Santidad, en esta ocasión sólo puedo decir, para ser absolutamente franco, that the accumulation of nonsense is such that, in the end, what has left me most stupefied, astonished, and perplexed has not been your approval, which I simply regret, but the agreement of all the other representatives of their respective churches, which may be very separated and erroneous, but, from some at least, I did not suppose they had also reached such a degree of delirium. It makes one want to ask if there is still anyone sensible left.
Read also: European Christians sign the new «Charta Oecumenica»
I must confess that, having reached this point, it is impossible for me to conjure up the complex of the driver who sees everyone going in the opposite direction; I am tempted to say that this is not my world, that they have replaced it with a world of madmen, so, please, stop the train, I want to get off, and if I am the mad one: then leave me in my happy world, for each is happy in their own way, and it is said that the madman knows more in his own house than the sane in another’s, for, like in one’s own house, nowhere else.
Leaving aside more preambles, because this is something to see and not believe, I proceed to put, in italics, the texts that have seemed most significant to me, and, following that, my humble commentary.
This update reflects our ongoing hope and our work to deepen unity in the diversity of our churches, attending to Christ’s prayer that «all may be one» (John 17:21).
Christ did not exactly ask us to be one in diversity, and even less so when it comes to a radical diversity, founded on the opposition of incompatible doctrines.
At the same time, we recognize and lament that divisions between the churches persist and our human limitations in faith, love, and hope.
That division is the one that should be remedied, seeking unity in truth.
Jesucristo, Lord of the one Church, is our greatest hope for reconciliation and peace.
Evidently, the one church of which Christ is head and Lord is the Catholic one, according to the dogmatic faith of this church.
We recognize that the climate crisis has intensified; war, displacement, poverty, populism, the abuse of religion, and many other interrelated difficulties have caused great suffering and deep anxiety.
Here, intentions proper to globalist ideology already transpire, and which in themselves are quite alien to the doctrinal sphere, where everything should be centered, and not on political, economic, or environmental issues.
The Charter bears witness to the one universal Church of Christ, which manifests itself in diverse local churches. We invite all churches, church councils, bodies, and ecumenical initiatives to adhere to the updated Charter.
That the Catholic hierarchy accepts that expression is apostasy in every sense and a resounding capitulation of the conscience that the Catholic Church has always had, and which is expressed in a multitude of dogmatic documents, of being the one and true visible Church of Christ, that is: his mystical body, sacrament, and unique channel of all grace.
To consider that the Catholic Church, when «Catholic» precisely means «universal,» is just one more part: a local church, of the universal Church of Christ, which would be formed by all the communities that have been separating from the communion of faith, transmitted from the apostles, and preserved and developed organically by the magisterium, implies a betrayal of this faith, that is: of the integrity of the deposit of faith, contained in dogmatic doctrine.
The updated Ecumenical Charter defines the fundamental ecumenical responsibilities of all the churches of Europe, from which guidelines and commitments derive. However, we recognize that it lacks magisterial or dogmatic character, and that it is also not legally binding according to canon law. Its authority and purpose derive from the voluntary commitment of the churches and European ecumenical organizations.
It would only be missing for a document so contrary to the dogma of the Catholic Church to be doctrinally binding for it; but that does not detract from the gravity of the formal assumption of such aberrations by authorized representatives of the Catholic Church, which would effectively generate a binding commitment, at least morally, for this Church.
We know that what we share is deeper and greater than everything that separates us.
That hackneyed assertion makes no sense, because, according to Catholic conscience, rejecting even a single dogmatic point is enough to lose, entirely, the Catholic faith, since the doctrine that forms it is not a simple aggregation of points but an organic set of truths necessarily referred to the saving mystery of Christ.
We commit to:
- Discerning and welcoming the diversity that manifests God’s rich purpose.
To think that the diversity of churches is positive goes against the necessary unity of the salvific plan, which expresses the unity of God, that of the redemptive work, and that of the one redeemer and mediator, who, as the one head, also has one body, and, as the one spouse, only has one wife: the Catholic Church.
- Continuing to seek the visible unity of the Church of Jesus Christ in the one faith, in obedience to the Word of God in the Holy Scripture, following the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
That commitment, for a Catholic, can only mean the return of all the separated to the one fold that maintains the integral apostolic succession both doctrinally and sacramentally: the Catholic Church.
The ecumenical movement is the work of the Holy Spirit, who encourages believers and churches to grow in mutual love and to respond to the call to unity.
The Holy Spirit, as the soul of the Church, always impels toward unity; but a double sense of unity must be distinguished: the essential one, corresponding to unity in faith in one doctrine and in obedience to one shepherd: visible vicar of the good shepherd, and the accidental or extensive one, referring to the greater or lesser numerical scope of the former sense; thus the first sense is fulfilled exclusively and indefectibly in the Catholic Church as a visible society whose organic continuity is maintained throughout history, and the second simply consists in the entry of all men into the first sense, that is: accepting the unity of faith and government of the Catholic Church.
In the power of God’s grace, various initiatives seek through prayer and liturgy to deepen spiritual communion between the churches, praying for the visible unity of the Church of Christ.
It turns out that without visible unity there is no spiritual unity either, and establishing a dichotomy between both is erroneous, for, first, the spiritual must be manifested visibly, and, second, the spiritual resides precisely in the acceptance of the unity of faith and government of the Catholic Church; hence the sacramental sense of this Church, uniting the interior and exterior aspects, while mere disembodied spiritualism is a completely Protestant idea.
We commit to:
- Listening to the Holy Spirit and sharing spiritual gifts;
- Reading and studying the Scriptures and discerning together the Word of God.
The Catholic must not ignore, on one hand, that the hierarchical instance especially assisted by the Holy Spirit, who thus guarantees the infallibility of its extraordinary magisterium and the fundamental orthodoxy of its ordinary magisterium, is the papal one, and, on the other, that it is precisely that magisterium which is the only one competent to authoritatively interpret the Holy Scripture and discern the ecclesial Tradition, which is also a source of revelation, emanating from the same organic character of the Church.
We recognize that human guilt, lack of love, and the abuse of faith and the Church for political and selfish interests have gravely damaged the credibility of Christian witness.
This is absolutely true; therefore, the diversity of churches, rooted, in the final analysis, in divergence in faith, cannot be, in any sense, positive, but is always a very great evil.
We commit to:
- Overcoming the temptations of self-sufficiency.
Here we have a new intolerable concession, for, if the Catholic Church possesses the totality of doctrine and salvific means, how can it not be self-sufficient as such?, when it is precisely for that reason that it is called a «perfect society,» and in what way will it depend on any other church, whose truth and salvific efficacy are entirely due to what it preserves from the Catholic Church?
We believe that human dignity and freedom emanate from our creation in the image of God.
It cannot be forgotten, first, that that creation was already in a state of grace, so that original sin did not imply a return to a natural state that historically never existed, nor, second, that that supernatural human dignity is only completed by Christ’s redemption, whose personal acceptance depends, as a necessary condition, on spiritual conversion.
Therefore, our witness respects religious freedom as fundamental to responding to the call of the Gospel, that is: we abstain from coercing people to convert through moral pressure or material incentives, without preventing anyone from entering the faith by their own will.
Indeed, religious freedom is a right that must be respected, insofar as faith should never be imposed; however, that external religious freedom, which prohibits external imposition, does not go hand in hand with the internal one, as if conscience were free to choose any religion indifferently, since the first duty of conscience, as the supreme subjective moral norm, is to conform to the objective one, expressed in the law: both the natural one, accessible to mere reason, and the revealed one, exposed truthfully and exclusively by the Catholic Church; therefore, the first and inescapable duty of every conscience is to form itself diligently, so as not to incur culpable ignorance, which does not exempt from moral responsibility.
We confess that our churches have incurred sinful and scandalous actions, instead of giving witness, causing and allowing great harm.
In matters of guilt, no one is entirely exempt; but neither can all guilts be put on the same level, for one thing is moral guilt with the possible consequent scandal, and there the members of the Catholic Church have plenty to give and sell, and another very different and much more serious thing is the sin against faith, which is that incurred by whoever abandons the living faith that springs from the apostles and is preserved intact only in the Catholic Church.
We commit to:
- Approaching the churches in our environment with which we still have no relationship, actively and openly seeking opportunities for joint witness and cooperation;
- Participating in witness and evangelization with other churches, establishing agreements with them, to foster mutual trust and avoid harmful competition and the risk of new divisions.
How can a Catholic give joint witness to his own faith with one who does not share this same faith?; is one not then falling into indifferentism by thinking that the differences between Christian churches are secondary, and that, therefore, Catholic doctrine lacks importance in what it diverges from the separated churches, since the separation occurred precisely because these churches assumed heretical doctrines, expressly condemned by the Catholic Church?
How can one deny the evidence that there is real competition between the different churches, even if only by the simple fact that truth logically can only be one, and only one church can, therefore, be the bearer of the totality of truth, while the others will have fallen into error to the extent that they have departed from it?; in the end, it results in the aberration of relativizing doctrine.
We commit to:
- Continuing a conscious and intense dialogue between our churches and fostering the reception and implementation of ecumenical documents.
- Promoting dialogue and jointly debating controversial issues of faith and ethics in the light of the Gospel.
The true sense of ecumenism must be precisely deep theological reflection, united to prayer and also to the inescapable debate, because true unity can only be in truth, while everything that is not true can only be false.
The churches understand their commitment to the construction of Europe as part of their mission. The unity of Europe is the fruit of the communion of the multiple riches that arise from the diversity of its peoples.
Since when does the Church have a strictly political mission?; it would only be missing to forget its primary obligation: the preservation of the deposit of faith, and dedicate itself to what does not directly concern it…
The Christian faith has contributed to European cultures and values and is intrinsically linked to the history of Europe.
We are convinced that the spiritual heritage of Christianity constitutes a source of inspiration and enrichment for Europe.
Precisely what the Church must promote in Europe is the return to Christian roots, but not for a mere archaeological interest in preserving the old, but in fulfillment of the mandate received from Christ to keep evangelization alive.
Likewise, we insist on respect for life and the importance of human relationships, including marriage and family.
If, truly, one intends to defend the right to life and family, the first thing that should be done is to condemn globalism, which aggressively promotes the opposite: gender ideology and the culture of death; however, by accepting its fundamental premise, which is ideological and moral relativism, one only succeeds in strengthening it.
The hope of building a more just world, a more just Europe, more worthy of the human person, must be accompanied by the awareness that human efforts are useless if they do not count on the support of divine grace.
Very true.
We commit to:
- Denouncing religious extremism and everything that threatens our bonds.
It should be clarified that extremism is not the opposite of relativism, but the capitulation of rationality to make way for the imposition of one’s own desires; therefore, the best antidote against extremism is not to fall into ideological relativism, which is precisely the best ally of the former, by leaving free rein to the absolutism of desires and interests, but rational foundation that counteracts voluntarist impulses, for it is well known that when the force of reason fails, the unreason of force prevails, since reason may be silenced, but desires cannot be suppressed but, at most, channeled by reason, so that they do not end up dominated by blind feelings.
The Jewish people have never been replaced by the Christian Church; the Hebrew Bible has never been replaced by the New Testament, and the first Covenant has never been replaced by the new one.
This is an absolute lie, refuted by Saint Paul himself, who said: “Understand, once and for all, that those who live by faith, those are the children of Abraham” (Gal 3:7).
To maintain the salvific validity of the Jewish people and the first covenant is to render useless Christ’s redemption, constitutive of the new and definitive covenant, or will we also reject the apostle when he says: “By speaking of a new (covenant), he declares the first obsolete, so that what becomes obsolete and ages is near to vanishing” (Heb 8:13)?
We commit to:
- Reviewing liturgical, catechetical, and homiletic texts to eradicate a theology of substitution;
If the Church is not the people of the new covenant, as Vatican II Council said (Lumen gentium 9ss), then it has no meaning at all, because the one God also has only one people, which would continue to be the previous one.
- Renouncing the institutional mission of proselytism among Jews, while always being ready to give personal witness to Jesus.
Should Saint Paul then be condemned, who, wherever he went, always began evangelization, trying to convert the Jews?, or even more so Saint Peter, who dedicated himself preferentially to them?; is there salvation for anyone, if, in some way, one does not convert to Christ: the only redeemer?
Reflections on relations between Islam and Christianity allow Christians to cultivate their relations within the Abrahamic religions.
Such an expression of “Abrahamic religions” lacks all theological sense, since only the Christian faith connects with the one who believed that in his descendants all the races of the earth would be blessed, while the Jewish people still have not recognized the true recipient of the promises, and Islam only maintains a legendary connection, without recognizing the one Messiah as such either.
We commit to:
- Collaborating with Muslims in the cause of peace against extremism and the misuse of religion.
To ignore the character of Islam as a political religion with universal and totalitarian aspirations is an unforgivable folly, and even more so when this produces total defenselessness against its intrinsically violent character, which is as irrational as it is expansive; with this I do not intend to denigrate any Muslim, failing their personal dignity, which is identical to that of any other person, but only indicate what objectively appears as imperative in Islamic doctrine.
We commit to:
- Defending freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, in order to build together a Europe based on rights and the common good.
It sounds very good to speak of free thought; but it is indicative of not having thought much to esteem that freedom is proper to thought and not to the will, which makes it so that, in reality, it is the latter that ends up imposing on the former its own irrational desires.
Believing in the life-giving and redemptive presence of the Holy Spirit in creation, we recognize the need for an ecological conversion to repair our relationship with all creation, also remembering that Christ is «the firstborn of all creation» (Col 1:15).
Obviously, the importance of respect for creation cannot be denied; but speaking of an ecological conversion, when we all know the deep sense of conversion in Christianity, can only be understood as a trivialization that is not at all innocent but very much in line with the current parameters of the diabolical globalist agenda, which implies a new capitulation.
To express our reverence and gratitude for the action of the Creator, we encourage the Churches to liturgically celebrate creation throughout the year, especially on the feast of creation (September 1) and during the time of creation.
Only what has a directly salvific sense is celebrated, because liturgical celebration is an actualization of the salvific mystery, while the creation of things lacks, in itself, that direct sense; therefore, only a malicious and cunning intention can be glimpsed here: to divinize the natural, to blur all supernaturality.
We commit to continuing to work to welcome with respect and compassion the victims of forced migration, offering them the possibility of building a new life.
Here we see another point of submission to globalist directives, with the justification of massive Muslim immigration over Europe, to prevent states from exercising their legitimate right to border control.
We encourage churches and Christians not to demonize new technologies, but to see them as an opportunity that invites critical thinking and greater awareness of human responsibility.
As usually happens with every instrument, its goodness or evil will depend on the use given to it; therefore, it is irresponsible to exclude, in advance, the possibility of malevolent use, and even more so when one already begins by entering into linguistic deception by speaking of “artificial intelligence,” since intelligence is only proper to the personal subject, while the rest are simple computer programs against which critical guard cannot be lowered.
Note: Articles published as Tribuna express exclusively the opinion of their authors and do not necessarily represent the editorial line of Infovaticana, which offers this space as a forum for reflection and dialogue.