VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) – Today St. Peter’s Basilica will host a public debate between a Catholic, an Orthodox, and a Protestant theologian on the primacy of Peter.
The November 22 debate, entitled “On this rock I will build my Church,” is part of the Vatican Lectio Petri project. This is a series of four meetings, sponsored by St. Peter’s Basilica, the Courtyard of the Gentiles, and the Fratelli tutti Foundation. According to the Vatican’s announcement, the project is “dedicated to the life and ministry of the saint in theology, history, arts and culture.” The theologians to take part in the debate are Prof. Dimitrios Keramidas, the Orthodox theologian; Prof. Paolo Ricca, the Protestant theologian; and Prof. Don Dario Vitali, the Catholic theologian.
Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, Archpriest of the Basilica of St. Peter’s, will introduce the debate. In anticipation of the event, Gambetti said: “We would like to understand, how to understand today, the primacy of the last place experienced by the Apostle and how the maternal trait contained in Jesus’ mandate to Peter, which the first of the Apostles was able to embody, can be expressed.”
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture, remarked on the significance of the debate being held at St. Peter’s Basilica.
“This second Lectio Petri, is undoubtedly particularly evocative and significant because, for the first time, St. Peter’s Basilica – a place that symbolizes in an, I would say, absolute way the Primacy of Peter – will host a representative of Protestantism and one of Orthodoxy, in dialogue with each other and with a Catholic theologian on a topic that for the three confessions might seem divisive,” he said. |
“On the contrary, I am convinced that the meeting and confrontation between the protagonists of the evening will be extremely enriching and stimulating: it is certainly a virtuous example of ecumenical dialogue, which also well represents the spirit of the ‘Courtyard of the Gentiles’.”
Ravasi founded the Courtyard of the Gentiles foundation within the Vatican Dicastery for Culture and Education to promote “dialogue between believers and nonbelievers through events, debates, and research.” Its co-sponsor of the Lectio Petri, the Fratelli tutti Foundation, was founded by Pope Francis in December 2021.
The Courtyard of the Gentiles has been known for scandalous “ecumenical” events in the past. In 2019, video footage surfaced showing Card. Ravasi participating in a procession honoring the infamous Pachamama, the Inca fertility goddess, and Tata Inti, Father Sun, in the town of San Marcos Sierras in the Cordoba province of Argentina. The ceremony, in which a pagan shaman invoked the Pachamama in a prayer, was part of an interreligious “ecumenical” event hosted by the Courtyard of the Gentiles. A spokesman for the Cardinal told LifeSiteNews that the ceremony was not intended to be religious. Nevertheless, the shaman who led the ritual clearly presented it as religious in nature.
RELATED: Video of Vatican cardinal at Pachamama, ‘Father Sun’ ceremony surfaces
***MAJOR UPDATE, November 10, 2022*** LifeSiteNews reported the bombshell statement issued by Archbishop Viganò, declaring that members of the “Bergoglian church” are no longer in union with the Church of Christ.
According to Archbishop Viganò:
the visible church, to which the world gives the name of Catholic Church and of which it considers Bergoglio as Pope, is no longer Church…
This statement was long overdue, and Archbishop Viganò is finally sounding the alarm — Pope Francis is leading the Church into something radically different than the Church established by Christ. Pope Francis cannot continue betraying the faithful by abdicating his duty as Universal Shepherd.
The time to redouble our efforts and fervently request that Pope Francis repent and be reconciled with the Church is NOW.
SIGN and SHARE. Defend the Church and demand that Pope Francis faithfully uphold the authentic Catholic faith!
Bishops from across the world have raised concern over Pope Francis’ unfaithfulness to the 2,000+ years of Catholic teaching, and the recent statement by Archbishop Viganò is truly the breaking point into a new era for faithful Catholics.
READ THE FULL STATEMENT FROM LIFESITENEWS AND SIGN THIS PETITION TO DEFEND THE CHURCH NOW.
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Bishop Joseph Strickland, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Fr. James Altman, and two dozen more faithful Catholic priests & scholars are publicly calling out Pope Francis for his outrageous, dangerous, and heretical teaching concerning reception of Holy Communion.
Pope Francis stated that “faith” is the only requirement for those who wish to receive Holy Communion in his June 29 Apostolic Letter on the liturgy, Desiderio desideravi.
This statement is dangerous because:
- The Council of Trent explicitly anathematized those who make this claim calling it ‘heresy’
- Pope Francis omitted the essential step of repentance for sin to worthily receive the Eucharist.
- Pope Francis is thereby allowing the faithful to eat and drink condemnation on themselves, should they receive Holy Communion unworthily
- Pope Francis is supporting moral relativism, eradicating the clear distinction between good and evil
- Pope Francis is eradicating the need for the Sacrament of Confession
- Pope Francis is damaging the teaching office of the Church by sowing doubt and division among faithful Catholics
But there is a way to stop Pope Francis’ modernist attack and defend the true Catholic teaching on Holy Communion.
Catholics everywhere must renounce Pope Francis’ heresy and uphold the truth: only Baptized Catholics in the state of grace, and therefore free of mortal sin, can receive Holy Communion*.
For those in mortal sin, repentance and absolution must first be sought in the Sacrament of Confession before receiving the Eucharist*.
Pope Francis’ statement would mislead many souls, which is why we need your help today to stand with Bishop Strickland, Fr. Altman, Bishop Schneider, and more.
TELL POPE FRANCIS: HOLY COMMUNION CAN ONLY BE RECEIVED IN THE STATE OF GRACE!
The growing list of faithful Catholics who are standing for the truth and bravely resisting Pope Francis’ attempt to dilute the Church’s moral authority is only growing. This is great news, but the news can’t simply stop with you.
You must join the growing list of supporters to but a STOP to Pope Francis’ heresy.
WATCH: LifeSiteNews’ co-CEO and Editor-in-Chief, John-Henry Westen, fully breaks down the growing list of faithful Catholics choosing to resist Pope Francis’ attack on the faith.
Stand with these faithful Catholics: Bishop Joseph E. Strickland, Bishop André Gracida, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop Robert Mutsaerts, Father Gerald E. Murray, Father James Altman, Father John Lovell, Professor Claudio Pierantoni, Dr. John Lamont, Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, Professor Anna Silvas, Dr. Anthony Esolen, Professor John Rist, Professor Paolo Pasqualucci, Julia Meloni, George Neumayr, and LifeSite’s John-Henry Westen.
*However, if a Catholic is unable to attend Confession but has a grave reason for receiving the Eucharist (such as a priest who may be required to celebrate Mass at a given time but who is unable to go to Confession), such a person must be confident to the best of his ability that he have perfect contrition for any mortal sins that he may have committed before receiving Holy Communion in an exceptional situation.
MORE INFORMATION:
Full statement by Catholic bishops and scholars correcting Pope Francis’ heresy – LifeSiteNews
Card. Gambetti made headlines in 2021 when, as Archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, he oversaw the implementation of restrictions on the celebration of Masses offered privately or according to the Missal of 1962, and restricted the use of Latin at the basilica’s public Masses. Despite these restrictions, each year the Summorum Pontificum—now “Ad Petri Sedem”—Pilgrimage in celebration of Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio widening access to the Latin Mass have continued at St. Peter’s Basilica, this year drawing over a thousand pilgrims from around the world.
The “values” of the Fratelli tutti Foundation—the other sponsor of the Lectio Petri project— have been likened by LifeSiteNews correspondent Jean Smits to the secular ideology underpinning the French Revolution. After listing the Foundation’s objectives, Smits wrote:
References to God, the Holy Trinity, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and His Beloved Mother are totally absent from this catalogue of politically correct ‘values,’ among which environmentalist concerns and ‘fraternity between believers and non-believers’ are, of course, paramount. For French observers, the mention of ‘liberty, equality, and fraternity’ in objective VI, together with a nod to ‘fraternal humanism,’ has obvious Masonic overtones.
“Making Reason for the Hope that is in Us” is the title for the third session of the Lection Petri project. The January 17, 2023, session will be dedicated to considering the figure of St. Peter in history and culture. Card. Ravasi will comment on the two Letters of Peter and several passages from Pliny’s Letter, one of the earliest Roman sources depicting the life of the early Christians. Prof. Giuliano Amato, president of the Courtyard of the Gentiles Foundation, will conclude the meeting with a reflection on the relationship between faith and society.
The last Lectio Petri session, entitled “Quo vadis,” will take place March 7, 2023, and will examine the figure of St. Peter in the arts, literature and music.