It is now nearly 40
years since traditional Catholics, overwhelmed by the continual
degradation of the state of the Church, have been troubled in
conscience as to what they ought to do. Ought I to conform exteriorly,
while of course refusing to accept the heresies? This is the position
of those who elect to stay in their Novus Ordo parishes or attend
the Indult Mass. Then there is the other excess, the position
of the sedevacantists, who maintain that they are the only Catholics
left and send everybody else, laymen, priests, bishops, Pope into
hell. Another position is that of those who give up out of discouragement,
on account of the apparent hopelessness of the situation. They
will stay at home, recite their Rosary, attend Mass if and when
they can easily do so. They want to keep their Faith, and save
their souls, but in a private way. They refuse to get involved
in the conflicts brought about by this terrible crisis. They will
not, as they call it, take sides. They consider that they are
not responsible for this terrible crisis in the Church, and that
consequently there is nothing that they can do to fix it.
There is, however,
a fourth possible attitude to embrace, a more profound approach
to the crisis, one based upon the Catechism. It can, however,
only be understood inasmuch as one grasps the real and essential
nature of the crisis. We must consequently identify, amongst the
myriad of different manifestations of modernism in the post-conciliar
church, the fundamental, driving, doctrinal error, most opposed
to the catechism. It is not Communion in the hand, the refusal
of the propitiatory sacrifice in the New Mass or the abuses that
we are so familiar with. It is not even dialogue with Protestants,
the refusal to stand up for Catholic truth or to take a firm position
for marriage and against contraception and abortion. It is not
New Age, feminism or the replacement of Christ’s teaching
with the social justice gospel of a better world - liberation
theology as it is called. There is a more profound error that
constitutes the underlying theology that penetrates all of these
deviations and many more, a modernist perversion of
Catholicism which has inspired the entire post-conciliar revolution.
It is a new theology of the Church, or the new Ecclesiology, according
to the word that has been coined to identify it.
THE
NEW ECCLESIOLOGY
It was, in
fact, Pope John Paul II who recognized the centrality of the new
theology of the Church in all the changes that have come about
in the past 40 years. He states it very explicitly in the Apostolic
Constitution that he wrote to introduce the new Code of Canon
Law, on January 25, 1983. He there states that “the New
Code can be conceived as a great effort to transfer into canonical
language this doctrine itself (i.e. proposed by Vatican II), namely
conciliar Ecclesiology”. He goes on to state that “the
fundamental reason for the novelty which…is found in the
Second Vatican Council, especially with respect to its ecclesiological
teachings, is also the reason for the novelty contained in the
new Code” (Ib.) It must be remembered that the laws contained
in the Code of Canon Law are the practical guide for Catholics
in living their Faith, and that any “novelty” contained
therein must be of the greatest importance for them. Consequently,
we will only understand the crisis in the Church, and what we
ought to do about it, if we first understand how this new theology
differs from the traditional understanding of the Church.
II. THE TRADITIONAL VIEW OF THE CHURCH
We have all learnt
the definition of the Church contained in our catechisms: “The
Catholic Church is the congregation of the faithful who have received
the sacrament of baptism and who share the same Faith, the same
sacraments, the same Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and submission
to the Sovereign Pontiff.” The conditions for belonging
to the Church are explicitly laid out, so that it is clear that
if a person lacks one of them, then he is not a member of the
visible body of the Church, and that if it is it knowing and willingly
that he refuses one of these aspects of the Church, that is with
pertinacity, then it is impossible for him to save his soul. This
is the case for a heretic who refuses to accept a doctrine of
Faith, or a schismatic who refuses to accept the supreme authority
of the Sovereign Pontiff. Either one is automatically cut off
from the body of the Church; he is separated from the Communion
of the Church, and is excommunicated.
However, the traditional
teaching concerning the Church is not limited to an empty, visible
shell. The Church, as the mystical body of Christ, is much more
than this. For having the Holy Ghost as its soul, the infusion
of supernatural grace as its purpose, the sanctification of souls
through the Mass and the sacraments as its means, it is very much
alive with an interior life, communicated to the members from
its invisible head, Our Divine Savior Himself.
This divine life is
of course inseparable from the visible, hierarchical structure,
through which it is given, and yet it infinitely surpasses it.
Pope Leo XIII explained this in his encyclical on the unity of
the Church, Satis cognitum, when he stated: “For the end
for which the Church exists is as much higher than the end of
other societies as divine grace is above nature, as immortal blessings
are above the transitory things of the earth. Therefore the Church
is a society divine in its origin, supernatural in its end and
in the means proximately adapted to the attainment of that end;
but it is a human community inasmuch as it is composed of men.”
Here lies the mystery
of how the Church, all too human in the visible members that make
up its hierarchy, up to and including its visible head, Christ’s
Vicar, nevertheless continues to communicate grace from the invisible
head, Our Divine Savior Himself. It is for this reason, as Pope
Pius XII explains in his encyclical on the Church, Mystici Corporis
Christi, of 1943, that it is not just called a body, but the “mystical”
body of Christ. For it “is not made up of merely moral and
juridical elements and principles…Although the juridical
principles, on which the Church rests and is established, derive
from the divine constitution given to it by Christ and contribute
to the attaining of its supernatural end, nevertheless that which
lifts the Society of Christians far above the whole natural order
is the Spirit of our Redeemer who penetrates and fills every part
of the Church’s being and is active within it until the
end of time as the source of every grace and every gift and every
miraculous power.” (§63).
To understand
the mystery of the Church, we must consequently accept firstly
its visible hierarchical structure, along with the infallibility,
indefectibility and authority that are necessary to the working
of this divinely constituted structure, and secondly the supernatural
life of Faith, Hope and Charity which is the whole reason for
this visible structure. The first is the intermediary, through
the Magisterium, by which Christ teaches the truth, and through
the sacraments, by which He infuses His grace.
III.
THE MODERNIST NOTION OF THE CHURCH
The modernist crisis
has managed to dissolve into an amorphous amalgam both the prerogatives
of the exterior visible hierarchy and its supernatural purpose.
It does so by exploding the essential and necessary link that
exists between the outward structure and the divine life. The
post-conciliar novelty by which this link is broken is the error
of collegiality, which is the foundation of the new ecclesiology,
as John Paul II himself states in the above-mentioned Apostolic
Constitution. He states, in effect, that it was the mark of collegiality
that eminently distinguished the origin of the New Code, and that
this mark is full in agreement with the Magisterium and nature
of the Second Vatican Council, bearing its spirit. In order to
establish this point the Pope lists the chief novel teachings
of Vatican II contained in the Code, namely that “the Church,
the universal sacrament of salvation, is shown to be the People
of God and its hierarchical constitution to be founded on the
College of Bishops together with its head” (Ib.). This is
effectively the definition of collegiality.
COLLEGIALITY
What, then, is collegiality?
It is the application to the Church of the principles of liberal
democracy, of the freemasonic principles of the French revolution;
namely liberty, fraternity and equality, and especially that of
equality. It is the overturning of the divinely established order
by which God governs the Church and directs souls to heaven from
the top down, namely from Christ Himself to the Pope, bishops
and priests, each taking personal responsibility for passing on
to others the deposit of the Faith received from the Church. This
is henceforth replaced by the people, all of whom are equal, and
free in the exercise of their brotherhood. These principles are
truly revolutionary, for they place mankind, humanity, the group,
the mass of the people in the place of God. This is the divinization
of man, humanism, according to which the spirit of God is henceforth
supposedly manifested by the feelings, desires, sentiments of
the majority.
This collegiality destroys
all authority within the Church, and is directly responsible for
the present disorder. The parish priest can no longer govern his
parish, for he has to respect the wishes of the people, manifested
through the parish council. Likewise the bishop can no longer
govern his diocese, for he must accept the wishes of the priests,
as expressed in his presbyteral council. He is likewise limited
from above, since the episcopal conference has the moral authority
of the majority to force individual bishops to comply. Likewise,
Roman congregations can no longer act authoritatively, on account
of the overwhelming moral weight of the episcopal conferences
in the modernist scheme of things. It is in this way that Rome
has still not succeeded in forcing the German bishops and priests
to stop administering Holy Communion to persons who have been
divorced and remarried and to stop issuing the letters of consultation
that are required by law for abortions to be carried out. Many
other examples could be given.
TWO SUPREME
AUTHORITIES
However, the greatest
and most perverse evil of collegiality is the paralysis in the
Pope’s exercise of his own supreme authority that is contained
in the Vatican II document Lumen gentium. It teaches, in fact,
the silly contradiction that there are two supreme authorities
in the Church, one being the Pope himself, and the other being
the college of bishops. It is true that it is mentioned that the
college of bishops contains the Pope as its head. However, the
very fact that it is a different subject of authority gives it
autonomy. “The order of bishops is the successor to the
college of the apostles in their role as teachers and pastors,
and in it the apostolic college is perpetuated…they have
supreme and full authority over the universal Church…This
college … is the expression of the multifariousness and
universality of the People of God” (L.G. §22)
This is in direct contradiction
to the constant teaching of the Church on Papal primacy, according
to which the Pope alone has supreme authority over the entire
Church, and is directly condemned by the following text from Leo
XIII’s encyclical Satis cognitum: “It is opposed to
the truth, and in evident contradiction with the divine constitution
of the Church, to hold that while each bishop is individually
bound to obey the authority of the Roman Pontiffs, taken collectively
the bishops are not so bound.” The great tragedy of the
present crisis is that the present Pope holds to this theory more
than anyone else, inseparable as it is from his evolutionary concept
of the Church as the People of God.
CONSEQUENCES
In the above-mentioned
Apostolic Constitution the Pope mentioned five elements of this
new Ecclesiology, that is the new Collegiality, that he considers
most essential, and which “express the true and proper image
of the Church”. They express the five ways in which modernism
is consistently attacking and destroying the Catholic Church from
within, and which it is our duty to respond to. Let us consider
each one of these in turn.
1)
The teaching that the Church is to be considered as the People
of God.
This vague, all-inclusive
term has replaced the traditional concept of the Mystical Body
of Christ, for it excludes no-one, emphasizes the democratic basis
of all its activities, and is perfectly consistent with the new
definition of the Church as a “sacrament – a sign
and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among
all men” (L.G. §1) given by Vatican II. It is clearly
much more extensive than simply the Roman Catholic Church, and
expresses the belief that non-Catholics can be counted as God’s
people, as members of the Church understood as people of God,
although they are not members of the Roman Catholic Church. This
is explicitly stated in Lumen gentium §8: “This Church,
constituted and organized as a society in the present world, subsists
in the Catholic Church…Many elements of sanctification and
truth are found outside its visible confines” and yet “these
are gifts belonging to the Church of Christ”.
The consequences of
this theory are absolutely frightening, and they deny not only
the visibility of the Catholic Church as a real society of men,
but also its supernatural mission. What are these “gifts”
that belong to the Church of Christ, but which are outside the
visible confines of the Catholic Church? They are also the religious
theories of every false religion, from Protestantism to Islam
and from Buddhism to Paganism. They are effectively placed on
the same level as the Catholic Church’s supernatural mission
to teach the truth through its Magisterium, and to sanctify souls
through the sacraments. Its truth is henceforth considered one
amongst many, and its sacraments some amongst the many religious
rites that exist.
As Father Calmel, O.P.
pointed out in 1972 (Les mystères du royaume de la grâce,
I, pp. 122-123), there is a diabolical cunning in the underhanded
attack on the Catholic Church’s three-fold unique title
to be the citadel of grace. This is the attack that is perpetrated
by the title “Populus Dei”, which undermines each
of Church’s three titles to be a citadel of grace:
• That through its hierarchy it alone maintains divine Revelation
intact and confers sacraments, configuring the faithful to Christ
in his Passion;
• That through the Real Presence in the Blessed Eucharist
it alone maintains the presence of Christ Himself, author and
dispenser of all grace;
• That through the sacraments, it alone pours forth sanctifying
grace into souls, becoming the dwelling place and temple of the
Holy Ghost, for “the charity of God is poured forth in our
hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rm
5:5).
It is consequently
the entire supernatural life of the Church, flowing forth from
the sacrificial and hierarchical priesthood, which is practically
(but not explicitly, of course) denied by this new concept of
the people of God.
2)
The proposal of hierarchical authority as a service.
Under the appearance
of humility, this new conception overturns all order and authority,
for the servant is not above his master. If authority can rightly
be understood as a service to the common good, it is most assuredly
not a servant to the individual members. To consider the hierarchy,
its teachings, its discipline, and its authority as a servant
of the people is to maintain that it is not obligatory, and that
each one of us can chose to use this servant, or not to use it.
Authority is henceforth considered as something human and terrestrial,
whereas the whole function of the Church’s hierarchy is
to communicate that which is divine and supernatural, the life
of grace through the sacraments, Mass and life of the Church.
The consequences in
the modern church are overwhelming. Everything that comes from
the hierarchy, such as the rites of Mass and the sacraments, the
laws of the Church, and everything that belongs to ecclesiastical
law is treated as if it is not sacred, that it is changing and
that it is has no permanent value. All Catholic customs, prayers,
rites, and all sense of the sacred is in one foul swoop through
out the window, since they are all the product of a hierarchy,
which is a service, and the strange paradox is that this has been
done by the hierarchy itself, in the name of its new function
of a service. It was by this means that the Mass was destroyed
in the name of Vatican II, along with this definition of the Second
Council of Nicea (787): “Those, therefore, who dare to…spurn
according to wretched heresies the ecclesiastical traditions and
to invent anything novel, or to reject anything from these things
which have been consecrated by the Church…we order…to
be excommunicated” (Db 304). Consequently, all those bishops
who refuse to allow the right for all priests to celebrate the
traditional Mass, and who consequently spurn it, are thereby excommunicated
as are also all those priests who refuse to allow their faithful
to assist at it! They are the true schismatics.
3)
The Church is proposed as a Communion.
A Communion is a sharing
between two who are bound together. John Paul II points out that
this sharing is to take place between the particular and the universal
church, and between collegiality and primacy. Communion is between
equals, and it is consequently manifestly obvious that this idea
of Communion is a denial of authority.
Completely different
is the Catholic concept of the Communion of the Saints, for all
are joined through sanctifying grace in their common submission
to the Head of the Mystical Body, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Different
also is the traditional necessity of being in communion with the
Catholic Church, that is of sharing the same Faith, sacraments,
Mass and submission to the Sovereign Pontiff. For, traditionally,
the refusal of any one of these results in the break of communion
or excommunication, and a Catholic is either fully in communion
or not in communion. There can be no degrees.
Not so in the modern
church, that officially admits varying degrees of communion, or
partial communion, which exists in those “separated churches”
that “have been by no means deprived of significance and
importance in the mystery of salvation”, that are “means
of salvation” and whose members are “in some, though
imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church” (Vatican
II, Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio, §2). The
consequence of this is that the Catholic Church is considered
as an inner circle in the wider concept of “church”
in which it subsists. The further one goes from the center of
unity, via a series of widening concentric circles, the less is
the “communion”, but nevertheless all these religious
groupings are in some way “related” to the Catholic
Church, in some way a part of the whole idea of church. Such a
perspective is certainly a practical denial of the doctrine “Outside
the Church, no salvation”.
4)
All the members of the Church share in their own way in Christ’s
three-fold function as priest, prophet and king.
There is a certain
truth in this statement, inasmuch as every Catholic in virtue
of his baptism, is one with Christ, offering the Mass from the
pew, accepting divine truth and contributing to His kingship.
Nevertheless, it is radically false to obscure in such a manner,
the real distinction that exists between the function of the hierarchical
priesthood and the laity. This is but a renewal of the Protestant
theory, that denied that Christ really established through His
Apostles a priesthood who was to act in his own place (in persona
Christi) to continue His own mission of sacrifice, by the unbloody
renewal of the mystery of the Cross, of teaching and of governing
in the Mystical Body. Ultimately this ends up in the denial of
the role of the visible priesthood, which is reduced to the role
of a pure presidency, as in the New Mass.
5)
The obligation of practicing Ecumenism.
Although the
most obvious and most perverse consequence of the new ecclesiology,
as seen in the meetings of religions in Assisi presided over by
the Pope in 1985 and 2001, it is not the principle, but the last
consequence of this new theology of the Church. Religions cannot
share experiences on an equal basis, nor can they pray together
or even side by side, unless they have an equal title to the Truth.
This is the most profound denial of the unicity of the Catholic
Church. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that Pope John
Paul II attempts to make this perversion obligatory. He commands
that “zeal be had for ecumenism”. It does not take
a great deal of insight to see that it is not in function of his
Papal primacy to teach Faith and Morals and to direct souls to
heaven that he gives such an order, but in virtue of his own personal,
false, liberal philosophy, and that such an order can hold no
obligation whatsoever.
IV.
OUR RESPONSE
It is after this brief
summary of the new ecclesiology that the faithful Catholic can
form a clear idea of his duties in the present crisis in the Church.
Clearly his first duty, and one that is the basis of all his other
duties, is to love the Church, to appreciate, defend and cherish
the supernatural mystery of the Church, as contained in divine
revelation. For if it is the Church who alone can engender us
by divine grace, how great must be our filial debt of gratitude
towards Her.
SPIRIT
OF THE CHURCH
Archbishop Lefebvre
understood this in a special way, and it is to his appreciation
of the true mystery of the Church that we owe the Society of Saint
Pius X as he founded it. In the February 1981 issue of Cor Unum
he pointed out that we have to deal with “the unjust and
wild struggle undertaken by those who try to corrupt the source
of sanctification of the Church” and that consequently “our
society is implanted on the stem of the Church and draws its vigor
and sanctification in the authentic tradition of the Church and
in the living and pure sources of its holiness.”
In the month of June
of that same year the Archbishop pointed out that “the spirit
of the Society being above all the spirit of the Church…we
will discover what has governed the Church for twenty centuries
and we will understand the importance that She gives to the Sacrifice
of Our Lord and consequently to the Priesthood”. The love
of the Church, animated by the Holy Ghost, and of its supernatural
work of sanctification through the Mass and sacraments, must consequently
be our first and fundamental response to the present crisis. It
would be very easy to become disgusted, discouraged and overwhelmed
by a feeling of betrayal, all of which lead to the bitter zeal
and spirit of contention condemned by St. James (3:14). Such is
neither from God nor is it the truth. It is not the Church that
has let us down, for she is “holy and without blemish…not
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing” (Eph 5:27).
To the contrary it
is the Church which is our only support, comfort and strength
in these desolate times. It is consequently our love of the Church
that will lead us to defend the mystery of the Cross, the interior
life of grace, and the sacraments by which it is bestowed on and
increased in our souls. Let us consequently avoid the temptation
to become garrulous, hypercritical, bitter, condemnatory of everybody
and everything. There is nothing supernatural about such an attitude,
so characteristic of sedevacantists. It has neither the meekness
of Christ nor the spirit of the Church.
SANCTITY
Furthermore, this love
of the Church obliges us to seek our own personal sanctification
and holiness, by which we live the life of the Church, and by
which our Faith blossoms forth. Instead of resenting having to
live in such a time of crisis and confusion in the Church, we
ought to thank God for this very special grace, which is an additional
and powerful motive to inspire us to sanctify ourselves, for we
can see that in the modern world there is no intermediary, and
otherwise we will lose everything. There can be no substitute
for an extraordinarily generous fidelity to our spiritual duties,
our daily meditation and spiritual reading, and to attending additional
traditional Masses and devotions whenever we can. All of these
spiritual duties are contained in the rule of the Third Order
of the Society of Saint Pius X.
Archbishop Lefebvre
(Cor Unum, June 1982) also points out two virtues that are absolutely
essential to us in this time of crisis, virtues that Our Divine
Savior practiced perfectly on the Cross, and which are consequently
inseparable from the life of the Church: complete abandonment
to Divine Providence and humility. Our defense of the Church and
our sanctification depend entirely on our practice of these virtues,
flowing forth from our interior life. As the Archbishop concludes:
“Contemplation, obedience and humility are all the elements
of the same reality – the imitation of Jesus Christ and
participation in His infinite love”.
In this regard, there
can be no substitute for the work of retreats, and especially
the retreats of St. Ignatius. Nothing inspires us so powerfully
to purify our souls, to put aside all our inordinate attachments,
to reform our lives, to strive after holiness, to live the supernatural
life of the Church in the world. It is through them that Our Lord’s
prayer is accomplished: “I do not pray that thou take them
out of the world, but that thou keep them from evil. They are
not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them
in the truth.”(Jn 17:15-17). Go on retreat yourselves, go
again, and bring and send others, even those who may not yet be
traditional or even Catholic.
FIVE
ANSWERS TO THE FIVE ERRORS OF COLLEGIALITY
It is manifestly obvious
that we cannot sanctify ourselves, abstraction made from the real
world in which we live, nor from the crisis of the new ecclesiology
in which we find ourselves. We must consequently and necessarily
make a positive response to each of the aspects of this collegial
rethinking of the Church with which the modernists are presently
challenging us. To be silent would be to approve, would be to
eventually declare a truce with the diabolic destruction of the
Church. This we cannot do, if we truly love the Church and desire
to live her life entirely directed to heaven. We cannot, therefore,
simply find a semi-private Indult Mass, and content ourselves
with such a compromise, that necessarily involves the recognition
of the legitimacy of the New Mass and of the post-conciliar revolution.
1) TO THE CONCEPT OF THE CHURCH AS THE PEOPLE OF GOD
In opposition to the
naturalist concept of the Church as “the people of God”,
we must profess our Faith in the supernatural mystery of the Catholic
Church, outside of which there is no salvation. It is our duty
to stand up against the indifference that is everywhere endemic,
and to do all that we can to make converts. For this we must be
well instructed in the discipline of Apologetics, the explanation
of why the Catholic Faith is the only true Faith. In this regard,
there is no better tool than the study of the Catechism of the
Council of Trent, full of supernatural motives and explanations
as it is, and the study of which Archbishop Lefebvre made a part
of the rule of the Third Order of the Society.
To the objection that it is hard to make converts to the Faith
in these confusing times, it must be responded that it has always
been difficult for it is a supernatural work. Grace can now work
as it always has done, and a person who is inspired by grace to
seek supernatural truth can see through the naturalism of the
modernist church as clearly as ever. We must not be apologetic
for being traditional and Catholic, but have confidence in the
truth. We cannot be faithful to the Church unless we are continually
striving to convert our friends and acquaintances, and to communicate
to them “the unfathomable riches of Christ”. If we
give up trying to make converts, whether it be from modernism
or protestantism or even paganism, we will likewise become indifferent.
We must likewise continue to yearn to express our love for our
divinely revealed Faith, for Our Lord truly present in the Blessed
Eucharist, and for the Mass and the sacraments. A regular visit
to the Blessed Sacrament, a communion offered up in reparation
or for the conversion of a friend or relative, will consequently
all be a part of our response. We will likewise continue to study
our traditional catechism in detail that we might be able to give
intelligent responses in defense of supernatural truth, and to
uncover modernist heresies.
2)
TO THE CONCEPT OF THE MAGISTERIUM AS A SERVICE
Our respect for the
Church’s Magisterium will be our response to the deformation
of the hierarchy as a mere “service”. In fact, the
clarity of the Magisterium in condemning all the liberal and freemasonic
errors over the past three centuries is the only sure basis for
our combat. The love of authority, of docility and of submission
must be in our hearts, and it must inspire us to study and become
familiar with all the encyclicals of the pre-Vatican II Popes,
especially those that have since been contradicted, and especially
those of the great anti-modernist patron that God has given us,
Saint Pius X. The prophetic nature of his writings (foreshadowing
today’s errors) is no less remarkable than his supernatural
insight and his sense of the Church, which is why Archbishop Lefebvre
included the reading of his works as a part of the rule of the
Third Order of the Society of Saint Pius X.
This great respect
for the Church’s teaching authority does not just include
the infallible Extraordinary and Ordinary Magisterium. It includes
all the ecclesiastical laws, traditions, customs, rites and approved
pious devotions and disciplinary laws that make up the life of
the Church. This ought to include such things as Ember days, frequent
reception of the sacrament of Penance, observing the Church’s
laws to accept all the children God sends, to have large families
and to give children the profoundly Catholic education that they
have a right to through their baptism. These things are likewise
in the Third Order rule of the Society of Saint Pius X. We will
not just attend the traditional Mass and sacraments, but defend
them as the only ones that are really Catholic, the only ones
that truly reflect the Church’s authority, bound up as it
is with the interior life that is the purpose of that authority.
Likewise we will clearly
see through the typically liberal, authoritarian abuse of authority,
separated from its true end, and we will avoid the myopic legalism
of those who cannot see beyond the dead letter of laws that have
been perverted to deprive so many souls of the supernatural life
of grace. This refers not just to the New Mass and to the innovations
in the administration of the sacraments (such as ordinary “extraordinary”
ministers of Holy Communion), but to such things as the shameless
practice of Ecumenism and sacramental sharing with non-Catholics,
permitted in the entirely invalid Canon 844 of the 1983 Code.
This is not to despise or put down the Church’s authority,
but to the contrary to understand its greatness. Let our discussions
consequently be with respect to the principles of the crisis and
its refutation. This is what will really tell us if our actions
are permissible or not, and not whether some modernist bishop,
or even the modernists in Rome, permit them or not.
3)
TO THE CONCEPT OF THE CHURCH AS COMMUNION
To the modern concept
of “Communion” we must oppose the traditional doctrine
of the Communion of the Saints. It is with them that we must be
united and their ideals that we must share, and not those of the
world, with all its vain desires, false ideas and idolatrous religions:
“Do not love the world, or the things that are in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him”
(I Jn 2:15). St. James was even more explicit: “Whoever
wishes to be a friend of this world becomes an enemy of God (4:4),
as always was St. Paul: “What fellowship has light with
darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or
what part has the believer with the unbeliever? And what agreement
has the temple of God with idols? (II Cor 6:14-16). We cannot
be good friends with those who belong to the world, and who do
not share our traditional convictions. Without a doubt, we must
always be compassionate, understanding, patient, kind and charitable
towards people of the world, who do not share our Faith, that
we might imitate Christ and win their souls. However, we cannot
be good friends with those who do not have the Faith, for we cannot
share with them the deep thoughts, feelings and desires of our
hearts. Any attempt to make friends of the world, will inevitably
end in indifference.
We must, however, love
to read the lives of saints canonized because of the miracle of
their heroic virtues, the New Testament and the Imitation of Christ
that nourished their souls, and to keep away from the spirit of
the world by abstaining from television (and unnecessary Internet
use), unclean reading, and unseemly, expensive, worldly vacations
and leisure activities. This is the simplicity of a God-centered
life, and all of these recommendations are likewise contained
in the rule of the Third Order of the Society of Saint Pius X.
The importance of public
support by the faithful of the traditional congregations united
with the Society of Saint Pius X, that are truly fighting for
the true spirit of the Church, cannot be underestimated. An elite
of laity, committed to fighting according to the same principles
as ourselves, is indispensable. They have the opportunity of sharing
in the merits of our congregation, participating in its special
grace of fighting for the Priesthood and the Social Kingship of
Our Lord Jesus Christ, and contributing greatly to our common
unified effort. These are the advantages of joining the Society
as a Third Order member.
4)
TO THE CONCEPT THAT ALL THE FAITHFUL ARE PRIESTS, PROPHETS AND
KINGS
In response to the
confusion between the priesthood and the laity, according to which
all alike would share Christ’s threefold priestly function,
we must demonstrate the true spirit of the hierarchical liturgy,
each member of the mystical body taking his legitimate place.
Archbishop Lefebvre pointed out that this spirit of the liturgy
is that of the Society of Saint Pius X: “This great mystery
(the Mass) is transmitted to us by the Church in the Liturgy,
where, as a Mother, she strives to unveil the infinite riches
of this mystery in the actions, words, chant and liturgical vestments,
which are used according to the admirable liturgical cycle. The
Society of Saint Pius X, anxious to live this mystery, clings
with zeal to the knowledge of the Liturgy and strives to realize
it in all its beauty and splendor…The spirit of the Society
is a liturgical spirit” (Cor Unum, February 1982).
The response of the
laity is not to try to be priests, but to be true laity and to
play their own essential role in the life of the Church. It is
to respect the great dignity of the priesthood, the priest being
truly “another Christ”. It is to no longer see a man
in him, in his words, advice, sermons and recommendations, but
Christ Himself. It is to pray for the sanctification and perseverance
of priests, and for vocations, and to encourage and support young
men desirous of giving themselves to God. It is also to love of
the ceremonies of Holy Mass, and to have the desire to play our
part in them to the best of our ability. This can be by serving
on the altar, or by singing the Gregorian Chant, or by cleaning
the church, or by sewing the vestments, or by building the church
as glorious as we can, or simply by our prayerful and active assistance
at the ceremonies, understanding their meaning and reflecting
on their symbolism. There is something for each of us to do to
promote the magnificence of the liturgy and the glory of Holy
Mother Church through her public prayer.
Furthermore, all Catholics
ought to do all that they can to promote and participate in the
solemn ceremonies of the Church, such as High Masses and Vespers
every Sunday if possible, Processions of the Blessed Sacrament
for Corpus Christi, Christ the King and other great feasts, Processions
in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, pilgrimages to holy places,
40 hours devotions and the like. They will also love and appreciate
assisting at those parts of the Divine Office, the Church’s
official prayer, which are accessible to people living in the
world. For the Society’s Third Order members the rule points
out that it is Prime and Compline that they are to assist at or
recite if they can. All of the above has a profound impact on
souls, and is necessary for a missionary society like ours. Archbishop
Lefebvre included this liturgical spirit in the rule of the Third
Order of the Society, which states that “Liturgical life
should be paramount on Sundays and feast days”.
5)
TO THE CONCEPT OF ECUMENISM
In response to the
perversion of Ecumenism, we must become ardent promoters of the
public rights of Christ our Divine Savior, by devotion to the
Sacred Heart, and in particular by the practice of the Enthronement
of the Sacred Heart as King of Love in Catholic families and homes,
and even in those who are not as Catholic as they should be. It
will bring an abundance of graces and conversions, when combined
with the daily prayer and Rosary in family that is the chief obligation
of this holy practice. We will also do all in our power to promote
and defend the Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, denied
by secularism, the “apostasy of society from God”,
as it was accurately described by St. Pius X in his first encyclical
(E supremi). All of this is also contained in the rule of the
Third Order of the Society of Saint Pius X. The study of the Church’s
social teachings and of how to implement them in our chapels and
communities, especially by the application of the principles of
distributism will be the consequence. For many this is the most
apparent and obvious form of Catholic Action. However, in point
of fact it is but one of the many things that we can “do”
and it necessarily presumes the preceding more spiritual activities.
In conclusion, the
whole question of what lay people are to do in the present crisis
in the Church was resolved by Archbishop Lefebvre back in 1980
when he founded the Third Order. The rule contains an answer for
every aspect of the modernist revolution in the Church, and especially
to every aspect of the new ecclesiology. It is the profoundly
supernatural answer that flows from a true understanding of the
mystery of the Church. If many generous Catholics would make the
sacrifice to join the Third Order of the Society, they would not
only have the means necessary for their sanctification, they would
also contribute greatly to the work of the Society for the Church,
according to the mind of the Church, to restore all things in
Christ. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces,
raise up such an elite force of shock troops to support the Society’s
priests.
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