that confess the Son hath the Father also."¹² The same St. John also says, "Whosoever revolteth and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God; he that continueth in the doctrine the same hath both the Father and the Son. If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him: God speed you, for he that says to him 'God speed you' communicated with his wicked works."¹³ Was St. John an ecumenist? Certainly not, but one who received these lessons from the mouth of Our Lord Himself, Who said: "He that believeth in the Son hath life everlasting, but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth upon him."¹⁴ Why does the wrath of God abideth upon him? Because "the Father loveth the Son and He hath given all things into His hands."¹⁵

How can we have peace without the "Prince of Peace"?¹⁶ Without the Queen of Peace? "He is our peace. Who hath made both one, breaking down the middle wall of partition, the enmities in His flesh (=by His Sacrifice)…that He might make the two in Himself into one new man, making peace; and might reconcile both to God in one body by His Cross, killing the enmities in Himself. And coming He preached peace to you that were afar off, and peace to them that were nigh."¹⁷ How beautiful is the doctrine of Our Lord! "Without Me you can do nothing,"¹⁸ and certainly not have peace! "Non est pax impiis—there is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord God!"¹⁹

The core of the question is the faith in the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He is true God and true man. If we truly believe this, then it becomes evident that there is only one true religion, that which He Himself established—the Catholic Church. It becomes evident that there is no peace without Him. All Modernism falls! At the root of the crisis in the Church now is a lack of faith in the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ—either complete loss of faith, or great lack of fervor in the faith.

It is most important for us to remember all these teachings of Our Lord and of Holy Scripture which could be substantiated by the many teachings of the Fathers of the Church and of the Popes. Ecumenism is certainly against the Catholic Faith, at least against the profession of Faith.

In order to make up for the sins of ecumenism, Father Schmidberger has asked that we do fast and abstinence on October 4th. Since you will receive our magazine after the 4th, I suggest you follow Father Schmidberger's request to fast on October 27th which would be the day of the ecumenical meeting in Assisi.

May Our Lord Jesus Christ bless you and enkindle in you "a devouring zeal for His honor."

May Our Lady, Queen of Peace, obtain for you many blessings.

Yours sincerely in Jesus and Mary,

1. Jn. XIV 6

2. I Tim. II 5

3. Mt. XIX 6

4. Jn. X 9

5. I Cor. VIII 5

6. Eph. IV 5

7. Jn. XIII 13

8. Mt. X 32-33

9. Lk. IX 26

10. Lk. 23-26

11. Jn. X 38 and Jn XIV 11

12. I Jn. II 23

13. II Jn. 9

14. Jn. III 36

15. Jn. III 35

16. Is. IX 6

17. Eph. 14-17

18. Jn. XV 5

19. Is. LVII 21