The True Spirit of Assisi May Surprise

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Let us consider the following words of St. Francis of Assisi in light of the false ecumenism that is overshadowing the Church in these our days:

"Also those are doomed who see the
Sacrament of the Body of Christ, which is consecrated with the words of
the Lord on the altar and by the hand of the priest in the form of
bread and wine, but do not see in it the Spirit and Divinity and have
not believed that it really is Our Lord Jesus Christ’s most holy Body
and Blood” (Admonitio prima de Corpore Christi (Quaracchi edition, p. 4))

Saint Francis of Assisi was firmly committed to the truth that “outside the Catholic Church, there is no salvation.” He was not an apostle of Gaudium et spes dialogue. He was an apostle of Christ who preached the Gospel,

1. for the salvation of those souls who were already Catholic, but had fallen away from the Gospel ideal, and

2. for the salvation of infidels and non-believers, whom he knew would be lost if they did not embrace Christ and His one true Catholic Church.

His biographer, Fr. Cuthbert, OSFC, wrote in 1916 that Saint Francis was “apt to be impatient with meddlers and heretics to the end” (Cuthbert, Life of Saint Francis of Assisi )

In fact, Saint Francis spoke harsh words about those who do not accept Catholic truth. He did not speak in vague terms about the “seeds of truth found in all religions" or as “an invitation to dialogue between the great monotheistic religions in the service of the human family”* (*This is a direct quote from Pope John Paul II. See “On Pilgrimage to Mt. Sinai,” Origins, March 9, 2000. Regarding John Paul II’s disappointing commitment to ecumenical novelties, Fr. Joseph de Sainte Marie, who was a theologian and loyal son of the Pope, emitted the broken-hearted lament and warning: “In our day, and it is one of the most obvious signs of the extraordinarily abnormal character of the current state of the Church, it is very often the case that the acts of the Holy See demand of us prudence and discernment” -- from A propos, Isle of Skye, Scotland)

Saint Francis vs. Islam

Around 1219, after a General Chapter of the Order, Saint Francis decided to undertake a mission to the Muhammadans in Egypt, where also there was a Crusade being fought.

During this time, Francis stayed with the Christian army, and then crossed over to the Moslem lines. Once outside the Christian lines, he was seized by Moslem soldiers. Francis told the soldiers that he wanted to preach Christ to the Sultan, who allowed him into the camp.

When brought to the Sultan, Francis said, “I am sent by the Most High God, to show you and your people the way of salvation by announcing to you the truths of the Gospel” (Lives of Saints, “Saint Francis of Assisi” ). And when Saint Francis preached, the Sultan felt himself very much drawn to Francis and to the power of his words. So much so, that he invited Francis to stay with him. 

“Willingly,” Francis replied, “if you and your people will be converted to Christ.” (Cuthbert, Life of St. Francis )

Francis then proposed his famous challenge. He said:

“If you yet waver between Christ and Mohammed, order a fire kindled and I will go into it with your priests that you may see which is the true Faith” (Lives of Saints, John J. Crawley & Co. ).

The Sultan was not willing to permit this trial by fire, so Francis requested permission to leave. And the Sultan gave orders that Francis be conducted back to his camp with courtesy.

While this was going on in Egypt, there were five firebrand Franciscan Friars kicking up so much dust in Muslim Morocco that all five of them would be put to death. Their names were Brothers Berardo, Ortho, Pietro, Accurso and Aduto.

First they went to Spain, to Moslem Seville. And because they tried to preach the Gospel there, they were scourged, imprisoned and expelled from that kingdom. Then they went over to Muslim Morocco in an attempt to convert the infidels. When they arrived, these Friars did more than just preach in the streets. They marched right into a mosque and denounced Mohammed from inside the mosque (Cuthbert, Life,).

The Friars were seized, imprisoned and scourged, but that did not temper their zeal. While in prison, they tried repeatedly to convert the jailers.

The rulers of Morocco were trying to find a diplomatic way out of this, so they arranged that these imperious Friars be sent out of the country.

And how did the five Franciscans respond?

Father Cuthbert relates:

“But the five Friars knew nothing of diplomacy and had not the temper to live and let live. Mohammed was, in their eyes, the enemy of Christ, and the souls of this people were rightful spoils for their Divine Redeemer. To go back upon their mission would be a traitorous backsliding from their fealty to their Savior.”  

At the first opportunity, these wiry Franciscans gave their jail-keepers the slip. Immediately, they returned to the city, and there they were again, in front of the mosque appealing to the infidels to renounce Mohammed and accept Christ.

They were seized, cast into jail and tortured. While they were on the rack, the jailers promised the Friars that their lives would be spared and they would be given gifts, if they would deny Christ and accept Mohammed.

The Friars responded by uttering the praises of Our Lord, and urged the torturers to renounce Mohammed and accept Jesus Christ.

The Muhammadans answered by beheading each Friar, and casting their bodies outside the walls to be the food of dogs. A Portuguese dignitary arranged a stealth operation to have their bodies rescued. They were taken to Portugal, and with great reverence they were laid in the Church of the Canons Regular (Augustinian) in Coimbra.

Among all the people who flocked to pray to and honor the martyred Franciscans, there was a young Augustinian Canon who was enraptured by the zeal and love of Christ that burned in these Friars. He sought out the local Franciscans and begged to be admitted to the Order.

That young Augustinian, who became Franciscan, is now known to us as Saint Anthony of Padua, the Miracle Worker, whom Catholics honor with the title the Hammer of Heretics.

And as for Saint Francis: What did he think of these five Friars who marched into a mosque and denounced Mohammed from within the Muslim’s own holy place? Who urged Moslems for their own salvation not to follow the false prophet, Mohammed? Did Saint Francis organize on the following March 12 a grand apology for the insensitivity of his friars for not understanding that the “Moslems, together with us, worship the same God”?

No! Francis cried out in a transport of gratitude to Heaven, “Now I can truly say I have five brothers”.

This is the true spirit of Assisi!

Fake Christians / Fake Catholics

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One who has the supernatural faith in Christ cannot believe that truth is subjective, or that it cannot be known.  Christ, Truth Incarnate, came, suffered and died that we might have Truth live within us.  The false belief that truth is subjective denies that Christ is God the Son.  

One who believes that Christian "unity" means anything other than those who profess to love Christ should be in the one, true, holy and apostolic church as the (ordinary) means for salvation, are fake Christians, or otherwise to be known as fake Catholics.  Christ sent us the Paraclete on Pentecost, that his Bride might be united to Him in the Mystical Body, giving his Authority to the Apostles and through their successors through the means he gave to them.  Anyone who denies this denies Christ as God, Truth Incarnate, and implies rather that he is a liar. God never intended his Church, which came about through the Sacrifice of His only Son, to be united to, and therefore eventually indoctrinated and led by, false doctrines.  Also, God the Father never intended that His Holy Bride would begin by the Holy Ghost that She might have teachings that would be in error and passed on in darkness.  Novelty is false because the teachings were handed down already, and there was never, nor will there ever be, a second Pentecost.

Let us be peacemakers in this short life, but it must start with the one true God and God alone.  Whenever one sells out his faith for human respect, he denies the truth of Christ's Passion and Resurrection, and sells his inheritance "for a plate of lentils".  

Truth cannot be united to a lie, for when the smallest lie enters into even a large portion of truth, the whole becomes a lie.  There are no half-truths in the one, true religion, only what was give to us by God the Father, by the actions of grace from Christ's suffering, death and resurrection, and the Holy Ghost's subsequent beginning of the Church.  One God.  One Truth exists in one, true Church.  Suggest that one aspect of dogma can be sacrificed or even appear to be lessened for the sake of "unity" that places man at the level of God (or above, for that matter), then be aware that you deny God the Holy Ghost, who has given you to the Truth at your Baptism.

Those who insist in your human respect, who would, if given the choice, rather live in this life forever than be united to Christ for eternity, admit that your faith is only on the natural level and wounded mortally, since there is no imperfection in God and no disunity in Himself, Truth Incarnate, for you have sinned against the graces of your Baptism.  For this, God has removed from the supernatural life of faith since your Baptism.  All the wounds now that must be recovered can only begin to heal once you turn back to the Mother of God, and through her only Son, Jesus Christ, by way of the Apostolic succession, give you back to her son in the Sacrament of Penance.

Do you, who lives quietly and contently in heresy, believe that the truth cannot be known, as if God, Himself, is powerless to the confusion sown by the devil, and perpetuated by rebellious men?  Do you not know that those who profess to be Christian yet are not Catholic, are taught to hate and distrust the teachings of the Bride of Christ?   Do you think that the Church's infallible teachings, including Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus, is somehow flawed in the same way as if Her dogmas came of man and not God?  

Then, know this, that you, above all others, place the Cross of Suffering on Jesus Christ, and hammer in the nails to keep him there as long as you remain united to heresy and not to the fullness of the faith.

You see the Church's Visible Body as a mangled corpse for all to see, that she is nothing to look upon, but to only deride and distrust.  She, the Bride of Christ, denied as the Truth of God Incarnate was denied, ridiculed and disrespected in the same way as was Christ on the Cross.  What is it she can learn from man, especially any man who has separated from her?   She was not made by man, but lives visibly by the appointment of JESUS and its Life is Christ's Mystical Body, which lives in His children through the means He has appointed --- the Sacraments.  Deny any one part, and you deny the whole, because you would have to deny the Whole is, in fact, whole, and is something less than given to us by God.

We Catholics learn from Christ through what he has handed down through the Apostles, not by listening to heretics.   Does this sound hateful?   Nothing is more hateful than to not wish your brother be converted to the Truth.  Firstly, however, you must wish it for yourself.


May we each pray that God will send of graces of understanding, leading us on to the one true, holy path of obedience to Christ in his Church, since his Holy Bride is here, on earth, and we have just a short opportunity to come to him through her.