HONOURING APOSTATES

To venerate apostates is not wise!

If these “Comments” sometimes shock good souls by how they can present either the Newchurch (since 1965) or the Newsociety of St Pius X (since 2012) in a good light, let them know that it is for pastoral reasons, because many Catholics are hanging on to their Catholic Faith through either the Newchurch or the Newsociety by their fingernails, and without the Newchurch or the Newsociety they could easily let go. In many such cases surely the proverb applies, “Better half a loaf than no bread.” On the other hand for doctrinal reasons this way of keeping the Faith has its serious dangers because both Newchurch and Newsociety have made compromises in doctrine which are dangerous for keeping the Catholic Faith. Here is that valuable lesson, from the following article written by a Benedictine monk of the Monastery of Santa Cruz, near Rio de Janeiro. “Arsenius” (his pen-name) has our warm thanks. 

Ever since the heresy of humanism (man before God) was made officially “Catholic” by the Council Fathers of Vatican II (1962–1965), the Popes and their advisers have done nothing but continue on their way leading straight to the abyss, falling typically faster and faster as their fall proceeds. Such a picture in no way inspires within us any hope for the least glimmer of a wish on the part of any of these officials to look after Catholic Tradition (meaning quite simply the true Church) in any way whatsoever. However, there are those who not only entertained some such hope but even felt a strange certainty that things were getting better for Tradition in Rome. By “Tradition” here they can only have meant the Newsociety with its desire to enter into a blameworthy “unity in diversity” with Rome. Hence the split, puzzling for many, between the Newsociety of St Pius X and the so-called “Resistance.” 

The turning-point for the Society of St Pius X was the year 2012, when the Resolution of the previous General Chapter of 2006, that there would be no practical agreement with Rome as long as the Catholic Truth had not yet triumphed, was replaced by the Newsociety’s official desire for a practical agreement, even if the Pope and his advisers had not yet come back to the Catholic Truth. Bishop Williamson was excluded from the General Chapter that made this change, and then from the Newsociety altogether. 

The years that followed showed more and more clear signs of Rome and the Newsociety growing closer together. One by one, Rome gave official approval to the marriages, priestly ordinations and confessions dispensed by the Newsociety. Was this the famous phrase being put into practice, namely “Rome gives everything and asks for nothing in return”? In which case the phrase was a reality and not just an illusion? One might well reply that it was just a way of acting to ensure that from now on the Newsociety would be acting more and more only with modernist Rome’s approval, basing its activity no longer on the general and grave emergency within the Church, because with Tradition now being “officialised,” the emergency was supposedly over. Meanwhile Rome would be waiting for the day when it could “pull the rug” from under the Newsociety’s feet, driving it into the blind alley into which it had driven itself. 

But may the recent announcement that the Newsociety is going to consecrate one or more bishops without Rome’s permission not be a sign that the old Society prior to 2012 is coming back? Alas, that seems virtually impossible. A return to the fighting spirit of Archbishop Lefebvre against the enemies of the Church in Rome seems to us a heritage of his in large part now lost within the Newsociety. The future looks dark to us, although God is still at work in numerous souls, thanks to the apostolate of members of the Newsociety. But that does not stop us from recognising that the Newsociety should be correcting a number of its post-Lefebvre guiding principles. In any case, the more scandals stain the pontificate of Francis, and the more the illusions of a reconciliation with Rome should be fading out. May Our Lady make us understand and love deeply the Church of all time, not to be identified with its caricature fabricated at Vatican II, and put into practice in the pontificates following. 

Kyrie eleison