Editorial
By Rev. Father Patrick Girouard SSPX

Has the World Gone Crazy?

Autumn was bittersweet, and winter remains fierce in this month of March. But the days are lengthening and this brings us the hope of Spring. Can we have this kind of hope though, concerning the state of our world?  Doesn’t it seem indeed that a third world war is looming more and more towards us as the US Government with their warlike politics show us more and more clearly that the United Nations is nothing else but gigantic farce.

 Nevertheless sometimes it seems God wants to shake the self-confidence of this world’s Mighty Ones. Does it not seem a bit bizarre that while a spacecraft which was the glory of our southern neighbour, and which was coming down to earth after two weeks of successful experiments, disintegrated over a county named Palestine, while it was carrying back the new Hero of Israel?

Before to leave his family this poor man said to his 6 years old daughter, who was telling the cameras she was afraid Columbia would blow out like Challenger: “Don’t worry, this happens only in the movies”. Would it not have been better for him and the NASA had they prayed God to bless their work?

Maybe God would have keep them safe, as on January 19^th last He protected Fr. Grieg Gonzalez SSPX (based in Ridgefield), when a weird parishioner shot him with a .22 cal. bullet, while he was saying Mass in Eddystone (Pennsylvania). The bullet simply hit and bounced off Father’s shoe, only to land on the altar!

Yes my friends, the world is crazy and full of catastrophes, and more people get weird and nuts, as more do not know where to find the answers they are desperately looking for. And where can they go? Can they trust their Pastors? If the Pope who took as Motto the first words (Totus Tuus) of the Marian Consecration promoted by St Louis de Monfort can change the Rosary revived by the same Montfort, whom can we trust? Can the Pope appoint as Bishops those who are more consistent than he is? Can we expect many good tidings to come on our way from the new Primate of the Canadian Church; H. E. Mgr Marc Ouellet, appointed Archbishop of Quebec on Nov. 19^th 2002?

I suppose he was sincere in his Installment Speech on Jan 26^th last, when he said that we need to “listen to the message of the Cross which marks the history of the world and of New-France, from Gaspe to Montreal, from Our Lady Of The Cape to Our Lady Of Quebec. Is not this glorious Cross our light and our hope amidst the vagrancies of this time? …Quebec languishes far from the values that were the strength and the glory of his forefathers… How much should we not care about the education of virtues and of spiritual attitudes that shape the soul and the destiny of a people! …Time is running short!”

But what are the solutions of the Archbishop? He says we must not find them in “a sterile nostalgia” but in the experiences of everyday people. We will know him better when we will learn that before his last nomination he was working at the infamous Secretariat for the Unity Of Christians, that his Archiepiscopal Motto is “That They All Be One”, and that he greeted the Assembly with the Hebrew word “Shalom!” So it seems that despite his nice speech it is not at the Archbishop’s door that we will be able to receive the true Doctrine of the Church.

This is the reason why magazines like ours and like “The Angelus”, “Fideliter”, or the new “Mater Dei” (whose spectacular new publication we hail) is so important nowadays. They provide us with efficacious counter-poison to resist the deleterious atmosphere of our times, and enlighten the path we are to follow if we want to save our souls.

That is what we want to do here in the Canadian District of the SSPX with the edition of our magazine. We will continue to try our best, even though we lost Rev. Fr. Dominique De Vriendt, who was our Editor, when he joined his new assignment as teacher at our school of Calgary last November. He is now teaching Religion, Science, and French Second Language to different grades varying between the 5^th to the 9^th one.  Father is happy and doing well.  In fact he goes back to his first love, because before entering the Seminary he has obtained his degree in Education and was teaching seniors at High School.  As most of SSPX priests, Father often takes care of our Missions, so he is way to busy now to be able to take care of the Communicantes. 

This is why Fr. Violette decided to give that responsibility to your humble servant. We seize here the opportunity to heartily thank Fr. De Vriendt for his good work and his undeterred dedication during more than four years at the wheel of our national magazine.

If the latter comes out a few weeks late, it is not only because of our somewhat uneasy apprenticeship of computer work, or because we decided to have that new issue start with the first Quarter of 2003, but it is also because we attempted – and we hope it was successful – to refresh a bit its outlook and to diversify somehow its contents, so as to be able to reach a greater audience.  We wish, with the help of our confreres and of our readers, to manage to offer you regular chronicles on various topics, such as Liturgy, Mariology, Church Law, Lives of the Saints, and also Literature, Music, Poetry, etc.  It would be a good thing also to create a Public Forum that could become the scene of sane debates and exchange of opinions and of information.

Another change is that the Rosary Crusade Clarion will henceforth be published in the Communicantes only, and it is our wish that this will help for a greater expansion of the Crusade. It will remain under the direction of Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Herkel SSPX, who is based in Vernon, BC.

We would not like to finish these introductory words without recommending to your prayers the soul of Rev. Fr. Terry Marks, who worked for the Society in Canada for a while, and died on in Richmond (Virginia) after a short illness. He was a compassionate and jovial priest, and we hope that the Good Lord will admit him soon in Abraham’s Bosom.

Now enjoy your reading, and God be with you all!