Mustard Seeds in the Ukraine

In the diocese of Ivano-Frankivs in west Ukraine, a Greek Catholic priest was suspended in the autumn of 1999. Why? —Because he did not want the charismatics in his parish and because he did not like to celebrate the liturgy in the vernacular language. He was suspended and kicked out of his parish. Some like-minded priests began to organize around this priest, visiting with one another, and building up a little group. Already, by the start of the 1990’s, the Society of St. Pius X had contact with these priests. Fr. Jean-Marc Rulleau, then a professor at Ecône, visited these countries several times, and, finally, when the priory in Warsaw was opened in 1996, Fr. Stehlin, the superior there, was charged to maintain contacts with the Ukraine. He went there several times. These priests with whom we had contact reflected among themselves, saying, "We must form ourselves into a group as the priests of Campos in Brazil did. We need our own statutes. We must defend ourselves!" Fr. Stehlin went there to preach a retreat last year in June or July —one retreat, 120 participants, almost all young people! In September, I went there together with Fr. Stehlin to take a closer look at things and to give some conferences. Upon our arrival, a priest from Odessa, which is on the Black Sea, came to see us, an elderly priest who takes care of about 70 families. He said, "Here in the Ukraine, the clergy is divided into two classes, the ones who are crucified, and the others who crucify them." These were his words.

Let me tell you what we saw on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

You should first know that the calendar of the Greek Catholics is the Julian Calendar; the West has the Gregorian Calendar. So, their calendar is 13 days after our calendar: they celebrate Christmas, not December 25th, but January 7th; they celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, not August 15th, but on August 28th; they celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, not on September 14th, but on September 27th. So, we were there on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, a very important feast for the people in the Eastern world. We were with one young priest in a parish. This priest has altogether three or four churches to pastor. He has three or four vicars to help him in these churches. It was a Wednesday, a normal work day. At 7:00am that morning, in a parish which has 3,000 registered Greek Catholics, there were 400 people at Mass; at 9:00am for the second Mass, there were about a thousand people assisting. The liturgy is very long and the people have no benches in the churches, no seats, nothing. They stand, and prostrating, kiss the ground. It is absolutely impressive to see the devotion and piety of these people. And then, in the evening, for the third Mass of the feast, about 300-400 people. After the Mass, at 7:45pm, the Stations of the Cross began, but not in the church. No. Outside in the streets of the city. Two men carried a big cross about 16-feet long. They carried it and erected it for every Station. This Way of the Cross took two and a half hours! We finished at 10:15pm! The next day we had a meeting with some aspirants to the priesthood. Because these priests have thought about the future, the need to train seminarians, the need for priests, they have secretly founded a seminary. So we met with these young men to give them a conference. Afterwards, we met with seven priests of this group. At this meeting, we gave them a history of the Society of St. Pius X, about the fight for the Faith, about the situation in the Church. We looked over the statutes they had prepared for their group (which were patterned after those of the Society), answered questions they put to us, and, finally, witnessed the founding of this new priestly society of traditional Greek Catholic priests, the Society of St. Josaphat. It was quite touching to see these seven priests kneeling in front of the Blessed Sacrament reciting their Act of Oblation, signing it, then exchanging the kiss of peace among themselves and with us. They recognize us as their supplementary ecclesiastical authority.

This ceremony took place in a big factory, a big factory with about 800 employees. The owners of this factory are Catholic converts, but they used to be Communists. When they converted, they had asked one of the priests what they could do for reparation and he said, "You will install a chapel in your factory." And so they did. They used a whole floor, and you can imagine that it is big! Well, now it contains a chapel for the Mass, another chapel devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, another chapel for the Passion of our Lord, a chapel for confessions, and a big conference hall! These priests have also started a community of Sisters, and there are about ten Sisters. One of the Sisters is there in the factory to read to the workers during their meals —spiritual reading!

Bishop Fellay went there in November to bless the new house which was given to these priests to serve as their seminary. Fr. Basil, who was elected superior of this Society of St. Josaphat, came to see us in Germany and Switzerland. On December 8, he visited our Sacred Heart Seminary in Zaitzkofen, Germany, the novitiate of our Society of St. Pius X Sisters in Germany, and he went to see the General House in Menzingen, then he went to Ecône to see the other mother seminary there.

Fr. Basil asked the Society of St. Pius X to take charge of their seminary. This would be a difficult thing; firstly, because of the liturgy which is quite different than the Tridentine Rite; secondly, because of characteristic differences in mentality and spirituality; and, thirdly, the question of language. They asked us to do so because, on the one hand, the priests are completely overwhelmed by work in their parishes, and on the other hand, because they were all trained in the underground. As you can imagine, their own training was not the most regular, so they would need some help. We finally agreed that three of our priests would each go for one-week stints: Fr. Stehlin, who teaches in Polish; Fr. Bosiger, who teaches in Russian; and Fr. LaRoche, who takes a translator.

The Real Thing

My dear friends, if you want to see today an example of true Christianity, go there. The common greeting among Catholics is "Slava Jesu Christu" –"Praised be Jesus Christ" to which it is answered, "May God be praised forever." The people are very poor, extremely poor. A normal salary would be $40 a month, and that would be relatively high. Many of them have a little garden or field, very small, to have some vegetables or corn, in order to be self-sufficient regarding food. The health of the people is generally very bad. Why? —First of all, there is not sufficient nutrition. Vitamins are lacking and the people are under-nourished. Sufficient medicine is not available here. A second cause of general bad health is the result of the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant; that was in the Ukraine. Consequently, the health of all these people is damaged; they are all affected by this. But, perhaps because they are so poor, there is still a profound faith. I remember when I was a child in Germany I saw things like this, because I come from a very Catholic area; I saw all these devotions and all this piety —people going to the church during the day. That was normal, that was how it used to be, and in the Ukraine you still find it.

Rome and The Society of St. Pius X

It was in spring of 2000 that Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, who was the Prefect of the Congregation of the Clergy in Rome, became also the Prefect of the Ecclesia Dei Commission. The past of this cardinal, who is a Columbian, is not always very glorious. When he was a young bishop in Columbia he was considered to be left-wing, to be more progressive, and he contributed also to bringing about changes in the constitution of Columbia antithetical to the Catholic Church. So, he was really not a very conservative man. Eventually he became Archbishop of Bacaramanga, and then finally he was appointed to Rome, where he is now considered to be a conservative man. He is responsible for distributing some documents regarding the sanctification of priests which are quite valuable. The priests who serve on his staff, according to witnesses, are priests who look and sound as though they really have a sense of the Church. Also, bishops with whom I have contact and who know him have high regard for him. The conservatives have consideration for him. Why did he change from his past orientation? —I do not know. Is it a profound change? —I do not know.

The Hoyos Connections

On June 10, 2000, he granted an interview to the Austrian magazine, Profil, which asked different questions about the Church and the crisis and what was going on. At the end they asked about the Latin Mass, the Society of St. Pius X, and his new task as the Prefect of the Ecclesia Dei Commission. He said in this interview that he did not see any obstacle to giving permission to say the old Mass to every priest who wants to celebrate it. He said, "This Mass has been celebrated for centuries, and I do not know why we should forbid it, and these people who want to celebrate it have a good moral standing. Why should we not permit it?"

About the same time he wrote a letter to the four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X reminding them that this was the Jubilee Year, a time of reconciliation, and perhaps you could come and see me; the arms of the Holy Father are open wide to you, etc. Nice words, aren’t they? Each bishop responded in his own individual manner.

In July, he intervened in the administration of the Fraternity of St. Peter, of which I already spoke. One month later, the Society sponsored its Pilgrimage of Tradition to Rome, August 8-10. This pilgrimage was very important for us because we wanted not only to win the indulgence for the Jubilee Year, but we also wanted to manifest our attachment to the Holy See, to Eternal Rome, because we are not just Catholics, we are Roman Catholics. So we wanted to prove that we have no schismatic spirit, that Rome is our Mother, despite that fact that we do not agree at all with the actual orientation. This pilgrimage was also important for the mass media, who took notice of it. All the Roman newspapers wrote about it, and the television broadcast an interview with Bishop Fellay. The day we entered St. Peter’s (Aug. 8), the Italian news service broadcast a report saying, "Something happened today that has never been seen before in the 2000-year history of the Catholic Church: 5,000 excommunicated people went to St. Peter’s to pray there!"

One of our friends who works in the Roman Curia said that, when he went to his office the morning after the pilgrimage, there was only one subject that was spoken about, the pilgrimage of the "Lefebvrists." He went to the second floor, same discussion; third floor, same discussion. It was being talked about everywhere. He said the general feeling in the Curia was that if the bishops were excommunicated, it certainly cannot be said that all these people are excommunicated, too. A certain common sense seemed to prevail.

For the Roman authorities themselves, this pilgrimage was very important because they received first-hand knowledge of our real attitude towards Rome. We had officially asked to be able to enter the Basilicas in procession, and written permission for this was given us by the hand of Cardinal Sepe. Nevertheless, a watchdog was put at our side, a Roman monsignor who accompanied us everywhere to see, I guess, that we did not do silly things. When Bishop Fellay finished his sermon in St. Peter’s, the monsignor inquired of Fr. Simoulin, the Society’s District Superior of Italy, who it was who preached? Fr. Simoulin told him that it was Bishop Fellay. He said, "I have never heard a sermon from the mouth of a cardinal that was as good as this sermon." In the end he said that he was very edified by this pilgrimage and that he would make a very good report. There was no word hurting charity or unity, he said.

We were especially well-received in St. Mary Major by the monsignor who was responsible for the liturgical events there. He said that he never makes it difficult for any priest who wants to say the Latin Mass there. "I myself have been to Ecône," he said, "and have even assisted at the Masses of Archbishop Lefebvre." The day after the pilgrimage we returned to thank him for his reception; he told us that our pilgrimage was the biggest one he had seen come through St. Mary Major during the Jubilee Year. He told us any of our priests could celebrate the Latin Mass at St. Mary Major whenever they wished. Bishop Fellay proved his words true when he was allowed to celebrate a sung Mass on the Feast of the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother (August 15) in one of the side chapels of the basilica.

About three weeks ago, in early February, one of our confreres was in Rome to visit and happened to meet two monsignors who told him, "You cannot imagine what impact your pilgrimage had on the Roman authorities. They have refound the Church." That was what they said: "They have refound the Church."

When Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos heard about our pilgrimage, and that the bishops of the Society were in Rome, he jumped on the occasion and phoned invitations to them to come and see him before they departed. Bishop de Galaretta was already on his way back to Spain, but the other three went to see him. He expressed his satisfaction with the pilgrimage; he said he was very edified and that he had received good reports. One of the bishops replied that such a pilgrimage was the fruit of the old Mass. The bishops promised the cardinal that he would get a letter from us. In the name of the others, one of the bishops wrote in his letter, "Your Eminence, make the Mass free as you have said yourself in your interview [in Profil]; just keep the word that you had in your interview. Free the Mass; this will change the atmosphere in the Church, and this could be the basis of a new dialogue. But free the Mass." No answer.

Then Bishop Fellay gave an interview to 30 Days. These people of 30 Days always have a slight tendency to diminish certain statements, and to bring people together where there are difficulties, and so in this interview they rounded the edges a little bit in the final published interview. Bishop Fellay was not very happy when he saw this interview. But the pope read this interview very carefully. Everywhere in Rome it was read.

Following the publication of the 30 Days interview, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos blessed the new seminary building of the Fraternity of St. Peter in Wigratzbad, Germany (Dec. 2). His sermon, which was published in their bulletin, was classic but otherwise not remarkable. In a public statement he made after the sermon, however, he said that he hoped for a normalization with the Society of St. Pius X. He said this in their seminary. At a meeting with the professors of this seminary, he said that the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X had quite impressed him, and that he feels that they were "men of the Church." He could not have made a better statement about our bishops. This is what we have always said, that they are "men of the Church."

Later on, he wrote a letter to the Fraternity of St. Peter in which he said that he was very impressed with the Mass in Wigratzbad, and that it was his first Pontifical Mass in the old Rite. (You must know that Cardinal Hoyos was consecrated in 1971, a time when there was already the New Mass, so he never had the occasion to celebrate anything but the Novus Ordo.) He said that he felt the Latin Mass really expressed the Catholic Faith.

In November he wrote a letter to Bishop Fellay, saying, "After having read your interview, I invite you to come to Rome to see me and to prepare an audience with the Holy Father." This invitation was the purpose of his letter. At that moment, Bishop Fellay was packing for a trip to South America to ordain priests at the seminary in La Reja and then to visit throughout the District. He replied, "I cannot come now; it is impossible before Christmas; it must wait. Let’s make contact after Christmas." When he returned from Argentina, there was new contact. So Bishop Fellay went to Rome on December 29, and he had an interview for two hours with the cardinal, a personal meeting, nobody was there. There were very astonishing statements made on the side of the cardinal. Bishop Fellay told him that we want to fight against the errors and that there was no chance that we would ever stop fighting the modernism and liberalism in the Church. Cardinal Hoyos said that he considered Karl Rahner to be the man who has done the most damage to the Church in the 20th century (which is quite true!). But, he also said, "I do not understand your reasons for the old Mass." Bishop Fellay gave him some arguments.

The Next Moves?

Now the question is, what is to be done? We met on January 13, 2001, in the General House in Menzingen. It was a meeting of the General Council, the four bishops, and also Fr. Rifan from the Diocese of Campos, Brazil, as the delegate of Bishop Rangel, to discuss things, and to determine what our attitude would be. Finally, we decided to write to the cardinal, telling him that we wanted guarantees. We asked for guarantees. We are serious about things. These things are profound. We asked two things:

1. That every priest in the world can say the old Mass without any restriction; and 

2. That Rome take back the declaration of excommunication. It must be pointed out that we have always considered these excommunications to be null and void, so we did not ask for the "lifting" of the excommunications; rather, we asked that they "take back" the declaration of the excommunications. What they do, how they present it, is their affair, but that is what we asked.

Two days later, Bishop Fellay had an appointment in Rome which had been planned a long time ago, and which had nothing to do with these new developments. He met there Cardinal Stickler, an Austrian, very old but still very lucid, who normally says the old Mass. He met Cardinal Augustin Mayer [former first head of the Ecclesia Dei Commission —Ed.], and he also met Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos. Cardinal Hoyos told him that the day previous he had a meeting with the pope, who invited him, quite surprisingly, to have lunch with him, and spoke the whole time about the Society of St. Pius X. They discussed things. The cardinal also said, "If there is a disagreement in your ranks, then let us postpone normalization. Either you come all together, or we wait." This is quite a reasonable position. Bishop Fellay, at this moment, told him about the two points we ask, telling him that a letter would follow, but it was not yet written, and so he told him, "Free the Mass and take back the declaration of the excommunications." Cardinal Hoyos took note of this and transmitted it immediately to the pope’s secretary.

Then, on January 26th, Fr. Rifan was in Rome. He also met with Cardinal Hoyos to present the case of Campos to him. At this meeting, the cardinal said, "With these two guarantees, okay, okay, fine, yes. There should be no major obstacles, but it is difficult to ask the bishops to allow the Mass; it is difficult." Fr. Rifan said, "You do not ask the bishops, but you declare that everybody can say the old Mass." Said the cardinal, "Aha, yes, but, well..."

Why the Rush?

We can ask ourselves why Rome is in such a hurry. We did not expect, to speak very frankly, that there would be any new developments in this pontificate, which is now reaching its end. We thought that we would have to wait till the next pope took the throne, that then there would be a new approach from their side or from our side. Why suddenly this approach?

I think we must acknowledge that people have prayed a lot all along, that they have made many sacrifices. People have offered their lives as a sacrifice to God. All this has its value in the eyes of God.

But when it comes to the human reasons, I guess that the pope himself considers the thing with the Society as a little bit of a spot on his pontificate. These are guesses. We do not know. We really do not know, but I would guess that he considers this a spot on his pontificate. He has received everybody —the Hindus and Moslems and everybody —while his own most faithful sons he has cast out of the house. Does he want to go like this to eternity?

Then, there are certainly people in Rome who say, "We must reach a solution under this pontificate because this pope has such a moral authority that we can resolve the problem. But we do not know who will be the next pope, and it might take years till he can consecrate himself to this problem. So, let us resolve this now and with this pope." These are all guesses, once again.

Then, there are certainly other people, like Cardinal Ratzinger, who say, "Things in the Church are so bad that we urgently need a contra-force in the Church, people who bring stability, people who will help us to fight against these abuses and all these things."

And, we can think, Rome has made a move because the health of the pope is declining more and more; another reason I believe they are so much in a hurry. Cardinal Hoyos himself said that, on their side, they wanted to finish it by this Easter! They are in a hurry; we, however, are not in a hurry. That’s very important. We are under no pressure. But, I think these a few of the possible reasons.

Step by Little Step

The Church is in a profound crisis. The characteristic of this crisis is that it is first of all a crisis of doctrine and faith, not of morality or discipline. It is a crisis of doctrine and faith, and there is no doubt that these points have to be resolved. We brought this to the attention of the cardinal, saying, "Let us first of all discuss these things." And he said, "This takes too much time. Let us first have the solution, and then we can discuss these things." That’s a bit dangerous, a bit dangerous! In any case, if you look into the history of the Church in similar cases, you will see that such a crisis, which is so profound, and perhaps the most profound that the Church has ever experienced, can only be overcome step by step. The solution will not just fall from Heaven. You cannot expect that tomorrow every priest will once again begin celebrating the old Mass, and that’s it; or that all the former Catholic nations will once again become Catholic nations, and the like. It will not be like this. It only can be overcome step by step. For example, the restoration of the Catholic Church by the Council of Trent —all its decisions, the reforms, the work of popes —took several pontificates. It was a relatively long process. And so it will be today.

When I was District Superior of Austria for four years, I was in relatively good contact with the local bishop of our district seat, the bishop of St. Pölten, Bishop Krenn, who is the most conservative amongst the Austrian bishops and who has true sympathy for us, true understanding to a certain point. We discussed things several times. About one year ago he told me, "You guys cannot expect that when you come back, the whole house will be cleaned out." And I told him, "Your Excellency, we are quite ready to help with the cleaning out." And I added, "We are even ready to clean the toilets!"  But, I told him, "The problem is that you permit us to clean. That’s the problem. Permit us to clean!"

Now our situation in the midst of this crisis is to defend the Catholic Faith, and we know that Faith is more than obedience. So, in 1975, when this so-called "suppression" of the Society of St. Pius X came, we continued our work. We said, "That is an attack against the Church, and so we will continue." In 1976, when Archbishop Lefebvre was so-called "suspended" we continued. In 1988, after the consecration of the bishops, when there was the so-called "excommunications," we continued our work. We continued, but nevertheless, the situation in which we find ourselves, which is a legitimate situation, and a very necessary situation —there is no other way, there is absolutely no other way! —is not a normal situation. It is a situation of necessity. If there is a possibility, a reasonable and prudent possibility, to settle things, then we must settle things. I would make a comparison: If a family was split up, even if it is the unique fault of the one side, the other side must try to normalize the situation once again, even if it is the unique fault of the one side.

The Nitty Gritty

First, all and any solutions would have to include the bishops, all our priests, our priest-friends, the faithful, and those communities who are linked in friendship with us. Partial precedents exist. There are different models, different canonical forms, which give us an idea of how and where a solution could be found.

Second, we must continue to fight errors; that is not only a permission, it is a duty, a holy duty. It is a duty to fight against this desacralization, this de-Christianization; it is a duty to fight against religious liberty, against ecumenism, against collegiality.

Third, we need absolute guarantees that we have the means to continue our work: the bishops, the priories, and so on. So I think there is no other alternative than, if Rome wants a solution, they take us as we are. This was done with the Ukrainians in 1596. The Ukrainians were accepted as they were. A solution must be like the building up of a fortress, where the enemy cannot enter but where we can shoot out.

Finally, if we have a solution, the fight will not be over; rather, the true fight will begin, in a certain sense, and the question will be, "Who converts whom?"  If we convert them, then it is good; if they convert us, then it is very bad. So, the aim, my dear friends, is clear. The aim is to work for the triumph of Catholic Tradition, fully and publicly recognized by Rome. The question is how to reach this aim. Is it really now a possibility? Has the hour of God come or not? —We do not know. In any case, the very latest news is that Cardinal Hoyos has said, "Okay, we recognize that the old Mass is not abrogated and is legitimate, but we cannot say it publicly because there will be too much of a rebellion, and difficulties with the bishops. We cannot say it publicly." But that is what we want. We want it to be said publicly. Their private conviction is not so interesting. What is interesting is what they say publicly. So long as they do not say this publicly, we have told them we will not go one step further. They must say this publicly. That is a decisive step.

It is important to see that the freeing of the Latin Mass is not the only matter, far from it! There are other problems —a lot of other problems! But it is the first step, an important step.

So you see, really, that it is a time for prayer and a time for work. There are two things which are important. On the one side, prayer, on the other side that we keep a profound unity among us, because the devil will do everything to try to split us up. I heard just today that on the Internet there are rumors that a contract was signed with Rome, that Bishop de Galarreta did not agree with this, and that he left the Society of St. Pius X. That is all false. There is no agreement, first of all. Secondly, there is unity among us. But we must be very vigilant.

Counsels and Admonitions

In a very short fourth point, I want to give you some counsels and recommendations. I already pointed out the necessity and the importance of continuing to pray, to pray hard and with fervor. My dear friends, be very fervent, zealous, burning souls. I think that, if a solution is found, I would consider it as a true miracle. Miracles are rare. They can be obtained, nevertheless, by prayer.

A second thing I want to suggest to you is that you study Catholic doctrine, especially the social doctrine of the Church. If you do not know what a Catholic society is, how can you work for one? Study especially the works of Fr. Denis Fahey, for example. He has written absolutely wonderful books. They are worth reading. You must read. You must nourish your souls. You must enlighten your spirit. You must enkindle your hearts, your charity. You must inform yourselves! There is another book, a very thick book, which was published relatively recently. It would not be for everybody —Iota Unum. It is not an easy book, but it is a very informative book. Excellent! Archbishop Lefebvre wished —the Italian edition was published long ago  —that it would be the book every seminarian had in his hands.

Finally, my dear friends, let us work all together for a Catholic America. We have never known in this country a real Catholic society, a completely Catholic society. We have known this in Europe. Let us work for this. Your country has very nice and good aspects. There is no doubt about this. But I think that your country would be much nicer if it were a Catholic one. So, let us not be Catholics who consider our priories as just service stations. What do I mean by service stations?—That means, I want, on Sunday, my Mass, and from time to time to get rid of my sins in the confessional, and for my kids I want a little bit of catechism, and sometimes a sermon, not too long because I want to go home, and that’s it. The rest I am not interested in at all. This I would call a mentality of service stations. It is very bad.

We must be missionary, apostolic souls, zealous, working for Catholic families, Catholic schools, participating in retreats and also working for Catholic authority in your country at all levels —Catholic laws, Catholic institutions. That’s very important. If not, we are not true Catholics. If you are not working for this, if this is not your desire, that our Lord Jesus Christ as King is also King in your country, and that all is submitted to Him, from the President, the Constitution, and all laws, then you are no true Catholic.

Regarding these discussions with Rome, let us all keep the sense of the Church. When we enter these negotiations, it is not strictly for the Society of St. Pius X. It is not so that we will secure for ourselves a more comfortable position.  Not at all!  We are entering these negotiations for the Catholic Church. The Church is our love. The Church is our life. The Church is our passion! We have a true passion for the Church. She is the Bride of Jesus Christ, and we love the Church, and we are quite ready to lay down our lives for the Church. And so we are working for the Church, not for ourselves. When he went down to Rome throughout his life  —he went quite often —the Archbishop always tried to go one step further to free the Mass and to spark a re-triumph of Catholic Tradition. That was his aim. Even then, however, there were already people who called him a traitor because he spoke with the Roman authorities. But that is not right. Even if these people are very imperfect, or have been involved in modernism and liberalism, or have false ideas, or have impure intentions... Who knows? This all may be, but we’ll see. Let us work out something, perhaps.

I think the time has really come to try. We have very good cards in our hands. We will not give them out; we will use them to make Catholic Tradition triumph publicly in Rome so that it is recognized once again. That is our aim, nothing else! We are not working for ourselves; we are working for the Church. We are living for the Church; we are working for the Church; we pray for the Church. I think this is what our Lord expects from us because it is His Mystical Body, and he laid down His life for the Church, for His unspotted Bride. Even if people in authority in this Church are very imperfect, well, our Lord told us that the wheat is amidst the cockle, and He said, "Leave both till the time of the harvest." You cannot pull out all the cockle; it is not possible without damaging the wheat. So let us overcome the crisis positively by prayer, by sacrifice, by discussion if necessary and then only with firm steps. There will be no further discussions if Rome does not agree to recognize publicly the right of all priests to say the old Mass.

Let us especially take refuge in the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is celebrated in the Church as the one who has overcome all the heresies in the world. In this way, I think, we are really working for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. Thank you very much.

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