Fatima Rosary Rally, Toronto Airport Sheraton, April 20th

Yesterday I told a reader in Uzbekistan -- no kidding -- that, now that the conclave is over, I probably wouldn't be writing too much about the affairs of the Church, unless the Holy Father drops some kind of bombshell on us. Such as a return to Traditional Catholicism.

Not much chance of that. I note with dismay that Pope Francis is to be "installed", not consecrated or crowned as tradition demands. Nor could he be anything other than "installed", since he, like Benedict XVI, was never consecrated as a bishop, merely "installed" according to the Protestant-style "New Ordinal" of 1969.

I note with even more dismay that, for the new Pope's first Mass, the Protestant picnic table was returned to its place of dishonour in the Sistine Chapel, concealing the beauty of Michelangelo's inspired art. And the message of his "homily" was hardly even Christian. What Francis told the Cardinals was that the Church should not -- repeat, not -- try to impose its message on a modern society that doesn't want to hear it. The Church needs to be "one with the people". In other words, the Faith should be made to conform to popular sentiment, rather than ask the faithful to conform to the Truth revealed by God.

So... going by first impressions, I'd say the outlook for a revival of the Faith of our Fathers is pretty gloomy. But we can hope. And we can pray! Good Catholics in the Toronto area -- and let's not forget Buffalo! -- are encouraged to attend a Fatima Rosary Rally, sponsored by the Fatima Center, to be held at the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel & Conference Centre on Saturday, April 20th, beginning at 12:30 p.m.

The Miraculous Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima -- blessed by Pope Paul VI -- will be present. Father Nicholas Gruner, "the Fatima Priest", will speak, as will Walt's old friend John Vennari, editor of Catholic Family News.

You will have an opportunity to be enrolled -- with your family members if you wish -- in the Brown Scapular, Our Lady's protection in these dangerous times. Sacramentals and literature on the Message of Fatima will be available. Admission is free, and the benefits and graces to be obtained many.

For more information or directions to the Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel & Conference Centre, call the Fatima Center, toll-free, 1-800-845-3047. Tell them  you read about the rally in Walt Whiteman's World!

Pope again endorses "Spirit of Assisi" heresy of relativism

Pope Benedict XVI has sent his greetings to this year's Inter-religious Gathering of Prayer for World Peace, held at Mount Hiel, in Japan. The Pontiff noted that the meeting evokes "the spirit of the 1986 historic meeting in Assisi" convened by Pope John Paul II.

The Pope expressed confidence that the meeting would produce positive results for "inter-religious amity", which is a Vatican code-phrase for the false ecumenism condemned by Archbishop Lefebvre and others who hold to the traditional Catholic Faith. Properly understood, the "spirit of Assisi" is an expression of relativism -- the heretical notion that one religion is as good as another, because all roads lead to God.

Relativism (or indifferentism) is a form or subset of the heresy of modernism, condemned in 1907 in the syllabus Lamentabili sane exitu, which distinguished sixty-five propositions as modernist heresies. In the same year Pope Saint Pius X promulgated the encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis. This was followed in 1910 by the introduction of an anti-Modernist oath to be taken by all Catholic bishops, priests and academic teachers of religion. Presumably Pope Ratzinger took this oath, but perhaps he has forgotten it.

Writing in Catholic Family News, John Vennari comments:
The new ecumenical orientation, such as manifested in the "Spirit of Assisi" threatens the salvation of countless souls, as it effectively tells non-Catholics to remain in the darkness of their false religions. It also threatens to bring with it a great chastisement.

In the early 20th Century, the eminent European churchman Cardinal Mercier, citing the consistent teaching of the Popes, stated that the Great War was actually a punishment for the crime of nations placing the one True Religion on the same level as false creeds, as does the "Spirit of Assisi".

Cardinal Mercier said in his 1918 Pastoral titled "The Lesson of Events":
"In the name of the Gospel, and in the light of the Encyclicals of the last four Popes..., I do not hesitate to affirm that this indifference to religions which puts on the same level the religion of divine origin and the religions invented by men in order to include them in the same scepticism is the blasphemy which calls down chastisement on society far more than the sins of individuals and families."

The "Spirit of Assisi" also gives visual expression to the central error of our time: that any religion is good enough for salvation. [My emphasis. Walt.] The world sees the Pope of the Catholic Church, as well as Catholic bishops and clergy, placing the one true Church established by Christ on the same base level as counterfeit religions. This cannot help but foster the religious indifferentism vigorously condemned by the Popes prior to Vatican II. In the face of this affront to the true Faith, Catholics must not be complacent, but must publicly and ceaselessly resist.

Worth reading: "Relativism - A Central Heresy of our Culture", on the Christian Medical Fellowship website.