LEFEBVRE post 1988 – II

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And most of us? Evil can make us glad!

Three weeks ago these “Comments” concluded with a few lines of verse, but a few more lines than usual, in order to draw the lesson from words of wisdom spoken by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1989 concerning that controversial consecration of four bishops which he had performed in the summer of 1988 without the official permission of Rome, normally necessary. However, not all readers may have understood how the lines of verse were connected to the Archbishop’s line of thinking. And even for those who did understand, the crucial question of those consecrations deserves always to be developed, so we return to the subject. Here are those lines of verse, in heavy black, with explanation following –

Here is the central problem. A “liberal” is somebody whose real religion is not Catholicism, as he may deceive himself, but liberty. Thus he can come to think that Catholicism, the one true religion of the one true God, is a matter of choice, of his own choice, and he personally chooses it, but if anybody else wants to choose any other of the numberless false religions, he is at liberty to do so. He is not. True, God gives to every one of us human beings at the age of reason the faculty of free-will enabling us to choose between truth and error, between right and wrong, but He gives us no moral right to choose error or moral wrong. If He gives me the faculty of reason with its free-will, it is only so that I will make good use of it by choosing whatever is true and right, so that by rewarding me with Heaven He can share His infinite bliss. If I have the free-will to choose error or wrong, I have no “liberty” to escape the consequences of my choice, which will ultimately be, if I do not repent, the fires of eternal Hell. I will have freely chosen Hell. Only in this sense are human beings “free” to choose for themselves (what they know to be) any false religion.

It follows that if anybody wants to persuade me that my worth or dignity as a human being depends on my mere faculty of free-will, and not on the right use I make of it, then he is wanting to persuade me of a terrible error (he is a wolf), even while he is pretending to encourage my dignity (he is in sheep’s clothing). Every soul in Hell has the “dignity” of having itself chosen its torment, but what real dignity is that? The “dignity” to blaspheme, for ever and ever!? Yet such is the doctrine of Vatican II, with its Decree on “Human Dignity”: the State must protect the right, not just faculty, of every citizen to choose his own religion. This Decree is absolutely not Catholic. No wonder the Archbishop never signed it!

Are not the fruits of Vatican II millions upon millions of Catholics losing the Faith? Of course! The Council has told them that their dignity consists in choosing whatever religion they like! There are so many religions much easier to practise than Catholicism!

Here is why the worshippers of “liberty” must have religious liberty, because whoever or whatever else they are free from, if they are not free from God Himself with His Ten Commandments, what are they really free from? Here is why religious liberty is the key to “liberty,” and why every liberal inclines to join in that war on God, war against God, which rages all around us. Here is why the Decree of Vatican II on “Human Dignity” is an unbelievable crime against all mankind. And in the half century since Vatican II, do the high Church officials in Rome show any sign of abandoning their wretched Council? In real terms, none at all!

Among liberals, at least the ring-leaders know exactly what they are doing. Theirs is a diabolical pride. They know they are destroying the Catholic Church, and they are defying God to do His worst. God, have mercy! Archbishop Lefebvre understood what they were up to, but not all his followers understand.

Kyrie eleison