Eleison Comments

Professor Drexel – II

Professor Drexel – II on January 11, 2020

As with many alleged messages from Heaven, if anyone were to say that the essence of the messages given to Professor Drexel from 1970 to 1977 is already in the Gospel, namely “Blessed are you when men revile and persecute you . . . for your reward is great in Heaven” (Mt. V, 11–12), they would be quite right. But if they went on to say that his messages are not necessary because they are already in the Gospel, they would be quite wrong. In the 1970’s began the moral torture of many good Catholics torn by the priests of Vatican II between their Catholic faith and their Catholic obedience. It took Our Lord to tell souls like Prof. Drexler, again and again, that it was His own priests who had betrayed.

For indeed Catholics who for 400 years had been saved by their obedience to the faithful Council of Trent (1545–1563) could not, to begin with, grasp that the same obedience could no longer be given to the unfaithful Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). By 2020 the fidelity of Archbishop Lefebvre to the unchanging pre-Conciliar faith and Mass have had time to raise Tradition all over the Church (although there is still a long way to go), but in 1970 it was simply inconceivable except to a very few souls that the Catholic Pope and bishops and priests could be demolishing the Church. Hence the need for messages like this one of July 3, 1970 from Our Lord (as one may well believe) to Professor Drexel:—

“Be in good spirit and do not let yourself be discouraged by the unrest and attempted demolition of My Church, nor by the subversion of the order of the world. It is true that Satan and his demoniacal powers are in action as never before in the history of mankind and the Church. But through the influence of God and the action of the Holy Ghost, is not a Work being created, which, more than any other work, calls upon the help of the angels, the supernatural powers and the good spirits? This work is of divine origin!

May all the faithful of My Church walk in peace and with firmness towards the future.

Satan will rage, and his best helpers are the priests who have fallen away, interiorly and exteriorly, from their faith and their consecration. Mary Immaculate, never touched by sin, shall be victorious. Although My flock that follows me and My cross, and that is faithful and with love believes in the holy presence of My Body and Blood, may become smaller, nevertheless faith and prayer, the profession of faith and hope, and the love of truth, shall triumph in the end. The storms may rage. In nature they can crack rocks and burst dams. But God is all-powerful, truth is stronger, grace richer and more abundant, and therefore the Rock which I have founded will last until the end!”

In the same vein are words from the message of March 5, 1971, to Professor Drexel:—

“Do not be discouraged by the present internal and external oppression of My Church. It is from within that the servants of God have become unfaithful to their vocation and their grace ( . . . ) These are the priests and theologians, as they call themselves, who have abandoned and betrayed me, and who are still persecuting me. Their number increases ( . . . ) Never since I walked visibly among men have the troubles of My one and true Church been so great as at this present time – and the distress is still growing.

Nevertheless, do not despair – even if the flock of which I as Divine and Good Shepherd spoke, becomes very small, that Church which I founded on Peter and which I compared to a rock, shall be destroyed neither from without nor from within. But you and all souls who have been entrusted to you by the Father, must continue to work for the Church, for the faith and for souls. The people helping you shall harvest blessings for their good deeds, and this blessing cannot be compared to anything in this world.”

Kyrie eleison.

Professor Drexel – I

Professor Drexel – I on January 4, 2020

As the crisis of Church and world continues relentlessly from one year to the next, at another New Year’s beginning it may be the moment to return to messages of Our Lord from the early 1970’s when countless good Catholics were starting to suffer seriously from the confusion and distress following on the imposition upon them of the new religion of the Second Vatican Council, which had just come to an end in 1965. One such victim of Vatican II was Fr. Albert Drexel (1889–1977), a prestigious professor of philology from the Vorarlberg in Austria but also a devout Catholic priest, to whom from 1922 Our Lord appeared with a message on every First Friday of the month, to guide his devotion.However, only from 1970 were the messages written down, to be gathered together until his death, after which they were published in a little book still available today, entitled “Faith is greater than obedience.” No Catholic is obliged to believe that these are words of Our Lord Himself, but the First Friday messages from 1970 to 1977 are their own validation for many sheep that recognise in them the Master’s voice. Here for instance is the message of March 5, 1976, from which the words above are taken, just when the Faith of the true Church and obedience to the false Church were coming into sharpest conflict:— “The future looks dark for you. Your interior struggle for true perception and the way to take in the confusion is known to me. And so I shall enlighten you. My faithful son Marcel (Archbishop Lefebvre), who suffers a great deal for the faith, is going on the right path. He is like a light and pillar of truth, which many ordained priests of mine are betraying. Faith is greater than obedience. Therefore it is my will that the work of theological education for priests continues in the spirit and will of my son Marcel, for the salvation and great help of my one and true Church. “The spirit of the world has infiltrated the Church, and the Spirit of God has abandoned many hearts who were called to proclaim His Spirit. They talk about other things and lose themselves in the tricks and snares of Satan. And thus they corrupt the people and even the children ( . . . ) This spirit has penetrated the ecclesiastics and monasteries and convents, because the monks and nuns have lost and deserted the spirit of the Founders of their Orders. They have become a scandal for the people and the world. They have lost not only love towards My most holy Mother, but also reverence towards My sacramental presence. Instead the monks preach about things of the world, of luxury, of a life of pleasure, and the nuns do not talk about the holy angels, and many not even about the most holy Virgin and Mother Mary. Still, places do exist of quiet and of prayer, special shrines in which Mary, My Mother and the Mother of grace, is honoured.” Perhaps this message of 1976 is a little dated, insofar as the difference between the fruits of Vatican II and those of Archbishop Lefebvre have had time to make clear to many souls where the true Spirit of God is to be found. Today in fact the Archbishop is bearing more and more fruit outside of the limits of the Society he founded. Nevertheless, God’s true Church is still being torn to pieces by the modernist wolves in sheep’s clothing, and many souls are still being tempted to abandon the true Faith and the true Church. Let them heed one of many extracts from the messages to Fr Drexel, e.g. from New Year’s Day, 1971:— “A darkness hangs over my holy Church. The confusion is growing; more and more priests become unfaithful to their mission and grace ( . . . ) but while the fruit of the wicked and godless ends in corruption, the fruit of the faithful souls shall blossom into a purer and more beautiful Church. Hail to those who understand the hour and remain in my love, confess My Mother, follow the path of the saints, and who confide in the guidance of the angels; these faithful souls shall shine in the darkness, shall not waver under attack and shall not crumble amidst trials . . .” Kyrie eleison.

Speak Up!

Speak Up! on December 28, 2019

If there have been great minds from the past, it is because they will have been thinking on great matters, which means, explicitly or implicitly, matters of God, and if they were truly great minds, their thinking will have been not just destructive. One such mind was certainly England’s Shakespeare. As a Catholic he grappled with his country’s apostasy being fulfilled just as he was reaching his prime, around 1600. But that turning of England to Protestantism meant that if he did not want to be hanged, drawn and quartered, he had to disguise his Catholic message, as Clare Asquith proved in her book of 2005, “Shadowplay,” where she took English literature way above English “patriots” and the dwarves of literary criticism.

To take just one example, in the book’s Appendix on Shakespeare’s Sonnet 152, she shows how from start to finish, beneath the obvious application to a woman Shakespeare has known, there is a complete second meaning of far wider application to himself as a writer who has failed to warn his countrymen as he should have done. Here are the 14 lines of the sonnet together with their obvious meaning:—

In loving thee thou know’st I am forsworn
But thou art twice forsworn to me love swearing,
In act thy bed-vow broke and new faith torn,
In vowing new hate after new love bearing.
But why of two oaths’ breach do I accuse thee,
When I break twenty? I am perjured most,
For all my vows are oaths but to misuse thee,
And all my honest faith in thee is lost;
For I have sworn deep oaths of thy deep kindness,
Oaths of thy love, thy truth, thy constancy,
And, to enlighten thee, gave eyes to blindness,
Or made them swear against the thing they see.
    For I have sworn thee fair: more perjured eye,
    To swear against the truth so foul a lie.

You know I break a promise by loving you, but by
swearing you love me, you break two promises: you
forsook your husband’s bed, then returned to him
(“new faith,” “new love”) only to forsake him again.
But why do I accuse you of breaking two oaths when
I break twenty oaths? It is I the greater perjurer, for
To your own harm I have sworn oath upon oath about
your goodness when I well knew you were not good.
Thus I have been swearing that you are very kind,
very loving, very truthful, very constant, and to
put you in a good light, I have made me see what I
Did not see, or, have sworn I saw not what eye saw.
    For I have sworn you were good. What terrible
    Perjury on my part, when that is so untrue!

Interestingly, the sonnet’s text makes more sense in its hidden meaning, referring to faithless England, than in its apparent meaning, referring to Shakespeare’s unfaithful mistress. Thus “Merrie Englande” had been a faithful wife of the Catholic Church for 900 years. By Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy (1534), (“In Act”) England broke its marriage (“bed-vow”) with the Catholic Church and took Protestantism as its lover. Then it remarried the Catholic Church under Mary Tudor (1553, “new faith,” “new love”), only to fall back into adultery with Protestantism under Elizabeth I (1558, “new faith torn,” “new hate” of the Catholic Church). But Shakespeare (1564–1616) blames himself for much worse infidelity, because down these years he has repeatedly glorified (“to enlighten thee”) England with its unfaithful Tudor rulers, for instance in his History Plays, glorified to England’s harm (“to misuse thee”), because as a Catholic he knew full well that Protestantism would be the ruin of “Merrie Englande.” Sure enough!

And today? The pattern repeats itself: for over 1900 years Catholics were faithfully married to the true Church, but with Vatican II (1962–1965) the mass of them followed bad leaders into more or less of adultery with the modern world (“bed-vow broke”). Then Archbishop Lefebvre (1905–1991) led many back to the truly Catholic Church (“new faith,” “new love,” or renewal of the old faith and the old love), only to see his successors at the head of the Society of St Pius X which he founded in 1970 fall back into an adulterous longing for a reunion with Conciliar Rome, by a “new hate” for the pre-Conciliar truth.

Conclusion? Any Shakespeares amongst us, or any Catholics, must speak up, that Pachamama Rome is, as such, nothing other than an abomination, to be shunned.

Kyrie eleison.

Two Bishops

Two Bishops on December 21, 2019

Ever since the summer and autumn of 2012 when it became clear that two of the three bishops of the Society of St Pius X were no longer taking the position towards relations of the Society with Rome which they had taken in their April 7 letter to Society Headquarters, followers of the Society, priests and laity, have wondered why. Few people, then or since, will have taken the bishops’ change of position to have been a question of persons or personalities. Since the letter warned severely against abandoning Archbishop Lefebvre’s clear refusal of contacts with unconverted Rome, most people took the two bishops’ change for what it was, namely a rallying to the Superior General’s new principle of contact before conversion. Yet since Conciliar Rome had hardly changed except for the worse between 1988 and 2012, why had the two bishops changed?

The question retains all of its importance for today. What is to be gained by the Society for the Faith – not by the Faith for the Society! – through friendly contacts of the Society with the Conciliar Romans still hell-bent on their Vatican II ecumenism, down to and including the Pope’s veneration of the Pachamama idol in the very gardens of the Vatican? One thing seems certain: for the last 20 years the Society has staked everything for its future on that friendship, and to give it up now would mean admitting that these 20 years had all been a big mistake. Therefore the Society, in grave need of new bishops for its worldwide Traditional apostolate, cannot choose and consecrate its own choice of Traditional bishops, because these would certainly displease the Conciliar Romans. Therefore the two bishops in 2012 laid a heavy cross on their own backs, heavier each year – they helped to drive the Society up a blind alley – in 2019 it cannot have, and it cannot not have, its own bishops.

Recent information became available that throws some light on the two bishops’ decision to abandon the Archbishop’s line of conversion-before-contacts, to which they had so recently adhered. As for Bishop de Galarreta, we learn that almost as soon as the April 7 letter appeared on the Internet, he hastened to SSPX Headquarters to apologise to the Superior General for its appearance, which he absolutely disclaimed. But how could he disclaim the appearance without also dissociating himself from the content? It seems that the publication made him fear the imminent implosion of the Society more than the content made him fear the blind alley of the Society, its essential abandoning of the Archbishop’s defending of the faith. Was the Society’s survival more important than that of the faith?

Bishop Tissier de Mallerais took longer to retract his signature, so to speak, of the April 7 letter, but by early 2013 that retraction was also clear. To a friend he then gave the following episcopal guidance: Rome’s conversion cannot today come all at once. Official recognition will enable us to work that much more efficaciously from within the Church. We need patience and tact to take our time so as not to upset the Romans who still do not like our criticism of the Council, but we are making our way gradually – is that not what the Saints did? We must continue to denounce scandals and to accuse the Council, but we need to be intelligent so as to understand the way of thinking of our adversaries, who do after all include the See of Peter. Bishop Fellay’s policy has not really failed: nothing was signed on the 13th of June, 2012, nothing catastrophic, nothing stupendous has happened for the last 17 months. A few priests left us, which I find deplorable, from lack of prudence and judgment, but it was all their own fault. In brief, try to be more trusting in others and less trusting in yourself. Put your trust in the Society and its leaders. All’s well that ends well. That should be the spirit of your next decisions and writings.

Here end the bishop’s reasons for recommending his friend to follow Bishop Fellay. But have either Bishop de Galarreta or Bishop Tissier de Mallerais or Bishop Fellay fully understood the Archbishop’s reasons for cutting contact with the Conciliar Romans? Do not all three of them gravely underestimate the unprecedented crisis caused by the Conciliar churchmen’s on-going betrayal of the Truth and of the Faith? How can doctrinal compromise or merely human politicking with Rome solve that pre-apocalyptic crisis?

Kyrie eleison.

Youth Uprising

Youth Uprising on December 14, 2019

Wherever complicated and controversial ideas are being introduced to the public at large, it must be a classic technique of propagandists to focus people’s attention on some striking image which will remain in their minds to carry with it the new message. Here was surely the part designed to be played by the statues of Pachamama which were highlighted from beginning to end of the recent Synod of bishops held in Rome supposedly to advise the Pope on the future of the Catholic Church. The Pope himself said that they were statues of Mother Earth, in other words pagan idols. They certainly caught the attention of Catholics. A young Austrian man and his friend threw five of them into the River Tiber. The interview he gave afterwards to John-Henry Westen of Life Site News was highly edifying, and “amidst the encircling gloom” it deserves to be reproduced here, albeit abbreviated and adapted, as usual. Alexander Tschugguel, is 26 years old, was married only this summer and lives in the centre of Vienna.

What motivated you to throw out the idols? Did you think of the possible consequences for yourself?

With my wife I took an interest in the Synod. We visited the church where Amazonian exhibits were on display. I immediately saw the Pachamama statues as being idols breaking the First Commandment. My motive for acting was simple – get them out of the Catholic church, get paganism out of the Catholic sanctuary. As for consequences, I never thought what an impact throwing them out would have. I thought, truly serious consequences are, not getting to Heaven. In comparison, this act was not too much for me.

Do you mind telling us about your life in the Catholic faith?

I only became a Catholic when I converted at the age of 15 from Lutheranism. The more I investigated the Catholic faith, the more beautiful it became. I can no longer imagine not being Catholic.

How did you prepare spiritually to throw out the idols?

With a great deal of prayer. Many Rosaries every day, and daily Mass if possible. We prayed right up to entering the church to throw out the idols, and even while we were throwing them out. Spiritual preparation was everything. Without the prayer, the act would have been impossible.

Were you scared of the authorities, of breaking the law, of possible confrontations over the idols?

We were not looking for a fight, just to get the idols out of the church. We entered the church the moment it opened, just to avoid confrontation. We were neither stealing for personal use, nor seeking publicity. If any prosecution was to follow, we trusted in calm and prayer to deal with it, if and when it happened.

How did you react later when the Pope as Bishop of Rome apologised for your treatment of the idols?

Firstly, he called them “Pachamama,” so they really were idols. Secondly, we acted not against the people of Amazonia, but for them to have the real Catholic religion. “Holy Father, please understand. We simply do not want idols in the Church. We want the Church to follow Jesus Christ and Church Tradition.”

Many people would say, you simply hate Pope Francis.

I would never hate the Pope. I want to hate nobody. He needs our prayer and our humble help every day to make it easier for him to understand us. If the Synod is to help him, why cannot the laity help him?

Your act sparked valour all over the Church. Even high churchmen called your act “heroic.”

I am flattered, but what we did was never about us. We only meant to do what was right in the eyes of God. The First Commandment forbids bowing down in front of any graven image. That bowing down is exactly what happened in the Vatican gardens.

You followed the Synod. What about it, and what about its outcome?

It announced that it would deal with closed questions, like married priests and women priests, which made me suspicious. Then the whole political side of the Synod came into focus – it was a big mixture of wrong ideas in faith and politics. But the Synod was only to advise? Now they are saying it is to be applied, for instance in Germany. People must realise – behind the Synod was the whole globalist agenda.

You have taken action! How do you advise other young folk like yourself to go into action?

Visit the nearest most Traditional church. Pray tons of Rosaries. Read up on the Church’s philosophy and history. Talk to family, parish, friends. Speak up! Join pro-life, pro-family, help your priest, and so on . . .

Kyrie eleison.

Book Suggestions

Book Suggestions on December 7, 2019

December 25th is soon upon us, and there may be a number of readers caught up in the race to get presents which they hope will not end just in a tie. This last year has seen much good reading matter in English appearing in book form, either for the first time or as volumes of reprints, which should help Catholics to save their souls who wish to resist the mushing of their minds. Below are listed the four separate books, or series of books, and below again are the various postal or electronic addresses from where they can be purchased ( None of them are available from personal addresses of Bishop Williamson). Firstly, the books, in alphabetical order:—

“AS WE ARE?,” by Sean Johnson, who has for years been following closely developments in the Society of St Pius X. The so-called “Resistance” movement accuses the Society of diverging from the conversion-before-contact policy towards Conciliar Rome which the Society inherited from Archbishop Lefebvre (1905–1991), whereas the Society denies any such significant divergence from the Archbishop. In his book “As we are?” Johnson provides an abundance of evidence, including many electronic links, that the Society has for a long time been pursuing a different course from the Archbishop, because his successors have never seen as clearly as he did the full harm of the Council and of Conciliar Romans. Necessary reading for any Catholic seriously wanting to discern whether the Society has diverged or not.

“ELEISON COMMENTS,” by Bishop Williamson, in three volumes, numbers 1–200, 201–400 and 401–600. Here is the full set of his weekly Saturday “|Comments,” from their beginning on the Internet in Argentina in 2007 to their second issue from January of this year in Broadstairs, England. They cover a variety of subjects – philosophy, history, politics, art, music, theology – but are perhaps most useful for their tying all these subjects together in the perspective of the Catholic Faith. They are not infallible, but they do argue, and anyone who follows the arguments is not likely to suffer from a mushed mind.

“RECTOR’S LETTERS,” also by Bishop Williamson, in four volumes, are the letters which he wrote each month as Rector of the Society’s Seminary in the USA between 1983 and 2003, when he was still a member of the Society of St Pius X. They are the predecessors of the “Eleison Comments,” but are each of them twice as long, being monthly instead of weekly. They document the history of the Society over many of its best years, and steadily analyse the madness of our times in the consistent light of God and of His one true Church. In these “Letters” and “Comments” a certain number of souls have by the grace of God found their way to Him, despite all the confusion of our darkened age. Thanks be to God.

“VOICE of the TRUMPET,” last but not least, by Dr David White, retired English professor from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, is a one-volume biography of his long-standing friend, Bishop Williamson, from 1940 until a few years ago. Only the first of the book’s four parts is strictly biographical. The other three parts tell the story of the Bishop’s on-going battle with modern Church and world in a highly original but popular style, unique to the good Doctor, who is specially able by his strong faith and deep knowledge of world music and literature to relate Our Lord’s Church and the modern world to one another. Again, highly recommended for any Catholic wishing to fume – or to think.

And secondly, four sources of availability for these books, in alphabetical order:—

Amazon.com for “As we are?,” “Letters” and “Trumpet.”

Cathoilc Action Resource Center for “As we are?,” “Eleison Comments” and “Trumpet”

ChantCD for “As we are?”

Stmarcelinitiative.com for “Letters” and “Trumpet.”

Kyrie eleison.