A bishop leading the Church’s ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue movement in the region has warned local Catholics against “twisted” remarks from a foreign group of ultra-traditionalist priests who “disobey the pope” and “reject Church teaching.”

The warning comes ahead of this week’s papal interfaith gathering in Assisi to mark the 25th anniversary of a similar meeting led by the late Pope John Paul II in 1986.

The meeting has come under attack by members of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX).

“Our people should not follow priests of the Society of St Pius X,” said Archbishop Fernando Capalla of Davao last week.

“They misrepresent and misinterpret the pope. They are against Vatican II,” he added, saying that members of SSPX have issued fliers condemning the meeting in Assisi scheduled for October 27.

Vatican II was convened by Pope John XXIII in 1962 and concluded in 1965 under his successor Pope Paul VI, ushering in constitutions and decrees on ecumenism and the teachings of other religions.

“John Paul II’s initiative 25 years ago intended for religious leaders to assist with dialogue, and also to promote mutual understanding, collaboration and harmony in the world through respecting different religious traditions,” the archbishop said.

Pope John Paul II excommunicated four bishops consecrated without papal mandate by the society’s founder, Bishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988. The excommunication was later rescinded by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

The ultra-traditionalist group is now in talks with the Vatican to bring the group back into communion, though members of the group have continued to issue controversial statements.

“How is it conceivable that a pope should call upon the representatives of false religions in their official capacity to participate in a day of personal prayer,” the flier circulated in the Philippines under the title “Renewing the Assisi Scandal” stated.

Archbishop Capalla dismissed the flyer and its author, Father Regis de Cacqueray.

“We know there is such a thing as extra-Biblical revelation, that God in many mysterious ways reveals himself to these people, and that’s why they are also believers, not atheists,” he said, referring to practitioners of non-Catholic faiths.

Archbishop Capalla added that the spirit behind the first meeting in Assisi is much older than John Paul II, and traces its roots to a meeting between St Francis of Assisi and a Muslim sultan in the 12th century.

“That was the beginning of individual, and later, formal initiatives by the Church to dialogue with Islamic leaders.”