“Being rooted and founded in charity.” (Eph. III, 17)
The Augustinian and sacerdotal Concord can be defined in a threefold manner.
First of all it is a Concord, i.e. a cordial convergence and union. The heart is the organ symbolising intelligence in its noblest sense. Through his prophet, God declares: “My people have been silent, because they had no knowledge.” (Os. IV, 6). Therefore, the Concord wants to be a place where doctrinal unanimity reigns, since it is the fundamental condition for any upright action. The heart is also the place where God dwells through faith (Eph. III, 17). Unity of faith produces unity of hearts, according to the word of Scripture: “the believers had but one heart and one soul” (Acts IV, 32). Although the Augustinian and sacerdotal Concord gathers several Priests and friars from various places, each one can say with the Royal-Prophet: bonum et jucundum est habitare fratres in unum, “Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.” (Ps.CXXXII, 1). A brotherly cohabitation in only possible when charity is real, without impurity and self-love. Therefore is the Concord radically founded on Charity, meaning “We ought, above all things, to love Almighty God and then our neighbour.” (Rule of S. Augustine, the prologue).
Secondly, the Concord is essentially Augustinian. By this is meant: entirely Catholic, without any of the adulteration which happened throughout the ages. The Catholic Liturgy, especially the Sunday Prayers, professes, confesses and teaches the believers a vision of the Lord God which in no way describes him as “dethroned” by his adversaries, or supplanted by a creature, whatever it may be : 3I, the LORD, this is my name: I will not give my glory to another.” (Is. XLII, 8).
The doctrine of Our Holy Father Augustine essentially consists in the definition of God’s sovereign grace, and in the refutation of the Pelagian heresy, which grants man a certain capacity to please God with his own strength, independently from the gift of faith, thus ruining the Apostle’s teaching (Hebrews XI, 6). Countless Councils have condemned this dangerous error, as well as its off-springs: therefore, there is no doubt that: “Two Cities are made by two loves: the earthly City by love of oneself even to the contempt of God; the heavenly City by love of God even to the contempt of self.”
(De Civitate Dei, XIV, 28). “Without the continued mercy of God, which purifies and maintains it; without his constant governing, the Church cannot remain safe”: Ecclesiam tuam, Domine, miseratio continuata mundet et muniat; et quia sine te non potest salva consistere, tuo semper munere gubernetur (Prayer of the 15th Sunday after Pentecost).
Finally, the Augustinian Concord is Sacerdotal. “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it.” (Ps. CXXVI, 1): the visible and effective presence of God in the world here-below is manifested by the sacerdotal function. The visibility of the Church consists first of all in its hierarchical structure. Now, since the 19th century, the bishops have bitterly noticed that not only do particular opinions and heterodox viewpoints abound, but furthermore, self-proclaimed preachers, encouraged by financial interests and laymen’s anti-clerical passions, to whom the Lord of Host declares : “I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them” (Jer. XIV, 14). If the lay activists’ enterprises were but characterized by fruitlessness, their case would be settled already; but, this is not the case : the amount of lay evangelization and teaching “headquarters” has brought about a real mutation of the forma mentis, of the Catholic mentality. So much so that the new-comers joint an entity which has – just as the conciliar Church – only but the name of Catholic… Now, the rule established by the Holy-Ghost is the following: Fides ex auditu: “Faith (is born) cometh by hearing: and hearing (is done) by the word of Christ.” (Rom. X, 17). In the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, faith does not come by what one reads, or sees on the Internet, not even from what one hears from the lips of some apostle-proclaimed individual – but from the Word of God announced by the hierarchical channel, i.e. first and foremost by the Bishops, and by the Priests submitted to them.