Dear
Faithful,
Nos
credidimus caritati. Indeed we
have believed the charity, which God hath to us
(1 Jn. 4, 16) and in the way God manifested his charity
to us during the 20th century. During this
month of November we celebrate the manifestation of
the charity of God: 100th anniversary of the birth of
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Nov 29, 1905) and the 35th
anniversary of the Society of St Pius X (Nov 1, 1970).
Where would we be, where would the Church be without
this great man?
We thank God for sending to his Church the prelate, no doubt, spoken
of by our Lady of Quito: the prelate who will restore
the spirit of her priests… We shall endow this dear
son of mine with a rare capacity, a humility of heart,
a docility to divine inspiration, the strength to defend
the rights of the Church, and a tender and compassionate
heart, so that, like another Christ, he will assist
the great and the small, without despising the less
fortunate who ask him for light and counsel in their
doubts and hardships.
While churchmen were destroying the Church and bringing about the
“silent apostasy” by their aggiornamento, their
adapting the Church to the modern world, their trying
to please other religions, by rejecting the magisterium
of previous popes, by rejecting the liturgy, and their
numerous scandals, he built it up by simply and calmly
doing what the Church had always done.
Without Archbishop Lefebvre and his little society the
victory of modernism, ecumenism, secularism over the
Church would be complete. How many young people, because
of him, have heard the call of our Lord to follow Him
fulfilling their vocation to the priesthood or the religious
life? Vocations which would have otherwise been lost
or worse entirely corrupted in the modern seminaries
and convents. How many priests have returned to the
Mass of their ordinations? If the true Mass is still
offered, if the true sacraments are still dispensed,
if the true priesthood of our Lord is still transmitted,
if the true religious life is still found, if the true
teaching of the Church is still taught, it is owed in
great part to him. Without Archbishop Lefebvre there
would be no Society of St Peter, indult Mass. Absolutely
no attention would be paid to all those Catholic
faithful who feel attached to some previous liturgical
and disciplinary forms of the Latin tradition. (Ecclesia
Dei)
His Episcopal motto was indeed the summary of his episcopate.
My little children, let us not love in words, nor
in the tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 Jn.
3,18) True charity is not in nice words. It is in
truth and in deeds. This is what prevents charity from
being hypocrisy. Vatican II charity is hypocrisy.
Speak to them about other religions, they are as sweet
as honey. Speak to them about traditional Catholics
and see what happens. Ecumenism is hypocrisy because
it is not grounded in truth and in deed. It does not
preach the necessity of the one, true Church of Christ
for salvation; it does not seek to make them enter the
one fold of Christ but rather lets those who are outside
remain outside. It is the “politically correct” charity
which says nothing but nice, empty, deceiving, and treacherous
words and leaves people in their error. This is not
the charity of Christ who came to teach us that “no
man cometh to the Father, but by me;” (Jn. 14, 6) who
sent his Apostles to teach the nations whatsoever he
had commanded for their salvation because “he that
believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that
believeth not shall be condemned.” (Mk. 16, 16)
Archbishop Lefebvre loved God and his neighbour in truth
and in deed. In truth: in the total acceptance of the
complete revelation, in the truth of the one true Church
of God outside which there is no salvation; he was not
afraid to tell non-Catholics they had to convert to
be saved. He loved in the truth of the social kingship
of Christ the King without which society becomes a jungle.
And he was not afraid to affirm it even before cardinals
and popes.
He loved in the deeds of his missionary life, in the
deed of preserving the immemorial Sacrifice of the Mass
of all times, in the deed of the formation of true priests,
in the deed of preserving the true religious life, in
the deed of giving true bishops to the Church, in the
deed of coming to the rescue of faithful Catholics by
setting up priories all over the world where they can
receive true valid sacraments, receive the true unadulterated
teaching of the Church, in the deed of the retreat
houses and in the deed of catholic schools.
I think we will really only know on the day of judgement
all that this man did, the fruits of his fidelity.
I don’t know if he himself foresaw all that would come
from his steadfast fidelity to his duty as a bishop
and his refusal to compromise. It shows what good God
can draw from just one man who is faithful despite the
trials and adversities. It shows that we simply have
to do our duty and let God take care of things. We can
only imagine what would have happened if more bishops
would have remained faithful without compromise. His
principle was simple: follow Providence, don’t precede
it. If all his spiritual sons, instead of taking matters
into their own hands, had followed his example, the
Society would be a greater army than what it is.
People ask why does Bishop Fellay go meet with the Pope
and the cardinals? It is useless, they are modernists
and they will not change. For the same reason Archbishop
Lefebvre did: charity. The charity of telling them
the truth. It is charity to remind these men of the
mess they created in the holy Church, of the scandals
they have caused. To remind them of the faith they
ought to preach and to try to bring them back to it.
As Archbishop Lefebvre used to say: if there is one
place the truth should be affirmed it is in Rome above
all.
Thank you for your continued fidelity. Without your
support the work could not continue. We need your prayers
and sacrifices. You are the instruments God and His
blessed Mother use to continue the Church. As usual
the monthly Mass for friends and benefactors will be
offered on the last Sunday of the month.
With
continued prayers and my blessing,
