doctrinal discussions

Fairy Tale?

Fairy Tale? on February 4, 2017

Once upon a time there was a young girl (SSPX) who had been very well brought up by her good father (Archbishop Lefebvre). He had warned her about Don Juan (Neo-modernist Popes). For a number of years the girl was serious and sensible, and she resisted Don Juan’s advances. Alas, one day her beloved father died, and the girl inherited his fortune. For a while she remained faithful to his commands. Surrounded by a group of other wise girls (anti-liberals of the SSPX) she continued to administer her fortune by looking after the orphans on her father’s estate (Traditional Catholics).

But time was passing. She was no longer so young. She began to fear growing too old to marry. She was afraid that to card her wool and work on her embroidery she would soon be on her own. Poor girl! She so wanted to be loved, to have her own legitimate children (Traditionalists recognized by Rome). She wanted to achieve more than just doing charity work for orphans. She was bored with her life. She was being mocked and insulted by neighbours who wanted her to get married (conservatives and Traditionalists gone over to Rome).

Now Don Juan had shown again and again how wicked he was, and he had ruined and dishonoured many a good girl (Communities gone over to Rome), but he was heir to the largest family in the Kingdom, with the title of Vice-Roy (Vicar of Christ). After a prolonged study of the girl’s character and virtue, he decided on a special way to seduce her – he would appeal to her highest feelings. So he began by admitting that he was far from perfect, that he had even made mistakes. He even asked the girl if they could meet to discuss things. She used the opportunity to tell him all that she thought of him and his friends (Discussions of 2009–2011). And during all this time (2006–2012) she repeated even in public that marriage with him was out of the question unless he mended his ways.

And then Don Juan had a brilliant idea! He told the girl that she was not like all the other girls he had known. That her stubborn resistance had opened his eyes. That she alone could heal his wounds (the post-Conciliar disasters), and make him change, and mend his ways for good! The girl decided

to get advice from her friends. She gathered them together on her father’s estate (Écône, 2012). Unfortunately for her, she had by now sent away from her the sensible girls that her dead father had chosen as companions for her (a bishop and priests of the Resistance). Her own choice of friends were foolish girls who were drunk with delight at the thought of their friend marrying the Vice-Roy. So they helped to convince her (General Chapter of 2012 and aftermath) that she could transform her future husband, like St Clothilde had transformed Clovis. They told her too that Don Juan’s desire to be helped by her showed that he was already mending his ways!

Meanwhile Don Juan kept the seduction going by maintaining contacts and discussions with the girl and her close friends. So despite the rebukes and repeated warnings from the sensible girls now living in the woods around her father’s stately home, she had made up her mind! She believed what Don Juan was telling her! She believed in the foolish girls’ arguments! Yes, she, and she alone, would succeed in saving Don Juan from himself! How could her dear old father not have given his approval!

Poor girl! She had lost her grip on reality. She could no longer see that the Vice-Roy’s very nature was corrupted, and so he was sure to corrupt her too, and all her future children, and all the orphans on her father’s estate. As for the sensible girls, they were shivering with cold in the woods around the estate where they had been cast out. They wept for the good old father, with lamentations fit to break one’s heart. If only he could come back! Oh dear! Oh woe is us! But the only answer to their mournful wailing was the whistling of the winter wind in the trees. It was night . . .

Kyrie eleison.

New Bishop

New Bishop on March 28, 2015

Fr. Jean-Michel Faure’s consecration as bishop at the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Brazil last week was a delightful occasion. The weather was warm and dry. The sun shone. Fr Thomas Aquinas’ monks and the nearby Sisters had excelled themselves in transforming a concrete and metal garage into a sanctuary worthy of the noble liturgy, which they had also very well prepared. Despite the late notice, a group of priests was present from all over the Americas and France, and a congregation of a hundred souls, also from many different countries, followed attentively the three-hour ceremony.

Since then all Catholics have rejoiced who see the need for at least one more bishop to help ensure the survival of a “Resistant Tradition.” Archbishop Lefebvre’s understanding of the defence of the Catholic Faith could not be left for very much longer to depend on one bishop alone. His consecration of four bishops in 1988 without Rome’s permission, by “Operation Survival” as opposed to “Operation Suicide,” had to be extended into the 21st century. Apologies go to all Catholics who would love to have attended if only they had had enough notice, but everything had to be done, including a measure of discretion, to make sure that the consecration would take place.

It had powerful adversaries. The official Church in Rome reacted by declaring the consecrator to be “automatically excommunicated,” but as in 1988 this declaration is false, because by Church Law whoever commits a punishable act does not incur the normal penalty, e.g. excommunication for consecrating a bishop without Rome’s permission, if he acted out of necessity. That is common sense, and there was certainly necessity here. As the world draws closer and closer to World War III, what individual on earth can be sure of his own survival?

Also the official Society of St Pius X in Menzingen, Switzerland, condemned Bishop Faure’s consecration in a press statement issued on the day itself. Worthy of note in it is the admission that the consecrator was excluded from the Society in 2012 because of his “vigorous criticism” of the Society’s contacts with Rome in recent years. Menzingen claimed for the longest time that the problem was one of “disobedience.” Now at last Menzingen admits that it was being steadily accused of “betraying Archbishop Lefebvre’s work.” Indeed. Betraying and destroying.

Rome itself confirms the betrayal. On the day after the consecration, Monsignor Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, besides declaring the non-existent “excommunication,” went on to say, Several meetings (between Rome and the SSPX) have taken place and more are planned with certain (Roman) prelates, to go into the problems still needing to be cleared up in a relationship of trust,” problems “doctrinal and internal to the Society.”

Monsignor Pozzo went on: The Pope is waiting for the Society to make up its mind to enter the Church, and we are always ready with a familiar canonical project (a personal prelature). A little time is needed for things to become clear within the Society and for Bishop Fellay to obtain a broad enough consensus before taking this step.

What more can anyone need to see the writing on the wall?

Kyrie eleison.

Archbishop’s Sense – II

Archbishop’s Sense – II on December 27, 2014

Twelve weeks ago (Oct. 5) “Eleison Comments” presented a first series of extracts from the last public interview of Archbishop Lefebvre, given to Fideliter magazine in early 1991. Here follows a second and last series of extracts, slightly edited but only for the sake of brevity and clarity:—

Q: What conclusions can we draw from the Society of St Pius X after 20 years of its existence?

A: The Good Lord wanted Catholic Tradition. I am deeply convinced that the Society is the means that God wanted to keep and maintain the Faith, the truth of the Church. We must continue faithfully to keep the treasures of the Church, hoping that one day they may resume the place which they should never have lost in Rome.

Q: You often say that, more than the liturgy, it is now the Faith which opposes us to modern Rome.

A: Certainly the question of the liturgy and the sacraments is very important, but the most important is the question of the Faith. This is not a question for us. We have the Faith of all time, of the Council of Trent, of the Catechism of St. Pius X, of all the Councils and all the Popes before Vatican II. For years they have tried in Rome to show that everything in the Council was fully consistent with this Tradition. Now they are showing their true colours by saying there is no longer any Tradition or Deposit to be transmitted. Tradition in the Church is whatever the Pope is saying today. You must submit to what the Pope and the bishops say today. Here is their famous ‘Living Tradition,’ which was the only basis for our condemnation in 1988.

Now they have given up trying to prove that what they say is consistent with what Pius IX wrote or with what the Council of Trent promulgated. No, all of that is over; it’s outdated, as Cardinal Ratzinger said. It is clear, and they might have said so earlier. There was no point in our talking, in our discussing with them. Now we suffer from the tyranny of authority, because there are no longer any rules from the past.

They are showing more and more that we are right. We are dealing with people who have a different philosophy from ours, a different way of seeing, who are influenced by all modern subjectivist philosophers. For them there is no fixed truth, there is no dogma. Everything is evolving. This is really the Masonic destruction of the Faith. Fortunately, we have Tradition to lean on!

Q: You have emphasized that you are sure that the Society is blessed by God, because at several points it could have disappeared.

A: Indeed. It has kept coming under very difficult attacks. That is very painful, but we must nonetheless believe that the line of Faith and Tradition that we are following, is imperishable, because God cannot allow his Church to perish.

Q; What can you say to those of the faithful who still hope in the possibility of an agreement with Rome?

A: Our true faithful, those who have understood the problem and who have precisely helped us to continue along the straight and firm path of Tradition and the Faith, told me that the approaches I was making towards Rome were dangerous and that I was wasting my time. Yet I hoped until the last minute that in Rome we would witness a little bit of loyalty, so I cannot be blamed for not having done the maximum. So now too, to those who say to me, “You’ve got to reach an agreement with Rome,” I think I can say that I then went even further than I should have.

Kyrie eleison.

New Ordinations – I

New Ordinations – I on May 10, 2014

Should priests ordained with the new rite of Ordination of 1972 be conditionally re-ordained with the old and certainly valid rite of Ordination? Catholic doctrine on the validity of sacraments is clear, but the sacramental rites of the Newchurch seem to have been designed to lead gradually to invalidity (see EC 121 of Oct 31, 2009). The « gradually » is the problem. How far along was that gradual process in any given case? Perhaps God alone knows for sure. But let us begin with the clear doctrine.

One can say a Catholic sacrament involves five elements: Minister, Intention, Matter and Form are essential for validity, the Rite surrounding the Form can be important for validity by its sudden or gradual bearing on the Minister’s Intention. For priestly Orders, the Minister has to be a validly consecrated bishop; the Intention is his sacramental (not moral) intention, in ordaining, to do what the Church does; theMatter is his laying of both hands on the head of the man to be ordained (women cannot be validly ordained to the priesthood of Christ); the Form is the crucial formula or series of words in the rite which express the conferring of the priesthood; the Rite is all the other words surrounding that Form, and prescribed in the ceremonial rite of Ordination.

In a new rite Ordination, if both hands are laid on the head, the Matter is no problem. The new Form in Latin is, if anything, stronger for validity than the old Form in Latin (by the « et » instead of an « ut »), but vernacular translations need to be checked to make sure that they clearly express the grace of the priesthood to be conferred. Most of them surely do. Where real problems of validity arise is with the Minister and the Intention, because of the gradual erosion of Catholic Intention by the uncatholic new Rites.

For, as to the Intention, any bishop today ordaining a priest surely intends to do what today’s Church does, well and good, but what is that in his mind? What is a priest in the Newchurch? Is not yesteryear’s renewer of the Sacrifice of Calvary by the Real Presence being slowly but steadily replaced by today’s co-ordinator of eucharistic picnics? How far along is this process in any given diocese of the world? Did this or that bishop have in mind a sacrificer or a picnicker as being what the Church does? The ordaining bishop’s outward behaviour will indicate his Intention, but God alone may know for sure. Certainly many new Rites of Mass incline towards the picnicker, and the new Rite of Ordination surrounding the Form can only help by its severely diminished catholic content to undermine gradually the sacramental Intention of an ordaining bishop.

And as to the Minister, if the ordaining bishop was himself consecrated bishop with the new rite of consecration, let us assume that the ambiguity of the new Form of consecration is lifted by the words immediately following, nevertheless doubts like those above as to the Intention of the bishop consecrating must arise: did he consider, and therefore have as his Intention, that today’s Church consecrates makers of the Sacrifice, or of picnics? Such questions can often lack clear answers.

In brief, were I Pope, I think I might require that all priests or bishops ordained or consecrated with the « renewed » rites should be conditionally re-ordained or re-consecrated, not because I would believe that none of them were true priests or bishops, on the contrary, but because when it comes to the sacraments all serious doubts must be removed, and that would be the simplest way of removing all possible doubts. Newchurch rot of the sacraments could not be left hanging around.

Kyrie eleison.

French Tour

French Tour on April 12, 2014

Good news again, this time from France, once more small in quantity but high in quality. A handful of good priests are gathering together and taking action to make sure that the Faith will continue to be defended along the lines laid down by Archbishop Lefebvre, steering between sedevacantism on the right and conciliarism – from above. SSPX HQ will be left to disarm its followers, while a remainder of happy priests will continue to take arms with the true religion for the next stage in their persecution.

This is what I observed on a fourth lecture tour since last autumn of centres in France where the laity are interested in the anti-liberal doctrine of the Catholic Popes between Pius VI (1717–1799) and Pius XII (1876–1958). That doctrine was not new, even at the beginning of the century and a half over which it was elaborated. It was merely that particular part of the Church’s timeless teaching which needed to be refreshed from the moment when the Christian social order of 15 centuries was undermined and supplanted by the French Revolution of 1789.

That Revolution was Freemasonic liberalism making war on God by seeking to overthrow throne and altar. Since then the Catholic thrones have been virtually overthrown by “democracy,” while the Catholic altars were virtually overthrown at Vatican II by that Council’s conversion to the religion of man. Archbishop Lefebvre however, cleaving to the religion of God, wished that his seminarians would be thoroughly familiar with the Church’s anti-Revolutionary doctrine in order to know how to take their Catholic stand in the midst of a liberal world. It follows that Catholic lay-folk who can see how the Archbishop’s Society of St Pius X is being cunningly transformed into the Newsociety, are interested in the Popes’ Encyclical Letters of those 150 years before Vatican II. On the first of my four lecture tours there were five stops. On the latest, between end March and early April, there were nine, and there risk being more invitations. There are, all the time, more French lay-folk waking up to how the Society is being misled.

Alas, all too many SSPX priests are still spellbound by a master of seduction, lost in his worldly dream. I met a few of them on this latest tour. They are no doubt good men, they have been good priests, they have their eyes open and see many things, but when they are exposed once more to that seducer, their vision clouds over and their will is puzzled. The Greek verb “diaballein” from which come the English words “diabolical” and “devil,” means to turn upside down, to throw into confusion.

These confused priests contrast with the half dozen mentioned above who have seen clear and are taking action on what they see. The tension by which they were tortured for as long as they tried to remain loyal to diabolical leaders is a thing of the past. They are serene, and happily making plans for the continuation of the Archbishop’s work. Fr. de Mérode, ordained many years ago, has left the SSPX of his own accord, has bought one house in Lourdes and is buying another in the Southwest of France. These will act both as bases for an apostolate to many interested souls in the region, and as refuges for priests needing somewhere to recover. I can add that I met a venerable soul in Lyon who is offering a studio of hers in that city to any priest similarly looking for a roof. Also the “Resistance” House in Broadstairs, England, is now open and can receive priestly visitors. One has already come by. Discretion guaranteed.

Outside, Archbishop, of its structure bent

Your noble work continues, as you meant.

Kyrie eleison.

Good News

Good News on January 18, 2014

The first piece of good news is that Queen of Martyrs house in south-east England is being bought these very days. At first the purchase price seemed out of reach, but two telephone calls to a French and an American benefactor promptly raised about two fifths and another quarter respectively of the sum needed, and suddenly the purchase came within range. About another seventh part came from the many benefactors of the St Marcel Initiative, I emptied out several piggy-banks of my own, and finally an Asian benefactor put us over the top.

Resounding thanks to every one of you that contributed, because the smaller donations are not to be scorned. God does not look only on the amount. Maybe only when he sees enough widows caring enough to pay in their widows’ mites (Lk.XXI, 1–4), does he inspire the benefactors capable of the larger donations. With God, spirit leads matter, and not the other way round. But do please pray for the three benefactors mentioned above, to whom we are all indebted. Especially I think of the house being able to serve as a refuge for priests to visit, as an island of sanity.

For indeed the second piece of good news is that the betrayal of the Faith by the leaders of the Newsociety of St Pius X is becoming clearer, little by little, to SSPX priests. One by one, some of the best of them are being alienated and then excluded by the Newsociety. It pretends that they are leaving of their own free will, or for purely personal reasons, or that they are being excluded for their disobedience. Never of course will these traitors in SSPX headquarters admit that it is their own treachery which is driving these priests out. Yet one after another they are declaring that their problem with the Newsociety is one of doctrine: the official SSPX documents of April 15 and July 14, 2012, and June 27, 2013, demonstrate that the Newsociety leaders are abandoning Archbishop Lefebvre’s glorious fight for the Faith in exchange for a mess of Conciliar pottage.

Thus in South America a capable and devoted SSPX Prior is refusing a change of post obviously designed to control and silence his opposition to the sell-out by Headquarters, and he writes to his District Superior that his refusal is for purely doctrinal reasons. In Austria a long-suffering and faithful former Prior gives five serious reasons for his departure from the SSPX, and all that the First Assistant finds to reply is that his reasons are “beneath consideration.” In France above all, a group of 12 priests have met together and issued a public declaration of allegiance to the doctrinal stand of Archbishop Lefebvre, and they have placed their priesthoods at the disposal of parents needing education for their children, of young men needing formation for the priesthood and of souls needing the sacraments. It has taken time for the priests in France to begin to react, but the reaction should be all the stronger for the delay. Archbishop Lefebvre was fond of quoting the French proverb which says that time does not respect anything done without it.

Have patience, dear readers. God is not in a hurry, nor is he mocked (Gal.VI, 7). If the SSPX misleaders try to console themselves that the priests departing or excluded represent only a small minority of the total of some 500 SSPX priests, how little they understand the power of truth! They have abandoned it, and it is abandoning them – inexorably. God have mercy on us all.

Kyrie eleison.