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Most
Holy Father,
In 1986,
Mgr. Lefebvre and Mgr. De Castro Mayer thought it their duty
to withstand You publicly following the example of St. Paul
(Gal.2, 11) for the prayer meeting of Assisi, to which
you had convoked the main world "religions". This
public sin (the meeting of Assisi) against the First
Commandment and against the first article of the Credo,
which was a great offence made to the Sovereign Majesty of
the Only True God, One and Triune, was moreover an immense
scandal to the faithful.
How could
You, Vicar of Christ, Vicar of the Solus Sanctus, Solus
Dominus, Solus Altissimus, mingle Yourself with representatives
of "religions: which deny His Divinity? How could You
humiliate the Catholic Church, Our Lord Jesus Christ's only
Spouse (Eph. 5, 26-27) depreciating it to the rank
of societies founded by the mere will of man (Jn 1,13)
and not by God? How could You invite followers of "religions"
to pray to God, they who refuse the One Mediator between God
and man, Christ Jesus (1 Tm 2,5) or who, denying the
existence of a personal and unique God, are nothing else than
atheism and idolatry? How could You justify this invitation
by stating that the Holy Ghost dwells mysteriously in every
man, contrary to the teaching of St. Paul (Rm 8, 9)?
At the
moment when You are about to renew, this October 28, the scandal
of Assisi in St. Peter's Place, in Rome, we dare to solemnly
protest against this sin and, invoking the authority of Your
recent predecessors, to oppose You with their condemnation
of it as well as of its underlying errors: Pius IX, in the
Syllabus (prop. 16-18), Leo XIII reproving the "Congress
of Religions: in Paris (Letter of Sept. 15, 1899), and Pius
XI in Mortalium animos.
By these
"interreligious" meetings, you do not confirm Your brethren
in the faith; on the contrary, You encourage a great indifferentism
and provoke divisions inside the Church. Moreover the humanistic,
earthly and naturalistic themes of such meeting debase the
Church from its wholly Divine, eternal and supernatural mission
to the level of the Masonic ideals of a world peace without
the only Prince of Peace, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
The deplorable
event of Assisi was for Archbishop Lefebvre one of the "signs
of the times" permitting him to proceed legitimately
to the episcopal consecrations without Your consent, and to
write to You that "the moment of a frank collaboration
has not yet come." The 13 years of Your Pontificate since
have by no means removed the signs, their disastrous consequences
for the Church or the wound they are causing to the hearts
of faithful Catholics.
To this
first cause of our sadness is added the signature on the "Common
Declaration of the Catholic Church and the Worldwide Federation"
next October 31. After the fact that Cardinal Cassidy, in
the name of the Catholic Church, has contradicted the text
of this declaration on serious points, discovering in it errors
and ambiguities, how can You authorize its signature?
Thus,
by ratifying the error already anathematized of the simul
justus et peccator, the ambiguity on the nature of grace
and on the free and meritorious cooperation with it, Your
Teaching Authority (Magisterium) looses its credibility.
It is
the love of our Mother, the Holy Catholic Church, of the Holy
Apostolic See, of the Pope, which dictates to us these very
serious lines.
Deign
to accept, Most Holy Father, this expression of our filial
respect.
+Bernard
Fellay
Auxiliary
bishop at the service
of the Fraternity St. Pius X
Superior General
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