Prevost/Leo XIV Reduces the Doctrines Filioque and Papal Primacy to "Theological Controversies" in In Unitate Fidei

The conciliar revolutionaries are nothing if not intellectually dishonest in their discussions of the supposedly “foggy” nature of the past.

The last time I looked, however, the Council of Florence is still considered by the Catholic Church as one of her true general councils, which meant that it met under the infallible direction of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, who proceeds from the Father and the Son as the Council declared dogmatically at the time in 1339, thus ratification the Filioque’s insertion into the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in 1443 by Pope Benedict XIII, who himself was guided infallibly by the same God the Holy Ghost:

For when Latins and Greeks came together in this holy synod, they all strove that, among other things, the article about the procession of the holy Spirit should be discussed with the utmost care and assiduous investigation. Texts were produced from divine scriptures and many authorities of eastern and western holy doctors, some saying the holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, others saying the procession is from the Father through the Son. All were aiming at the same meaning in different words. The Greeks asserted that when they claim that the holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, they do not intend to exclude the Son; but because it seemed to them that the Latins assert that the holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from two principles and two spirations, they refrained from saying that the holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. The Latins asserted that they say the holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son not with the intention of excluding the Father from being the source and principle of all deity, that is of the Son and of the holy Spirit, nor to imply that the Son does not receive from the Father, because the holy Spirit proceeds from the Son, nor that they posit two principles or two spirations; but they assert that there is only one principle and a single spiration of the holy Spirit, as they have asserted hitherto. Since, then, one and the same meaning resulted from all this, they unanimously agreed and consented to the following holy and God-pleasing union, in the same sense and with one mind.

In the name of the holy Trinity, Father, Son and holy Spirit, we define, with the approval of this holy universal council of Florence, that the following truth of faith shall be believed and accepted by all Christians and thus shall all profess it: that the holy Spirit is eternally from the Father and the Son, and has his essence and his subsistent being from the Father together with the Son, and proceeds from both eternally as from one principle and a single spiration. We declare that when holy doctors and fathers say that the holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son, this bears the sense that thereby also the Son should be signified, according to the Greeks indeed as cause, and according to the Latins as principle of the subsistence of the holy Spirit, just like the Father.

And since the Faher gave to his only-begotten Son in begetting him everything the Father has, except to be the Father, so the Son has eternally from the Father, by whom he was eternally begotten, this also, namely that the holy Spirit proceeds from the Son.

We define also that the explanation of those words “and from the Son” was licitly and reasonably added to the creed for the sake of declaring the truth and from imminent need. (Council of Florence, Session 6, July 6, 1339.)

The Eighth Session of the Council of Florence decreed noted that the decree of union with the Greeks included not only agreement about the procession of God the Holy Ghost from God the Father and God the Son but also about Purgatory and the "plentidue of power of the apostolic see given by Christ to blessed Peter and his Apostles:

Seventhly, the decree of union concluded with the Greeks, which was promulgated earlier in this sacred council, recording how the holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, and that the phrase and the Son was licitly and reasonably added to the creed of Constantinople. Also that the body of the Lord is effected in leavened or unleavened wheat bread; and what is to be believed about the pains of purgatory and hell, about the life of the blessed and about suffrages offered for the dead. In addition, about the plenitude of power of the apostolic see given by Christ to blessed Peter and his successors, . . . . . about the order of the patriarchal sees. Council of Florence, Session 8, November 22, 1439.)

This is infallible.

This is irreformable.

This is immutable.

Who says so?

God the Holy Ghost.

Who does not believe this?

The conciliar revolutionaries, including Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV:

In order to carry out this ministry credibly, we must walk together to reach unity and reconciliation among all Christians. The Nicene Creed can be the basis and reference point for this journey. It offers us a model of true unity in legitimate diversity. Unity in the Trinity, Trinity in Unity, because unity without multiplicity is tyranny, multiplicity without unity is fragmentation. The Trinitarian dynamic is not a dualistic and exclusive “either/or,” but rather a decisive bond, “both/and.” The Holy Spirit is the bond of unity whom we worship together with the Father and the Son. We must therefore leave behind theological controversies that have lost their raison d’être in order to develop a common understanding and even more, a common prayer to the Holy Spirit, so that he may gather us all together in one faith and one love.

This does not imply an ecumenism that attempts to return to the state prior to the divisions, nor is it a mutual recognition of the current status quo of the diversity of Churches and ecclesial communities. Rather, it is an ecumenism that looks to the future, that seeks reconciliation through dialogue as we share our gifts and spiritual heritage. The restoration of unity among Christians does not make us poorer; on the contrary, it enriches us. As at Nicaea, this goal will only be possible through a patient, long and sometimes difficult journey of mutual listening and acceptance. It is a theological challenge and, even more so, a spiritual challenge, which requires repentance and conversion on the part of all. For this reason, we need the spiritual ecumenism of prayer, praise and adoration, as expressed by the Creed of Nicaea and Constantinople.

Let us therefore invoke the Holy Spirit to accompany and guide us in this work.

Holy Spirit of God, you guide believers along the path of history. (In Unitate Fidei, November 23, 2025.)

In other words, the doctrine of the Filioque is only a “theological controversy” that has lost its raison d’etre.

The Council of Florence, which met with the representative of the Greek and other Eastern schismatic churches, never happened or, perhaps, has lost is “relevance” with the “passage of time” in the same manner the sacrifice of the English and Irish Martyrs of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries has lost its “relevance” with the “passage of time.”

Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV hereby rejects the “ecumenism of the return” just as fully as the late Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI when he said the following on August 19, 2019, in Cologne, Germany, and that Jorge Mario Bergolio said throughout his own false pontificate, including:

We all know there are numerous models of unity and you know that the Catholic Church also has as her goal the full visible unity of the disciples of Christ, as defined by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in its various Documents (cf. Lumen Gentium, nn. 8, 13; Unitatis Redintegratio, nn. 2, 4, etc.). This unity, we are convinced, indeed subsists in the Catholic Church, without the possibility of ever being lost (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 4); the Church in fact has not totally disappeared from the world.

On the other hand, this unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return:  that is, to deny and to reject one's own faith history. Absolutely not!

It does not mean uniformity in all expressions of theology and spirituality, in liturgical forms and in discipline. Unity in multiplicity, and multiplicity in unity:  in my Homily for the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul on 29 June last, I insisted that full unity and true catholicity in the original sense of the word go together. As a necessary condition for the achievement of this coexistence, the commitment to unity must be constantly purified and renewed; it must constantly grow and mature. (Ecumenical meeting at the Archbishopric of Cologne English.)

Bergoglio said the following in a video message to Catholics who had gathered in Argentina on the Feast of Saint Cajetan in 2013:

Thank you for listening to me. Thank you for coming here today. Thank you for all that you bear in your heart. Jesus loves you very much. Saint Cajetan loves you very much. He only asks one thing of you: that you come together! That you go out and seek and find one in greater need! But not alone - with Jesus, with Saint Cajetan! Am I going to go out to convince someone to become a Catholic? No, no, no! You are going to meet with him, he is your brother! That's enough! And you are going to help him, the rest Jesus does, the Holy Spirit does it. Remember well: with Saint Cajetan, we the needy go to meet with those who are in greater need. And, hopefully, Jesus will direct your way so that you will meet with one in greater need. (Francis the Insane Dreamer, Rebel and Miscreant's Message for the Feast of Saint Cajetan.)

Jorge Mario Bergoglio also “apologized” for how Catholics had mistreated “evangelical” when visiting Caserta, Italy, in 2014:

I am the Pastor of Catholics: I ask your forgiveness for this! I ask your forgiveness for those Catholic brothers and sisters who understood and were tempted by the devil and did the same thing as Joseph’s brothers. I ask the Lord to give us the grace to recognize and to forgive.... Thank you!

Then Brother Giovanni said something that I completely share: the truth is an encounter, an encounter between people. Truth is not found in a laboratory, it is found in life, seeking Jesus in order to find it. But the greatest, most beautiful mystery is that when we find Jesus, we realize that He was seeking us first, that He found us first, because He came before us! For me, I like to say in Spanish that the Lord is primerea to us. It’s a Spanish word: He precedes us and always awaits us. He is before us. And I believe that Isaiah or Jeremiah — I have doubt — says that the Lord comes like the almond flower, which is the first to blossom in spring. And the Lord awaits us! Is it Jeremiah? Yes! It is the first to blossom in spring, it is always first.

This encounter is beautiful. This encounter fills us with joy, with enthusiasm. Let’s consider that encounter of the first disciples, Andrew and John. When the Baptist said: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. And they follow Jesus, staying with him all afternoon. Then when they leave, when they return home, they say: “We heard a rabbi”.... No! “We have found the Messiah!”. They were exuberant. Some laughed.... Let’s consider the phrase: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. They didn’t believe. But they encountered him! That encounter which transforms; from that encounter comes everything. This is the path of the holy Christian: to seek Jesus every day to encounter him, and to allow oneself every day to be sought by Jesus and to allow oneself to be encountered by Jesus. (Private Visit of Jorge Mario Bergoglio to Evangelicals, July 28, 2014.)

These were the words of Antichrist when they were spoken, and Robert Francis Prevost Leo XIV’s words are the words of Antichrist today in preparation for his visit to Turkey for the Feast of Saint Andrew the Apostle, which is transferred this year in the Catholic Church to December 1, 2025, because the First Sunday of Advent is on Sunday, November 30, 2025.

Unitate Fidei, therefore, overlooks the following paragraph from the Council of Florence’s Cantate Domino, February 4, 1442, as well the Pope Leo XIII’s plea for a true unity of faith with the Orthodox and not a fellowship of “love” with them as the conciliar revolutionaries have long desired:

It firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart "into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels" [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church. (Pope Eugene IV, Cantate Domino, Council of Florence, February 4, 1442.)

Weigh carefully in your minds and before God the nature of Our request.  It is not for any human motive, but impelled by Divine Charity and a desire for the salvation of all, that We advise the reconciliation and union with the Church of Rome; and We mean a perfect and complete union, such as could not subsist in any way if nothing else was brought about but a certain kind of agreement in the Tenets of Belief and an intercourse of Fraternal love.  The True Union between Christians is that which Jesus Christ, the Author of the Church, instituted and desired, and which consists in a Unity of Faith and Unity of Government. (Pope Leo XIII, referring to the Orthodox in Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae, June 20, 1884.)

Condemning the nascent ecumenical movement of his own day that would triumph at the "Second" Vatican Council and in the "magisterium" of the conciliar "popes," Pope Pius XI was just as direct in inviting non-Catholics to convert to the true Faith as he condemned the misuse of “that all may one” has been the slogan of false ecumenism since the so-called “World Missionary Conference” in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910:

And here it seems opportune to expound and to refute a certain false opinion, on which this whole question, as well as that complex movement by which non-Catholics seek to bring about the union of the Christian churches depends. For authors who favor this view are accustomed, times almost without number, to bring forward these words of Christ: “That they all may be one…. And there shall be one fold and one shepherd,”[14] with this signification however: that Christ Jesus merely expressed a desire and prayer, which still lacks its fulfillment. For they are of the opinion that the unity of faith and government, which is a note of the one true Church of Christ, has hardly up to the present time existed, and does not to-day exist. They consider that this unity may indeed be desired and that it may even be one day attained through the instrumentality of wills directed to a common end, but that meanwhile it can only be regarded as mere ideal. They add that the Church in itself, or of its nature, is divided into sections; that is to say, that it is made up of several churches or distinct communities, which still remain separate, and although having certain articles of doctrine in common, nevertheless disagree concerning the remainder; that these all enjoy the same rights; and that the Church was one and unique from, at the most, the apostolic age until the first Ecumenical Councils. Controversies therefore, they say, and longstanding differences of opinion which keep asunder till the present day the members of the Christian family, must be entirely put aside, and from the remaining doctrines a common form of faith drawn up and proposed for belief, and in the profession of which all may not only know but feel that they are brothers. The manifold churches or communities, if united in some kind of universal federation, would then be in a position to oppose strongly and with success the progress of irreligion. This, Venerable Brethren, is what is commonly said. There are some, indeed, who recognize and affirm that Protestantism, as they call it, has rejected, with a great lack of consideration, certain articles of faith and some external ceremonies, which are, in fact, pleasing and useful, and which the Roman Church still retains. They soon, however, go on to say that that Church also has erred, and corrupted the original religion by adding and proposing for belief certain doctrines which are not only alien to the Gospel, but even repugnant to it. Among the chief of these they number that which concerns the primacy of jurisdiction, which was granted to Peter and to his successors in the See of Rome. Among them there indeed are some, though few, who grant to the Roman Pontiff a primacy of honor or even a certain jurisdiction or power, but this, however, they consider not to arise from the divine law but from the consent of the faithful. Others again, even go so far as to wish the Pontiff Himself to preside over their motley, so to say, assemblies. But, all the same, although many non-Catholics may be found who loudly preach fraternal communion in Christ Jesus, yet you will find none at all to whom it ever occurs to submit to and obey the Vicar of Jesus Christ either in His capacity as a teacher or as a governor. Meanwhile they affirm that they would willingly treat with the Church of Rome, but on equal terms, that is as equals with an equal: but even if they could so act. it does not seem open to doubt that any pact into which they might enter would not compel them to turn from those opinions which are still the reason why they err and stray from the one fold of Christ. (Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928.)

A brief interjection:

Robert Francis Prevost/Leo XIV treats leaders of false religionsas equals, and this “communion of love” is, as I pointed out five months ago in From Teilhard de Chardin to Paul Couturier to Robert Francis Prevost, is what was desired by Abbe Paul Couturier and Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin a century ago even though this false ecumenism had been rejected in uncertain terms by Pope Pius XI in Mortalium Animos:

This being so, it is clear that the Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part in their assemblies, nor is it anyway lawful for Catholics either to support or to work for such enterprises; for if they do so they will be giving countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ. Shall We suffer, what would indeed be iniquitous, the truth, and a truth divinely revealed, to be made a subject for compromise? For here there is question of defending revealed truth. Jesus Christ sent His Apostles into the whole world in order that they might permeate all nations with the Gospel faith, and, lest they should err, He willed beforehand that they should be taught by the Holy Ghost: has then this doctrine of the Apostles completely vanished away, or sometimes been obscured, in the Church, whose ruler and defense is God Himself? If our Redeemer plainly said that His Gospel was to continue not only during the times of the Apostles, but also till future ages, is it possible that the object of faith should in the process of time become so obscure and uncertain, that it would be necessary to-day to tolerate opinions which are even incompatible one with another? If this were true, we should have to confess that the coming of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, and the perpetual indwelling of the same Spirit in the Church, and the very preaching of Jesus Christ, have several centuries ago, lost all their efficacy and use, to affirm which would be blasphemy. But the Only-begotten Son of God, when He commanded His representatives to teach all nations, obliged all men to give credence to whatever was made known to them by "witnesses preordained by God," and also confirmed His command with this sanction: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned." These two commands of Christ, which must be fulfilled, the one, namely, to teach, and the other to believe, cannot even be understood, unless the Church proposes a complete and easily understood teaching, and is immune when it thus teaches from all danger of erring. In this matter, those also turn aside from the right path, who think that the deposit of truth such laborious trouble, and with such lengthy study and discussion, that a man's life would hardly suffice to find and take possession of it; as if the most merciful God had spoken through the prophets and His Only-begotten Son merely in order that a few, and those stricken in years, should learn what He had revealed through them, and not that He might inculcate a doctrine of faith and morals, by which man should be guided through the whole course of his moral life. (Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928.)

Let, therefore, the separated children draw nigh to the Apostolic See, set up in the City which Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles, consecrated by their blood; to that See, We repeat, which is "the root and womb whence the Church of God springs," not with the intention and the hope that "the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" will cast aside the integrity of the faith and tolerate their errors, but, on the contrary, that they themselves submit to its teaching and government. Would that it were Our happy lot to do that which so many of Our predecessors could not, to embrace with fatherly affection those children, whose unhappy separation from Us We now bewail. Would that God our Savior, "Who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth,"[29] would hear us when We humbly beg that He would deign to recall all who stray to the unity of the Church! In this most important undertaking We ask and wish that others should ask the prayers of Blessed Mary the Virgin, Mother of divine grace, victorious over all heresies and Help of Christians, that She may implore for Us the speedy coming of the much hoped-for day, when all men shall hear the voice of Her divine Son, and shall be "careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Pope Pius XI, Mortalium Animos, January 6, 1928.)

Pope Pius XII reminded us that the only members of the Church of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church, none other:

Actually 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. "For in one spirit" says the Apostle, "were we all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free." As therefore in the true Christian community there is only one Body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one Baptism, so there can be only one faith. And therefore, if a man refuse to hear the Church, let him be considered - so the Lord commands - as a heathen and a publican. It follows that those who are divided in faith or government cannot be living in the unity of such a Body, nor can they be living the life of its one Divine Spirit. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943.)

Pope Pius XII’s firm reiteration of Catholic teaching was, of course, rejected by the Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini/Paul VI and the Fathers of the “Second” Vatican Council when they voted to approve Lumen Gentium on November 21, 1964, the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which included the following phrase, whose insertion was suggested by a Lutheran “observer” to a council peritus, Father Joseph Alois Ratzinger:

This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him, although many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of its visible structure. These elements, as gifts belonging to the Church of Christ, are forces impelling toward catholic unity. (Lumen Gentium, November 21, 1964.)

Despite all of the efforts made by defenders of all things conciliar to try to explain how the passage from Lumen Gentium above was not a contradiction of Pope Pius XII’s Mystici Corporis, it is nevertheless the case that Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s “new ecclesiology” of “full communion” and “partial communion” received its official sanction in Lumen Gentium. The seeds were thus planted for a wider and more “generous” application of the “new ecclesiology that Ratzinger himself defended in an interview with the Frankfort Allgemeine newspaper on September 22, 2000, forty-seven days after the issuance of Dominus Iesus on August 6, 2000, the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Robert Francis Prevost are simply following the conciliar “tradition” represented by the “new ecclesiology.”

Enough of this theological relativism and deconstructionism.

Enough.

Saints Josaphat Kuncenicz and Saint Andrew Bobola shed their blood to bring the Orthodox in the to true Church and to adhere to her doctrines as Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is indivisible from the doctrines by the Church He founded and of which He is the Invisible Head. Christ and the doctrines are and the same, and to reduce doctrines such as the Filioque and, by implication, Papal Primacy and the Orthodox errors about divorce and remarriage and other matters that I listed again recently in On the Feast of Saint Josaphat Kuncewicz, is both blasphemous and heretical.

Continue praying Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary we remember the words of Father Maximilian Koble, who was devoted to the City of Mary of Immaculate and the promotion of Our Lady’s Miraculous Medal of Grace, whose feast can be celebrated today, a ferial day in the General Roman Calendar, Thursday, November 27, 2025:

"Only until all schismatics and Protestants profess the Catholic Creed with conviction, when all Jews voluntarily ask for Holy Baptism – only then will the Immaculata have reached its goals.”

“In other words” Saint Maximilian insisted, “there is no greater enemy of the Immaculata and her Knighthood than today’s ecumenism, which every Knight must not only fight against, but also neutralize through diametrically opposed action and ultimately destroy. We must realize the goal of the Militia Immaculata as quickly as possible: that is, to conquer the whole world, and every individual soul which exists today or will exist until the end of the world, for the Immaculata, and through her for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.” (Father Karl Stehlin, Immaculata, Our Ideal, Kansas City, Missouri, Angelus Press, 2007, p. 37.)

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, pray for us.

Saint Catherine Laboure, pray for us.