“The most terrible schism the world has ever seen”
On February 4, 2019, at Abu Dhabi, Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, Ahmad Al- Tayyeb, signed the document on “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together”. The declaration opens in the name of a God, who, if he has to be a God common to all, cannot be anything other than the Allah of Muslims. The God of Christians, in fact, is one in nature, but Triune in persons, equal and distinct, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Since the time of Arius and thereafter, the Church has been battling the anti-Trinitarians and the Deists who deny, or set aside this mystery, which is Christianity’s greatest. Islam, on the contrary, rejects it in horror, as the Sura “of authentic worship” proclaims: “He, God, is one! God, the Eternal One! He will not generate, nor was he generated, and none is equal to him!” (Koran, 112, 2,4).
Actually, in the Abu Dhabi declaration, worship is not given either to the God of Christians or to the God of Islam, but to a secular divinity, “human fraternity”, “which embraces all men, unites them and renders them equal.” We are not dealing here with “the spirit of Assisi - which in its syncretism recognizes, nonetheless, the primacy of the religious dimension over that of the secularist - but with an affirmation of indifference. In no point, in fact, is a fundamental metaphysic of the values of peace and fraternity mentioned, but these are continually referred to. The document, when it affirms that “pluralism and the diversity of religions, color, sex, race and language are willed by God in His wisdom, through which He created human beings”, does not profess the ecumenism condemned by Pius XI in Mortalium animos (1928), but the religious indifferentism condemned by Leo XIII in the encyclical Libertas (June 20, 1888), which he defines as “a doctrinal system teaching each is free to profess the religion he likes and even not to profess any at all.”
In the Abu Dhabi declaration, Christians and Muslims submit themselves to the core principal of Freemasonry, whereby the French Revolution values of liberty and equality should find their synthesis and attainment in universal brotherhood. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, who along with Pope Francis drew up the text, is a hereditary sheik of the Confraternity of Sufis for Upper Egypt, and, in the Islamic world, Al Azhar, the university of which he is rector, is characterized for its proposal of Sufi esotericism, as “an initiatory bridge” between Eastern and Western Freemasonry (cfr. Gabriel Mandel, Federico II, il sufismo e la massoneria, Tipheret, Acireale 2013).
The document in an insistent and repetitive manner, calls upon “the leaders of the world as well as the architects of international policy and world economy, intellectuals, philosophers, religious figures, artists, media professionals and men and women of culture in every part of the world”, to work strenuously to spread “the culture of tolerance and of living together in peace,” expressing “the firm conviction that authentic teachings of religions invite us to remain rooted in the values of peace; to defend the values of mutual understanding, human fraternity and harmonious coexistence”. These values, it stresses, are the “anchor of salvation for all”. Thus, “the Catholic Church and Al Azhar” ask that “this Document become the object of research and reflection in all schools, universities and institutes of formation, thus helping to educate new generations to bring goodness and peace to others, and to be defenders everywhere of the rights of the oppressed and of the least of our brothers and sisters.”
On April 11, at Santa Marta in the Vatican, the Abu Dhabi document was sealed by a symbolic gesture. Francis prostrated himself on the ground before three Muslim leaders from Sudan and kissed their feet, imploring peace. This gesture should be judged not so much for what it affirms: the submission of the Church to Islam, but for what it negates: the rejection of the Kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who represents Christ, in Whose Name every knee shall bend in heaven and on earth (Philippians 2, 10) must receive homage from men and nations and not pay homage to anyone.
The words of Pius XI in the encyclical Quas primas, (1925) resonate: “Oh, what happiness would be Ours if all men, individuals, families, and nations, would but let themselves be governed by Christ! "Then at length," to use the words addressed by our predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, twenty-five years ago to the bishops of the Universal Church, "then at length will many evils be cured; then will the law regain its former authority; peace with all its blessings be restored. Men will sheathe their swords and lay down their arms when all freely acknowledge and obey the authority of Christ, and every tongue confesses that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.”
The gesture made by Pope Francis at Santa Marta also negates a sublime mystery: The Incarnation, Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior and Redeemer of mankind. By denying this mystery, the salvific mission of the Church - called to evangelize and civilize the world - is denied. Will the Amazonian Synod which takes place next October, be a new phase in this rejection of the Church’s mission, which is also the rejection of the Vicar of Christ’s mission? Will Pope Francis kneel before representatives of the indigenous people? Will he ask them to transmit to the Church their tribal wisdom of which they are carriers?
What is certain is that three days later, on April 15, the Cathedral of Notre Dame (a descriptive image of the Church) went up in flames that devoured the spire, leaving the foundation intact. Does this not signify that, despite the collapse at the very top of the Church, Her Divine structure endures, and nothing will be able to demolish that?
A week later, other events shook up Catholic public opinion. A series of terrorist attacks, incited by the followers of that same religion Pope Bergoglio submits to, transformed Easter of the Resurrection into a day of Passion for the universal Church, with 310 dead and more than 500 wounded. Even before it consumed the bodies, the fire consumed the illusions of those Catholics, who with applauds and guitars intone the alleluia, while the Church is experiencing Her Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
Some may object that the bombers in Sri Lanka, even if they were Muslim, do not represent Islam. Yet not even the Imam of Al Ahzar, who signed the document of peace and fraternity, represents all of Islam. Pope Francis, on the other hand does certainly represent the Catholic Church. But for how long?
There is no true fraternity outside the supernatural, which does not come from relationships among men, but from God (1 Thessalonians, 1,4). In the same way, there is no peace possible outside that of Christian peace, since the source of true peace is Christ, Incarnate Wisdom, Who “preached peace to you that were afar off, and peace to them that were nigh” (Ephesians, 2, 17). Peace is a gift from God, brought to mankind by Jesus Christ, Son of God and Sovereign of Heaven and Earth. The Catholic Church founded by Him, is the supreme depositary of peace, since She is custodian of the truth and peace is founded on truth and justice.
Neo-Modernism, entrenched at the very top of the Church, preaches false peace and false fraternity. But false peace brings war into the world, just as false fraternity brings schism, which is war inside the Church. St. Luigi Orione had dramatically foreseen it all on June 26 1913: “Modernism and semi-Modernism cannot go on – sooner or later it’s going to be Protestantism or a schism in the Church which will be the most terrible that the world has ever seen.” (Writings, vol.43, p.53).
Translation: Contributor Francesca Romana
