I would like to take this opportunity to speak to you a little concerning those who call themselves the Society of Saint Peter.

Firstly, why did they use the title 'Society'? There are many other names they could have chosen. It seems they wished to imitate us. Also, why do they use the name of St. Peter? Does that imply that the Society of St. Pius X is not faithful to the Pope? Or is it a means of flattering the pope?

Secondly, when they left, Fr. Bisig assured me that they would not work against us. Yet now they go to great lengths to do just that. Let me give you an example. The priests of the Disciples of St. Peter have telephoned most of the faithful who assist at our church in Stuttgart, West Germany. They have put great pressure on our faithful there, constantly telephoning and brow-beating them, accusing us, and calumniating us. They have also gone to see seminarians during their holidays this past summer in Europe. Even more amazingly, this past Christmas holidays saw priests of these Disciples of St. Peter waiting on the platform of stations in Dijon and Paris for the trains from Ecône in order to do some 'recruiting' amongst the Ecône seminarians going home to their families. They have now started a huge propaganda campaign against the Society of St. Pius X, when before, they had written to us that they would not work against us. Look at Fr. Emmerson, who now gives interviews, and travels the world with at least one end in view; to take priests and seminarians away from us.

During the weekend of February 18-19, Fr. Bisig attended a symposium at Aachen in Germany, regarding the question of Archbishop Lefebvre, his supposed excommunication, and other related matters. The main speaker was a certain Fr. Klinger who is a great Modernist and heretic; Fr. Bisig saw nothing wrong with sharing the same platform with a heretic, one who is intent on destroying the Church. In one of Fr. Emerson's interviews he states categorically that the Disciples of St. Peter "are quite comfortable" following the New Mass. They assist at the New Mass. If they feel "quite comfortable" following the New Mass, and assist at it, why do they not say the New Mass?

With these last two things they have lost all their spiritual position. They have given up their whole reason for being. In their letters when they left they said they would continue the work of Archbishop Lefebvre, they would give up nothing of his position; they would hold to it. Yet here we see them sharing a platform with heretics, and thereby approving of them, and also being "comfortable" following the New Mass. I ask you, is this the position of Archbishop Lefebvre? If the Archbishop had said years ago that he was comfortable following the New Mass, we would have been given everything we wanted, there would have been no problem with Rome or the Holy See, no problem whatsoever. These Disciples of St. Peter have lost all their credibility, all their spiritual position.

Still on the doctrinal question, let me give you a further example, the disciples of St. Peter are very close to the Benedictines of Le Barroux (South of France), founded by Dom Gerard Calvet; this monastery as you know, has made its arrangement with the Holy See. On almost the eve of the consecration of Bishops, three days before to be exact, one of their monks came to visit me at Rickenbach. He wanted to discuss the question of Religious Liberty as taught by the Second Vatican Council. I spent many hours with him, and in the end I said "but you are getting ever closer to accepting the position of the Council on this question." He replied to me, "Yes, I am close to the Council's position." This monk indicated to me that this was the position of Dom Gerard, and I would suppose, of all the monastery. I asked him why had they fought all these years against these new doctrines if now they were ready to give up all the fight? I also know for a fact that three of the priest Disciples of St. Peter, Frs. Recktenwald, Prosinger, and another whose name escapes me, also hold this new position regarding the Religious Liberty of the Council.

Both Le Barroux and the Disciples of St. Peter no longer see the Modernists as enemies against whom we have to fight. They have given up the battle, they have fled the battlefield. Their position is a betrayal of the truth.

In his letter to the pope, dated July 8, 1988, Dom Gerard asked, for the priests of his monastery who were ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre, that their 'suspensions' be lifted by the Holy See. If Dom Gerard truly thought his monks would incur the Church penalty of 'suspens a divinis', for being ordained by His Grace, then he had no right to have sought their ordination at the Archbishop's hands. If he really thought that, then he was committing mortal sin by sending his monks to be ordained at Ecône. We may well ask the question: "Did he merely 'use' us all these years?"

Likewise, in the same letter, he stated that he "would not countenance episcopal ordinations without pontifical mandate insofar as they are illegitimate." Such phrasing was totally ambiguous on his part, since the Pope, in reading such a letter, would think that, yes, Dom Gerard is condemning Archbishop Lefebvre. Yet on the other hand, when those who support him accuse him of saying the Archbishop is excommunicated, he can reply to them that he did not say that.

In all truth, it can be said that there is nothing of the divine or supernatural in what they do, that is to say, Dom Gerard, Fr. Bisig and the Disciples of St. Peter; to be ambiguous, to be zealous for the destruction of what, in effect, is your mother. Fr. Emmerson for instance; to approve of heretics and be comfortable following the New Mass; all this is not the work of the Holy Ghost: it is not of God. Personally, I do not judge them, but their work as a whole is not, and cannot be of God.

And the Bishops of the Conciliar church do not want them either; these Disciples of St. Peter. Before Christmas, Bishop Mamie of Fribourg, Lausanne and Geneva, gave a press conference. Regarding these Disciples of St. Peter, he replied to a question: "to be frank with you, we do not want them. They do not celebrate the New Mass; because they do not celebrate it, they condemn the New Mass. Because they do not teach the new catechism, they condemn the new catechism.... Vatican II asked us for a conversion. We have made this conversion, we are very comfortable. Let not the Vatican come now and ask us to reconvert ourselves to these old ways. We will not have it."

Cardinal Mayer, the head of the new Vatican commission for these people, was to have ordained five priests for the community of Fr. Oliver de Bligniere in December. This community had separated itself from us because it was utterly sedevacantists for years. They now see nothing wrong with the Religious Liberty of the Council. Well, Cardinal Mayer was to ordain five of their members to the priesthood at the conservative Benedictine Monastery of Fronton. The French hierarchy told the Holy See that it was not possible that a Cardinal could come and do this ceremony. They would not allow it. Well, even on the morning of the ceremony, those to be ordained did not realize that Cardinal Mayer was not to ordain them. All of a sudden a retired French Missionary Bishop appeared and did the ceremony, while constantly asking the Master of Ceremonies what to do next. He knew nothing of the ceremony.

One week later, also in December, the Disciples of St. Peter were to have one of their students ordained a deacon. Their local Bishop, the Bishop of Gauges, told them however, that it could not take place in the diocese; the clergy would object. In order not to have trouble in his diocese, he paid their fares to Rome and assisted at the ordination in one of the Basilicas. The ordination was performed by Cardinal Mayer. Two days later, they were received in audience by the Pope, who seemed quite cool towards them. In order to avoid having anything printed in "L'Osservatore Romano", the Pope did not give a speech, but just mingled with them.

In this whole undertaking there is not one inch of the supernatural spirit. There are three sides at present in this whole story. There are the Disciples of St. Peter, there is the Holy See, and there are the Bishops of the different countries' Episcopal Conferences. They all seem to be at one another's throats. And whoever shouts the loudest will have the victory.

There is nothing supernatural in these people.

When the Benedictine Monastery of New Fribourg in Brazil refused to follow Dom Gerard in his agreement with Rome in July last year, one of the monks said: "We want to be a poor monastery, we wish to separate ourselves from the world, we don't want to give interviews to the world press." Dom Gerard visited them to try to have them follow him in obedience. They all refused. Eventually it got to the point where they had to seek outside help to have Dom Gerard removed, and at the door of the monastery, he cursed all the monks in that house. Is that supernatural?

In Liechtenstein, there was a convent of Sisters, Schwestern von Kostbarenblut, who were once with the Society of St. Pius X. Late last year they decided to follow the Disciples of St. Peter. Seven of the Sisters left saying: "For us the question of the consecration of Bishops was on a par with the question of the Old Mass." In leaving, they left behind their habits and their community life. When it was put to them whether they would found a new convent, they began by asking themselves, "Are we worthy? Does God want us to found a new convent?" I have never heard similar reflections from the Disciples of St. Peter that they sought a deeper humility, a more intense spiritual life, that they needed to do more penance. I do not see these sentiments among them. Ten seminarians left our seminary at Zaitzkofen to join the Disciples of St. Peter. Upon leaving they said, "Now we will have more freedom. A new age has come for us. We won't have all these restrictive rules to put up with." Is this the Holy Ghost? I cannot see it.

The fight we undertake is a spiritual fight. If ten years ago, we had said all was well with the New Mass and all the reforms which follow from it, the Vatican would have said: "Right you are, we see no problem with you and your Society of St. Pius X." However, because we said that the New Mass was poisoned, that it gives bad fruits, we are rejected. They say that we are against all the modern things, and therefore we are out. Our fight is not just a fight for the material Rite of Mass, but against all the modern destruction of the Church and the Faith.

I have just finished reading a study of the theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar. Formerly a Jesuit, he resigned from the Order in 1951, and became a well-known writer in theology in modern times. The book, entitled "Die Kardinalirrtwner de Hans Urs von Balthasar" is by Johannes Rotkranz, a young theologian. Having read this book one sees how the whole of the theology of von Balthasar is heresy from beginning to end. Yet in 1984, Pope John Paul II gave von Balthasar the Paul VI Prize for Theology. In 1988 the Pope appointed him a cardinal because of his merits as a theologian. He was the Pope's favorite theologian. We see now, with von Balthasar's theology, there is installed in the Church a whole system of error. Those in charge permit the wolf to enter in amongst the sheep. All von Balthasar's works are lauded and praised, yet they are erroneous and heretical. It is incredible that this is now the favored theology.

I ask you, how can you trust people whose theology is based on error?

On the human level, some of them are very affable and kind. I have met Cardinal Ratzinger twice. No problems were had in our conversations. Our problems are spiritual and doctrinal. These problems, above all, center around the Decrees of the Council regarding Religious Liberty and the Church in the Modern World, to mention but two of them. Councils in former centuries brought light upon the problems of the day. The 'Decree on Religious Liberty' of Vatican II was so dark and confused that there was needed an explanatory note at the end in order that Papal Authority be maintained! You can still see that note in all the editions of the council documents.

How can we collaborate with such people?

People holding to all these errors since the Second Vatican Council, and to the New Order of Mass: how can you trust them?

Two years ago Fr. Bisig made a public declaration that it was impossible to collaborate with such people. Now he sits next to heretics and modernists to publicly accuse us and condemn us. They claimed they would not change anything that the Society of St. Pius X had been doing, yet, now Fr. Emerson says that they are "comfortable following the New Mass." They are deceived. They are blinded. It is very sad to see. How can they collaborate with those who are publicly destroying the Church?

Consider the Swiss Bishops: every Lent they issue a Lenten Calendar to all the Faithful of Switzerland. This year each page for every week of Lent has the symbols of the "New Age Movement" on it. In particular, the partial arch of the multi-colored rainbow. This booklet is filled with quotations from the writings of a Protestant Indian theologian; one of which tells everyone that there is a god in India who is venerated as the "god of greenery;" and consequently "we are all sons and daughters of this god!" This is promulgated by the entire hierarchy of Switzerland! These bishops are helping to send their people to damnation. Can we honestly work with such people?

Again, consider the case of Cardinal Oddi. I have had several interviews with him through the years. On one occasion he was remonstrating with me; "Why does Archbishop Lefebvre want to take care of the Church? That is the Pope's business. If the Pope goes to hell, the Archbishop need not worry."

On another visit I spoke with him regarding the question of the Hinduization of the Liturgy in India. I had brought with me proof positive that, in the celebration of the New Mass according to the 'Hinduization', there was not one Sign of the Cross whatsoever. The Cardinal replied, "Do you mean to say that the whole of Christianity consists in the Sign of the Cross?" How can you trust such people? How can one collaborate with such people who are in the process of destroying the Church? It is just not possible. We must publicly proclaim their wrong-doing, and indeed, publicly accuse such public acts, as for example, Assisi, for what they are. It would be sinful for us to remain silent. Assisi has had an enormous effect throughout the whole world for religious indifferentism. Is that the work of the Holy Ghost? Does God want us to be indifferent to what is the true religion?

As for the activities of the Disciples of St. Peter, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the Holy See and this Commission 'Ecclesia Dei' will say to Fr. Bisig and his assistants: "Well, we have given you all these things now, what are you giving us in return? How many seminarians have you brought away from Lefebvre? How many priests? How many nuns? Look, if you don't continue doing this, well, we will have to see whether we can continue supporting you." So with each visit they ask them, "What are your latest successes?" There is little else to explain their 'missionary activities.'

Finally, I would say that in spite of all, these Disciples of St. Peter will win over a certain number of people. Those who are half traditional, half conservative. Rome will continue to grant them different favors. But the question is; are they granted through conviction? Why is it that Cardinal Mayer is now able to ordain in the Old Rite of Orders when two or three years ago, he thought it impossible in conscience? If he can do it now, what was to stop him two or three years ago? With truth it can be said that what the Holy See now does for all these people is not done with a positive aim in view, but rather, an aim to damage the Society of St. Pius X.

May God and His Blessed Mother, the Mother of the High Priest, grant us the grace to remain faithful to the priesthood of Her Divine Son.