A
MATTER OF JUSTICE
Dear Friends and Benefactors of the Society in Ireland,
Despite
its pejorative connotation, insularity has its advantages, even in
our times of immediate global communication. To live in an island
induces gently to a certain recollection of spirit; the natural
barrier of the ocean slows things down, creating a quiet environment
where news and rumours from abroad are faced with parsimony and a
healthy disinterest.
And yet,
"no man is an island; every man is a part of the main," which makes
it inevitable for said news and rumours to make their way to the
shores of our Emerald Island, courtesy of the sordid internet and
the vile media. The latest consignment of gossip from the continent
contains troubling information concerning the Society of St. Pius X.
Intrepid cybernauts, newsmongers, and chattering travellers make the
traditional chapels ring with alarming reports: the Society is
betraying, is selling out to Rome; internal divisions in the
priestly ranks menace destruction, and dark conspiracies at the
highest levels prepare the imminent downfall of Archbishop
Lefebvre's work. I feel obliged to address these calumnies with some
comments.
First of
all, the Society of St. Pius X is a priestly work. A priestly
institution of the Catholic Church. It is not an independent church,
a religious movement, an ecclesiastical club, or a confused alliance
of otherwise well-intentioned faithful and priests united in combat
against common enemies. It is a canonically established society of
common life without vows, formed by priests, clerics, religious
brothers, and oblates, whose purpose is the sanctification of the
priesthood, and whose distinctive spirituality is oriented towards
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, placing itself under the double
patronage of Our Lord Jesus Christ Eternal Priest and Mary Mother of
Priests. Its goal, as indicated in our constitutions, "is the
priesthood and everything that relates to it."
Apostolic
by nature, as the Holy Mass is apostolic, the Society operates six
major seminaries for the formation of future priests, as well as
Catholic schools, retreat houses, and chaplaincies to religious
orders and congregations. Its more than 450 priests assist from
their priories around the world those faithful who call upon them to
receive the sacraments and the doctrine which they cannot find
anymore in their regular parishes, which are contaminated by the
modernistic spirit issued from the conciliar revolution. If one
wishes to understand the spirit and practice of the Society and its
priests, it is of paramount importance that one retains this
principle of action: the Society, although founded in particular
circumstances, exists in order to continue the formation of holy
priests in the service of the Church. When the present crisis will
end in God's good time, the Society will not dissolve itself but
will continue its priestly work.
We are
therefore a living, thriving part of the Roman Catholic Church, and
the apparent anomaly of our canonical situation is an unwanted
consequence of our fidelity to the mission for which we were founded
by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1970, with the approval and blessing of
the bishop of Lausanne-Genève-Fribourg, and with the further
recognition and praise by local ordinaries and by the Holy See.
The main
reason invoked for the illegal suppression of the Society in 1975
was Archbishop Lefebvre's refusal to celebrate in the new rite.
Other accusations would follow, but it is important to remember that
the persecution was motivated by our attachment to the Mass of all
times. To celebrate the Old Mass was tantamount to oppose the
council, hence to oppose the pope. Such was the reasoning of our
adversaries.
The Archbishop told us
in his sermon during the priestly ordinations of June 29, 1976:
"They have gone so far as to send me someone who offered to
concelebrate with me in the new rite so as to manifest that I
accepted voluntarily this new liturgy, saying that in this way all
would be straightened out between us and Rome. They put a new Missal
into my hands, saying "Here is the Mass that you must celebrate and
that you shall celebrate henceforth in all your houses.”
They told me as well that if on this date, today, this 29th of June,
before your entire assembly, we celebrated a Mass according to the
new rite, all would be straightened out henceforth between ourselves
and Rome. Thus it is clear, it is evident that it is on the
problem of the Mass that the whole drama between Ecône and Rome
depends."
The
Archbishop refused to follow the example of so many prelates who
allowed their dioceses and congregations to lose their Catholic
identity precisely because of their acceptance of the Novus Ordo; by
abandoning the Old Mass they lost the antidote against the modern
errors which have now become the norm.
The
reformed rites opened the door to a new ecclesiology, the one
fostered by the Second Vatican Council and which we can resume in
three principles: the substitution of the Decalogue by the Rights of
Man, a false ecumenism which practically evacuates the dogma "Extra
Ecclesiam nulla salus," and the marginalisation of the supreme
rights of Christ the King in the social order of nations. The
Society of St. Pius X could neither submit to a suicide by decree
nor become an instrument of destruction of the Christian Order.
The supreme law is the
salvation of souls. This is why the Archbishop, the most obedient
co-operator of the Sovereign Pontiffs during a long life of service,
was obliged in conscience to "disobey" an iniquitous command
inspired by a modernistic spirit, and not by the Holy Ghost, soul of
the Church. To maintain the Catholic Mass, the Catholic Priesthood,
and the Catholic Civilization which is its consequence, he continued
to form and to ordain priests, and he consecrated four bishops. Not
to establish a parallel church –"Far from us, he exclaimed, the
miserable thought of separating ourselves from Rome!"- but to help
and serve the only and true Church of Jesus Christ.
Nothing has
changed since then, the combat continues. Just as the Archbishop did
in various occasions, our general superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay,
asked to be received in audience by the pope to give testimony of
our attachment to the See of Peter.
In a
perfectly logical line of action, just as the Mass was the reason of
our condemnation and the beginning of the present crisis, Bishop
Fellay requires that every priest must be recognized the right to
celebrate the Holy Sacrifice as canonized by Pope St. Pius V without
the need of an indult, and that the canonical sanctions against the
bishops and priests of the Society must be addressed in the proper
manner. This is not a matter of reconciliation, or arrangement,
or compromise, or negotiation, or regularization, or a surreptitious
"sell-out": it is a matter of restitution and recognition, a matter
of strict justice. Where is the betrayal in this procedure?
Betrayal to whom, to what? In fact, Bishop Fellay would betray his
office and his responsibility if he did not demand justice from the
pope, and we priests would betray our vocation if we did not offer
the Holy Father our help to restore all things in Christ; up to him
to take the offer... Only a sede-vacantist or a non-Catholic could
reason otherwise.
Pope
Benedict has not "freed the Mass" or addressed the invalid
sanctions. He may do it, and if and when he or a future pope does
it, the historical wrong perpetrated against Archbishop Lefebvre and
his priestly Society will be amended by the official recognition of
our work. The precise juridical figure of this recognition will be
for the experts to determine: a personal prelature, an apostolic
administration, a new canonical circumscription for our particular
work, it is immaterial as long as it allows us to continue exactly
as we are. The Society's houses throughout the world would thus enjoy official
Vatican recognition, but would remain under the jurisdiction of the
general superior rather than the diocesan bishops. Then there would
certainly be a considerable influx of bishops, priests, and faithful
into the Society, and a widespread return to Tradition could begin.
All this only if God wishes, whenever God wishes, and in the manner
God wishes. We cannot precede the designs of Divine Providence.
Once
justice is done, the moment will come for debating and converting:
in the words of the immortal Louis Veuillot, "Revelation against
Revolution." A formidable battle to fight. By our example more than
by our words we may contribute to hasten the day predicted by the
Archbishop in his sermon of the 1979 ordinations in Econe: "The
Lord one day will permit, we have no doubt, that we will be
recognized; not only recognized but thanked for having
defended the Tradition of the Church. Thanked for having made
priests who are true priests and who have profound convictions and
who have as a program for their life the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
and who want to put this into practice. There is the salvation of
our civilization! There is the Church!" And at the end of the sermon
of the episcopal consecrations of June 30, 1988, our Founder
repeated in the same vein: "Just as I took no account of the
suspension, and ended up by being congratulated by the Church and by
progressive churchmen, so likewise in several years—I do not know
how many, only the Good Lord knows how many years it will take for
Tradition to find its rights in Rome—we will be embraced by the
Roman authorities, who will thank us for having maintained the Faith
in our seminaries, in our families, in civil societies, in our
countries, and in our monasteries and our religious houses, for the
greater glory of God and the salvation of souls!"
*
We invite you to attend the solemn blessing of our new chapel in
Newry, on Saturday 18 March, at 11:00 am. It is situated in the Richbrook Business Park, Mill Road, Newry. Deo gratias!
With the
blessing of your grateful priests, in Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,
Father Ramón
Anglés
