interview
Catholic lay people
ALWAYS HAVE THE DUTY TO FIGHT FOR THE TRUTH an interview with
Al e x a n d er Ts c h u g gu e l Calx Mariae recently had the pleasure of meeting Alexander Tschugguel, the young Austrian who, during the October synod on the pan-Amazon region, removed the Pachamama idols from the Church of Santa Maria Traspontina in Rome and threw them into the River Tiber. He later explained, “I saw in those statues and in those idols a break [with] the First Commandment”. Since then Tschugguel has established the St. Boniface Institute, an organisation of Catholic laymen dedicated to defending and promoting the Church’s traditional teachings. St. Boniface, an 8th-century monk, famously chopped down a sacred oak tree worshipped by German pagans. In recent months, Alexander has given numerous talks and interviews encouraging lay Catholics to take a more active approach to their faith in order to protect the Church from the secular and globalist tendencies which are increasingly being presented as compatible with Catholic teaching. Alexander was visiting Rome last month, just ahead of the publication of Querida Amazonia, Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the Amazon region. We sat down with him to discuss the direction of the Catholic Church in Europe and his current activities.
CALX MARIAE: You entered the Catholic Church when you were 15, an age when many cradle Catholics begin to drift away. At a time when many in the leadership of the Church are sounding more and more Protestant, why should young Protestants today consider converting to the Catholic faith? ALEXANDER TSCHUGGUEL: I’m not 15 anymore, so I argue as a 26-yearold Catholic now. However, when we consider the differences between Christianity in general and the one true Catholic Church, the big difference is that the Catholic Church has maintained every part of Christ’s teach-
ing and every part of His Gospel. We did not focus on one part because we thought that was more important than another. We tried to see that when Christ came to earth, nothing he said was unimportant. Yes, of course, there are some things which might not seem so important at first glance. For example, the wedding in Cana was not as important as Christ’s death on the Cross, but the wedding in Cana was part of His whole life preparing for the death on the Cross. So we as Catholics always accepted that every part of Christ’s teaching is important.
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