anti dinoscopus

Pastoral Lenten Letter

2012-01-10T11:57:00.000+01:00

Archbishop emeritus of Tulle, Founder of the Society of St. Pius X

Ecône, 25th January 1987, Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul

It was in the past an excellent custom that the Diocesan Bishop send a letter to all his faithful for the forthcoming Lent.

Indeed, as the Epistle of the First Sunday of Lent says: "Brothers, we do exhort you, that you receive not the grace of God in vain... behold now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation." (11 Cor. VI 1 sqq).

My very dear faithful, read again and again the notes in your old missals which explain the time of Lent. They will remind you of the origin and signification of these forty days of prayer and fasting, which prepare us for Holy Week, for the great mystery of the Cross in order to arrive at the Resurrection.

The Church wants to lead us into the practice of a more perfect Christian life. She gives us the example of Christ and by true fasting and penance unites us to His sufferings in order to give us a share in His redemption.

All along these forty holy days, She reminds us that we are sinners, tempted by "the concupiscence of the flesh and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life" (1 Jn II 16), and She puts on our lips these moving supplications: "Lord, repay us not according to our sins, chastise us not according to our iniquities... Let Thy Mercies speedily prevent us"! (Tract of Ash Wednesday).

Blessed are you, dear faithful, who have kept the spirit of Faith, and who prepare yourselves for this period of prayer and penance with devotion, convinced that you will sanctify yourselves by a more frequent assistance at Holy Mass, by frequent Communion, by the sacrament of Penance, by fasting and abstinence, by alms, by a more fervent practice of the Christian virtues of humility, meekness, patience, gentleness, mercy; and if possible by a holy retreat, which will help you to detach yourself more and more from sin and from all attachment to this world, to find the intimacy of the love of Jesus and Mary and thus to transform your life.

But in order to believe in this revivifying of grace in your souls one must have not only faith but the spirit of faith, i.e. a living faith animated by the Holy Ghost who leads our souls in the ways of perfection, in a greater and greater charity towards God and our neighbor.

Unfortunately, we notice that the spirit of Faith, believing in and living of the baptismal grace, has disappeared even in the highest levels of the hierarchy. The principles that lead and direct the spirit of the Pope and of the Bishops are no longer. the true principles of faith but the false principles of human reason, as those who are at the origin of the Protestant liberalism, of modernism, of Americanism, of Sillonism, principles which have all been condemned by the Council of Trent and by all the Popes until Pope Pius XII included.

The last Popes have departed from the heritage of twenty centuries of the Church to make themselves the heirs of the Liberals and Modernists. All what they say or do is but the echo of what was said and done by those who for the last four centuries have been imbued with these false principles. (the meeting of) Assisi is the clearest fruit of this liberal Catholicism condemned by all the Popes before Vatican II.

Thus we find ourselves in front of an ecclesiastical world fully incoherent, illogical, searching for compromises between truth and error, between good and evil, between light and darkness, God and Belial.

This shaking of faith truly seems to prepare for the coming of the Antichrist according to the predictions of St. Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians and the commentaries of the Fathers of the Church.

When Our Lord describes the end of times and after Him the Apostles in their letters, they speak to those who shall remain faithful saying: vigilate, vigilate - watch and be ready! "Thus Brothers, St. Paul says, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned."(II Thess II 14)

"But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, St. Peter says in his 2nd Epistle, in which the heavens shall pass with great violence... and the earth shall be burnt up (...) Wherefore, dearly beloved, waiting for these things, be diligent that you may be found before Him unspotted and blameless in peace." (II Pet III 10-14).

May our prayers and fasts be for us a source of sanctification and a supplication for the return of the shepherds to the truth of the Traditional Magisterium of the Church, for the honor our Lord, for His universal reign and for the reign of Mary, His Holy Mother. Amen

+ Marcel Lefebvre

True face of authority

2011-12-16T09:14:00.000+01:00

… Some of his seminarians compared Mortain with its healthy liberty to the rough and tough training in the novitiate. “Here we are at last far from the novitiate!” they would say, In this attitude Fr. Lefebvre detected a loss of fervour, or a loss of focus in spiritual training and in the pursuit of sanctity. The too exclusively intellectual approach adopted by the philosophy students was a serious pitfall. He warned them to beware:

It is not normal; the opposite ought to be the case. After the novitiate, your studies should provide food for your spiritual life and not lessen it. When all is said and done, philosophy understood and loved, leads to God who is present everywhere, incomprehensible in so far as He exceeds our weak intelligence. Here is where the door of faith opens….

Philosophy is a preparation to sanctity and to a life of union with God….True knowledge leads logically to humility: false knowledge which stops along the way, which is incomplete, leads to pride and self-importance.

The remedy was readily available: St. Thomas. The Father Superior went through the Summa Theologica in his spiritual conferences. He devised a “triptych of the spiritual life” which he planned to expound over three years and which he later spoke of at Econe:

The first year was given over to the study of the “unjust man” with all the consequences of original sin. The second year covered the “just man” sanctified by grace with his virtues, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and the beatitudes. In the third year – had I stayed for a third year – I would have explained the means by which man passes from the state on injustice to the state of justice: firstly our Lord himself (His work of redemption) then the means of sanctification that He instituted: the Mass, the sacraments, prayer, doing Gods will, the means to fight against our failings and grow in virtue. I would have finished off with the four last things, and the fulfilment of justification.

… A seminarian said, “We valued him a lot. We really loved him because he was very simple and direct”. Since he sang a little off key, Fr. Lefebvre asked one of the youngest seminarians who had a good voice to help him practice singing the Preface of the Mass. “he was always happy to see seminarians in his office, to speak, to say something that needed saying, talking in his small gentle voice”.

… Colleagues visiting Mortain were surprised by the mutual trust between the priests and students, a trust that enabled the students to act often on their own initiative. Such were the fruits of an understanding Father Superior. This was how Fr. Lefebvre conceived of the right relationship between authority and obedience. France after liberation was suffering from a crisis of authority brought about by the crisis of obedience among the Free French. Restoring authority’s real meaning meant showing its true face. The Father Superior led by example, and that was a language the seminarians could understand. One day he asked them to write an essay on authority, starting from a beautiful description of authority which he gave them but providing their own examples to illustrate their arguments.

“One can say that authority is totally divine in its origins, and sweet and powerful in its essence. And, if it is moved by the gift of counsel and supported by prudence, it is also amazingly fruitful, bringing order, prosperity and peace.”

Archbishop Lefebvre was at Mortain November 1945-June 1947.
The biography of Marcel Lefebvre by Bernard Tissier de Mallerais.

A sermon in which Jesus Christ does not figure is useless ... concluded

2011-10-17T11:00:00.003+02:00

The ardour with which he preaches is so extraordinary that his adversaries exhibit and incredible opposition. The terms used in Holy Scripture are clear: not only are they enraged but “they gnashed their teeth at him”. Truly, through them, the devil himself acted against St Stephen. Consider the ardour and effect of his preaching and of his faith, and the persecution they aroused, obviously he so clearly manifested the Holy Ghost within him that they put him to death. The good God allowed him to enjoy this blessed vision before his death.

The Apostles St. Peter and St. Andrew died on crosses, and the great missionaries went in the name of the cross to preach the Gospel. This what St Francis Xavier did, and St Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort, and so many others. They held up the Cross to impart the Faith or to revive it. The Cross has its own virtue. The good God has willed that the cross be the salvation for all men. Consequently, one must believe that in every man there is a predisposition to believe in the virtue of the Cross. I have experienced this in the course of my missionary life in pagan villages. When the Cross was shown to the villagers and when what it was explained, an actual grace descended into souls. The souls were touched at the thought that God came upon earth, suffered for them, and shed His Blood to redeem them from their sins.

Men full of pride and steeped in their knowledge are the hardest to convert. At the idea of adoring Christ, they revolt like the devil, like the bad angels, like the princes of the priests, like the Scribes and the Pharisees. But simple souls that are undoubtedly in sin more easily recognise their disorder. They are in a situation that quite oft5en creates in them a certain remorse. So the thought that this degrading siutaion in which they find themselves has an exit, a way to resurrection, and light attracts them. When they think that God Himself took the trouble to come and sacrifice Himself to get them out of the state of sin into which they had fallen, then souls rise up and thank God, seeing that salvation is possible, resurrection is possible.

The Mass of All Time Angelus Press 2007

A sermon in which Jesus Christ does not figure is useless…. (continued)

2011-08-18T15:24:00.007+02:00

......

Thus Mary’s intercession is necessary because all graces come to us through her hands… We must preach the cross of Our Lord against the evil spirit of the World, which is the spirit of the devil, which is the spirit of error, the spirit of attachment to earthly goods. What is the most obvious means of detaching oneself from the spirit of the world? It is the spirit of the Cross. It is necessary to preach the Cross so that the people really unite themselves to the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice.
You will preach the doctrine of the Cross. St Paul preached nothing else: “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (I Cor. 2.2), as he himself said. That was his preaching; it will be yours too, I am certain.
In the fifth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles(5:30-33), we read: “The God of our fathers hath raised up Jesus, whom you put to death, hanging Him upon a tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand, to be Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins. And we are witnesses of these things and the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to all that obey him, when they had heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they thought to put them to death.” This shows another important side of things. Preaching Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the fruit of the Holy Ghost in the ministry we have to give, leads to persecutions. We mustn’t deceive ourselves: we are for Our Lord the world is against Our Lord. Sinners are against Our Lord. Our Lord Himself said it: the world hates me, and it will hate you of you love and serve me (Jn. 15: 18-21)
Remember the magnificent story of St Stephen. If there is one of the first Christians who manifested the presence of the Holy Ghost within him, it was St Stephen. We must love to read and re-read the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, which recounts the story of St Stephen, because all the manifestations of the Holy Ghost appear in him. His faith is so lively that the good God even allows Stephen to see Him: “But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God” (7:55). The good God gave him the grace to see His glory before he died. To be continued…

A sermon in which Jesus Christ does not figure is useless….

2011-05-16T10:00:00.004+02:00

Preaching
The sermon, which prolongs the Word of God, is a function reserved to the ministers of the sacrifice. It must have a sacred character in order to dispose souls to live the gospel and to unite themselves to Our Lord’s sacrifice.

1. A ministry conferred upon the deacon
Ordination to the diaconate confers a power not only over the real, physical Body of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, but also over His Mystical Body. For insofar as a consecrated person advances nearer to Our Lord Jesus Christ, from the tonsure to the diaconate and finally ascending to the priesthood, he enjoys a proportionally greater power over the Eucharist, and equally over the Mystical; Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why the Church already grants you a certain number of powers. You will eventually be able to give Our Lord Himself in the Blessed Sacrament to souls. By reason of this authorisation and power, you have the duty to prepare souls to receive the Blessed Sacrament well, and that is what you will do by preaching. Preaching is, then, a very important thing.

2. The principal object of the Sermon
One of the chief manifestations of the presence of the Holy Ghost in a soul is his preaching. When the Holy Ghost enlightens a soul about the work of Our Lord and His Passion, at the same time He imparts. The Acts of the Apostles relate that, after St Peter’s discourse before the Sanhedrin, the Christians gathered together, and they prayed. And “when they had prayed, the place was moved wherein they were assembled; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with confidence” (4:31). At a time when no one believes any longer in Our Lord Jesus Christ, when no pone believes any longer in the power of the Holy Ghost, nor in the supernatural gifts and the virtues, we must show in our words, our preaching, and our whole life, this presence of the Spirit.

“And with great power did the apostles give testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ Our Lord; and great grace was in them all” (Acts 4:33). It is a remarkable fact that the object of the Apostles’ and St. Paul’s’ preaching is the person of Jesus. St Paul has some magnificent expressions on this subject: “I preach Jesus and Jesus crucified” (I.Cor.2:2)… we must preach Our Lord. A special grace of illumination is given to the faithful concerning all the events of Our Lord’s life, and particularly, of course, concerning His crucifixion and resurrection.

A sermon in which Jesus Christ does not figure is useless; either the aim or the means in missing. “For we preach not ourselves” says St Paul, “but Jesus Christ Our Lord” (II Cor. 4:5). Jesus Christ must always enter into our sermons because everything relates to Him. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Consequently, to ask the faithful to become more perfect or to convert without speaking of Our Lord is to deceive them; it is to fail to show them the way by which they can succeed. “But we preach Jesus crucified” (I Cor. 1:23).

Ardent preaching is mediated by the holy sacrifice of the Mass, that is to say, by the cross and by the most Blessed Virgin Mary. Jesus and Mary are the great sources of grace: Jesus by Mary. Jesus in the holy Sacrament of the Mass represents all the Sacraments, all the sources of salvation; and Mary communicates them.

To be continued
From The Mass of All Time Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre Angelus Pres 2007.

the 1984 code of Canon Law

2011-03-09T18:04:00.006+01:00

I want to speak to you of a very serious novelty: the New Code of Canon Law. I had not seen any necessity for a change. But if the law changes, the law changes, and we must make use of it, for the Church can ask nothing evil from her faithful.

However, when one reads this new code of Canon Law one discovers an entirely new conception of the Church. It is easy to be aware of, since John Paul II himself describes it in the apostolic constitution which introduces the new Code. ". . . It follows that which constitutes the fundamental novelty of Vatican Council II, in full continuity with the legislative tradition of the Church (this is to deceive), especially in that which concerns ecclesiology, constitutes also the novelty of the new Code." Hence the novelty of the conception of the Church according to the Council is equally the novelty of the conception of the new Code of Canon Law.

What is this novelty? It is that there is no longer any difference between the clergy and the laity. There is now just the faithful, nothing else, on account of the "doctrine according to which all the members of the people of God, according to the mode which is proper to each, partake in the triple priestly, prophetic and royal function of Jesus Christ. To this doctrine is likewise attached that which concerns the duties and rights of the faithful and particularly the laity, and finally the Church's involvement in ecumenism!"

This is the definition of the Church (Canon 204): "The faithful are those who, inasmuch as they are incorporated in Christ by baptism are constituted as the people of God, and who for this reason, having been made partakers in their manner in the priestly, prophetic and royal functions of Christ, are called to exercise the mission that God entrusted to the Church to accomplish in the world:" We are all faithful, members of the people of God, and we all therefore have ministries! It is clearly said in the Code: all the faithful have ministries. They therefore all have the responsibility to teach, to sanctify and even to direct.

Let us continue our commentary on this Canon 204: "…having been made partakers in their manner in the priestly, prophetic and royal function of Christ, they are called to exercise the mission which God entrusted to the Church to accomplish in the world, according to the juridical condition proper to each one." Hence everyone without exception, without distinction between clergy and laity, inasmuch as they are the people of God, has the responsibility of this mission entrusted by Jesus Christ properly to the Church. There is no longer any clergy. What, then, happens to the clergy?

It is as if they said that it is no longer parents who have the responsibility to give life to children but the family, or rather all the members of the family: parents and children. This is exactly the same thing as saying today that Bishops, priests and laymen have all responsibility for the mission of the Church. But who gives the graces to become a Catholic? How does one become faithful? No one knows any more who has the responsibility for what. It is consequently easy to understand that this is the ruin of the priesthood and the laicization of the Church. Everything is oriented towards the laymen, and little by little the sacred ministers disappear. The minor orders and the subdiaconate have already disappeared. Now there are married deacons, and little by little laymen take over the ministry of the priests. This is precisely what Luther and the protestants did, laicizing the priesthood. It is consequently very serious.

This is quite openly explained in an article in the Osservatore Romano of March 17, 1984: "The role of the laity in the new Code." "The active function that the laity has been called on to exercise since Vatican II by participating in the condition and mission of the entire Church according to their particular vocation is a doctrine which, in the context of the appearance of the concept of the people of God has brought about a reevaluation of the laity, as much in the foundation of the Church as for the active role they are called on to develop in the building up of the Church."

Such is the inspiration of the whole new Code of Canon Law. It is this definition of the Church which is the poison which infects the new laws. The same can be said for the Liturgy. There is a relationship between this new Code of Canon Law and the entire liturgical reform, as Bugnini said in his book The Fundamental Principles of the Changing of the Liturgy. "The path opened by the Council is destined to change radically the traditional liturgical assembly in which, according to a custom dating back many centuries, the liturgical service is almost exclusively accomplished by the clergy. The people assist, but too much as a stranger and a dumb spectator." What? How can one dare say that the faithful are present at the sacrifice of the Mass as simply dumb spectators so as to change the Liturgy? How must the faithful be active in the sacrifice of the Mass? By the body or spiritually? Obviously spiritually. One can draw a great spiritual profit from assisting at Mass in silence. It is, in effect, a mystery of our Faith. How many have become saints in this silence of the true Mass!

"A long education will be necessary for the Liturgy to become an action of all the people of God." Without a doubt. Then he adds that he is speaking of "a substantial unity but not a uniformity. You must realize that this is a true break with the past." This past is the twenty centuries of prayer of the Church.
Bugnini was the key man in the liturgical reform. I went to see Cardinal Cicognani when this reform was published and I said to him: "Your Eminence, I am not in agreement with this change. The Mass no longer has its mystical and divine character." He replied: "Excellency, it is like that. Bugnini can enter as he likes into the Pope's office to make him sign what he wants." This is what happened to the Secretariat of State. This is how all these changes happened. They agreed on it beforehand, and then obtained signatures for some changes, and then others, and then others.

I said to Cardinal Gut: "Your Eminence, you are responsible for Divine Worship, and you accord permission for the Blessed Sacrament to be received in the hand! They will know that this was published with the agreement of the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship!" He replied: "Excellency, I do not even know if I will be asked for it to be done. You know, it is not I who command. The boss is Bugnini. If the Pope asks me what I think of Communion in the hand, I will cast myself on my knees before him to ask him not to do it." You see, then, how things happened at Rome: a simple signature on the bottom of a decree and the Church is ruined by numerous sacrileges ... The real presence of Our Lord is ruined, for it is no longer respected. Then, nothing sacred remains, as was seen at the large reunion at which the Pope was present, where the Blessed Sacrament was passed around from hand to hand between thousands of persons. Nobody genuflects anymore before the Blessed Sacrament. How can they still believe that God is present there?

It is this same spirit which inspired the changing of the canon Law as that which inspired the changes in the Liturgy: it is the people of God, the assembly, which does everything. The same applies to the priest. He is a simple president who has a ministry, as others have a ministry, in the midst of an assembly. Our orientation towards God has likewise disappeared. This comes from the protestants who say that eucharistic devotion (for them there is neither Mass nor sacrifice: this would be blasphemy) is simply a movement of God towards man, but not of man towards God to render Him glory, which is nevertheless the first (latreutic) end of the Liturgy. This new state of liturgical mind comes likewise from Vatican II: everything is for man. The bishops and priest are at the service of man and the assembly. But where is God then? In what is His glory sought? What will we do in heaven? For in heaven "all is for the glory of God," which is exactly what we ought to do here on earth. But all that is done away with, and replaced by man. This is truly the ruin of all Catholic thought.

You know that the new Code of Canon Law permits a priest to give Communion to a protestant. It is what they call eucharistic hospitality. These are protestants who remain protestant and do not convert. This is directly opposed to the Faith. For the Sacrament of the Eucharist is precisely the sacrament of the unity of the Faith. To give Communion to a protestant is to rupture the Faith and its unity. '

March 24, 1984 - Conference given in Turin, Italy

Translated from The official bulletin of the French District of the Society of Saint Pius X, February 5, 1992

The three Great Gifts of God

2010-12-24T13:28:00.004+01:00

...Is it not true that we today are in a certain sense in captivity, restraint surrounding us on all sides, imposed on us by those who bow to error both in the world and inside the Church itself? By those who juggle with the truth and who keep truth hidden instead of proclaiming it; We are in a world enslaved by the Devil, enslaved by error.
But it is our wish to hold to truth. We want to con¬tinue to proclaim it. What then, is this truth? Do we have a monopoly on it? Are we so presumptuous as to say we have the truth, others do not? No, truth does not belong to us. It does not come from us, it was not invented by us. This truth was transmitted to us, it was given us. It is written. It is living in the Church and in the whole history of the Church. This truth is known. It is in the books, in the catechisms, in all the acts of the councils, in all the acts of the sovereign pontiffs. It is in our Creed, in our Ten Commandments, in the gifts that God has made to us, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments. It is not we who invented this truth. We have only to persevere in it.
Because truth has an eternal character. The truth we profess is God, Our Lord Jesus Christ who is God and God does not change. God remains immutable. It was St. Paul who said, vicissitudinis obumbratio. There is not a shadow of vicissitude in Him, not the shadow of changeability. God is unalterable, semper idem, always the same. Certainly He is the source of every¬thing that changes but He, Himself, is unalterable, unchangeable. And by the fact that we profess God as truth we will enter in some way into eternity through truth. We have no right to change that truth. Indeed it cannot be changed. It will never change.
Men have been put on earth to receive a little of that light of eternity as it descends on them. They become in some way eternal, they too, immortal, according to the extent to which they attached themselves to the things that change, to moving things, they move away from God. And here it is that we feel a need. All men feel this need. They have in them an immortal soul which is al¬ready now in eternity, a soul which will be happy or unhappy, but it is a soul that exists. It will not die.
Every man who is born, who has a soul has entered into eternity. That is why we have need of eternal things, of the true eternity which is God. We cannot do without it. It is part of our lives. It is what is most es¬sential to us. That is why men seek the truth, seek the eternal, because they have an essential need of eternity.
And what are the means by which Our Lord has given us eternity, communicated it to us, made eternity enter into our lives even here below? Often when I was going through the African countries on my diocesan visits I chose a them that was dear to me and very simple, too. You have heard it many times but for the simple people I spoke to it summed up the truth. Ask¬ing what are the gifts the Good God has given us which make us participants of the divine life, life eternal, I would answer: there are three great gifts which God has made us and they are the Pope, the Blessed Virgin and the Eucharistic Sacrifice.

THE PAPACY
In reality it is an extraordinary gift that God has made us in giving us the Pope, in giving us the suc¬cessors of Peter, giving us precisely this perpetuity in truth communicated to us through the successors of Peter, that must be communicated to us through them. And it seems inconceivable that a successor of Peter could fail in any way to transmit the truth that he is obliged to transmit. Indeed, without virtually disappearing from the line of succession he cannot fail to communicate that which the popes have always communicated, the Deposit of Faith which does not belong to him alone.
The Deposit of Faith does not belong to the Pope. It is the treasure of truth which has been taught during twenty centuries. He must transmit it faithfully and exactly to all those under him who are charged in turn to communicate the truth of the Gospel. He is not free.
But should it happen because of mysterious circum¬stances which we cannot understand, which baffle our imagination, which go beyond our conception, if it should happen that a pope, he who is seated on the throne of Peter, comes to obscure in some way the truth which it is his duty to transmit or if he does not transmit it faithfully or allows error to darken truth or hide it in any way, then we must pray to God with all our hearts, with all our soul, that light continues to be thrown on that which he is charged to transmit.
NEVER CAN THE TRINITY BE CHANGED.
NEVER CAN THE REDEMPTIVE WORK OF CHRIST THROUGH THE CROSS AND THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS BE CHANGED!
THESE THINGS ARE ETERNAL.
THEY BELONG TO GOD.
And we cannot follow error, change truth, just be¬cause the one who is charged with transmitting it is weak and allows error to spread around him. We don’t want the darkness to encroach on us. We want to live in the light of truth. We remain faithful to that which has been taught for two thousand years. That what has been taught for 2,000 years and which is part of eter¬nity could change is inconceivable.
Because it is eternity which has been taught to us. It is the eternal God, Jesus Christ eternal God, and everything which is centered on God is centered on eternity. Never can the Trinity be changed. Never can the redemptive work of Christ through the Cross and the Sacrifice of the Mass be changed. These things are eternal. They belong to God. How can someone here below change those things? Who is the priest who feels he has the right to change those things, to modify them? Impossible!
When we possess the past we possess the present and we possess the future. Because it is impossible, I say metaphysically impossible, to separate the past from the present and future. Impossible! Then God would no longer be God! God would no longer be eternal! God would no longer be immutable. And there would be nothing more to believe in. We would be completely in error.
This is why, without worrying about all that is happening around us in these times we ought to close our eyes to the horror of this drama we are living through, close our eyes and affirm our Creed, our Ten Commandments, meditate on the Sermon on the Mount which is also our law. We must attach ourselves to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to the Sacraments awaiting the light that will shine around us again. That is all. We must do this without becoming bitter or vio¬lent in a spirit that is unfaithful to Our Lord. Let us stay charitable. Let us pray, suffer, accept all the trials, everything that happens, everything that God sends us. Let us do as Tobias did. Abandoned by everyone as they went to adore the golden calf of the gods of the pagans, he remained faithful. Still, he too could have thought that, since only he remained faithful it might be that he was mistaken. But no, he knew that whatever God had taught to his forebears could not change. The truth of God existed and could not change. And so it is with us. We too have to rely upon the truth that is God yesterday, today and tomorrow. Jesus Christus heri, hodie et in secula.
And that is why I say we must retain our confi¬dence in the papacy. We must retain confidence in the successor of Peter in so far as he is the successor of Peter. But if it should happen that he were not perfectly faithful in his duties, then we must remain faithful to those who were the successors of Peter and not to him who is not the successor of Peter. That is all. His duty is to transmit the Deposit of the Faith.

THE BLESSED VIRGIN
The second gift is that of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She has never changed. Is it possible to imagine that the Blessed Virgin Mary could change in her atti¬tude to the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, her divine Son, toward the Sacrifice of the Cross, toward the work of redemption? Is it possible to imagine that the Blessed Virgin Mary could change one iota of her faith, that she could have had doubts at some period of her life, that she could have thought herself mistaken? That she could have doubted the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, doubted the Blessed Trinity, she who was filled with the Holy Ghost? Impossible! Inconceivable!
Here below she was already in eternity. The Blessed Virgin Mary, through her faith, an unchangeable, pro¬found faith, could not be disturbed in any way. That is evident. Do not let us be disturbed by the noises around us but keep faithful, faithful like the Blessed Virgin Mary. And I want to add to this subject of the Blessed Virgin Mary something which seems to me to be impor¬tant for us at this time in which we live. Continuously we are told the Virgin says this or says that. The Virgin has appeared here, the Virgin has communicated this message to that person. Of course, we do not rule out the possibility that a word of the Blessed Virgin could be addressed to persons of her choice. That is evident. But considering the kind of period we are living through we must be suspicious. We must mistrust.
SHE IS PRESENT AT EVERY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS.
SHE CANNOT SEPARATE HERSELF FROM THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
OUR DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN OUGHT TO BE PROFOUND, PERFECT.
The place of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the theology of the Church is, in my estimation, infinitely sufficient to make us love her above everyone after Our Lord Jesus Christ and that we should have toward her a de¬votion which is profound and continuous day after day. It is not necessary that we have constant recourse to messages about which we cannot be absolutely certain whether they come from the Blessed Virgin or not. I am not speaking of the apparitions which have been recognized by the Church. But we must be very careful when it comes to rumors that circulate everywhere to¬day. All the time I am receiving people or communi¬cations which are said to be addressed to me from the Blessed Virgin or from Our Lord a message to be ad¬dressed to me from the Blessed Virgin or from Our Lord a message received here, another there. Whereas in fact we should hope the Blessed Virgin is with us every day.
And she is. We know that. She is with us. She is present at every Sacrifice of the Mass. She cannot sepa¬rate herself from the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our devotion to the Blessed Virgin ought to be pro¬found, perfect. But it ought not have to depend on private messages.

THE EUCHARISTIC SACRIFICE

GOD, Jesus Christ, has given us Himself in the Eucharist. What more beautiful thing could He do? I often say to the seminarians: if the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X has a particular spirituality¬ - and I do not really want it to have one although I do not criticize the founders of Orders like St. Ignatius, Sts. Dominic and Vincent de Paul whom I know wanted to give particular characters to their societies, characters without doubt willed by Providence at the moment they were founded I think that if there is a particular mark to our Society it is devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
How our spirits, our hearts, our bodies are as if captivated by the great mystery of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! And it is in proportion to how we deepen our understanding of the great mystery of the Sacrifice of the Mass that we understand the priesthood, the gran¬deur of the priesthood. Because it is intimately, I say metaphysically, bound up with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. And this is of the greatest importance in these times.
We have need of this, my dear friends. You have need of being captured by this spirituality of the Mass. Not only the priests but also our religious, our brothers, our nuns, and all of the laity, all of you faithful here present. We must have for the Sacrifice of the Mass a devotion greater than ever before because it is the very foundation stone of our faith.
THE SEMINARY REMAINS A CATHOLIC SEMINARY. AND IF GOD GIVES ME LIFE THE SEMINARY WILL NOT CHANGE!
I WOULD DIE RATHER THAN CHANGE ANY PART OF THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE WHICH MUST BE TAUGHT IN THE SEMINARY.
I hardly dare cite for you an example, something that happened in Chile during the three days I spent there. Still, because the idea occurs to me, I will indeed tell you if only to show the point of degradation the concept of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has reached in the minds of some of the highest members of the hier¬archy. During my stay in Chile a concelebration was televised. It was presided over by the Auxiliary Bishop of Santiago. I myself did not see the screening but it was described to me by many people who saw it. There were some 15 or 20 priests concelebrating with him. During the ceremony the Auxiliary Bishop explained to the faithful, that is, everyone who was looking at the television, that this was a meal and he saw no reason why one should not smoke during a meal. And he him¬self smoked during that concelebration!
That is how far things have reached! This is the sad state of degradation, of sacrilege a bishop can attain. It is unheard of, inconceivable! Penance must be done for years in reparation for such offenses, for such unimagi¬nable scandal! It serves to show how far one can go when one no longer believes.
We must be attached to the Sacrifice of the Mass as to the apple of our eye; as we are attached to that which is dearest to us, that which is the most respected, the most holy, the most sacred, the most divine. That is the meaning of this Seminary.
They may criticize the Seminary in any way they like. And they do. The Seminary is this way, that way. They have decided this about it, that about it. But in fact they decide nothing, change nothing. The Seminary stays as it is. It continues to be what it is be¬cause that was why it was founded. The Seminary re¬mains a Catholic seminary. And if God gives me life the Seminary will not change. I would die rather than change any part of the Catholic doctrine which must be taught in the Seminary. With the grace of God, come what may, we will not change. So let them say what they will. Let them say that the Seminary has a new di¬rection, the Seminary is this way or that. It is the Devil who says such things in order to destroy the Seminary. Obviously he cannot tolerate Catholic priests who have the faith.
And then, one cannot avoid speaking about it, all around us here and there in every country but particu¬larly in France, there are divisions among those who are trying to hold to the faith, a mixture of calumny, slan¬der, exaggerated words, foolish expressions, unjustified suppositions. Let us ignore it all. Let us instead work well, doing the will of God according to the teachings of the Catholic Church, continuing like our prede¬cessors and our ancestors, doing what the Council of Trent asked of us, bishops, who must continue the formation which has always been given to priests. If we do this we will be certain we are remaining faithful.
That is enough. Let us remain calm. Let us remain faithful. And if it should ever come to be that the faith is not taught here, then leave me. If, my dear semi¬narians, I do not teach you Catholic truth, then leave! Do not stay here. That is your duty. But if I teach the Catholic Faith and you have the whole library at your disposal to find out whether or not what was handed to us is being handed down to you then, be confident. And we will do everything so that the Catholic Faith continues to be taught here, taught in its entirety so that you can, you too, carry on that truth that is so full of grace and life. Truth is the source of life. We have need of that life. The faithful are hungry for it. Why is it we have requests for priests from all sides? Because the faithful are thirsty for truth, thirsty for the grace of God, for the supernatural life, thirsty for that eternity toward which we are heading.
Therefore, have confidence in doing what the Church has always done - not confidence in Msgr. Lefebvre. I am a poor man like the others. I have no pretention to be better than others. On the contrary, I do not know why God has permitted me to have 30 years in the episcopate. I think that if I were to judge things on the human plane I would have pre¬ferred to remain a missionary in the jungles of Gabon; in isolation I would not have had all the problems I have had in my 30 years in the episcopate. But God has wanted it this way. He continues to try us. Very well, if that is His will so it must be and we must con¬tinue to carry the cross. It is not because He imposes crosses that we may abandon Him. On the contrary, we may not abandon Our Lord. We must follow Him.
And so, my dear friends, be faithful faithful to the Pope, successor of Peter when he shows himself to be truly the successor of Peter. Because that is what a pope is and it is in this sense we have need of him. We are not the people who want to break with the author¬ity of the Church, with the successor of Peter. But neither are we people who want to break with twenty centuries of tradition in the Church, with twenty cen¬turies of successors of Peter!
We have made our choice. We have chosen to be obedient in the real sense, obedient to what all the Popes have taught for 20 centuries and we cannot imagine that he who sits on Peter’s throne does not want to teach these things. Well, if that is the case then God will judge him. But we cannot go into error because there is a kind of rupture in the chain of the successors of Peter. We want to remain faithful to the successors of Peter who transmitted to us the Deposit of the Faith. It is in this sense that we are faithful to the Catholic Church, that we remain within it and can never go into schism. Since we are attached to twenty centuries of Faith we cannot make a schism. That is what guaran¬tees for us the past, the present and the future. It is impossible to separate the past from the present and the future. Sustaining ourselves with the past we are sure of the present and the future.
So have confidence! Ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to help us under all circumstances. She is as strong as an army arrayed for battle. She who suffered as Queen of Martyrs at the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And will we not follow Our Blessed Mother and with her be ready to suffer martyrdom so that the work of redemption can continue?

September 18 1978

Extracts from the 1980 Ordination Sermon at Econe continued

2010-11-09T09:53:00.007+01:00

...It is not a question of changing, of going either to the right or to the left; we wish to remain the Church and we wish to remain what we have always been since the beginning of the Society, because we have no other motive than to keep the Church going; and thus we have always thought that one day, when God wills it, when He decides, then we will go back into the official Church, since they have put us out of an official Church which is not the real Church, an official Church which has been infested with Modernism ; and so we believed in the duty of disobedience, if indeed it was disobedience! To obey, but to obey the immemorial Church, to obey all the Popes, to obey the whole Catholic Church. So we thought it our duty to disobey those cardinals who asked us to adopt, in part, Modernist errors, because we did not want to poison our souls and our hearts with the errors which have been condemned by our holy patron, Saint Pius X, and we remain faithful to the anti-Modernist Oath—the oath which Saint Pius X requires us to take. We remain faithful to that. They will receive us with the oath in our hands, or we will remain what we are. And we are convinced, we hope, we pray for this, and perhaps, my dear brethren, things will soon work out. This goal which seems impossible—to be taken as we are, with what we are doing, with what we are accomplishing, with our Faith—this seems almost impossible. But God can do the impossible, and we are more hopeful than ever, we are perhaps closer than ever to being recognized officially in Holy Church, as the Society of Saint Pius X, with all that we are, all that we think, all that we believe, all that we do.

And so, by the same token, all those who, like us, have defended the same Faith, the same Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the same sacraments, will come with us, will be accepted by us. There is no doubt about it. So we must pray today, in a very special way, for this intention, because you can imagine what we would be, how many we would be here, if we were not persecuted by certain members of the Church. Not five or six thousand, but twenty thousand, fifty thousand would profit by the graces that God gives us, that the Church gives to us, whereas now they are dying of Christ, perishing, losing the Faith, abandoned. We must think of all these souls and hope these unjust persecutions against us may cease.

... What a joy! Nothing is more beautiful than the priest distributing Holy Communion, nothing is greater, more sublime, nothing richer in virtues, in gifts, in graces. The faithful expect this from you.

I CLOSE, MY DEAR FRIENDS, with a few words to you who are about to be ordained priests, and to you I say, "Keep your faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ." Everything depends on Our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing exists without Our Lord Jesus Christ, nothing in the material world, nothing in the supernatural world. Without Jesus there is nothing. Jesus is the Creator of all things, Jesus is the Redeemer of all souls. Without Him, there is no hope. Without Him, there is no being, no possible existence. So what is Our Lord Jesus Christ? What are the essentials that you have studied in your theology? Jesus Christ is Savior; Jesus Christ is Priest; Jesus Christ is King. These are the three essential attributes of Our Lord Jesus Christ by the very fact of His hypostatic union, i.e., His union with God Himself in One Person.

So these three attributes: Savior-Redeemer, Priest and King, where are they made concrete? Where do we live them? Where do we grasp them? In Holy Mass. In Holy Mass, Our Lord Jesus Christ is Redeemer. Who can deny that? The sacrifice of the Cross is His Redemption, the Redemption of Our Lord. Thus in offering your Holy Sacrifice of the Mass you contribute to the Redemption of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Redemption which Our Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished.

Priest. But where is He more priest than in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? He is the Priest, you are only His ministers, you act only in the person of Christ, Who is the true Priest; thus your Sacrifice of the Mass is still Our Lord Jesus Christ in one of His essential attributes. And finally, King. "God reigned from the Cross." Our Lord reigned from the wood of the Cross; that is His throne, that is His crown. There He has conquered the world, and there He has a right to His Kingship. So it is also in he Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that His Kingship shines forth irresistibly; we must all submit to Him and revere, adore and thank Him as King.
And so—Redeemer, Priest and King—this is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; all the days of your lives you will discover Our Lord in His essential attributes, and you will share in them.

Poor creatures that we are! To share in the essential attributes of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to share in His Redemption, to share in His priesthood, to share in His kingship—what a responsibility! What a responsibility to all His faithful people! What a profound joy for you! With what humility and what joy you should perform the sacred mysteries! You should also bring your people to share in these attributes of Our Lord, by Holy Communion, by giving Jesus Christ Himself in the Eucharist. What a joy! Nothing is more beautiful than the priest distributing Holy Communion, nothing is greater, more sublime, nothing richer in virtues, in gifts, in graces. The faithful expect this of you.

Therefore, be faithful, my dear friends, be faithful to all you have been taught here at Ecône. It is only the echo of what the Church has always taught. Remain close to your seminary, remain close to what has made you a priest, remain close to the Society of Saint Pius X ;in this way you will be truly priests and through you Holy Church will go on, while waiting for your reward from the hands of your Mother in heaven, the Mother of the Priesthood, who has been by your side, here at Ecône, every day.

Oh, how touched we are, every evening, when we see you kneeling before the Blessed Virgin Mary before taking your rest; you say some prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary, commending yourselves to her, asking her to sustain you, asking her to help you to become holy priests. And now, here you are ready to be sent out, ready to go, as Our Lord said, "Go forth, preach the Gospel." That is what you will do, and all our prayers today will go with you, the prayer of your parents, your friends, and all those who love you and who are united with you here below and in heaven.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Apologia pro Marcel- Lefebve part III Michael Davies

Pope St Pius X - pray for us

2010-08-30T11:26:00.013+02:00

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For the seminarians of SSPX
Program of the year of spirituality

….Without this spiritual training, as Archbishop Lefebvre explained, “we would risk making the seminary a place for purely intellectual studies. We would train heads but not always hearts…hearts which are made to grow in sanctity and to live an interior life of intense union with Our Lord”.

A Special course the acts of the Magisterium

…Archbishop Lefebvre himself taught this subject as he explained:

The aim of this course is not so much to make a logical study of such errors, but rather to go over the encyclicals themselves and especially those in which the Popes have given an in-depth study of the truths opposed to these errors, or a detailed analysis of the errors themselves. On can only admire the zeal and faith of these watchful guardians of the deposit of the Faith, and it is all the more stupefying to note that this relentless fight was suddenly abandoned through a false ecumenism amounting to a betrayal of the truth, in favour of making pacts with the authors of these errors and the inheritors of their ideas.

The course is introduced through St. Pius X’s papal agenda: “To restore all things in Christ” (E Supremi Apostolatus) 1903 the first year of the pontificate of Pius X.

the desk, and relics of Pope St. Pius X - Dominican Convent, Stone, Staffordshire.

When all this is considered there is good reason to fear lest this great perversity may be as it were a foretaste, and perhaps the beginning of those evils which are reserved for the last days; and that there may be already in the world the "Son of Perdition" of whom the Apostle speaks (II. Thess. ii., 3). Such, in truth, is the audacity and the wrath employed everywhere in persecuting religion, in combating the dogmas of the faith, in brazen effort to uproot and destroy all relations between man and the Divinity! While, on the other hand, and this according to the same apostle is the distinguishing mark of Antichrist, man has with infinite temerity put himself in the place of God, raising himself above all that is called God; in such wise that although he cannot utterly extinguish in himself all knowledge of God, he has contemned God's majesty and, as it were, made of the universe a temple wherein he himself is to be adored. "He sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself as if he were God" (II. Thess. ii., 2).

…6. Verily no one of sound mind can doubt the issue of this contest between man and the Most High. Man, abusing his liberty, can violate the right and the majesty of the Creator of the Universe; but the victory will ever be with God - nay, defeat is at hand at the moment when man, under the delusion of his triumph, rises up with most audacity. Of this we are assured in the holy books by God Himself. Unmindful, as it were, of His strength and greatness, He "overlooks the sins of men" (Wisd. xi., 24), but swiftly, after these apparent retreats, "awaked like a mighty man that hath been surfeited with wine" (Ps. 1xxvii., 65), "He shall break the heads of his enemies" (Ps. 1xxvii., 22), that all may know "that God is the king of all the earth" (Ib. 1xvi, 8), "that the Gentiles may know themselves to be men"(Ib. ix., 20).

…This being so, Venerable Brethren, of what nature and magnitude is the care that must be taken by you in forming the clergy to holiness! All other tasks must yield to this one. Wherefore the chief part of your diligence will be directed to governing and ordering your seminaries aright so that they may flourish equally in the soundness of their teaching and in the spotlessness of their morals. Regard your seminary as the delight of your hearts, and neglect on its behalf none of those provisions which the Council of Trent has with admirable forethought prescribed. And when the time comes for promoting the youthful candidates to holy orders, ah! do not forget what Paul wrote to Timothy: "Impose not hands lightly upon any man" (I. Tim. v., 22), bearing carefully in mind that as a general rule the faithful will be such as are those whom you call to the priesthood. Do not then pay heed to private interests of any kind, but have at heart only God and the Church and the eternal welfare of souls so that, as the Apostle admonishes, "you may not be partakers of the sins of others" (Ibid.). Then again be not lacking in solicitude for young priests who have just left the seminary. From the bottom of Our heart, We urge you to bring them often close to your breast, which should burn with celestial fire - kindle them, inflame them, so that they may aspire solely after God and the salvation of souls. Rest assured, Venerable Brethren, that We on Our side will use the greatest diligence to prevent the members of the clergy from being drawn to the snares of a certain new and fallacious science, which savoureth not of Christ, but with masked and cunning arguments strives to open the door to the errors of rationalism and semi-rationalism; against which the Apostle warned Timothy to be on his guard, when he wrote: "Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane novelties of words, and oppositions of knowledge falsely so called which some promising have erred concerning the faith" (I. Tim. vi., 20 s.). This does not prevent Us from esteeming worthy of praise those young priests who dedicated themselves to useful studies in every branch of learning the better to prepare themselves to defend the truth and to refute the calumnies of the enemies of the faith. Yet We cannot conceal, nay, We proclaim in the most open manner possible that Our preference is, and ever will be, for those who, while cultivating ecclesiastical and literary erudition, dedicate themselves more closely to the welfare of souls through the exercise of those ministries proper to a priest jealous of the divine glory. "It is a great grief and a continual sorrow to our heart" (Rom. ix., 2) to find Jeremiah's lamentation applicable to our times: "The little ones asked for bread, and there was none to break it to them" (Lam. iv., 4). For there are not lacking among the clergy those who adapt themselves according to their bent to works of more apparent than real solidity - but not so numerous perhaps are those who, after the example of Christ, take to themselves the words of the Prophet: "The Spirit of the Lord hath anointed me, hath sent me to evangelize the poor, to heal the contrite of heart, to announce freedom to the captive, and sight to the blind" (Luke iv., 18-19)

From Biography of Marcel Lefebvre by Bernard Tissier de Mallerais and the papal encyclical referred to.

Extracts from the 1980 Ordination Sermon at Econe

2010-07-23T13:33:00.002+02:00
...

…What graces, my dear friends, above all the grace to have kept the treasures and the gifts which Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave to His Church, because that is the Society of St Pius X; it is nothing else – to keep us, to receive us, to do us good and to sanctify us by the gifts which Our Lord Jesus Christ put into the hands of His Apostles, which His Apostles bequeathed to Holy Church, and which the Church has always given to us.

But today when we consider the general condition of the churches, i.e. the parishes, the seminaries, the religious orders, then these gifts take on a value infinitely greater, because we could have been in that utterly baffling situation, thrown into total confusion . We could have found ourselves in that situation. Why has God chosen us? Why has God given us the grace to keep the Church going, and to preserve all these treasures of the Church? The treasure of faith, the treasure of grace, the treasure of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the treasure of the sacraments, treasures incomparable.

…And if we should thank God for the graces which have been given to the Society, I think we should also thank God for the graces given by the Society. I cannot help thinking of all the houses, scattered across the world, forty or more houses of our priests, and besides these, many places of worship which have been opened and which are served by our Fathers every Sunday.

… And all the children, all the schools that we have, by the grace of God, been able to open or to develop, so many children preserved from the contamination of the world, and who have kept the Faith. And all those families who gather in the thousands upon thousands around our churches, where the sanctuary lamp shines- small but always well kept, decorated with flowers, well arranged little churches worthy of the Holy Mysteries which are celebrated, where everything is beautiful, even in poverty, by the care of the priest who faithfully preserves the ceremonies of the church and who sees to it that his chapel is beautiful, beautiful for Our Lord Jesus Christ, beautiful for the holy angels who dwell there, beautiful for the Blessed Virgin Mary. The faithful who come into these chapels, into these churches, are consoled, strengthened, and feel the grace of God, the grace of the Holy Ghost; and they go home refreshed, reassured that they have received into themselves the life of Our lord Jesus Christ, by Holy Communion the Eucharist and thus the Church goes on.

To be continued.

Apologia pro Marcel- Lefebve part III Michael Davies

A Holy Prelate meets Pope Paul VI part 3

2010-06-17T10:19:00.006+02:00
.....

…”You need say only one word to the bishops: receive fraternally, with understanding and charity, all those groups of traditionalists, all those who wish to keep the prayer of former days, the sacraments as before, the catechism as before, receive them, give them places of worship, settle with them, so that they can pray and remain in relation with you, in intimate relation with their bishops. You need say only one word to the bishops and everything will return to order and at that moment we shall have no more problems. Things will return to order. As for the seminary, I myself shall have no difficulty in going to the bishops and asking them to implant my priests in their dioceses: things will be done normally. I myself am very willing to renew relations with a commission you could name from the Congregation of Religious to come to the Seminary. But clearly we shall keep and wish to continue the practice of Tradition. We should be allowed to maintain that practice. But I want to return to normal and official relations with the Holy See and with the Congregations. Beyond that I want nothing”.

He then said to me “I Must reflect, I must pray, I must consult the Consistory, I must consult the Curia. I cannot give you an answer. We shall see.” After that he said to me “We will pray together” I said “Most willingly, Holy Father”. We then said the Pater Noster, Veni Creator, and an Ave Maria, and he then led me back very pleasantly, but with difficulty – his walk was painful, and he dragged his legs a little. In the room to the side he waited until Don Domenico came for me; and he had a small medal given to Don Domenico. We then left….

…The Holy Father had said in the course of the conversation: “Well at least we have a point in common: we both want to stop all these abuses that exist at present in the Church, so as to give back to the Church Her true countenance, etc…” I answered “Yes absolutely”

…”I do not know Holy Father if you know that there are twenty three official Eucharistic prayers in France”. He raised his arms to heaven and said “Many more, Monsignor, many more!” So then I said to him: “But, if there are many more, if even so, you add another, I do not see how that can harm the Church. Is it a mortal sin to keep up Tradition and do what the Church has always done?”

…Yes but the whole problem is there. In so far as the new Church separates itself from the old Church we cannot follow it. That is the position, and that is why we maintain Tradition, we keep firmly to Tradition; and I am sure we are being of immense service to the Church. I should say that the Econe Seminary is basic to the battle we are waging. It is the Church’s battle, and it is with that idea we should position ourselves.

“You are against me” said the Holy Father. “I am not against you, I am against what separates us from Tradition; I am against what draws us towards Protestantism, towards Modernism.”

Apologia Marcel lefbvre part one Michael Davies

A Holy prelate meets Pope Paul VI part 2

2010-05-30T09:29:00.004+02:00
.......

…On the one side we desire to submit to you entirely, to follow you in everything, to have no reserve about your person, and on the other side we are aware that the lines taken by the Holy See since the Council, and the whole new orientation, turn us away from our predecessors. What then are we to do? we find ourselves obliged either to attach ourselves to your predecessors or to attach ourselves to your person and separate ourselves from our predecessors. For Catholics to be torn like that is unheard of, unbelievable. And it is not I that have provoked that, it is not a movement made by me, it is a feeling that comes from the hearts of the faithful, millions of the faithful whom I do not know. I have no idea how many there are. They are all over the world, everywhere. Everybody is uneasy about this upset that has happened in the Church in the last ten years, about the ruins accumulating in the Church. Here are examples; there is a basic attitude in people, an interior attitude which makes them now unchangeable. They will not change because they have chosen; they have made their choice for Tradition and for those who maintain Tradition.

…As for me, I am in the same case. I try to make priests, good priests as they were made formerly, there are many vocations, the young men are admired by the people who see them in trains, on the underground; they are greeted, admired congratulated on their dress and bearing; and I am suspended a divinis! And the Bishops who have no more seminarians, no young priests, nothing, and whose seminaries no longer make good priests – nothing is said to them! You understand, the poor average Christian sees it clearly. He has chosen and he will not budge. He has reached his limit. It is impossible.

“That is not true. You do not train good priests.” He said to me “because you make them take an oath against the Pope” “What” I answered “An oath against the Pope? I who on the contrary, try to give them respect for the Pope, respect for the successor of Peter! On the contrary, we pray for the Holy Father, and you will never be able to show me this oath which they take against the Pope. Can you give me a copy of it?”

…Then the Holy Father said to me further “It is true is it not, that you condemn me?”
I had the strong impression that it all came back rather to his person, that he was personally hurt: “You condemn me, so what ought I to do? Must I hand in my resignation and let you take my place?” “Oh!” I put my head in my hands. “Holy Father do not say such things. No, no, no, no” I then said “Holy Father let me continue. You have the solution of the problem in your hands… to be continued.
Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre Michael Davies

A Holy Prelate meets Pope Paul VI

2010-05-04T17:40:00.007+02:00
........

Archbishop Lefebvre, from memory recalls that he sent the following note to the Pope:-

“Most Holy Father
Will your Holiness be pleased to accept the assurance of my respectful veneration? If in my words or my writings certain expressions have displeased Your Holiness, I am exceedingly sorry. I am still hoping that your Holiness will kindly grant me an audience and I assure you of my respectful and filial feelings. Rome 10 September 1976.

…So the next day Saturday, at quarter past ten, I went to Castelgandolfo, and there I really believe the Holy Angels had driven out the Vatican employees because I had come back there. There were two Swiss Guards at the entrance, and after that I encountered only Mgr. X (not Mgr. Y their names are very alike). Mgr. X (the Canadian) conducted me to the lift. Only the lift man was there that is all, and I went up. The three of us went up to the first floor, and there, accompanied by Mgr. X I went through all the rooms: there are at least seven or eight before you come to the Holy Father’s office. Not a living soul! Usually – I have often been to private audiences in the days of Pope Pius XI, Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXIII, and even Pope Paul VI – there is always at least one Swiss Guard, always a gendarme, always several people, a private chamberlain, a monseignor who is present if only to keep an eye on things and prevent incidents. But the rooms were empty – nothing, absolutely nothing. So I went to the Holy Father’s office, where I found the Holy Father with Mgr. Benelli at his side. I greeted the Holy father and I greeted Mgr. Benelli. We seated ourselves at once, and the audience began.

The Holy Father was lively enough at the beginning – one could almost call it somewhat violent in a way; one could feel that he was deeply wounded and rather provoked by what we are doing. He said to me:

“You condemn me, you condemn me. I am a Modernist. I am a Protestant. It cannot be allowed. You are doing an evil work, you ought not to continue, you are causing scandal in the church, etc …” with nervous irritability.

I kept quiet, you may be sure. After that he said to me: “Well speak now, speak. What have you to say. I said to him

“Holy Father, I come here but not as the head of the traditionalists. You have said I am head of the traditionalists. I deny flatly that I am head of the traditionalists. I am only a Catholic, a priest, a bishop among Millions of Catholics, thousands of priests and other Bishops who are torn and pulled apart in conscience, in mind in heart…”

To be continued
From Apologia pro Marcel Lefebvre by Michael Davies.

Our Lord has won the victory over death...

2010-04-01T09:47:00.004+02:00

...Finally, Our Lord has won the victory over death, for death is the consequence of sin. And, thus, today we celebrate His Resurrection, the consequence of the Victory of Our Lord. We are assured that we ourselves will one day have the joy of the resurrection, if however we follow Our Lord, if we love Him, as did the Blessed Virgin Mary as she stood at the foot of the Cross. This phrase which I am going to cite for you is located in the Office of Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, on the day of the feast: Dilectus meus candidus et rubiscundus totus spirat amorem, "my Beloved, pure and at the same time rose (by the Blood which flows) in His entirety breathes forth love/' caput inclinatum, "His Head inclined," manus expensae, "His Hands extended," pectus apertum, "His Heart opened." Yes, let us contemplate Our Lord Jesus Christ upon His Cross just as the Blessed Virgin Mary did, and let us ask Our Lord to give us this love. But in order to have this love, we must sacrifice, we must struggle. Every aspect of the Cross proves it to us. If we do not battle, if we remain passive, if we fall asleep, then the enemy will be all-powerful and will come once more to gain admission into our souls. And, alas, my dear brethren, today this is the great drama of the Church.

This victory which Our Lord has won and which manifests itself today on this feast of the Resurrection, comprises necessarily a gigantic combat against the world, against death, against sin. Our Lord has triumphed, but this combat continues, and the entire history of the Church is but the history of this combat, with its diverse, vicissitudes. And today, are we not in an hour of darkness where the devil reigns once again, where the spirit of the world is everywhere and permeates everywhere? Are we not heading for death, for eternal death? And, alas, in the Church itself they no longer will to fight, one must not talk of combat anymore, no more talking of penance, no more talking of renouncement, no more talking of mortification. Such is the great drama which the Church is undergoing today—they have laid down their arms. Thus the devil finds himself all-powerful, because they do not fight him anymore. The day will soon come when they will say that the devil no longer exists, that the world is not really as bad as one would make it; that this world is full of good intentions! But we know that to be the instrument of the devil to pervert us. If the world has hated Our Lord, as Our Lord Himself said, the world will hate you as well. Thus, if we ourselves happen to love the world, the world will love us, and as a result we will separate ourselves from Our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet today it seems that one is full of complacency for this world-even clerics, even bishops! Yesterday I was reading a declaration made by a cardinal on the "rights of man"—for from now on it is no longer a question of the Decalogue which tells us to love God and our neighbor, it is no longer a question of speaking about our duties vis a vis God, Our Lord, and our neighbor—no, it's only a question of the "rights of man!" And these "rights of man," which are reputedly necessary for human dignity, to what do they reduce themselves? To the sharing of the goods of this world! It is necessary to share the goods of this world, there you have that to which the "rights of man" reduce themselves.

Is that what Our Lord represents to us upon His Cross? Our Lord requires us precisely to scorn the riches of this world, and here you have it that those who ought to teach men to despise these riches, to love the spirit of poverty even if they be rich, to live as poor, poor in spirit, detached from the goods of this world, behold, those who ought to preach these things and preach Our Lord Jesus Christ think only of the allotment of the goods of this world, and thereby arouse once again envy in the hearts of men. Always more, always more than our neighbor, thus fostering jealousy of those who possess a few goods and implanting in the hearts of men this division, this class struggle, which is precisely what the devil wants in order to destroy the world and destroy souls! And will there not be in Brazil this year a meeting of all the delegates of the episcopal conferences to talk of nothing but the "rights of man?" Where is this human dignity? They talk of the "rights of man for human dignity," but to what does it refer? Human dignity consists in loving the truth and loving the good. To the degree that we separate ourselves from the Truth, to the degree that we remove ourselves from the Good, we are no longer worthy of dignity, we shall no longer be worthy of Heaven. Would the devils still be worthy of dignity? Such are the profound errors which have actually entered into the spirits of even those who should preach the truth and who henceforth are prophets of error.

And therefore we must, we, my dear brethren, maintain the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, meditate every day the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and put it everywhere: in our rooms, in our homes, at the crossing of our streets. Let the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ reign and let it be everywhere before our eyes, so that we may have this continual lesson which Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us in such an admirable way! He Who is rich because He is the Creator of all things, and all belongs to Him. He has willed to live poor and die poor. He Who should have had all the honors of the world. He at Whose feet all humanity should have come and prostrated itself to render Him honor and glory. He died as an evildoer! He Who possesses everything and could have offered Himself all the legitimate pleasures which the world can offer, He willed to perish bathed in His Blood! That is the example which Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us if we desire to five truly as Christians. That is what you, my dear friends, will preach in the future: the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, just as did St. Paul. What does he preach? Jesus, and Jesus crucified. You will preach Jesus crucified for the good of souls. And if you do not, you deceive those to whom you are sent, and you will not lead them to Heaven. And it is for this reason that we must maintain firmly the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and as a consequence His Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is because the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ is no longer honored, and no longer honored in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in particular, that souls are being lost, that souls are disoriented and no longer know where to find the way to Heaven. The road to Heaven is in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, it is in the Sacrifice of Our Lord, it is in the Cross of Our Lord Who pours out His Blood every day upon our altars. It is by this Cross that we shall go to Heaven, there is no other road, there is no other way of salvation but the Cross of Jesus, Who is the Royal Way of Heaven, Via Regalis Crucis et Caeli\ Thatv my dearly beloved brethren, is what we must maintain at all cost.

Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to teach us the Cross. She will do so, she will tell us what is truly for us the road of Heaven, and likewise will welcome us when the hour of our death arrives, if we have followed Our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us ask also on this day that spirits be enlightened, that the minds of priests, of those who must preach the truth, be enlightened by the Holy Ghost in order that they truly return to this predication of the Cross which is the throne of glory of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Translated by Joseph Cottins at Ecône—March 1979 from an Easter Sunday sermon preached on March 26 1978

Our beloved Archbishop, faithful to Our Lord and His Blessed Mother, leaves us…

2010-03-24T12:27:00.007+01:00

On February 11 1991 he gave his last conference to the seminarians and concluded: the situation in the Church is more serious than if it was just a question of a loss of faith. We are seeing another religion established, with other principles that are not Catholic.

He left on 13th February to make a last trip to Gigondas and then on to Fanjeaux and Brignoles. When one of the Sister superiors mentioned plans for the near future, the Archbishop replied: “I won’t be there any more… I would have done it willingly but I will be gone”. As he left the community he said “Mother I have worked for a long time. Everything is in place and you have bishops. Now for me, requiem aeternam.” “I have finished my job now rest”.

He said… “I pray every day that I might die before losing my mind. I would like to go because if I contradicted myself they would say ‘there it is; he said he got it wrong’ And they would take advantage of that”.

The ordination chalice of Archbishop Lefebvre that he used everyday to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

On March 9th The Archbishop entered the hospital at Martigny . On March 11th he received extreme unction and the apostolic benediction. He was in great suffering and underwent numerous tests until Monday 18th when surgery was performed. They removed a cancerous tumor the size of three grapefruits. On the Wednesday he became anxious his limbs were terribly swollen and he had pains in his back and in his head. He said “ it is the end I have a terrible headache. The good Lord must come and fetch me. I truly want to die with a few of my priests around me to say the prayers for the dying. They cannot refuse me that”. Fr. Puga came on the Thursday morning and re-assured him and also Fr Simoulin said “we are in Passiontide”. The Archbishop closed his eyes and replied “Yes it is the passion”. He was sad as he was unable to receive communion.

His condition seemed to improve but by Sunday 24 March he suddenly got worse. At 7pm the Rector returned to the hospital but as soon as he entered intensive care he could hear the terrifying sound of forceful groaning which could be heard above the noise of the equipment nearby ; it was amplified by the oxygen mask. The Archbishop could not speak but he understood everything the priest said to him. “Your grace the retreat that you were to have preached to us … you are now preaching it in a way we had not foreseen” The Archbishop smiled. “Some of the faithful from Valais including the drivers are following the retreat with us.” And the Archbishop smiled again. Then the priest drew attention to the Crucifix, very slowly the Archbishop turned his head to look where the priest was pointing, then he gently closed his eyes. A look towards the crucifix the last conscious gesture that his sons saw him make; the look of the adoring worshipper and priest.

At 3.25 am while Fr Schmidberger was saying the prayers from the ritual in expiratione The soul of the Archbishop flew to God. Fr. Schmidberger closed the eyes of the beloved father. It was Monday of Holy Week. March 25 1991 Feast of the Annunciation of the most Blessed Virgin Mary. On this day the soul of Marcel Lefebvre was judged.

Tradidi quod et accepi. I have handed on what I received. Everything that I received I have handed on.
Extracts from the biography of Marcel Lefebvre by Bernard Tissier de Mallerais

Post 14. Love carved upon the Cross! That is the crucifix

2010-03-09T07:17:00.003+01:00
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Extracts from sermon preached on 14 September 1975 feast of the exaltation of the Holy Cross.

…For if there is a testimony of the love of God for us, it is certainly Our Lord Jesus Christ crucified on the Cross for us. What more could Our Lord have done, what more could God have done, than immolate Himself on the Cross for us, to redeem us from our sins? Shall we be insensible to the sacrifice of Our Lord, of the Son of God? One can still find marked on old crucifixes of another age these words: "Can you say that I have not loved you, when you see Love carved upon this Cross?" Love carved upon the Cross! That is the crucifix: love manifested, love alive upon the Cross. Thus one can understand the desire that all holy souls have felt ever to have the crucifix before them, to find in the crucifix the support of their spirituality, the source of their spiritual life.

And how those souls desired to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; to participate therein so as to re-live Calvary, to re-live what the Blessed Virgin lived; and thus to unite themselves to the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ! Compassion — Our Lady of Compassion is the patroness of our religious. Why? Because Christian souls ought to suffer with Our Lord. A soul that would not wish to suffer with Our Lord would not be a Christian soul. And we should not only suffer with, but also, as it were, think with Our Lord. That is to say, desire with Our Lord to suffer for the remission of the sins of the world: all the injuries; the sacrileges, the sins which are so numerous in the world. And finally, we should complete the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Saint Paul says this very thing: we ought to complete in the flesh the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And that we should also desire.

0h, it is a desire that will cost us dearly ... that will cost us dearly, that will make us suffer — for if we wish to complete the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it will be necessary to suffer with Him, to be immolated with Him. And it would be too easy to say: "Since I am a Christian, God will bless me and exempt me from all suffering. I shall lead a life without suffering, without sacrifice, because I love God, God must love me, and therefore the Good Lord should certainly not want me to suffer!" That is, indeed, poorly to comprehend the mystery of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. If Our Lord has shown us the example of suffering, then on the contrary, we should almost have the desire to suffer with Him, the desire to sacrifice ourselves with Him! And when the thorn of pain pierces us, we should be happy, and find in this sacrifice our joy, our happiness, in associating ourselves — as God wants us to associate ourselves — to the Passion of His Son for the redemption of the world and for the redemption of our sins. Is this not but another mark of love from God, His desire that we be united in suffering with Our Lord Jesus Christ?

That is the Christian life; that is the Catholic teaching. That is our faith, the object of our faith, the reality of our faith. That is what all Christian generations have understood: those generations of holy fathers and mothers of families who suffered, who suffered in a Christian manner; who accepted their sufferings, who accepted their difficulties with joy; who were examples to their children. In suffering and in pain, they knew how to support it with Our Lord Jesus Christ. These were the generations of Christian families which bore so many vocations. It was in that that vocations were born: in the example which their parents could give of knowing how to live with Our Lord Jesus Christ, to suffer with Our Lord Jesus Christ, to pray with Our Lord Jesus Christ; to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with such faith, with such piety, in the spirit of self-oblation as victims with Our Lord Jesus Christ.

How beautiful it is, this Christian, this Catholic doctrine! How completely it transforms our life! How completely it transforms our life here below! And it is that which prepares us for life eternal "O crux, ave, spes nostra!" We refer to the Cross as our hope, for in fact, the Cross is only a road, a way: the way to eternal life, to glory. But it is necessary to pass by way of the Cross! One must take up the Cross and bear it after Our Lord to arrive at eternal life. This via crucis should be ours throughout the course of our life so as to arrive at life eternal.
There, my dear friends: there is our faith. That is what you should be pursuing here. You should have the Cross ever before your eyes. Your most precious desire should be to assist at, to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It should be this that fills your heart, your soul, with that balm that causes all the little difficulties you may have — in your studies, with your health, in the difficulties of community life that causes all that to disappear before the joy that you have to unite yourselves with Our Lord Jesus Christ, before the joy that you have to live with Our Lord Jesus Christ; before the thought that, one day, God willing, you will ascend to the altar and will offer the Sacrifice of Our Lord; that you will renew the sacrifice of Calvary and that you will offer yourselves as well as victims with Our Lord on the altar for the redemption of the sins of the world; that you will preach this doctrine of the Cross, that you will preach Jesus and Jesus Crucified; as Saint Paul says. Saint Paul had no other preaching "nisi Jesum et Jesum crucifixum." That was the preaching of Saint Paul. It will also be, I am sure, your own preaching. And as model of this participation, you will present to the world the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Compassion.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Post 13 First Sunday in Lent 1991, the last public sermon

2010-02-15T15:20:00.018+01:00
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My dear brethren,

It is a great joy and a great satisfaction for me to be with you in this wonderful Church of St. Claire, which is filled with so many memories. Divine Providence chose the First Sunday of Lent for me to be among you. Allow me, therefore, to give you some advice in order that you practice this Lent well - Lent which is nothing other than the preparation for the beautiful Feast of Easter. Before becoming partakers in the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, we must be partakers in His Passion, in His Redemption, in His Sacrifice.

Lent is undoubtedly a time of penance. Therefore, we must make some efforts to deny ourselves usual satisfactions - in eating, and drinking and the like. It is good to deny ourselves in these things in order to attach ourselves more to the spiritual goods, forgetting the temporal goods in order to elevate ourselves towards the eternal ones.

But more than by our penances, God is pleased by our observance of His Commandments. God created us to be with Him one day. The way that leads us to Him through the years that we have to spend here below is marked by His Law towards Him. His Law is in fact nothing else than the road signs, which Our Lord has placed along the way of our earthly life, leading us towards Heaven in order that we attain heavenly bliss.

What then are these Commandments of God? Our Lord Himself took care to remind us of them and St. Paul says the same thing as well. They consist in loving God and loving our neighbor. All the Commandments of God are summed up in this. In the very measure in which we love God and love our neighbor and put this love into practice in our daily lives are we walking peacefully towards the happiness of Heaven. How can we manifest in a particular way our love towards the Good Lord? I think that the most profound, the most essential way to manifest our love to God is to pray. We have all learned to pray in our catechism, the little catechism of old - since today's catechisms have distorted everything and do not teach anything clearly. But we keep the good definition of old: prayer is an elevation of the soul towards God. It is simple, it is short, but it is much - to lift up our soul towards God. I think that if we would put more in practice this definition of prayer, to lift up our soul towards God, we would indeed be less attached to the goods of this earth and we would be more attached to God Himself and to the heavenly goods.

Therefore let us make an effort during this Lent to pray better and to pray more.And what are the different ways to pray? What are the different kinds of prayer?

First, there is vocal prayer: that which you do here during Mass, during the prayers in common, the Rosary you said together just a while ago. These are vocal prayers, in which you express your love for God and through which you lift up your souls towards God. Therefore we must hold in high esteem this kind of prayer and practice it much. We do so in particular by assistance at Mass and also when we can by the recitation of the Rosary, praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary, uniting ourselves to her, and by all the practices of vocal prayers, all the devotions approved by the Church, which all the devout souls have practiced in their lives, these souls which have gone to Heaven before us and are now singing the praise of the Good Lord in Heaven, in particular all the saints.

The second kind of prayer is mental prayer or meditation. Mental prayer consists in lifting up our mind towards the Good Lord by meditating on the grandeur of God, on His perfections, without pronouncing exterior words. It is another kind of prayer. When you come during the day and adore the Blessed Sacrament, close to Our Lord, without the need of words, lifting your soul to the Good Lord, submitting yourselves to Him, thinking of Him, living with Him for a while, forgetting the worries of this world, daily worries, in order to elevate your soul towards God, you practice mental prayer. Spiritual directors, all the saints and founders of Orders recommend it. You well know that the good Poor Clares who were here before - behind these grilles - spent a long time in mental prayer. The same is done in all the Carmels, in all the religious congregations. Even the rules for the clergy required of priests, monks and nuns the practice of mental prayer. It is good also for the faithful to imitate those who have consecrated themselves to God and to practice mental prayer in a special way. You can do it in a church, in a chapel, but also at home in front of a statue of the Virgin, in front of a Crucifix, or a little home oratory that you may have arranged in your home. Everyone can pray to Our Lord and unite himself with the Blessed Virgin Mary in his mind.

There is a third kind of prayer which is essential, and which is the most important, beside vocal and mental prayer: the prayer of the heart.

What is the prayer of the heart? It is that which shows internally love for the Good Lord, without even a particular thought on this or that subject, such as this perfection of God, or that manifestation of the charity of God towards us. But to simply love God, to express our love to the Good Lord. It is somewhat like a little child in his mother's arms, like to what he has in his heart for his mommy and daddy. He is happy - he is in his father's arms or his mother's arms. He does not think of anything else. He thinks only of loving his parents. Well, we should have such a natural, profound and constant love for the Good Lord. This prayer is the most pleasing to God because it places us entirely at His disposal. By it, we offer our whole self to God. We offer our body, our will, our time and all that we are to Him Who created us, to Him who awaits us, to give us this heavenly bliss which He has prepared for us. This is the best way not to sin any more, at least not to sin grievously. He who truly loves God gives in a way his very being and all that he is throughout the day and at all times. This prayer of the heart can be permanent, without stopping. As a child who loves his parents loves them always, with a perfect continuity, so we should love the Good Lord in a similar way. In loving God this way we will not fear sin because we will feel that any disobedience to God will draw us apart from Him. Thus, if we truly love Him how could we, at the same time, love Him without our whole heart and displease and disobey Him? This would be a contradiction. This is why the prayer of the heart is so important.

I beg you, during this Lent, to put yourselves into the hands of the Good Lord, to forget the things of this world in order to attach yourselves to the Good Lord. This is the first advice I will give you to fulfill the Law of the Good Lord asking us to love Him. The first Tablet of the Law of Moses had these three Commandments towards God. The second Tablet shows us the law of the love of our neighbor. How can we manifest our love for our neighbor? Undoubtedly the services we render to our neighbor outside our families, in our profession, in our daily lives, but we could also ask ourselves where we most frequently fail to love our neighbor. To this end let us ask St. James who, in the epistle he wrote and which belongs to Holy Scripture, tells us of this little organ given to us by the Good Lord called the "tongue." He tells us: "It is with the tongue that one sings the praises of the Good Lord but it is with the tongue that one ignites the fires of iniquity and the fires of division." This is true. Therefore let us make an effort to practice charity in our words and by this very fact charity in our thoughts. Thus let us avoid rash judgments, detractions, and calumnies, which are so easy and sometimes so tempting in our conversations. Unfortunately, some love to criticize this or that, dividing rather than uniting, rather than practicing charity. Let us make efforts to manifest the love towards our neighbor during this Lent by striving to avoid detractions and calumnies - all the sins of the tongue. Such is, my dear brethren, the advice I deem good to give at the beginning of this Lent.

Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph and the Child Jesus to live as they lived at Nazareth. We must remember that the example Our Lord has given us is absolutely remarkable. What did God Himself - for He is God Who came down among us - do during the thirty-three years of His life? Of these thirty-three years He spent here below before ascending into Heaven, He remained thirty years in family life except when, leaving His parents, He remained at Jerusalem to teach the Doctors of the Law. This is the only event we know of His infancy or His youth. Until the age of thirty He practiced charity in the family. This is an admirable example Our Lord gave us. Therefore He does not ask us things, which are utterly impossible - no, just the practice of charity towards God and towards our neighbor, as He Himself has done in the family of Nazareth.

Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph to help us to practice this Charity so that, by the grace of the Good Lord, by the grace of the Sacraments which we receive, we may walk little by little towards the goal of our life here below: to share one day the happiness of Heaven with all those whom we love and who have left us.

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

Post 12 Archbishop of Dakar

2010-01-17T16:27:00.009+01:00
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…It is significant that Rome choose this forty one year old ex-missionary for the capital of French West Africa, whose diocesan structure was finally emerging. We must conclude that they found “a job that was big enough” for him, to use the words of Cardinal Lienart. In addition to the qualities listed in Canon 331, the future Bishop also had a gift for organization and was a genius when it came to material and practical matters. His only fault was stubbornness. When this point was raised, it was noted that tenacity was a virtue (as seemed to be the case with Marcel Lefebvre) when sound doctrine was at stake.

… It was finally decided that the consecration would take place in his family’s parish church in Tourcoing. In Tourcoing, as in Mortain where the community had held a celebration for him on July 6 1947, he began to notice the marks of respect now shown towards him and to feel the distance this created between him and his friends. According to his sister Christiane, however he did not behave differently since he loved simplicity and good friendship too much. At Lophem-les-Bruges where he went for a few days on retreat at the monastery of his cousin, the famous liturgist Dom Gaspard Lefebvre, the monks insisted on seating him on a conspicuous throne. He objected: “But I have not ye been consecrated Bishop!” “On the contrary, you are a bishop-elect, and that is sufficient.”

…He meditated on his favourite words from St John which he had chosen for his Episcopal device, “Et nos credidimus caritati” Yes he said we have believed in the great charity that God and Our Lord has for us….

On the coat of arms of the elected Bishop, the congregation’s emblem appeared on the left above the “African memory” – the future cathedral of Dakar – while on the right “on a gold background stands a red cross with a six pointed star and four five petal azure flowers – the arms of his great uncle Pierre Lefebvre, a burgher of Tournai, dating from 1690. Be that as it may the Archbishop also saw in these symbols Our Lord’s cross steeped in blood, the cross of the crusade for His reign which is based on the gold of God’s charity and supported by the universal mediation of our Lady.

For the fifth time he took the anti-modernist oath with his hand on the gospels, affirming with conviction “ I firmly hold, then, and shall hold to my dying breath the belief of the Fathers in the charism of truth, which certainly is, was and always will be in the succession of the episcopacy from the apostles. The purpose of this is, then, not that dogma may be tailored according to what seems better and more suited to the culture of each age; rather, that the absolute and immutable truth preached by the apostles from the beginning may never be believed to be different, may never be understood in any other way.”

He received the fullness of the priesthood on September 18 1947 in the church of our Lady in Tourcoing.

from the biography of Marcel Lefebvre by Bernard Tissier de Mallerais
emphasis is ours not from the original.

Post 11 We must remain with that which is surest

2009-12-22T12:59:00.004+01:00
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...In these critical moments, we must remain with that which is surest. We must avoid doubtful things.

We must make our stand on things that are certain, absolutely certain, without a thousandth per cent of doubt: our Creed, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacraments, devotion to the Most Blessed Virgin. We cannot go wrong there. If we are firmly attached to these things we can work out our salvation. Our Lord willed these things for our salvation. So let us adhere to these things with all our heart.

Let us adore Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Let us have respect for Our Lord, our God, Our Saviour, our Creator: for Him Who is everything for us. How should we dare to present ourselves standing before Him Who will be our Judge at the end of time? Let us kneel before Our Lord with profound devotion. Let us receive Him in our hearts as the greatest treasure that we can have here below. Let us thank God for coming into our poor bodies, into our poor souls, sinners that we are. May God deign to reside in us for some time in His Body and in His Blood—this is the most beautiful, the grandest thing that God could do. And along with this respect for Our Lord Jesus Christ, let us love Him with our whole heart. Let us serve Him. Let us consider Him truly as our Shepherd.

Let us ask this of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary— of the Most Blessed Virgin who had only one name on her lips, only one name in her heart, that of her son, Jesus. Let it be for us as it was for her. Let us have one love only here below, one genuine love, in which we love all other creatures—but all other creatures should bring us to this love and not remove us from it. Let us love Our Lord Jesus Christ with our whole heart, with our whole soul, with our whole strength.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

extract from a sermon preached on May 2 1976

Post 10 Innovate nothing - but hand down tradition

2009-12-02T11:10:00.005+01:00
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… influence of liberalism on the post-conciliar reforms and trends.

…One of the most horrifying practical applications of these liberal principles is the laying of the Church open to all errors, particularly the most monstrous error ever thought up by Satan – communism. Communism now has official access to the Vatican, and its world revolution is made markedly easier by the official non-resistance of the Church, nay by her regular support of the revolution, despite the despairing warnings of cardinals who have been through communist jails.

The refusal of this Pastoral Council to issue any official condemnation of communism alone suffices to disgrace it for all time, when one remembers the tens of millions of martyrs, of people having their personalities scientifically destroyed in psychiatric hospitals, serving as guinea-pigs for all sorts of experiments. And the Pastoral Council which brought together 2350 Bishops said not a word, in spite of the 450 signatures of Fathers demanding a condemnation, which I myself took to Mgr. Felici, secretary of the Council, together with Mgr. Sigaud, Archbishop of Diamantina.

…We should like to reply to the objection that will certainly be levied against it in the manner of obedience, and of the jurisdiction held by those who seek to impose this liberalization on us. Our reply is –In the Church, law and jurisdiction are at the service of the Faith, the chief end of the Church. There is no law, no jurisdiction which can impose on us a lessening of our Faith.

…We do not see how, in conscience, a Catholic layman, priest or bishop can adopt any other attitude towards the grievous crisis the Church is going through. “Nihil innovetur nisi quod traditum est” – innovate nothing, but hand down tradition.

May Jesus and Mary help us to remain faithful to our Episcopal promises! “Call not true what is false, call not good what is evil” That is what we were told at our consecration.

Extracts from Letter to friends and benefactors no 9 Feast of St Pius X 1975

Post 9 Building up versus pulling down

2009-11-09T12:05:00.015+01:00
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… 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

POST 8. Real and apparent disobedience

2009-10-19T15:15:00.010+02:00

Real and apparent disobedience, Homily of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre On the Occasion of a New Priest's First Mass at Poitiers, France September 3, 1977

Dear Father, you have the joy today of celebrating Holy Mass in the midst of your dear ones, surrounded by your family, by your friends and it is with great satisfaction that I find myself near you today to tell you also of my joy and prayers for your future apostolate, for the good which you will do for souls.
We will pray especially to St. Pius X, our patron, whose feast it is today and who has been present during all your studies and your formation. We will ask him to give you the heart of an apostle, the heart of a saintly priest like him. And since we are right here in the city of St. Hilary, of St. Radegonde and the great Cardinal Pie, well, we shall ask of all those protectors of the city of Poitiers to come and aid you so that you may follow their example, so that you may defend as they did in difficult times, the Catholic Faith.

You could have coveted an easy and comfortable life in the world. You had already begun the study of medicine. You could have gone in that direction. But no, you had the courage, even in times like these, to come and ask to be made a priest at Ecône. And why Ecône? Because there you found Tradition, you found that which corresponded to your faith. It was an act of courage which does you honor. And that is why I would like, in a few words, to answer the accusations which have appeared in the local papers following the publication of the letter of Msgr. Rozier, Bishop of Poitiers. Oh, not in order to polemicize. I carefully avoid doing that. Generally, I do not answer these letters and I prefer to keep silent. However, since you as well as me are called into question it seems to me well to justify you here. We are not called into question because of our persons but because of the choice we have made. We are incriminated because we have chosen the so-called way of disobedience. But we must understand clearly what this way of disobedience consists of. I think we may truthfully say that, if we have chosen the way of apparent disobedience, we have chosen the way of true obedience.

Then I think that those who accuse us have perhaps chosen the way of apparent obedience which, in reality, is disobedience. Because those who follow the new way, who follow the novelties, who attach themselves to new principles contrary to those taught us by Tradition, by all the Popes, by all the Councils, they are the ones who have chosen the way of disobedience. Because one cannot say that one obeys authority today while disobeying the entire Tradition. Following Tradition is precisely the sign of our obedience. Jesus Christus heri, hodie et in saecula, "Jesus Christ yesterday, today and forever." One cannot separate Our Lord Jesus Christ. One cannot say that one obeys the Christ of today but not the Christ of yesterday, because then one does not obey the Christ of tomorrow. This is of vital importance. This is why we cannot say that we disobey the Pope of today and that, for that reason we disobey the Pope of yesterday. We obey the Pope of yesterday, consequently, we obey the one of today, consequently, we obey the one of tomorrow. For it is not possible that the Popes teach different things; it is not possible that the Popes gainsay each other, that they contradict each other. And this is why we are convinced that in being faithful to all the Popes of yesterday, to all the Councils of yesterday, we are faithful to the Pope of today, to the Council of today and to the Council of tomorrow and the Pope of tomorrow. Again: Jesus Christus heri, hodie et in saecula.- And if today, by a mystery of Providence, a mystery which for us is unfathomable, incomprehensible, we are in apparent disobedience, in reality we are not disobedient but obedient.

How are we obedient? In believing in our catechism and because we always keep the same Credo, the same Ten Commandments, the same Mass, the same Sacraments, the same prayer—the Pater Noster of yesterday, today and tomorrow. This is why we are obedient and not disobedient. On the other hand, if we study what is taught nowadays in the new religion we realize that it is not the same Faith, the same Creed, the same Ten Commandments, the same Sacraments, the same Our Father. It is sufficient to open the catechisms of today to realize that. It is sufficient to read the speeches which are made in our times to realize that those who accuse us of disobedience are those who do not follow the Popes, who do not follow the Councils, who, in reality, disobey. Because they do not have the right to change our Creed, to say today that the angels do not exist, to change the notion of original sin, to say that the Holy Virgin was not always a virgin, and so on.

They do not have the right to replace the Ten Commandments with the Rights of Man. Nowadays one speaks of nothing but the rights of man and no one speaks of his duties which are in the Ten Commandments. We don't see that it is necessary to replace the Ten Commandments in our catechisms with the Rights of Man. And this is very grave. The commandments of God are attacked and thus those laws defending the family disappear.

The most Holy Mass, for example, which is the synthesis of our Faith, which is precisely our living catechism, the Holy Mass has been deprived of its nature, it has become confused and ambiguous. Protestants can say it, Catholics can say it. Concerning this I have never said, and I have never followed those who say that all the new Masses are invalid. I have never said anything of the sort but I believe that it is in fact very dangerous to make a habit of attending the New Mass because it no longer is representative of our Faith, because Protestant notions have been incorporated into the New Mass. All the Sacraments have, to some "extent, been deprived of their nature and have become similar to an invitation to a religious assembly. These are not Sacraments. The Sacraments give us grace and take away our sins. They give us divine life, supernatural life. We are not simply part of a purely natural, purely human, religious collectivity.

This is why we keep to the Holy Mass. We keep to it also because it is the living catechism. It is not only a catechism written and printed on pages which can disappear, on lifeless pages. Rather it is our living catechism, our living Credo. This Credo is essentially the history, as it were, the "song" of the redemption of our souls by Our Lord Jesus Christ. We sing the praises of God, Our Lord, Our Redeemer, Our Saviour who became man to shed His blood for us and thus to give birth to His Church and the priesthood so that the Redemption might continue, so that our souls might be bathed in the blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ through Baptism, through all the Sacraments, in order that we might participate in the nature of Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in His divine nature by means of His human nature and so that we might be admitted eternally into the family of the Most Holy Trinity. This is our Christian life. This is our Faith. If the Mass is not the continuation of the Cross of Our Lord, the sign of His Redemption, is no longer the reality of His Redemption, then it is not our Credo. If the Mass is nothing but a meal, a eucharist,a "sharing" if one can sit around a table and simply pronounce the words of the Consecration in the midst of a meal, it is no longer our Sacrifice of the Mass. And if it is no longer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Redemption of Our Lord Jesus Christ is no longer accomplished. We need the Redemption of Our Lord. We need the Blood of Our Lord. We cannot live without the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He came on earth to give us His Blood, to communicate to us His life. We have been created for this and it is the Holy Mass that gives His Blood to us. This sacrifice continues in all reality. Our Lord is really present in His Body, in His Soul, and in His Divinity.

That is why He created the priesthood and this is why there must be new priests. This is why we wish to make priests who can continue the Redemption of Our Lord Jesus Christ. All the greatness, the sublimity of the priesthood, the beauty of the priesthood, is in the celebration of the Holy Mass, in the saving words of the Consecration. It is in the making Our Lord Jesus Christ descend onto the altar, continuing the Sacrifice of the Cross, shedding His Blood on souls through Baptism, the Eucharist, the Sacrament of Penance. Oh, the beauty, the greatness of the priesthood! A greatness of which we are not worthy, of which no man is worthy. Our Lord Jesus Christ wanted it. What greatness, what sublimity!

And our young priests have understood this. You can be certain they have understood. Throughout their seminary days they loved the Holy Mass. They will never penetrate the mystery perfectly even if God gives them a long life on earth. But they love their Mass and I think they have understood and will understand even better that the Mass is the sun of their life, the raison d'etre of their priestly life so that they may give Our Lord Jesus Christ to the souls of the people and not simply so that they may break bread in friendship while Our Lord is absent. Because grace is absent from these new Masses which are purely a eucharist, a mere symbol of a sign and symbol of a sort of charity among human beings.

This is why we are attached to the Holy Mass. And the Holy Mass is the expression of the Ten Commandments. And what are the Ten Commandments if not the love of God and of our neighbor? How better is this love fulfilled than in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? God receives all the glory through Our Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. There can be no greater act of charity for man than this sacrifice. And, is there any act of charity greater than that of giving one's life for those whom one loves? Our Lord Himself asked that. Consequently, the Ten Commandments are fulfilled in the Mass, the greatest act of love which God could have from man, the greatest act of love that we could have from God. Here are the Ten Commandments. Here is our living catechism. All the Sacraments take their radiance from the Eucharist. All the Sacraments, in a certain sense, are like satellites of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. From Baptism right through to Extreme Unction, the Sacraments are only reflections of the Eucharist since all grace comes from Jesus Christ, present in the Holy Eucharist.

Now sacrament and sacrifice are intimately united in the Mass. One cannot separate sacrifice from sacrament. The Catechism of the Council of Trent explains this magnificently. There are two great realities in the Sacrifice of the Mass: the sacrifice and the sacrament deriving from the sacrifice, the fruit of the sacrifice. This is our holy religion and this is why we hold to the Mass. You will understand now, perhaps better than you understood before, why we defend this Mass and the reality of the Sacrifice. It is the life of the Church and the reason for the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is the reason for our existence, our union with Our Lord in the Mass. Therefore, we cry out if they try to take away the nature of the Mass, to deprive us in any way of this Sacrifice! We are wounded. We will not have them separate us from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

This why we hold firmly to the Sacrifice of the Mass. And we are convinced that our Holy Father, the Pope, has not forbidden it and that no one can ever forbid the celebration of the Mass of all time. Moreover, Pope St. Pius V proclaimed in a solemn and definitive manner that, whatever might happen in the future, no one might ever prevent a priest from celebrating the Sacrifice of the Mass; and that all excommunications, all suspensions, all the punishments which a priest might undergo because he celebrated this Holy Sacrifice would be utterly null and void, in futuro, in perpetuum.

Consequently, we have a clear conscience whatever may happen to us. If we are apparently disobedient, we are really obedient. This is our situation. And it is right for us to tell this, to explain it, because it is we who continue the Church. Really disobedient are those who corrupt the Sacrifice of the Mass, the Sacraments and our prayers, those who put the Rights of Man in the place of the Ten Commandments, those who transform the Credo. Because that is what the new catechisms do. We feel deep pain at not being in perfect communion with the authors of those reforms. Indeed, we regret it infinitely. I would like to go at this very minute to Msgr. Rozier and tell him that I am in perfect communion with him. But it is impossible for me. If Msgr. Rozier condemns this Mass which we say, it is impossible. Those who refuse this Mass are no longer in communion with the Church of all time.

It is inconceivable that bishops and priests, ordained for this Mass and by this Mass, men who have celebrated it for perhaps twenty or thirty years of their priestly lives, persecute it with an implacable hatred—that they hound us from the churches, that they oblige us to say Mass here, in the open air, when the Mass is meant to be said in the churches constructed for that purpose. And was it not Msgr. Rozier himself who told one of you that if we were heretics and schismatics he would give us churches in which to celebrate our Masses? This is something beyond belief. If we were no longer in communion with the Church but heretics or schismatics we could have the churches. It is quite evident that we are still in communion with the Church. There is a contradiction in their attitude which condemns them. They know perfectly well that we are in the right because we cannot be outside of truth when we simply continue to do what has been done for two thousand years, believing what has been believed for two thousand years. This is not possible.

Once again, we must repeat this sentence and continue to repeat it: Jesus Christus heri, hodie et in saecula. If I am with the Jesus Christ of yesterday I am with the Jesus Christ of today and of tomorrow. I cannot be with the Jesus Christ of yesterday without being with the Jesus Christ of tomorrow. And that is because our Faith is that of the past and that of the future. If we are not with the Faith of the past we are not with the Faith of the present, nor yet of the future. This is what we must always believe. This is what we must hold to at any price— our salvation depends upon it. Let us ask this today of the guardian saints of Poitiers, ask it especially for these dear priests, for this new priest. Let us ask it of St. Hilary, of St. Radegunda who so loved the Cross—it was she who brought to this land of France the first relic of the True Cross and so loved the Sacrifice of the Mass; and finally, of Cardinal Pie who was an admirable defender of the Catholic Faith during the last century. Let us ask these protectors of Poitiers to give us the grace of fighting without hatred, without rancor.

Let us never be among those who try to polemicize, to disrupt, to be unjust to their neighbors. Let us love them with all our hearts but let us hold to the Faith. At all costs let us keep our Faith in the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us ask this of the most Holy Virgin Mary. She can only have had a perfect faith in the divinity of her Divine Son. She loved Him with all her heart. She was present at the Holy Sacrifice of the Cross. Let us ask of Him the faith that she had.

POST 7 Letter to bishops elect

2009-09-26T10:14:00.006+02:00

My dear friends,

The See of Peter and the posts of authority in Rome being occupied by anti-Christs, the destruction of the Kingdom of Our Lord is being rapidly carried out even within His Mystical Body here below, especially through the corruption of the Holy Mass which is both the splendid expression of the triumph of Our Lord on the Cross - Regnavit a Ligno Deus - and the source of the extension of His kingdom over souls and over societies. Hence the absolute need appears obvious of ensuring the permanency and continuation of the adorable Sacrifice of Our Lord in order that "His Kingdom come." The corruption of the Holy Mass has brought the corruption of the priesthood and the universal decadence of Faith in the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

God raised up the Priestly Society of St. Pius X for the maintenance and perpetuity of His glorious and expiatory Sacrifice within the Church. He chose Himself some true priests instructed in and convinced of these divine mysteries. God bestowed upon me the grace to prepare these Levites and to confer upon them the grace of the priesthood for the continuation of the true Sacrifice according to the definition of the Council of Trent.

This is what has brought down upon our heads persecution by the Rome of the anti-Christs. Since this Rome, Modernist and Liberal, is carrying on its work of destruction of the Kingdom of Our Lord, as Assisi and the confirmation of the Liberal theses of Vatican II on Religious Liberty prove, I find myself constrained by Divine Providence to pass on the grace of the Catholic episcopacy which I received, in order that the Church and the Catholic priesthood continue to subsist for the glory of God and for the salvation of souls. That is why, convinced that I am only carrying out the holy will of Our Lord, I am writing this letter to ask you to agree to receive the grace of the Catholic episcopacy, just as I have already conferred it on other priests in other circumstances. I will bestow this grace upon you, confident that without too long a delay the See of Peter will be occupied by a successor of Peter who is perfectly Catholic, and into whose hands you will be able to put back the grace of your episcopacy so that he may confirm it.

The main purpose of my passing on the episcopacy is that the grace of priestly orders be continued, for the true Sacrifice of the Mass to be continued, and that the grace of the Sacrament of Confirmation be bestowed upon children and upon the faithful who will ask you for it.

I beseech you to remain attached to the See of Peter, to the Roman Church, Mother and Mistress of all Churches, in the integral Catholic Faith, expressed in the various creeds of our Catholic Faith, in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, in conformity with what you were taught in your seminary. Remain faithful in the handing down of this Faith so that the Kingdom of Our Lord may come.

Finally, I beseech you to remain attached to the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, to remain profoundly united amongst yourselves, in submission to the Society's Superior General, in the Catholic Faith of all time, remembering the words of St. Paul to the Galatians (1:8-9): "But even if we or an angel from heaven were to teach you a different gospel from the one we have taught you, let him be anathema."

As we have said before, now again I say: "if anyone teaches you a different gospel from what you have received, let him be anathema." My dear friends, be my consolation in Christ Jesus, remain strong in the Faith, faithful to the true Sacrifice of the Mass, to the true and holy priesthood of Our Lord for the triumph and glory of Jesus in heaven and upon earth, for the salvation of souls, for the salvation of my own soul.

In the hearts of Jesus and Mary I embrace you and bless you. Your father in Christ Jesus,
+ Marcel Lefebvre, feast of St Augustine 29 August 1987.

Footnote - extracts from an interview with Bishop Fellay 2009

Q, Regarding these websites you mention, there is a sedevacantist website which, I was told, quotes Archbishop Lefebvre speaking to then Cardinal Ratzinger: “Even if you give us everything we want—a bishop, canonical agreement—we may not collaborate with you because you do not accept the doctrine of Christ the King.” Can you clarify this quote?

A. Bp Fellay. Archbishop Lefebvre said this in a conference to seminarians. He related a conversation he had with Cardinal Ratzinger in the summer of 1987. They were already discussing the episcopal consecrations. What is very interesting is that, after this meeting where the Archbishop said these things, he sent a letter to the new bishops-to-be, saying Rome was occupied by anti-Christs. This was also the summer of 1987. After all of this, he himself accepted and requested a canonical visitation from Rome. He envisaged discussions which happened in April 1988. These quotes must be taken in their context. It is a common practice today to make everything an absolute, without circumstances. If you go down this road, you can make anyone say anything. It is a kind of intellectual honesty to try to see what he meant, what he said, what he intended when he said that. There is a question of principle here: we have a hard time with Rome. It is still the same problem today. I said to Cardinal Castrillon last year and this year exactly what Archbishop Lefebvre said in 1987: If you want us, you must respect out identity. If you want us to change our identity, it won’t work. Our Lord Jesus Christ is truly Lord. The phrase “Our Lord” means something. He is King because He is God and because all power on heaven and earth was given to Him, even as man. This is a point of faith. There are consequences to ideas like the Kingship of Christ. But if you begin to say, “Well, the State and social life have nothing to do with God. We don’t care about Our Lord,” where is the Kingship of Christ? If He is King, He cares about His powers and He wants them to be observed. This is also a point of faith: we know that every soul appears in front of the Judge, to whom they must give account. This Judge is Our Lord Jesus Christ, the King, not only of Catholics, but of everyone, including heads of State, be they kings or presidents. They will have to give an account of what they have done with their powers entrusted to them by our heavenly King. Even if we have to wait for years, we won’t change the Faith.

post 6 A homeless Bishop

2009-09-11T19:02:00.003+02:00

11 September 2009

The Archbishop left the motherhouse (he had resigned as Superior General of the Holy
Ghost Fathers in 1968), one simple bag in hand. A French seminarian saw him and asked “Where are you going like that Excellency?”
“I don’t know…”
“Can I be of assistance?”
“Thank you that’s all right”

He found refuge firstly on November 1 at the Institute of the Holy Ghost on Via Machiavelli. A little later, he found a small room at the Villa Lituania on Via Casalmonferrato. It was maintained by the sisters who were attached to the Lithuanian seminary. He bought himself a desk, a wardrobe and some shelving, and he had just enough to pay his rent with the ninety thousand lira he received monthly from the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith for his work as a consulter and as president of the commission responsible for catechisms in Africa. It was a role he kept until 1972.

…He could have traveled to Africa to visit the training centres for catechists to which he attached such great importance. But this possibility did not attract him. At sixty-three, and in fact “at the end of his career”, he felt dissatisfied with such meager responsibilities. He felt himself pushed from within, urgently compelled to do other work.

On one hand, as he had told Archbishop Sigaud, he wanted to “dedicate himself entirely to the fight against the progressives through the press, as he had been doing since 1966." On the other hand he still had the idea of an international seminary that he shared with his friend Bishop Morilleau and his confidant, Fr Michael O’Carroll.

“Father O’Carroll” he said to him one day. “If ever I had to leave the congregation, I will found a traditional seminary and in three years I will have 150 seminarians.”

From Biography of Marcel Lefebvre by Bernard Tissier de Mallerais

Post 5 Tradition

2009-08-29T17:20:00.003+02:00

Post 5 – Tradition.

“Fight for the maintenance of Tradition and fight fearlessly. Above all we must strive, we must fight. Above all we must strive to preserve the rite of our Holy Mass because it is the foundation of the Church and of Christian civilization. If there were no longer a true Mass in the Church the Church would disappear.”

"The defense of his Faith is the first duty of every Christian, more especially of every priest and bishop. Wherever an order carries with it danger of corrupting Faith and Morals, ‘disobedience’ becomes a grave duty. It is because we believe that our whole faith is endangered by the post-conciliar reforms and changes that it is our duty to ‘disobey’ and to maintain Traditions. The greatest service we can render the Catholic Church, the successor of Peter, the salvation of souls and of our own, is to say no to the reformed liberal Church, because we believe in Our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God made man, who is neither liberal nor reformable.”

Post 4 The Blessed Virgin Mary

2009-08-15T13:32:00.006+02:00

“Mary will keep us in the Catholic Faith. She is neither Liberal, nor Modernist, nor ecumenical. She is impervious to all errors and with even greater reason to heresies and apostasy”

St Thomas evokes the great privileges of the Virgin Mary when he speaks of the sending of the Word into this world by His incarnation. (IIIa q.27 to 30).Mary holds such a place in the realization of the work of salvation of humanity by the Word Incarnate, that she merits to be evoked in a very particular manner. If Mary, by her fiat, miraculously became the Mother of God, the Mother of the Saviour, she became by the very fact the Mother of His Mystical Body, that is to say of all those who live of the life of Jesus here below and will do so for eternity. She became Queen of Angels, and the terrible enemy of the devils. Consequently, we have become her children by Baptism, and we nourish ourselves of her Son in the Eucharist. She is truly our spiritual Mother.

This divine Motherhood procured for her unique privileges and, first of all, her Immaculate Conception and fullness of grace from the instant of her conception. She is the sole human creature to be exempt from the results of original sin. Another extraordinary privilege is that she is the Mother of Jesus, and remained virgin, before, during and after her childbirth. Nothing is impossible with God, as she was told by the Angel Gabriel. The infant Jesus left the womb of the Virgin januis clauses, without destroying her hymen. She did not suffer the pains of Motherhood. How many errors do we find on this subject in modern catechisms! She was thus made exempt from the slightest sin and every sickness, for they are the consequences of original sin. Finally her body not being susceptible to corruption was raised up and assumed into heaven. This is the privilege of her glorious Assumption. She is henceforward the Queen of Heaven and earth. She is also, thanks to her divine Motherhood, the Mediatrix of all graces which we are given. Her spiritual Motherhood is universal. If Jesus is the Head of the Mystical Body, Mary is the neck, as the Fathers of the Church say. Mary, being the Mother of the Eternal Priest, exercises a particular Motherhood with respect to all those who participate in Jesus' priesthood. May the Virgin Mary deign to form us into priests in the image of her Divine Son. May devotion to Mary be honoured in every house and chapel of the Society, and in all the hearts of all its members!

"Oh Immaculate Virgin, who by the extraordinary privilege of your Immaculate Conception, dost teach us all of the fundamental truths of our faith and hast merited to be the Mother of the Eternal Priest, form is us the Priest of Jesus Christ and make us less unworthy to participate in this Divine Priesthood"

From A Spiritual Journey written by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre

Post 3 The Mass

2009-08-07T08:58:00.004+02:00

Post 7 August 2009.

The Mass …
There is no apostolate without contemplation. Contemplation is not necessarily for the cloister. It is the Christian Life: a life of Faith and the realities of our Faith. The great reality to contemplate is the Holy Mass. This is what must characterize the members of the Society: contemplating Our Lord on the cross and seeing there the summit of God’s love, a love even unto supreme sacrifice. That is where Our Lord is. This is what the Church contemplates primarily…

And by this we will be missionaries: by the desire to pour out the blood of Our Lord on souls. This is the Mysterium fidei to contemplate and to work for, the priestly mission par excellence. And the faithful gather around us because of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and for nothing else.
We must have total trust in the position we have taken because it is the Church’s attitude. It is not mine, it is not that of Archbishop Lefebvre, it is that of the Church. One day or another the rest will all collapse.

Conference Dec 3 1982

POST 2 Bishop Fellay speaks

2009-08-05T17:08:00.004+02:00
March 2009
Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the Society of Saint Pius X, has told SPIEGEL that his organization has "clearly distanced itself" from Bishop Richard Williamson. Nevertheless, he says the bishop's apology for his Holocaust denial is a step in the right direction.

SPIEGEL: Bishop, weeks ago you gave your colleague Richard Williamson a book so that he can read up on the Holocaust. Last week he published an apology which falls short of the Vatican's demand that he retract his Holocaust denial. Does Williamson's statement suffice in your opinion?

Fellay: It is definitely a first plea for forgiveness and, therefore, an important step in the right direction. One can always hope for better phrasing. At least the plea for forgiveness is honest, and the withdrawal of his words is genuine.
SPIEGEL: That hope seems unfounded. After his arrival in London, Williamson surrounded himself with people who have openly denied the Holocaust, such as the historian David Irving. Do you know why?
FROM THE MAGAZINE

Fellay: I have the impression that Bishop Williamson is being used by these people. Information was deliberately fed to the media here. We're working against that as well as we can. I am totally against these connections.

SPIEGEL: But your influence on Williamson seems to be weak.

Fellay: We are in contact, he is in a priory of the society in London for the time being. But he is also a free human being. Sure, he has a superior, but he is free in his decisions. But he has to bear the consequences for that.

SPIEGEL: Will he return to his full duties?

Fellay: That is impossible under the current circumstances. He has damaged us and hurt our reputation. We have very clearly distanced ourselves. He was not ordained as a bishop for his own personal purpose but for the common good of the church, to spread the revealed truth.

SPIEGEL: So why don't you exclude Williamson from the society?

Fellay: That will happen if he denies the Holocaust again. It is probably better for everyone if he stays quiet and stays in a corner somewhere. I want him to disappear from the public eye for a good while.

SPIEGEL: The Vatican could reinstate the excommunication because he has not made a retraction.

Fellay: I doubt that. Denial of the Holocaust, as serious as it is, isn't part of Canon Law -- so an excommunication isn't possible. It isn't just we who say that, it is canons, legal experts. The problem is that his comments have been linked to his office.

SPIEGEL: Regensburg's Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller has denied the German Pius seminary in Zaitzkofen permission to ordain more priests. Will you adhere to the ban?

Fellay: That was unnecessary and inappropriate. All these events definitely are a setback for us. It throws us back by 10 years. But ordinations will continue to happen.

SPIEGEL: In Germany politicians fear that schools run by the society don't share the values of the German constitution. Are you concerned that there will be inspections?

Fellay: I'm not worried about that at all. We are normal people. We observe the rules, and that includes the state order. Even if one voice said something wrong. It is expressly written in the epistles of the Saint Paul that we honor authority and pray for it.

SPIEGEL: So Williamson is someone who has gone astray and criticism of the society is a big misunderstanding?

Fellay: Now we're the world's scapegoat, and every wrong step immediately turns into a scandal. But mistakes that need to be corrected are made all the time and everywhere.

SPIEGEL: Why did you respond so late to Williamson's crude theses?

Fellay: I confess that I didn't take the situation seriously enough.
Interview conducted by Stefan Winter. March 2009

POST 1 The duties of a bishop

2009-08-05T17:06:00.005+02:00
1 July 2008

Of the necessity of hearing the word of God
The Word of God is said to be the food of the soul, because it sustains the life and strength of the soul, as bread does that of the body.

The Fathers of the Church speak of the word of God as the food of the soul. Our Lord himself says “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” (Matt. Iv. 4).

The profit to be derived from a sermon is proportioned to the enlightening grace of the Holy Ghost present in the hearts of the preacher and his hearers, this is why the assistance of the holy Ghost is invoked before the sermon. It is God not the preacher who speaks to the heart!

The manner in which the word of God acts upon the soul is by enlightening the understanding and inciting the will to do what is good. In the darkness of this life it shows us the path to heaven, as a lantern enablers the traveler to find his way by night. When St Augustine had attended the sermons of St Ambrose at Milan he said “That man opened my eyes”. The word of God stimulates the will to do what is good. “Are not my words as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” (Jer. xxiii 29). The word of God banishes sin. “It acts on the soul” says St Jerome, “as a plough on the soil, loosening the hardened surface, rooting up the thistles of vice.”

The word of God kindles the flame of charity in the heart of a man; like fire, it consumes the rust of sin, it promotes the growth of virtue. The preached word has more force and effect than what is read in books, the Sunday sermon is vital for spiritual health.

Just as a man who refuses to take food will surely die, so those who do not hear the word of God, which is the food of the soul, incur spiritual death. In this life we are travelers on the long and dangerous journey from time to eternity, so we shall not reach the end of the journey without the light of God’s word to illumine our mind and guide us to our final end. The word of God is the sun of the soul, without which the spiritual life will droop and fail, as nature would if deprived of the vivifying warmth of the sun.

A Catholic Bishop has a sacred duty to preach the word of God.
In the month of the Precious Blood we renew our plea for Bishop Williamson to take note, please.

We value our holy priests and Bishops, given to us under God through SSPX. How edified we were when the great Archbishop Lefebvre raised to the Episcopal dignity an Englishman. How saddened we are now, after two decades. Why? Because you have increasingly contaminated your words and writings with political emphasis, secular, negative and destructive worldly issues.

Do you not perceive that we are disedified and even scandalized in you and by you?

Do you not see that you are harming SSPX by your conduct?

Cardinal Manning wrote “The Apostles were to be “witnesses” unto Him. Witnesses give evidence they do not argue. St Paul said “Our preaching is not in the persuasive words of mere wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and in power”.

“A Catholic priest comes from Jesus as a herald. He can do what others cannot do – assert and affirm, and leave the Truth to do the work by its own evidence. The surest way to keep error out of men’s minds is to fill them with the Truth. Assertion and affirmation construct and build up, filling the mind with Truth or at least some positive and intelligent statement. Clearness is evidence. Truth looks out upon the human reason. The voice of the Church is positive, dogmatic, affirmative, touching the hearts of men and lifting their souls to Heaven.

Destructive and negative writing and preaching ruins and sweeps away, it leaves a space, a void, a bleakness of soul.”

We enter the precincts of SSPX; wherever in the world we are, craving to both receive the ‘spoken word’ and the bread of eternal life. Oh!

Why do you give us stones instead of bread when you speak?

Why do you imitate the money lenders Our Lord threw from the Temple? Your currency is negativity tainted with the world. You send us away hungry - with bleakness of soul.

Why do newly ordained priests struggle to deliver a true Catholic sermon devoid of secular input?

Why do you presume that our faith is mere superficial sentiment?

Why do you deride the multiplicity of books of devotion?

Why do you promote publication of books about the crisis in the church and the world?

Why do you presume us to be ignorant and dim witted about the iniquitous world in which we live?

Why do you do this to us who are the sheep of your flock?

We are not blind to the matters of Kennedy’s assassination, abortion 9/11 and even Jack the Ripper.

We have no need for you to speak of these things especially as you shout conspiracy at every point and your inappropriate statements are too frequently untrue.

The way you speak of the Holocaust is shaming, who can say how many died but the event itself is a matter of recorded history

Of George Orwell and 1984, all we will say is would Archbishop Lefebvre have wasted precious time on that?

Have we not endured and suffered as long as you? Have our sacrifices been less? Are we not deserving of some respect from you as the faithful of the SSPX?.

We entreat you to start using the weapons of the church and to discard the weapons of the world in this war against the powers of darkness

The writings of Archbishop Lefebvre contain all a priest and bishop need to guide him in his conduct, we quote-

“How many priests have lost all sense of their priesthood and all interest in contemplation and prayer through activism supposedly related to the apostolate”. He also spoke of winning souls for Our Lord by humility, gentleness, discretion and magnanimity”.

We see these virtues in your fellow bishops and especially in Bishop Fellay. Faithful spiritual son of Archbishop Lefebvre, who has our full confidence as Superior General of the Society.

My thanks to people who sent comments after the first submission of this appeal. I anguished for months before putting up this blog and a video on You Tube.

Our Lady pray for us all. From a loyal supporter of SSPX
Comments:
Well said. Bp Williamson needs to read and heed. And get about the business of saving souls.

Jerry
# posted by Jerry : 22 March 2008 09:41

I am happy to see that someone is speaking up for the "loyal opposition" to Bishop Williamson's odd political theories. There are many of us who are concerned but so far there has been no one willing to object publically. My only suggestion is to put Bishop Williamson's photo on instead of Bishop Fellay's. I find it confusing to have a different bishop's picture linked to this piece about Bishop Williamson.
# posted by Adrianne : 22 March 2008 11:22

Thank you for the very interesting letter. I hope and pray that Bp Williamson will listen to this public admonition.
# posted by Filius Redemptoris : 26 March 2008 04:50

Thank you on behalf of myself and other traditional Catholics who have hesitated to speak out against a traditional bishop but who see the problem. You say you agonized before writing it and I certainly can understand why but I am sure God will bless you for it. Bishop Williamson is damaging the cause of Catholic tradition with his silly theories inserted in the midst of otherwise solid doctrine. I hope you keep the pressure on. His last letter was very good. Paula
# posted by Paula : 09 April 2008 08:54