The Archbishop Viganò Archive:
October 11, 2020
Westen Interview: Fratelli Tutti and Silent US Bishops
The following are Archbishop Viganò's responses to questions presented to him by John-Henry Westen of LifeSite News regarding Francis' encyclical
Fratelli Tutti, the US Bishops' silence on abortion, and attacks against Catholic faith in politics:John-Henry Westen: What is your opinon on Fratelli Tutti, particularly its silence regarding abortion, especially in light of what the encyclical defines as the “biggest concerns” for politicans?
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò: Fratelli Tutti, in speaking about the concerns which should motivate the actions of politicians, mentions the “phenomenon of social and economic exclusion, with its baneful consequences: human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labor, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international organized crime.”1 These are all plagues that need to be denounced, but which I believe are already recognized as such by many people. The focal point, which is much more important from the moral aspect, but not mentioned in the Encyclical, is abortion, which is tragically claimed today as a right.2
This deafening silence concerning the most odious crime in the eyes of God – because it is committed upon an innocent and defenseless child depriving it of life – betrays the twisted vision of this ideological manifesto that is in the service of the New World Order. Its slanted vision lays in psychologically prostrated submission to the requests of mainstream thought, while looking at the teachings of the Gospel with the myopic and embarrassed view of those who consider it unthinkable and outdated.
The spiritual and transcendent dimension is completely ignored, as are natural and Catholic morality. But what brotherhood could ever exist between people, if killing an innocent child is considered irrelevant? How can one condemn social exclusion while remaining silent on the most criminal of social exclusions, that of a child who has a right to live, to grow, to be loved and to love, adore and serve God and attain eternal life? What is the point of addressing arms trafficking, if one can be joined in brotherhood with one who dismembers a child in the womb of its mother, one who sucks the child’s brains out the instant before birth? How can one place brotherhood ahead of the horror of those who poison the sick or the elderly, who are denied any chance of participating in Our Lord’s Passion through suffering? What respect for nature can be invoked, when the gender of a person, written into our chromosomes, can be changed, or when a sterile union of two men or two women could be considered a family? Does not the destructive fury of “mother earth” apply to those who, by altering the wonderful work of the Creator, assume the right to modify the DNA of plants, animals, and human beings?
Fratelli Tutti is an encyclical that not only lacks Faith, but also Hope and Charity. The voice of the Divine Shepherd and Physician of souls does not echo in its language, but rather the rapacious wolf’s growl or the mercenary’s deafening silence (Jn 10:10). There is no breath of love either for God or for man, because in order to truly desire the good of modern man it is necessary to wake him out of his hypnotic spell of do-goodery, ecologism, pacifism, ecumenism, and globalism. In order to want the good of sinful and rebellious man, it is necessary to make him understand that by distancing himself from his Creator and Lord he will end up being a slave of Satan and of himself. No sense of brotherhood with other damned souls can remedy enmity towards God. It will not be the world nor philanthropists who will judge him, but Our Lord Himself, who died on the Cross to save him.
I believe that this very sad Fratelli Tutti represents, in a certain way, the emptiness of a withered heart, of a blind man deprived of supernatural sight, who gropingly thinks he can give an answer that he himself first ignores. I recognize that it is a sad and grave statement, but I think that more than asking ourselves about the orthodoxy of this document, we should ask ourselves what is the state of a soul incapable of feeling any surge of Charity, of allowing himself to be touched by a divine ray shining into that gloomy greyness represented by his utopian, transient dream, closed to the Grace of God.
The introit of this Sunday’s Mass sounds a warning for us:
Salus populi ego sum, dicit Dominus: de quacumque tribulatione clamaverint ad me, exaudiam eos: et ero illorum Dominus in perpetuum. Attendite, popule meus, legem meam: inclinate aurem vestram in verba oris mei.3
The Lord is the salvation of His people, who shall be heard in tribulation as long as they listen to His law. Our Lord tells us in no uncertain terms: “Without Me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:8). The utopia of the Tower of Babel, no matter how it may update itself and appear under the guise of the United Nations or the New World Order, is destined to collapse stone upon stone, because it is not founded on the Cornerstone who is Christ.
“Behold they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will not be impossible for them. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (Gn 11:4-7).
The globalist and ecumenical pacifism of Fratelli Tutti envisions an earthly paradise that lays its foundations on refusing to recognize the Kingship of Christ over societies and the entire world; on being silent about the scandal of the Cross, considered as a “divisive” rather than the only hope of salvation for humanity; on forgetting that the social injustices and the evil present in the world are consequences of sin, and that only by conforming to the will of God can we hope to foster peace and harmony among men. Human beings can be truly brothers only in Christ, by recognizing together the Fatherhood of God.
The Encyclical lacks Hope, understood as the theological virtue infused by God into the soul by which we desire the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our strength, but on the help of the Grace of the Holy Spirit.4 Hoping that a horizontal brotherhood can guarantee peace and justice has nothing supernatural about it, because it does not look to the Kingdom of Heaven, it is not based on the promises of Christ, and it does not consider Divine Grace necessary, placing its trust in man who is corrupted by original sin and therefore inclined to evil. Anyone who feeds such false hopes – for example by stating that “there is no need to believe in God to go to heaven”5 – does not perform an act of charity. On the contrary: this encourages the wicked on the path of sin and perdition, making themselves complicit in their damnation and their despair. It contradicts the very words of the Savior: “I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sin” (Jn 8:24).
I add, with great pain, that lately the answer of the Church in the face of evil, death, sickness, suffering and injustices in the world is lacking, if not completely absent. It is as if the Gospel has nothing to say to modern man, or as if what it has to say is outdated: “I don’t want to sell useless recipes, this is the reality.”6 One’s blood runs cold when reading these words: “God is unjust? Yes, He was unjust with His Son, by sending Him to the cross.”7 There is no need to refute this statement; it is enough to observe that if we deny that sin is the cause of the suffering and death that afflicts humanity, we inevitably end up placing the responsibility on God, accusing Him of being “unjust” and therefore excluding Him from our very own horizon. From here we understand how the pursuit of human brotherhood is found outlined in the words of the Psalmist: “The kings of the earth rise up, and princes take counsel together, against the Lord and against His Anointed” (Ps 2:2).
Thus the Church – or rather her counterfeit that eclipses her almost entirely – does not offer a Catholic answer anymore to the man who is hopeless and thirsting for Truth, but instead advances the scandal of pain and suffering whose root cause is sin, placing the responsibility on God and blaspheming Him as “unjust.”
Westen: Your Excellency, I imagine that you have seen how pro-life leaders in the United States are begging the Bishops to openly declare that abortion is the preeminent question during this presidential election. There have been various Bishops who have said the exact opposite and now use the points discussed in the encyclical of Pope Francis in support of their ideas. What advice would give to your brother Bishops and to the faithful?
Abp. Viganò: Silence on abortion is a terrible sign of the spiritual and moral deviance in that part of the Hierarchy which denies its very own mission because it has denied Christ. And just as in abortion the mother kills her own child, whom she should love, protect, and bring forth into this earthly life, so in the present fraud, the Church, willed by God to bring forth souls to eternal life, is found killing them herself spiritually in her own womb, because of the betrayal of her own Ministers. The hatred of the enemies of Christ does not spare even His Most Holy Mother, whose divine Motherhood is hated by Satan, because through Her the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity became Man to redeem us. If we are friends of the Blessed Virgin, Her enemies are our enemies, according to what has been established by the Lord in the Protoevangelium: “I will put enmity between thee and the Woman, and between your offspring and Hers” (Gen 3:15).
I remind my brother Bishops that they were anointed with the Holy Chrism as athletes of the Faith, not as neutral spectators of the struggle between God and the Adversary. I pray that the few, courageous Pastors who raise their voices to defend the inviolable and non-negotiable principles which the Lord has established in natural law, may be joined by those who today hesitate out of fear, timidity, or a false sense of prudence. You have the “grace of state” to be heard by your flock, who recognizes in you the voice of the Divine Shepherd (Jn 10:2-3). Do not be afraid to proclaim the Gospel of Christ, just as the Apostles and the Bishops who succeeded them did not fear martyrdom.
I ask the faithful, disoriented by the silence of so many fainthearted shepherds, to raise their prayers to Heaven, invoking from the Paraclete those graces which only the Holy Spirit can instill in the most hardened and rebellious hearts: Lava quod est sordidum, riga quod est aridum, sana quod est saucium. Flecte quod est rigidum, fove quod est frigidum, rege quod est devium. Offer your sacrifices, your penances, and your sufferings in sickness for the Church and for your Pastors.
Westen: I have recently interviewed the wife of the former nominee for the Supreme Court Robert Bork, who spoke about the lack of support from the Church during her husband’s outrageous hearings; she even hinted to the fact that the attacks against him were led by the “Catholic” Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy. What is your opinion of the attacks against Judge Barrett, particularly because of her faith?
Abp. Viganò: The hatred of the world, of which Satan is the prince (Jn 12:31), is the most evident disavowal of the utopian dream of Fratelli Tutti. There cannot be brotherhood among men, if it excludes the common Fatherhood of the One True God, One and Triune. Those who preach equality and equal rights to the point of giving legitimacy to error and vice, become intolerant when they see their own abusive power is at risk – as soon as a Catholic politician, in the name of equal rights, wants to testify to his or her own Faith in legislating and governing. So, in this way the highly touted “brotherhood” is realized only among the children of darkness, necessarily either excluding the children of light or forcing them to deny their own identity. And it is significant that the only requisite of this brotherhood appears to be always founded on the refusal of Christ, while it is considered impossible to have a true and holy brotherhood in the sacred bond of Charity, “in justice and holiness that proceeds from truth” (Eph 4:24).
With the unction of Confirmation, a Catholic becomes a soldier of Christ. A soldier who does not fight for his King but allies himself with the enemy is a traitor, a renegade, a deserter. Therefore, let Catholic politicians and those who hold institutional positions bear witness the One who shed His Blood for them. Not only will they receive the necessary graces to carry out their duties in public affairs, but they will also be an example to their brothers and will merit an eternal reward, which is the only thing that really matters. “Te nationum praesides honore tollant publico; colant magistri, judices, leges et artes exprimant.”8
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
Former Apostolic Nuncio of Washington, D.C. (2011-2016)
Original Source: Lifesite News
[1] Speech at the United Nations Organization, New York, 25 September 2015, AAS 107 (2015), 1039. Cited in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, 188.
[2] The only indirect mention of abortion is n. 24 of the Encyclical, in which violence that “forces [women] to abort” is denounced, but without condemning the killing of the unborn itself. The reference to the unborn child in Fratelli Tutti n. 18 is very weak and does not explicitly mention the term «abortion». Spending just three words on the most abominable crime that involves millions of deaths every year in the world, does not change the evidence that the encyclical is literally obsessed with human solidarity in support to globalist agenda. Besides, in the contest of the US election campaign (concomitant with the publication of the papal document), an explicit condemnation of abortion would openly contradict the democratic candidate, which is strongly in favor of the abortion. I would add that the references to children seems more aimed to the Islamic families, in particular of those of the immigrants, who, according to Bergoglio, represent the demographic future of Europe.
[3] “I am the salvation of the people, says the Lord: Should they cry to me in any distress, I will hear them, and I will be their Lord forever. Hear my teaching, O my people: incline your ear to the words of my mouth.” Ps. 77:1, 19th Sunday after Pentecost, Introit.
[4] CCC, 1817.
[6] Il Papa: non c’è una risposta alla morte dei bambini, in: Avvenire, 15 December 2016; https://www.avvenire.it/papa/pagine/papa-udienza-al-bambino-gesu
[7] Ibid.
[8] 11 October 2020 Divine Motherhood of Mary Most Holy, 19th Sunday after Pentecost
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