Vatican’s Ecumenical Altarpiece: Syncretism Masquerading as Sacred Art
VaticanNews portal reports the installation of German artist Michael Triegel’s altarpiece in the Church of the Teutonic Cemetery, featuring a homeless Lutheran man (“Scheffler”) depicted as St. Peter and buried in the adjacent cemetery. The work incorporates fragments from Lucas Cranach’s unfinished Reformation-era painting and includes Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer among saints. Framed as an “ecumenical dialogue,” the display lasts two years under collaboration between the Evangelical Cathedral Chapter of Naumburg and the Vatican’s German Archconfraternity. The article celebrates this as a “profound providence,” noting antipope Benedict XVI’s blessing of the project.
Sacrilegious Equivalence Between Truth and Heresy
The inclusion of heretical figures like Bonhoeffer—a Protestant modernist who rejected Catholic soteriology—alongside saints constitutes blasphemous parity between divine truth and doctrinal error. Pius XI’s Mortalium Animos (1928) condemned such false ecumenism: “The union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it” (§10). The painting’s deliberate amalgamation of Catholic and Lutheran elements violates the First Commandment by suggesting Luther’s revolt—which denied transubstantiation, sacramental priesthood, and the Mass—holds equal spiritual dignity with Apostolic tradition.
“The Apostle Paul is depicted with the features of a rabbi whom Triegel met in Jerusalem.”
This syncretism extends to depicting St. Paul with a Jewish rabbi’s features, implying Judaism remains a valid covenant despite Christ’s fulfillment of Mosaic law. Pius XII’s Mystici Corporis Christi (1943) dogmatically affirmed: “Only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed” (§22). The altarpiece thus propagates the condemned error of religious indifferentism, explicitly forbidden in the Syllabus of Errors (1864): “Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true” (Proposition 15).
Desecration of Sacred Art and Burial Norms
Triegel’s use of a homeless Lutheran as St. Peter degrades sacred art’s purpose: to elevate souls to God through beauty reflecting supernatural order. Pius XII’s Mediator Dei (1947) stressed that liturgical art must “exclude all that is unworthy… to ensure that art contributes to the decorous worship of God” (§195). Depicting a non-Catholic as an Apostle substitutes human sentimentality for theological precision, reducing saints to sociological symbols.
Scheffler’s burial in the Teutonic Cemetery—reserved for German Catholics—violates canon law. The 1917 Code mandated: “Catechumens and non-Catholics may not be given ecclesiastical burial” (Canon 1240 §1). This sacrilege mirrors the broader apostasy of the conciliar sect, which treats heresy as a “different perspective” rather than “the corruption of revealed truth” (Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum, 1896).
Benedict XVI’s Apostate Legacy
The article’s emphasis on antipope Benedict XVI’s endorsement exposes his continuity with conciliar revolution. His 2011 Assisi gathering—where pagans performed idolatrous rituals—prefigured this altarpiece’s syncretism. Pius XI’s Quas Primas (1925) established Christ’s Kingship precisely to combat such naturalism: “When once men recognize… that Christ has royal authority over society… then at last will many evils be cured” (§19). Instead, Benedict’s “blessing” confirms his role in dismantling Catholic exclusivity.
Triegel’s conversion from atheism—a regime that martyred Catholics like Blessed Gerhard Hirschfelder—to conciliar “Catholicism” exemplifies the neo-church’s emptiness. True faith requires “submission of intellect and will to God” (Vatican I, Dei Filius), not aestheticized emotion. The article’s silence on Scheffler’s spiritual state—did he repent of Lutheranism?—reveals the neo-church’s abandonment of souls for worldly “dialogue.”
Conclusion: Art in Service of Apostasy
This altarpiece epitomizes the conciliar sect’s inversion of Catholic priorities: replacing dogma with sentiment, eternity with temporality, and conversion with coexistence. St. Pius X’s Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907) identified such Modernist tactics: “They introduce new doctrines into the Church under the guise of conservation” (§38). Until Rome returns to proclaiming Christ’s exclusive Kingship—not interfaith handholding—such sacrileges will proliferate. As Pope Pius XI warned: “Peace is repose in order. Where there is no order, there is no peace” (Ubi Arcano, 1922). True art serves order; this altarpiece serves chaos.
Source:
Vatican: Altarpiece installed in the Church of the Teutonic Cemetery (vaticannews.va)
Article date: 07.11.2025