EWTN News reports on the November 18, 2025 commemoration in Wrocław, Poland, where Polish and German “bishops” signed a declaration titled “Courage of Extended Hands,” marking 60 years since their 1965 exchange of letters. The event featured “Cardinal” Grzegorz Ryś and “Archbishop” Tadeusz Wojda alongside German “Bishop” Georg Bätzing, praising Cardinal Bolesław Kominek as a “bridge-builder” for his role in the original correspondence that declared: “We grant forgiveness and ask for forgiveness.” The new declaration advocates for continued Polish-German collaboration to “break down enmities in Europe,” supporting Ukraine against Russia while promoting “practical solidarity” and European unity based on “shared values.” This spectacle of conciliar ecumenism reveals the neo-church’s complete abandonment of the Social Kingship of Christ (Regnum Christi) in favor of naturalistic political theater.
Human Diplomacy Replaces Divine Justice
The declaration’s emphasis on political reconciliation directly contradicts the Church’s immutable teaching that true peace flows ex opere operato (from the work performed) through submission to Christ the King. Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925) dogmatically asserts: “Nations will be reminded by the annual celebration of this feast that not only private individuals but also rulers and princes are bound to give public honor and obedience to Christ” (¶32). The Polish-German event deliberately omits any reference to the conversion of nations as prerequisite for reconciliation, instead reducing the Church’s mission to geopolitical arbitration.
When “Archbishop” Kupny claims reconciliation requires “daily choices” rather than “grand treaties,” he inverts the Catholic hierarchy of values. The Syllabus of Errors (1864) condemns precisely this naturalism: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55). The 1965 letters already contained the poison of indifferentism by treating German war crimes as merely human conflicts requiring mutual apologies rather than demanding Germany’s public abjuration of heresy and submission to Rome.
Syncretism Masquerading as Reconciliation
The event’s ecumenical prayer and call to “overcome enmities in Europe” constitute formal cooperation with religious indifferentism. Pius IX’s Syllabus explicitly condemns the notion that “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church” (Error 18). By framing the Nazi invasion as a generic “evil spirit of hatred” rather than the heretical fruit of Protestant Prussia and apostate Weimar culture, the “bishops” erase Germany’s centuries-long rebellion against Catholic truth.
Pius XI’s Mortalium Animos (1928) demolishes this 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, for in the past they have unhappily left it.” The declaration’s pledge to “work to break down enmities” constitutes apostasy from the Church’s missionary mandate, reducing the Faith to a social work program.
Instrumentalization of Cardinal Kominek
The veneration of Cardinal Kominek as a “bridge-builder” exemplifies the neo-church’s corruption of historical figures. While Kominek validly received episcopal consecration in 1954, his 1965 letter laid groundwork for the conciliar revolution by treating Germany’s formal heresy as a political dispute. St. Pius X’s encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907) warned that Modernists “pervert the eternal concept of truth” by subordinating doctrine to historical circumstances. The current “bishops” amplify this error by praising Kominek’s “prophetic voice” while omitting his role in Poland’s post-conciliar collapse – from 95% Mass attendance in 1965 to under 30% today.
False Mercy Over Truth
The declaration’s endorsement of European “shared values” and solidarity with Ukraine exposes its revolutionary character. Pius IX’s Syllabus condemns the notion that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Error 80). By supporting Ukraine’s NATO-aligned regime promoting LGBT ideology and schismatic Orthodoxy, the “bishops” betray Catholic Social Doctrine. Leo XIII’s Immortale Dei (1885) teaches: “States cannot without crime behave as though God did not exist or disdainfully ignore religious duties” (¶6).
The event’s silence on Germany’s ongoing persecution of traditional Catholics – from the suppression of the SSPX to fines imposed on homeschoolers – reveals its hypocrisy. True Catholic reconciliation requires Germany’s repentance for the Kulturkampf, Bismarck’s persecution of the Church, and its current enforcement of EU secularism – none mentioned in the declaration.
Heretical Presuppositions
This spectacle rests on three condemned errors:
- Religious Indifferentism: Treating Protestant Germany and Catholic Poland as equally valid “partners” denies the extra Ecclesiam nulla salus dogma (Council of Florence, 1442).
- Evolution of Dogma: The 1965 letters’ novel “mutual forgiveness” framework replaces the Church’s teaching on justice for aggressor nations (cf. Pius XII’s Summi Pontificatus, 1939).
- Naturalism: Reducing the Church to a NGO promoting “European values” constitutes apostasy from her divine constitution (Pius IX, Syllabus, Error 19).
The Polish-German declaration constitutes spiritual treason, abandoning the Militantis Ecclesiae (Church Militant) for a gnostic “dialogue” cult. As the Council of Trent anathematizes those who claim “ecclesiastical reconciliation erases sin without the sinner’s disposition” (Session XIV, Canon 4), so too must we reject this sacrilegious pantomime that offers handshakes while withholding the Blood of Christ.
Source:
Polish, German bishops sign new declaration 60 years after historic reconciliation (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 20.11.2025