| Dear
Friends and Benefactors,
Six years ago, Archbishop
Lefebvre gave back his soul to God. We would like to begin this letter by paying
homage to our venerable Founder, who died suffering both physically from illness
and morally from the scorn of the world. For civil and ecclesiastical
authorities alike had handed this "man" over to be condemned, who upset them so
much by his love above all else of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Six years after his
death we carry on his fight over the souls of millions of people anesthetized by
the abundance of material goods, and plunged ever deeper in a fashionable
skepticism and doctrinal relativism -the spiritual fight to remind them of their
Creator's demands, of the glorious destiny to which He is calling them, Heaven,
and the frightful consequences of not responding to the divine invitation, Hell.
Liberalism presently holds tyrannical sway over
people's minds, and woe to any of us daring to contradict it. We are swiftly
dismissed as a cult, as radical extremists or fundamentalists, and our
case is closed. And yet, how can truth give up its rights or prerogatives?
Other men have raised this question in other times, and what they said
is as relevant as ever. Here for example is Pope Pius IX, addressing the
editors of a Catholic newspaper of Rodez in December of 1876:
Numbers of people
are bound to accuse you of being imprudent and will call your
enterprise inopportune; but the fact that truth is displeasing
to many and irritates those who cling to their error, is no
reason to judge it imprudent or inopportune. On the contrary,
the more serious and widespread the evil being fought against,
the more prudent and opportune is the truth. Otherwise we would
have to admit that nothing was more imprudent and inopportune
than that spreading of the Gospel which took place when the
religion, laws and morals of all nations were directly opposed
to it. A struggle of this kind may bring you nothing but
criticism, scorn and bitter quarrels; however, He who brought
the Truth down to us upon earth told His disciples in advance
that they would only be hated by all because of His name.
Pius IX lashed out against the Liberal Catholicism
that promotes an easy-going tolerance, or, as he called it in his Brief
to the Angers members of the St. Vincent de Paul Conferences in February
of 1875, "a sort of middle ground, thanks to which truth and error could
be made to embrace, and an end could be put to their constant warfare —as though it were a mark of prudence to keep one's distance from both truth
and error, for fear either that truth should upset error in its domain,
or that error should go beyond the limits foolishly assigned to it to keep
it within bounds."
Vatican II opened the doors wide
to this spirit of compromise, which is as dangerous as can be for the Church,
and was so steadily condemned by the popes for more than a century. Ever since
that time the Church has been dying of this spirit of compromise in which
nothing remains hard and fast, while confusion, indiscipline, rebellion and
chaos are fostered in all directions. But please, let nobody accuse us of setting up
an imaginary contrast between a supposedly glorious past of the Church
and an inglorious present, between a clear and expressive manifestation
of the Faith yesterday and a troubled and indecisive presentation of it
today. Other men in authority have recognized this state of affairs in
terms leaving no room for indifference, for instance Paul VI in conversation
with Jean Guitton ("The Secret Paul VI", p 168):
What strikes
me when I look upon the Catholic world is how within Catholicism, a kind
of non-catholic thinking sometimes seems to have taken over, and it may
be that this uncatholic thinking within Catholicism will tomorrow gain the upper
hand, but it will still not be Catholic thinking. There must always be a little
flock of true Catholics, however little it may be.
So we are inventing nothing when,
following in Archbishop Lefebvre's footsteps, we try to, distinguish between
Catholic Rome and modernist Rome. Here too arises the grave problem of
normalizing our relations with Rome! Into whose hands are we to entrust our
future? Into the hands of those Roman authorities who declare that all of us,
bishops, priests and laity alike, are excommunicated because we are in schism?
Or of those who at least spare the priests and laity being excommunicated,
because we are not in schism but only in danger of schism? Or again of those who
consider are all simply Catholic? How are we to choose between them? For it is a
fact that the authorities in Rome are divided on our account, as we can prove by
documents in our possession. So we can only continue on our present course of
staying in private contact with Rome while in public we protest out loud against
the Church's self-destruction, which is the poisoned fruit of the Liberalism
mortally infecting so many, many Church leaders. For how can anyone fail to see the likeness between
the Liberal Catholic outlook and that of today's ecumenism? It is the same
spirit, only applied this time to relations between the Church and other
"christian religions". The same spirit leading to the same practical
relativism, i.e. indifference between false religions and the one true
religion. This is the ecumenical outlook in which they are
preparing the Jubilee of the year 2,000. What will be left of the Church's
identity? Vatican II claimed that the Catholic Church was merely part of
the church of God. Now the International Theological Commission is claiming
that it is no longer true that outside the Catholic Church there is no
salvation (Civiltá Cattolica, February 1997, article on Christianity
and other religions). Yet that is one of the basic dogmas of our religion! This ecumenism which is meant to be bringing about
the union of "christian religions", is in fact, in the form in which
it is being practiced today, destroying the unity of the Catholic Church.
In the name of ecumenism, the three unities that constitute the Church
are being undermined. Firstly, her unity in the Faith is being dissolved
by the absolute necessity of Faith for salvation being made merely relative.
Secondly, her unity in the Liturgy is being fragmented by the New Order
of Mass which was invented for purposes of ecumenism, as its author, Msgr.
Bugnini, stated. Thirdly, her unity in government is being broken up by
the attack on the pope's inalienable primacy, foundation-stone on which
rests the one and only Church of Christ, for just as that primacy when
properly exercised causes the union of Catholics' hearts and wills, so
when it is not exercised it causes the sheep to be scattered...
Let us pray God that He preserve in His Church
the "integrity of religion" (Postcommunion of Mass of a Pope).
Let us pray steadily and make sacrifices for this trial to come soon to
an end! Yet even while plunged in the heart of this crisis,
we are still being granted many consolations by God: vocations seem to
be slightly on the increase; here and there real churches are being built,
calling for the most solemn of blessings: the consecration or dedication
of a church. Thus we ourselves were able at the beginning of March to consecrate
the Society's church in Manila dedicated to Our Lady of Victories with
many Catholics in attendance, while Bishop Williamson is due to consecrate
the Society's "baroque" church in Stuttgart, Germany, dedicated to Our
Lady of the Assumption, on the second Sunday after Easter. As for the church
at the Society's seminary and mother-house in Econe, Switzerland, photos
show how the work is advancing: presently the roof is being put on, and
we hope the work will be finished in little more than a year's time.
May we then repeat our urgent appeal
to your generosity, despite its having been appealed to so often,
on behalf of this important project which can only with your help
be brought to a conclusion!
We ask God that He deign to grant us
the consolation not only of raising these temples of stone to His
glory, but more than all else of making your hearts into a holy
temple for Him to embellish, strengthen and honor by His constant
presence, on this 25th day of March when the Word became flesh by
the working of the Holy Ghost and deigned to dwell in our midst in
the womb of Blessed Mary ever Virgin, the most beautiful of
creatures, the most beautiful and holy of temples in which He is
glorified for ever and ever. + Bernard Fellay,
Superior General |
