June 2008
Dear Faithful,
During the past few months, a tract proposing
to order from the main office of the Pius X Society, district
of Canada, a DVD permitting priests to learn to celebrate
the Tridentine Mass has been sent out to all the priests
of Canada, more than 7,000 mailings. In the face of the
silence and the dearth of reactions that the Motu Proprio
“Summorum Pontificum” of July 7th 2007
had provoked in Canada, it seemed important to us to make
the document of Pope Benedict XVI known to the members of
the Canadian clergy and to inform them of the existence
of such a DVD. The response to these mailings has been promising
because we have already received more than 300 demands and
more keep arriving in the mail. We have had the joy of receiving
some letters of encouragement for our apostolate coming
from priests in various Provinces. Certain among them also
expressed their joy at being able to learn or re-learn to
celebrate the traditional Mass. It is true that we also
received some letters of disapproval.
I wish to render special thanks to the
Legion of Mary Presidium in Toronto who, by its hard work,
has permitted the realization of this project. It was an
immense task but a magnificent apostolate towards the Canadian
clergy.
Time and again, we have been questioned
on the attitude to be taken in the face of the apparition,
while still too minimal in Canada, of Masses according to
the new Motu Proprio. The position of the Society of Pius
X on this subject has already been exposed by our Superior
General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, on the occasion of the publication
of the Motu Proprio as well as in the “Letters to
Friends and Benefactors”. The Society is sincerely
rejoiced by the publication of this document, in particular
because it affirms that the Tridentine Mass has never been
abrogated. We rejoice also that priests may and in fact,
have already recommenced celebrating the Mass according
to the ancient rite, thus permitting additional faithful
who ignored it or who didn’t dare participate in it
out of scruples on “legality” to discover the
treasures of the traditional liturgy. In numerous countries,
the Society puts this DVD, or other means of learning to
celebrate the Mass, at the disposition of priests. The Society
priests are also at the disposition of those who wish to
be guided or assisted in this apprenticeship.
However, as Bishop Fellay has reminded
us several times, if the Society of Pius X rejoices at the
courageous decision of Pope Benedict XVI expressed in the
Motu Proprio, it doesn’t thereby forget that the law
of the liturgy is inseparable from the law of Faith: Lex
Orandi, Lex Credendi. Our attachment to the traditional
liturgy is intrinsically linked to our attachment to the
Faith of all Times, to the Faith that has been professed
“always, everywhere, and by all”.
Now, it is sadly still very clear that
the crisis of faith is still too present in the Church today.
The errors of Vatican II and it’s devastating modernist
spirit still imbue the Church authorities, clergy and faithful,
particularly those who have known only the new mass or have
become accustomed to it.
Our position has always been and remains
an attachment to the Catholic Faith and refusal of the novelties
introduced by the Second Vatican Council. A return to the
liturgy is an important event that we encourage with all
our heart but this remains a step towards a complete return
to the traditional teachings of the Church. This is why
Bishop Fellay concludes his last letter to friends and benefactors
(#72) by these words that I permit myself to quote: (…)
The Pius X Society cannot “sign an agreement”.
It rejoices sincerely in the papal will to reintroduce the
ancient and venerable rite of the Holy Mass, but also discovers
the sometimes ferocious resistance of entire episcopates.
Without despair, without impatience, we note that the time
for an agreement has not yet come. This does not prevent
us from continuing to hope, from continuing the route defined
from the year 2000. We will continue to demand that the
Holy Father annul the decree of excommunication of 1988,
as we are persuaded that this would do the greatest good
for the Church and we encourage you to pray that this is
realized. But it would be very imprudent and hasty to throw
oneself into the pursuit of a practical agreement that was
not founded on the fundamental principals of the Church,
and very especially on the Faith.
And so, what attitude should the faithful
then have in light of this situation? Two words resume it:
fidelity and prayer.
Fidelity to the liturgy but also to the
teachings of the Faith, fidelity to resistance against modern
errors. Faced with the amplitude of the crisis in the Church,
it is clear that each must bear witness to the Faith according
to his state and rank, without animosity but with fidelity.
And therefore, if it doesn’t seem possible to the
Society to “sign an agreement”, if it seems
dangerous to pursue a practical agreement that would not
be founded on Faith, how could we encourage the Faithful
to do so? How could we urge them to go to even traditional
masses where, at the best, silence is kept about these errors
when they are not being propagated, as though this was of
little importance, as though defending the Faith wasn’t
a duty for every Catholic, priest and faithful, when it
is attacked? It must be clearly understood that the predication
heard, the teaching received on the occasion of the mass
are as important as the rite observed.
Prayer : We must pledge ourselves with
generosity in the new rosary crusade to which Bishop Bernard
Fellay calls us. Each day let us recite the rosary for all
these intentions, multiply our prayers so that the Church
regains and returns to her bi-millenary Tradition.
With the assurance of my prayers, dear
faithful, and of my blessing.
Father Arnaud Rostand
District Superior of Canada
