Bishop Fellay’s conference at the Courier de Rome Congress, Paris, Jan 9th 2011
- How do you perceive the Assisi reunion, announced for October 2011? (…)
One word mentioned by Benedict XVI is already frightening in itself. He announced this renewal of Assisi on January 1st, and he told us that the faithful, the faithful of every religion, that is, will guarantee peace in the world by remaining steadfast in their “Faith“. But what “faith” are we talking about? Isn’t that playing with words? What is Faith? And what does one mean when one applies the word “faith” to all the religions? (…) The Church does not use the word “Faith” when talking about other religions. There is only one supernatural Faith, only one Faith that is infused by God as a virtue into the soul. And only God can do that.
This Faith, to be realized, needs a supernatural object, above our nature. This object of Faith is what God knows of Himself, and to make an act of Faith, one also needs a supernatural light, which is the light of the Holy Ghost. This act (of Catholic Faith) is so different to all the other acts of faith, to all other beliefs, that one can say that until the Second Vatican Council, the Church studiously avoided using the word “faith” when referring to other religions. She used the term “heresy” and not “faith”. This is more exact, because a heresy is a faith in error, it is a false faith, a faith that is no longer supernatural. Therefore it is no longer a virtue infused by God, it has been broken, has become a simple human criterion, a mere human judgment: “I decide that I can accept this, but that I cannot accept that“. That is exactly what Protestants do. In the Protestant belief, man decides: “I like this, I don’t like that“. But nonetheless even Luther had added an element of the “supernatural” as an aside, when he stated that the Holy Ghost inspired the soul directly. Thus he did away with the Church, which brings us the Faith: fides ex auditu, “through the teaching of the Church.” Indeed, for Luther, faith is a direct illumination from the Holy Ghost. That is why there are as many Protestant sects as there are Protestants; they multiply into infinity because each individual can be said to receive the light straight from the Holy Ghost. It becomes clear from this moment that this “faith” remains on a human level, and that’s why the Catholic Faith is different to all the other “faiths”.
(…) Assisi has become a symbol. Saying that one is going to celebrate the 25th anniversary of this symbol, even if one attempts to clean it, to correct it, will not remove the meaning of the symbol. Assisi bears a message, and the only way to delete this message would be for Christ’s Vicar on earth to say, on this occasion, to all other religions: “There is only one Name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved, and it is Our Lord Jesus Christ. Convert!” If that is the case, well then yes ! (DICI 229, Feb. 5, 2011)
You can read about this topic :
The Assisi meeting, seen from Mecca
25 years of opposition to the spirit of Assisi, in the name of the continuity of the Magisterium before Vatican II
Assisi I (October 27, 1986) :
Letter of Archbishop Lefebvre to eight cardinals (August 27, 1986)
Declaration by Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop de Castro Mayer, December 2, 1986
Assisi II (January 24, 2002) :
Bishop Fellay's letter concerning the meeting in Assisi on January 24, 2002
The Society of St. Pius X's study: From Ecumenism to Silent Apostasy (January 2004)
Interview with Bishop Bernard Fellay published by DICI Feb. 2, 2004
Towards Assisi III (22nd October 2011) :
Statement by Fr. Stefan Frey, Rector of the seminary of the Society of St. Pius X in Germany
And also :
Benedict XVI will travel to Assisi in October 2011
We will not pray together in Assisi
Italian Catholic Intellectuals Beg Benedict XVI To “Flee the Spirit of Assisi”
