Don Lorenzo Magarelli is a former Catholic priest who served at the St. Pasquale Catholic Church on Villa Revoltella in Trieste, Italy. He is now working with the Secretariat for Ecumenical Activities (SAE) Group of Trieste, a regional interfaith organization that seeks Christian unity among the different religions in Italy. When Don Lorenzo Magarelli is not socializing with Cardinal Turkson, the former Prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and now chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences, he is busy teaching Catholic doctrine in Seventh-day Adventist churches.
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On May 11, 2022, the SAE Group of Trieste announced through their official channels that Don Lorenzo Magarelli had visited the Seventh-day Adventist Church of Trieste (Via Rigutti) and spoke about the Communion of the Saints (dead) from a “Catholic perspective.” The SAE Group of Trieste also published a photo of Don Lorenzo Magarelli speaking inside the Trieste Seventh-day Adventist Church. (See the above Facebook post from the SAE’s “Churches of Trieste” page). During his message, Don Lorenzo Magarelli reminded the Seventh-day Adventist congregation that it was the “Eucharist that makes us part of the same Church.” The SAE Group of Trieste published the following:
“On Monday 9 May 2022, at the Adventist Christian Church, Don Lorenzo Magarelli gave a conference on the theme ‘I believe in the Communion of Saints: the Catholic perspective.’ The meeting was organized by the Ecumenical Group/SAE of Trieste which for the year 2021-2022 chose the ‘communion of saints’ as a topic for reflection.” [1]
This is what ecumenism and interfaith cooperation lead to: Catholic officials teaching Rome’s doctrines in our churches. Next, Don Lorenzo Magarelli pushed the need for Eucharistic Unity with Rome. The SAE Group of Trieste continued in their news report:
“The Church, inasmuch as it is born of the Spirit, is a communion of saints, who are thus called in the New Testament as sanctified by the Spirit. Saying ‘I believe the Church’ corresponds to saying that this mystical meeting is called by the Spirit. Now, communion sanctorum also means ‘communion in holy things.’ In the Catholic, Orthodox tradition and, albeit with less substantial weight, in the Reformed tradition, it is the Eucharist that makes us part of the same Church because we participate in the one bread: the body and blood of Christ have a meaning for the Catholic, substantial and for this reason, after the Holy Supper, the bread remains the Body of Christ and is kept in a reliquary.” [1]
Here we see Don Lorenzo Magarelli promoting the Catholic Eucharist inside a Seventh-day Adventist church. He is clearly teaching that the bread becomes the actual body of Christ and must be kept in a “reliquary,” which is a special container to hold religious relics. Don Lorenzo Magarelli also told Seventh-day Adventists that the Holy Eucharist unites us into one church. Do we understand the blasphemy of the Roman Catholic Mass that claims to turn the bread into the real Body of Christ? In his book The Faith of Millions, Roman Catholic Priest John O’Brien explains the Catholic Mass.
“When the priest pronounces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places Him upon our altar to be offered up again as the Victim for the sins of man. It is a power greater than that of monarchs and emperors: it is greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of Seraphim and Cherubim. Indeed it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. While the Blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man—not once but a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows His head in humble obedience to the priest’s command” (Rev. John A. O’Brien, The Faith of Millions, revised ed. (Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., 1974) 255–56).
If this blasphemy wasn’t enough, Don Lorenzo Magarelli went on to promote communion with the Catholic Church, communion with the Holy Eucharist, and communication with the dead saints:
“Therefore, communion with holy things makes us holy. But where does this communion manifest itself? First of all, it speaks of the Church, of the living baptized, but also of eternal life after death, in the sense that there is an intimate relationship between those who ate the Eucharistic bread – and who are part of the earthly Church -, and a communion with those who have passed through the narrow gate of death and enjoy the goods of Heaven. For us believers, death is a passage, it is a presence deeply rooted in our life, as St. Francis of Assisi saw well, calling it “our corporal sister.“ Space and time are not only the here and now, but are linked to Jesus and the blessed life. In the First Letter to the Thessalonians, Paul asks himself if there is a communion with the dead and if in the hereafter there will be another life or a continuation of our earthly life. For the apostle, Heaven is the kingdom inaugurated by Jesus with the death of death. The Church, here, in this kingdom, is eternal: this certainty builds the relationship between us still alive in the flesh and those who have gone on. In two thousand years of history, marked from the second millennium by divisions and separations, the Church in its development has exposed itself to the risk of creating confusion and misunderstandings, as it happened regarding the significance of the communion of the saints and. Catholics, in fact, do not venerate the saints as demigods, as is sometimes mistakenly believed, but they have a vision based on a balanced theological realism: if I have been in communion with a brother in life, when this brother is in Heaven, I keep talking to him. The saints are not just those of the calendar.” [1]
These viewpoints have no place in our churches. This is a lesson in communicating with the dead! This is what our churches are exposed to as a result of ecumenism. The Secretariat for Ecumenical Activities (SAE) Group of Trieste organized this Catholic indoctrination event in this Seventh-day Adventist church. This is what happens when you embark on the path of interfaith cooperation with other churches. It will result in the Catholic indoctrination of our people.
This is also not an isolated incident. Don’t believe that this is just one church in Italy that has done this on its own. We must never forget to point out where the real problem began. It’s the leadership that allows this and encourages it. These local churches are only doing what their conferences and unions are already doing. And the unions are only doing what the General Conference, and specifically, the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department, headed by Ganoune Diop, is doing, which is promoting and organizing many of these ecumenical activities. It would be an injustice to simply look at this one local church in Italy and say, “What a compromise and a tragedy!” and not realize that the problem stems from the top.
“The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot.” Isaiah 1:5 ,6.
It is time for Seventh-day Adventists around the world to stand up to the global ecumenical movement and its advances in Adventism. We must reject the ecumenical agenda that is still infiltrating our movement. It is time for God’s people to remain steadfast in their faith until the end. We should welcome dialogue with others, but the church’s first responsibility is to preach and defend the faith, especially when Catholic heresy is taught within our churches.
Unfortunately, we want to be seen as nice people who do good charitable work, but these activities should never take precedence over our work of proclaiming the Three Angels’ Message to the world. We cannot separate public relations from our divinely appointed work of teaching those who do not follow God’s commandments about what God expects of them. In an age of universal lawlessness and chaos, God’s people must speak out rather than remain silent. Now is the time to proclaim the truth from the mountain tops to every nation, kindred, tounge and people (Revelation 14:6).
We are witnessing an internal attack on the faith. We are being pushed to the brink of disaster by forces from within. Too many of our pastors and leaders are sound asleep and remain silent while Rome’s doctrines, which have no place in any of our institutions, are forced on our people and children. Evil is not just knocking on the door; it has made its way inside the church. It is seeking to neutralize or destroy our very faith, the Three Angel’s Message, which, if proclaimed, would expose Satan’s ecumenical deceptions.
Rome’s ecumenical messages about Eucharistic unity, communication with the dead, and pantheistic ecological conversion will lead to the mark of the beast. These are distractions designed to keep us from fulfilling our calling. You cannot be faithful to God while supporting these interfaith gatherings and Catholic indoctrination taking place in Italy and other parts of the world. Faithfulness to God, faithfulness to the Word of God, and faithfulness to the church leaves us with no other choice than to denounce and resist this diabolical event described above. There is no middle ground on this matter.
These interfaith events are not helping Protestants and Catholics come closer to embracing the final warning messages of Revelation 14:6-12. They are also being led astray by what is being done, because we are allowing them to sink deeper into disobedience and lawlessness without intervening. Instead, we must awaken those who still have the opportunity to do so. We have a life-or-death message that will determine whether souls are saved or lost based on our attitude toward the work that God has given us.
“Our message is a life-and-death message, and we must let it appear as it is, the great power of God. We are to present it in all its telling force. Then the Lord will make it effectual. It is our privilege to expect large things, even the demonstration of the Spirit of God. This is the power that will convict and convert the soul. The perils of the last days are upon us, and in our work we are to warn the people of the danger they are in. Let not the solemn scenes which prophecy has revealed be left untouched. If our people were half awake, if they realized the nearness of the events portrayed in the Revelation, a reformation would be wrought in our churches, and many more would believe the message. We have no time to lose; God calls upon us to watch for souls as they that must give an account.” (Testimonies, Vol. 6, p. 61).
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Natasha says
I’m not sure how anyone could justify this and believe that this is okay. It merely serves as evidence of how far some have departed from the faith while continuing to believe the ecumenical movement is not a big deal.
Britney says
Jesus is coming soon, that’s what this means. Look up, our salvation draweth nigh.
Barbara says
I’m speechless. But for the record, we must protest these activities.
Terry says
Pray for the church in Italy that they may wake up.
Tina says
I want to know what Ted Wilson thinks about this.
Raymundo says
When will our leaders reciprocate and preach Revelation 18:1-5 in their Catholic churches? Are these ecumenical interactions only a one-way street? If they are, our people must flee from this Rome-ward movement.
Evan says
No, not in my church. He would have been silenced the moment he mentioned that the Eucharist unites us all. I’m not sure why they let this man continue.