A Huge Heresy: Benedict XVI rejects the “ecumenism of the return” just like Kasper – and Chris Ferrara omits it

By Bro. Michael Dimond, O.S.B.

Ecumenism is a word that was used before Vatican II to indicate the apostolic endeavor to convert all to Catholicism.  True ecumenism is connected with the Catholic dogma Outside the Church There is No Salvation – and the teaching that non-Catholics must return to the Catholic Church.

Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos (#10), Jan. 6, 1928: “… the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it…”

After Vatican II (and as a result of it), this dogma has been completely rejected.  The term “ecumenism” has taken on a new meaning: “ecumenism” now describes the movement to unite with, accept, endorse and/or pray with heretical sects and false religions.  The false ecumenism of the Vatican II sect teaches that non-Catholics don’t need to return to the Catholic Church for unity and salvation.  As “Cardinal” Walter Kasper, the Vatican II sect’s Prefect for Christian Unity, put it:

Cardinal Walter Kasper, Prefect of Vatican Council for Promoting Christian Unity: “… today we no longer understand ecumenism in the sense of a return, by which the others would ‘be converted’ and return to being Catholics.  This was expressly abandoned by Vatican II.” (Adista, Feb. 26, 2001)

Since Kasper boldly rejects the necessity of non-Catholics to convert, even some of the “traditionalists” who accept Benedict XVI admit that he is a heretic.  Well, in an Address on World Youth Day, Aug. 19, 2005, Benedict XVI said the same thing as Kasper:

Benedict XVI, Address to Protestants at World Youth Day, August 19, 2005: “And we now ask: What does it mean to restore the unity of all Christians?... This unity, we are convinced, indeed subsists in the Catholic Church, without the possibility of ever being lost (Unitatis Redintegratio, nn. 2, 4, etc.); the Church in fact has not totally disappeared from the world.  On the other hand, this unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return: that is, to deny and to reject one’s own faith history.  Absolutely not!” (L’Osservatore Romano, August 24, 2005, p. 8.)

This, ladies and gentlemen, is huge.  We now have Benedict XVI, in an address to Protestants on Christian unity, rejecting the “ecumenism of the return.”  He rejects the teaching of Pope Pius XI word for word. 

Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos (#10), Jan. 6, 1928: “… the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it…”

Benedict XVI rejects the necessity of Protestants to convert and reject their own faith history.  He uses basically the same words as Kasper’s notorious heresy above.  Benedict XVI is explicitly telling the Protestants that they have no obligation to be Catholic –  “Absolutely not,” says Benedict XVI, to the idea of Protestants needing to convert to Catholicism in a speech to Protestants!  Benedict XVI could not be more formally heretical. 

What will the non-sedevacantists say now?  Their Antipope is explicitly telling the Protestants that they absolutely do not need to convert to the Catholic Church!  What an abomination!  What an outrage that anyone would obstinately defend as a Pope (and therefore as a Catholic) such a notorious non-Catholic heretic! 

Well, in the Aug. 31, 2005 issue of The Remnant, Chris Ferrara quoted parts of this speech.  However, Chris Ferrara omitted the above statement of Benedict XVI which rejected the “ecumenism of the return,” even though Ferrara quoted parts of the speech that came just before and just after this notorious heresy. 

Chris Ferrara, “Vehicle of the Meta-Heresy,” The Remnant, Aug. 31, 2005, p. 1: “In Cologne, during the just-concluded World Youth Day 2005, Benedict even suggested – the nightmare deepens, my friends – that ‘ecumenical dialogue’ has somehow become a revealed truth… In the same address, Pope Benedict asked: ‘What does it mean to restore the unity of all Christians?’  In response to his own question the Pope gave an answer that shows why ‘ecumenism’ has paralyzed the evangelical mission of the Church, causing conversions to dwindle from a pre-conciliar torrent to a post-conciliar trickle: ‘The Catholic Church has as her goal the full visible unity of the disciples of Christ, as defined by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council… This unity subsists, we are convinced, in the Catholic Church, without the possibility of ever being lost…This does not, however, mean uniformity in all expressions of theology and spirituality, in liturgical forms and in discipline…’
     “After forty years of statements like this, the faithful are entitled to an explanation of what happened to the teaching of the Catholic Church that, as Pius XI declared in Mortalium Animos only 34 years before Vatican II, ‘the union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it…’” (bolding my own)

Let’s compare the texts: the translation that I’m using (from L’Osservatore Romano) is slightly different from the one Ferrara is using, but they are almost identical.  I will bold, underline and italicize the part that Ferrara omitted: 

Benedict XVI, Address to Protestants at World Youth Day, August 19, 2005: “This unity, we are convinced, indeed subsists in the Catholic Church, without the possibility of ever being lost (Unitatis Redintegratio, nn. 2, 4, etc.); the Church in fact has not totally disappeared from the world.  On the other hand, this unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return: that is, to deny and to reject one’s own faith history.  Absolutely not!  It does not mean uniformity in all expressions of theology and spirituality, in liturgical forms and in discipline.” (L’Osservatore Romano, August 24, 2005, p. 8.)

Notice that the crucial part - the part that I have bolded, italicized and underlined above – is omitted by Ferrara when he quotes Benedict XVI in The Remnant.  Notice that Ferrara goes right from the part about the unity never being lost to the part about “uniformity in all expressions,” omitting with ellipses the part where Benedict XVI bluntly repeats the heresy of Kasper!

Chris Ferrara, “Vehicle of the Meta-Heresy,” The Remnant, Aug. 31, 2005, p. 1: “[Benedict XVI says]: ‘This unity subsists, we are convinced, in the Catholic Church, without the possibility of ever being lost…This does not, however, mean uniformity in all expressions of theology and spirituality, in liturgical forms and in discipline…’”

So, instead of revealing how Benedict XVI rejects the “ecumenism of the return,” and how he is just as notoriously heretical as the non-Catholic “Cardinal” Kasper, this is not included for some strange reason in The Remnant – even though Ferrara quotes the paragraphs of this speech that immediately precede and follow this astounding heresy! 

Is it possible that the version from which Ferrara was working didn’t include Benedict XVI’s bold heresy?  It’s possible, but highly doubtful.  Benedict XVI’s paragraph (not included by Ferrara) was carried in the official Vatican newspaper and in an internet version of the speech that I read.  If he did know about it, then he is utterly dishonest for not including it.  In that case, he obviously didn’t include it because it is so devastating to his anti-sedevacantist arguments.  Regardless of whether he knew about it, the heresy utterly destroys any claim that Benedict XVI is a Catholic or a Pope.  Let them print this in The Remnant and explain how their Antipope is actually a “Catholic Pope” while he tells the Protestants that they “absolutely” do not have to be Catholic.