(LifeSiteNews) — In his 1928 encyclical on religious unity, Mortalium Animos, Pope Pius XI warned the Catholic Church about the evils of seeking Christian unity through a process other than encouraging non-Catholics to become Catholic. As we can see from his clear teaching below, he foresaw that the errors of false ecumenism would lead to the evils we see today. Thus, if we seek to remedy the evils we see today, we should understand, and follow, what Pius XI taught almost 100 years ago.
Desire for Christian unity through interreligious endeavors
Pius XI began with a recognition that, for the sake of promoting peace among the nations, many people desired to strengthen the “fraternal relationship which binds and unites us together.” Similarly, he wrote, some people sought to obtain Christian unity through a process of fostering dialogue through interreligious gatherings:
A similar object is aimed at by some, in those matters which concern the New Law promulgated by Christ our Lord. For since they hold it for certain that men destitute of all religious sense are very rarely to be found, they seem to have founded on that belief a hope that the nations, although they differ among themselves in certain religious matters, will without much difficulty come to agree as brethren in professing certain doctrines, which form as it were a common basis of the spiritual life. For which reason conventions, meetings and addresses are frequently arranged by these persons, at which a large number of listeners are present, and at which all without distinction are invited to join in the discussion, both infidels of every kind, and Christians, even those who have unhappily fallen away from Christ or who with obstinacy and pertinacity deny His divine nature and mission.
One would not need to change much about this passage to accurately describe the types of Vatican-sponsored interreligious gatherings that have become increasingly common since Vatican II. We typically hear of such activities in connection with the ecumenical movement that has thrived for the past 60 years. To distinguish the legitimate attempts at promoting Christian unity from those endeavors condemned by Pope Pius XI, we can identify these latter efforts by the term that has been applied to them since the Council: false ecumenism.
Pius XI continued by unambiguously forbidding Catholics from supporting such endeavors:
Certainly such attempts can nowise be approved by Catholics, founded as they are on that false opinion which considers all religions to be more or less good and praiseworthy, since they all in different ways manifest and signify that sense which is inborn in us all, and by which we are led to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule. Not only are those who hold this opinion in error and deceived, but also in distorting the idea of true religion they reject it, and little by little, turn aside to naturalism and atheism, as it is called; from which it clearly follows that one who supports those who hold these theories and attempt to realize them, is altogether abandoning the divinely revealed religion.
He wrote that the foundation of these misguided efforts to achieve Christian unity is a “false opinion which considers all religions to be more or less good and praiseworthy.” This error eventually leads to “naturalism and atheism” and the abandonment of divinely revealed religion.
Within the first few paragraphs of Mortalium Animos, Pope Pius XI warned the Church that those who attempt to achieve Christian unity through the types of interreligious endeavors so prevalent today would lead souls to abandon the Faith.
The arguments of pan-Christians
Pope Pius XI continued by detailing the arguments made by those who promote false ecumenism:
But some are more easily deceived by the outward appearance of good when there is question of fostering unity among all Christians. Is it not right, it is often repeated, indeed, even consonant with duty, that all who invoke the name of Christ should abstain from mutual reproaches and at long last be united in mutual charity? Who would dare to say that he loved Christ, unless he worked with all his might to carry out the desires of Him, Who asked His Father that His disciples might be ‘one.’ And did not the same Christ will that His disciples should be marked out and distinguished from others by this characteristic, namely that they loved one another: ‘By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another?’ All Christians, they add, should be as ‘one’: for then they would be much more powerful in driving out the pest of irreligion, which like a serpent daily creeps further and becomes more widely spread, and prepares to rob the Gospel of its strength.
As Pius XI clearly understood, all of these arguments have some appeal to Catholics of good will. However, he added, the “pan-Christians” use these arguments to promote ideas and activities which Catholics must reject:
These things and others that class of men who are known as pan-Christians continually repeat and amplify; and these men, so far from being quite few and scattered, have increased to the dimensions of an entire class, and have grouped themselves into widely spread societies, most of which are directed by non-Catholics, although they are imbued with varying doctrines concerning the things of faith. This undertaking is so actively promoted as in many places to win for itself the adhesion of a number of citizens, and it even takes possession of the minds of very many Catholics and allures them with the hope of bringing about such a union as would be agreeable to the desires of Holy Mother Church, who has indeed nothing more at heart than to recall her erring sons and to lead them back to her bosom.
If those making these arguments were working to achieve Christian unity through the legitimate process of bringing souls to the true Catholic Faith, then there would be no problem. However, when wielded by those seeking to unite Christians by distorting Catholicism, these arguments serve the enemies of Catholicism rather than God.
Pope Pius XI’s duty to warn and correct
Because these arguments could persuade the unwary, Pius XI needed to warn Catholics against the evils of what we now know as false ecumenism:
But in reality beneath these enticing words and blandishments lies hid a most grave error, by which the foundations of the Catholic faith are completely destroyed. Admonished, therefore, by the consciousness of Our Apostolic office that We should not permit the flock of the Lord to be cheated by dangerous fallacies, We invoke, Venerable Brethren, your zeal in avoiding this evil; for We are confident that by the writings and words of each one of you the people will more easily get to know and understand those principles and arguments which We are about to set forth, and from which Catholics will learn how they are to think and act when there is question of those undertakings which have for their end the union in one body, whatsoever be the manner, of all who call themselves Christians.
Pope Pius XI was writing not simply for the Catholics alive in 1928 but for all Catholics who would subsequently consider the prospect of Christian unity. And because God’s truth does not change, we can be confident that Pius XI’s warnings and counsels in Mortalium Animos remain valid for us today, even though they are rejected by Francis and almost his entire hierarchy.
Cannot compromise with the faith
After discussing various ways in which the proponents of false ecumenism rationalize their desire for unity through illegitimate means, Pius XI wrote of the need for Catholics to defend and propagate the unadulterated Catholic Faith:
[I]t is clear that the Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part in their assemblies, nor is it anyway lawful for Catholics either to support or to work for such enterprises; for if they do so they will be giving countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ. Shall We suffer, what would indeed be iniquitous, the truth, and a truth divinely revealed, to be made a subject for compromise? For here there is question of defending revealed truth. Jesus Christ sent His Apostles into the whole world in order that they might permeate all nations with the Gospel faith, and, lest they should err, He willed beforehand that they should be taught by the Holy Ghost: has then this doctrine of the Apostles completely vanished away, or sometimes been obscured, in the Church, whose ruler and defense is God Himself?
For some serious Catholics today, it may not be readily apparent why false ecumenism leads to a compromise with the Faith — we have had both false ecumenism and compromises with the Faith so long that the causal relationship between the two might be easy to overlook. To understand one aspect of how false ecumenism leads to compromises with the Faith, we can look to a passage from Michael Davies’ Pope John’s Council, in which he describes how one Council Father responded to the “ecumenical preoccupation” at Vatican II:
The preoccupation with appeasement rather than truth was not unopposed. Bishop Luigi Carli of Segni ‘maintained that certain Council Fathers had carried their ecumenical preoccupation to excess. It was no longer possible, he charged, to speak about Our Lady; no one might be called heretical; no one might use the expression ‘Church Militant’; and it was no longer possible to call attention to the inherent powers of the Catholic Church.’ (p. 88)
Defenders of Vatican II often argue that the Council’s documents did not contain any overt heresies. Whether or not this is the case, no reasonable person who has studied Vatican II can honestly deny that the Council’s documents consistently omit or diminish the fullness of Catholic truth for the sake of placating non-Catholics. This tragic failure to boldly proclaim the unadulterated Catholic Faith has only increased in the decades following the Council.
False ecumenism also leads to compromises with the Faith because it erroneously signals that the Catholic Church can change its teaching such that it contradicts what it once taught. To see an example of this we need only reflect on the encyclical under consideration: Pope Pius XI’s Mortalium Animos directly repudiates the most important initiative undertaken at Vatican II. If the Church could actually change in this way, though, it could not possibly be a truth-teller and there would be no reason to become or remain Catholic.
Finally, we can see that false ecumenism makes the entire Catholic religion appear ridiculous because it sends the message that Protestants do not need to convert to the Catholic Faith to please God and save their souls. Defenders of false ecumenism may suggest that only God can judge the state of souls — and this is obviously true — but in the ordinary course it is the role of the Catholic Church to lead souls to the religion established by God. Tragically, though, the practical lesson of false ecumenism is that you can please God, and be saved, by practicing Protestant religions. If that is the case, then why would anyone choose to follow the Catholic Church’s comparatively onerous rules?
The plague of religious indifferentism
As Pius XI wrote, all such compromises with the Faith naturally lead to religious indifferentism:
But We do know that from this it is an easy step to the neglect of religion or indifferentism and to modernism, as they call it. Those, who are unhappily infected with these errors, hold that dogmatic truth is not absolute but relative, that is, it agrees with the varying necessities of time and place and with the varying tendencies of the mind, since it is not contained in immutable revelation, but is capable of being accommodated to human life. Besides this, in connection with things which must be believed, it is nowise licit to use that distinction which some have seen fit to introduce between those articles of faith which are fundamental and those which are not fundamental, as they say, as if the former are to be accepted by all, while the latter may be left to the free assent of the faithful: for the supernatural virtue of faith has a formal cause, namely the authority of God revealing, and this is patient of no such distinction.
Almost 100 years ago, Pius XI saw so clearly that the false ecumenism that has thrived for the past 60 years would lead to the grave evil of religious indifferentism. This is entirely fitting because the Catholic Faith given to us by God is the only true religion: if, thanks to false ecumenism, we become convinced that we do not need the religion God gave us, then choosing from among the alternatives is merely a matter of personal taste. As such, if we seek to address the widespread religious indifferentism plaguing the Church and world today, we should turn our attention to eradicating false ecumenism.
Charity is based on complete and sincere faith
Pope Pius XI continued by insisting that true Christian charity demands that Catholics try to spread and defend the unadulterated Catholic Faith:
These pan-Christians who turn their minds to uniting the churches seem, indeed, to pursue the noblest of ideas in promoting charity among all Christians: nevertheless how does it happen that this charity tends to injure faith? Everyone knows that John himself, the Apostle of love, who seems to reveal in his Gospel the secrets of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and who never ceased to impress on the memories of his followers the new commandment ‘Love one another,’ altogether forbade any intercourse with those who professed a mutilated and corrupt version of Christ’s teaching: ‘If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him: God speed you.’ For which reason, since charity is based on a complete and sincere faith, the disciples of Christ must be united principally by the bond of one faith.
If Catholics truly love their neighbors, they should want to lead non-Catholics to the Catholic Faith. Michael Davies referred to Mortalium Animos to emphasize this point in his Pope John’s Council:
The only Catholic and practical form of ecumenism is to present the faith courteously and clearly to Protestants as individuals, doing everything possible to clear away misconceptions without compromising the truth. What the Church teaches is true, and it follows that where Protestants reject Catholic teaching they are rejecting the truth, however sincere they may be in the their beliefs. No one is more injured by the policy of Catholic ecumenists in obscuring the truth to please Protestants than are Protestants themselves. If they are given the impression that one religion is as good as another they are unlikely to abandon their errors and accept the invitation made by Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos. Any form of ecumenism which does not base itself upon this invitation is a betrayal of the Catholic Faith. (p. 158)
This ought to be common sense for Catholics. If we truly believe that God has given us the Catholic Faith so that we can serve Him and save our souls, the greatest act of charity we can perform for our neighbor is to share the true religion. Conversely, it is one of the worst imaginable offenses against God for the purported representatives of the Catholic Church to mislead souls into thinking that they do not need to practice the unadulterated Catholic Faith.
Remedy for false ecumenism
Pius XI closed his encyclical by teaching us the remedy for false ecumenism:
So, Venerable Brethren, it is clear why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in the assemblies of non-Catholics: for 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, for in the past they have unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its Author, exactly the same as He instituted it. . . Let, therefore, the separated children draw nigh to the Apostolic See, set up in the City which Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles, consecrated by their blood; to that See, We repeat, which is ‘the root and womb whence the Church of God springs,’ not with the intention and the hope that ‘the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth’ will cast aside the integrity of the faith and tolerate their errors, but, on the contrary, that they themselves submit to its teaching and government.
This is the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church, which will always be true, no matter who says otherwise. And the false ecumenism condemned by Pope Pius XI will always be false, no matter who says otherwise. If we genuinely want to fight for the Catholic Church, there are few better ways to do so than by trying to promote the truths contained in Pope Pius XI’s Mortalium Animos against the lies that have been spread through false ecumenism. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!