An Appeal to Traditional Roman Catholics From an Orthodox Catholic Prie
Each year the Oxford Dictionary chooses a “Word of the Year.” Last
year the Word of the Year was “Post-truth.” Ever hear of that word? I
hadn’t. Yet, it was the Word of the Year. According to the folks at
the Oxford Dictionary, its use increased by 2000 percent over the
previous year.
Here is the Oxford Dictionary’s definition of Post-truth: “Relating
to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less
influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and
personal belief.”
I may not have heard of the word, “post-truth” before, but I have
certainly experienced people who wittingly or unwittingly have
embraced it in both the realms of politics and religion. Objective
facts seem to mean less and less to more and more people, even
professed Christians, and decisions are becoming more often made on
the basis “appeals to emotion and personal belief” than on “objective
facts.”
Let’s look at the realm of religion for a moment. I am often in
discussions with conservative and traditional-minded Roman Catholics.
Sadly, they are in a constant state of agitation, anger and sorrow
over the state of the Roman Catholic Church, and I have great
sympathy for them.
They believe that Christ himself built the “One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” (
Nicene Creed),
gave it a deposit of Faith that they are to contend for (Jude 3)
and guard (I Tim. 6:20), and that the gates of hell will never prevail
against Christ’s One, True Church (Matt. 16:18), so they cannot
understand why their Church has been in a constant state of crisis,
turmoil and decay for so long.
The Crisis in the Church
The Church of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet. Photo: Wikipedia.org
The Church of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet is one of the most
illustrious Roman Catholic churches in formerly Roman Catholic, but
now utterly secular Paris, France. It has a long and venerable
history. Father Denis Puga (FSSPX) is the new parish priest at the
Church of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet. In the June 2017 issue of his
parish newsletter he wrote:
Shortly before undergoing His terrible Passion, Our Lord solemnly
warned His disciples: “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may
sift you as wheat’”(Luke, 22, 31). This warning is also for us
today, as the Church, following Her Master, is undergoing a terrible
crucifixion. Our Church has been abandoned and betrayed. Our Church
has been taken over.
The prudence of a combatant requires that he must never
underestimate his adversary. St. Paul tells us that our battle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the princes of darkness. Our
adversary? The Demon himself, the Prince of this world, as Jesus was
to point out often with great precision.
We cannot sanctify ourselves outside the present concrete situation
of the Holy Catholic Church, the Ark of Salvation which, alone, can
lead us safe and sound onto the shores of eternal life.
Now, this Church—we have to acknowledge—is in a catastrophic state,
like “a boat leaking water on every side” according to a recent Pope
despite the fact that he himself, in his lifetime, contributed in
causing many of the leaks.
Our Church, for some years now, is as if possessed by an alien
spirit, not the Spirit of God: this spirit of the Council which has
taken possession of everything, which has insinuated its way
everywhere. All of it truly resembles diabolical possession.
The website of the National Catholic Register, “A Service of EWTN”, had an article on the crisis in the Roman Catholic Church dated June 21, 2017, titled, Monsignor Bux: We Are in a Full Crisis of Faith. The article reports:
Theologian and former consulter to the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith calls on the Pope to make a declaration of
faith, warning that unless the Pope safeguards doctrine, he cannot
impose discipline.
To resolve the current crisis in the Church over papal teaching and
authority, the Pope must make a declaration of faith, affirming what
is Catholic and correcting his own “ambiguous and erroneous” words and
actions that have been interpreted in a non-Catholic manner.
This is according to Monsignor Nicola Bux, a respected theologian
and former consulter to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
during Benedict XVI’s pontificate.
In the following interview with the Register, Msgr. Bux explains
that the Church is in a “full crisis of faith” and that the storms of
division the Church is currently experiencing are due to apostasy —
the “abandonment of Catholic thought.”
Father Denis Puga (FSSPX), the new pastor at the Church of Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet in Paris says that “Our Church has been abandoned and betrayed. Our Church has been taken over” and that the Roman Catholic Church today “truly resembles diabolical possession.”
The National Catholic Register,
owned by Mother Angelica’s EWTN says, “Msgr. Bux explains that the
Church is in a ‘full crisis of faith’ and that the storms of division
the Church is currently experiencing are due to apostasy — the
‘abandonment of Catholic thought.’” According to the article in the
National Catholic Register, “The Pope must make a declaration of
faith, affirming what is Catholic and correcting his own ‘ambiguous
and erroneous’ words and actions...”
In the interview Msgr. Bux is asked, “Monsignor Bux, what are the
implications of the ‘doctrinal anarchy’ that people see happening for
the Church, the souls of the faithful and priests?”
Msgr. Bux answers, “The first implication of doctrinal anarchy for
the Church is division, caused by apostasy, which is the abandonment
of Catholic thought, as defined by St. Vincent of Lerins: quod semper,
quod ubique, quod ab omnibus creditur (what has been believed
everywhere, always, and by all).”
Msgr. Bux is completely correct! “The first implication of
doctrinal anarchy for the Church is division, caused by apostasy,
which is the abandonment of Catholic thought, as defined by St.
Vincent of Lerins: quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus creditur
(what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all).”
Vatican II?
Vatican II. Photo: Pinterest
Most traditional Roman Catholics point to the Second Vatican
Council as the source of the apostasy that has taken over the Roman
Catholic Church, with many going so far as to describe Vatican II as
“the French Revolution in the Church.” But objective students of
Church history know that the seeds of catastrophe that germinated at
Vatican II and produced such bitter fruit were sown much earlier.
For the first one thousand years of Christian history there was
only one Church, and within this One, Holy Catholic and Apostolic
Church there were five regional centers or Patriarchates: Rome (in
Western Europe), Constantinople (in Eastern Europe/Asia Minor),
Alexandria in Egypt, Antioch, in Syria “where the disciples were
first called Christians” according to the Book of Acts, and Jerusalem
(the Mother Church) in the Holy Land.
At the Councils of Nicea in AD 325 and Constantinople in 381 this
undivided Catholic Church wrote the Nicene Creed, which has long been
recited Sunday after Sunday by Catholic Christians. With the Nicene
Creed complete, the third Ecumenical Council that met in Ephesus in
the year 431 forbade and anathematized any additions to the Nicene
Creed. The entire Church, East and West, held the same Faith and
recited the same Creed for centuries.
Then, in 1014, Rome unilaterally changed the Nicene Creed by adding the
Filioque
clause (“and the Son”) in violation of the third Ecumenical Council
and coming under its anathema, and in contradiction of the clear
teaching of the New Testament about the procession of the Holy Spirit
(John 15:26). This was not a minor change. It was huge in that it
affected Trinitarian theology! It was a seismic shift in the Faith,
with repercussions that are still being felt today. Anyone who is not
aware of the significance of this change in doctrine should carefully
read:
Filioquism is Arian Subordinationism Applied To The Spirit.
The change in the Nicene Creed led to the Great Schism or division
in the year 1054. As Msgr. Bux has said, “The first implication of
doctrinal anarchy for the Church is division, caused by apostasy,
which is the abandonment of Catholic thought, as defined by St.
Vincent of Lerins: quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus creditur (what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all).”
The Patriarchate of Rome, which had changed the Nicene Creed and
abandoned Catholic thought as defined by the Canon of St. Vincent of
Lerins, caused a great division or schism in the Church, separating
itself from the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch
and Jerusalem all of which were determined to preserve the Catholic
Faith unchanged. Those who maintained the Nicene Creed and the
Catholic Faith unchanged are known as the Orthodox, or Orthodox
Catholics. The word Orthodox means both Correct Doctrine and Correct
Worship.
The Roman Patriarchate, having separated from the other four
Patriarchates eventually became known as the Roman Catholic Church.
Search the ancient documents if you like. You will nowhere find the
term “Roman Catholic” used anywhere to describe the Church before
the Great Schism. The undivided Church was never called the Roman
Catholic Church.
After the Great Schism, Rome tragically continued to change the
Faith in violation of the Canon of St. Vincent of Lerins which
describes the Catholic Faith as “
quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus creditur (what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all),” ultimately leading to an explosion called the
Protestant Reformation (really Revolution) in 1517, which splintered Western Christendom.
Rome—the center of unity?
Photo: ilfoglio.it
Modern
Roman Catholics
are taught that the pope is the visible head of the Church and that
the papal ministry is absolutely essential for the unity of the
Church. But is this teaching objectively true, or is it post-truth? Is
it based on “objective facts” or based on “appeals to emotion and
personal belief”?
Shall we look at the objective facts of history? For a thousand
years there was but One Church, comprised of five ancient
Patriarchates, reciting the same Creed, believing in the same Deposit
of Faith, and governed in a conciliar manner. Then in 1014, the
Patriarchate of Rome changed the Creed of the Church by adding the
Filioque clause (“and the Son”), causing the Great Schism in 1054,
with Rome falling away from doctrinal unity with the other four
ancient Patriarchates and coming under the anathema of the third
Ecumenical Council. Rather than the centre of unity, Rome was the
cause of division.
In the 14th and early 15th centuries the (now separate) Roman
Catholic Church experienced what historians call the Great Western
Schism, with rival popes in Rome and Avignon hurling anathemas at one
another, and dividing Western Europe into countries that recognized
one or the other papal claimants. At one time there were even three
rival popes. No one could know for sure who the real legitimate pope
was. Rather than the center of unity, Rome was the cause of further
division.
Rome continued to change the Faith and Order of the Western Church
until, about a century after the healing of the Great Western Schism,
an explosion called the Protestant Reformation began in 1517 over the
innovation of indulgences. The Reformation was really a Revolution,
as the Roman Catholic Church was splintered into an ever growing
number of Protestant sects until today there are by some estimates
more than 30,000 competing Protestant denominations, plus uncountable
numbers of independent, nondenominational and interdenominational
local churches—all claiming to descend from the Protestant
Reformation. Rather than a center of unity, Rome was the cause of
division.
The Counter Reformation continued to change the Roman Church even
more, with such new dogmas being declared as the Immaculate Conception
in 1854 and Papal infallibility in 1870. How could new dogmas be
legitimately added to the Deposit of Faith once delivered to the saints
(Jude 3) more than 1800 years after the birth of the Church? Some
claim that these dogmas were always held by the Church and were only
officially “defined” in the 19th century, but they were unknown to the
Eastern Christians, have never been held by the Orthodox, and had
not been accepted as dogmas in the West at the time of the Reformation
or they would have been hotly debated then.
What most traditional Roman Catholics do not know is that the notion of an
Immaculate Conception
which was only beginning to be raised in some circles in the
post-Great Schism Roman Church was strongly opposed by such thinkers
as Bernard of Clairvaux and Thomas Aquinas as dangerous innovations.
Sadly, today there are calls being made by many traditional Roman
Catholics to add two more Marian dogmas: that Our Lady is
Co-Redemptrix, and Mediator of All Graces, despite the fact that the
declaration of new dogmas are a violation of the Canon of St. Vincent
of Lerins that the Catholic Faith is “
quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus creditur (what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all).”
In 1870, Rome added yet another new dogma—Papal Infallibility. What
most traditional Roman Catholics do not know about is the political
maneuvering and tremendous pressure used by Pope Pius IX to get this
new dogma declared. Ecumenical Councils are to meet free of outside
pressure and their decisions must be unanimous or nearly so. Vatican I
was anything but a free Council, and when Pius IX saw that he could
not get a near unanimous vote he changed the rules and required only a
majority. The night before the vote many bishops left Rome knowing
that under the new rules a tragic new innovation would be pushed
through. When the vote was taken many bishops were already gone, and
lightening struck St. Peter’s where the bishops were meeting during
the vote.
Many Roman Catholics refused to accept the new dogma of Papal
Infallibility saying that a New Catholic Faith had been invented at
the Vatican Council. Sound familiar? It should as many say the same
thing about Vatican II. Professing the “Old Catholic” faith, many
Roman Catholics separated from Rome and entered the Orthodox Church or
formed Old Catholic Churches in Europe and the United States. Once
again, rather than a center of unity, Rome was a cause of division.
Less than a century after the First Vatican Council ended the
Second Vatican Council met in Rome. All of the changes in doctrine and
practice adopted over some nine centuries made it easy to again
“change the Church” at and after the Second Vatican Council. After
all, instead of guarding the Deposit of Faith, Rome had come to teach
the idea of “the development of doctrine” in an effort to justify
her various changes in the faith once delivered to the saints
(Jude 3). The Second Vatican Council led to a complete break with the
Tradition, and has been rightly called, “the French Revolution in
the Church.” This revolution has led large numbers of traditional
Roman Catholics to leave the Post-Conciliar Church or to exist in the
shadows on its outer fringes. Once again, rather than a center of
unity, Rome has been the cause of division.
Today, every time a new pope is elected the world media and the
Roman Catholic faithful speculate as to how the new pope will “change
the Church.” But the Church is not supposed to change. Instead,
Christians are commanded to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints (Jude 3).
While Protestantism is divided into countless sects, Rome—as we
have seen—is actually the source of division rather than the center of
unity. Even the Roman Church itself is badly divided internally today
between liberal modernists, charismatics, milk-toast “moderates,” novus ordo
conservatives of all shades, and traditionalists who have staked out
various positions on the outer edges of the Post-Conciliar Church
or, in the case of the Sedevacantists, beyond it.
What has been the fruit of 1,000 years of Roman separation from the
Orthodox Church and doctrinal innovation after innovation? The Great
Schism in 1054, the Protestant Revolution that shattered Western
Christendom in 1517, and the French Revolution in the Roman Church at
Vatican II.
What is to be done?
What is the answer for traditional Roman Catholics who love our
Lord and his Blessed Mother and who are committed the ancient Deposit
of Faith? The Holy Scriptures point the way:
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3).
Thus
saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old
paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest
for your souls (Jeremiah 6:16).
The answer is not to try to turn the clock back to just before
Vatican II as Roman Catholic traditionalists of all varieties often
claim. As we have seen, the problems did not originate at Vatican II.
They are much older than that.
The “Undivided” Church of the first millennium had five great
Patriarchates or branches. When the Roman Patriarchate changed the
Nicene Creed and caused the Great Schism in 1054, the Roman branch was
severed from the other four. A great branch severed from a tree still
looks green and alive. The larger it is the longer it takes to
wither and die. Likewise, the Roman branch still looked strong and
vigorous when it was first broken from the Vine, but as we have seen
in our survey of Church history it was in fact slowly rotting away
until the rot became fully apparent after Vatican II. All of what had
long been called Christendom in Western Europe and the Americas has
now become post-Christian.
What traditional Roman Catholics need to do is to ask for the old
paths and go back to the eleventh century and repair the breach where it began.
Everyone agrees that the Orthodox Church still holds the Faith of the
“Undivided” Church. The Orthodox Church holds today what all five
Patriarchates held during the first millennium of Christian history
when there was essentially only One Church. This is an indisputable
fact of history that no serious historian or theologian questions. The
Orthodox Church has unquestionably guarded the Deposit of Faith.
The Orthodox Church is the oldest Church in the world, the original
Church, and remains unchanged and unchanging.
The Orthodox Church has never added to or subtracted from the
“faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), and has never suffered a
Reformation, Counter Reformation, or a Revolution as seen at and
after the Second Vatican Council. There are no problems with liberal
modernism in the Orthodox Church, no waffling on moral teachings, and
no movements for women priests, liturgical innovation, or the
definition of new dogmas. Despite having no “earthly head” and
maintaining the primitive Christian decentralized ecclesiastical
structure, the Orthodox Church remains fully united and hasn’t
suffered serious schism since 1054. The Orthodox Catholic
1 Church is today what she was 1,000 years ago, 1,500 years ago, 2,000 years ago.
Historically, Rome has claimed that the Orthodox Church is in
“schism.” Let’s examine that claim for a moment. The Roman
Patriarchate unilaterally changed the Nicene Creed and therefore the
Faith of the Church in the year 1014. The other four ancient
Patriarchates held to the Creed that the Church had always professed
and refused to change the Faith. Rome then found herself under the
anathema of the third Ecumenical Council and separated from the other
four Patriarchates. It was Rome who chose to change the faith and fell
under the anathema of a great Ecumenical Council, not the Eastern
Patriarchates. It was Rome who fell away into schism and heresy. The
Eastern Patriarchates maintained the Orthodox Catholic Faith
unchanged, and continue to do so today.
In the 20th century the Orthodox Church went through the worst
persecution in Christian history. More martyrs died for Christ in 70
years under Soviet Communism in Russia and Eastern Europe than were
martyred during the first three centuries of persecution under pagan
Rome. Yet today, Communism has gone the way of the dinosaur and the
Orthodox Church in Russia and throughout Eastern Europe is undergoing a
revival and resurgence that is absolutely unprecedented in Christian
history. Tragically, this too is something that most Roman Catholics
know little or nothing about. They are still praying for the
conversion of Russia when they should be praying for the conversion
of Italy and the West. Russia has always been consecrated to the
Blessed Virgin Mary and historically has been called the Garden of the
Mother of God!
The current persecution of Orthodox Christians in the Middle East
has not shaken their faith or weakened their resolve either, and God
will undoubtedly use it for good and will bring an Orthodox Christian
resurgence in the Moslem dominated Middle East as the blood of the
martyrs is the Seed of the Church. The gates of hell have indeed not
prevailed against the Orthodox Church just as Christ had promised.
This unprecedented Orthodox revival and resurgence has spread
throughout the world. In America the Orthodox Church is one of only a
handful of Christian bodies that is growing, and the growth is not
through immigration. The percentage of foreign born Orthodox
Christians is no larger than the percentage in the population at
large. Today 23 percent of all Orthodox Christians in the United
States—about one in four—are converts, as are 30 percent of the clergy
and 43 percent of seminarians. The numbers are staggering! The
Orthodox Church is experiencing a New Springtime, a New Pentecost, and
is hard at work re-evangelizing the post-Christian West.
The Restoration of the Western Church
Holy Incarnation Western Rite Orthodox Church in Detroit
An important part of this revival and resurgence is the restoration
of the Western Rite in the Orthodox Church and the rebuilding of the
Western Church. There are now Western Rite Orthodox congregations and
monastic communities in North America, Puerto Rico, Great Britain
and the British Commonwealth, and on the Continent of Europe, and
their numbers are growing and their communities spreading. Western
Rite Communities now exist within the Patriarchates of Moscow,
Antioch, Romania and Serbia, with the Western Rite Communities of the
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) being the largest
and fastest growing.
Today, traditional Roman Catholics who enter the Orthodox Church
can worship essentially as they always have, only in full sacramental
communion and visible unity with the 300 million member Orthodox
Catholic Church. Rather than looking back to the 1950s or to the
Council of Trent (which isn’t even as old as the Protestant
Reformation!) they can fully embrace the Faith and Order of the
“Undivided” Church, the Faith of the Church Fathers, the Seven
Ecumenical Councils and the Canon of St. Vincent of Lerins.
Large numbers of Roman Catholics have already come home to the
Orthodox Church and more are coming home every day, but I still find
many who know they should come home, but have not yet done so. Sadly,
unknowingly, many have embraced the modern notion of post-truth.
Rather than dealing with the objective facts, many heed appeals to
emotion and retreat, like Protestants, into the realm of personal
belief.
I
am a convert priest myself and my parish and I have just celebrated
our fifth Easter in the Orthodox Church, and we could not be happier.
Over the years I have known and worked with Roman Catholics who have
become Orthodox Catholics from the Mother Angelica wing of the Roman
Catholic Church, as well as from parishes of the Fraternity of St.
Peter, the Society of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, the Society of
St. Pius X, and the Sedevacantist CMRI.
Pope John Paul II said, “If at the beginning of the third
millennium we are to overcome the divisions of the second millennium,
we must return to the consensus of the first millennium.” He was right
of course, and the Faith and Order of Orthodox Catholicism is the
consensus of the first millennium—that of the “Undivided” Church.
For a millennium, since causing the Great Schism in 1054, Rome has
been the cause of division after division in the West, leading to the
splintering of Western Christendom and ultimately to the
secularization of the West. But the Orthodox Church is restoring the
breach, reuniting Western Christians in the consensus of the first
millennium, re-evangelizing the post-Christian West and rebuilding the
Western Church.
Traditional-minded Roman Catholic clergy, laity, congregations,
religious and religious communities are welcomed with love and open
arms. Come and join us in the Work of rebuilding the Western Church
and re-evangelizing the post-Christian West. Instead of being angry
and frustrated with what you see going on in the Roman Church, you
will be at peace spiritually, excited about what God is doing around
you, in you and through you, and filled with great hope for the
future.
Thus
saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old
paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest
for your souls (Jeremiah 6:16).
And
they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou
shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be
called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in (Isaiah 58:12).
We love being Orthodox. You will too. Everyone is welcome. Come and See!
π. Ευάγγελος Γκανάς