… It is therefore the right road we are following; the proof is there, we recognize the tree by its fruits…
Do not let yourself be taken in dear readers by the term “traditionalist” which they would have people understand in a bad sense. In a way it is a pleonasm because I cannot see who can be a Catholic without being a traditionalist. I think I have amply demonstrated in this book that the Church is a tradition. We are a tradition. They also speak of ‘integrism’. If by that we mean the respect for the integrality of dogma, of the catechism, of Christian morality, of the Holy sacrifice of the Mass, then yes we are integrists. And I do not see how one can be a Catholic without being an integrist in that sense of the word.
… If my work is of God, He will guard it and use it for the good of the Church. Our Lord has promised us, the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her.
This is why I persist, and if you wish to know the real reason for my persistence, it is this. At the hour of my death, when Our Lord asks me “What have you done with your episcopate , what have you done with your episcopal and priestly grace?”, I do not want to hear from His lips the terrible words “You have helped to destroy the Church along with the rest of them”.
From An Open Letter to confused Catholics 1986
No comments:
Post a Comment