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Handout #272 |
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Pius XI against growing ecumenism |
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The pope refused to take part in the first
ecumenical movements (Life and Work, Faith and Order), He forbade Catholics
to be involved in them, arguing that only the Catholic Church possessed the
truth. He spoke as Gregory XVI and Pius IX had done in their day.
There are those who nurture the hope that it would be easy to lead people, despite their religious differences, to unite in the profession of certain doctrines accepted as a common basis of spiritual life. As a result they hold conferences and meetings ... Such efforts have no right to the approval of Catholics, since they are based on this erroneous opinion that all religions are more or less good and laudable ... By that very token, those who hold this opinion reject the true religion. Thus the pan- Christians have founded associations which are usually directed by non Catholics, despite their personal differences over the truths of faith ... The enterprise has caught the goodwill of a number of Catholics... Under the seduction of thought and the charm of words and undoubted error of the worst kind has slipped in, which is capable of ruining the foundations of the Catholic faith from top to bottom. The Apostolic See cannot on any pretext take part in their conferences, and Catholics do not have at any price the right to support them by their vote or by their action. The Apostolic See has never allowed Catholics to attend meetings of non-Catholics; the union of Christians can only go forward by encouraging the dissidents to return to the one true Church of Jesus Christ, which they once had the misfortune to abandon. Pius XI, Encyclical Mortalium animos, 6, January 1928. |
