by Reverend Father François Laisney

Conclusion

Part I Part II Part III

Ecumenism is at the Expense of the Faith

This third point is very, very grievous: ecumenism is searching for a certain unity at the expense of faith. How is it? If you want to be united with non-Catholics, if you want to please non-Catholics, the best way is to take their ideas, to take non-Catholic ideas. That is why you have men, like Charles Curran, who teach all these diabolical, moral abominations; men like Hans Küng or Shillebeeckx, modern heretics—teaching Protestantism. That is the worst degree of ecumenism. The best way to be united with non-Catholics is to deny every dogma of our Faith! Some now deny the dogma of the physical Resurrection of Our Lord, some deny the dogma that Our Lady was always a virgin, some deny the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament; there is, in short, no dogma of the Faith not denied by modern heretics, the Modernists.

There is a second degree of ecumenism which is not as bad as this first: they do not deny any dogmas of the Faith but one. That dogma is "outside the Church there is no salvation." If you understand the mystery of the Church, the Mystical Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it is impossible that outside this Mystical Body of Jesus Christ there be any salvation. What is salvation? It is to be united with God through Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ! One cannot be united with God outside Jesus Christ; it is impossible, absolutely impossible. Buddhists, Jews, who refuse Jesus Christ in no way can go to heaven unless they be converted and accept Jesus Christ. Our Lord said, "I am the door," and there is no other entrance to heaven. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me." To be united with God can only be in Our Lord Jesus Christ, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, with Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His Mystical Body. Therefore, outside the Church there is no salvation.

Now, this is not opposed to the teaching of the Church on Baptism of Desire, which is in those who have received the grace of God with Faith, Hope and Charity before the actual reception of the Sacrament of Baptism; that can happen for devout catechumens. If someone is a catechumen, learning to become a Catholic, if guided by the grace of God, he changes his life, and leads a good and holy life following in the pattern of Our Lord, he is already believing all that the Church has taught him, he already has the grace. If he dies before the actual reception of baptism, without neglect on his part, he can go to heaven. But you see catechumens already have the Catholic Faith. You have other cases, where people have no occasion to know the Catholic Church, but by the grace of God, through an angel or a book, they get to know something of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and they accept it, they believe it, they adhere to the Divine Revelation inasmuch as they know it, and that is the Catholic Faith. That grace of Faith inclines them to believe in all the other points of Doctrine which they do not yet know. If they meet a missionary they will accept what he teaches them, completing their knowledge of Him in Whom they already believed. As St. Thomas teaches, those who have the Catholic Faith, Hope and Charity already belong to the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Catholic Church. But, outside the Church there is no salvation. So guard the true Faith, for without the Catholic Faith and Charity in the Mystical Body there is no salvation.

It is common to deny this dogma in our times. Modernists say, "Oh, there are good Protestants, there are good Muslims, good Jews and Buddhists, and they go to heaven." That is not true, my dear brethren! The more Protestant they are, the more they protest against Catholic doctrine, the more they want (with Luther) "free examen" of the Bible, the less they can go to heaven. They can go to heaven only if they have nothing more of Protestantism than the name, and if they are in their minds and hearts Catholic, that is, with Catholic Faith, Hope and Charity, which is possible by the grace of God. For instance, a little child baptized in a Protestant church receives, if the baptism is valid, the grace of God with the Catholic virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. If he dies in such a state he goes to heaven.

We must not deceive ourselves, nor deceive those who do not yet have the Faith. We have the duty to work for their conversion, by our prayers, example, and good works and words. Without the grace of God, it is impossible to live a good life. Some people sometimes do some good works out of pride and as a cover for other works not so good, or out of love of their own righteousness; this is not true charity and does not lead to heaven.

And there is a third degree of ecumenism which is not as bad, but is already bad. These are the Catholics who do not want to deny any dogma of our faith, but they do not dare to profess the Catholic Faith when they should. They put their light under a bushel and they are silent; they seem ashamed of Our Lord Jesus Christ. A journalist once asked me, "Oh, Father, what do you think of Charles Curran's condemnation?" I said to him, "That should have been done ages ago!" It's good to do it, but it should have been done earlier, for how many souls did he lead astray all these years? How many souls have gone to hell because the condemnation was not made earlier? Such a delay lacks the profession of Faith, and many souls are lost as a consequence of this waiting.

Such is the third degree of ecumenism: a lack of profession of Faith. This is very common, my dear brethren. Let's take an example. In the new rite of the Mass (Novus Ordo) in Latin as it has been officially published, clear professions of the Catholic Faith that were in the traditional Mass have often been taken out. Let us take just one example in the Canon of the New Mass: the Signs of the Cross have been reduced from twenty-five to two! The names of the saints are optional, and, in the Consecration itself there have been three changes, even in the first Canon. First, the words "Mysterium Fidei," which are not in the Bible have been taken away. Why? Because Protestants said "Bible alone," so if these words are not in the Bible, they do not want them in the Consecration. Thus they have put it outside the Consecration, disregarding the practice of all the saints of the Roman Rite who have used these words for hundreds and hundreds of years; most probably even St. Peter used these words and even Our Lord Himself. That it is not written in the Gospel does not mean that Our Lord has not said it. Many things are not written in the holy Gospels! With what authority do some members of the Commission take away words from the Consecration, which is the most sacred and venerable part of the Liturgy?

Secondly, they have introduced the words "quod pro vobis tradetur—which shall be delivered for you," in the Consecration of the Body of Our Lord. These words are in the Gospel and precisely because they are in the Gospel, they said, "You must put all that is in the Gospel," according to the same Protestant principle. St. Peter and the Church never judged that it was not necessary to put it in; they had a reason not to put it because "to be delivered" means the sacrifice and the Sacrifice of the Mass is by the separate consecration. The first consecration is not sufficient to have the Sacrifice of the Mass, but when you have both the Consecration of the Body and the Consecration of the Blood of Our Lord, then you have the Sacrifice of the Mass. So they introduced these words—again to please the Protestants.

Thirdly, the first genuflection, the one right after the priest pronounces the words of Consecration, has been taken out, leaving only the genuflection after the priest has shown the Body and Blood of Christ to the faithful for their adoration. The first genuflection was a clear profession of faith that the consecration is performed by the power of the priest that he received at his ordination. The Body and Blood of Christ are present by the very power of the priest when he says the words of Consecration. Protestants refuse that dogma, while they are not so opposed to the second made after the general "approval" of the congregation; and thus this first genuflection was taken away.

Other examples could be taken from the Offertory, where the New Mass suppressed the beautiful prayer, Suscipe Sancte Pater, "Receive, O Holy Father, almighty and everlasting God, this Immaculate Victim which I, Thine unworthy servant, offer unto Thee, my God living and true, for my innumerable sins, offenses and negligences, and for all here present, as also for all the Christian faithful living and dead, that it may be profitable for my own and for their salvation unto life everlasting." You have three points of faith in this little prayer that are denied by the Protestants: that the Mass is the true Sacrifice of a Victim, the fact that it is a propitiatory sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins and the fact that you can help even the dead. So that prayer was suppressed in the New Mass.

All these suppressions are a lack of a profession of faith. If there is a moment when we ought to profess our faith in the Sacrifice of the Mass, in the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, in the power of the priesthood, it is during the Mass itself! To hide our faith during these holy moments is done in order to please the Protestants, without counting all the scandals that have been added afterwards.