portal reports on a joint Muslim-Catholic iftar during Lent in Abidjan, framing it as a “concrete witness of living together” and a “privileged opportunity to strengthen bonds of fraternity.” The article, dated 22 February 2026, quotes a parish priest involved in “episcopal commission for ecumenism” praising “unity in diversity” and describing the coincidence of Ramadan and Lent as “an implicit message from God” for peace. This event, presented as a model of interreligious harmony, is in reality a public manifestation of the apostasy condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium, a sacrilegious syncretism that denies the exclusive reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the supernatural necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation.

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The Theological Bankruptcy of “Shared Asceticism”

The article’s foundational premise is that the parallel observances of Ramadan and Lent represent “two distinct spiritual paths but following the same perspective: almsgiving, prayer, and penitence.” This is a lethal error. From the perspective of integral Catholic faith, which recognizes no evolution of doctrine, the spiritual practices of non-Catholic religions are not paths to God but works of the flesh, devoid of supernatural merit without faith in Christ and membership in His Church. Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors condemned the notion that “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Proposition 16). The article’s silence on this absolute truth is damning. It presents a naturalistic, Pelagian view of religion where external practices alone constitute “inner conversion,” completely omitting the necessity of sanctifying grace, the sacraments, and submission to the Catholic Faith. The “fraternity” celebrated is not the supernatural brotherhood of the baptized in the Mystical Body of Christ, but a humanistic, Masonic solidarity that places the “shared value” of “faith” above the truth of the Faith.

Silence on the Supernatural End: The Gravest Accusation

The most serious omission is the total absence of any call to conversion. Father Gilles César Dogoua speaks of “unity is not only about spiritual life; it must encompass the entire human family,” and of “cultivating what unites us.” What unites them? According to Catholic doctrine before 1958, what unites a Catholic and a Muslim is their common need for redemption in the Blood of Christ and the absolute requirement for the Muslim to abjure his false religion and be baptized. The Syllabus anathematizes the error that “the civil authority… has a right to an indirect negative power over religious affairs” (Proposition 41) and that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Proposition 55). Here, the Church’s mission is replaced by a secular “social cohesion” project. The article quotes Traoré Mahama saying religions must “speak with one voice—the language of coexistence, peace, and social cohesion.” This is the precise “indifferentism” Pius IX condemned. The “voice” of the Catholic Church is the proclamation of Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus; the “voice” of coexistence is the silence of that dogma.

Contradiction of Quas Primas and the Social Reign of Christ

Pope Pius XI, in Quas Primas, established the feast of Christ the King precisely to combat the secularism that this event embodies. He wrote: “When God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The article’s paradigm is the exact opposite: a state (or in this case, a parish) hosting a religiously syncretic event, where the “kingdom” is a pluralistic space of mutual respect. Pius XI declared Christ’s reign “encompasses all men” but only as “Redeemer, in whom they are to place their hope,” and as “Lawgiver, to whom men owe obedience.” The iftar event denies Christ’s legislative authority over Muslims and Catholics alike. It treats both religions as equal partners in a civil project, directly contradicting Pius XI’s teaching that “the state is happy… when all willingly accept the reign of Christ and obey Him.” The “implicit message from God” cited by the priest is a blasphemous inversion: it suggests God desires the maintenance of religious division under a banner of peace, rather than the conversion of all peoples to the one true Faith.

The “Ecumenism” Office as an Apostate Structure

The role of Father Gilles as “national executive secretary of the Episcopal Commission for Ecumenism, Biblical Apostolate, and Interreligious Dialogue” is key. This very office is an innovation condemned by the perennial Magisterium. The Syllabus condemned the idea that “the Church has not the power of defining dogmatically that the religion of the Catholic Church is the only true religion” (Proposition 21) and that “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion” (Proposition 18). The commission’s very existence, promoting dialogue without the ultimatum of conversion, is an institutional embrace of these condemned propositions. It operates on the naturalistic principle that religions are human constructs to be harmonized, rather than supernatural realities where one alone is true. This is the “ecumenism project” described in the Fatima file as a tool for “religious relativism,” here applied to Islam.

Modernist Language and the Cult of Man

The vocabulary is pure Modernism: “fraternity,” “coexistence,” “social cohesion,” “unity in diversity,” “shared life together.” These are the slogans of the Syllabus‘s “moderate rationalism” (Propositions 8-14) and the “errors concerning natural and Christian ethics” (Propositions 56-64), which reduce religion to a social function. The article states: “serving our country where faith remains a widely shared value.” This subordinates the supernatural to the natural, the salvation of souls to the stability of the state—the exact error Pius IX denounced in Proposition 40: “The teaching of the Catholic Church is hostile to the well-being and interests of society.” The “joy” expressed is the joy of naturalistic humanism, not the joy of Catholic truth. The event is a liturgical action (prayer, breaking fast) performed in a sacred space (parish courtyard) for a secular end (national reconciliation). This is the sacrilege of using Catholic rites for indifferentist purposes.

The Sedevacantist Lens: An Antipope’s “Church” in Action

From the perspective of the unchanging Faith, the hierarchy organizing this event—the “Archdiocese of Abidjan” under the “Pope” Leo XIV—is not Catholic. The sedevacantist argument, based on St. Robert Bellarmine and Canon 188.4, holds that a manifest heretic loses office ipso facto. The post-conciliar popes, from John XXIII through “Pope” Leo XIV (Robert Prevost), have embraced the errors of Vatican II’s Dignitatis Humanae (religious liberty), Nostra Aetate (non-Christian religions as salvific), and the entire ecumenical project—all condemned by the Syllabus and Lamentabili. Therefore, the structure they occupy is the “conciliar sect.” This Abidjan event is not a Catholic activity but a sectarian ritual of the “neo-church,” performing its apostate mission of dismantling the exclusive claim of Christ. The “parish priest” is a functionary of this sect, not a Catholic pastor. His “call for unity” is a call to apostasy.

Conclusion: A Call to Repudiation and Return

The iftar in Abobo Anador is not a sign of hope but a symptom of damnation. It is the logical fruit of the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place. It denies the Social Kingship of Christ as defined in Quas Primas, embraces the indifferentism condemned in the Syllabus, and practices the modernist synthesis of all errors condemned in Lamentabili. There is no “fraternity” between light and darkness. The only unity pleasing to God is the unity of the Catholic Church, to which all must be converted. The article’s entire narrative—from the premise of shared asceticism to the goal of social cohesion—is a tissue of apostasy. The faithful must repudiate such events with the same fervor as they repudiate the false Fatima apparitions or the canonizations of pseudo-saints. They must flee the conciliar structures and cling to the immutable Tradition of the Faith, recognizing that the current occupiers of the Vatican are not the Vicars of Christ but the agents of the world’s apostasy. The path is not “dialogue” but the uncompromising proclamation: Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus. There is no peace outside the reign of Christ the King.

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Source:
Côte d'Ivoire: Muslim and Christian communities observe the start Ramadan and Lent together   (vaticannews.va)
Date: 22.02.2026