Finally, a Prince of the Church has had the courage to denounce the Instrumentum Laboris (IL) for the upcoming “Pan-Amazon Synod” for what it is: “heretical” and “an attack on the foundations of the Faith.” The threat goes far beyond even the obvious conspiracy to use the supposed scarcity of priests in the vast but sparely populated tropical forests of the region as a pretext to introduce both married priests and some sort of female “deacon” into the life of the Church.
In an interview published by LifeSiteNews, Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, one of the two surviving “dubia cardinals,” displayed the kind of candor that thus far has been lacking in other would-be defenders of orthodoxy against the Modernist onslaught of this pontificate. He notes, first of all, that this synod (like all the others, I might add) is a sham event designed to conceal a conspiracy to subvert the Church: “It is truly astonishing that… the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Amazon will deal exclusively with a region of the earth whose population is just half that of Mexico City, that is to say, 4 million. This also raises suspicions regarding the true intentions to be implemented in a hidden way at the October assembly.”
Moreover, the Cardinal asks: “What do ecology, economy, and politics have to do with the mandate and mission of the Church? More importantly: what professional expertise authorizes an ecclesial synod of bishops to express itself on such topics?”
Ranging far beyond a transparent plot to foist married priests and women “deacons” on the Church, the IL, Brandmüller warns, presents a “very positive assessment of natural religions, including indigenous healing … mythic-religious practices and cult forms” and “even [includes] talk about ‘dialogue with the spirits’ (n. 75).” The document is pervaded by a depiction of forest-dwelling tribes as the noble savages of Rousseau’s mythology versus “the decadent European” who needs to learn from the enlightened ones living in huts about how to be in harmony with nature and the cosmos.
The Amazonian forest, Brandmüller observes, now “becomes a locus theologicus, a special source of Divine Revelation. These are ‘epiphanic places’ where ‘the reserve of life and wisdom for the planet is manifest, a life and wisdom that speaks of God’ (n. 19).” This theme of nature worship is combined with the “impossible to conceal” intent to “implement two most cherished projects that heretofore have never been implemented: namely, the abolition of priestly celibacy and the introduction of a female priesthood – beginning with female deacons” and a “direct attack on the hierarchical-sacramental constitution of the Church, when it is suggested that it would be opportune ‘to reconsider the notion that the exercise of jurisdiction (power of government) must be linked in all areas (sacramental, judicial, administrative) and in a permanent way to the Sacrament of Holy Orders.’ (no. 127).”
“Equally spectacular,” says Brandmüller, is “the ideology of a falsely understood inculturation” according to which “certain forms from natural religions are to be positively adopted,” including “images, symbols, traditions, rites and other sacraments” (no. 126 e).” Other sacraments!
In sum, the Cardinal warns, what is being prepared for the meeting in Rome this October is nothing less than “a serious break with the depositum fidei [Deposit of Faith]” which “implies the self-destruction of the Church or the change of the Corpus Christi mysticum [Mystical Body of Christ] into a secular NGO with an ecological-social-psychological mandate.”
Going even further in his denunciation of the planned travesty, the Cardinal declares that it threatens “a decisive break with the apostolic tradition constitutive of the Church,” a “new form of the classical Modernism of the early twentieth century” and “an attack on the foundations of the Faith, in a way that has heretofore not been thought possible.”
The IL “contradicts the binding teaching of the Church on decisive points, and is therefore to be qualified as heretical…. Inasmuch as the fact of Divine Revelation is here even being questioned or misunderstood, one must also speak of apostasy.” The IL, Brandmüller concludes, “must therefore be firmly and decidedly rejected.”
Now, this is a Cardinal – not a “radical traditionalist” or “Fatimite” – speaking about an official document propounded by Rome. Moreover, as President of the Pontifical Council for Historical Sciences with expertise in the history of ecumenical councils, Brandmüller knows the Church has never witnessed anything like this in her entire history.
What are we witnessing, then, if not the final skirmish of the “final battle” of which Father Gruner spoke constantly while the enlightened ones of the mainstream ecclesial establishment laughed him to scorn?
I am no prophet, but it does not take a prophet to know that we ought to be preparing ourselves for the most dramatic events in both the Church and the world in the days to come, in which it seems the Adversary is mounting a final assault that threatens to breach and overrun the citadel. God will never allow that attack to succeed, for it would destroy the Church. But by what terrifying prodigies will He have to repel it, given that — as this preposterous synod demonstrates — Rome in the human sense has unconditionally surrendered to the spirit of the age?
Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.