May,
2007
Dear
friends and benefactors,
I
would like to take up, in this new letter, the reasons for
what we could call, our “Catholic Resistance.”
For such is clearly our position, ever since the Second
Vatican Council until today. Despite all the obstacles,
we endeavour to resist the spirit of the Council, destructive
as much through its novelties in doctrine as in its influence
on the Faith through the new liturgy. The council has been
presented as the hope of a new era in the Church, as a new
infusion of the Holy Spirit, as a saving revival. But in
reality, what everyone can see today is rather an auto-demolition
of the Church (to use the expression of Pope Paul VI), the
infusion of a Protestant and liberal spirit, the decline
of the most fundamental values of our Catholic Faith.
Let
us recall the main novelties conflicting with the Catholic
Faith that Archbishop Lefebvre, not long after the council,
brought up already, the devastating effects of which we
cannot fail to see today in the life of the Church: collegiality,
religious liberty, and ecumenism.
The
“collegiality” conceived by Vatican II has introduced
a principle of subversion of pontifical authority and the
authority of the bishops. The Pope, since the constitution
Lumen Gentium, is now regarded simply as the head
of the assembly of bishops and no longer necessarily as
the Vicar of Christ, the representative of supreme authority.
The Episcopal conferences have withdrawn from the bishops
their personal and direct power over their faithful in the
dioceses. A sort of collegial responsibility has been substituted
for their personal responsibilities. That is why, today,
the Pope must be attentive to the bishops more than being
able to govern the Church as the supreme Pontiff which he
is. The bishops themselves also must follow somewhat the
indications and tendencies given by their clergy and their
faithful (or their representatives, generally self-proclaimed).
There follows a decreasing, if not an almost complete loss,
of the sense of authority in the mind, as well as a real
disobedience in deeds.
The
new religious liberty promoted by Vatican II is no less
contrary to the Catholic Faith because it is a direct attack
on the objective rights of the truth and of the Faith. Man
no longer is under the obligation to submit himself to the
authority of God, but on the contrary, he is acknowledged
the right to adhere to any religious error whatsoever. From
this has come the confusion between the respect due to any
person, no matter what ideas he professes, with the negation
of the existence of an objective truth.
Ecumenism
is even more striking. It is perhaps here that the innovation
introduced by the Second Vatican Council is the most contradictory
with the teachings of the Catholic Faith. In fact, the dogmatic
constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium and the
decree on ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio are
radically opposed to the teachings of the preceding popes,
in particular Pius IX in the encyclical Quanta Cura and
Pius XI in the encyclical Mortalium Animos. The
ecumenism of Vatican II imposes an entirely new attitude
of Catholics toward other religions. It is no longer a question
of seeking to encourage a return of the separated brethren
to the Roman Catholic Church which is the only Church of
Christ, but rather to openly favour a certain convergence,
a sort of joining of all “the Churches” to Christ.
The ecumenism of the council, during these last forty years,
has only intensified and extended itself, contradicting
the traditional doctrine and observances of the Church and
favouring the idea that all religions are equally good.
The
new liturgy of Paul VI is, notably, a practical application
of this prevailing ecumenism. As the principal author of
the new liturgical fabrication, Fr. Annibale Bugnini, has
said, it is a question “of doing everything to facilitate
for our separated brethren the way to union, in removing
every stone that could constitute even the shadow of a risk
of a stumbling-block or displeasure.” And therefore,
the New Mass, constructed with the help of Protestants,
has given a Protestant sense to the Holy Sacrifice.
We
understand well that the effects we see in the Church today
have a principal cause, even if it is not the only cause,
which is none other than the Second Vatican Council. Today,
the Roman authorities recognize that there is a crisis in
the Church, but for its cause they do not see anything but
the excesses, disobediences, and abuses…. The disasters
of these past decades are not seen as due to the “true”
council, but to a bad interpretation of the council. Unfortunately,
everything indicates—the texts, their common interpretation,
and the events—that the origin, the root of the evil
is found in the council, in the innovative principles, and
in their very spirit.
The
relativism and religious indifference of which Pope Benedict
XVI warned in his discourse of January 27, 2006, the laicism
of our increasingly atheistic societies, and above all the
loss of the notion of the True Faith in the Catholic Church,
certainly have a cause—we find it in the declaration
itself on religious liberty Dignitatis Humanae
of Vatican II, as well as in the ecumenism that has followed
it.
It
is in these principles that we find the foundations of our
Catholic Resistance. Perhaps our critiques will shock certain
people, and several will think we lack submission to the
present Magisterium of the Church; however, it is with a
profound and real respect for the authorities of the Church,
for the Sovereign Pontiff, for the bishops, and for the
clergy as a whole, that we present these objections and
hope that the doctrinal discussions will begin and be encouraged.
We ask ourselves why it is so difficult today to discuss
these doctrinal objections while we see that the Catholic
Faith is in danger.
Let
us, dear faithful, have no sharpness in our words, let us
keep charity toward everyone, but above all let us stay
attached to the Truth. We have nothing but a desire to conserve
the Catholic Faith as it has always been taught in the Church.
It is here, and nowhere else, that our Catholic Resistance
is placed.
Fr.
Arnaud Rostand
District Superior of Canada
