JUNE 24, 2026
SOURCE: FSSPX NEWS
The footnotes to the Profession of Faith appear only in the PDF document below.
Profession of Catholic Faith (PDF)
In the name of the Holy and Undivided
Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Preamble
1.
I profess and embrace
the entire truth of the Catholic Faith, as it was “received by the Apostles
from the mouth of Christ Himself, or from the Apostles themselves, the Holy
Ghost dictating”, then faithfully preserved and transmitted to us in unbroken
succession within the Catholic Church, through the preaching of Popes and
bishops, the writings of the Fathers of the Church and of theologians, and the
definitions of holy councils.
2.
I firmly receive each
and every truth which the infallible Church has proposed as divinely revealed
and necessary for salvation, whether through the definitions of her solemn
Magisterium or through the unanimity of her Ordinary and Universal Magisterium.
I likewise receive all that belongs to Catholic doctrine by reason of its
necessary connexion with the revealed Deposit, and I hold as certain the truths
which the Church has taught with constancy in order to safeguard that Deposit
against errors.
3.
I consequently reject
all errors contrary to this Faith, and in particular those of liberalism,
indifferentism, modernism, ecumenism, and laicism, condemned by Popes Pius IX,
Leo XIII, Saint Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII. These errors obscure revealed
doctrine, falsify Tradition, disfigure the sacred liturgy, corrupt morals,
weaken the missionary spirit, and disintegrate the Christian social order,
gravely harming the salvation of souls.
4.
I profess this Faith and
reject all errors contrary to it, because I wish to remain faithfully subject
to the Holy Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church, Mistress of truth, and to
the Pope, Vicar of Christ, in attachment to eternal Rome, which has received
the mission of guarding holily and expounding faithfully the revealed Deposit
until the end of time.
5.
I add that, in the
present confusion, it is no longer sufficient to recall a few isolated truths.
It has become indispensable to set in full light the entire order of Catholic
doctrine, in its supernatural coherence and luminous harmony, omitting no
dogma, diminishing no truth, and substituting for the received Faith no
equivocal or truncated language which, under the pretext of ecumenism or
adaptation to the world, disfigures this doctrine with ever greater
audacity.
6.
Charity itself demands
that this doctrine be professed with clarity, patience, and strength, for the
glory of God, the honour of the Church, and the salvation of souls.
I.
Divine Revelation, the Faith, and Tradition
7.
I believe that God, in
His goodness, has called man, through the gift of grace, to obtain the Beatific
Vision. I hold firmly and profess that this exaltation of man surpasses the
powers and exigencies of human nature, and that it is a gratuitous gift of God,
that is to say, a supernatural gift.
8.
I believe that God has
not left man to his natural powers alone, but has revealed to him the mysteries
of His divine life and the supernatural destiny to which He calls him. Thus,
having spoken of old through the Prophets in the Old Covenant, He has spoken
definitively through His only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the New
Covenant, with which Divine Revelation received its perfect fulfilment.
9.
This Revelation is the
true Word of God, entrusted to the Church as a Deposit, and proposed to men as
the Rule of Faith in the form of a body of doctrine, in which the mysteries are
formulated in a manner that renders them intelligible and expressible in words.
Revelation is not the progressive expression of a religious consciousness, nor
the fruit of a collective experience of the believing community; it is the very
truth of God supernaturally communicated to the minds of men for their
salvation.
10.
I believe that the
Deposit of the Faith was completed with the death of the last Apostle. After
the Apostles, the Church receives no new Revelation: she guards, explains,
defends, and transmits the Deposit received.
11.
I recognize the external
proofs of Revelation, in particular miracles and prophecies, as most certain
signs by which the divine origin of the Christian religion is demonstrated in a
manner suited to the human intellect, in every time and place. I likewise
recognize the Church herself, through her unity, holiness, catholicity,
fruitfulness, and invincible stability, as a permanent motive of credibility
and an irrefutable witness to her divine mission.
12.
I profess that faith is
the supernatural submission of the intellect, under the motion of grace, to the
truth revealed externally by God. It rests neither upon the evidence of things
seen, nor upon private judgement, nor upon experience of what is lived, but
upon the very authority of God Who speaks and Who, being the first Truth, can
neither deceive nor be deceived. Faith is therefore neither a blind religious
sentiment, nor an emotion of the soul, nor an intimate conviction produced by
personal or collective consciousness. It is the supernatural virtue which
elevates the human intellect and enables it to know God as He is, thanks to the
testimony that God gives of Himself, while awaiting the Vision.
13.
I consequently reject
the error of modernism, as it still rages today, which reduces faith to an
interior experience, to a sensible aspiration, or to a progressive realization
in the believing community. Such a conception destroys the very notion of dogma
and renders the obligation to believe impossible, replacing divine truth with
subjective sincerity and handing doctrine over to the fluctuations of history.
14.
I further profess that the
Deposit of doctrine revealed by God is contained in its two sources, namely
Sacred Scripture and Tradition. I profess that Tradition contains many truths
revealed by God which are not found in Scripture, and that consequently
Scripture must be read and understood in dependence upon Tradition.
15.
I profess that Sacred
Scripture, whose books were written integrally, in all their parts, under the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is truly the Word of God, free from all error,
and entrusted to the authentic interpretation of the Magisterium of the Church,
according to the norm of Tradition and according to the Analogy of Faith.
16.
I therefore reject
rationalist exegesis, which treats the sacred books as documents having only
man for their author, which excludes a priori the possibility
of the supernatural, artificially separates the historical Christ from the
Faith of the Church, dissolves miracles into symbols, or subjects Scripture to
the shifting hypotheses and manipulations of naturalistic critical methods. True
biblical scholarship must be placed at the service of the understanding of the
Faith; it is not to be made the rule, the interpreter, or the judge of the Word
of God.
17.
I finally profess that
Tradition is not a dead memory, but the living transmission of the doctrine
received from the Apostles. It remains living, in distinction to Revelation,
which is closed. It is so both in the activity of the Magisterium of the
Teaching Church and in the profession of Faith of the Church Taught, of which
the sentire cum Ecclesia is the result of the teaching of the
Magisterium. Tradition may be called ‘living’, not in the sense that it changes
its meaning, but in the sense that the living Magisterium proposes throughout
the centuries, in an ever clearer and more explicit manner, the same truth
according to the same meaning. What has been believed by all, everywhere, and
always, as belonging to the Faith, cannot be denied or called into doubt by any
theological fashion, pastoral pressure, diplomatic necessity, or alleged exigencies
of the modern world.
II.
God, Principle and End of All Things, Holy Trinity
18.
I profess the existence
of one God, personal, living, and true, first principle and last end of all
things, Who in the beginning created Heaven and earth, all things visible and
invisible, from nothing. Infinitely perfect, eternal, and almighty, immutable,
incomprehensible in His essence and sovereignly free in His works, He is
distinct from the world which He freely created, which He conserves in
existence, and which He governs by His Providence.
19.
I profess that God can
be known with certainty by the natural light of reason from His creatures, as a
cause is known from its effects. The Catholic Faith recognizes that the human
intellect is capable of truly attaining the reality of things, often of knowing
their causes, and of arriving at genuine certitudes.
20.
I therefore reject
modern agnosticism, philosophical scepticism, idealist subjectivism, and all
doctrines which limit the scope of human knowledge to sensible phenomena or to
the constructions of consciousness, thereby denying the very possibility of an
ecclesiastical Magisterium and of a true theology.
21.
I confess that in the
one Divine Nature there subsist three really distinct Persons: the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost, consubstantial and indivisible Trinity. The Father is
without principle; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost
proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son as from a single principle. But
these three Persons are one and the same Divine Substance: They are one
Eternal, not three Eternals; one wise, good, and almighty God, not three
equally wise, good, and almighty gods; they are one in the Divine Will and
Providence, and enjoy one and the same glory.
22.
I reject the diminished
professions of trinitarian faith which, under pretext of religious unity or
ecumenical prudence, deliberately pass over in silence what God has revealed
about Himself. It does not suffice to say with the Jews and Muslims that God is
one; it does not suffice to acknowledge with the Arians that the Son is of the
same nature as the Father; nor does it suffice to confess with the schismatic
Greeks that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father while passing over in
silence the Filioque. This false irenicism pursues an illusory
concord: by omitting to profess certain revealed truths, it substitutes
confusion for clarity and threatens the integrity of the Faith.
III.
The Creation of Man and the Supernatural Order of Grace
23.
I believe that God created
man in His image, endowed with a spiritual and immortal soul, capable of
knowing truth, of loving the good known by natural reason, and of freely
turning towards his Creator. Man is therefore not the necessary product of a
blind evolution, nor the simple result of material forces; he comes from God as
from his creative cause, depends upon God, Who maintains him in being, and is
ordered to God as to his end.
24.
I profess that God did
not destine man to his natural perfection alone, but has freely called him to a
supernatural end which absolutely surpasses the powers and rights of created
nature: the Beatific Vision, by which the soul shall see God face to face and
participate in the intimate life of the Most Holy Trinity. That man is called
to become a child of God, a partaker of the Divine Nature and an heir of
Heaven, is not the necessary fulfilment of his nature, but a pure effect of
divine liberality.
25.
I therefore reject every
doctrine which dissolves the distinction between nature and grace, which makes
supernatural life a requirement of human nature, or which presents grace as a
simple interior development of man’s natural capacities. Such a confusion
destroys both the gratuity of the supernatural and the reality of nature. It
ends by reducing faith to a religious anthropology, and Redemption to a
revelation of man to himself.
26.
I likewise profess that
grace neither destroys nor replaces nature: it heals, elevates, and perfects it
whilst preserving it. The supernatural order calls into question neither reason,
nor the natural law, nor creatures; it heals them and subordinates them to a
higher end. This is why the modern opposition between human freedom and grace,
between the dignity of the person and dependence upon God, between culture and
the Faith, is radically false.
27.
I reject the false
religious humanism which celebrates man in himself, as though the Incarnation
had revealed first and solely the image of God in the creation of man, rather
than the misery of sin and the mercy of God stooping towards the sinner. Man is
truly great only when he humbly receives the grace which heals and elevates
him, does penance for his sins, submits to the truth, and lives as a child of
God. In separating himself from God, he does not exalt himself: he destroys
himself.
28.
I profess that human
dignity, by which God has established His creature at the summit of the
material world, can never be invoked against the law of God, against the
necessity of conversion, or against submission to revealed truth. This dignity
is wounded by sin: it must be restored and raised to the dignity of the
adoptive children of God, through grace.
IV.
Original Sin and the Condition of Man
29.
I believe that our first
parents were established by God in a state of original justice and holiness,
and endowed with the gifts of integrity, impassibility, and immortality. By a
particular favour of God, they possessed not only the integrity of their own
nature, but also the supernatural gifts which ordered them to the very life of
God. Adam, head and principle of the human race, was additionally given the
gift of knowledge.
30.
I profess that, by his
disobedience, Adam truly committed the original sin, which is transmitted to
all men by generation. This sin is for all a sin of nature, which condemns them
to death, suffering, ignorance, and concupiscence. Having been stripped of
sanctifying grace and of preternatural gifts, which they could no longer
transmit to their descendants, Adam and Eve were driven from the earthly
paradise.
31.
In Adam, however, the
nature of man was not destroyed, but only wounded: his intellect, though
darkened, remains capable of knowing truth; his free will, though weakened,
remains capable of willing and loving natural good. I therefore reject all
doctrines which, in a despairing pessimism, judge man to be irremediably
corrupt and incapable of any good.
32.
I likewise reject all
doctrines which, in a senseless optimism, minimize original sin, naively exalt
the native goodness of man, or claim to found universal peace upon the moral,
technical, political, or cultural progress of humanity alone. The tragedies of
history, the disorders of societies, and the darkness of the human heart are
explained fundamentally, first and foremost, by the deep wound of sin.
33.
I profess that man needs
to be saved by a redemption which delivers him both from original sin and from
all his personal sins. This redemption — or ‘buying back’ — requires the gift
of God’s grace in Christ: without it, man cannot save himself by his natural
works, his culture, his science, or his religious sincerity. Without the
sanctifying grace of Christ, he remains incapable of attaining his supernatural
end.
34.
I therefore reject
modern naturalism, whether theoretical (in philosophy or theology) or practical
(in morality, politics, or pastoral work). Every doctrine which speaks of
fraternity, peace, dignity, or progress, without acknowledging sin, the Cross,
or the necessity of grace, builds upon an illusory foundation and ends by
deceiving the souls it claims to serve.
35.
I profess at the same
time that the gravity of sin should never lead to despair, for God, in His
mercy, did not abandon man after his fall, but from the very beginning promised
him a Saviour born of the Woman, Whose coming He progressively prepared
throughout the history of salvation.
36.
In all this, I profess
that the facts recorded by the Book of Genesis concerning the foundations of
the Catholic religion are to be taken in their literal, historical sense: for
example, the creation of all things by God at the beginning of time; the special
creation of man; the formation of the first woman from the first man; the unity
of the human race; the original happiness of our first parents in the state of
justice, integrity, and immortality; the commandment given by God to man to
test his obedience; the transgression of the divine precept at the instigation
of the devil in the form of the serpent; the fall of our first parents from
that primal state of innocence; and the promise of the Redeemer to come.
V.
Jesus Christ, Word Incarnate, Sole Mediator and Redeemer
37.
I believe and profess
that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Eternal Word of God, true God and true man,
consubstantial with the Father in His Divinity and of the same nature as
ourselves in His humanity, like us in all things save sin. He is the sole
Mediator between God and men, the sole Saviour of the human race, the sole King
of souls and of societies, promised by God in His mercy to our first parents
and announced by the prophets.
38.
I profess that, in the
fullness of time, the Son of God became incarnate, not to confirm man in his
human dignity or to reveal to him the image of God within himself, but to save
him from sin and once again give him access to eternal life. Born of the Virgin
Mary, without ceasing to be God, He took a true human nature, lived among us,
taught the truth, fulfilled the prophecies, manifested His Divinity by His
miracles, and then freely offered himself on the Cross as a propitiatory
Sacrifice for the sins of the world.
39.
I profess that the
Redemption is a true satisfaction offered to Divine Justice, in reparation for
original sin and personal sins. Christ, Priest and Victim in His holy humanity,
redeemed us by His Blood. By bearing our sins and undergoing the punishment due
to us, He offered to His Father a perfect act of obedience, an act of love and
reparation, to which the dignity of His Divine Person conferred an infinite
meritorious value.
40.
I therefore reject every
doctrine which would reduce the Redemption to a simple manifestation of God’s
love, to a solidarity of Christ with human sufferings, to a revelation of the
dignity of man, or to a purely moral, political, or social liberation. The Cross
is not merely a sign: it is the altar of the redemptive Sacrifice. Christ did
not merely announce salvation: He merited it by His Sacrifice. His voluntary
Passion and Death on the Cross constitute the sole redemptive Sacrifice by
which humanity is reconciled with God.
41.
I profess that on the
third day He rose glorious from the dead, and that this Resurrection is
properly a historical fact. It is the most resplendent sign of His definitive
victory over sin, death, and hell. It constitutes the foundation of Christian
hope and the pledge of our own resurrection. It also represents the principal
motive of credibility for the Divinity of Jesus Christ.
42.
I believe that forty
days later He ascended into Heaven, that He now sits at the right hand of His
Father, that He invisibly governs His Church through His Vicar, and that He
intercedes for us constantly, awaiting the time when He shall come again in
glory at the end of time to judge the living and the dead.
43.
I likewise profess that,
although Christ died for all, not all are thereby saved. The merits of the
Passion must be applied to souls, which ordinarily takes place when they
receive, with the required dispositions, the sacraments which communicate to
them sanctifying grace. He who refuses the sacraments, receives them
unworthily, or remains voluntarily in sin, shuts himself off from the salvation
which Christ has gained for him.
44.
I therefore reject the
false optimism of a universal redemption already accomplished in every man,
independently of his conversion and perseverance. Such a doctrine destroys the
urgency of preaching, weakens missionary zeal, renders penance useless, and
contradicts the very words of the Saviour: “He that believeth and is baptized,
shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned.”
45.
I profess finally that
Jesus Christ is not only the Redeemer of individuals, but the centre of all
history and the King of all Creation. All things were created by Him and for
Him; all things must be restored in Him. No culture, no society, no law, no
human wisdom finds its true and complete perfection outside His reign.
VI.
The Most Holy Virgin Mary in the Economy of Salvation
46.
I believe that the Most
Blessed Virgin Mary holds a unique place in the history of salvation, willed by
God from all eternity, and that her condition is therefore not the common
condition of other creatures. He Who had resolved to give His Son to men had
also resolved to give Him a Mother.
47.
I profess that the
Blessed Virgin Mary, by a singular privilege, was immaculate from the first
instant of her conception, so as to be the worthy Mother of Jesus Christ:
preserved from original sin in anticipation of the merits of Christ and thus
redeemed in a more sublime manner, filled with grace from the first instant of
her existence, Mary always showed herself perfectly faithful to the Will of
God.
48.
I believe that she
remained ever virgin, before, during, and after childbirth; her perpetual
virginity manifests the divine origin of her Son and her total consecration to
the work of God.
49.
I profess that, truly
Mother of God and Mother of men, she was associated in a unique and
incomparable manner with the redemptive work of her divine Son: the new Eve
beside the new Adam, her Fiat opened the way to the
Incarnation; her silent fidelity accompanied the entire life of the Saviour;
her sorrowful Compassion at the foot of the Cross united her with one heart to
the redemptive Sacrifice.
50.
I profess that, thus
united to her Divine Son, she merited by congruity in her Compassion what
Christ merited by strict justice in His Passion; not as the principal cause of
the Redemption, but as a subordinate associate, dependent upon and wholly
relative to her Son, in one and the same act of the Redemption of our souls. It
is in this sense that Catholic piety, supported by the traditional teaching of
Popes and theologians, rightly calls her, by reason of this Compassion,
‘Co-redemptrix’, and consequently ‘Universal Mediatrix’.
51.
I consequently reject
with indignation the modern tendency to diminish the privileges of the Most
Blessed Virgin under pretext of ecumenical prudence, of dialogue with false
religions, or from a fallacious fear of obscuring the unique redemptive
Mediation of Jesus Christ. To weaken Marian doctrine is not to honour Christ
better: it is to misunderstand the order willed by God, Who wished to come to
us through Mary and to lead us to Himself through her.
52.
I believe that at the
end of her earthly life, she was taken up, body and soul, into celestial glory,
where she reigns beside the throne of God, alongside the holy humanity of her
Divine Son, over angels and men, exercising her maternal role as Dispensatrix
of all Graces.
53.
I finally profess that
the authentic and special cult rendered to His Mother in no way diminishes the
worship due to God; on the contrary, it increases it, because it recognizes the
marvels of divine grace in the most perfect of creatures, and leads souls more
surely to Jesus Christ. True Catholic restoration cannot be separated from the
honour rendered to her who crushes the head of the serpent.
VII.
The Catholic Church, Mystical Body of Christ and Sole Ark of Salvation
54.
I firmly believe that,
to perpetuate and prolong the work of Redemption until the end of time, Our
Lord Jesus Christ founded one Church, visible, hierarchical, indefectible, and
necessary for salvation. This Church, purchased by the Blood of Christ,
entrusted to Peter and his successors, the Roman Pontiffs, is none other than
the Roman Catholic Church.
55.
I profess that the
Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. She is One in her Faith, her
worship, her government, and her end. She is Holy by her Founder, by her
doctrine, by her sacraments, and by the saints whom she ceaselessly brings
forth. She is Catholic because, sent to all peoples and established throughout
the whole world, she is everywhere fitted to procure the salvation of men of
every condition. She is Apostolic because she remains founded upon the
Apostles, preserves their doctrine, and continues their mission, governed by
their successors.
56.
I profess that the
Church is identically a visible society and the Mystical Body of Christ. Christ
is her Head; the faithful are her members; the supernatural life purchased upon
the Cross is communicated in her through the sacraments received in faith, and
flourishes in charity.
57.
I profess that the
Church is the Immaculate Bride of Christ. Christ loved her to the point of
delivering Himself for her, in order to sanctify her and present her to Himself
without spot or wrinkle. If her members can sin, she herself, in her doctrine,
her sacraments, her divine constitution, and her end, remains the faithful and
pure guardian of the revealed Deposit, and the dispenser of the mysteries of
God. The faults of churchmen cannot be imputed to the Church as such; they arise
from the fact that these men have not lived according to her holy laws. I
therefore reject the unjust and blasphemous accusations levelled against the
Church in the name of the sins of her children, and likewise the acts of
repentance which seem to lay upon the Bride of Christ the faults of those who
have betrayed her.
58.
I profess that the
Church is the Mother of souls. She begets them to the divine life through
Baptism, nourishes them through the Eucharist, raises them up again through
Penance, strengthens them through Confirmation, sanctifies families through
Matrimony, consecrates priests through Holy Orders, and assists the dying
through Extreme Unction. Her motherhood is supernatural and salvific: she gives
to men the bread of sound doctrine, grace, and the means of eternal life.
59.
I profess that God
willed to make the Church the necessary means of salvation; just as there is
under Heaven no other name given to men than that of Jesus Christ by which we
must be saved, so there is no supernatural salvation independent of the
Catholic Church. For all salvation comes from Jesus Christ; and every saving
grace is either given in and through the one Church He has founded, or orders
the one who receives it to that same Church.
60.
This truth means that no
one can be saved without Christ and His Church, through a false religion as
such, nor be assured of His salvation outside the visible structure of the
Church. If men are saved without belonging to the visible society which is the
Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, it is by a supernatural ordination to the
one Church of salvation, and in spite of the errors of the false religions in
which they find themselves, from which they free themselves by not refusing the
grace offered to them and by corresponding to it.
61.
I therefore reject false
ecumenism, which rests upon the idea that the Holy Ghost would not refuse to
use separated communities as means of salvation, as though the Church of Christ
were present and active in them, or as though these communities possessed in themselves
a salvific value whose efficacy would derive from the fullness of grace and
truth entrusted to the Catholic Church. If any man comes to the revealed truth
or receives a grace of sanctification outside the visible limits of the
Catholic Church, that truth and that grace belong by right to that same Church
and unequivocally call to Catholic unity, and the Holy Ghost does not give
these as means of salvation by using separated communities as such, of which
souls can never be warned too much.
62.
I likewise reject the
idea that non-Christian religions might reflect a ray of truth which illumines
every man, or might be legitimate paths by which God positively leads men to
salvation. Some fragments of natural truth, or distorted vestiges of ancient
truths, may indeed be encountered among the adherents of these false religions;
but these religions taken as such, and insofar as they mingle error with their
worship, are the work of the devil and cannot be acceptable to God. The Holy
Ghost does not use them as paths to salvation, and in them there is no proper
virtue of the one Church of Christ, the sole light which enlightens every man
in the darkness.
63.
I further reject the
idea of an ‘anonymous Christianity’, according to which any man who leads a
naturally honest life, whether ‘believer’, atheist, or agnostic, would be
oriented towards Christ and therefore saved by Him, as a ‘Christian’ without
knowing it.
64.
I finally profess that
the Old Covenant has been fulfilled, surpassed, and rendered obsolete by the
New Covenant, which is the fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham, in Christ
and in His Church. The figures of the old Law have found their realization and
their cessation in the Sacrifice of the true Lamb, Mediator of the New Covenant
and Priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech. By the eternal Will
of God, the true descendant of Abraham is Christ, together with those who
belong to Him in His Mystical Body, which is the Church.
65.
I therefore reject the
new ecclesiology, which destroys the missionary impulse by relativizing the
uniqueness of the Church, the sole ark of salvation.
66.
I likewise reject
inculturation understood as the indiscriminate adoption of the religious,
moral, or symbolic categories of pagan cultures and their practices. The Gospel
can assume what is naturally good, true, and noble in peoples; it can never
consecrate idolatry, superstition, error, or customs contrary to the natural
law. The mission of the Church is not an indefinite dialogue, a humanitarian
cooperation, or a mutual recognition of religious traditions: it is the command
received from Christ to teach all nations, to baptize them, and to teach them
to observe all that He has commanded.
VIII.
The Holy Ghost, Sanctifier of Souls and Soul of the Church
67.
I profess that the Holy
Ghost, the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, true God with the Father and
the Son, has spoken through the prophets, inspired the Scriptures, sanctified
the just, formed the humanity of the Word Incarnate in the virginal womb of
Mary, and was visibly sent at Pentecost to manifest the Church and to give her
life until the consummation of the ages.
68.
I believe that, sent by
the Father and the Son, He abides in the Church until the end of time, in
accordance with the promise of Our Lord. He is the uncreated Soul of the
Church, not as a substantial form which would abolish the distinction between
Christ and His members, but as the invisible principle and efficient cause of
her supernatural life, of her unity of profession of Faith and worship, of the
holiness of her government and her Magisterium, and of her fruitfulness in her
works.
69.
I profess that the whole
life of the Church depends upon His action. It is He Who assists the
ecclesiastical Magisterium, and especially that of the Pope, so that it may
preserve, declare, and explain the revealed Deposit without error: not that it
may invent new doctrines, but that it may penetrate more deeply, in the same
sense and the same meaning, the truth already revealed by God to the Apostles.
70.
I believe that it is He
Who communicates to souls, in the sacraments, the grace gained by the Saviour,
dwells in them through that grace, and conforms them to Christ; He Who
enlightens minds by His wisdom, sustains wills by His power, and pours His
charity into hearts; He Who gives rise to good works, inspires fraternal
charity, and leads souls towards their perfection.
71.
It is He Who has
sustained the martyrs, enlightened the Doctors, raised up missionaries,
nourished the contemplative life, fructified religious orders, and caused
holiness to flourish in all states of life. The great works of Christian
civilization, fruits of Catholic culture, themselves bear witness to this
discreet yet fruitful presence of the Spirit of God in the Church throughout
the centuries.
72.
I therefore reject every
claim to invoke the Holy Ghost in order to justify doctrinal adaptations that
break with Tradition, moral reversals, or synodal procedures by which what the
Church has received from God is put in question. The Spirit of truth cannot
today inspire the contrary of what He inspired yesterday. He does not invite
the Church to listen to the world in order to receive its aspirations from it;
on the contrary, He impels her to teach the world, to convert it, and to
sanctify it. His work consists neither in stirring up anarchic inspirations,
nor in encouraging doctrinal creativity, nor in grounding spiritual life upon
the search for extraordinary charismatic phenomena; it consists in guiding
souls by enlightening their faith and defending them against their spiritual
enemies, in order to complete in them the work of their salvation and to lead
them into the light of eternity.
IX.
The Roman Pontiff, the Episcopate, and the Hierarchical Constitution of the
Church
73.
I recognize in the Roman
Pontiff the successor of Saint Peter, the Vicar of Jesus Christ, the supreme
and universal Pastor, the visible head of the whole Church, possessing, by
divine institution, a power of truly proper, supreme, full, immediate, and
universal jurisdiction over all pastors and over all the faithful baptized in
the Church.
74.
I believe that this
authority does not come to him from a delegation by the community, but directly
from Christ Himself, Who instituted this office for the safeguarding of the
doctrine of faith, the sanctification of souls, and the government of the Church.
75.
I recognize that by
reason of this proper and genuine power, pastors and faithful owe him respect
and filial obedience in all that concerns the legitimate exercise of his
office. Thus, the unity of communion with the Roman Pontiff and the unity of
profession of the same Faith being safeguarded, the Church of Christ
constitutes one flock under one supreme Pastor.
76.
I likewise recognize
that the bishops are the successors of the Apostles, which makes them true
pastors by divine right, possessing in the Church, by the will of Christ, a
particular and subordinate jurisdiction which they receive immediately from the
Roman Pontiff. United with him, in submission to his supreme authority, they
legitimately exercise their own authority in their respective dioceses, as
established by the Holy Ghost in the hierarchical order willed by Christ.
77.
I further recognize that
the body of bishops, united with its head the Roman Pontiff and never without
that head, can be the extraordinary and non-permanent subject of a full and supreme
power over the universal Church, but that this takes place only in the act of
an ecumenical council, on the initiative and at the order of the Roman Pontiff
alone, and within the limits of his exclusive will.
78.
I consequently reject
the collegialist conceptions which would make the college of bishops a
permanent moral person in the Church, or a second subject of supreme power,
distinct from the successor of Peter. The monarchical constitution of the
Church is of divine and inviolable institution, and it will remain so until the
end of time, for no one can redefine the function that Christ Himself conferred
upon Peter in His Church.
79.
I likewise reject the
synodalist conceptions which tend to transform the hierarchical Church into a
consultative, parliamentary, or democratic structure, subject to the
fluctuating opinions of the Christian people or to the pressures of the world.
The collective conscience of the faithful, pastoral surveys, cultural
sensibilities, and the expectations of the world are not sources of Revelation.
The legitimate hearing of souls can never become a continual adaptation of the
life of the Church, her doctrine, and her divine constitution to the spirit of
the world, under pretext of interpreting the ‘sensus fidei’ of the
people of God.
X.
The Magisterium, Guardian of the Revealed Deposit
80.
I believe that the Roman
Pontiff enjoys infallibility when he speaks ex cathedra, that is,
when, fulfilling his office as pastor and doctor of all Christians, he defines,
by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, that a doctrine concerning faith
or morals is to be held by the universal Church.
81.
I further profess that
the power of the Magisterium in the Church is essentially ordered to the
safeguarding of the revealed Deposit and, through this means, to the salvation
of souls. The Holy Ghost was not promised to the successors of Peter so that
they might manifest new doctrine, but so that they might guard holily and
expound faithfully the Deposit transmitted by the Apostles.
82.
This is why the present
Magisterium cannot substantially contradict the prior Magisterium. The living
Magisterium is not current preaching set in opposition to past preaching; it is
the continual and uninterrupted preaching of the same truth of Faith with the
same meaning throughout the centuries. The Pope and the bishops are not the
masters of Revelation; they are its guardians and are subject to it as a
disciple is subject to his master. They can neither change the Faith, nor
modify the divine constitution of the Church, nor declare good what is contrary
to the law of God.
83.
I therefore reject every
evolutionist conception of dogma, according to which revealed truths would
change their meaning over the course of history. There can be within the Church
a homogeneous progress in understanding, which perceives better, in a more
distinct and explicit manner, the meaning of revealed truth, but never a
mutation in the meaning of that truth. What has already been taught by the
living Magisterium of the Teaching Church, and believed in the profession of
Faith of the Church Taught, cannot become false; what has been condemned as
contrary to the Faith cannot become legitimate; what belongs to the divine
constitution of the Church cannot be remodelled according to the categories of
the modern world or the historico-cultural context.
84.
I therefore reject the
notion of a new Magisterium, which would claim the authority of the present day
to impose doctrines opposed or foreign to what is constant Tradition. I
likewise reject the artificial opposition between the Magisterium of yesterday
and that of today, as if the sole living Magisterium of the Bride of Christ
were that of the present, and could, under pretext of better adapting it,
renounce what the Church has always taught, believed, and condemned since the
time of the Apostles.
85.
I hold that, the
legitimate freedom of research and opinion of theologians in relation to open
or disputed doctrinal questions remaining intact, the Magisterium of the Church
has the legitimate duty to exercise supervision and, where appropriate,
censorship over publications, to prevent them from endangering the faith of the
faithful. I therefore reject the accusation levelled against the holy Church of
having lacked charity in anathematizing heresies and excommunicating heretics.
86.
I also reject the
perpetual dialogue established in the spirit of the last Council, by which the
hierarchy renounces the exercise of a true Magisterium, and claims sometimes to
receive its inspiration from the ‘sense of faith’ of the believing people, sometimes
to converse on equal terms with the adherents of false religions or even with
unbelievers.
87.
I finally reject the
subjectivist conception of theological pluralism which flows from such a
resignation of the magisterial function. I hold that the Church is not an
assembly in permanent search, but the guardian of a truth revealed by God and
transmitted by the Apostles, and that her authentic Magisterium is the
proximate and universal rule of truth in matters of faith and morals, ensuring
the uninterrupted transmission of the revealed Deposit throughout the
centuries.
XI.
The Moral Order and the Law of God
88.
I profess that there
exists a moral order truly founded in the eternal wisdom of God. Human acts are
good or evil according to their conformity or opposition to the divine law,
which is holy and indefectible. Individual opinions, social consensus,
subjective intentions, and historical circumstances cannot change the
inviolable value of these principles of Christian morality.
89.
From the immense
goodness by which God has raised man up to the supernatural order, it follows
that man has but one ultimate end, supernatural in character, to which he
remains ordered according to God’s design, even after sin. This supernatural
end assumes, raises, and perfects the end of man’s natural order.
90.
The natural law,
inscribed by God in human nature, remains knowable by right reason and binds
all men. The positive revealed law, being of the supernatural order, confirms,
raises, and clarifies the natural law whilst surpassing it. There is therefore
no opposition between the law of the Gospel and the natural law; furthermore,
the same grace gives man the strength to be supernaturally faithful to the
demands of both, and thus to enjoy that liberty of the children of God by which,
freed from the power of sin, man can tend towards his ultimate end.
91.
I therefore reject
situation ethics, according to which concrete circumstances could render
actions that are intrinsically evil good. In particular, I hold that no
circumstance can ever legitimize recourse to contraception, abortion, or
euthanasia. I reject every doctrine which would claim that a course of action
objectively contrary to the commandments of God could constitute, for some
persons, the generous response demanded by God in that moment. God never
commands sin, nor what is impossible; He never blesses moral disorder and never
justifies what contradicts His own law; but to him who does his utmost, He
never refuses the grace to keep His commandments.
92.
I profess that
adulterous unions, unions contrary to nature, and all public situations
contrary to the divine law cannot be presented as imperfect goods, gifts of
God, positive steps, or realities which may be blessed as such. Such a
misleading presentation gravely distorts the principles of Christian morality,
and harms the sacred institution of marriage and the good of families.
93.
I therefore reject as
contrary to the Faith and to the constant discipline of the Church the claim to
admit to the sacraments, and most especially to the reception of the Most Holy
Eucharist, those who publicly persist in such states without renouncing their
disorder. True mercy calls the sinner to conversion; it does not ratify sin
under the pretext of pastoral accompaniment or discernment of particular
situations.
94.
I likewise reject the
modern dissociation between doctrine and pastoral practice. A pastoral practice
that contradicts doctrine is not pastoral; it leads souls astray. Charity does
not consist in silencing truth to avoid suffering, but in speaking truth with
benevolence in order to lead to salvation. The medicine of the Church can heal
only by naming evil, calling to penance, and offering the remedies of grace.
95.
I finally profess that
God is not only the author and end of the moral order, but also its guardian,
its judge, and the sovereign rewarder of good and evil. Forgetfulness of divine
judgement engenders a false mercy, sentimental and powerless, which saves no
one because it converts no one.
XII.
The Social Kingship of Christ and Christian Civilization
96.
I profess that the Most
Holy Trinity can and must be acknowledged and adored not only by each
individual, but also by families, institutions, and civil societies. No human
authority is independent of God, for all authority comes from Him and must be
exercised according to the eternal law.
97.
I profess that civil
societies, like persons, have the duty to acknowledge and honour this one and
only true God, Who is Jesus Christ, the Word Incarnate, the second Person of
the Holy Trinity, and to render Him the worship due to Him, in the true
religion revealed and instituted by Him.
98.
I profess that the
authorities which govern these societies must procure the common good by
conforming themselves to the twofold divine law, natural and revealed. The use
of freedom does not consist in giving free rein to all the caprices of
concupiscence, but in choosing the best manner of using the goods of this world
in view of eternal salvation.
99.
I thus reject modern
laicism, which claims to organize society as if God did not exist. The public
refusal to recognize God as sovereign Lord is not neutrality, but a social
injustice towards the Creator and a profound cause of disorder among peoples.
Indeed, a society which refuses God the honour due to Him progressively
destroys the foundations of its own justice: it severs human law from its
eternal source and delivers peoples to the shifting wills of fallen man.
100.
I profess that Our Lord
Jesus Christ, because He is the Word Incarnate and because He has redeemed men
by His Blood, is King not only of individuals, but also of families,
institutions, peoples, and nations. All power has been given to Him in Heaven
and on earth: His reign is not limited to the interior forum of consciences or
to the private sphere; it must extend to the external forum, to laws, morals,
education, culture, and public life. His Kingdom is eternal and universal: a
kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of
justice, love, and peace.
101.
I profess that civil
society, though perfect in its own order, does not possess all the means
necessary to lead man to his true perfection, which remains inaccessible to
fallen human nature without the help of grace, which heals and raises up.
102.
This is why I profess
that those who govern society must submit to the salutary influence of the
Church, which enlightens minds through her Magisterium, heals and strengthens
wills through the grace of the sacraments, and directs man towards his true
supernatural destiny, of which she is the guardian. The good of society
consequently demands that heads of state recognize their right and duty to
favour and protect the holy Church, and likewise to oppose by the laws of their
government whatever would obstruct her necessary influence, which is that of
the one true religion.
103.
I therefore reject
political and religious liberalism: not only that which claims for error the
same rights as for truth, and for false forms of worship the same official and
public recognition as for the true; but also that which, in the name of human
dignity and a false religious freedom, attributes to everyone the right to act
publicly according to his conscience without being hindered by civil authority,
even when that conscience is erroneous and opposed to the common good or to the
true religion.
104.
I acknowledge that error
can in certain cases be tolerated to avoid greater evils, or to preserve the
greater good of civil peace, but I profess that it does not possess in itself a
moral right to be defended or encouraged on the same footing as truth, nor in
the name of a false freedom of conscience never to be impeded.
105.
I likewise hold that,
although man possesses an ontological dignity which raises him above material
beings, the human dignity to be respected is not indifferent to the truth and
error professed by persons, nor to the good and evil they accomplish: he who
professes error or does evil forfeits his moral dignity. This is why legitimate
authority in no way attacks human dignity when it punishes crimes according to
the demands of justice, by proportionate penalties, in order to defend the
common good against grave disorders.
106.
I also reject that
modern form of personalism which would assign to the Church the mission of
safeguarding the dignity of the human person, and of establishing a universal
fraternity upon the foundation of this allegedly common dignity of the human
race — without making any distinction between, on the one hand, the true
dignity of the Christian who renounces sin in order to live according to
evangelical morality in the Catholic Church, and, on the other, the false
dignity of those who, lost in error and vice, refuse the path of salvation.
107.
I reject the
falsification that flows from this, which tends to make the Church, if not the
servant, at least the collaborator of the world in the realization of its own
ideal: that of a purely earthly and temporal peace, founded upon a naturalistic
perfecting of humanity, devoid of supernatural perspective. This ideal fosters
the independence of man with regard to God, His law, truth, and the good; it
implies contempt for the Social Kingship of Christ and for Christendom, and
leads ultimately to atheism and the substitution of man for God.
108.
I likewise reject the
modern prejudice which presents Christian civilization as oppressive,
obscurantist, or hostile to human dignity. Far from destroying what is good in
different cultures, the Christian order assumes and purifies it. Thus, from
revealed doctrine and through the radiance of Catholic theology, especially
that of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Common Doctor of the Church, there was
constituted, under the vigilance of the Magisterium, a true Christian culture
of universal scope, integrating the finest elements of Greek and Latin culture.
An authentic fruit of the Gospel, it contributed to educating peoples and
causing them to grow in faith and Christian virtues. Even if it was never
perfect, men always remaining sinners, this civilization was nonetheless in
history the highest realization of the Christian social order.
109.
Conversely, the modern
refusal of the Social Kingship of Christ has produced a regression of
civilization, through the secularization of institutions, the dissolution of
marriage, the destruction of authority, education without God, the tyranny of
the passions, and the progressive effacement of the spirit of sacrifice in
once-Catholic nations. Against this public apostasy, we profess that all things
must be restored in Christ, Who alone is holy and Who, through His Mystical
Body, is the only sanctifier of souls and of peoples.
XIII.
The Sacraments of the New Law
110.
I believe that there are
seven sacraments properly so called of the New Law, instituted by Our Lord
Jesus Christ to confer efficaciously the grace which they signify: Baptism,
Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.
111.
I profess that the
sacraments must be validly celebrated with the prescribed matter, form, and
intention, observing the liturgical rites which clearly express the Catholic
Faith; and that they must be received with the required dispositions.
112.
I believe that Baptism
is the door of the Church and that it is necessary for salvation. Ordinarily,
no one can be saved without receiving it; through this sacrament, man is washed
from original sin, incorporated into Christ, marked with the Christian character,
and made a member of the Church. I therefore reject the practice of deferring
without grave cause the Baptism of children who have not the use of reason.
However, one who, after the age of reason and without fault on his part, is
prevented from accessing this sacrament, can be saved in an extraordinary
manner by Baptism of Desire, that is, by a supernatural act of faith and
perfect charity which orders him to the Church.
113.
I profess that
Confirmation strengthens the baptized through the gift of the Holy Ghost, so
that he may courageously confess the Faith, resist the enemies of salvation,
and live as a witness to Christ. In a time of confusion, this supernatural
strength is particularly necessary, for no one can keep the Faith without
combat.
114.
I profess that Penance
remits sins committed after Baptism, by means of the acts of the penitent,
which are contrition, confession, and satisfaction. I firmly reject every
pastoral approach which weakens the sense of sin, minimizes the necessity of
sacramental confession, or reduces satisfaction to a mere act of reparation
towards oneself or others, without reference to the offence committed against
God.
115.
I profess that Extreme
Unction relieves and strengthens the sick, remits sins when this is applicable,
powerfully contributes to effacing the punishment due to sin, and prepares the
Christian soul to appear before God.
116.
I affirm that Matrimony
is the stable and indissoluble union of one man and one woman, elevated by
Christ to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized. The purpose of this
union, established by God, the Orderer of nature, is twofold: the generation
and education of children on the one hand, which constitutes the primary and
principal end of marriage; the mutual support of the spouses and the remedy for
concupiscence on the other, which are its secondary ends: true and essential
ends, but naturally subordinated to the first.
117.
I therefore reject every
doctrine which considers unions contrary to marriage as real, if imperfect,
participations in it; or which, wishing to define marriage in terms of the love
of the spouses alone, destroys the hierarchy of the ends of marriage, at the
risk of legitimizing divorce, the refusal of children, and thereby
contraception, which is contrary to the natural law.
118.
I confess that the
sacrament of Holy Orders imprints upon him who receives it the sacerdotal
character which configures him to Christ the Priest, and that no woman can
receive it at any degree whatsoever. Thereby, the priest receives the power to
offer the salutary Sacrifice for the living and the dead, to remit sins, and to
sanctify the faithful. I thus reject all confusion between the priesthood, in
the true and proper sense of the ministers of Christ, and the common
priesthood, used in an improper sense with reference to the faithful: the
faithful offer spiritually with the priest and through the priest; but only the
duly ordained priest realizes and offers sacramentally the Sacrifice in the
Person of Christ.
XIV. The Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass, the Holy Eucharist, and the Catholic Liturgy
119.
I profess that the Mass
is truly, in the proper sense of the word, a Sacrifice. It is not merely a
memorial of the Last Supper or of the Passion; celebrated by a duly ordained
priest, it sacramentally represents the unique Sacrifice of Calvary, and renews
it in an unbloody manner, without however multiplying it. The Victim is the
same, the principal Priest is the same; only the manner of offering differs.
120.
In the Mass, and through
the action of His minister, Our Lord Jesus Christ offers Himself to His Father
as a Sacrifice of adoration, thanksgiving, propitiation, and impetration. By
uniting herself to this action of Christ, which is identical to that of the
celebrating priest, the Church renders to God the perfect worship due to Him,
and applies to the souls of the living and the dead the merits of the Sacrifice
of the Cross.
121.
I believe that, through
the words of Consecration validly pronounced by a priest, the bread and wine
are changed in their entire substance into the Body and Blood of Christ, though
their sensible accidents remain. This admirable change is rightly called
Transubstantiation.
122.
I believe that the Most
Holy Eucharist occupies the centre of the life of the Church, and that it
truly, really, and substantially contains the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity
of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I adore the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar and
reject every doctrine or practice which weakens faith in the Real Presence,
diminishes the respect due to the Eucharist, trivializes Holy Communion, or
alters the sacred character of the sanctuary.
123.
Because it is the
privileged expression of faith, the liturgy is also the permanent school in
which the Christian soul is formed. Through its orientation, its silence, its
gestures, its canon, its sacred language, its spirit of adoration, and its
theocentric structure, the liturgy nourishes faith and exercises a profound
influence upon souls. Through it, peoples learn to think according to God, to
judge according to eternity, to love what is holy, to despise what is
transient, and to order their entire life to the Sacrifice of Christ. It also
shapes morals and inspires the arts, institutions, feasts, and customs of the
Christian people. This is why, when divine worship becomes prosaic, hollow,
equivocal, profane, or anthropocentric, it weakens the very understanding of
the Faith.
124.
I profess that the
traditional Roman Mass, celebrated according to the rite in use before the
reform of the Novus Ordo Missae, expresses with incomparable
clarity the Catholic doctrine of Sacrifice, the priesthood, and the Real
Presence. But I observe with sorrow that the contemporary liturgical reforms
have departed considerably from the traditional liturgy, on the whole as in its
details: in so doing, they have obscured the sacrificial and propitiatory
character of the Mass, fostered a democratic conception of worship, brought
Catholic liturgical expression closer to Protestant conceptions, and thereby
contributed preponderantly to the loss of the sense of the sacred, the corruption
of the Christian spirit, the decline of vocations, and the general weakening of
the Faith.
125.
I therefore reject every
liturgical reform or usage which, through omission, doctrinal ambiguity, or
practical orientation, favours heresy, weakens faith, departs from the Catholic
doctrine of the Mass as formulated at the Council of Trent, or turns the
faithful away from the adoration due to God. The public worship of the Church
must express the Catholic Faith without equivocation.
126.
I am certain, finally,
that the Catholic restoration of peoples necessarily involves the restoration
of divine worship, through the traditional liturgy of all time. Where the Mass
is celebrated as the true Sacrifice of Christ, faith, piety, the life of grace,
Christian families, vocations, and the desire for eternal goods are reborn.
XV.
Christian Life, Holiness, and the Perfection
of Charity
127.
I believe that the
supreme vocation of man is holiness. Created by God, redeemed by Christ, and
sanctified by the action of the Holy Ghost, man is called to participate in the
very life of God through a growing conformity to His Will, so as to attain
perfect and definitive union with Him in glory.
128.
I believe that
sanctifying grace makes man an adoptive child of the Father, a member of Jesus
Christ, a temple of the Holy Ghost, and an heir of eternal life. It makes the
soul pleasing to God, communicates to it a created participation in the Divine
Nature, makes it capable of supernatural acts, and orders it to the Beatific
Vision. The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity unite the soul
directly to God; the infused moral virtues order its conduct to the divine law;
the gifts of the Holy Ghost make it apt to receive His inspirations with
docility, conferring upon the virtues their ultimate perfection.
129.
I believe that the
Christian life involves, to a very great and by no means negligible degree, a
spiritual combat. Since the fall, man remains exposed to the temptations of the
world, the flesh, and the devil. Grace does not suppress this combat: it gives
the necessary strength to engage in it victoriously.
130.
I believe that the path
to holiness is by imitation of Jesus Christ, obedience to His commandments,
prayer, the sacraments, penance, self-renunciation, fidelity to one’s duty of
state, and love of the Cross. The disciple is not above his Master: if he
wishes to enter into glory, he must walk in the footsteps of the crucified
Christ.
131.
I therefore reject the
false Christianity without the Cross, which promises earthly peace without
conversion, mercy without penance, brotherhood without dependence upon the
Fatherhood of God, and holiness without heroism. The Church has never canonized
mediocrity, adaptation to the world, or merely natural goodwill; she has
proposed, for the imitation of her faithful, saints whose faith was integral,
whose charity was heroic, and whose lives were conformed to that of Christ.
132.
I therefore reject every
reduction of the Christian life to a vague philanthropy, social awareness, or
commitment to the affairs of this world. Christian charity is first measured
not by shared emotion or visible utility, but by the supernatural love of God
above all things and of one’s neighbour for God’s sake. Corporal mercy itself
loses its true meaning and its authentic value when it is no longer ordered to
spiritual mercy and eternal salvation.
133.
I profess that holiness
is the most beautiful fruit of the Church. Martyrs, confessors, virgins, monks,
missionaries, doctors, pastors, and all holy faithful souls bear witness to the
power of truth, the fruitfulness of grace, and the victory of Christ over sin.
XVI. The Last Things and
Christian Hope
134.
I believe that the
present life is a time of preparation for eternity and therefore of trial. Man
has no lasting dwelling here on earth: he is created for a supernatural destiny
which infinitely surpasses the passing goods of this world. I believe in life after
death, which one enters by the separation of soul and body.
135.
I believe that at the
end of his earthly life, each person will appear first before the tribunal of
Christ for the particular judgement and will receive, according to his
thoughts, words, actions, and omissions, the sentence of his eternal destiny; I
also believe that at the end of time, Our Lord Jesus Christ will return in His
glory to preside over the general judgement.
136.
I maintain with love and
trembling that both mercy and justice shine forth in the works of God. The sin
of man has offended the glory of the Creator, man has become the debtor of God,
and divine justice demands reparation; but, in His incomparable mercy, God has
given us a Redeemer Who, as Head of humanity, has offered Himself for the sins
of the whole world: a satisfaction which calls for the concurrence of our own.
137.
I trust in the infinite
mercy of God: there is no sin He cannot pardon, nor any misery He does not wish
to relieve; but I firmly condemn that mercy without justice preached by the new
humanism, that of a god who does not chastise sin, condemns no one, and demands
no conversion, justifying the sin rather than the sinner.
138.
I profess that souls who
die in a state of mortal sin are condemned to the dreadful abyss of hell, the
eternal punishment of privation of God and the eternal punishment of fire. I
reject every doctrine which denies the eternity of hell, diminishes the reality
of eternal punishments, or implies that all men will ultimately be saved, hell
remaining empty.
139.
I believe that souls who
die in a state of grace, but still liable for temporal punishment, are purified
in purgatory. I therefore profess the necessity of praying for the departed, of
applying to them the suffrage of the Church, and I reject the falsehoods which
promise to all immediate entry into the house of the Father, thereby
extinguishing the pious custom of the Church of praying constantly for the
dead.
140.
I reject in particular
the false pastoral language which, for fear of troubling consciences, passes
over in silence judgement, hell, and the necessity of penance. There is no
charity in hiding from men the eternal peril in which sin places them. The
preaching of the Last Things belongs to the mercy of the Church, because it
awakens souls and turns them towards salvation.
141.
I affirm, finally, that
souls who die in the friendship of God, perfectly purified, enter immediately
into eternal life and enjoy the Beatific Vision. They contemplate God face to
face, as He is, and possess in Him their eternal rest. The Christian life is
ordered to this beatitude; every pastoral approach which reduces human
happiness to earthly well-being, social peace, or merely psychological
fulfilment betrays the supernatural end of the Gospel.
142.
Christian hope is
therefore neither earthly optimism nor uncertainty mingled with fear. It is the
confident expectation of the eternal Kingdom, founded upon the promises of God
and nourished by grace. It gives the Christian the strength to labour here
below without forgetting that his homeland is in Heaven, and to combat the
errors of the age without losing his peace of soul.
XVII. The Modern Crisis and
the Duty to Confess the Faith
143.
I believe that the
Church, assisted by divine Providence, remains indefectible until the end of
time. The promise of Christ cannot fail: the gates of hell shall never prevail
against her.
144.
I believe, however, that
the history of the Church knows periods of trial, in which the profession of
the true Faith is gravely diminished, in which errors spread, in which discipline
weakens, and in which many souls are led astray.
145.
I acknowledge in
particular that modern errors represent a dreadful threat to the whole of the
Catholic order, and that their penetration into the life of the Church, under
the influence of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar reforms, has
provoked a crisis of exceptional gravity: agnosticism attacks the knowledge of
God; naturalism attacks the necessity of grace; subjectivism attacks the
supernatural motive of faith; relativism attacks the immutability of dogma;
situation ethics attacks the divine law; liberalism attacks the Social Kingship
of Christ; false ecumenism attacks the uniqueness of the Church; collegiality
and synodality attack the divine constitution of the Church in her hierarchy;
liturgical anthropocentrism attacks the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
146.
The current crisis
therefore cannot be reduced to a mere conflict of sensibilities, liturgical
preferences, or pastoral options. It touches upon the very foundations of faith
and morals, of the priesthood and worship, of the Church and the Kingship of Christ.
147.
These errors do not
remain abstract; they have produced visible fruits: the weakening of doctrinal
preaching, the extinction of the missionary spirit, the trivialization of sin,
the crisis of the family, the ruin of the liturgy, the loss of the sense of
God, the scarcity of vocations, the silent apostasy of Christian nations, and
the profound confusion of the faithful.
148.
This is why it is no
longer sufficient today to affirm Catholic truths in general terms, without
simultaneously denouncing the errors which seek to corrupt them. Charity
towards souls demands the clarity of the whole truth, without any ambiguity.
149.
This crisis can only be
overcome by the restoration of all things in Jesus Christ, through the return
to the Faith, to the life of grace, to divine worship, and to the pursuit of
holiness.
150.
In these painful
circumstances, without judging anyone nor usurping the authority of the Church,
I cannot but confess the Faith whose profession is being diminished, recall the
Tradition which is being banished, defend morality, guard the liturgy, and
proclaim the rights of Christ.
Conclusion
151.
Faithful to eternal Rome
which guards the Deposit transmitted by the Apostles, I wish to preserve this
heritage integrally, without diminution, without alteration, and without fear,
not as a particular opinion within the Church of today, but as the Faith
received from the Church that is One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman.
152.
For this Faith does not
belong to me: I have received it in order to remain faithful to it, to live by
it, to transmit it, and, if God so asks, to suffer for it, in the confident
expectation of the triumph of truth and of grace, for the salvation of souls
and the glory of the Most Holy Trinity.
153.
I ask God to keep me
firm in this profession of Faith until the last instant of my life. I entrust
this profession of Faith to the intercession of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary,
the holy Apostles, the martyrs, the confessors, and all the saints who have
preceded us in fidelity to Christ.
154.
And in the hope of the
resurrection and of the life of the world to come, I place my soul, the Church,
and all things in the hands of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to Whom belong
honour, glory, and power forever and ever.
Amen.
Given at Menzingen, on 24 June 2026, the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
