Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre - Volume II

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Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre
Volume 2, Chapter XIX

Letter of Cardinal Seper to Archbishop Lefebvre

16 March 1978

Sacra Congregatio
pro Doctrina Fidei
00193 Romae,
Piazza del S, Uffizio,11
Prot. N. 1144/69

Your Excellency,

On 28 February last you were kind enough to bring personally to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith your answer to the letter it had sent you on 28 January and which had been delivered to you by the Apostolic Nunciature in Switzerland on 10 February following.

I thank you sincerely for your answer and for the rapidity with which you brought it. It goes without saying that your long letter will be studied attentively by our Congregation. However, I think it necessary first to ask you for some supplements. I do that the more easily as you yourself said you were ready to provide them as required.

The fact is, a first examination of your answer in comparison with the questions put to you by our congregation shows that several of the objections made against you have not been given a precise answer. I take the liberty, therefore, of stating them again briefly, with the necessary references to my letter of 28 January in the enclosed annex, and I ask you, as before to be so kind as to let me have your answer within the prescribed time of a month.

I thank you in advance and assure you of my prayers; and I beg you to accept the expression of my respect and devotedness in Our Lord.


Franc. Card. Seper
Prefect


Annex to the Letter of 16 March 1978

1. About the Ordo Missae:

a) Catholic may not cast doubt on the conformity with the doctrine of the faith of a sacramental rite promulgated by the Supreme Pastor (p. A3);

b) the sacrificial and propitiatory character of the Mass is reaffirmed absolutely, in conformity with the Council of Trent, in the Institutio Generalis of the Roman Missal (p. A4);

c) your declarations about the Ordo Missae and your opposition to its use are spreading distrust, confusion, and even rebellion, among the faithful (ibid.).

2. Your general declarations (on the authority of Vatican Council II and of Pope Paul VI) are linked with an activity which raises the question: are we facing a schismatical movement? (p. A6). Indeed, you ordain priests against the formal will of the Pope and without the litterae dimissoriae required by Canon Law - and you have continued to do so after being suspended a divinis - you send those priests to priories where they exercise their ministry without authorization from the Ordinary of the place; you make speeches calculated to spread your ideas in dioceses where the bishop has refused his consent; with the priests you have ordained you are beginning whether you mean to or not, to constitute a group likely to become a dissident ecclesial community (pp. A7 and 8).

3. You consider that the priests ordained by you have the jurisdiction provided in Canon Law for cases of necessity. Is not that to argue as though the legitimate Hierarchy had ceased to exist? (p. A8).

4. The Pope has "the supreme power of jurisdiction" "not only in things pertaining to faith and morals but also in what belongs to the discipline and government of the Church throughout the world" (Conc. Vat. I, Const. Pastor Aeternus, DS 3064) (p. A 9), so the obedience due to him is not limited to doctrinal matters.

5. By your declarations on submission to the Council and to the post-conciliar reforms of Paul VI - declarations which are in keeping with a whole pattern of behavior, and in particular with illicit ordination of priests - you have fallen into grave disobedience which leads logically to schism (p. A10).


Franc. Card. Seper
Prefect

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Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre

Volume 2, Chapter XX

Letter of Archbishop Lefebvre to Cardinal Seper
13 April 1978


Your Eminence,

I cannot believe that you do not understand the exact reason for my attitude, which is that of thousands of Catholics and of many priests among those most faithful to the Catholic Church to the Papacy.

The problem at the root of our perseverance in Tradition, in spite of orders from Rome to abandon it, is the grave and profound change in the relations of the Church with the world.

Our Lord and the Church after Him have related themselves to the world in a very precise way. The world has to be converted and baptized, and submit to the gentle Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the one and only way to salvation. "Go, teach all nations..." That is clear. Apostles must be sent to all nations so that they become Catholics and accept the Reign of Our Lord.

But in the world there are forces at enmity with Our Lord and His Reign. Satan and all the auxiliaries of Satan, conscious and unconscious, refuse that Reign, that road to salvation, and they fight for the destruction of the Church.

Hence the Church, with her Divine Founder, is engaged in a gigantic struggle. All means have been and are being used by Satan for his triumph.

One of the latest and most effective stratagems is to destroy the fighting spirit of the Church by persuading her that she has no more enemies, so she must lay down her arms and enter into a dialogue of peace and understanding.

That sham truce will allow the enemy to penetrate everywhere with ease and to corrupt the opposing forces.

That truce is Liberal Ecumenism, a diabolical instrument for the auto-destruction of the Church.

That Liberal Ecumenism will demand the neutralization of weapons, which are the Liturgy with the Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacraments, the Breviary, the liturgical feasts, and the liturgical feasts, and the neutralization and then the closing of Seminaries-there is no longer a need of fighters when there is no fight. Ecumenism in education means theological research-dogmas open to doubt.

It means also pluralism applied to Catholic States, so that they are suppressed and become Ecumenical States.

It means that the monasteries and the religious societies are stopped from fighting, they who were the vanguard. That amounts to a sentence of death.

To that devilish undertaking begun by the Council, especially in the Documents on "Non-Christian Religions," "The Church in the Modem World," and "Religious Liberty," and continued incessantly since the Council, we offer a flat refusal. We will not become Liberal Ecumenists, betraying the cause of the Reign of Our Lord and the cause of the Church: we wish to remain Catholics.

Who is the instigator of that false ecumenism in the Church? Who is (or who are) answerable for it? We prefer not to know. God knows.

They can lay us under as many interdicts and censures as they like, but we mean, with the grace of God and the help of the blessed Virgin, to remain in the Catholic faith, and we refuse to collaborate in the destruction of the Church.

We ask for something very simple and very legitimate: recognition that the Church of all time, the Church of our childhood, has the right to continue. It is a right based on Scripture, Tradition, the Magisterium of the Church and the whole history of the Church.

That, I think, is clear enough.

Eminence's respectful and fraternally devoted in Christ and Mary.

+Marcel Lefebvre

P.S. Enclosed, the answer to your request for clarity, with some documents.


Reply to the Annex to the Letter of 16 March 1978

General considerations on the state of the Church since Vatican Council II which alone permit of an adequate reply to the questions asked about the Ordo Missae, our continuation of the activity of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X in spite of the interdictions received from the Bishops and from Rome.

1) We deny nothing of the theological and canonical principles concerning the Church, the Pope, the Bishops. On the contrary, it is because we believe them with all our soul that we cannot accept a utilization of authority against the end for which that authority was received. That end is explicitly affirmed in the Professions of Faith, in the oaths taken many times by the Pope and the Bishops. It consists particularly in the faithful and exact transmission of the deposit of faith.

2) Well, we have to state with sorrow that that transmission is no longer faithful.

The basic error which undermines Vatican Council II and the post-conciliar reforms, as well as the greater part of episcopal writings and acts, is a Liberal Ecumenism which corrupts the Church's fundamental Mission.

The Catholic Church is a missionary Church according to the Mission given by Our Lord Jesus Christ: "Go, teach all nations, baptize them…" She alone possesses the Truth. She alone is the true religion because she alone was founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

She goes through the nations to convert souls to Jesus Christ. That is true dialogue arising from true charity.

Liberal Ecumenism supposes that the other religions, the other ideologies, also have the truth, that the Church has to learn something from them-which is a lack of faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ. That ecumenism dialogues with error on an equal footing, and so has the same regard for error as it has for Truth.

It is the Liberal error, condemned so many times by preceding popes.

3) From that Liberal error emerge all the new initiatives, all the post-conciliar reforms: all the attitudes of ecclesiastics acquired from that error show its effects, and the same for their writings.

It is a general corruption.

The liturgical reforms are realized in that ecumenical spirit, on the admission of the Reformers themselves.

Catechetics, Seminaries, Catholic Universities, all spread that ecumenical spirit, seeking Truth from error. So error and vice get in everywhere, under cover of evangelization, human responsibility, human dignity, the rights of man, liberation theology .The souls and hearts of the young are thus corrupted by Catholic teachers, who call on rabbis, pastors, etc., to help them…

That spirit of compromise inevitably extends to political, social and economic ideas, and links up with the principles of freemasonry and the principles of Marxism. Pluralism is then applied to all Catholic States under cover of “Religious Liberty.”

4) That is the abandonment of the Catholic spirit of Mission and of conversion to Our Lord Jesus Christ, of true charity towards God and towards our neighbor based on humility, the spirit of poverty and mortification. It is no longer Our Lord and Our Lord Crucified who is preached but a false gospel of license under pretext of Liberty.

Thus our Catholic faith is adulterated and compromised by the ecclesiastical authorities themselves.


Conclusion

5) We have many times taken an oath to keep our Catholic faith intact, whatever happens. We will not be perjurers. Faithful Catholics no longer know where they are; their souls and the souls of their children are in danger: Our duty is to come to their aid, putting them on their guard against the poison of Liberal Ecumenism and bringing them all the help of the Catholic Church.

If we were rebuked, beaten, persecuted by our brethren for our Catholic faith, we should not be the first to suffer that kind of persecution.

We have resolved that with the grace of God we will continue to train Catholic priests, Catholic religious, men and women, the hope If of the Church of tomorrow. That will ensure the continuation of the true Mission of the Catholic Church of all time, that of leading souls to Jesus Christ and of extending His Reign everywhere, so that “His Will may be done on earth as in heaven.”

6) We desire with all our heart to find ourselves again in full communion with the authorities in the Church, but we can achieve that only in the unity of the Catholic faith and not in Liberal Ecumenism.


Some Special Considerations

† The change in conception of the Mission of the Church has had as a consequence the corruption of Canon Law and the public law of the Church, and the enfeeblement of their basic principles.

† Ecclesiastical authority loses sight of its real end and turns, necessarily to abuse of power and to arbitrariness.

† Promulgations of law are doubtful, falsified. The rights of defense are no longer respected. Procedure is no longer in conformity with law. Injustice takes the place of justice.

† That is true of the promulgation of liturgical decrees.

† It is true of our condemnation in which everything was arbitrary and against the law.

† The elementary principles of morality and law so clearly recalled by Pope Leo XIII in his Encyclical Libertas praestantissimum teach us that in these cases authority loses its right to obedience. That being so, it is no contempt to authority not to obey. Rather it is a reminder of the respect it should have for the authority it has received from God and which obliges it to act according to the law established by God.

† With regard to jurisdiction, we are appealing to the extraordinary circumstances for which provision is made in Canon Law and to the extreme need in which the souls of the faithful are placed.

† Enclosed are some documents which will confirm what we have presented above:

• an article from Rivarol:
  
• an extract from Documentation Catholique:
  
• a minor work, Pro Missa Traditionali, by Don Pace of Turin;
  
• a copy of a letter of Cardinal Seper concerning the documents of the catechesis of the CNPL of Paris.1
  

1. These four documents are not included in this book.

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Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre
Volume 2, Chapter XIX

Letter of Cardinal Seper to Archbishop Lefebvre
16 March 1978

Sacra Congregatio
pro Doctrina Fidei
00193 Romae,
Piazza del S, Uffizio,11
Prot. N. 1144/69

Your Excellency,

On 28 February last you were kind enough to bring personally to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith your answer to the letter it had sent you on 28 January and which had been delivered to you by the Apostolic Nunciature in Switzerland on 10 February following.

I thank you sincerely for your answer and for the rapidity with which you brought it. It goes without saying that your long letter will be studied attentively by our Congregation. However, I think it necessary first to ask you for some supplements. I do that the more easily as you yourself said you were ready to provide them as required.

The fact is, a first examination of your answer in comparison with the questions put to you by our congregation shows that several of the objections made against you have not been given a precise answer. I take the liberty, therefore, of stating them again briefly, with the necessary references to my letter of 28 January in the enclosed annex, and I ask you, as before to be so kind as to let me have your answer within the prescribed time of a month.

I thank you in advance and assure you of my prayers; and I beg you to accept the expression of my respect and devotedness in Our Lord.


Franc. Card. Seper
Prefect


Annex to the Letter of 16 March 1978

1. About the Ordo Missae:

a) Catholic may not cast doubt on the conformity with the doctrine of the faith of a sacramental rite promulgated by the Supreme Pastor (p. A3);

b) the sacrificial and propitiatory character of the Mass is reaffirmed absolutely, in conformity with the Council of Trent, in the Institutio Generalis of the Roman Missal (p. A4);

c) your declarations about the Ordo Missae and your opposition to its use are spreading distrust, confusion, and even rebellion, among the faithful (ibid.).

2. Your general declarations (on the authority of Vatican Council II and of Pope Paul VI) are linked with an activity which raises the question: are we facing a schismatical movement? (p. A6). Indeed, you ordain priests against the formal will of the Pope and without the litterae dimissoriae required by Canon Law - and you have continued to do so after being suspended a divinis - you send those priests to priories where they exercise their ministry without authorization from the Ordinary of the place; you make speeches calculated to spread your ideas in dioceses where the bishop has refused his consent; with the priests you have ordained you are beginning whether you mean to or not, to constitute a group likely to become a dissident ecclesial community (pp. A7 and 8).

3. You consider that the priests ordained by you have the jurisdiction provided in Canon Law for cases of necessity. Is not that to argue as though the legitimate Hierarchy had ceased to exist? (p. A8).

4. The Pope has "the supreme power of jurisdiction" "not only in things pertaining to faith and morals but also in what belongs to the discipline and government of the Church throughout the world" (Conc. Vat. I, Const. Pastor Aeternus, DS 3064) (p. A 9), so the obedience due to him is not limited to doctrinal matters.

5. By your declarations on submission to the Council and to the post-conciliar reforms of Paul VI - declarations which are in keeping with a whole pattern of behavior, and in particular with illicit ordination of priests - you have fallen into grave disobedience which leads logically to schism (p. A10).


Franc. Card. Seper
Prefect

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Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre
Volume 2, Chapter XXI

A Pilgrimage to Lourdes
14 May 1978

Although, as with the story of St. Nicholas du Chardonnet, the event which is described here does not involve Mgr. Lefebvre, it provides another useful illustration of the hostility towards traditional Catholicism prevailing in France, the country in which the Society of St. Pius X has the strongest presence. It was written by Angela Cookson, and appeared in the 31 July 1978 issue of The Remnant, with the following title:

The True Face of the Conciliar Church

During the weekend of Pentecost 1978 Fr. Louis Coache led a group of French pilgrims to Lourdes. As Remnant readers will be aware, Fr. Coache was deprived of his parish for the crime of organizing a procession in honor of the Blessed Sacrament. He told his bishop that he would be appealing to Rome, and received a letter from the Vatican station that the appeal had been examined carefully and rejected – before he had even posted it!1 Fr. Bordes, the priest in charge of the shrine, had announced before the pilgrimage took place that the pilgrims would be denied access to the churches of Lourdes and the grotto-by force if necessary. Under no circumstances would any priest be allowed to celebrate the only form of Mass at which St. Bernadette herself assisted, the Mass at which countless millions of pilgrims had assisted at Lourdes until the French bishops had taken it upon themselves to prohibit its celebration anywhere in France. In order to appreciate the enormity of this prohibition, to understand that it is a case not of madness but diabolic logic, it is necessary to take some moments to pause and reflect, to appreciate the fact that it really is true that in the year of Our Lord 1978, French Catholic pilgrims were threatened with force if, while in Lourdes, they attempted to celebrate the order of Mass at which St. Bernadette had assisted.

Fr. Coache's pilgrimage was in no sense a demonstration. Many French Catholics who have been making pilgrimages to Lourdes for decades feel unable to take part in the official pilgrimages any longer-the atmosphere and the liturgy being such as to repel any Catholic who loves the faith. All the literature given to those taking part in the pilgrimage stressed that its only aims were to be prayer and penance; that no one was to engage in arguments or polemic no matter how seriously provoked. Fr. Coache summed up the attitude he expected from the pilgrims in one sentence: "En un mot, prière fervente, esprit de sacrifice, charité – In a word, fervent prayer, a spirit of sacrifice, charity."

Pilgrims came from all over France and from several other countries, including England. A special train brought the main party from Paris. The spiritual exercises began on the vigil of Pentecost, with devotions lasting three and a half hours, beginning with the Rosary, at the statue of Our Lady Crowned, which faces the Basilica. The pilgrims had been instructed to converge upon the statue individually in case they were refused entry to the Domain – that part of Lourdes be- longing to the Church, which is technically private property. They were urged to conduct themselves in a peaceful and contemplative manner, and to set an example to the other pilgrims. They carried out this advice to the letter, not just on this occasion, but throughout the entire pilgrimage.

Peace certainly was not the objective of Fr. Bordes, the Rector. Hardly had the pilgrims finished their Rosary when all hell was let loose over the loudspeakers. A message from the local bishop was broadcast claiming that Fr. Coache was some clerical counterpart of the Incredible Hulk,2 liable to tear basilica and grotto apart with his bare hands. Pilgrims were warned not to have any contact with the traditionalists, even out of curiosity. The fact that Fr. Coache could only walk with the aid of a stick, as he was still recovering from an illness which affected him with perpetual giddiness, was not calculated to add credibility to the bishop's warning, and, as time passed, more and more pilgrims from other groups joined the Abbé Coache when they found to their delight, that it was possible to take part in a truly Catholic pilgrimage. The warning against Fr. Coache blared forth in a number of languages – hardly in the spirit of Pentecost.

The way to the grotto was barricaded and guarded by a line of strong-arm men in civilian clothes and so the pilgrims passed by to celebrate Mass in an adjacent field. The wind was so strong that four men were needed to hold down the corner of the altar cloth on the temporary altar which had been set up. No sooner had Mass of the Vigil of Pentecost begun when the Rector turned up his amplifiers to full volume and broadcast a veritable cacophony, including bells calculated to drown out any other sound for miles around. But the Mass continued with dignity. While Holy Communion was distributes to the congregation kneeling patiently in the field, two priests shielded the ciboria from the wind with borrowed black umbrellas. The communicants sang the Lauda and Jerusalem, it is certain that their Hosannas were heard in heaven, even if drowned on earth by the cacophony of electronic sound. Here indeed was the most dramatic possible representation of the conflict between the Eternal and the Conciliar Churches, the former on its knees adoring God with the traditional Mass, the latter trying to obliterate the least remaining vestige of the Faith which had sustained St. Bernadette.

After Mass there was Benediction and a Blessed Sacrament procession-both conducted in the face of the overpowering din of the Rector's loudspeakers. Visitors who did not understand what was happening would have been surprised to see that with three churches in easy reach, a priest was sitting under a tree to hear confessions. By an interesting coincidence, this was the very tree where St. Bernadette had seen the last apparition of Our Lady when the way to the grotto had been barred to her 120 years before, just as it was barred to Fr. Coache and his pilgrims. History has its ironies. However, the day was not to pass without a Mass which St. Bernadette would have recognized being celebrated in the grotto. When night had fallen, after the torchlight procession, the pilgrims entered the grotto one by one. The strong-arm men who manned the barricades had no means of differentiating members of the Eternal and the Conciliar Churches. At about 10 o'clock glimpses of white vestments could be seen within a huddle of people. A priest was vesting for Mass and acolytes were donning their cottas and cassocks. The traditionalists converged upon the group. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, an altar had been set up, protected by a ring of kneeling pilgrims, and the traditional Mass was being celebrated. A priest of the Conciliar Church launched forth upon a diatribe in rapid French, then fell silent. He may have felt the temptation to order his "heavies" to demolish the altar and remove the priest by force-but with the press present he clearly deemed this imprudent. He fell silent and, protected by an umbrella, in the flickering light of the candles, the indomitable Fr. Coache celebrated the immemorial Catholic Mass before the grotto where the Mother of God had appeared to a little shepherd girl who had known no Mass but this, Up to a thousand pilgrims knelt on the wet ground, some knelt in puddles to receive Holy Communion.

On Pentecost Sunday the situation had changed. The Rector made a formal demand that the police should take action against Fr. Coache for "failing to respect the private domain of the grotto." The police refused, and stated that far from the traditionalists causing trouble or endangering the peace, the only person doing this was the Rector! The barricades were removed, the strong-arm men disappeared, an attempt by the Rector to use the amplifiers as a weapon was swiftly curtailed, apparently on the insistence of the police.

The Mass of Pentecost was celebrated in a field opposite the grotto, accompanied by birdsong against the background of snowy mountains, wooded slopes, the cloudy sky, and swiftly flowing River Gave. The congregation was at least double that of the previous day, so many pilgrims from other groups had joined. There was a poignant moment when a group of mostly middle-aged Dutch pilgrims passed by. They slowed down – they looked at the Mass not with curiosity but longing. Then a priest wearing a collar and tie came running back, clapped his hands, shouted at them, and shooed them safety away. The last man in the line walked backwards, unable to take his eyes from the Mass he had been brought up to know and love-but he, too, was shepherded away, saved from contagion.

On the following day the pilgrims made the Stations of the Cross. After Mass they made the ascent of the steep winding hill where these moving, life-sized statues are situated. Many of the traditionalists knelt on the steep slopes at each station. Young mothers carried their babies, an old blind priest was supported by two faithful friends. The sun shone through the green leaves as the pilgrims united themselves with the Passion of Blessed Lord.

“Pray, my children, and do penance."

This had been Our Lady's message. This was the message the pilgrims obeyed. But even here it was not possible to escape from the Conciliar Church. The traditionalists were followed by a small German group led by a priest in lay attire with a dazzling tie and a stole made of sacking in the shape of Tyrolean braces.

When the train pulled out of Lourdes later in the day, and the pilgrims passed the field that had been their church, they sang the Salve Regina. Life for traditionalists today is indeed a lacrymarum valle, and yet they returned from their pilgrim – age with a feeling of intense joy and consolation. It was the Rector who felt misery and bitterness, still insisting that the police should prosecute his fellow Catholics for the crime of coming to pray and do penance in answer to the request the Lady of the Grotto had given to little Bernadette. Once before the way to the grotto had been barricaded. Who knows, the time may come once more when those who wish to worship God in the churches of Lourdes in the manner of St. Bernadette will be freely permitted to do so. The greater the extent to which traditionalists obey the call of the Blessed Virgin to pray and do penance, the sooner that day may come!

1. Vol. I, pp. 108-109.
2. An American cartoon character with superhuman strength.

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Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre
Volume 2, Chapter XXII

An Invitation and a Warning

Letter of Cardinal Seper to Mgr. Lefebvre

Sacra Congregation 00193 Romae
Pro Doctrina Fidei  Piazza del S. Uffizio, 11
Prot. N. 1144/69


Your Excellency,

I commissioned the Apostolic Nuncio in Switzerland to inform you that your letter of 13 April 1978 had been received and I have no doubt he did that at a convenient time.

I wish today to assure you personally that the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is studying attentively the two answers you were good enough to make to its request and that it is grateful to you for sending them within the prescribed time. I can now inform you that it will very probably ask you to agree to take part in a conference, as provided for in article 13 of its Ratio agendi in doctrinarurn examine of 15 January 1971. At the appropriate time I shall give you a choice of possible dates.

In the meantime, let me insist on a serious point: according to accounts spread by the press (we have not been able to find out on what authority) you intend to proceed to new ordinations at the end of this month. I hope that information is unfounded. I need not remind you in this matter of the prescriptions of Canon Law, of the censures you have incurred, and of the will, many times expressed, of the Holy Father.

On the other hand it is my duty to insist on the fact that the current procedure before our Congregation, a procedure that you accepted voluntarily, requires that everything likely to compromise its normal development should be suspended.

I invite you to consider this important point before God, and I wish to assure you of the help of my fraternal prayers.

Yours respectfully and devotedly in Our Lord,

Franc. Card. Seper
Prefect

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Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre
Volume 2, Chapter XXIII

The 1978 Ordinations
29 June 1978

The ordinations at Ecône on 29 June 1978 followed the pattern of previous years. About 5,000 faithful Catholics were present, and 150 priests laid hands upon the newly-ordained. Eighteen priests and twenty-two sub-deacons were ordained. The 30 June issue of Le Nouvelliste included the following figures for priests ordained at Ecône, in its report on the 1978 ceremony:

1974-1
1975-3
1976-15
1977-16
1978-18


The Ordination Sermon

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

My dear friends, my dear brothers:

Let us thank God who has blessed us with such a beautiful day. Let us thank Him for all the graces that He gives us and, in particular today, for having granted us the grace to be able to ordain eighteen priests and twenty-two subdeacons. Let us thank God, each one of us, that He has preserved us in the Catholic Faith. Let us thank God…let us thank Him that we have remained faithful to the Church, faithful to Our Lord Jesus Christ, faithful to all those in the Church who protect the Faith.

What joy to see all of you gathered here today, my dear brothers, coming – we can say – from the four corners of the world, from Australia to the borders of California, from Canada to Buenos Aires, and, yesterday, I received a letter from the Catholics in South Africa who said they would be united with us on this day-and from all points in Europe. Let us thank God to be gathered together here solely because we are Catholics, because we are members of the Church and because we want to continue what Our Lord has instituted, and what Our Lord wanted us to believe. I would like, for a few moments, to speak on what precisely the priesthood is.

Why a priest? one asks oneself today. We think it suffices for us to open the Gospels to know what a priest is. It suffices for us to know what Our Lord Jesus Christ is, Who is the High Priest, Who is the Priest par excellence, in order to know what priests are today. Our Lord tells us in words so short and so simple, "Sicut misit me Pater, et ego mitto vos – As the Father has sent Me, so I also send you." And, if we only reflect a few moments on the first part of Our Lord's words, "Sicut misit me Pater…” but, is this mission of Our Lord not His eternal mission? In the Blessed Trinity the Son is always sent by the Father because He comes from the Father, because He is born of the Father. In eternity Our Lord is always sent by the Father and this is why He is the Word of God. Just as the Holy Ghost is sent by the Father and the Son; and this is why He is the Holy Ghost. Well, this eternal mission of Our Lord Jesus Christ is continued in His temporal mission. And we need to remind ourselves that the mission that Our Lord has accomplished here below is the mission for which the world was created!

We were all created and put down here on this earth, and all of the world which surrounds us, the splendors which Almighty God has made in nature, all these things – the stars and all creation, spiritual creatures, the angels of heaven, the elect of heaven – all were created for the mission of Our Lord Jesus Christ: in order that one day Our Lord might sum up in Himself all of creation and be made man. And that making Himself man, He would sing God's glory, that all creation might sing God's glory, by Our Lord Jesus Christ, in Our Lord Jesus Christ. There is the reason for the world's existence. There is the reason for our existence. There is the mission of Our Lord – to sing His Father's glory – in His body and in His human soul and thus summing up by His divinity all that there could ever be of the most beautiful, of the greatest and of the most sublime things here below – the song of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

And at what moment? At the most sublime moment of His life, of His existence here below, Our Lord expressed this glory, this charity that He had for His Father. This infinite charity. He was His Son, His own Son.

When did He express it? He said it Himself. He expressed it during His sublime hour: on the Cross. It was at the moment when Our Lord exhaled His last breath that He manifested the greatest glory to His Father. "It is consummated," He said…all is consummated. Indeed, all is consummated – the entire reason for the existence of creation, all of our reason for being, all of the reason for heaven's existence and that of the elect, is consummated in Our Lord Jesus Christ's death. When He said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit," and He exhaled His last sigh. This was the greatest act of charity that could exist. None of our acts of charity are anything compared to Our Lord’s.

God the Father found His glory in this Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ and in His last sigh, in His death. By His death, life came again into the world, the way of heaven was opened, the way of salvation was opened for all of us. And there is the way, my dear friends, in which we are invited to walk. "Sicut misit me Pater, et ego mitto vos." I am sending you. I am sending you to continue My mission. I am sending you to continue My mission which is none other than the one which I am doing Myself, which I have begun. And because He concluded in an act of infinite love on Calvary, on the Cross: there is the way you must follow. You must go up to the altar, offer the sacrifice of Our Lord. Continue to offer this act of infinite love that God offered to His Father. This is what you are going to do. You are going to unite yourselves to this. What grace! What grace! Are you worthy? Are we worthy to be priests? Are we worthy to go up to the altar? Indeed, if we consider ourselves – NO! We can’t lay claim to such sublimity, to such glory, to such a participation in Christ Who is the Priest – the Priest for Eternity – Who is the High Priest. But by God’s Grace, by the grace that you are going to receive in a few moments, my dear friends, yes, you will be worthy, worthy before God, before the angels, to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

And so this is the power that the bishop is going to give you in a few moments. This is the mission of Our Lord which is carried on and which must continue until the end of time.

Thus, the Church is Missionary. It could not be other than missionary. A church that would no longer be

missionary, that would no longer be sent, would no longer correspond to the Most Holy Trinity – would no longer correspond to what the Most Holy Trinity is – would no longer correspond to what Our Lord Jesus Christ is Himself, Who is the One sent by God. You are apostles; you are essentially sent to accomplish the mission that Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished here below, to carry it on. "Hoc facite in meam commemorationem …remittite peccatis eis…accipite Spiritum Sanctum…quorum remiseritis peccata, remittuntur eis: et quorum retinueritis, retenta sunt…euntes…baptizate eos in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti."

This is what Our Lord Jesus Christ told us: This is what we must do in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ. What a noble mission, my dear friends!

How the faithful people must await this of you! They are waiting for the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ to be brought down into their souls in order that they also might unite themselves to Our Lord Jesus Christ in His Cross and to His love in this infinite charity. This, my dear friends, is what the Church is. It is great because it unites us to Our Lord Jesus Christ. Without Our Lord Jesus Christ we are nothing. With Our Lord Jesus Christ we can do all things. My dear friends, let us unite our lives to Our Lord.

But, He also told us, "Ego mitto vos sicut oves inter lupos – I am sending you forth as lambs amongst the wolves.” Yes, we are all – faithful Christians, priests, future priests, seminarians – we are all sent by Our Lord Jesus Christ, as it were, into the midst of wolves. These wolves… Our Lord has pointed them out. He indicated them to be mercenaries for whom the sheep do not count. They are not interested in the sheep and they abandon the sheep for the least reason.

And so, unhappily, we are obliged to state that today there are wolves-not only outside the Church, but there are mercenaries inside the Church. We are obliged to state this. And precisely what I would like – that on which I would like to insist – is that if the Catholic church is Missionary, it is not Ecumenical! The Catholic Church is not ecumenical! Now, today, the Church is besieged by these mercenaries, these wolves who wish to lead us astray. The enemy is in the Church. Already, St. Pius X told us this.

Well, this enemy wants to leads us on to the way of perdition. By what path? By the way of ecumenism! And these enemies are not hidden. And what is ecumenism, if not the betrayal of truth? A betrayal of Our Lord Jesus Christ. A truth that is adulterated…that is mixed with error. The law of Our Lord Jesus Christ is no longer upheld: the Ten Commandments. The moral teaching that Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us is no longer upheld on the pretext of being on good terms with modem man…with the men of this world. This is why we have been given an ecumenical Mass; we have been given an ecumenical catechism; we have been given an ecumenical Bible. And it is desired that henceforth nations should be ecumenical societies. That is, societies that compromise with error, that compromise with evil – with vice. And thus, states that are not Catholic!

We must not accept these things which contain poison and we are not afraid to say this ecumenism comes straight from the secret dens of iniquity of masonry. And also, St. Pius X says: read the letter of St. Pius X of 1910 to the Bishops of France condemning the Sillon. We have lived through the Sillon, which was nothing other than a kind of ecumenism, which prepared today's ecumenism. The Great Sillon, as he called it, was precisely a veritable ecumenism. Well, our Holy Father, Pope St. Pius X, after having examined “Sillon,” and having condemned it, said, "We know well where these ideas come from: they come from secret dens of iniquity. The winds of the revolution have passed by there."

Well, we can also say that with ecumenism, the winds of revolution have passed by! This is why we absolutely refuse ecumenism! And I could show you texts that come, for example, from a high leader of Masonry, Mr. Friedsell, ex-Grandmaster of the Grand Orient of France, who recent months wrote an article, "Three points in all," in which he said formally, "The Council will take a long time to reveal its true signification. But the faithful understand that something has come to pass which is entirely contained in the word 'ecumenism'." "And this signifies," he said, "that the Church must reconcile herself with all religions and, likewise, as a consequence, with Masonry.”

There you have what this Grandmaster of Masonry said two or three months ago. And then, again more recently, in Civilta Cattolica, the major review of the Jesuits of Rome, the largest Roman review, the most important review, and which has been considered as the most serious – two Jesuit Fathers have an article on the Intégristes,1 which we are, obviously, and in which my name appeared. Well, they only reproach us with this: that we still consider socialism, communism, and Freemasonry to be enemies of the Church. This is what they reproach us for. This written by two Jesuit Fathers last February in the large Catholic, Roman review!

Well, then, we understand. We now know with whom we have to deal. We know perfectly well that we are dealing with a “diabolical hand” which is located at Rome, and which is demanding, by obedience, the destruction of the Church! And this is why we have the right and the duty to refuse this obedience. For, when they convoke me back to Rome in perhaps a few months – indeed, I have just received a letter from the Vatican talking about a mutual discourse in the future, and which, at the same time, asks me not to perform these ordinations today – in order to be able to continue these mutual discourses – well, then, with whom will I be having these mutual discourses? I believe that I have the right to ask these gentlemen who present themselves in offices which were occupied by Cardinals (who were indeed saintly persons and who were defenders of the Church and of the Catholic Faith) it seems to me that I would have the right to ask them,  “Are you with the Catholic Church?” “Are you the Catholic Church?" "With whom am I dealing?" If I am dealing with someone who has a pact with Masonry, have I the right to speak with such a person? Have I the duty to listen to them and to obey them?

My dear friends, we have been betrayed. Betrayed by all of those who ought to be giving us the truth, who ought to be teaching the Ten Commandments, who ought to be teaching us the true catechism, who ought to be giving us the true Mass – the one that the Church has always loved; the one that was said by the Saints; the one that has sanctified generations and generations!

Likewise, they must give us all the sacraments, without any doubt concerning their validity, sacraments which are certainly valid. It is a duty for us to ask them for these things and they have a duty to give them to us.

Now, I have just told you things that are found in the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ's mission was to go up to the Cross. This was His mission, given to Him by the Father. It was His hour. And this is the mission that He wants to give to priests. "Hoc tacite in meam commemorationem – Do this in memory of Me." This is what we must do. Not in any of the reviews that have recently spoken about vocations is there a mention of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

What, then, is the priest's mission? They no longer know! This is what we have come to!

So, my dear brothers, whoever we may be, if we want to remain Catholic, if we want the Catholic Church to continue, we have a duty not to obey those who wish to lead us into the Church's destruction. We have the duty not to collaborate in the Church's destruction. But, on the contrary, to work – to work ardently, calmly, serenely, for the Church's construction, for the re-construction of the Church, for the preservation of the Church.

Each one of you can do your duty in this regard-in your villages, in your parishes, in your institutions, in your professions – wherever you are. Set up true parishes, Catholic parishes. And let these Catholic parishes be confided to true priests. And see how true priests are numerous. Look at them all around us today. There are many who think as they do. Try to lead them back to the truth in order that they may give you the sacraments that you desire and the Holy Mass that you desire.

Organize yourselves in order that the priests who come may become parish priests, quite simply. Let the parishes be re-established as they once were. This is a duty, a strict duty. And we congratulate wholeheartedly those in religious life who are present and the priests who are here, who are persecuted, having unbelievable, inconceivable difficulties - who are asked to abandon their religious habit. So, let sisters be firm in their faith. May they remain firm in the constitutions that were given to them by their holy founders.

And we have the joy of thinking that these religious congregations will be multiplied. We are assured that soon there will be other religious who want to preserve the traditions, the holy traditions of their congregations and of their founders.

This is what we must do. And you, my dear friends, who are soon going to take up your responsibilities in your respective assignments; well, ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, ask the Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, who, today, ask nothing other than to give you blessings – beg them for abundant graces in order that you may realize the apostolate in preparation for which you have been here at this seminary…or at the Monastery of Bédoin, to prepare yourself for this great day of the priesthood.

My dear brothers, I conclude. We appear to be weak and we appear to be strong. We appear to be weak because, what are a few thousand people gathered here when one thinks of the entire world – of all humanity who ought to adore Our Lord Jesus Christ – who ought to throng around the altars of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to receive His Precious Body, His Blood, His Soul, His Divinity, in order to be transformed into Our Lord Jesus Christ. What sorrow to think that millions of souls are estranged from Our Lord Jesus Christ!

But at the same time that we are weak, because we are few in number in relation to the mission that Almighty God asks us to accomplish, at the same time, we are strong. We are strong with the word of Our Lord Jesus Christ Who said, “I will be with you unto the consummation of the ages.” We are strong, precisely because we ourselves want to carry on the mission of Our Lord Jesus Christ – to continue the Church. And this is what makes us strong – strong in this essential bond with tradition, with all that Our Lord has taught us, with the institution of the Church and with all Our Lord has bequeathed to His Church, strong in these things, strong in being with all the elect of heaven.

Strong in being with all the Catholics of the earth who want to preserve their Catholic Faith. Strong – in this we are assured – in victory! Not that we are seeking to cry our victory against those who are ill-willed towards us – against those who persecute us. I speak of Our Lord’s victory over Satan which He won by His Cross. We are convinced that this victory will carry on, it could not do otherwise than continue because the Church must carry on and must persevere. As a consequence, if sometimes, you are overcome by feelings of discouragement, by feelings of being rent inside – nearly of despair at the sight of the Church torn and suffering, struck from all sides; if these feelings invade your soul, know that Our Lord is with you, provided that you keep the words that Our Lord gave us, that Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us.

And it is by these sacrifices that one day the enemy will be driven away from the Church and that the Church will again discover her splendor. It will no longer be undermined by persons who desire its disappearance, or who desire its destruction.

And so today we must all pray together. We must pray, in particular, that God will drive away the enemies from the Church in order that the church may again give the graces which the faithful need and which the world needs for its salvation.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.



Addendum

A Response from Pope Paul VI

Pope Paul VI did not go to the extent of referring to Archbishop Lefebvre directly, as he did in the two previous years, but on 29 June, in his General Audience, he made a very clear reference to the Archbishop. It is of particular interest as it was quite possibly his last public comment upon the question of the Archbishop and his seminary, for within a few weeks he would be dead. His address was reported in the 6 July 1978 English edition of L'Osservatore Romano:

We wish to make a heartfelt but firm appeal to all those who are committing themselves and leading others, by words, writings, or behavior, along the paths of heresy and schism, thus confusing the consciences of individuals and of the whole community, which must above all be a community in accepting the word of God in order to verify and guarantee the community in one Bread and one Cup. We give them this paternal warning: let them refrain from further disturbing the church. The moment of truth has come and everyone must know his or her own responsibility before decisions that must safeguard the faith, the common treasure that Christ – who is the Petra, the rock – entrusted to Peter, the Vicarius Petrae, the Vicar of the Rock, as Saint Bonaventure calls him.

1. The French term for those who wish to maintain their Catholic Faith in its entirely.

[Stone]

Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre
Volume 2, Chapter XXIV

The Death of Pope Paul VI
6 August 1978

The death of Pope Paul VI concluded what, to a certain extent, had become a personal conflict between the Pope and the Archbishop. Father Louis Bouyer had stated correctly in the first chapter of his book, The Decomposition of Catholicism, that: "Unless we are blind we must even state bluntly that what we see looks less like the hoped-for regeneration of Catholicism than its accelerated decomposition."1 Pope Paul has himself spoken of "the self-destruction of the Church" and "the smoke of Satan" entering the Church. Yet, strangely and sadly, in latter years of his life the Pope appeared to have put the case of Archbishop Lefebvre at the head of his list of priorities, and to have seen him as the greatest danger threatening the Church. It must be unprecedented for a pope to have used the important occasion of the Consistory of Cardinals two years in succession to reprimand the same man, and, incredibly, a man who was making a stand for Catholic Tradition, which was being engulfed in most western countries at that time by a resurgent and triumphant Modernism.

In 1976 the Catholic Church in the USA repudiated, for all practical purposes, the authority of the Pope and went into Schism. This may appear to be a wild and irresponsible claim, but let those who doubt it read the resolutions of the “Call to Action” Congress held in Detroit, resolutions which have never been repudiated by the American Bishops, and upon which the present pastoral strategy of the American Bishops is clearly based.2 The message of the Detroit Congress was clearly that given to the Pope by the time-serving bishops of Henry VIII who signed this statement: “Romanus episcopus non habet maioram aliquam iurisdictionem collatam sibi a Deo in sacra scriptura inhoc regno Angliae quam alius quivis externus Episcopus” – that is, “The Bishop of Rome hath not any greater jurisdiction granted him by God in sacred scripture in this realm of England than has any other foreign bishop.”

And yet, incredibly, Pope Paul VI does not appear to have uttered one public word of criticism of this Congress, its infamous resolutions, or of the American Bishops for failing to repudiate it, and yet he saw no incongruity in devoting so much time and effort in an attempt to crush the one bishop who was providing concrete and effective resistance to the decomposition of Catholicism. However, it transpired that Pope Paul VI was to die without resolving the problem of Archbishop Lefebvre. His death brought a completely new dimension to the situation. Evidently, Pope Paul had committed his personal prestige to obtaining the Archbishop's submission, but this would not be the case with his successor. There was thus good reason to hope that the chances for a reconciliation had improved.

As the personality and policies of Pope Paul VI had played such a major role in the drama of Archbishop Lefebvre, it will be appropriate here to make some comment upon his pontificate. The criticism of Pope Paul VI which can be found in Pope John's Council and the Apologia, Volume I, has disturbed a number of readers. Some of their comments have been friendly and constructive; in other cases the reaction has been hostile and involved a gross distortion of what I have actually written. A Monsignor who has been of considerable help to me in my writing, and who is a fine theologian, remarked that although, in general, he tended to agree that my criticisms of Pope Paul VI were objective and justified, he found it hard to reconcile himself to my having made them while the Pope was still alive. He felt that to criticize publicly a reigning pontiff was alien to the Catholic ethos and lacking in piety. After all, whatever his faults, is not the Pope our "Holy Father"? And, furthermore, could such criticism have any effect beyond distressing the faithful and accelerating the decomposition of the Church?

It would appear, then, that my friend did not consider that I had committed a sin against justice, but one against prudence. I would have sinned against justice had my criticisms been unfair, but my friend accepted that they were just.

The subject of filial piety raises some interesting questions. I was prompted to write the Apologia by a sense of distaste at the injustice to which the Archbishop has been subjected, not simply in his treatment by the Vatican but by the Catholic media. The problem is, then, whether this injustice is of so serious a nature that protesting against it can justify the harm which must result from criticism of a reigning pope? The injustice suffered by the Archbishop was certainly very great, and it involved many others besides himself. He complained rightly that if he was at fault in any way, any sanction imposed should involve him alone, and that to suppress an entire religious order because of a fault committed by its superior was unprecedented and unjustified.3

It should also be noted that the condemnation despatched by the Commission of Cardinals on 6 May 1975 concerned Archbishop Lefebvre alone, it did not contain one critical remark concerning the Society of Saint Pius X or the Seminary at Econe (see Vol. I, pp. 57-59). Note, too, that the Archbishop was not even told who had judged him. The Commission simply conveyed decisions to him made by an unknown judge, and stated that these decisions had been approved by the Pope. He was then denied leave to appeal. This particular act of injustice was certainly compounded by the leniency displayed by the Holy See to notorious Modernists in several countries, who, by their writing and their acts, repudiated the doctrinal and moral teaching of the Church; Hans Kung was the most notorious example at the time.

Given, then, that an act of serious injustice was involved, to what extent should reaction to it have been tempered by filial piety? It does not seem unreasonable to cite an analogy from family life. Imagine that the owner of a company dismissed a loyal, long-serving employee due to the pressure of other employees who disliked him for his integrity. If a son of the employer worked for the company, and knew that the person involved had been dismissed unjustly, where would his duty lie? Should respect for his father impel him to remain silent? Should concern for the general well-being of the company prompt him to withhold public criticism which might have a damaging effect? Public criticism of a reigning pontiff is far from unprecedented in the Church, and has often been well founded and amply justified (see Vol. I, Appendix II).

We are still too close to the events to decide whether Archbishop Lefebvre might have served the Church better by submitting to injustice, and whether those who sympathized with him might have done better to remain silent. Time will tell. What is certain is that respect for the person of the Pope should preclude any criticism but that phrased in the most respectful terms. This has always been the attitude of Archbishop Lefebvre. In an address delivered in Montreal on 31 May 1978, he explained:

Pray for the Pope; pray that God will guide him to abandon the path along which he has allowed himself to be led, a path which is not the way of the good God. Ecumenism is not God’s way. Pray for the bishops, do not insult them. I do not think that a single expression of disrespect towards the Holy Father can be found anywhere in my  writings. I do not insult the bishops. I consider them to be my brothers and I pray for them that they will return to the way of the Tradition of the Church. I am sure that this will happen one day. We must have confidence. We are passing through a tornado; the only anchor to which we can attach ourselves is the Tradition of the Church because it cannot err; our Catholic faith has been, is, and will always be the same.4

I certainly hope that in my own writing I have never spoken disrespectfully of Pope Paul VI or any of his successors; if any expressions I have used could give this impression I regret them sincerely.

I spoke earlier of criticism of my books which had been a gross distortion of what I had written. I am thinking in particular of a priest who claimed in a speech which was reported in a widely circulated newspaper that I had accused Pope Paul VI of being a crypto-Protestant and Communist.5 I  did no such thing! In my writing, in Pope John's Council in particular, I pointed out that policies followed by Pope Paul VI advanced the interest of Protestants Marxists, and Masons. This is a very different matter. I went to considerable lengths to point out that, for example, the Pope was definitely anti-communist in his personal capacity, but that he refused to commit the Church to a militant anti-communist stance in the tradition of Pope Pius XII. I am sure that his reason for doing so was that he thought that the interests of the Church, particularly of Catholics behind the Iron Curtain, would be advanced more by dialogue than by confrontation. In Pope John’s Council  I went into some detail in examining the techniques used by communists to attain power, and noted that, from their standpoint, anyone who was not actively opposing them could be regarded as an ally.

Pope Paul VI certainly had much to his credit, and I have always made a particular point of stressing this. His teaching includes a series of fine encyclicals upholding authentic Catholic teaching on many important issues, and, as I have shown in Pope John's Council, he made frequent interventions on behalf of orthodoxy during the course of the Second Vatican Council. Many of his allocutions deal with contemporary problems in terms that seem almost to have been divinely inspired, but on other occasions he displayed Liberal ideas and tendencies, the most notable being that of placing too much faith in man's own ability to overcome the great evils of our time. But his greatest weakness lay in the practical decisions he took concerning Church policy. When we look at the Church which he inherited, and the Church which he handed on to his successor, it is possible to claim with total objectivity that no pontiff in the history of the Church had ever presided over so widespread and serious a collapse of Catholicism. The Arian heresy and the Protestant Reformation had been catastrophic, but they had been far more gradual, and, in the latter case at least, there were clear lines of demarcation between truth and heresy. Today, in most western countries, a Catholic who leaves his own parish cannot be sure whether the priest in the one where he finds himself will be orthodox; he can no longer even presume that Catholic bishops are orthodox. Equally sad is the fact that a parent who sends his child to a Catholic school can no longer take it for granted that the child will be given orthodox Catholic instruction. In some dioceses the situation is now so bad that the presumption must be that he will not. Add to this the vast exodus from the priestly and religious life, the degradation of the liturgy, widespread abandonment of Catholic moral standards among the laity, and the frequency with which Catholics in some countries identify themselves with Marxist attitudes, and the inescapable conclusion is that the pontificate of Pope Paul VI was the most disastrous in history in its effects upon the Church. I am not claiming that Paul VI was a bad pope in a personal sense, there is no reason to suppose that he was not devout; but his pontificate was certainly bad for the Church, due largely to his weakness in correcting those who dissented from his teaching. He refused to bow to the spirit of the times where family life was concerned, and issued the Encyclical Humanae vitae; but at the same time he remained almost passive in the face of widespread and public dissent, which resulted in a serious erosion of respect for the papal office. It may not be totally fanciful to wonder whether his inflexibility towards Mgr. Lefebvre was because he realized "that the Archbishop was showing the inflexibility that he himself should have shown, the inflexibility of Saint Pius X. Whenever there has been a weak pope the Church has suffered, and never more so than during the pontificate of Pope Paul VI.

The judgment in my books that the policies of the Pope Paul VI advanced the interests of Protestantism, Masonry, and Communism was confirmed dramatically after his death. These three bodies can be seen today as embodying the concept of "the world " as it is found condemned in the Scriptures.6 In no way do I wish to offend sincere Protestants in making this claim. I am referring to the direction taken today Protestantism as an "ism," which is that of the World Council of Churches' socio-politicization of religion. The mainstream Protestant bodies are now fully in step with the world, but it must be admitted that the Catholic Church in some countries is racing to catch up. At the same time I accept that some conservative Protestant denominations are now far more Catholic in practice than many nominal Catholics, especially as concerns moral values and such fundamental dogmas as the Trinity, Incarnation, Divinity of Christ, Virgin Birth, or the existence of heaven and hell.

Cardinal Newman is very severe on those who are praised by the world. "To become a hero in the eyes of the world," he remarked in "The World Our Enemy,” “it is almost necessary to break the laws of God and man. Thus the deeds of the world are matched by the opinions of the world: it adopts bad doctrine to defend bad practice; it loves darkness because its deeds are evil.”

Our Lord tells us that the hatred of the world would be a characteristic of the true Christian. "If the world hate you, know ye that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you" (John 15: 18,19).

What then was the verdict of "the world " upon the pontificate of Pope Paul VI? It was certainly one of praise rather than hate. Before providing documentation to prove this I wi11 clarify my position once more. I am not suggesting and have never suggested that Pope Paul VI was a bad person who broke "the laws of God and man." I am not suggesting that Pope Paul VI was a crypto-Protestant, Mason, or Marxist. I am suggesting that he was weak and indecisive, and in some of his prudential decisions opted for a policy  which was harmful to the Church and helpful to her enemies. Such imprudence upon the part of a pope has been by no means rare in the history of the Church. Why, then, does Our Lord permit it? Cardinal Journet, one of the outstanding theologians of this century, states simply that we do not know:

Why does He allow those who speak in His name to err on some occasions? It is His secret. We have to declare it rather than explain it.

What can be said in answer to questions of this kind is that God would not allow evil to obstruct His work for redemption if He did not have the power to bring some great benefits from it. What are they? They rest hidden and can only be discerned by us imperfectly.7

Here then are some of the tributes paid to Pope Paul VI by “the world.” They confirm in a dramatic and terrible manner the claim I made in Pope John's Council that the policies of Pope Paul VI, although not intended to do so, were actually helping enemies of the Church.


A Tribute from the World Council of Churches

On 7 August 1978 the World Council of Churches published a tribute to Pope Paul VI which included the following:

We recall with special gratitude the visit of His Holiness to Geneva in 1969 and the keen interest he showed in all our activities…the foundation has been laid for a new and lasting communion among all Christian churches. The openness towards other churches so strongly desired by the Second Vatican Council and expressed in the decree on ecumenism has become an irreversible reality. Pope Paul VI constantly sought to promote and deepen mutual understanding among the churches; this was evinced by his great enthusiasm for the establishment of a Joint Working Group between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches…Pope Paul VI understood his ministry as an instrument in the service of peace in the world and indefatigably the recalled duty of the church and indeed of every member of the church to contribute to overcoming the menace of war. He encouraged a more vigorous witness to justice for the poor and the oppressed. The encyclical Populorum Progressio found a strong echo in the hearts of all Christians concerned with the destructive forces of injustice…His pontificate will be remembered as the period in which many Roman Catholic Christians have discovered new perspectives of witness and action in the life of society.

Canon DuBois, a prominent Episcopalian clergyman in the USA, has described the W.C.C. as Anti-Christ. It is hardly necessary to have the W.C.C. jargon explained. None of the apparently innocuous phrases mean what they appear to mean.  For example, by "justice for the poor and oppressed" the W.C.C. means supplying funds to terrorist groups in Africa which have now murdered countless Africans and Europeans, often accompanied by mutilation and other practices of a nature so bestial that even the secular press must omit the details.


A Masonic Tribute

The Italian Masonic journal, Rivista Massonica (No.5, Vol. LXIX-XIII della nuova seria), published a tribute to Pope Paul VI which included the following:

For other people, it (the death of Pope Paul VI) is the death of a pope, an event which is proverbially rare, but which still happens at a distance of years and decades.

For us it is the death of him who has put an end to the condemnation of Clement XII and of his successors.

For the first time in the history of modern Masonry, the head of the largest religion in the West dies not in a state of hostility towards Freemasons (non in istato di ostilita coi Massoni).

And for the first time in history the Freemasons can pay homage to the sepulchre of a Pope, without ambiguity or contradiction. (Emphasis in the original.)

Homage from Communists

The Italian Communist Party has good cause to be grateful to Pope Paul VI and Vatican II, not to mention Pope John XXIII. As a direct result of the modification of Vatican hostility towards Communism the Italian Communist Party is now poised to take power in Italy. Nonetheless, many eyebrows were still raised in surprise when, after the Pope's death, the walls of Rome were plastered with a Communist poster paying tribute to the late pontiff. The full text read:

ICOMUNISTI DI  ROMAEPROVINCIA
ESPRIMONO DOLORE E CORDOGLIO
PER LA MORTE DI PAOLO VI VESCOVO DI ROMA

E RICORDANO DI LUI, NON SOLO L’APPASSIONATC IMPEGNO E L’ALTA UMANITA’ CON I QUALI HA OPERATO PER LA PACE
ED IL PROGRESSO DEI POPOLI, PER PROMUOVERE DIALOGO, COMPRENSIONE E POSSIBILI INTESE TRA UOMINI DI FEDE E DI IDEALI DIVERSI,
MA ANCHE L’ATTENZIONE COSTANTE RIVOLTA AL RISANAMENTO MORALE E MATERIALE DI ROMA.

Federazione Romana del P.C.I

***

THE COMMUNISTS OF ROME AND OF ITS PROVINCE

Express their sorrow and condolences
For the death of
PAUL VI Bishop of Rome

And remembering him Not only for his passionate involvement and the great humanity With which he worked for peace and the progress of peoples, to improve dialogue, comprehension and possible accords between men of different beliefs and ideals but also for the constant attention which he revealed for the moral and material improvement of Rome.

Roman Federation of the Italian Communist Party

The Yugoslav dictator, President Tito, paid a tribute to the Pope which was published in Politika, Belgrade's leading Communist daily. According to the London Universe (25 August1978):

In a special message President Tito spoke of Pope Paul as a convinced partisan of peace and understanding between different peoples. "Pope Paul," says President Tito, "undertook a continual combat for international co-operation in equality and peace. His conception of a world without war in which problems of racial discrimination, famine and under-development…must be rapidly solved, was of considerable support to the efforts of the international community…”

A translation of this Communist jargon is hardly necessary. What a Communist describes as "working for peace" means following a policy that will bring world-wide Communist rule one step nearer. In his open letter to Father Arrupe, published in the February 1979 issue of The Angelus, Hamish Fraser addressed a question to the Jesuit Order. Not a single Jesuit journal has yet published this letter, not a single Jesuit has attempted to answer his question:

If you suggest that any Christian purpose is served by your advocacy of "honest and open collaboration" with any brand whatever of revolutionary Marxism, I defy you, or any other member of the Society of Jesus, to cite a single instance where such collaboration has not redounded to the advantage of revolutionary Marxism and to the disadvantage of Christians and the Church.

In its issue of 17 August 1978, The Wanderer published page after page of glowing tributes to the late Pope, tributes which give the impression that this was possibly the greatest pontificate in history .One headline reads: " A Truly Great Pontificate." This is a sentiment echoed by the World Council of Churches, Freemasons, and Marxists. Can a pontificate considered "great" by "the world" be great in the eyes of God?

Cardinal Newman remarked in a sermon (which is not included in the collection mentioned earlier):

St. John says: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him" (I John 2:15). Let us be quite sure then that the confederacy of evil which Scripture calls the world, that conspiracy against Almighty God of which Satan is the secret instigator, is something wider, and more subtle, and more ordinary, than mere cruelty or craft, or profligacy; it is that very world in which we are; it is not a certain body or party of men, but it is human society itself ("Faith and the World").

As a final thought, it is worth reflecting upon the fact that there is one man who is hated by the world because he is clearly not of the world, a man whose beliefs and standards virtually the whole of contemporary society – Marxist, Masonic, Protestant, and, alas, Catholic – is united in rejecting, that is Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.


After a Death

This generous tribute was paid to Pope Paul VI in a homily delivered by Mgr. Ducaud-Bourget at a Mass for the repose of the soul of Pope Paul VI, celebrated in the Church of St. Nicholas du Chardonnet, Paris. It was printed in the November 978 edition of The Angelus:

"Sic transit gloria mundi…"

During the ceremony of his coronation the new Pope hears those words while before him the oakum burns.

It is always moving to see the closing of a tomb on human grandeur. "Hodie tibi, cras mihi – you today, me tomorrow." And when it has to do with the supreme head of millions of men, of he who was responsible for their eternal salvation, one trembles for him. And one prays.

It is with this feeling of compassion, religious, human and Christian, that we Catholics reach toward God, the divine Victim, God offering Himself to God, to make up for our natural incapacity and to render to the justice of God what we cannot render to Him: the Sacrifice of the Mass, refuge from all our misery, source of all our hope, comfort in our fears, and joy in eternal love.

We are Catholics, believers in the Revelation, the Holy Scripture, the Gospel, and in Apostolic Tradition as it has been taught for 2,000 years. We obey the Pope and the bishops who transmit to us the Deposit of the Faith. We attempt to live as perfectly as possible the Faith of the Apostles, obeying those above us who transmit purely and integrally the authentic doctrine of the Successors of Peter.

We pray, therefore, for the repose of Pope Paul VI because he never taught dogmatically any error, but we also pray for him because his personal philosophy allowed disorder to be introduced into the Church of today, this today, which is only a moment in the line of eternity.

God alone can judge the intention of hearts and the errors of the spirit. But men witness the facts, the results, and the acts. And we must ask the Lord of Mercy that order be restored, that union among souls, particularly among Catholics be restored, that "the peace which surpasseth all understanding and which the world cannot give" will come to us through the merits of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by which Jesus Christ intervenes with God for us without cease.

An Insolent Public Initiative

The following letter appeared in The Times on 14 August, and in leading journals in other countries. It received considerable (usually favorable) publicity in the Catholic and secular press. It should be noted that signatories included some of the most notorious Modernists alive today, and that Father Yves Congar, a vociferous public critic of Archbishop Lefebvre, was content to associate himself with them. It is hard not to recall the adage that one can judge a person by the company he keeps! The title given to the letter appeared in The Times:

The following is the full text of the declaration by ten Roman Catholic theologians on the criteria for the election of the new Pope.

Criteria for Choosing New Pope

The following is the full text of the declaration by ten Roman Catholic theologians on the criteria for the election of the new Pope.

The Pope we need

The world is divided into hostile power blocks and political systems, into estranged races and classes, into various ideologies and religions. Christianity is divided also, divided into the various churches and sects, confessions and denominations. The Catholic Church being the largest and a worldwide church, could if truly united perform an important service in this divided world. It could assist in a very concrete way to diminish and remove the tensions and contradictions in Christianity and in the world, in matters great and small, and to render possible a more human life for human beings with all of their concerns and conflicts.

The Pope has a decisive role in the Catholic Church: it is not a matter of indifference to the Catholic Church, to Christianity, and to the world what sort of person occupies such an office in our time. Because of our concern as Catholics for the Church and its service to humanity, we would like to speak for all of those inside and outside the Catholic Church who are hoping for a good Pope, a Pope who would above all try to help overcome the conflicts and contradictions which have arisen in the post-conciliar Church – a Pope of reconciliation. Only the best is good enough. What sort of a Pope does today's church need? A Pope of our time must be:

1. A man open to the world:

He should know the world as it is, in its heights and in its depths, in its glory and in its misery, should accept without reservation all that is good in the world, wherever it be found. He should – with all due respect for the past and for tradition – feel in a critical way at home in the present Church and in the contemporary world and should be open for the signs of the times and the change in attitudes of men.

He should accept critically the findings of contemporary science; he should abandon the outmoded curial style and should speak credibly in the language of the people in this day and age. He should radiate genuine humanity, personal limitations notwithstanding.


2. A spiritual leader:

He should bring trust to his encounters with others, both within and without the Church, in order that he himself be ever supported by trust. He should have courage, be able to encourage others rather than merely scolding and admonishing. He should not be authoritarian, but he should possess real authority in his office. What he needs is not only a formalistic, official and institutional, but also a personal, objective and charismatic authority.

He should be judicious and sensible in the manner of contemporary leadership, exercising his authority not by issuing decrees but by giving reasons, not by commanding but by inspiring, not by making lonely decisions in isolation but by wrestling for common consensus in open dialogue. In all he should be the guarantor of freedom in the Church.


3. An authentic pastor:

He is primarily Bishop of Rome. But as a universal pastor he should be neither an administrator nor a general secretary, not a lawyer, not a diplomat and not a bureaucrat. He should be a pastor, a man in the service of men not of institutions, a leader resolved not to rule but to serve. Free of all personality cult, he should be open in kindness and simplicity to the needs of others in the search for faith, hope and loving acceptance. Free from anxiety, he should be able to give positive guidance rather than prohibition in all the decisive questions affecting life and death, good and evil, including those matters where human sexuality is involved. He should not be a doctrinaire defender of ancient bastions, but rather – with all due respect for continuity in the Church's life and teaching – he should be a pastoral pioneer of a renewed preaching and practice in the Church.


4. A True fellow bishop:

He should be confident enough of his own office to risk sharing his powers with the other bishops, conducting himself not as a master over his servants, but as a brother among his brethren. He should accept the synod of bishops not simply as an advisory body but as a responsible, decision-making organ of the Church, and should extend concrete competence to the episcopal conferences and the diocesan councils.

He should give up the principle of centralism in the Church, revise the system of nunciatures from its foundations, and renew the curia not only externally and organizationally, but in the spirit of the gospel, granting leadership positions not only to different nationalities but also to different mentalities, not only to the aged but also to the young, not only to men but also to women.

He should be familiar with recent developments in theology and he should provide representation in the organs of the Roman curia, not only for traditionalist theology, but also for all the other important streams in the contemporary Catholic theology.


5. An ecumenical mediator:

He should understand his petrine office as a primacy of service within Christianity, as an office to be renewed in the spirit of the gospel and exercised with responsibility for Christian freedom.

He should promote dialogues and cooperation with other Christian churches and should himself exercise his influence as a gathering not a dispersing force for the unity of the Church within plurality.

He should himself give an example of Christian readiness to change, by removing the disciplinary and dogmatic obstacles to church union on the part of Roman Catholicism and by promoting the cooperation of the Roman Catholic Church with the World Council of Churches.

He should take spiritual relationship with the Jews; he should activate that which we share in common with Islam; and he should pursue the dialogue with the other religions of the world.


6. A genuine Christian:

He need not be a saint or a genius: he can have his limitations, his faults and his deficiencies. But whatever he be, he should be a Christian in the genuine, sense of the term, mainly a man who in thought, word and deed is guided by the gospel of Jesus Christ as the decisive norm of his life.

He should be a convincing herald of the good tidings of Christ, firmly rooted in a strong and tested faith and in unshakeable hope.

He should preside over the Church in an attitude of calm patience and confidence, ever aware that the Church is not a bureaucratic organization, not a business enterprise, and not a political party, but rather the encompassing community of believers.

He should exercise his moral authority  with objectivity, with personal commitment, and with a realistic sense of proportion, taking as his goal not only the promotion of the interests of Church institutions but also the broadest realization of the Christian message among all open. And in this connection he should see the engagement of his person and office for the repressed and underprivileged people of the world as his special duty and responsibility.

As Catholics we call upon all the cardinals to discuss the above criteria together in the conclaves before naming the candidate, and to base their decision on them in order to elect the best available candidate – whatever his nationality. They are deciding the future of the Catholic Church.


Giuseppe Alberigo (Bologna)
Norbert Greinacher (Tübigen)
M. D. Chenu (Paris)
Jan Grootaers (Louvain)
Yves Congar (Paris)
Gustavo Gutierrez (Lima)
Claude Geffre (Paris)
Hans Kung (Tubingen)
Andrew Greeley (Chicago)
Edward Schillebeeckx (Nijmegen)
And various Catholic laymen.

1. Franciscan Herald Press, 1970, p. 1.

2. A detailed analysis of the Detroit Congress is provided in James E. Twyman's The Betrayal of the Citadel, published by Viva il Papa, which is not a traditionalist organization and tended to regard Pope Paul VI as an oracle. This booklet is available from The Angelus Press, P. 0. Box 1387, Dickinson, Texas 77539.

3. See the Archbishop’s appeal against the decision to suppress the Society, Vol. I, p. 73.

4. Le Doctrinaire, July/ August 1978, p. 8.

5. Father Cornelius O’Brien, Chaplain to Christendom College, The Wanderer, 11 May 1978.

6. The Term “world” is not always used in a pejorative sense in the Scriptures, God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to save it. A very profound analysis of the scriptural use of the term world can be found in Newman’s sermon The World our Enemy – included in Newman Against the Liberals, a collection of twenty-five of Newman’s sermons, available from The Angelus Press, at $11.00, post paid.

7. Théologie de I’Eglise (Desclée de Brouwer, 1960), p. 250.

[Stone]

Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre
Volume 2, Chapter XXV

Letter of Archbishop Lefebvre to Cardinal X
8 August 1978 - (This letter was sent to four cardinals following the death of Pope Paul VI.)

Your Eminence,

The twilight to which you alluded at our last meeting has come to a sudden end. And Holy Church now faces the tragic problem of tomorrow. Will the sorrowful Calvary of the last fifteen years continue, or will it cease? No doubt the future belongs to God, like the present and past. But God does not want to do without us.

That is why I beseech Your Eminence to use all possible means to stop the scandal of concessions to the enemies of the Church made by those who occupy the posts of authority in the Church, and to do everything in your power to get us a Pope, a true Pope, successor of Peter, in line with his predecessors, the firm and watchful guardian of the deposit of faith.

We have learnt to our cost, and to the cost of the Church, what progressive clerics are capable of. Their clamour in the Council is still ringing in our ears; and then their subversive speeches, their public and secret organizations, their scandalous connections with secret societies. They stop at nothing to succeed in dominating the Church and occupying her key positions.

There is no doubt they will act in the same way in this Conclave. They have occupied the Vatican for fifteen years and they hold a hand of trumps – you are well placed to know that.

To foil their devilish projects you have few human means, but you have the omnipotence of Truth and of the Holy Spirit which shows itself the more as human means are limited.

There seem to be very few of you determined to block the road against the progressives, the modernists and the false ecumenists. But those Cardinals whom you know better than I do are personages in the front rank, worthy to wear the tiara, whose influence in the Conclave could be great when united with yours.

Yet the contribution of the votes of the cardinals aged 80 and over could be decisive. And that raises the serious question of the validity of the election of the Pope.

The fact is, that law Aggravescents aetate is certainly null. It is enough to read again the magnificent texts of Leo XIII in the Encyclical Libertas of 20 June 1888, texts concerning the definition of law, the conditions of its validity, to conclude without possible doubt that the decree is null, being doubly contrary to the definition of law: " An ordainment of reason to promote the common good." "If any power were to decree anything not consonant with the principles of right reason and harmful to the common good, the decree would not have the force of law, for it would not be a rule of justice and it would draw men away from the good for which society was fashioned."

That decree is clearly opposed to right reason and common sense, Whatever is left in humanity of human wisdom objects to such a decision. And it is plainly contrary to the good of society to derive it unduly of he assistance of its wisest and most experienced members.

It appears, therefore, that, this law being null, the eighty-year-old cardinals have a strict right to present themselves at the Conclave, and their enforced absence will necessarily raise the question of the validity of the election.1 It will in any case cast a doubt over the whole business and increase the confusion which already exists among the faithful.

I was anxious, Your Eminence, to share these reflections with you, so that you could eventually pass them on to those who may be concerned.

Catholics faithful to the Church and to Rome are counting much on you to save the Church from the peril which threatens her.

May Our Blessed Lady come to your help and give you the heroic courage of the saints who, in the tragic hours of the Church's history, delivered her from the hands of her enemies. We are praying earnestly for that intention.

With deep respect and fraternal feelings in Christ and Mary,

                                                                                               

+Marcel Lefebvre

1. Although the Archbishop expresses doubt as to the validity of a papal election from which cardinals over the age of eighty had been excluded by a law of Pope Paul VI (Aggravescente aetate), he withdrew these reservations after the papal elections as is made clear on p. 372, and in his letter to Pope John Paul II on p. 378 (the March 1980 letter).

[Stone]

Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre
Volume 2, Chapter XXVI

Letter to Friends and Benefactors (No. 15)
8 September 1978


Dear Friends and Benefactors,

Since the appearance of our last Letter notable events have occurred in the Church: the death of Paul VI and the election of John Paul I. These events, to be sure, are of no small importance to us, so great is our desire to see the Church liberated from the Modernists and progressives who occupy it. For nearly twenty years now we have been praying God to give His Church true Apostles animated by the Catholic Faith, that Faith which has furnished the Church with her Martyrs, Confessors, Doctors, Virgins and all the Saints who render her history illustrious and prove the fruitfulness of her doctrine, Sacrifice, and Sacraments.

We tremble at the thought that this infiltration of Modernism, of Naturalism, in the Church might continue. The consequences of this veritable cancer are the worst that the Church has had to undergo in her long history, namely: the corruption of the Catholic faith of numerous bishops and of a great number of priests, brothers, and nuns. These churchmen think like Protestants and Modernists: the recently published book Des Evêques disent la foi de l'Eglise catholique (Bishops expound the Faith of the Catholic Church) is yet another proof of this. The concepts of sanctifying grace, of original sin and its consequences, of mortal sin, of the expiatory and satisfactory nature of the Sacrifice of Our Lord continued on our altars, are wholly corrupted.

Here once more are all the errors of Liberalism, Americanism, Sillonism, and Modernism condemned by the Sovereign Pontiffs.1 Add to these the "Liberation Theology" which is a Marxist interpretation of the Gospel, tantamount to a sacrilegious outrage against Our Lord, and we can hardly be surprised if the patience of God shows signs of running out. Everything around us seems to be collapsing because He has been abandoned Who is the Foundation of all things, the Truth, the Way, and the Life: Our beloved Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Confronted with this situation, we are resolved to remain all the more faithful to Our Lord, to His Reign, His Cross, His Sacrifice, His Sacraments, and His Teaching faithfully handed down by the successors of Peter for nearly twenty centuries.

Let us ask Saint Pius X to guide the steps of John Paul I. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, as jealous of the integrity of the Faith as she is sensitive to all that betrays her Divine Son, come to the aid of His Church.

By the grace of God and the support of your prayers and generosity, the Society of Saint Pius X, priests, brothers, sisters, and auxiliaries, is expanding so rapidly that it is becoming difficult to supply you with news that is complete. We hope, then, that each District Superior, or the Superior of each independent priory, will furnish more detailed information for his own area.

On 29 June last, we ordained 18 priests, two of whom are attached to the Bédoin Monastery of Dom Gérard, while the remaining 16 are members of the Society. All will be taking up their ministry during this month of September. We would need, however, to ordain four times as many priest's in order to respond to all the requests which are coming to us from every continent and country. Everywhere the faithful feel abandoned or betrayed by the clergy. They can no longer find the Catholic Church, but only a Modernist worship and doctrine. Parents are filled with anxiety for their children.

Japan, India, Australia, South America, South Africa, without counting all the countries where we have already sent missionaries, are begging us to send them true priests. Likewise, vocations are emerging on all sides. Last year was notable for the number of vocations from Italy and South America. This year we have 65 new aspirants to the priesthood who will be entering our three seminaries. A fourth seminary will be opening in March 1979 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The German-speaking seminary has been transferred from Weissbad to Zaitzkofen in Germany (located between Munich and Regensburg). Weissbad will henceforth be used as a house of preparation for the major seminary. In Madrid in Spain and Brussels in Belgium centers have been opened where the Society will begin to exercise its ministry. Albano in Italy will be housing all the second-year students of Ecône who are spending the year in the vicinity of Rome in order to improve their Latin and acquire familiarity with the city at the heart of Catholicism.

The Society has acquired an important center in St. Marys, Kansas in the United States. This center, which includes a large sanctuary dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, may be used for pilgrimages, retreats, and perhaps later as a college.

Eleven new postulants have requested entry to the Brothers' Novitiate while the Sisters' Novitiate at St. Michel-en-Brenne has fifteen postulants and the Carmel in Quiévrain, Belgium twelve. If, in addition, all the new vocations of those Congregations which are maintaining their sane traditions are taken into account, one cannot but marvel at this true renewal of the Church, a renewal where verily the fruits of the Holy Ghost are shining forth, and not the aberrations of the Charismatics.

How can one avoid the conclusion: there where the faith of the Church is, there also is her sanctity, and there where the sanctity of the Church is, there is the Catholic Church. A Church which no longer brings forth good fruits, a Church which is sterile, is not the Catholic Church.

Certainly, we ourselves are of no great importance and the good that is done by us comes from Our Lord. But it is precisely for that reason that we are confident, for out of nothing Our Lord can make much. The whole history of the Church proves this. Our Lord does not require of us to succeed. That is His concern. What He does want from us, however, is our good will and that we be ready to accept whatever He sends us, the trials and crosses just as gladly as the blessings.

Should these few lines reach priests, brothers, and nuns who are striving to preserve the Faith, and by that very fact, the Tradition, and in particular the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, let them know that the Society is ready, as far as its means allow, to assist them spiritually, morally, and materially.

Dear Friends and Benefactors, how we wish to be at your service for your sanctification, for the education and spiritual support of your children. We especially hope to open schools for boys. The future of Christian families depends on this. We are very aware of your needs. That is why we already have schools in New York and Houston in the United States and are taking over the school of St. Michel at Châteauroux in France.

On the other hand, we are also counting on you and we trust that your prayers, sacrifices, and generosity towards us will continue as they have done up to now. May God through Mary and Joseph repay you with abundant blessings.

+ Marcel Lefebvre

Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin Mary



Addendum

European Modernism was given a considerable boost by the publication in France of the biography of a Liberal American priest, Father Isaac Hecker. It was probably the impact of "Americanism" within Europe that prompted its condemnation even more than its growing influence in the USA. In his Apostolic Letter Testem Benevolentiae, 22 January 1899, addressed to Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore, Pope Leo XIII described the heresy as follows:

You are aware, Beloved Son, that the book entitled The Life of Isaac Thomas Hecker, chiefly through the action of those who have undertaken to publish and interpret it in a foreign language, has excited no small controversy on account of certain opinions which are introduced concerning the matter of leading a Christian life. We, therefore, on account of Our apostolic office, in order to provide for the integrity of the Faith, and to guard the security of the faithful, desire to write to you more at length upon the whole matter.

The principles on which the new opinions We have mentioned are based may be reduced to this: that, in order the more easily to bring over to Catholic doctrine those who dissent from it, the Church ought to adapt herself somewhat to our advanced civilization, and, relaxing her ancient rigor, show some indulgence to modern popular theories and methods. Many think that this is to be understood not only with regard to the rule of life, but also to the doctrines in which the deposit of faith is contained. For they contend that it is opportune, in order to work in a more attractive way upon the wills of those who are not in accord with us, to pass over certain heads of doctrines, as if of lesser moment, or to so soften them that they may not have the same meaning which the Church has invariably held. Now, Beloved Son, few words are needed to show how reprehensible is the plan that is thus conceived, if we but consider the character and origin of the doctrine which the Church hands down to us. On that point the Vatican Council says: "The doctrine of faith which God has revealed is not proposed like a theory of philosophy which is to be elaborated by the human understanding, but as a divine deposit delivered to the Spouse of Christ to be faithfully guarded and infalliby declared. That sense of the sacred dogmas is to be faithfully kept which Holy Mother Church has once declared, and is not to be departed from under the specious pretext of a more profound understanding."

Nor is the suppression to be considered altogether free from blame, which designedly omits certain principles of Catholic doctrine and buries them, as it were, in oblivion. For there is one and the same Author and Master of all the truths that Christian teaching comprises: the only-begotten Son Who is in the bosom of the Father. That they are adapted to all ages and nations is plainly deduced from the words which Christ addressed to His apostles: "Going therefore, teach ye all nations: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world." Wherefore the same Vatican Council says: "By the divine and Catholic faith those things are to be believed which are contained in the word of God either written or handed down, and are proposed by the Church whether in solemn decision or by the ordinary universal Magisterium, to be believed as having been divinely revealed." Far be it, then, for any one to diminish or for any reason whatever to pass over anything of this divinely delivered doctrine; whosoever would do so, would rather wish to alienate Catholics from the Church than to bring over to the Church those who dissent from it. Let them return; indeed, nothing is nearer to Our heart; let all those who are wandering far from the sheepfold of Christ return; but let it not be by any other road than that which Christ has pointed out.

1. For an explanation of Liberalism, see Newman Against the Liberals, Preface; of Sillonism, see Pope John’s Council, Appendix V; of Modernism, see Partisans of Error; and of Americanism, see the Addendum to this Letter.