Holy Cross Seminary

1982

     On March 1, St. Joseph buys for us our first church in London, seating 300 faithful.

     Card. Joseph Ratzinger replaces Card. Seper as personal representative of the Pope. The Archbishop has a long interview with him in March. Rome wants us to say that even though we may have some reservations about it, the liturgical reform is good and that we just think it is less good than the old liturgy. The Archbishop says:

     Now we believe that the reform is evil, poisoned by ecumenism, and we refuse to accept it and we are obliged to advise all the faithful against it. God only knows how long the reformers will close their eyes to the destruction of the faith, of the morals, of institutions.

     March 20: An all-night prayer vigil is held in Martigny, near Ecône, inspired by the message of Our Lady of Fatima asking for prayer and penance. 3,000 pilgrims assist at the consecration of the world, and especially of Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In anticipation of the present frenzy about the new millennium, Archbishop Lefebvre declares calmly and firmly:

     The twenty-first century will be Catholic or it will not be at all.

     At Easter time, five monsignori and twenty diocesan priests of the diocese of Campos in Brazil publish a profession of Catholic faith in the face of the present errors, a splendid document defending the pristine doctrine and traditions of the Church, writing:

     We have the absolute certainty that our position is legitimate, not by virtue of our arguments and ideas, but because we take our stand on that which the Church herself has taught us. For the Church, we wish to give our lives if it is necessary.

     The first general chapter of the Society of Saint Pius X takes place in Ecône in September. In the Acts we read a declaration of principles and directives of the Society of Saint Pius X, decisions on pastoral action in the present crisis, and warnings against liturgical changes and false ecumenism, and the rejection of liberalism but also sedevacantism:

     The Society of Saint Pius X is founded on the history of the Church and upon the doctrine of theologians. It believes that the Pope can favor the ruin of the Church by choosing and letting act bad advisors, also by signing documents and decrees which do not engage his infallibility and that cause considerable damage to the Church. Nothing is more dangerous for the Church than liberal popes who are in a continual incoherence. We pray for the Pope, but we refuse to follow him in his errors on religious freedom, ecumenism, socialism and the application of reforms destructive for the Church. Our apparent disobedience is true obedience to the Church and to the Pope as successor of Peter in the measure that he continues to maintain holy Tradition....All the members of the Society have one desire, to be submitted in filial obedience to a Rome returned to Tradition. 

    Fr. Franz Schmidberger is elected Vicar General with right of immediate succession as Superior General.

     In the seminaries, the course of studies is extended from five six years. We have 60 new entries in Ecône, Ridgefield, Zaitzkofen, and Buenos Aires.

1983

    This is the year of the publication of the new Code of Canon Law, which expresses in canonical terms the new Conciliar conception of the Church.

     Wednesday, March 1: Fr. Barrielle, an apostle of the Exercises of St. Ignatius, dies at Ecône, standing up like the soldier that he always was. Before his birth, his mother had consecrated him to the Blessed Virgin asking for a boy who one day would be a priest. And priest he became, the parish priest of a large church of Marseilles. With the permission of his bishop he followed Fr. Vallet to preach with him the five-day Ignatian Retreats as we know them today. In 1944, he became Superior General of the Co-operators of Christ the King, a priestly institute dedicated to Ignatian retreats. In 1973, the general chapter of his congregation changed the original constitutions, and Fr. Barrielle wrote an official letter stating that he had never been a member of this new congregation and that he did not want to leave the one in which he had made his religious vows. As he used to say, he "remained the only member of the congregation founded by Fr. Vallet." He became spiritual director of the seminary of Ecône, where he helped generations of priests inspiring them with his zeal and giving them the key to the Exercises. This priest "with a heart of fire," as the Archbishop said of him, signed his testament: Ludovic Marie Barrielle, slave of Mary and Joseph.

     On April 5, the Archbishop writes very openly to the Pope:

     The use of this ecumenical Mass fosters a mentality which is Protestant and indifferentist, placing all religions at the same level in the manner of the Declaration of Religious Liberty, with the doctrinal foundation of the rights of man, a misunderstood concept of human dignity that has been condemned by the Society of Saint Pius X. The consequences of this spirit are deplorable and ruin the spiritual vitality of the Church. In conscience we must discourage the priests and the faithful from the use of this Novus Ordo if we wish that the integral Catholic faith remain alive.

     Those who maintain that the Archbishop spoke against religious freedom only in his last years should read what he wrote in 1983:

     It is obvious that tradition is not compatible with the Declaration on Religious Liberty of the Council. We request a reform of the affirmations of the Council that are contrary to the official magisterium of the Church, especially the Declaration on Religious Liberty. It is impossible for me to sign anything that may hinder the Catholic faith of my infancy, as it is the case with false ecumenism, false religious freedom. I want to live and to die in the Catholic faith.

     During the spring some priests in the US leave us, pretending that the liturgy used by the Society is bad. In this they join the choir of our modernist persecutors in Rome who also say that our liturgy is not authorized. This absurd attitude unfortunately sows confusion within the faithful and seminarians in the States. This situation puts to proof the Germanic endurance of the new. Superior General, Fr. Schmidberger. In June, 28 new priests are ordained in Ecône. Ireland receives the first priest of the Society. The Archbishop wishes that God will bring many vocations from ..this island that in the past gave so many priests and missionaries to the Church.

     Card. Ratzinger writes from Rome in July:

     The Pope acknowledges the devotion of Archbishop Lefebvre and his fundamental attachment to the Holy See, expressed for instance by the exclusion of members who do not recognize the authority of the Pope.

The main building of the Don Bosco School and its chapel.
Some of the happy students of Don Bosco School in the staircase.

     On August 27-28, Switzerland sees the first traditional pilgrimage to Flueli, Sanctuary of St. Nicholas of Flue, with more than 4,000 faithful attending. In Ecône 65 priests follow the priestly retreat and in Ridgefield, 11 new students join the seminary after the split. In Germany, Don Bosco School starts 15 students.

     The priests of Campos publish a declaration about the priestly ministry in the present extraordinary period of grave sis, explaining the canonical doctrine that allows traditional priests to hear confessions and bless marriages.

     In November, the Archbishop visits the US, confirming 360 in Ciudad Juarez in the morning, and in the afternoon 350 in El Paso. On November 5 the Archbishop blesses St. Michael's chapel in Long Island.

     On the 21st, he meets with Bishop de Castro Mayer in Rio de Janeiro. Together they prepare an open letter to the Pope:

     In our capacity as bishops of the Holy Catholic Church, successors of the Apostles, our hearts are overwhelmed at the sights throughout the world,....It seems to us to remain silent in these circumstances would be to become accomplices to these wicked works (cf. II Jn. 11). That is why we find ourselves obliged to intervene in public before Your Holiness (considering all the measures we have undertaken in private during the last fifteen years have remained ineffectual) in order to denounce the principal causes of this dramatic situation, and to beseech Your Holiness to use his power as Successor of Peter to "confirm your brothers in the Faith (Lk. 22:32), which has been faithfully handed down to us by Apostolic Tradition. [See The Angelus, Jan. 1984-Ed.]

     The two faithful bishops present a list outlining the principal errors of the time, including an ecumenical notion of the Church, a democratic orientation, a false notion of the natural rights of man, and a Protestant notion of the Mass and of the sacraments.

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