On behalf of the Australian Confraternity, National Chairman Fr Scot Armstrong has published this statement in response to requests for comment on the Declaration of the truths relating to some of the most common errors in the life of the Church of our time, signed by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, Cardinal Janis Pujats, Archbishop Tomash Peta, Archbishop Jan Pawel Lenga, and Bishop Athanasius Schneider.

It is generally well known that for some decades the unity of faith has been strongly tested in the secularised, materially affluent parts of the world. This appears now to have spread also to less secularised areas, prompting the authors of this document to offer an aid, or concrete spiritual help to address the difficulties being experienced as unity is further stretched, and in some cases, even breaking down. That this breakdown is often played out in the media only adds to the confusion. It is a useful reminder that the faith is not our own concoction but received from Christ and is to be passed on integrally from the day of Pentecost until the end of time. 

The document makes copious use of authoritative sources, underlining the fact that the teaching authority of the apostolic succession serves the Word of God in the deposit of faith given once and for all (cf. Jude 3), rather than altering it as a political party might change policies, or a corporation might change its business approach. Pope Francis recently remarked – jokingly – that if some don’t like the faith they can go and found their own church. He was joking, but the point was made. This document serves to strengthen that point.