Society of St. Pius X: Prayers of reparation for the interreligious meeting in Assisi
Bishop Bernard Fellay has asked all the rectors of seminaries and district superiors of the Society of Saint Pius X to organize, in reparation for the interreligious meeting in Assisi (October 27, 2011), public exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, Stations of the Cross, celebration of the Mass pro propaganda fidei [for the propagation of the faith], or the recitation of the Rosary, as individual circumstances allow. These ceremonies are to be accompanied by sermons or conferences explaining the reasons for condemning this new interreligious gathering, while avoiding “anathemas, insults, jibes and sterile polemics”, as Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre wished; instead he invited his priests to pray for their own sanctification and to sanctify souls (Le coup de maître de Satan, Éditions Saint-Gabriel, p. 48). Fr. Régis de Cacqueray, Superior of the District of France, is having one thousand Masses celebrated for this intention, exhorting “all Catholics to enter into this spirit of expiation, penance and reparation”.
As early as January 11, 2011, Italian Catholic intellectuals had asked Benedict XVI to “flee the spirit of Assisi”. In an urgent petition, they took up the defense of the Christians being martyred today: “Most Holy Father, we believe that with a new ‘Assisi 1986’, no Christian in the Orient will be saved: neither in Communist China, nor in North Korea or Pakistan or Iraq... on the contrary, many faithful will not understand why in these countries, people still die as martyrs for not renouncing their encounter not with just any religion, but with Christ. Just as the Apostles died.
“In the face of persecution, there exist political, diplomatic means, personal dialogues between States: may they all take place, and as well as possible. With Your love and Your desire for peace for all men. But without giving those who wish to sow confusion and to augment religious relativism – the vestibule to all forms of relativism –, such an appetizing opportunity, for the media too, as a second edition of ‘Assisi 1986’.” (see DICI no. 228 dated January 22, 2011).
On the occasion of the previous meeting in Assisi (January 24, 2002), Bishop Bernard Fellay too had clearly made a distinction between a legitimate diplomatic proceeding to promote peace and an interreligious meeting for peace. In a communiqué dated January 21, he declared: “The problem does not lie in the object of the prayers—peace. To pray for peace and to seek to establish and strengthen peace between peoples and nations is a good thing in itself. The Catholic liturgy is full of beautiful prayers for peace. We pray these prayers with all our hearts. Moreover, given the fact that the angels announced, on the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, peace on earth to men of good will, it is totally fitting to ask the faithful to implore the One True God to grant us a gift of such great value at this season of the year.
“The reason for our indignation lies in the confusion, scandal and blasphemy that result from an invitation from the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, sole mediator between God and man, to other religions to come to Assisi to pray for peace….
“The establishment of civil (political) peace between nations by congresses, discussions, diplomacy, with the intervention of influential persons of different nations and religions, is one thing. It is another to claim to obtain the gift of peace from God by the prayer of all (false) religions. Such an initiative is completely inconsistent with the Catholic faith and goes against the first commandment.…
“It is in keeping with the Masonic plot to establish a grand temple of universal brotherhood above all religions and beliefs, ‘Unity in diversity’ a concept so dear to the New Age and to globalization.”
Two years later, on January 6, 2004, the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X sent to all the cardinals of the Catholic Church a letter, which accompanied a study entitled From Ecumenism to Silent Apostasy. In it he declared: “This ecumenism was the principal reason of a liturgical reform that has been disastrous for the faith and religious practice of the faithful. This ecumenism has revised the Bible, distorting the divinely inspired text in order to present a watered-down version incapable of upholding the Catholic faith. This ecumenism now seeks to found a new Church, of which Cardinal Kasper in a recent conference has given the precise outlines. We can never be in communion with the promoters of such an ecumenism which leads to the dissolution of the Catholic Church, that is, Christ in His Mystical Body, and which destroys the unity of the faith, the true foundation of this communion. We do not want the unity wished by this ecumenism, because it is not the unity wished by God, it is not the unity that characterizes the Catholic Church.
“It is thus this ecumenism that we mean to analyze and denounce by the enclosed document, as we are persuaded that the Church cannot correspond to her divine mission if she does not begin to renounce openly and to firmly condemn this utopia which in the words of Pius XI, ‘completely destroy the foundations of the Catholic faith’ (Mortalium animos, January 6, 1928).
“Conscious of belonging by right to this same Church, and ever desiring to serve her more, we beg of you to do all that is in your power to give to the present Magisterium, as soon as possible, the centuries-old language of the Church, according to which ‘the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it.’ The Catholic Church will then become again the lighthouse of truth and the port of salvation in the midst of the world that is headed for ruin because the salt has lost its savor.
“Please believe, your Eminence, that we would not want in any way to take the place of the Holy Father, but rather we await from the Vicar of Christ the energetic measures necessary to liberate the Mystical Body from the morass in which a false ecumenism has sunk her. Only he who has received the full, universal, and supreme authority over the entire Church can perform these salutary acts. From the successor of Peter, we prayerfully hope that he would hear our call for help in distress, and that he would manifest to a heroic degree that charity which was asked of the first Pope when he received his office, the greatest of charity – “Amas Me plus his” – the charity necessary to save the Church.”
Finally, during the conference that he gave at the Congress in Paris sponsored by the Courrier de Rome on January 9, 2011, Bishop Bernard Fellay pointed out the only possible way of removing from the Assisi meeting any suspicion of religious syncretism: “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 up, 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 happens, well then, yes!” All the quotations by Bishop Fellay are taken from DICI no. 229 dated February 5, 2011. (Source : FSSPX/MG – DICI no. 243 dated October 28, 2011)
You can also read :
Official program for the interreligious meeting in Assisi (October 27, 2011)
The epicenter of Assisi
Bishop Fellay's First Comments on Assisi III (January 2011)
