John Vennari“This is a new concept which we know the Traditionalists will not be able to accept immediately. Convincing them will take time, and in this respect we will have to be patient.”
– Archbishop Joseph Augustine Di Noia, newly-appointed Vice-Prefect of the Vatican’s Ecclesia Dei
In 1946, Father Garrigou-Lagrange warned in his landmark article against the modernist New Theology:
“Those who have attempted to attend the classes of the masters of modernist thought in order to convert them have allowed themselves to be converted by them.”
It is clear the same ruse is being applied to the Society of St. Pius X.
Vatican Insider posted a July 2 interview with Joseph Augustine Di Noia, newly-appointed Vice-Prefect of the Vatican’s Ecclesia Dei.
Though the interview deserves a much fuller treatment, we will spotlight for now Archbishop Di Noia’s remarkable comments about the Society of St. Pius X and modern Judaism. He says:
“After three years of dialogue [the doctrinal discussions] we still need to understand what the SSPX position is on the Jewish Community and Judaism. ”
After three years the Vatican still does not understand what is the SSPX’s position on these points? This should be no great mystery.
The SSPX position is nothing more than the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church throughout the ages, that all non-Catholics, Jews included, must convert to the Catholic Church for salvation. There is no salvation outside the Church.
The SSPX position is what the Church has always taught: the Old Covenant is superseded and made obsolete by the New. Those who are still members of non-Catholic societies, such as Judaism or Protestantism, can only be saved by leaving their false positions and joining the one true Church that Christ established.
This should not be a difficult concept for a Catholic.
The position of the Society of St. Pius X can also be summarized in Pius XI’s loving prayer for the conversion of the Jews contained in the Consecration of the Human Race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which Pius wished to be recited in every Catholic Church on the Feast of Christ the King:
“Turn Thine eyes of mercy towards the children of that race, once Thy chosen people: of old they called down upon themselves the Blood of the Savior; may It now descend upon them, a laver of redemption and of life.”
Archbishop Di Noia then grants us a great favor He openly admits something we have long surmised: that the purpose of the Vatican’s discussions with the SSPX, and its work for so-called “regularization,” is to convert the SSPX to Conciliar thinking.
Here is the key section of the interview. Archbishop Di Noia says:
“The Church’s deep commitment to reconciliation with the Jewish People is personified today by Benedict XVI. The Ecumenical Council wrought a fundamental change. Then John Paul II, above all others, brought home Paul’s message that Judaism and Jews have a unique place in salvation history. Nobody can deny that Karol Wojtyla’s Pontificate marked a major shift in the theological understanding of Judaism within the Catholic Church.”
First of all, it is not accurate to invoke Saint Paul in this new enterprise, for it is Saint Paul who declares explicitly that Our Lord’s New Covenant “has made obsolete the former one,” that is, made obsolete the old Judaic Covenant. (Heb. 8:13) No Pope has the authority to reject this Scriptural truth, as the Word of God is infallible, and the Church has always interpreted this verse accordintly. The new approach mentioned by Archbishop Di Noia is a case of twisting the words of Saint Paul to fit the new ecumenical orientation. This is a old tactic of ecumenists, but too much to detail at the moment.
Most important, however, are the terms “fundamental change” and “major shift”. Di Noia admits that Vatican II’s approach, and the subsequent orientation of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI are a change, a shift. We are not receiving the Catholic Faith from them “in the same meaning and in the same explanation” as is commanded by Vatican I and the Oath Against Modernism, but a major shift, a change.
Once again, we see proof that Vatican II is a rupture with the past, which cannot realistically be accepted by means of a “hermeneutic of continuity.” Here, there is no continuity.
Archbishop di Noia then delivers the payload:
“Vatican II repudiated anti-Semitism and presented a positive picture of Judaism. John Paul II took us further in recognizing the significance of the Jewish People for Christianity itself. This is a new concept which we know the Traditionalists will not be able to accept immediately. Convincing them will take time, and in this respect we will have to be patient.”
There you have it. Traditional Catholics are expected to effectively abandon the perennial truths of the Catholic Faith regarding the absolute necessity for non-Catholics – Jews included – to leave their religious affiliations and convert to Christ’s one true Church. Again, we see no “hermeneutic of continuity” here, but a “new concept” This is neo-Modernisn in action, something no Catholic is bound to accept. In fact, our first duty is to resist.
And yes, they will embark on a program of “convincing us” of these modernist tenets, and are content to take the long period of time such convincing will require.
How much more explicit need he be?
Today’s Vatican would prefer we effectively discard the infallible decree of the Council of Florence which teaches:
“The Most Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that none of those existing outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews, heretics, and schismatics can ever be partakers of eternal life, but that they are to go into the eternal fire ‘which was prepared for the devil and his angels,’ (Mt. 25:41) unless before death they are joined with her; and that so important is the unity of this Ecclesiastical Body, that only those remaining within this unity can profit from the sacraments of the Church unto salvation, and that they alone can receive an eternal recompense for their fasts, almsdeeds, and other works of Christian piety and duties of a Christian soldier. No one, let his almsgiving be as great as it may, no one, even if he pour out his blood for the Name of Christ, can be saved unless they abide within the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.”
Today’s Church leaders, in the name of Vatican II novelties, would prefer we no longer quote Our Lord Himself who said to the Jews of his day, “If you do not believe that I am He [the Messiah], you will die in your sins.” (John 8:24); or that we quote His words to the Jews, “You search the Scripture because in them you think you have life everlasting. And it is they that bear witness to Me, yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40).
Today’s post-Concliar Vatican is no doubt embarrassed by Saint John who, faithful to Our Lord’s teaching, says likewise, “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2: 22)
For what is Pope John Paul’s major contribution to Jewish Catholic relations, but the promotion of the new belief that Jews have their own unique Covenant with God and need not convert to the Catholic Church for salvation.
Sergio Itzhak Minerbi, Israel’s former Ambassador to the Ivory Coast, Belgium, praised John Paul’s new approach to Judaism:
“For centuries, the Church has claimed to be the ‘true Israel’, thus substituting the Jewish religion. It is therefore important that, in a meeting with the Jewish community in Mainz on 17 November 1980, the Pope announced his respect for ‘the people of God, of the Old Covenant, which has never been revoked by God’.”
Likewise Abraham Foxman from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, no friend of the Catholic Church, celebrated Pope John Paul II as the man who “rejected the destructive concept of supersessionism,” that is, rejected the Catholic truth that the New Covenant of Jesus Christ superseded and made obsolete the Old Judaic Covenant.
And what is Pope Benedict’s novel approach to the Jewish people, but the claim that Jews and Catholics worship the same God, and that Jews and Catholics have a “common mission” to be a witness to God in the world, with no mention of the need for the Jews to convert.
At the Rome synagogue in 2010, Pope Benedict said:
“Christians and Jews share to a great extent a common spiritual patrimony, they pray to the same Lord, they have the same roots, and yet they often remain unknown to each other. It is our duty, in response to God’s call, to strive to keep open the space for dialogue, for reciprocal respect, for growth in friendship, for a common witness in the face of the challenges of our time, which invite us to cooperate for the good of humanity in this world created by God, the Omnipotent and Merciful.”
Yet we know that Jews and Christians do not worship the same God. Jews, alas, reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Messiah. It is Saint John, the Apostle of Love, who writes:
“He who honereth not the Son, honereth not the Father, who hath sent Him” (John 5:23).
Finally, the new approach to be a “common witness” to God along with Jews implicitly demands we no longer speak of the need for their conversion to Christ’s one true Church for salvation. It effectively tells Jews they have the moral freedom to live their lives as if Jesus Christ were a fraud and imposter.
Yet it is this new approach that Archbishop Di Noia openly admits that traditional Catholics are expected to accept. Clearly, traditional Catholics will be ‘worked on’ to be persuaded of this new orientation.
We thank Archbishop Di Noia for saying openly what many of us have long surmised: The Vatican’s goal in Rome/SSPX dialogue is to convert traditional Catholics to Conciliar thinking.
We repeat again Archbishop Di Noia’s key phrase:
“This is a new concept which we know the Traditionalists will not be able to accept immediately. Convincing them will take time, and in this respect we will have to be patient.”
To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
We will write more about the Archbishop di Noia’s interview, and the true Catholic doctrine regarding Judaism, in the near future.
-On all quotes, emphasis added by John Vennari
Matt Gaspers
