So, what basis is there for ecumenical prayer meetings, ecumenical/social out-reach programs to the poor, and even ecumenical pro-life efforts? Well, it should be quite clear by now that the ecumenical efforts of today are based on false and erroneous assumptions, i.e. that Catholics and Evangelicals at least believe the fundamentals and basics of the Christian Faith, -which thus establishes some ground for some unity and cooperation. On the contrary, as this work has demonstrated, even though there is a similar profession on some aspects of the Christian Faith, there is no objective ground of basic agreement between Catholics and Evangelicals. Thus, the very notion that there can be some sort of "spiritual unity" (whatever "spiritual" may mean here) is a complete fallacy. There can be no dichotomy allowed between what one truly believes, what one professes, and what exterior communion to which one belongs; for this would only be a disunion within the individual. To function on this level would be to live a lie. The Incarnation is the union of Spirit with flesh, the eternal with the historical, the invisible with the visible, the interior with the exterior. As a result, there can be no unity in one realm (spiritual) while there is none in the other (creed, authority, and faith). True ecumenism must reflect the reality of the Incarn-ation. This reality exists only in the Catholic Church.

No social issue, no political issue, not even moral issues can take priority over God's revealed truths and the necessity of men to affirm and believe in them. In fact, true cooperation in any of these areas is ultimately contingent upon a common acknow-ledgment and profession of Christian truth -doctrinal and moral.

As we have shown, in the Catholic Faith, Jesus did A, B, C, D, E, etc., and God, by His nature, is A, B, and C. In the Evangelical faith Jesus did NOT-A, NOT-B, NOT-C, etc., and God is NOT-A, NOT-B, and NOT-C. Because they do not believe in numerous dogmas of the Catholic Faith, Protestants do not believe in the same God Who has revealed Himself. Thus, they cannot be saved unless they repent from their errors and profess and believe the whole Catholic Faith - as all must.

As mentioned before, not to believe or to reject a truth revealed by God is to reject the very authority of God Who revealed it. This is true no matter what that truth is which God has revealed. To reject the authority of God is nothing but the rejection of God Himself, and NO ONE can be saved who rejects God. Hence, the necessity of belief in every dogma for salvation. To reject just one, is to reject God Who revealed it.

What must we conclude then? There can be no cooperation with those who reject Christ, for those who reject Christ are in reality enemies of Christ, even if they don't think they are. Evangelicals, and all Protestants, have invented their own "Christ," who is NOT the biblical/historical Jesus Christ of Roman Catholicism.

Catholics, then, have the obligation, the divine mandate, to evangelize not only professed non-Christians, but even those who profess to believe in Jesus and yet are not Catholic. Since love rejoices in the truth (1 Cor.13:6), we can never tolerate error in matters of religion. In fact, we can never cooperate with error, but must seek to correct it and bring those in it out of it.

Therefore, it would be uncharitable to leave a Protestant in his error, for error is ultimately a rejection of truth, and only truth is salvific. This truth is the Catholic Faith, revealed by God and given by Christ to His Church for our salvation.

Ecumenism and cooperation are, by definition, absolutely contingent upon truth, and men's belief in all of it, confession of it in its entirety and adherence to it. Truth comes before unity, for unity must be built upon it and Christ Who is Truth; and unity can come no other way except by way of union with and submission to Truth's vicar on earth - the Pope of Rome.

We end this short work with a quote by Venerable Pope Pius IX from his 1863 Encyclical, Quanto Conficiamur (On Religious Indifferentism, 1863), which presents the true attitude Catholics must have towards our "separated brethren."

"But let the children of the Catholic Church in no way be hostile to those who are not joined with us in the bonds of the same faith and of charity... above all let them strive to snatch them away from the darkness in which they lie miserably, and lead them back to the Catholic truth and to the most loving Mother the Church, who never ceases to extend her maternal arms lovingly to them and to call them back to her bosom, so that being grounded and made firm in faith, hope and charity... they may attain eternal salvation."