Letter to Our Brother Priests No. 99: We Believe in the Church

Despite alarmist perspectives on the Synod on Synodality, we continue to believe in the indefectibility of the promises of Christ.

In a few days (and probably by the time you read these lines), the first session of the “Synod on Synodality” will be held. It is to be feared, alas, that this assembly, far from working to restore life and spiritual splendor to the Church, may end up contributing still more to her decline.

In a human sense, we can’t help but be frightened by the always more alarming perspectives which loom before the Church. The loss of faith, the drop in practicing Catholics, the decrease in vocations, and the acceptance of apostasy do not stop accelerating. We begin to better understand the enigmatic words of Christ: “But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?” (Lk. 18:8).

To overcome this inevitable human pessimism, we must maintain faith in the Church. The Church is human, deeply human, and consequently experiences in itself all the human deficiencies, all the sins that man can commit. But the Church is also, and above all, principally divine. Sanctified by the Holy Spirit, governed by Our Lord Jesus Christ, consecrated to the worship of the Heavenly Father, her foundations cannot be breached—foundations which are holy, which are divine.

That’s why we believe in the Church: one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic. That’s why we believe in the Roman Catholic Church as the only Church established by Christ, the necessary means to salvation for all men, who are invited to join her under pain of perdition.

We believe in the hierarchical Church, governed by the Pope—the successor of Peter and Vicar of Christ, to whom he belongs. We believe in the Pope who does not propose a new revelation, but faithfully guards the Revelation of Jesus transmitted by the Apostles, and propagates it through the Magisterium endowed with the privilege of infallibility under the conditions fixed by Christ.

We believe in the hierarchical Church, governed in each diocese—under the authority of the Supreme Pontiff—by the bishops as successors of the Apostles, assisted by the priests, deacons, and ministers.

We believe that all the faithful—by virtue of their baptism and the other sacraments they have received, under the direction of the holy hierarchy acting in accordance with the mandate of Christ and according to His commandments—are thus called to sanctification and to a life conformed to the Gospel.

And finally—despite the complex, confused, and dramatic situation that the Church is experiencing today, and which explains the “irregular” situation of the Society of Saint Pius X (a situation that it did not want, but which was imposed on it), and despite all the human difficulties—we adhere with all our heart, with all our soul to Catholic Rome, guardian of the Catholic Faith and the traditions necessary to uphold this Faith—to eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and of truth.