And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, Who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”—Apocalypse 19:4.
I have spent a lot of time around the Mediterranean the last two years in places like Greece, Egypt and Israel. This was primarily a reconnaissance mission to discover what it will take to get Muslims to become Christian, and to find what it will take to get Eastern Christians to become Catholic.
The outcome of my travels, research and experiences was this: They will only become Catholic when we take our own patrimony seriously and stop denying our own Divine Revelation.
Today’s article is going to give some examples from this, especially in my interactions this summer with Jews and Muslims in the Holy Land. (I was also there praying for donors’ intentions and being on a personal retreat.) Even though most the Catholics I met in the Holy Land this summer had a hyper-ecumenical view (the same as what we find in liberal parishes in the United States) there were exceptions to this, and they were extremely edifying people.
One such exception was Yosef, a recent convert from Judaism to Catholicism. Not only was he raised in a Jewish family in Israel, but he became a traditional Catholic in the Holy Land. Above, you can even see him serving my Traditional Latin Mass! I am using his baptismal name, Yosef, for the sake of anonymity, not because he asked me to do that, but because Israel is currently assessing heavy persecutions on those who convert and evangelize.
And evangelize he does, shamelessly, even to his Jewish friends, that Jesus is the only way to the Father. Like me, Yosef understands that Catholicism is not only the fulfillment of the Old Testament, but that a rejection of Christ is a rejection of the entire New Testament and the Old Testament. Because of this ancient aspect of Divine Revelation, Yosef also understands that Catholicism cannot change.
Another example is the above young woman. Yosef introduced me to her after my TLM in Jerusalem. Her middle name is Miriam. She had attended Mass with a veil, but she did not receive Holy Communion. Yet I saw her devoutly praying the Rosary after Mass. Why? Because I found out she is yet another Jewish person seeking Jesus Christ and Catholicism. In fact, she is not even baptized yet. So, after that day, Miriam asked to meet. We met for several hours at the Lebanese home where I lived (with two Lebanese nuns around for propriety sake) to discuss the Catholic faith. I remember thinking after that edifying day with her: “If I had known this much about traditional Catholicism as an 18 year old as she already knows, it would have saved me so many sins in my own life.”
The above pictures (as well as the featured image at the top) is the Anastasis (the Church of the Resurrection, also known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.) As you can see, my new friend wore a head-veil. But that was very rare in there. In that Church (and many other sites) I noticed that Christians (both Catholics and Protestants) dressed extremely immodestly. Near the above picture, I had to tell an Armenian monk that someone was eating a sandwich not far from where St. Helen discovered the true cross. He didn’t seem to care too much.
Incidents like these in the Holy Land made me realize that “ecumenism” and our desire to be liked by everyone has actually made us disrespected by everyone. We let anyone into our Churches, regardless of what they are wearing, regardless of what they are eating. Yet we claim this is because “Jesus was welcoming to all sinners and ate with them.” Well, ok, fine. But Muslims and Jews see that we Catholics respect them more than Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. When they see this, they want nothing to do with us.
Do these other world religions respect the majesty of who they call “God”? You can be sure they do, and they don’t care what anyone of other religions think about this. Ironically, the notion of putting the majesty of God before human respect is leading to more human conversions. There is proof of this in the secular studies I included in a recent article called Islam Is Now Growing Faster than Christianity. This has never happened in history before nowadays. Again, study the stats in there if you doubt it.
The above picture is one I snapped of the Dome of the Rock, a part of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound. It is the third most holy site for the Muslims in the entire world, and it was just a 10 minute walk from my home in the Old City of Jerusalem where I lived for July of 2025. It is the site where Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, so it’s sacred to many people in the Holy Land.
The Dome of the Rock is built on the Temple Mount where the Jews also desire their final Temple to be rebuilt. Due to this tension, there are eleven gates leading into the above area. Ten are reserved for Muslims. Non-Muslims can only enter into one of those eleven gates.
On a day where that one gate was open to non-Muslims, I went into the compound. (By “compound” I mean the area surrounding the above picture, not within the building itself.) I walked around it not in my religious habit, but in my civvies (pants and a shirt.) I then tried to get in the main door of the Dome of the Rock not to pray, but for tourist purposes. Of course, I was going to stay quiet and respectful. But as I was trying to enter, a Muslim guard took one look at me, stopped me, brushed me aside and said “No, No.”
I walked away smiling that he respected his own patrimony more than me.
You see, Muslims in the Holy Land put the majesty of Allah ahead of what a Christian thought about them being welcoming. How sad that Mohammed’s “Allah” is actually a fake god, and we worship the true and living God!
Of course, many Catholics would read the above assertion and grumble, “Yes, Fr. Nix is the Western version of a jihadist Catholic, so it’s no wonder he wants our Churches to be as unwelcoming as a Muslim mosque.” Ok, fine, but again, read the above article titled “Islam is now growing faster than Christianity,” and you will see that I am not alone. Men and women of good-will everywhere in the world (of all faiths) will only approach a religion that takes God seriously. And when Christians let people into our temples in yoga pants eating sandwiches before our own Holy of Holies, the world’s Jews and Muslims will see we don’t actually think we have God in our Churches.
As I wrote in the first paragraph, a major outcome of my travels the last two years is to see with my own eyes that people of other world religions will only and exclusively desire becoming Catholic when we Catholics take our own patrimony seriously and accept our own Divine Revelation and inherited liturgies.
This means we must stop watering it down with modernism and a thousand other excuses that put some mealy-mouthed love-of-man ahead of the awe-inspiring love-of-God. Nobody wants us to put kindness ahead of the holiness of God anymore. Perhaps, even Jews and Muslims secretly desire that we Catholics start putting the majesty of God ahead of “ecumenism” towards them (as can be seen by the two Jewish converts to traditional Catholicism described above.)
I know it’s usually creepy for a priest to comment on women’s clothing, much less take their picture, but I decided with all my harping about modesty online regarding clothing, I should occasionally thank women for dressing the right way. The above women I spoke to are seen in a bazaar just outside the Anastasis in the Old City. But I went up to those same two women inside the crowded Church of the Anastasis just before the picture. Right in the Church, I whispered, “Thank you for dressing like Christians.” They said “Thank you.”
So, it can be done. And you can start emphasizing the majesty of God ahead of fake-ecumenism by how you dress at Holy Mass.