Vocations
Archbishop Lefebvre: The Priestly
Vocation
“You Have Come to Seek Our Lord”
Fatherly Care and Vocations

May - June 2018

Vocation
We need not expect that those who enter religious life will be immediately perfect;
it is enough for them to tend to perfection, and to embrace the means for growing in
perfection. And in order to do this, it is necessary to have this firm and constant will
such as I spoke of, to embrace all the means of growing in perfection that are proper to
the vocation in which one is called....If you see that she has this constant will of wanting
to serve God and to grow in perfection, you may give her your vote.
(St. Francis de Sales, “Les vrays entretiens spirituels,” Entr. 16)

Letter
from the
Publisher
Dear readers,
In recent years, the U.S. District of the Society of Saint Pius X has marshalled its publishing apostolate to call renewed attention to the topic of vocations. Some of you may ask,
“Have we not read about this topic already? What more is there to say?” I am confident, as
you take in and reflect on the contents of this issue, that you will agree there is much more
to be said—more than a single issue of this magazine can hope to contain.
The collapse of vocations is one of the most visible signs of the ongoing crisis in the
Catholic Church, a crisis that continues more than a half-century after the close of the
Second Vatican Council. An anti-clerical, anti-religious mindset infects the Mystical Body
of Christ, leading to a situation where parishes all across the country continue to be
condensed and closed, monasteries are emptied, and the traditional understanding of the
priesthood is all but lost. “Communion services,” where lay ministers profane the Blessed
Sacrament with unconsecrated hands, have taken the place of daily Mass in dioceses
across the country, and the internet, a remarkable tool too often leveraged for disseminating error, is now the primary outlet for “catechesis.”
I implore you, the readers of The Angelus magazine, to take to heart the articles in this
issue. If you are parents, think carefully about what you are doing to direct your children to
hear Our Lord’s call. If you are a young person, take the contents of this issue as an opportunity to examine your life, pray fervently, and follow the path God has placed before you.
No matter what station you have been allotted in life, please allow the contents of this issue
to assist you in being a faithful soldier for Jesus Christ.
As always, please keep the Society of Saint Pius X in your prayers, particularly its publishing arm Angelus Press, and please be assured that all of us are keeping you in ours.

Fr. Jürgen Wegner
Publisher

May - June 2018
Volume XLI, Number 3

		
U.S.
Foreign Countries

Contents
Letter from the Publisher

Publisher
Fr. Jürgen Wegner
Editor-in-Chief
Mr. James Vogel
Managing Editor
Fr. Dominique Bourmaud
Assistant Editor
Gabriel Sanchez
Copy Editor
Miss Jane Carver
Design and Layout
credo.creatie
(Eindhoven, The Netherlands)
Mr. Simon Townshend
Director of Operations
Mr. Brent Klaske

––The Priestly Vocation According to Archbishop Lefebvre
––A Tour of the Religious Houses
––“You Have Come to Seek Our Lord...”
––Do I Have a Religious Vocation?
––Prayer of Pius XI for Vocations
––Samuel, Samuel
––Priestly Celibacy at Risk
––Fatherly Care and Vocations

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––The Prayers at the Foot of the Altar
––On the Priestly Vocation
––Book Review: Heroism and Genius
––To Truly Seek God

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4

Theme: Vocations
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Spirituality
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Christian Culture
––A Consideration of the Superlative
––The Three Estates and the Counterrevolutionary Vocation

50
54

“Instaurare omnia in Christo”

The Angelus (ISSN 10735003) is published bi-monthly
under the patronage of St. Pius X and Mary,
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©2018 BY ANGELUS PRESS. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE
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––The Domed Basilica of Charles the Great
––Education to Dependency
––Questions and Answers

59
66
69

News from Tradition
––Church and World
––The Integrity of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
––The Last Word

74
80
87

Theme Vocations

Archbishop Lefebvre

The Priestly
Vocation
by Bernard Tissier de Mallerais

The “Great War”
(1914-1918) Marcel Lefebvre did not eat his
fill: the black bread was sticky on the inside and
disgusting; the American chickens were rotten
when they arrived. Fortunately, there was the
soup kitchen. Jeanne, his older sister came home:
“Here is the milk can, I filled it at the soup
kitchen, but there isn’t enough; there are so many
people waiting in line…”
The soup was gone in no time, and once
the table was cleared, the children did their
homework.
“Time for prayers,” said Madame Lefebvre.
“We will pray for Oncle Louis who is in a
concentration camp in Pomerania, and for
Papa in Holland.” And with their mother, the
five children recited the rosary with their arms
outstretched in the form of a cross.
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The next morning, Marcel was on his feet at
5:45 to go serve Mass for his favorite priest in a
private home, for the school was occupied by the
German army. He went out into the street and
over on the corner of the rue de l’Abattoir, he saw
two soldiers standing there in their grey-green
uniforms; they seemed to be waiting for him.
Marcel turned and ran back home.
Fr. Desmarcheliers came to the house at noon:
“Why didn’t you come this morning to serve
Mass?”
“There were soldiers in the street, and if they
had caught me, they would have beaten me with
the butts of their guns; it’s the same risk every
morning, going out before the curfew ends at 6.”
“Then you should have taken the rue de
Réservoir!”
Was it a safer street? By no means. But Marcel

was resolute: “Very well, Father, I shall continue
to serve your Mass. I’ll see you tomorrow!”
The constant worries, their mother imprisoned
for a week in the cellars of the town hall where
she would catch tuberculosis of the bones: these
were great trials for the five children.
“It changed us,” Archbishop Lefebvre would say
later. “Even if you’re only nine, ten, or eleven years
old, you can’t help it...War is really a terrible thing....
Obviously, it affected us, the older children. We
five, we were scarred by those events, and I think
that in part, at least, we owe our vocation to them.
We saw that human life was insignificant and that
one has to know how to suffer.”
Then came the Armistice, the end of the

“Conference of St. Vincent de Paul.” As a
member, he visited the poor of the city with a
comrade.
“Maman, put me in charge of the chicken coop
and the rabbit hutch. You can pay me a little bit,
right?”
“Of course, son, but what will you do with the
money?”
“Buy a bicycle.”
“Why?”
“To visit my poor with Robert Lepoutre.”
“Very well, my son. You shall have your bike.”
One day in 1923, he entered a hovel on a street
corner and found a cripple in a wheelchair inside:
it was a paralyzed watchmaker.

war, and on November 11, 1918. Marcel’s older
brother René, who was at the minor seminary
in Versailles, received the cassock then left for
Rome; he would be Marcel’s forerunner.

“Sir, I’m going to clean up all this mess for the
love of God and repaint your shop.”
And when he’d finished: “Now, since your
fingers are still as skillful as ever, I am going to
find you some clients!” And he did as promised.
Two days later:
“Marcel,” asked Bernadette, his younger sister,
“My watch stopped working, do you know any
watchmakers?”
“Yes, go to this address!”
At 25 rue de l’Observatoire, Bernadette did not
see any watchmaker, but she knocked anyway.
“Come in.”
“Oh,” she said when she’d opened the door, “I
must be mistaken; I’m looking for a watchmaker!”
“That’s me! What can I do for you?”
“It’s my watch…”
“I’ll fix it for you; come back in a week.”

An Apostolic Teenager
(1917-1923) Marcel entered the Congregation
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where the members
learned the feasts of Our Lady. Then at the
age of 13, he joined the Eucharistic Crusade,
whose badge he proudly wore and whose motto
he loved: “Pray, receive communion, make
sacrifices, be an apostle”—it expressed the
dearest desire of his heart. To be an apostle, to
give of himself: that was his ideal.
At the age of 16 he entered his school’s

7

Theme Vocations
A week later, Bernadette returned: “Here is
your watch, Mademoiselle; but tell me, how did
you get my address? There is no store front here!”
“My brother gave it to me.”
“Ah. And what is your brother’s name?”
“Marcel Lefebvre.”
“Ah! You are Marcel Lefebvre’s sister! Your
brother is a saint! When he saw the mess there
was here, he tidied everything up, repainted my
poor apartment, and even found me some clients!
I have been living a new life!”
Marcel never talked about what he did for his
poor: “Let not thy left hand know what thy right
hand doth,” says Our Lord.

advice to retreatants!”
He could have said: “Mind your own business,
little sister. I’m old enough to decide for myself!”
But Marcel was humble, he discerned the voice
of God in the words of one younger than himself.
He rode his bicycle to the Benedictine abbey of
Wisques. Above the gate, he read: “Ora et labora”
and immediately translated: “Pray and work.”
After three days, Fr. Guestmaster knocked on
the door of his cell: “So, young man, do you like
our life?”
“Yes, Father, your office sung in Gregorian by
two alternating choirs, your liturgy, the refectory
where I shared your meal in silence, while

“A vocation is not the result of a miraculous or
extraordinary call, but rather the blossoming of a
Christian soul that is attached to its Creator and
Savior Jesus Christ by an exclusive love and
shares His thirst to save souls.”

But apostolate was in his blood! Was not his
vocation already present without him realizing it?

The Decision
Before Easter vacation in 1923, their main
teacher, Fr. Belle, told the students of his
graduating class: “During these holidays, you will
have to make a decision about your future: either
to work, earn your living, and found a Christian
family to carry on your family; or, God willing, to
enter into the novitiate or the seminary.”
Marcel was touched, but hesitant: “A priest, a
priest, I would like that, but it is so lofty, so great!
How can one think one could become a priest?”
Christiane, his little 14-year-old sister, gave
her advice: “Marcel, if you are that hesitant, go
to Wisques for a retreat! Fr. Guestmaster gives
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May - June 2018

listening to the life of an edifying saint. I like it
all…but…I want the apostolate…”
“Ah, if that is the case, my dear friend, your
place is not with us! We Benedictines, our
apostolate is prayer; we are cloistered!”
And Marcel returned home: “Well, what did Fr.
Guestmaster say?” asked 20-year-old Jeanne, who
was soon to enter the Sisters of Mary Reparatrix.
“He said that I do not have a Benedictine
vocation!”
“So not a religious?” exclaimed Jeanne.
“Listen, sometimes I wonder if I should be a
simple Trappist brother: they are so edifying,
united to God and working hard in the fields.
I feel like going to Poperinghe to speak to Fr.
Alphonse. They say he reads hearts…”
And off Marcel went on his bike across the
Belgian border. At Saint-Sixte, he asked the
Brother Porter: “Could I speak to Fr. Alphonse?”

“Yes, I’ll call him; have a seat!”
Marcel heard his heavy step coming down
the stairs; the inner door opened, Fr. Alphonse
appeared, and without asking a single question,
he looked Marcel in the eye and said: “You, you
will be a priest! You must be a priest!”
Marcel was dumbfounded, but he had his
answer from heaven! He would be a priest. On his
way back to Tourcoing on his bicycle, he thought:
“I have always thought of being an apostle, to give
of myself for others; that is my life, I have never
wanted to do anything else.”
Bursting with joy, he went to find his father,
the head of the family; he needed to speak with
him.

in the marrow of the Eternal City, become truly
Roman.”

When Christiane was asked in 1986 as a very
old Carmelite behind the grille in the parlor of
Quievram, in Belgium, “When do you think your
brother Marcel received his vocation?”
“Well, one receives the priestly vocation on the
day of one’s subdiaconate! At least according to
the doctrine received and confirmed by St. Pius
X.”
“But what?”

“Papa, I am going to be a priest!”
“Good, my son, that is what I thought you
would do. But I never wanted to influence you.
Now, if that is what you have made up your mind
to do, you will go to Rome!”
“Oh, Papa, do my studies in Latin, in a foreign
country? Why bother? I will enter in Hellemes,
here in the diocese!”
“No, I fear the liberal penetration that I sense
in Lille. You will go to Rome, where your brother
René is. You will be under the direction of Fr.
Le Floch, a Roman, there; you will hear healthy
doctrine, under the eyes of the pope. You have
only to go see our bishop now.”
Bishop Quilliet, who was trying hard to keep
the Roman and anti-liberal traditions alive in
his diocese of Cambrai, received the candidate
and his father: “Go to Rome, dear friend, drink

“Marcel always had it, for as long as I have
known him! He always wanted to give of himself
for others, in the family, at school, with his
poor. He had a very balanced temperament:
calm, thoughtful, full of ideas, resourceful, an
organizer, a doer. Everything he needed!”
“And that makes for, shall we say, an apostolic
priestly vocation?”
“With the seal of the Church, yes. You
see, it is like in philosophy: you provide the
matter (favorable dispositions, no unfavorable
dispositions), and upon this matter falls what we
call the form, that gives a form and consistency
to these dispositions; this form is the call of the
Church received on the day of your ordination
to the subdiaconate, through the voice of the
bishop.”
I spoke with a fellow priest, a professor of

What Is the Priestly Vocation?

9

Theme Vocations
moral theology: “Father, what do you think of
the definition Archbishop Lefebvre gave of the
priestly vocation? He does not even mention the
divine call! But ‘vocation’ means ‘call.’ ‘One must
be called by God,’ says St. Paul in his epistle to
the Hebrews!”
“What was his definition?”
“Here it is: ‘A vocation is not the result of a
miraculous or extraordinary call, but rather the
blossoming of a Christian soul that is attached
to its Creator and Savior Jesus Christ by an
exclusive love and shares His thirst to save
souls.’”
“I’m surprised; what about the call of the
Church?”
“It is implied; it confirms all the good
dispositions as the form that unites them all,
gives them their overall confirmation and
marks them with the stamp, the seal of the
Church through the reception of the order of the
subdiaconate.”

The Sacred Heart School
and Marcel’s Vocation
What was the Sacred Heart School? It
undeniably played a capital role in Marcel
Lefebvre’s vocation.
This Catholic high school was run and
directed by 32 teaching priests. Each class
(there were several classes for each grade) had
its “main teacher” who could be the students’
confessor or spiritual director. Marcel chose Fr.
Desmarcheliers, a 40-year-old priest, modest,
simple, cordial and full of energy; he served his
Mass often, as we mentioned above, and took him
for a model.
More than half of the graduating class each
year “chose” the seminary or the novitiate
(Capuchins, Jesuits, Dominicans).
This Catholic school was thus somewhat of a
“minor seminary” without the name and bore the
same fruits.
The advantage was that it did not seem to
direct the young men necessarily towards
the priesthood. Minor seminaries were more
directive; the young men in them were expected
to desire the priesthood. But from the 1950’s on,
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May - June 2018

this type of “clerical school,” so to speak, became
unpopular with families and was increasingly illsuited to a society that was less penetrated with
Catholicism. Priestly or religious vocations were
not supposed to be born in childhood or early
adolescence.
Archbishop Lefebvre, Superior General of the
Holy Ghost Fathers from 1962 to 1968, confirmed
the decline of the minor seminaries; he did
not close them, but his successor did in the
congregation.
And when he founded the Priestly Society
of St. Pius X in 1970, Archbishop Lefebvre
foresaw that his priests could become directors
of Catholic schools for boys that would bear
the same fruit of vocations as his old Sacred
Heart School in Tourcoing, so well suited to the
mentality of the late 20th century.

Conclusion
Marcel Lefebvre’s vocation enables us clearly
to distinguish the main factors (favorable causes)
of priestly vocations among the youth:
–– A truly Catholic family, prayerful and mortified
(no luxury, no television, etc), kindles a spirit
of sacrifice and a sense of the common good.
–– Education by the father of the family to the
love of God and of one’s homeland, to the
combat for these two ideals, to the knowledge
of counter-revolutionary heroes.
–– Apostolic youth movements, that offer models
of young apostles to imitate and provide young
people with apostolic activities.
–– The example of priests, exemplary in their
piety, their availability to hear confessions,
their presence among the students, their ability
to understand young people, their priestly
ideal: “the priest is another Christ.”
–– Retreats preached in schools or spent
in silence in some monastery for first
communions, confirmations, graduations;
retreats in which the vocation is presented, to
help young people to orient themselves and
chose a state of life.

A Tour of the Religious Houses

St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary
1208 Archbishop Lefebvre Avenue
Dillwyn, VA 23936

SSPX Sisters

Phone: 434-505-7007;

Sr. Maria Magdalena – Superior

Fax: 507-216-6243

SSPX Brothers

Sacred Heart Novitiate

Fr. Dean – novice master

540 W. 8th Street

Holy Angels Novitiate

Browerville, MN 56438

21077 Quarry Hill Road

Phone: 320-594-2944

Winona, MN 55987
Phone: 507-454-8000

Benedictines Monks
Fr. Cyprian – Prior
O.L. of Guadalupe Monastery
142 Joseph Blane Road
Silver City, NM 88061-9799
Phone: 575-388-9279

Dominicans Novitiate:
Rev. Mère Marie Geneviève – Prioress General

Carmelites

St. Dominique du Cammazou
B.P. 10, 11270 Fanjeaux, France

Carmel of the Holy Trinity

Phone: 04 68 24 72 23

Convent

US Address:

4027 S. Wilbur Road
Spokane, WA 99206

Franciscans Sisters

St. Dominic’s Convent

Phone: 509-928-0114

Convent of Christ the King

20274 W. Riverview Drive

1409 E. Meyer Blvd.

Post Falls, ID 83854

Kansas City, Missouri 64131

Phone: 208-773-7598

Phone: 816-333-1463

Theme Vocations

“You Have
Come to Seek
Our Lord...”
by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Epiphany 1972, Ecône, Switzerland

My dear friends, my dear brethren,
In think that in this ceremony today, the very
angels of heaven are assisting along with the
saints, and along with your parents and friends
who have already gone to the eternal dwelling
of the Father. Today, they are all rejoicing with
us, giving thanks at the thought that today, my
dear friends, you are going to put on Our Lord
Jesus Christ. This means nothing else than this
very habit with which you will be girded in a few
moments. You have come to this house like the
Magi, the Three Kings. Drawn by the star, the
star of your vocation, in the midst of a world that
is troubled, disoriented and no longer knowing
where it can find the solution to its problems. In
the midst of priests who are themselves equally
disoriented and no longer knowing what the
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priesthood is, you have received a special grace whether through the influence of your parents, or
through priests friendly to us—you have received
this extraordinary grace of a priestly vocation.

Seek Our Lord
What drew you to come here? Why have you
come and why have you chosen this seminary?
Why have you come to these mountains, to this
out-of-the-way place in Ecône? You have not come
here to find any posh resort, in a purely human
and material sense. Nor have you come to pursue
the human sciences. These you could have found
elsewhere, and many of you have already done
studies in the universities, where you were called
to work, to study.

You have come here to seek Our Lord Jesus
Christ, He who is the solution to all problems.
And after a few months of reflection, some of
you told me in the letters you wrote to apply for
this year, that you understood that in this house
what is given to you above all is the knowledge
of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He is your Master. He
is the Object of your science, He is the source
of your sanctification. That is what we and all
your professors desire to give you above all—the
knowledge and love of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, this habit which you will put on will
be nothing more or less than the echo of the
words of St. Paul: “Induimini Dominum Iesum
Christum—Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ!”
Therefore, from the very beginning when this
seminary was founded at Fribourg, already back
then it seemed to be wise and necessary to place
the Crucifix into the hands of those especially
who were beginning the year of Spirituality, so
that during this year of meditation, during this
entire year of reflecting on their vocation, they
many find, in the Crucifix, the solution to all their
problems, a firm perseverance in their vocation,
and firmness in the Faith, which is the reason
for everything we shall ask of them during the
course of this year, and in the years to follow.

Riviere. You have seen that you must undergo a
conversion, you must do penance as Our Lord
Jesus Christ gives us an example on the Cross,
but you have understood that this must be done
through love, out of charity, for the love of God,
for the love of souls, for the love of your own

Imitate Christ
To follow Our Lord Jesus Christ, to imitate
Him, to “put Him on,” is no small thing, especially
in our modern world, and especially in the
present time. My dear friends, the present time
cries out for heroes at a time when everything
seems to be vanishing in the structure of society,
and even in the structure of the Church. This
is no time for tepid souls, for souls who give up
in the face of the troubles or doubts which are
circulating all over the world, even on the divinity
of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and even throughout
the Catholic Church. The time belongs to those
who believe—believe in Our Lord Jesus Christ,
who believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ by His
Cross has given the solution to all the problems of
our life, even personal problems.
You have meditated on these things during
the good retreat given by Frs. Barrielle and

soul. For the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ is
a Cross which breathes love. The Office for Our
Lady of the Seven Sorrows says it explicitly in
the beautiful liturgy for that day: “Dilectus meus
rubicundus, candidus, totus desiderabilis...
13

Theme Vocations
omnis figura eius amorem spirat.”—(These
words are put on the lips of the Blessed Virgin)
—”My beloved is all resplendent in white, but
also red, reddened by His own blood,” for He
is covered with His own blood. Thus, does He
draw us—He is, for us, the object of an immense
desire, an immense love. “Omnis gifura eius
amorem spirat.”—“His whole attitude inspires
love,” and this evocation of the liturgy continues,
“Caput inclinatum... manus extentae... pectus
perforatum.” Yes, His head bent over, His arms
stretched out, and His pierced Heart all breathe
love.

of your apostolate. Hence, you are not afraid to
put on the cassock; you are not afraid to put on
Our Lord Jesus Christ, to loudly proclaim Him, to
demonstrate and manifest Him to the world. The
world needs this manifestation of Our Lord Jesus
Christ more than ever. The more the world sinks
into this dung-heap of vice and disorder, doubting
and abandoning the truth, the more do the noblehearted need light, charity, and order. And this
cassock which you will wear will signify these
things in the eyes of the world.

Sign of Contradiction
Desire for God
This is what you must come to understand,
my dear friends. You will come to understand
through meditation, through prayer, through
everything which is taught you, that it is Our Lord
Jesus Christ who gives us charity, true charity,
the charity of God, the charity which above all
attaches us to God. And so you will detest your
sins, your own failings, you will always have
a spirit of sorrow for your sins, but this spirit
of sorrow will be provoked by the love of God,
by the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It will not
be an inefficacious penance, a somber and sad
kind of penance which will depress your heart,
but on the contrary, it will dilate your heart
through the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Here
is something you must never forget, that in the
Christian life, there are always two fundamental
aspects—the penitential aspect, the detestation
of sin and flight from it, and the desire for God,
the love of God. As St. Thomas said so well,
there are two aspects of the Christian life in
the same act of charity, for if one loves God one
will flee whatever separates us from Him. Now,
sin separates us from God; hence by the act of
charity which we have for God and for Our Lord,
we must at the same time detest our sins, detest
everything that renders our path to God difficult,
and always love more He who is the Author of our
own being and of the grace we have.
Hence, the Crucifix will be your model, the
source of your Faith, to which your glance shall
be directed, but it will also be for you the source
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Therefore, you will surely be a sign of
contradiction—signum cui contradicetur—yes,
certainly you will be, like Our Lord, a sign which
shall be contradicted. You will be loved—or
hated, you will be persecuted. You will have
well-wishers. The noble-minded will wish you
well, but those who are possessed by the spirit
of Satan will persecute you—as Our Lord was
persecuted.
Be proud, then, of wearing your cassock, your
habit which manifests Our Lord Jesus Christ
to the world, and fear nothing, for God is with
you, the holy angels are with you, all the saints
of heaven are with you, as well as all those who
have worn this habit, who sanctified themselves
by this habit, and who sanctified others.
Know, that just as Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
solution to all problems, the priest also, who is
another Christ—sacerdos alter Christus—must
also be the solution to all problems. I make no
exception, even for economic problems, even
social problems; all problems must be resolved by
Our Lord Jesus Christ. If today these economic
and social problems seem insoluble, it is because
they have lost the true solution which is Our Lord
Jesus Christ. The Crucifix has been suppressed
everywhere; it has been driven from the public
places, from schools, from courts, from public
buildings, from the hearts of children, and from
houses. The Crucifix is no longer present and
that is why they are no longer able to solve these
problems.
I will give you a single example: the economic
and social problems would be resolved if the

virtue of temperance—perhaps even more so
than the virtue of justice—would be practiced
by everybody. Now, does not Our Lord Jesus
Christ on His Cross preach to us the virtue of
temperance and contempt for the things of the
world? Temperance is simply moderation in all
things, in everything which must be used here
below. Thus, if everybody practiced temperance,
the problems concerning questions of justice
would be quickly resolved. But because they no
longer want to practice the virtue of temperance,
and because everybody is looking for more goods
and always for more enjoyment at whatever price,
they no longer think of the spirit of penance or
of moderation in using the goods of this world;
hence, jealousy and envy arise in the hearts of
men, and fighting spreads all over the world.
Just as those who possess these goods could
understand that they too must use the goods
of this world with moderation, they could be
more generous with the—“have-nots.” Here is an
example to show you how Our Lord Jesus Christ
by the example of His Cross, by the example of
His Blood which was shed—can and must be the
solution to all problems.

problems.
Thus, the honor of God will be saved. The
glory of God will spread throughout the world,
and thus souls will be converted to Our Lord
Jesus Christ. Behold, my dear friends, the
meaning of this ceremony we will perform
in a few moments with you. I hope you will
understand it, that you will keep its signification
in your heart, and that you will be always more
and more convinced of it. Then you will truly be
“the light of the world.”
We will ask this especially today on this
feast of the Epiphany, like the Magi, the Kings
who came to seek the Light of the Child Jesus.
They found Him, in the company of Mary and
Joseph—we will ask Mary and Joseph to give you
conviction in these sentiments which I have tried
to evoke these morning, so that they remain in
you. And I am convinced that at your prayers, and
the prayers of your parents and all those present
here, and the prayers of all who love you and
follow your progress with so much affection, that
the grace of Our Lord will be abundant in you.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Preach the Lord
Well, you will be the ones to preach Our Lord
Jesus Christ. You will bring with you the true
solution to all the problems of this world. In
order to do that, stay priests, abandon not that
which makes you a priest. Of course you are not
yet priests, but you have made a first step which
manifests your desire to become one. I wish with
all my heart that you finally do become priests,
and already the world will judge you as such—
when you wear the cassock, from now on, the
world will judge you as though you were already
priests. So be sure to conduct yourselves as if
you were already such. By your example, by your
deportment, by your attitude, by your charity, by
your goodness and wisdom—already you must
act like men who bring with them the solutions to

15

The Carolingian House had been strong defenders of the Christian Faith. Pepin
of Herstal and Charles Martel had supported the work of missionaries such as
Willibrord and Boniface. Indirectly, the Carolingian kings had furthered the
growth of the Church by maintaining peace and providing political and economical
stability. The Carolingians cooperated closely with the Roman papacy and in return
received considerable papal support.
Pepin the Short asked permission of Pope Zacharias to send the last of the
Merovingean kings to a monastery, in order that he could assume the royal title.
The pope approved. Then the pope sought help from Pepin against the Lombardian
invaders of Italy. Pepin defeated the Lombards and forced them to surrender their
properties to the pope.
Sacrament of Confession or Penance, with Pepin of Herstal confessing his sins to Saint Wiro, in Den Bosch Cathedral. shutterstock.com

Theme Vocations

Do I Have
A Religious
Vocation ?
by Fr. Albert, O.P.

“Do I have a religious vocation?”
This is a question that often haunts the minds of young Catholic men and women as they think
about their future, either because they have heard about religious life in books or sermons, or have
been in contact with religious in one way or another. Unfortunately, most of the time they don’t really
understand what religious life is and even less what a vocation to the religious life is, so often this
question is posed badly and so literally “haunts” them like a sort of threatening spectre that they
instinctively flee, all the while feeling guilty about doing so. They worry about whether they might “have”
a religious vocation as one might worry about whether one “has” some sort of disease, disease all the
more frightening since its real nature seems to be unknown. On top of this, it is not at all clear how one
goes about knowing whether one “has” this disease or not, which just makes things worse.

A Calling for a Privileged Few?
In an excellent book on the subject entitled
Religious Vocation: An Unnecessary Mystery
(TAN reprint, 2005), Fr. Richard Butler, O.P.,
explains that the problem is that in modern times
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a religious vocation has come to be considered
as a sort of special calling for a privileged
few who, consequently, must receive a special
interior revelation of this fact by some ineffable
experience that is shrouded in mystery.
“We have to sympathize with the perplexed

young soul, pondering an eternal future and
seeking a safer route, who is vaguely instructed:
“‘My dear friend, in your heart of hearts, ask
yourself if God is not calling you.’ The anxious
reader of such advice is sent out on a scavenger
hunt for a divine communication. His search is
bound to be futile. He is not sure, and neither am
I, exactly what one’s ‘heart of hearts’ is. He does
not know where to look, or, for that matter, what
to look for. What is this ‘call’? How do you get it?
And how do you know when you have it?
There is a definite intimation of a heart-stir
because they use such phrases as ‘feeling drawn,’
‘is attracted,’ ‘feels within himself a desire’…No
wonder the ordinary aspirant seeks a vocation
inside himself, like a doctor probing for an
inflamed appendix?”
When the world was Catholic, this sort of silly
soul-searching was not considered necessary.
St. Thomas Aquinas sums up all of Tradition
by saying quite simply that the call to follow
Christ in the religious life is universal, that is
to say, Christ invites everyone to follow Him
in the religious life. The proof he gives for this
outrageous statement is taken from the explicit
words of Our Lord Himself in the Gospel: “If thou
wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to
the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven:
and come follow me (Mt. 19:21).”
Thus, Fr. Pègues, O.P., in his commentary
on this question in the Summa, remarks that
St. Thomas does not entitle it: “On religious
vocation” but simply: “On entering religion.” He
writes:
“In order to enter into religion there is no need
of a special vocation from God, distinct from the
vocation or call that Christ addressed to all in
His Gospel: ‘Si vis perfectus esse: if you want to
be perfect.’ Entrance into religion is a question of
good will and the possibilities of execution.”
It is not necessary, then, to have some private
revelation or “calling” to enter religious life.
The door is open for everyone: all they have to
do is go in. As Fr. Butler says, right up until the
nineteenth century, people never even bothered
to ask themselves this anguished question:
“Do I have a vocation?” They just went to the
monastery and most of them stayed.

A Universal Call That Not
All Should Answer
The fact that there is a universal call to
religious life does not mean, however, that
concretely every single Catholic has a religious
vocation.
The theologians make a distinction here between:
–– a general, remote call to religious life which
is universal (and thus, no special revelation is
necessary in order to enter religion) and
–– a particular, proximate call which is only given
to some.
They make a parallel with a similar distinction
between:
–– the antecedent divine will for the salvation of
all men (that is, considered abstractly, before
the consideration of particular circumstances)
and
–– the consequent will (that is, concretely, taking
into account the actual circumstances) for the
salvation of some only.
Similarly, there is an antecedent, universal
call to all to enter religious life, but a consequent,
concrete call for certain souls only.
This is where the idea of “being drawn” or
“attracted” has its proper place, as Fr: Butler
explains:
“While it is true to say that Christ invites all
to the better means of observing the precepts
by practising the counsels, the fact is that God
does move some to respond and others He does
not. For, in every inducement to the practice of
the counsels, such a suggestion has no efficacy
unless one is drawn interiorly by God…and so the
religious resolve, by whomever it is suggested,
is from God. Jesus said: ‘No one can come to me
unless the Father who sent me draw him’ (Jn.
6:44).”
The discernment of whether one “has” a
religious vocation, then, is concerned primarily
with the consideration of these personal
dispositions and circumstances. For, if God is
concretely calling this particular person to the
religious life, He will obviously give him or her
the dispositions required for it and arrange the
circumstances so it be possible. As Fr. Pègues
says, it is simply “a question of good will and the
possibilities of execution.”
19

Theme Vocations
These are, in fact, the conditions mentioned in
canon law, which says simply, with regard to the
question of entrance into religion: “Any Catholic
who is free from legal impediments, has the right
intention and is capable of bearing the burdens of
the religious life can be admitted (1917 CIC, Can.
538).”
We can note here first the traditional notion
of the universality of the general call to religious
life: “any Catholic” who meets the conditions “can
be admitted.” No mention here of some special
revelation or “call,” no “unnecessary mystery,”
but just a matter of fact description of what
is necessary. The “call” indeed exists, but it is
objective. It consists in the action of God, which
is necessary, first of all, to ensure that the person
is not impeded by some circumstance, either
exterior or interior, that would make him unfit for
religious life. Secondly, and above all, this action
is necessary in order that the person have the
“right intention.” Fr. Butler writes:
“We hold to a general, objective invitation to
the religious state through revealed counsel,
and, at the same time, to God’s free choice and
necessary causality in influencing some to
respond to this counsel. [The universal] counsel,
objectively, is static and sterile of itself, and so
the divine operation in the subject is required; for
vocation has efficacy only by an internal impulse
of the Holy Ghost that causes to rise in the heart
an appreciation of and a desire for the religious
life....The right intention, most important of these
requirements in an otherwise fit subject, involves
the act of response which St. Thomas simply calls
propositum religionis.”
This “right intention” is what St. Benedict asks
for already 1,500 years ago in his Rule, where he
says that when someone knocks at the door of the
monastery the abbot must discern “si vere Deum
quaerit: is he is truly seeking God?” Fr. Butler
warns those who must make this discernment
that this right intention is not some passing
emotion but an act of the will:
“Remember that the propositum religionis
is a deliberate act of will, motivated by true
knowledge. An efficacious act of the will includes
the intention of using the means necessary to
achieve the desired end. Otherwise, a person
possesses only a velleity, an inefficacious wishing
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rather than an efficacious willing. Therefore, it is
not enough to hear a candidate express a desire
to ‘save my soul and help save the souls of others.’
This is the normal and necessary desire of every
devout Christian. The point is does this Christian
intend to attain this purpose through these
particular means of religious life? Furthermore,
he must be ready to use these means as they are
proposed by the institute and confirmed by the
Church, not as they are practised by particular
religious or as he himself would prefer them to
be.”

In Conclusion
To conclude, we can simply give a classic
example of an authentic religious vocation,
that of St. Anthony of Egypt as described by St.
Athanasius in his famous biography of this great
Father of monasticism. Note how it includes both
the exterior, universal call found in Scripture and
the interior, particular grace to respond to this
invitation concretely:
“Now, it was not six months after the death of
his parents, and going according to custom into
the Lord’s House, he communed with himself
and reflected as he walked how the Apostles left
all and followed the Saviour; and how they in
the Acts sold their possessions and brought and
laid them at the Apostles’ feet for distribution to
the needy, and what and how great a hope was
laid up for them in heaven. Pondering over these
things, he entered the church, and it so happened
that the Gospel was being read, and he heard
the Lord saying to the rich man, ‘If thou wouldst
be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give
to the poor; and come follow Me and thou shalt
have treasure in heaven.’ Anthony, as though
God had put him in mind of the saints, and the
passage had been read on his account, went
out immediately from the church, and gave the
possessions of his forefathers [to the poor]. He
henceforth devoted himself outside his house to
discipline, taking heed to himself and training
himself with patience.”

Prayer for Vocations
Pope Pius XI

O Lord Jesus Christ, sublime model of all perfection, Thou art ever urging
onward all privileged souls in their high aspiration towards the goal of
religious life; and, moreover, Thou dost also strengthen them through the
powerful force of Thy example and the efficacious influence of Thy grace
so that they may be able to follow Thee in such a noble way of life; grant
then that many, recognizing Thy sweet inspirations, may have the will to
correspond with them by embracing the religious state and so enjoy in it Thy
special care and tender predilection.
Grant in like manner that there may never be wanting those angels of Thy
charity, who will represent Thee day and night at the cradle of the orphan, at
the bedside of the suffering, by the side of the aged and the sick, who perhaps
have no one on earth to whom they may look for sympathy and a helping
hand. Grant that humble schools, like lofty pulpits, may ever re-echo Thy
voice, teaching the way to heaven and the duties proper to each one’s state in
life.
May no land, ever so wild and remote, be deprived of the preaching of the
Gospel, whereby the invitation is extended to all peoples to enter into Thy
Kingdom. Increase and multiply the flames which are to spread throughout
the world that fire in which the immaculate holiness of Thy Church is to
shine forth in all its splendor. May there flourish in every place gardens of
chosen souls who, by contemplation and penance, make reparation for the
sins of men and invoke Thy mercy upon them. Grant that the continuous
self-sacrifice of these hearts, the snow-white purity of these souls and their
eminent virtues may keep ever alive the perfect example of the children of
God which Thou didst will to make manifest to men by Thy coming into this
world.
To these armies of Thy dearly beloved souls send a large number of good
vocations, souls steadfast and firm in their resolve to make themselves
worthy of their high calling and to become a credit to the holy institute to
which they aspire, by exact religious observance, by diligence in prayer, by
constant mortification and by the perfect conformity of their will with Thine
in all things.
Enlighten, O Lord Jesus, many generous souls with the fiery glow of
the Holy Spirit, who is substantial and eternal love, and by the powerful
intercession of Thy most dear Mother Mary, stir up and preserve in them the
fire of Thy love, unto the glory of the Father and the same Holy Spirit, who
together with Thee live and reign for ever and ever.
Amen.

21

Theme Vocations

Samuel,
Samuel
by Fr. Ian Andrew Palko, SSPX

1

Archbishop Marcel
Lefebvre, Sermon at
the Mass for Priestly
Ordinations (Sept. 20, 1980).

“He has chosen us…and yet, my dear friends, do we not sometimes have
the feeling that we have chosen ourselves? That we made our own decision
about our vocation and the we said, ‘I want to be a priest, and I choose the
priesthood?’ What an illusion!”1

New Votive Masses Introduced
In the waning months of 1962, the final typical edition of the Missale
Romanum before the liturgical revolution rolled off the presses. Some of its
new ink, however, was passed by, little noticed. A scant number of faithful
know of it, and few are the number of priests who use the five additional
Votive Masses related to religious and priestly vocations. So quiet their
introduction, and so infrequent their use, that a search through all the
electronic library catalogues in the world for the Gregorian Chant of these
Masses revealed two copies—one in Poland, and the other in the Vatican
Library. A small school in New Zealand now has a photocopy of the latter.
Within the Epistle of one of those Masses, the Missa ad Vocationes
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2

I Wis. 3:1

3

Mt. 4:20

4

St. John Vianney, Catechism
on the Priesthood, in
Monin, A. The Spirit of
the Curé of Ars. (London :
Burns, Lambert, and Oates
1865).

5

I Kg. 19:11–12

Eccleiasticas Petendas, the hagiographer writes, “In those days, when
Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Heli’s care, a message from the
Lord was a rare treasure; He would not openly reveal Himself.”2 Ironic, it
is, that the Church was on the cusp of an unprecedented and grave crisis in
priestly and religious vocations when these words were added to the Missal,
a time when it seems God would hide Himself, permit a great calamity in
the Church and allow a massive loss in priestly virtue and fidelity with an
horrific dearth of priestly vocations.
The traditional world often takes as a great sign of its rectitude a
relatively large number of vocations. While large in comparison to the rest
of the Church, it pales in comparison to the numbers even a century ago,
which themselves were far reduced from those Ages of Faith. Even among
traditional Catholics, a vocation which is pursued is rarer than it ought to be.
After nearly a half century, the Society can only count about 650 priests out
of how many hundreds of thousands faithful in that time?
What is rare, however, is also quite dear, quite precious—a “treasure” as
the Scriptures say. Like any sacred reality, supernatural or natural, while
rare, it also is a far simpler matter than most Catholics imagine. Certainly, a
consequence of that mistaken notion of a vocation means fewer take the time
to consider that God may be calling them than ought to do so.

The Introit: The Simplicity of a Priestly Vocation
The Introit for the Missa ad Vocationes Ecclesiasticas Petendas, preaches
this simplicity: “Along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, the Lord saw two
brothers, Peter and Andrew, and called them : ‘Come, follow me : I will make
you fishers of men.’” Their response: “leaving everything, they followed Him.”3
Far from a mere summary, the lacunæ—the holes in this short
summary—demonstrate how simple the matter of a vocation is, yet also hint
at its profound depth. A vocation, as Archbishop Lefebvre says, is simply Our
Lord whispering to a soul: “Love Me a little more than the others,” yet the
holy Curé of Ars would proclaimed, “if we really understood the priest on
earth, we would die, not of fright, by of love.”4
A vocation is God gently calling a young man, holding out the opportunity
of loving Him more by becoming an alter Christus. Never in this life
however, can he even begin to appreciate that in this simple self-sacrifice,
he finds the gateway into the very hypostatic union between God and Man in
Christ. Far from the normal means God uses are those who would wait for
some apparition or special sign, for the Lord “is not in the wind…not in the
earthquake…not in the fire,”5 but is in the gentle breeze.
Mistakenly, some think for a man to consider pursuing the priesthood, he
must have a clear calling such that he can have no doubts in order to enter a
seminary. While he must have a resolution, not mere fancy, God does not use
such means to call a young man. God also does not remove all doubts, so that
until the definitive moment at the subdiaconate a man is never absolutely
sure of his vocation, because the detecting of a vocation is ultimately
a prudent decision. That decision is the candidate’s with the help of his
spiritual director in the forum of his conscience, and his superiors’ with
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Theme Vocations
6

regard to the exterior. Human prudence and divine assistance come together
to settle the matter. Then, once that step is made, a man can be then certain
of his divine calling at least to Major Orders.

I Kg. 3:1–10.

The Epistle (1 Kg. 3:1-10): Fertile Ground
It is not unheard-of for men to be called away from a life not lived with
the highest of Christian Virtues. Saintly priests such as a St. Augustine, a
St. Ignatius of Loyola, or a Charles de Foucauld, attest to such providential
calls. Such dramatic conversions are not the common way God prepares a
soul for His beckoning. For most men, a good Catholic family is the nursery,
nourishment and womb of a priestly or religious vocation. The importance of
a good Catholic home life and education cannot be over-emphasized.
A young man provided with what will nurture in him virtue and faith from
his youth is apt for hearing the call of God, and the ground tilled so it can
flourish. He needs have the example of a strong, but prudent man for a father
and a loving, valiant woman for a mother. Necessary, also, are the sufficient
material goods by which he can to learn to use well what he has, treasure
such things as means to his sanctity, but never learn the selfish disposition
that such things are owed to him under any title. A solid formation at a good
Catholic school, if such exists, is invaluable, as is a group of good Catholic
peers to train his social virtue and be the field upon which he can practice
this virtue, especially a fraternal charity outside of that family.
Such being the ideal conditions for a young man to be disposed to hear
the call of God, concretely, they do not perfectly exist, but to the extent
they do, they manure and prepare the field for the “seed” if God will call.
Parents wanting to see their sons pursue a vocation must seek to create the
conditions from the very start.
What sullies even the soul prepared by great gifts is a deafness when God
does call. Much ink and many words have been spent about the distractions
of technology and modern life in these pages and from pulpits. Sadly,
surfeited with such dainties which capture the heart themselves or are the
gateway for temptations, many young men lose the plot before the story
even began. No one can say how many, but it is impossible to deny that
many possible vocations are lost when young men are unable to hear God
speaking—when they lack silence of the heart.
It was only when, as the Epistle tells us, Samuel was sleeping silently in
the temple, that God’s voice was heard.6 Even then, it was easily mistaken
for the voice of Heli. Samuel needed the help of a spiritual director to help
discern the signs, just as a man who first senses that call of God stands in
need of a guide to help see if the signs and dispositions exist for a possible
vocation.
The home is no Trappist monastery, nor should it be, but a young man
who is never trained to silently hear his conscience, but instead is always
distracted by technology, sports, activities and so many other things will
never hear the voice of his conscience, nor God whispering in his ear.
“What glorifies God most, is that the Body and Blood of His Son should be
offered to Him as often as possible by the priests whom He calls to that…
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“Heli understood that the Lord called the child, and he
said to Samuel: ‘Go, and sleep: and if He shall call thee
anymore, thou shalt say: Speak, Lord, for thy servant
heareth.’ So Samuel went and slept in his place. [10]
And the Lord came and stood: and He called, as He had
called the other times: ‘Samuel, Samuel.’ And Samuel
said: ‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.’” (I Sam. 3:9)
John Singleton Copley (1780)

Theme Vocations
7

Charles de Foucauld,
Méditation sur les Saint
Évangiles quoted by
Castillon du Perron,
Marguerite. Charles de
Foucauld (Paris : Grasset,
1982), p. 265

8

A Thomistic Philosophical
axiom : “One cannot give
what he does not have.”

If He calls you to that, take care, therefore, not to refuse. Accept the chalice
of salvation, whereby you will give back all that you have received from Him.
You have received Himself, you will give Him back Himself.”7
But if a man cannot give up the fancies of this world, he will never give
himself to God. If he never gives himself to God, he can never give God to
others: Nemo dat quod non habet.8
In his Mercy, knowing a man’s weakness and deafness, God will
sometimes beckon a soul despite its initial indifference. Like with Samuel,
He often will call several times. Perhaps even for some the Sacred Heart,
in His mercy, will arrange for some obvious coincidence of events to wake
such a soul from its slumber. One cannot rely on such mercies, however. If
God is calling, there is no guarantee that He will call again in another month,
another year, or even ten. It may be a call held out for a but a moment, so it
demands that one who detects such a call reply with promptitude, prudence,
and generosity.

The Gradual (Ps. 26:4), Alleluia (Ps. 83:5),
and Gospel (Jn. 1:35-51): The Seminary
Once a man has heard the first whispers of God’s call, the natural worries
turn toward all of the preparation necessary. He may even ask himself if he
is ready for such a immense step. What is behind the door is not fully known.
So it was for the Apostles, who wondered at this Prophet before them,
asking: “Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?”
Our Lord, again, in His mercy does not explain the plan or the details.
They, like the man who detects a calling, are not yet ready to understand
everything, and need to spend that time with Him to prepare. It is not their
time to worry about the details, but to be generous. Thus, His simple reply:
“Come and see.” And, as the Gospel tells us “they stayed with Him the whole
day.” A small act of generosity reaped great dividends.
The seminary is such preparation, a time to dwell with Christ so as to
become another Christ. The Gradual, Tract and Alleluia each in their way
speak of this one desire of a soul called to be another Christ: to be consumed
with zeal for both the place and souls in which God dwells or could dwell.
Like these first Apostles, what a seminarian learns in his years is not so
easily told as it is experienced. Their short exposure to Our Lord was enough
for the first two Apostles to cast their nets around Peter and then Philip. The
Apostles brought in this haul for Our Lord, who did the work. So impressive
that short stay with Christ, that Philip already could mirror Our Lord in His
reply to Nathanael. To his sarcastic interjection, “can anything good come
from Nazareth?” Philip replies with those words of Jesus: “Come and see.”
He did come and see, and would find such good came from Nazareth that
Nathanael would lay down his life for Christ.
Unfortunately, even the seminarian, tainted by the odor of the world
around him will be deaf in certain ways to Our Lord’s graces. This is true
even when dwelling intimately within the seminary walls with Our Lord.
Thus, the Church, in her wisdom, is highly deliberate with forming priests.
It is not an overnight training, or even a training of a few months or a
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year. Seven years in the seminary only begins to scratch the surface of the
formation, knowledge, virtue and wisdom that a man needs to be a holy
priest. It is a good start, but not in itself sufficient.

9

Ps. 15:5

10

Missale Romanum (1962),
Secret Prayer of Missa ad
Vocationes Ecclesiasticas
Petendas

11

Marcel Lefebvre, Sermon
(Mar. 23, 1985).

The Offertory: First Steps

12

Gal. 4:4 : The sense of
πλήρωμα τοῦ χρόνου
suggests the decree of
God, fixing a certain delay
for the Incarnation which
divided the infantile human
race from the fullness of
age which came with the
Incarnation.

After about 30 months as a seminarian, a man will kneel before the bishop,
offer up five pieces of his hair in the form of both a cross and crown, and say
the words of the Offertory : “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and
my cup: Thou wilt restore to me my inheritance,”9 as he receives the First
Tonsure, and enters the clerical state. In a sense, the first two years were a
preparation for this first official offering of self to God in joining the clerical
ranks.
As the next five years progress, the seminarian learns to offer
himself more and more in different ways, and the Church provides him
corresponding responsibilities which are, in fact, ways of participating in the
power of the priesthood—the minor Orders.
The sixth year in the seminary for most candidates brings the definitive
step of the subdiaconate. Just as the hosts and wine, once offered definitively
cannot legitimately be put again to profane use, there is no turning back,
now. The consecration is not yet upon us, but the Offertory has ended and
the Preface is begun. With his step forward, the subdeacon confirms his
definitive commitment to celibacy and to service of the altar.

The Secret and Canon: Consummatum Est
The prayer over the offerings expresses the essence of the priesthood, and
of the Mass, as taught by the Council of Trent. The Mass is a sacrifice—The
Sacrifice. It is, as the prayer suggests, “a life-giving sacrifice for Thy people”
and it is offered in this Mass, “so that there may be an increasing number of
priests around Thy holy altars” to perform the essential function of a priest,
“to offer prayers and sacrifice.”10 Realized at the moment of Consecration “is
the heart, the essence, the very goal of ordination: the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass.”11
In a sense, the end of the seminary with priestly Ordination is analogically
a “fullness of time” as St. Paul writes.12 This fullness is not for the whole of
the human race but for this individual soul, who is meant to bring others
to this fullness of maturity in the Christian Life. It is the decisive moment
when he passes from a childhood to a maturity, marking the end of the
preparation, and the beginning of the living out of this new life which is none
other than to incarnate Christ, spiritually, in others.

The Communion: Ite, Missa Est
While the essence of the priest is the sacrifice, the effects of the
priesthood is the sanctification of souls. A man petitioning for Orders
27

Theme Vocations
13

Summa Theologica III q. 65,
a. 1

14

St. Bernard, Sermon 18 on
the Canticle of Canticles,
no. 3.

15

Chautaurd, J.-B. Soul of the
Apostolate. Pt. 2, no. 2

16

Ps. 65:16

17

Marcel Lefebvre, Sermon at
Zaitzkofen (July 7, 1985).

18

Lk. 5:4

19

Mt. 19:22

must manifest a sufficient supernatural intention. While the religious vows
are meant to perfect a man to aid his own sanctification, the priesthood is
not principally about the priest’s own sanctification. St. Thomas Aquinas,
for instance, puts Orders among the two sacraments ordained to the good
of society and not the individual.13 Thus, to intend only for one’s own
sanctification by becoming a priest is insufficient, good as it may be. Yet, by
being a good priest, a man will sanctify himself.
The priest is a man for others, and a man called to be a priest must
communicate God to others. Firstly, this will be by harvesting from his
Mass, meditations, prayers and spiritual life the harvest of graces he will
communicate. Then having filled his own soul, the grace overflows into
other souls as St. Bernard demands that wise priests, “be reservoirs and not
channels.”14 His cup must first be full in order to pour that grace on other
souls, thus the priest must be holy. “The reservoir is first filled,” writes Dom
Chautard, “and then, without emptying itself, pours out its overflow, which is
ever renewed, over the fields which it waters.”15
He communicates God by his preaching, by word, indeed, but principally
by his example and by the various circumstances, conversations, and
seeming coincidences Providence arranges. Thus, the Communion antiphon:
“Come, give ear, and I will tell all you who fear God, of the great things He
has done for my soul,”16 for God has done great things to the soul of the
priest, drawing him into the very hypostatic union uniting the human and
divine natures in Our Lord. These great things, as they are not for the priest
himself, must be shared in his preaching and ministry. Firstly, that ministry
consists in the Mass and his Breviary, from which he is sent forth and takes
those fruits, applying them to souls. It is the mission, par excellence.
“Each day, God gives you this grace to offer the Holy Sacrifice for all
the sins of the world and for all those who are around you when you are
celebrating Mass. Thank God for giving you this extraordinary mission.”17
Yet, this extraordinary mission begins in a very ordinary, very simple
way: with the first whispers of grace into a man’s soul, inclining him toward
this life of sacrifice, and then a simple prudential decision. Many are called,
but sadly, many are deaf to the call, or hear it, and like the young man in the
Gospel, unwilling to “put out into the deep”18 and instead, “go away sad.”19
Fr. Ian Andrew Palko is Dean of St. Augustine’s Boys’ School and teaches
Catholic Doctrine at St. Dominic’s College in Whanganui, New Zealand. He was
ordained a priest in 2017 at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary (Dillwyn, Virginia) by
Bishop Bernard Fellay.

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Priestly
Celibacy
at Risk
by Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, SSPX

In the course of the year 2017, Pope Francis
alluded to the difficulty for priestly recruits in
some dioceses in Brazil. He opened the debate on
the possibility of ordaining some viri probati—
virtuous men—to the priesthood although they
would be engaged in the bonds of marriage.
What are the arguments brought in favor of
the exception to the celibate priesthood in the
West? We are being told that priestly celibacy is
not a custom based on Revelation and it bears
only ecclesiastical force. Others say that priests
in the West should be granted equal liberty to the
East which does not follow this practice. Also, the
penury of priests would be largely done away were
married viri probati granted the access to the
priesthood. In order to shed light on this delicate
question, we shall question the Church doctrine
and its consequent practice on the matter.

The Supremacy of
Consecrated Celibacy
Continence is the abstinence from the use
of marriage. This abstinence may be either
temporary or definitive. The latter case applies
to those who embrace perpetual chastity for a
motive superior to marriage, that is to say, the
religious or priestly consecration. In this very
thing, this state in life excels that of marriage, as
Pius XII mentioned in his speech of Sept. 15, 1952:
“This doctrine which establishes the excellence
and superiority of virginity and celibacy over
marriage has been solemnly defined, as a dogma
of divine Faith, by the Council of Trent, and the
Fathers and Doctors unanimously taught it.”
Not only does consecrated celibacy surpass
marriage, but the Gospels reveal the profound
29

Theme Vocations
link between priestly and perfectly chaste
consecration. Jesus, having chosen His first
priests, wanted to initiate them into the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 13:11; Mk. 4:11; Lk.
8:10) and called them His friends and His brothers
(Jn. 15:5; 20:17). He sacrificed Himself for them so
that they would be consecrated in truth (Jn. 17:19)
and promised a superabundant recompense to
anyone who would abandon house, family, spouse
and children for the kingdom of God.
Perhaps, the strongest words were those
He addressed to His disciples alone, as He
recommended a more perfect consecration
to God by virginity: “For, there are eunuchs,
who were born so from their mother’s womb:
and there are eunuchs, who were made so by
men: and there are eunuchs, who have made
themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven.
He that can take, let him take it (Mt. 19:11-12).”
The thrice repeated word “eunuchs” evokes
clearly a permanent state of life. And, in the
case of men dedicated totally to God’s intimacy
for themselves and for their flock, they align
themselves with the kingdom of heaven where
“men will not marry nor be taken in marriage, but
will be like angels.” Hence, the constant tradition
of the Church concerning priestly celibacy
derives from the explicit doctrine of Jesus Christ.
Pius XII mentioned the unanimous teaching
of the Fathers and Doctors. Doing this, he
clearly points to the grand Tradition—with a
capital “T”—which is not to be confused with
church laws. It is highly probable that church
law on the ecclesiastical celibacy appeared in
the Latin Church from the apostolic times. This
has been established by the classical studies of
Cardinal Stickler (The Case for Clerical Celibacy
(Ignatius Press 1995)) and Christian Cochini
(Apostolic Origins of Christian Celibacy
(Ignatius Press 1990)).
Legislation followed suit. The Elvira Council
(ca. 306) of Spain is the first one to set the law of
priestly celibacy. Pope St. Sicirius in 386 and the
Council of Carthage in 390 refer to an apostolic
tradition, and this has remained constant Church
teaching. This means that the priestly celibacy
is more than a mere ecclesiastical law and
discipline, open to reform by papal will. In reality,
this praxis especially an irreversible apostolic
30

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tradition, which tradition testifies to a dogma of
Faith: the superiority of the state of consecrated
celibacy over the marriage state. It is similar to
the discipline of infant baptism which, though a
discipline, represents a tradition which testifies
to the dogma of original sin.

East vs. West?
Up to the end of the seventh century, the
Eastern Church is thought to have retained the
same principle as the Latin Church. The variation
was introduced in legislation with the Council
of Trullo II of 691. It allowed those already
married and had received sacred orders the
use of marriage excepting the time of liturgical
functions. No right to a second marriage was
granted to them. A bishop could not use marriage
if he ever was in the marriage bond. In all cases,
once one was made a priest, he could not marry
based on the principle that, if he has entered a
sacred contract with Christ, any lesser contract
through marriage was out of the question.
Cardinal Stickler, in the aforementioned book,
argues that the new legislation was based on
no antecedent. If this is correct, it means that
this particular use of the local Eastern churches
represent a historical exception to the rule. And
the fact that Rome encouraged other Eastern
churches to return to the complete continence
suggests that the Roman practice should be held
as normative in the Church.

Response to Some Objections
The most common objection brought against
the consecrated celibacy comes from the
difficulties involved in keeping permanent
chastity. Should we deny that there are
infringements in the law of celibacy, leading
to scandals and apostasies? No, of course. Yet,
this argument is worth no more than the one
which would suppress marriage because of
sins of adultery. To want to suppress celibacy
because it is not always maintained is to throw
the baby out with the bathwater. The state of
consecrated celibacy is setting high demands

on a man, indeed! Yet, rather than a reason for
suppressing celibacy, it is an added motive for
priests to live in an adequate environment, that is
to say, humanly more balanced and authentically
supernatural. And, if modern life and the new
ecclesiology is hardly conducive to perpetual
chastity, the priests more than ever need to
follow the age-old Church traditions which
have produced for centuries some of the most
outstanding personalities, heroes and geniuses.
Some might object that the vocation is a
human right and, being a right, it should be open
to anyone. But, not everyone is apt to practice
perpetual chastity...one sees where the argument
is leading. In fact, the argument is misleading
us, based as it is on a false premise. In fact, it
is putting the cart before the horse. For, the
vocation is a calling, not a right! The vocation
presupposes that the candidate has the necessary
dispositions. For example, in the Eastern Church
where the liturgy is chanted throughout, no
minister is ordained who cannot hold a tune.
“You cannot sing, then, you have no vocation!”
Likewise, in the Latin Church, no priest can be
ordained without consecrated celibacy. “You
cannot practice perpetual celibacy, then you have
no priestly vocation!”
Another major reason for pushing the Latin
married priesthood is the vocation crisis. Yet,
this forgets a little detail, that the ecclesial
communities which already allow for the
marriage of their priests or pastors—such as
the Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants—are
experiencing the same recruiting difficulties as
the Latin Catholic Church. Allowing priests to
marry will not eliminate the drop in vocations.
And we can suspect that very few viri probati,
and much less their wives, will agree to take on
the serious responsibilities of souls. It is difficult
indeed for the head of a family to be jointly the
spiritual father of thousands of souls, equally
embracing all of them with their wounds and
sorrows. In fact, in the Eastern Churches, most
married priests recruit within priestly families,
as do their wives, for they know and accept the
burdens and constrains of priestly life within the
family. And so, it is false to believe that opening
the priestly avenue to married people will ipso
facto solve the issue. It will displace it, modify it,

but not eliminate it.
But the Church would have to face a greater
challenge. The open door of the priesthood to
married men would become a powerful draft with
the serious risk of extinguishing consecrated
celibacy, sacrificing quality to quantity. But even
here, would quantity be necessarily gained? In
business, when a new product is launched on the
market, the producers are aware that the new
item tends to “cannibalize,” that is to say, reduce
or eliminate, the sale of the old product, with little
guarantee of gain. In the hypothesis of allowing
these viri probati, the probable scenario is that
many of those married priests would have entered
the priestly celibacy, had the other option not
been available. The married priests would not be
added to celibate priests, but simply replace them
with a rather disappointing result.
We will conclude with a beautiful text of Pius
XII who recalls the supernatural fruitfulness of
priestly celibacy:
“The priest has, as the proper field of
his activity, everything that pertains to the
supernatural life, since it is he who promotes
the increase of this supernatural life and
communicates it to the Mystical Body of Jesus
Christ. Consequently, it is necessary that he
renounce ‘the things of the world’, in order to
have care only for ‘the things of the Lord’ (I Cor.
7:32-33). And it is precisely because he should be
free from preoccupation with worldly things to
dedicate himself entirely to the divine service,
that the Church has established the law of
celibacy, thus making it ever more manifest to
all peoples that the priest is a minister of God
and the father of souls. By his law of celibacy, the
priest, so far from losing the gift and duties of
fatherhood, rather increases them immeasurably,
for, although he does not beget progeny for this
passing life of earth, he begets children for that
life which is heavenly and eternal. The more
resplendent priestly chastity is, so much the
more does the sacred minister become, together
with Christ, ‘a pure victim, a holy victim, an
immaculate victim.’”

31

A Prayer for
Vocations
God our Father, You made
each of us to use our gifts
in the Body of Christ.
We ask that You inspire
young people whom You
call to the priesthood and
consecrated life
to courageously follow
Your will.
Send workers into Your
great harvest so that the
Gospel is preached, the
poor are served with
love, the suffering are
comforted, and Your
people are strengthened by
the sacraments.
Amen.
Statue of Our Lady, Priory St. Clemens,
Netherlands

Theme Vocations

Fatherly
care and
Vocations
by Fr. Yves le Roux, SSPX

You have all heard about the French Revolution
and the regime of terror which ran for a few
months under the ill-famed Robespierre, sending
throngs of innocent victims to the guillotine. The
days of the bloody revolution have passed. Today,
we are facing another type of revolution, a soft
one, so much the more dangerous as it is softer.
The French Revolution brought about a strong
reaction, especially from the Catholic regions of
Vendée and Brittany. The soft revolution puts us
to sleep...we do not lose our body, but our soul.
The light is dimmed. The enemy lines are not
drawn. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, an expert in
revolution if there ever was one, said something
to that effect: “People are more readily enslaved
with pornography than with prison towers.”
And, what is the terror which is at the heart
of this soft revolution? It is the fear of not being
34

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“politically correct.” Whoever does not profess
the creed and tow the line is an outcast, a fascist
or, worse, a Nazi! Spiritually, he is no better than
if he had lost his head under the knife of the
guillotine.

No Father without God
But, we need to explain what the revolution
is, deep down. Monsignor Gaume gave this
definition: “I am the hatred of any order in which
man is not both god and king.” This means that,
under the revolutionary spirit, any authority
is targeted, any hierarchy is a mortal enemy.
Hierarchy comes from two Greek words: Hieros
and archè, which mean “sacred order.” The term
implies that all authority is a participation in

the divine paternity. Or in the words of St. Paul:
“There is no power but from God.” God is the
first and foremost Father and His paternity is to
be mirrored in the human fathers and other like
authorities. Being Father of all creation, God
acts also in a fatherly way, as Tertullian said of
Him: “Nemo tam pater quam Pater—no one is so
much a father as the Father.”
It is interesting to see that the enemy has
understood this connection of human paternity
with God more clearly than most Christians. Mrs.
Buffet, former Secretary of the Communist Party
in France, said something very revealing: “In line
with the French Revolution, we need to destroy
fatherhood in order to prevent man from seeing
God in the father.”

and no goal. He is prey to the tyranny of his own
merciless passions.
If individualism sins by excess of liberty,
how then are we to grow as individuals? The
individual needs to act with virility. Virility
comes from vir and virtus—manly virtue. But
how is one led to virtue? Someone is led to virtue
through only one path, submission to authority.
By obeying his superior, where he recognizes
love and order, he enters the order of charity.
When an authority makes a proper demand
on us, and we obey this demand, we enter the
stream of charity. By accomplishing an act of
obedience, the act of the authority produced by
ourselves becomes our own act. We become

The Benefits of Authority
Authority means development and progress.
Etymologically, the term comes from the Latin
auctum or augere meaning “to increase.” Have
we not lost this concept that our superiors are
helping us to develop our faculties and progress?
Indeed, we have lost this sense today. Just take
a simple example: if we are told to see the boss
at 5 P.M. after work, is not our gut reaction:
“what I have done to incur the wrath of the man
upstairs? What ill is in store for me now?” Yet,
against the modern slogans which denigrate
the “boss syndrome,” we need to keep in mind
that inequality is a defense, that authority is our
protection, that this man over me who wields the
sword or the purse is my guardian.
By contrast, the individual segregated from
society is, according to Aristotle, either a monster
or a saint. Individualism is of these “isms” which
sins by excess and, in this case, by excess of
liberty and independence. It is another name for
liberalism, and Liberalism is a Sin to quote the
book title from Sarda y Salvani. Individualism is
a sin indeed, and a human perversion in that it
leads to the destruction of man. Leave a teenager,
let alone a child, without parental support and
he collapses. He is crushed by his own internal
struggles. He suffers from sentimentality: his
heart goes out to the one who cries louder. He
suffers from instability as he has no direction
35

Theme Vocations
one with the superior, we are invested with
his power and become his ambassadors acting
authoritatively, and this very activity goes against
our selfish interests. Thus, we enter the domain
of selflessness, the domain of paternal love which
prompted this authority to command us. Proper
love is something we are all in need of. Wherever
there is paternal love given and returned, all is
well. But, the moment the child fears the loss
of paternal love, all is lost. The emotionally
immature will wander after sentimental puppy
love anywhere else to his own detriment, a sorry
spectacle all too common in today’s dis-society.
We live in an era of democratism. Note that the
term democratism is not the same as a healthy
democracy. All Western countries have adopted
democratism whose first dogma is that all power
comes from man. “I give a participation of my
authority to this man through my vote.” This is
sheer blasphemy against God’s rights. It says in
so many words: “We do not want Him to reign
over us.” This is the original sin of the modern
world, the denial that all power comes from
God. It echoes pretty much the sin of Adam. The
rejection of authority is inscribed in our DNA.
Yet, we are thirsty for some authority. How do
we replace the genuine paternity given by God?
We replace it by a substitute. The child has been
orphaned from his real Dad, and now, someone
else will be the father figure, but will never be the
real father. And unless one has been a son, he can
never become a father. To be a son means to be
receptive, and that is not given to all. Unless he
has that ability to receive and commune in spirit
with the father’s order, he will never be able to
give a paternal command to his own child.

Priests Acting as Fathers
How are we priests able to act as true fathers?
We priests are neither the real dad nor the father
figure of those souls entrusted to us. This is
because we are fathers. Period! Here are a few
clues for us priests by which we can be fathers of
souls.
Firstly, in relation to our own superiors, we
need to practice filial obedience. This means
giving respect and openness towards our
36

The Angelus

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superior: he is our father, we his sons. Fr. de
Chivré explained that “it is normal to express our
affection through obedience.” Thus is banished
the buddy-buddy relationship with our own
superior. Our superior is not a buddy, but a true
friend. The real friend tells us right out that we
are going down the wrong path. He can say it
without offending charity, because he is the first
one to bleed and hurt when he has to make stern
observations. Thus is banished authoritarianism
whereby one is micromanaging his subjects
or is distrustful of their achievements. Thus is
banished short-circuiting our own superior, by
complaining to the upper echelon.
Secondly, in relation to souls entrusted to
our care, we need to form people according to
principles and not according to mere pet ideas.
Do away with any conspiracy spirit which
is helping no one and is detrimental to the
seriousness of the lives we live. Remember St.
Paul complaining about the Judaizers going over
endless genealogies and superstitions. Besides,
do not dream of a golden future which will
never dawn, but keep your feet firmly on planet
earth. And do away with the endless pursuit of
your own satisfaction. As Fr. de Chivré again
said: “The multiplication of pleasures is the
subtraction of joy.”
And, finally, a father needs to exercise
leadership over these souls. Make sure that they
follow a schedule and structure of life. Let them
put order to their daily or weekly activities. It will
give them a sense of subordination to a higher
rule and is the perfect response to emotional
instability. Yet, let this leadership be open
and subtle without giving a fixed rule to every
soul crossing your path. You are a father, not a
technician. You are dealing with a unique soul
and not an umpteenth clone.
All in all, we need to realize that, without
authority, souls vegetate or wander. It is only
when there is love that you can make exacting
demands on your spiritual children which they
are going to obey and successfully fulfill. As we
said earlier, authority comes from augere—to
increase. It is thanks to authority that the little
ones will normally “grow” and children will turn
into grown up persons.

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332

PROPER OF THE SEASON

PALM SUNDAY

thanks to God, and gave to them, saying:
Drink ye all of this; for it is My Blood; the
Blood of the new testament, which shall
be shed for many, for the remission of sins.
After the meal, they went out upon the
Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said: I am going to surprise you tonight; for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered. (The shepherd, that is

Jesus; the sheep are the Apostles.)
But afterwards, when I return alive, I
will wait for you in Galilee. Peter said to
Him: Whoever is surprised, I shall never
be. Jesus said to him: I tell thee in truth
that in this night, before the cock crow,
thou wilt say thrice that thou dost not
know Me. Peter said to Him: Even if I
should die with Thee, I will never say that
I do not know Thee. And all the others
said the same. Then Jesus came with His
disciples to the place called Gethsemane,
and said to them: Stay here, while I go further to pray. Then Jesus, taking with Him
Peter, James and John, began to be sad and
said to those three: My soul is sad even to
death; stay here and watch with Me. Jesus
went on a little way, and fell upon His face,
praying and saying: My Father, if I could
suffer less I should be glad; but yet, Thy
will be done, not Mine. Jesus came to His
disciples, and found them asleep. He said
to Peter: What! could you not watch one
hour with Me? Watch and pray, that you
may not commit sins. Jesus went away a
second time, and prayed, saying: Father,
if I must suffer so much, Thy will be done.
He came again and found them asleep.
Leaving them, He went the third time, and
prayed, saying the very same words. Then

333

“This isn’t the first
missal he read.”

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Spirituality

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:

The Prayers
at the Foot of
the Altar
by Fr. Christopher Danel

What is most holy must be treated in a holy manner; therefore, a careful preparation for the mystery
of the Divine Sacrifice is required. How cautious should we not be to keep ourselves wholly and
unreservedly for Christ, who so greatly honors us, as to descend unto us and place Himself in the
priest’s hands when the words of Consecration are pronounced!—Monsignor Nicholas Gihr

Introduction
In this article we will examine the prayers at
the foot of the altar, presenting solely the work
of Monsignor Nicholas Gihr in his fundamental
liturgical commentary The Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass: Dogmatically, Liturgically, and
Ascetically Explained. Monsignor Gihr was a
priest of the Archdiocese of Freiburg in Breisgau
whose work of liturgical research took place
during the time frame spanning the pontificates
of Popes Pius IX to Pius XI, including that of
38

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Pope St. Pius X. The early years of his work were
contemporaneous with the last years in the work
of the eminent Benedictine liturgist Dom Prosper
Guéranger of Solesmes. The English translation
of his study appeared in 1902; the original is:
Gihr, Nikolaus. Messopfer dogmatisch, liturgish
und aszetish erklärt (Herder: Freiburg im
Breisgau, 1877).
The first principal division of the Mass
liturgy, which includes the prayers at the foot
of the altar, bears a preparatory character; it
may be considered as the public and common

preparation of the priest and the people for the
actual celebration of the holy mysteries. These
prayers aim principally at purifying the heart and
enlightening the mind, at animating the faith and
exciting devotion, in order that all present may be
placed in the proper dispositions and thus be able
to offer worthily the most Holy Sacrifice to the
Most High.

The Sign of the Cross
Certainly it is highly proper that the most
sacred act of Sacrifice should begin with the Sign
of the Cross. As he invokes the Triune God, the
priest signs himself with the Sign of the Cross, to
express by word and action, that “in the name,”
that is, by the commission, with the power and
the assisting grace of the three divine Persons,
as well as to promote the honor and glory “of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost”
he intends to celebrate Mass, this mystical
representation and renewal of the Sacrifice of
the Cross, to implore for himself at the same
time protection and security against the snares
of Satan, as well as help and assistance from on
high for the devout celebration of the sacrifice.

Introibo ad altare Dei
“I will go up to the altar of God: to God who

giveth joy to my youth.” This verse introduces
and concludes Psalm 42, Judica. This antiphon
contains the fundamental thought of the
aforesaid psalm which should here have the
prominent place, and hereby indicates the special
point of view in which it is to be taken and
recited, that is, it gives the key to the liturgical
and mystical understanding of the psalm with
regard to its application to the celebration of
Mass. It expresses the sentiment which animates
the priest; it powerfully attracts him to the altar.
He longs to ascend to the altar of God, there to
perform his holy office, to draw near to the Lord
God and to be united to Him and, by this union
with the Eucharistic Savior, to be cheerfully and
joyfully strengthened in the interior life. This
longing and desire for the holy place and for the
celebration of the Sacrifice is expressed three
times. By the words: “to God who giveth joy to my
youth,” the priest may, indeed, also acknowledge
that from his early days God has been his delight
and bestowed on him a thousand joys; but the
term youth (juventus) is here to be understood
first and chiefly as the supernatural and spiritual
new life which is obtained by regeneration in the
grace of the Holy Ghost.
This life of grace and of spirit, ever young
and imperishable, is nourished and refreshed at
the altar by the Holy Sacrifice and its banquet.
Whoever approaches the altar as a spiritually
newborn child, that is, full of holy simplicity,
innocence, and purity of mind, possesses a
39

Spirituality
youthfulness of spirit in the life of grace that
daily grows and waxes stronger under the blessed
influence of the Divine Sacrifice and Sacrament.
The Psalm Judica is omitted in all Requiem
Masses and in all the Passiontide Masses from
Passion Sunday to Holy Saturday. The reason for
its omission is justly founded on the contents of
the Psalm, and on the character of the Masses.
For this Psalm seeks to banish sorrow and
sadness from the soul (quare tristis es, anima
mea, et quare conturbas me?), to awaken a
joyful mood in him who prays; therefore, it is
proper to omit the Psalm at a time when the heart
should be penetrated with profound sorrow,
painful sadness, and intense compassion, as is
supposed to prevail in Requiem Masses and the
Masses of Passiontide.

Confiteor
“Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made
heaven and earth” (Adjutorium nostrum in
nomine Domini) may be regarded as a transition,
that is, as referring as well to what precedes as to
what follows. In connection with the desire and
purpose previously expressed of drawing nigh
to the Lord on the altar and of applying the mind
to the Holy Sacrifice, it signifies that in carrying
out this purpose, we depend on and confide in the
unlimited power and goodness of God.
The Confiteor is an open avowal of
compunction of heart, a contrite and penitential
prayer which should cleanse the soul from even
the slightest stains of guilt and from all sinful
defects. But in order that its recital, together with
the threefold striking of the breast, may prove
cleansing and salutary to the soul, it must in truth
be the outpouring of a contrite spirit, proceeding
from the depths of a heart touched with love and
sorrow.
The Confiteor is divided into two clearly
distinct parts: for it contains an acknowledgment
of sin, as well as a petition to the blessed and
the faithful to intercede on the priest’s behalf
with the Lord our God. The confession of guilt is
made not only before Almighty God, but also in
presence of the blessed in heaven and the faithful
upon earth. Before them, the priest humbles
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himself, chiefly that they may be better disposed
to become by their powerful intercession and
mediation his support before God and his help to
obtain from Him more perfect pardon.
The position of the body corresponds to the
meaning of the Confiteor and serves, on the one
hand, to express, after a perfect manner, the
interior penitential disposition, and, on the other
hand, to intensify it and stimulate it the more.
The profound inclination of the body, the joining
of the hands and the striking of the breast, all
betoken that humble position and disposition
of a poor sinner who, laden with sin and full of
compunction, stands before His Judge to implore
grace and mercy.
The striking of the breast, that is, of the
sinful heart, is a very natural symbolic sign
of a penitential spirit: it includes a sincere
acknowledgment of guilt, sorrow and displeasure
for sin committed, the will to make satisfaction
and to undergo punishment for sin which has
been heartily repented. The striking of the
breast means that the heart concealed within is
the cause of sin and deserving, therefore, to be
punished, bruised, and humbled; that the insolent
pride of the sinful heart is to be broken and
destroyed, in order that God may create a new,
clean heart within the penitent breast.
The striking of the breast three times signifies,
in general, the intensity, the sincerity and
the vehemence of our contrition; in a stricter
sense it may be understood as the suitable
accompaniment and confirmation of guilt thrice
acknowledged, each time with increased fervor
(mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa) and
it may, moreover, be referred to the three kinds
of sin (in thought, word and deed) of which we
accuse ourselves.
The priest publicly acknowledges, and in a
most humble posture, his guilt not merely before
God, but also before the angels, the saints and
the faithful, to move them to intercede with God
for him, and thus, by means of joint supplication,
the more readily to obtain his forgiveness. Those
present accede to his desires and they beg for
him by the mouth of the server mercy and favor
(Misereatur). Then the server also in the name
of the faithful recites the Confiteor, that they,
too, by the intercession of the saints and of the

priest may obtain favor, that is, be cleansed from
the guilt of sin in order to have a share in the
fruits of the Holy Sacrifice. After the Confiteor
of the server, the priest likewise intercedes for
the faithful, in pronouncing the Misereatur
and the formula known as the Absolution
(Indulgentiam).

The Verses
If we repent and acknowledge our guilt, God
favorably turns toward us, giving back to us His
grace and mercy (Deus tu conversus), as the Living
God, as the Giver of life, from whom we draw
anew joyful courage and fresh life (vivificabis
nos). After receiving fuller reconciliation with
God and a more abundant life of grace from Him,
the heart finds its peace, joy and felicity in God,
it rejoices and exults in God, its Savior (et plebs
tua laetabitur in te). In order that we may attain
this happy end, we beg our Lord that He deign to
extend to us His mercy and to let it rule over us
(ostende nobis, Domine, misericordiam tuam); to
send us our salvation, that is, Jesus, our Light and
our Life on the altar (salutare tuum da nobis).
By the formula Dominus vobiscum—Et cum
spiritu tuo, both priest and people implore the
assistance of divine grace to enter in devout
prayer, to which all are now invited by the Oremus,
“Let us pray,” given out in the hearing of all.

Prayers of Ascent
Not until after saying Oremus does the priest
stand erect in order to ascend the altar, this
mystical Mount Calvary, on which He, as Moses
on Sinai, stands nearer to the Lord God than
do the people who are present. Ascending, he
prays the Aufer a nobis: Take away from us our
iniquities, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that we
may be worthy to enter with pure minds into
the Holy of Holies. Through Christ our Lord.
Amen. Then the priest says the Oramus te while
bowing down moderately before the altar and
resting his joined hands thereon: We beseech
Thee, O Lord, by the merits of Thy saints,
whose relics are here, and of all the saints, that

Thou wouldst vouchsafe to forgive me all my
sins. Amen.
In order to share more abundantly in the
heavenly treasures of grace merited and
obtained by Christ and by the saints with Christ’s
assistance, the celebrant devoutly kisses the
altar in the middle when saying the words
quorum reliquiae hic sunt: whose relics are
here (preserved). As the accompanying words
show, this kissing refers chiefly to the relics
concealed in the altar, that is, to the martyrs
and other saints, whose earthly remains at the
consecration of the altar were placed there; and,
in the next place, it refers generally also to all the
saints, who are mentioned at the same time (et
omnium Sanctorum), and above all to Christ the
Head, the Crown, and the King of all the saints, of
whom the altar is and will ever be the symbol.
By kissing the altar enriched with relics the
priest would evince his love and veneration
for the Church triumphant, for Christ and
all the saints, and he would thereby animate
anew and confirm his communion with them.
How exceedingly consoling this supernatural
communication between earth and heaven, this
communion of life and of goods between the
glorified children of the Church who are reigning
in heaven, and the wretched children of Eve still
in their earthly pilgrimage, struggling amid want
and hardship!

Conclusion
Bringing before our eyes the glorious treasures
that have been acquired for us by the blood
of Jesus Christ, the tears and sorrows of the
Blessed Mother, and the charity and penances of
all the saints, how could we not be overflowing
with gratitude and joy? This reflection and this
sentiment take possession of the priest on his
first arriving at the altar, as he prays before it,
makes his confession, then deliberately ascends
to its summit and reverences it, to testify his love
and reverence for his heavenly Benefactor, and to
begin the oblation of the Holy Sacrifice.

41

Spirituality

On the
Priestly
Vocation
by Fr. Hugh F. X. Sharkey, S.F.M.

Editor’s Note: Reverend Father Hugh F. X. Sharkey, S.F.M., a native of Saint John, New Brunswick,
Canada was both a missionary and poet. He was born into a devout Catholic family of Irish descent and,
as a member of the Scarboro Foreign Mission Society, spent several years in China. The story told here
is a moving account of the love of Christ through the love of one’s neighbor and should be read with a
large handkerchief at hand. Subheadings were not added in order to maintain the document’s original
integrity, though the paragraphs have been broken up.
The happiest years of my life were those in
far-off China. Not in all the world is there a more
sublime and soul-satisfying vocation than mine.
Why does God choose one man to be a priest
rather than another? The question must have
an answer. In the inscrutable designs of Divine
Providence everything has its purpose and its
meaning. This is particularly true of a vocation
to the priesthood. I suppose that only in eternity
can the question be completely answered. And
yet, every priest likes to guess at the answer in
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time. I am inclined to believe that the reason
why God chose me to be a priest may be found
in the story of Wong Li. At least, I am going to
relate this striking incident from my missionary
experience as a possible explanation why God
called to His priesthood one so unworthy as I.
It lies between the winding river and the hills of
Chekiang, this city of my story, and the Chinese
call it Tsingtien—Green-fields. Tsingtien, like
most of China’s rural cities, is walled round on
every side as a protection against two old and

deadly enemies—one, the river, which, during
the rainy season, swells and inundates the entire
valley; the other, the bandits, who periodically
swoop down from the hill country to pillage and
destroy.
Now, “once upon a time” (for so indeed I should
begin this fairy tale which really happened),
there lived a leper. This leper was so terribly
disfigured and so eaten away by the most horrible
of all diseases that he was commonly called “the
most frightful leper in all China.” He sat at the
gate of the Temple of Lanterns on the main street
of the city of Tsingtien. Never in all my life have
I seen a sight that filled me with more pity and
disgust than did that almost nightmarish figure,
that mass of corruption and decay, that seeming
embodiment of all the ills of mankind, spilled as
it were from a worm-crawling grave—the living
dead. The Chinese mother would hurriedly cover
the face of her baby as she passed the spot. The
dirtiest beggar on the street would keep a goodly
distance from that loathsome figure. There he
would sit, through all the inclemencies of the
weather, under the blistering, tropical summer
sun, and in the raw, damp cold of the far-eastern
winter.
It was his only home, that spot beside the
temple gate. He lived there through the dreary
days, the long months and the longer years. He
lived there—if one could call it life—and one day
he died there. Half his face had been eaten away;
the fetid lice-ridden rags mercifully covered the
cadaver of his body, while the stump of a hand
tried to clutch the dirty rice-bowl that was held
out beseechingly before you. I had just been
appointed to Tsingtien, and it was my custom to
take a daily walk down the main thoroughfare of
the city and out into the country beyond.
So every day I passed the Temple of Lanterns
and stopped to drop a mite into the rice-bowl
of the leper, Wong Li. The stench about him
was unbearable; the very sight of him struck
terror and horror into one’s very soul. But that
terrible disgust that I felt at the nearness of
him was drowned out in the wave of pity and
sorrow that engulfed me. I was determined
that if Wong Li had nothing to live for, I would
give him something to die for. The leering
pagan gods; the musty, sombre temples; the

ridiculous conglomeration of Buddhistic and
Taoistic superstitions—what had they to offer
this loathsome, rotting leper but despair and
darkness and abysmal loneliness? What could
the intellectual lights and the great ones of this
world offer? What could anyone offer? Even
the mythical Superman, holding the runaway
express with its precious human cargo upon
the track; even the redoubtable Tarzan, hero of
boyhood tales, saving the hero from the jaws
of the lion and tearing the king of beasts to
pieces with his naked hands—what could even
these fantastic creatures do for this epitome of
human hopelessness before me? In that moment,
there came to me the full, marvellous, almost
paralyzing realization of what it meant to be a
priest, a missionary priest. Where baffled science
stopped and human endeavour turned helplessly
away, I stood my ground, sublimely conscious
of that tremendous power that was within me;
for out of the fetid mass of corruption and decay
and deep despair that grovelled there before me,
I could in my priestly hands mould a thing of
eternal and unutterable beauty.
At first, I simply said “hello” to Wong Li and
gave him my alms with a smile. Gradually,
smothering my disgust and horror, I stayed
to talk with the leper. He was for a long time
wary and suspicious of me. Why, he was asking
himself, did the foreign gentleman take such
a keen interest in him whom the people called
“the most horrible leper in all China?” What did
this white man with the long black dress want of
him? What could he possibly want? I found him
taciturn and at times almost unfriendly. One day
I would bring him a few cigarettes, the next day a
few rice cakes. Ever so slowly but ever so surely,
I dissipated the fears and won the heart of the
leper of Tsingtien. And when I had won his heart,
I bent all my energies to the task of winning his
immortal soul. I began to tell him of God and
of Jesus and of Mary and of paradise. It took
me back in memory to the long-lost yesterdays,
when in the twilight time I had sat at my sister’s
feet and listened in rapt silence and starry-eyed
wonder to those fairy tales that always began
“once upon a time” and always ended “and they
lived happily ever after.”
Day after day, I unfolded to Wong Li
43

Spirituality
the leper a tale that made those fairy tales of
childhood seem shabby in comparison—a tale of
real people who rose from rags and poverty and
wretchedness to become princes and princesses
in a land whose gates were of amethyst and
sapphire and whose streets were of silver and
gold, a land of unutterable wonders, everlasting
happiness and eternal glory, that lay beyond
the farthest star. I can still see that awful face
fastened unalterably on mine as I told my story. I
can still hear the expressions of amazement that
fell from those lips festered and broken by the
cancerous death that was upon him. It was so
beautiful the tale I told him, incredibly beautiful.
To this caricature of a man, forgotten, despised,
unloved by anyone; to this creature who watched
from day to day the slow decay and putrefaction
of his own body, and whose pagan beliefs offered
naught but a nether world of continued suffering,
darkness and torture—my words must have
sounded like the ranting of a madman and the
heaven I described but a fantastic, impossible
mirage of an unbalanced brain. But, by God’s
grace, in time he did believe; and so, one bright,
glorious summer day, I baptized Wong Li the
leper, there at the very gate of the temple.
Crowded around me were the curious villagers,
perplexed and astounded at my words and
actions. As I poured the baptismal waters over
the leper’s head, I remember so well the remark
of one of the pagan bystanders. “Too little water,”
he said. “You need plenty water wash Wong Li—
him velly dirty.”
I could not help smiling, as I thought to myself
of the immaculate purity and the transcendent
loveliness of the soul of the leper, re-generated in
the waters of baptism. If my pagan friend could
only have seen the guardian angel of Wong Li
fold his golden wings and shade his eyes from
the splendor and dazzling brightness he could
not dare to look upon! Wong Li made his First
Communion a few days later. Once again, Jesus
of Nazareth walked the city streets and had
compassion on the leper, for it was there at the
gate of the pagan temple that the Lord of Glory
wrapped poor, dirty, disease-ridden Wong Li
in His sacramental arms. And then came the
day when a boy ran up to me in the mission
compound and told me that my leper was dying
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May - June 2018

and was calling for his friend, the Seng Fu.
I hurried to the gate of the Temple of Lanterns.
Poor Wong Li lay there in his last agony, and,
unmindful of the curious bystanders, I dropped
on my knees beside him and began the prayers
for the dying. Gripped tightly in the half-rotten
hand was the crucifix I had given him on the day
of his baptism. It was his passport to eternal life,
his key to everlasting happiness. Wong Li had
been greatly impressed with the story of Christ’s
terrible sufferings and he always reverently
referred to Jesus as “the Man on the Cross.”
The end came very suddenly. He tried to rise
to a sitting posture and I heard him whisper the
name of Jesus and saw him press his bleeding
lips to the lips of the figure on the Cross. Thus, he
died. I stood up and almost unconsciously lifted
my eyes to the cloudless blue of the summer sky.
I knew that as suddenly as a blinding flash of
lightning, the soul of the leper of Tsingtien had
winged its way to the very portals of paradise. I
tried to visualize that tremendous moment when
the gates of heaven were thrown open and Wong
Li walked awkwardly up the gold-paved street of
paradise, awed by the sweetness of the angelic
choirs, amazed by the beauty that “no eye has
seen or mind conceived.” I could almost hear the
voice out of the beatific vision say, “What is your
name?” And I fancied I heard poor, humble Wong
Li answer in his childlike simplicity, “I am the
most horrible leper in all China.” And then the
light became too bright, the music too sweet, the
glory too unspeakable. I seemed to see a nailpierced hand take the hand of the leper and draw
him into that nebula of unutterable splendor, and
I seemed to hear a voice say, “I too was accounted
as a leper and as one struck by God, for I am the
Man on the Cross.”
And so I end my story of Wong Li, the most
horrible leper in all China, who “once upon a
time” sat at the gate of the Temple of Lanterns
in Tsingtien and now sits upon the throne of an
angel in the palace of the King of Kings, in the
city whose gates are of amethyst and sapphire
and whose streets are of silver and of gold, where
everyone “lives happily ever after.”
[Taken from Why I Became a Priest, by Rev. G.L. Kane,
Newman Press, 1953, pp. 117-123]

Heroism and Genius
By Fr. William J. Slattery (Ignatius Press, 2017)

We live in a time when the Faith of all times
is being thrown in the muck or down the drain.
This being so, it is refreshing to read a book
which makes no bones to defend this Faith.
Not only does it defend it, but it boldly sings
the praises of known and unknown Catholic
Churchmen. And not only does it praise the
men of the cloth for their religious achievements, the cultus, but it praises them especially for advancing culture itself, embracing
the education, social life, economics and many
other ingredients which have produced the
Western civilization. It is with this rather polemic endeavor to mainstream scientists and
media that Fr. Slattery writes a cogent history,
if unusual, of the Catholic achievements up
until the Middle Ages.
For, throughout the 250 or so pages divided
unequally into ten chapters, we are witnessing the making of Christendom drafted by the
Church Fathers amid the ruins of the Roman
empire, rising from the foundations during
the Carolingian era in the midst of the Dark
Ages, and finally reaching full bloom with the
Christian civilization of the High Middle Ages.
The author renders us a welcome service by
going into great detail of how the Irish monks
Christianized Barbarian Europe in the early
medieval times. Not only are we provided with
the relevant biography of the Benedictine
monks and their respective monasteries in the
mainland, but we are also acquainted with their
specific method of apostolate, as compared
to the Italian monks, especially concerning
their manners of teaching and confessing.
And here, Alcuin, Charlemagne’s right hand, is
rightly given pride of place. The other section
describes the various cultural traits proper
to the late Middle Ages, with chivalry and the
crusades, the troubadours and discoveries in
architecture or music, and even, a shock to
many readers, some inroads into free-market
economics. A short chapter, which is right in

the center of the book, squarely defines “the Mass
of All Times” as the backbone of Christian culture.
Reading the introduction to Heroism and Genius
strikes us with the author’s passionate pen, the
idealistic thought and the breadth of vision which
has given life and spice to the whole work. And if
we did not know what the book is all about, a clue
is provided from the rather lengthy subtitle: How
Catholic Priests helped build—and can help rebuild—
Western Civilization. This, then is the main purpose
of the book: to foster vocations to the traditional
priesthood among youth who are highly idealistic.
May Fr. Slattery’s contribution be instrumental in
fulfilling this wish!
–Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, SSPX

45

Only 48 years after Columbus discovered the Americas for Europe,
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado set out from Compostela, New Spain
on February 23, 1540, at the head of a large expedition. Accompanied by
four Franciscan monks, he traveled from Mexico through parts of the
southwestern United States to present-day Kansas. Two years later, on June
27, 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo set out from Navidad, Mexico and sailed
up the coast of Baja California and into the region of Alta California.
St. Charles Borromeo Mission, Carmel by the Sea

Spirituality

To Truly
Seek God
by a Benedictine monk

“Hearken, my son, to the precepts of the master
and incline the ear of thy heart; freely accept
and faithfully fulfill the instructions of a loving
father...” (Prologue of the Rule of St. Benedict)
The Prologue of the Rule of St. Benedict is
a type of summary of the entire Rule. His very
first words of the Prologue invite the potential
candidate to the monastic life to “hearken” and
to “incline the ear of his heart.” St. Benedict asks
the future monk to listen to a very quiet invitation
that can only be heard by the ear of the heart. The
heart is that inner chamber where Our Lord in the
Gospel of St. Matthew invites the soul to enter
and pray to the Father in secret. Prayer is not just
speaking to God, but especially listening to God.
He speaks to the soul only when the soul learns to
be quiet. When the soul peacefully thinks about
his existence and the direction he desires to give
48

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to his life, God does speak to him in very clear
terms. All of the circumstances of his life seem
to speak of God and he sees Him truly as a loving
father inviting him to the everlasting wedding
feast of Eternal Life.
Once St. Benedict has taught the soul to listen
to God’s gentle invitation to the religious life,
he encourages us to be grateful to the kindness
shown to us: “What can be sweeter to us, dearest
brethren, than this voice of Our Lord inviting us?
Behold in His loving mercy, the Lord showeth us
the way of life” (Prologue). Human happiness is
essentially based on loving and being loved. The
most noble object of our love is God Himself.
To love God and to be loved by God is the most
perfect happiness that man can attain. God
Himself shows us this way that leads to life, which
is the road that God uses to seek us and the road

we use to seek God.
Once the soul finally realizes the greatness of
God’s love for him, something painfully strange
happens in order to push the soul to grow in its
love of God. God has struck the soul with His love
and when the soul desires to respond, it seems
that God disappears. The soul finally wants to
love God with all his heart and God is nowhere to
be found. The Canticle of Canticles speaks of the
same mystery: “My beloved to me and I to Him...
In my bed by night I sought Him whom my soul
loveth: I sought Him and I found Him not. I will
rise and go about the city: in the streets and in the
broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loveth: I
sought Him and I found Him not.”
St. Benedict asks the monk to seek God like
the beloved of the Canticle of Canticles: “When
anyone newly cometh to be a monk, let him not
be granted an easy admittance…if it be seen
after four or five days that he bears patiently his
harsh treatment and the difficulty of admission
and persists in his petition, then let admission be
granted to him….Let a senior be assigned to them
(the novices) who is skilled in winning souls, that
he may watch over them with the utmost care. Let
him examine whether the novice truly seeks God,
and whether he is zealous for the Work of God, for
obedience and for humiliations. Let him be told all
the hardships and trials through which we travel
to God.”
What holds true for the newly arrived monk is
also true for a baptized soul that is truly seeking
God. At the beginning of conversion of life, the
soul is often consoled and in a certain way carried
by God. Then trials come and the soul can become
confused and is ready to abandon the spiritual
life, thinking that God has rejected him. In all
reality, this is one of the most important moments
of spiritual growth. We have the honor of loving
God like Our Lord did on the cross, that is to
say without consolation and with the feeling of
being abandoned by all. Our Lord Himself says “...
Unless you do penance you shall all perish...” The
most beautiful penance we can do is to peacefully
accept God’s will in the midst of our suffering.
His will is our sanctification, which calls for our
purification. God wills our purification even if it is
painful for our souls to undergo this cleansing fire.
“Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall

see God...” Purity of heart can only come from
purification. God’s loving hand purifies us like a
burning fire that transforms our souls to become
children of God. As purity of heart is obtained,
the eyes of the soul can see more clearly. Instead

of rejecting God because of the trial, the soul
learns to adore God’s will with gratitude for His
purifying love. Heaven is where the children of
God will see Him face to face, but here below,
every soul is called to contemplate Him through
faith with a pure heart. The beloved of the Canticle
of Canticles, after seeking God so desperately,
persevering through the trials that purify the
heart, finally finds Him: “...I found Him whom my
soul loveth, I held Him and I will not let Him go...”
A vocation is for those that truly seek God. St.
Benedict says of those that seek God: “... As we
progress in the spiritual life and in faith, our
hearts shall be enlarged, and we shall run with
unspeakable sweetness of love in the way of
God’s commandments...” May our hearts be pure
and enlarged with charity as we run in this valley
of tears which is the way of eternal life.
49

Christian Culture
The Greatest of All Time:

A
Consideration
of the
Superlative
by Dr. Andrew Childs

The use of superlatives involves risk. In conferring on anyone or anything Greatest of All Time (GOAT)
status, the speaker or writer potentially jeopardizes both his credibility, and to a lesser extent that of his
champion: failure in assessment of the highest can cast doubt on one’s assessment of everything beneath it.
In particularly egregious cases, one risks rhetorical exile; banishment with the likes of Gorgias to the Land
of Blah Blah, where the winds of lofty and meaningless pronouncements howl. The use of a superlative is
serious and should be rare. In what follows, we will consider further the advisability of making superlative
statements; then, I will make one, and justify it. You’ll meet my GOAT (and it may eat your Best Of list...).

Cocktail Party Firecracker?
Before we address the GOAT, however, consider
a nefarious opposing construct, the Cocktail Party
Firecracker—a bold authoritative pronouncement
of an important sounding phrase, seemingly
definitive at first hearing, though not intended
for careful consideration; based on truth, but
vague enough to avoid real scrutiny; purposefully
designed not to invite challenge or debate; best
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detonated in polite company with the intent to
delight, but also to embolden the hearer with a
sense of instant expertise in some important field
or pursuit. Example: “Beethoven is the grandfather
of Rock-n-Roll!!” Pop! This statement qualifies as a
CPF due to its provocative nature—the alignment
of the great Classical composer with the Great
Cultural Scourge titillates, casting Beethoven as
a rebel—but also because it makes a plausible

connection (Beethoven, the bold innovator, does
qualify on some level as rebellious) proffering the
legitimacy of Rock by a sort of temperamental
association. Thoughtful challenge of this or any
other CPF reveals its essential emptiness, but
beware; “successfully” debating a CPF, or most
small talk for that matter, frequently results only in
Pyrrhic victory of the most awkward social kind—
securing a “win” for truth, at the cost of seeming a
humorless know-it-all.
Contrast this sort of statement with the
superlative. Before the cynical among you say,
“Superlatives! Where the humorless know-itall really earns his money!” let’s consider the
essential differences. The superlative, though
certainly bold and authoritative, invites serious
reflection, willingly subjects itself to scrutiny,
expects competition, and best of all in many cases,
embraces the conquered in victory or the conqueror
in defeat. The proposition of a superlative champion
represents a legitimate challenge; one making the
statement believes that his GOAT can beat yours,
and welcomes competition to the claim. This
involves higher rhetorical temperatures; beyond
merely a stated opinion or preference, a clash of
GOAT champions demands a winner, the desired
result a change of opinion—“agreeing to disagree”
won’t cut it. Stalemate, however, remains a very
real possibility; many of these conflicts can end in
a draw of mutual respect. Above all, charity rather
than competition should motivate the exercise; I
want you to believe that (for example), The Brothers
Karamazov is the greatest novel, that Winterreise
is the greatest song-cycle, that Chimay Blue is the
greatest beer, or that Palestrina’s Missa Papae
Marcelli is the greatest polyphonic Mass, not to
force you to admit the superiority of my knowledge
or tastes, but for your edification. (Disclaimer:
though favorites, I do not officially proclaim these
examples GOATs—see “rare” above).

Comparing the Candidates
The process of selecting and comparing GOAT
candidates requires reasonable standards. Interspecies GOAT challenges, though interesting,
prove pointless; debating, for example, if Willie
Mays was a better center fielder than a bottle of

Domaine Romanée-Conti is a red wine. Appleto-apples only, please: again, the decision to
use a superlative is serious. God made us for
greatness, both in our creative and receptive
abilities. Not content merely with the promises of
salvation and heaven, He freely shares His creative
capacity—naturally, in the procreation of souls;
artistically, in the artist’s aligning the human
condition with the transcendental ideals of truth,
goodness, and beauty expressed through various
artistic media. In the best case, the continuous
search for ultimate expressions reveals an innate
yearning for union with God; that the worst case
exists—overwhelming egoism in creation or
consumption—does nothing to diminish the ideal.
As craftsmen, few serious artists begin
the process of creation with history in mind.
Though all supremely talented artists strive
for perfection, individual masterpieces emerge
from particular circumstances—a commission,
reaction to or commentary on an event or person,
perhaps a singular artistic inspiration—rather
than the stated intention to create the greatest
masterpiece ever to have existed in a genre. Given
the universally understood evolutionary nature of
style, technique, and receptive whim, the thought
of attempting a comprehensive account of form
and taste—past, present, and future—with the
intention of creating a GOAT would more likely
paralyze than inspire the artist. Art, good or bad,
reflects its own age; the artist cannot know the
future, and any vision he has of it will succumb
to the gravitational forces of comprehension
and formal development (Wagner’s “music of the
future,” though bold, unquestionably belongs to
its age; the purposefully alienating works of the
modernists do break free, but rather than inhabit
a higher orbit, they simply float off into a stylistic
void, unmissed). Only History can make a GOAT.
I teach a music history class. Over the course
of two semesters, students learn how culture
reflects ideas; how history informs musical
style; which composers have stood the test of
time; how the great artists exist as part of an
overarching historical continuum, absorbing
and reflecting influences, and shaping future
generations. Most importantly, we listen, as
extensively as time allows, to the best of the best
of a millennium of masterworks, works about
51

Christian Culture
which I speak in qualified superlative terms (“one
of the greatest...”; “very likely the best example
of...”; “perhaps Mozart’s singular...” etc.). To my
knowledge, I use only two superlatives seriously
without qualification. The first—“Pope St. Pius X’s
Pascendi is the most important document of the
20th-century”—does not relate to music. The other
does.

The Musical GOAT
I stand by my statement that the B-minor Mass,
Bach’s final summary statement, is the Musical
GOAT (the “MG”). Let me defend the statement. I’ll
approach this as objectively as possible, through a
process of reverse engineering that involves many
steps. Though most of these steps remain open to
some debate, probability continually shifts toward
the B-minor Mass. The process goes something
like this. Art conforms to hierarchy; good, better,
better-yet, potentially best, best. The MG would
necessarily be “good” rather than “bad,” and “high”
rather than “low”; only a modernist would argue
otherwise. The principles of atheistic Communism
do not impress the senses: sight, hearing, and taste
instinctively reject the inferior or unnatural (or just
plain bad), and just as instinctively prefer the good.
The intellect remains susceptible to the fraudulent
suggestion that all forms, styles, and genres have
equal merit, but to insist on the superiority of “bad”
over “good,” or “low” over “high” requires measures
of pride or ignorance (or both) that render serious
consideration impossible.
MG would likely be large, rather than small.
The composer of a multi-movement work has
an immediate advantage due to the range of
contrast and styles available in his “single” piece;
he also has the added benefit of being able to
create a narrative through-line based on nonmusical principles. This in no way diminishes the
importance of miniature forms—individual poems,
songs, sketches—with which the recipient can
form personal connections unmatched in intensity
or intimacy. Scale matters, however; not for its
own sake, but for the depth and breadth that time
and variety afford.
Statistically speaking, MG would likely come
from the top of the Western Music “Bell Curve,” the
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17th-19th centuries, a period that witnessed the
creation of an unprecedented volume and diversity
of masterworks. Anything earlier or later finds
itself in a period of stylistic extremes more limiting
than liberating, either bound to a modal conception
of harmony in the case of “early” music, or in the
case of modernist music bound by...nothing, except
the tyranny of innovation, the sound of which
demonstrates that the wholesale fabrication of
rules and form results not in ultimate freedom, but
utter chaos.
MG would likely be vocal rather than
instrumental; the emotional amplification of
intellectual concepts and universal themes
provided by a text not only allows the composer
to craft formally cohesive pieces—the sum of
varying yet interdependent parts in the case of a
multi-movement work—but pieces informed by a
dramatic literal narrative. An ordering through
intellectual as well as emotional means almost
by definition yields works of a higher order. MG
could come from either the secular or the sacred
realm, but, again invoking hierarchy, sacred
works would seem to have an advantage, though
not an unfair one: an inferior work which sets
sacred text cannot receive priority consideration
simply because it sets a sacred text. MG would
set the greatest possible text: the lopsidedness
of opera—magnificent music “glorifying” trivial
or scandalous themes—disqualifies it as a genre,
though some compelling individual cases exist.
(Act I of La Bohème contains cathartically
beautiful music, accompanying a scene in which
two people who have never met declare their love,
and their intention to consummate it after meeting
some friends at a restaurant to have a meal which
they will steal…)
This leads us to the B-minor Mass, a highart, large-scale vocal work written by Bach in
1749, which sets—with dazzling variety and
unfathomable depth—the unabridged text of the
Mass in Latin. None can argue the greatness of the
piece; its GOAT-ness remains open to necessary
debate, keeping in mind that recognition of this
status does not require that you adopt the work as
your favorite (another conversation). You have my
champion: any challengers?

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Christian Culture

The Three
Estates
And the Counterrevolutionary Vocation

by Dr. John Rao

Catholics generally think of modern revolutions in conjunction with the religious persecutions that have
frequently accompanied them. But if believers wish to fight systematically against such horrors—that is to
say, if they wish to engage in militant counterrevolutionary action—they should first seek to understand
the underlying principles shaping the more Catholic political and social order that the revolutionary vision
ravaged.
Those principles were not more suitable for promoting Catholic Christendom because of any supposedly
unbreakable connection with hereditary monarchies. Such monarchies could indeed be legitimate and
good, but they did not always act for the benefit of Christian order. The superiority of the pre-revolutionary
vision was really owed to its innate sense of respect for the political and social dimension of human
vocations in life. And it is for this reason that I would argue that it is an absolutely essential part of
the vocation of any counterrevolutionary activist who is concerned for a substantive restoration of
Christendom to recapture the broader understanding of that concept that I am referring to here.

A Broader Sense of Vocation
Normally, when we speak of vocations we
think of these on a personal level, with regard to
a specific individual’s basic career choice. In the
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Catholic world, this is usually even more limited to
treatment of a personal decision for the priesthood
or religious life. But here, too, we are quite used
to recognizing the fact that a particular individual
vocation emerges out of a social context; out of

an environment that nurtures and encourages a
growing child’s inclination to enter the clergy or
a convent. That fact alone underlines the truth
that the social institution called the family has a
vocation, part of which involves preparation of
their children for making proper lifetime choices
that could involve responding to the call of God.
But the family and its individual members live
and perfect themselves under the authority of a
variety of other societies, all of which, insofar
as they address legitimate physical and spiritual
needs, have the right to exist. One of these
societies is the State, whose vocation is to stand
as earthly guardian over all the other social
organizations that enable men and women to live
humanly and justly in this world of nature and
pursue their personal perfection. Still, for the State
to perform its vocation of overall guardianship
properly, it is compelled to gain knowledge of
what the vocations of all of these many other
societies demand. For, if it did not do so, it would
be operating as a cripple, with only a partial
appreciation of all of man’s needs.
Western Catholic States displayed an
awakening to this aspect of their vocation in their
theoretical—and often quite practical—recognition
of their need to consult with representatives of the
other social authorities in Christendom, grouped
together under three fundamental headings: those
of the clergy, the nobility, and the commons. This
was because, despite the many diverse social
entities composing each of these groups, each
could be seen as possessing an internal unity
of basic life pattern. Each of the three called
attention to a distinct “station” in life—or, to
use the proper legal term, a distinct “Estate”—
reflecting its own particular vocation. A State open
to the message of its own vocation as the guardian
of social order knew that it had to hearken to those
vocational messages coming from these three
basic sources of truth about man and the God who
knows what man needs.

several prelates trying desperately to keep alive
the broken institutions of Charlemagne’s Empire
in the bad times of the tenth century. What their
discovery of the three basic stations in life taught
them was the necessity of a total separation of the
tasks of clergy, what at this point must be labeled
“soldiery,” and commons into those of men who
“pray, fight, and work.” The only exception to
this rule in their minds was that accorded to the
Emperor, who, while primarily engaged in the task
of fighting in command of his soldiers, also joined
with those who prayed because of his special
anointing with sacred oils. Everyone else was
relieved of the responsibility of contributing to the
sanctification of the social order and, quite frankly,
of working for his own personal salvation as well.
Those who prayed took care of that duty for them.
This vision of the Three Estates was transformed
due to the victory over the Catholic mind won by the
chief enemies of the prelates in question: the monks
of Cluny and their allies in other monasteries. While
in no way denying the particular functions of the
three stations in life, the message of Cluny was
that each of them had to perform their tasks in a
meaningful, vocational, spiritual context supporting
their ultimate sanctification. That meant that each
of them inevitably had to contribute to the lifting
up of the social order as a whole. And it was this
message that won its way into the policies of the
Roman Pontiffs and those reforming Catholic
Emperors and Kings of the High Middle Ages whom
we most revere.
What did their specific vocations teach the
State, the guardian of the social order as a whole?
It taught that characterizing the clergy is plain.
It testified to the supreme supernatural end of all
men giving life on earth its meaning, and for this
existential reason, the clergy was given pride of
place as the First Estate. The commons, the last
of the trio, while most diverse in its composition,
nevertheless bore vocational witness to the
necessity of that daily labor, in all its forms, that
is required for the very physical survival of men
destined for an eternity with God.

A New Awakening
Awakenings sometimes emerge from
unexpected stimuli. The concept of the Three
Estates is one of them. It was first brought up by

Second Estate
Particularly interesting was the social
55

Christian Culture
message coming from the vocation of the soldiery
forming the Second Estate. This teaching was twofold in character. On the one hand, it spoke to the
State of the need for manly strength, the fighting
spirit, without which a world subject to sin cannot
maintain itself against the all too powerful forces
of evil. On the other, it instructed it regarding the
immense importance for the stability of the social
order of family and the family’s cultivation and
respect for continuity.
It developed this second message as a kind
of accident of history, due to Cluny’s efforts to
redirect the rather nasty soldiery of the time to
the service of the just war, and the pride with
which those knights won over to the call to a
crusading vocation passed down a sense of the
need to maintain their initial dedication to their
descendants, generation after generation. Through
this consecration of their families to crusading
justice, a Second Estate that had been a rapacious
soldiery became a respectable nobility, the
definition of the latter being a class that “knows”
what it is and where it comes from; in this case,
from Christian obligations rooted in the family
past.
All three of these Estates taught their specific
vocational messages to the State and the society
it guarded by means of an education proper to
their different stations, rendered visible to the
world outside by variance in dress, language, and
esprit de corps. Moreover, given that the work of
the monks of Cluny was first aimed at teaching the
soldiery the spiritual dimension of its vocation,
the sense of crusading militancy that the Second
Estate developed tended to hover over all of
the reform movement of the High Middle Ages.
This gave to the vocations of the clergy and the
commons a Catholic crusading spirit as well. In
short, the State learned of the need to be spiritual,
militant, and respectful of family, tradition, and
work, all at one and the same time.
If the guardian of social order were to be
guided solely by the First Estate, it could, at
worst, become a mere clerical tool, and, at best,
degenerate into an ethereal entity incapable of
defending or feeding itself. If it were placed purely
in the hands of the nobility, it could become an
impossibly warmongering force obsessed with
family lineages and their class pride. And if the
56

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commons were in uncontested control, it could
dedicate itself purely to a soulless and unmanly
concern for an endless work of supplying goods
that could be consumed. The sinful tendencies of
all groups and their individual members always
made the usurpation of power to serve but one
corrupted vocation possible. The vocation of the
guardian of the social order was to beat these
down and allow all three together to keep the ship
of State on its proper course.

The Essence of the Revolution
It is precisely this hearkening of the State to
the messages of the three authoritative social
vocations that the modern revolutionary spirit
cannot permit to function. For the essence of the
Revolution politically is its reduction of the social
order to being a plaything of sovereign individuals,
stripped of the militant guidance coming from
the vocations teaching the need for a unified
submission to messages regarding the importance
of Revelation, the family, tradition, and work,
and thereby left defenseless before the demands
of their fallen personal desires and wills. It was
this de facto abolition of any substantive reality
of authoritative social institutions that turned the
French Estates General into a National Assembly
publishing a Declaration of the Rights of Man
confirming that it was now the naked individual
whose fallen liberty guided the ship of State. And
just in case one thinks that that revolutionary
spirit was limited to France alone, it is important
to note that it was the same atomistic (and
materialist) individualism that John Locke handed
down to the American revolutionary experiment,
the political logic of which was really only made
known to the colonists through Thomas Paine’s
incendiary pamphlet, Common Sense.
What this liberation of the individual meant
became swiftly clear for anyone with eyes to
see and ears to hear. It meant first of all handing
over the State to the guidance of the majority
of individuals; that is to say, the commons. One
of the first proponents of a French National
Assembly, the Abbé Sieyès, already indicated in
his famous pamphlet, What is the Third Estate,
that this exaltation of the commons required the
divinization of its vocation—productive work—

as the sole force capable of guiding the properly
constituted State.
It is no wonder, in consequence, that our
revolutionary society is contemptuous of a world
where the “unproductive” clergy and nobility
played a significant role in the life of the State.
It is no surprise that it understands the word
“corporation” to signify a business enterprise
alone, rather than all social organizations,
the family included, as our pre-revolutionary
ancestors did. It stands to reason that it thinks
of an aristocracy only in terms of money. There
can be no shock in its promotion of a university
education that denigrates theology and the
liberal arts, offering a cornucopia of “productive”
doctorates in real estate and finance in their place.
Should anyone be amazed that the urban prerevolutionary experience of all three Estates living
together even in the same buildings dissolved
into money segregated neighborhoods? Or that
our revolutionary world lost interest in the family,
whose needs, traditions, and continuity were
subordinated to iron-clad demands of production
and consumption, long before any Red assault upon
it—as Marx himself indicates in his Communist
Manifesto?

Marxism and the Silencing
of the Estates
But the mention of Marx brings up a further
development of the social silencing of the messages
coming through the vocations of the Three Estates.
For, alas, all productive flesh and blood members
of the commons proved not to be equal. “Freeing”
atomistic individuals actually meant liberating
the weak among them to become the tools of the
strongest, “productive,” personal passions and
wills. This meant unjust subjection first of all
to the rich, the moneymen, the bourgeoisie, and
their particular property concerns. Behind them
came the productive working classes, who were
led to demand not a just, but a full control over
society under the influence of the will of atomistic,
materialist, Marxist intellectuals. And running
alongside of both capitalists and workers came
the productive entrepreneurs ready to supply the
atomistic, materialist demands for satisfaction of

every moral perversion known to man as well as
the consequences flowing from them. Why should
they not have their chance to dominate the social
order? After all, an American Supreme Court
justice said not so long ago that everyone had to
the right to create his own reality.
States in our revolutionary society have lost
their vocation of proper guardianship of the social
order that had been nurtured by an openness to
the messages delivered them through respect
for the vocations of all the social institutions in
whose bosom individuals truly grow and gain a
perfection to be completed in eternity. These social
institutions were those grouped, historically, in
the West under the heading of the Three Estates.
The result is that the “nations” that Christ wished
to accept the Gospel can no longer be converted,
and the naked “individuals” who become the sole
object of evangelization become correspondingly
less likely to respond to a teaching that, after all,
itself comes through submission to an authoritative
society: the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ.
Yes, we still have our personal vocations to
nurture, but we cannot be guided to understand
and nurture these properly until the complete
concept of vocation is regained. We desperately
need a revival of all of our social institutions and
their flesh and blood incarnation of their specific
vocations for our own benefit, beginning, most
importantly, with the Church and the clergy.
Fighting for this revival is the vocation of the
counterrevolutionary. And, as Ernst Jünger tells us
in his remarkable novel, On the Marble Cliffs, that
counterrevolutionary must go out into battle today
with a better knowledge both of his duty as well
as the character of his enemy than ever before in
history:
“Now battle had to be joined, and therefore
men were needed to restore a new order, and new
theologians as well, to whom the evil was manifest
from its outward phenomena down to its most
subtle roots; then the time would come for the
first stroke of the consecrated sword, piercing the
darkness like a lightning flash. For this reason,
individuals had the duty of living in alliance
with others, gathering the treasure of a new rule
of law. But the alliance had to be stronger than
before, and they more conscious of it” (Auf den
Marmorklippen, Chapter XX).
57

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The Domed
Basilica of
Charles the
Great
by Dr. Gerald L. Browning

The warm, bubbling waters that dotted the
countryside of an area known today as Aachen
in Western Germany were there well before men
came to build their castles and churches. These
thermal springs which originated deep below
the marshy wetlands were a favorite place for
Neolithic hunter-gatherers who had discovered
their wonderful healing qualities for their battle
wounds and for the rigors of early farming. The
baths or the thermos gallo as the Romans would
later call them, were quite simple in construction,
probably small stone buildings with arched
entrances leading into ceramic, water-filled
enclosures with plumbing systems that allowed
the water to run through them. Here, men could
bathe and clean themselves in pure, mineral
comfort.
The springs were important enough for the

Romans to establish early cities there. Julius
Caesar, in his famous letters concerning the
Gallic campaign (58-51 B.C.), remarked how the
spas were important reasons for claiming Gaul.
“The Gauls had many things tending to luxury as
well as civilization.” He also described in vivid
detail the attitude of the Gauls toward the spas.
“…they bathe promiscuously…a large portion
of the body being in consequence, naked.” The
springs were so desirable that beginning in the
first century A.D., the lands around Aachen were
fought over by succeeding waves of invaders,
first the Celts from Brittany, then followed by
Romans, Muslims, and Goths. Later, Carolingian
kings were said to have loved luxuriating in the
aquae spadenae or the warm fountains that the
Romans had built and enjoyed using with family
and friends.
59

Christian Culture
The Spread of Christendom
By the sixth century A.D., the areas around
Aachen had become thoroughly Christianized
by monks such as St. Benedict and St. Gregory.
Here, the great Carolingian kings who had
conquered and inhabited the area began to build
stone fortresses to protect their western borders
from the ravaging invaders who were pushing
inexorably toward them. By the eighth century,
the region had been consolidated under the
Carolingians—a Frankish tribe and their king
Charles (The Hammer) Martel.
In the year 732 A.D., the Empire was beset
by the Moorish invasions from Northern Spain.
Engaged in a momentous battle in the city of
Tours, the Carolingians achieved a remarkable
victory. For many centuries to come, Muslim
armies would be denied any military entry
into Carolingian territory. Martel would later
comment that he saw his armies as the protectors
of Christendom. As the Carolingian Empire

grew in territory, eventually encompassing
lands stretching from Europe to Asia Minor,
its Christian monastic structure spread
exponentially. By the time Charles the Great
(the grandson of Martel) came to the throne in
768 A.D., Europe was dotted with monasteries
reflecting the theology of some of its greatest
men, including Benedictines, Gregorians, and
Northumbrians. Christian scholars such as
Einhard and Alcuin were yielding great influence
on the king. Alcuin would become responsible
for organizing the “Emperor’s program to revive
knowledge in the Empire.” Churches were being
built in the villages and likewise cathedrals in the
cities. Missi dominici or the royal messengers
of Charles were sent throughout the countryside
to instruct the populace in matters of theology
and religious practice. The arms of Christ were
being spread by the king. Charles was reputed to
have learned to read and write by using an early
Christian Bible and it was believed throughout
the kingdom that he retired to bed each

Mosaic with Charlemagne the donator of the Church and Statue of Our Lady

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Ceiling with Christ, Pantocrator

61

Christian Culture
evening with both sword and Bible next to him.
He encouraged the construction of monastic
schools as well as the copying of sacred works of
art and literature. Models of Christian morals and
conduct (exempla) were explained to his people
in the form of “ admonition generalis” or orders
of the king. Einhard, the legendary biographer
of Charles, describes vividly how the stadium
discendi (the zeal of learning) was raging
through the kingdom.

Determining a Fitting Site
So it was determined, perhaps in the year
766 A.D. when Charles’s father Pepin was still
king, that Aachen would be the site of both
the palatium (palace) and the domed basilica.
For the next thirty-six years, according to the
available modern archeological records, palace
and church were completed. Charles dedicated
his church to the Virgin Mary. A small, goldadorned ceramic figure of her still greets the
visitor as he approaches the alter of the modern
basilica. The basilica was the seat of Carolingian
Christian rule throughout the eighth and ninth
centuries. It legitimized the Carolingians not
only as kings, but as the secular leaders and
protectors of the faith-second only to the pope
whose spiritual ascendancy in Peter’s church
was without question. So it became a symbiotic
relationship between the regency in Aachen and
the papacy in Rome. Mutual interests between
the king and pope were maintained and new ones
propagated. This became strikingly apparent
in the later years of Charles’s rule (800 A.D.)
when he was confronted with the dilemma of a
weakened papacy under Leo III. Historians are
divided as to who initiated the historic meeting
between Charles and Leo on Christmas day of
that year. We know that Leo was under great
political pressure, owing to rumors of personal
and financial problems associated with his office.
There existed powerful Roman families allied
against him, to the point where his personal
safety was an issue. Issuing an invitation to the
king whose rule was unquestioned, could help his
overall position in Rome.
Charles, on the other hand, could benefit
62

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greatly from the visit. It would solidify his
position as the unrivaled leader of a disparate
and diverse empire if he came to the aid of the
beleaguered pope. Above all, it would ensure his
fealty to the pope since he was coming to Leo.
This is significant; the Christian king making a
pilgrimage to Rome. But it also reaffirmed the
love and respect the king had for God and Rome.
This fact cannot be overestimated. Charles was
first a Christian and then a king. The history
of his family was as the protector of the Faith.
The blood of his people had been spilled on the
Christian battlefield over the last two hundred
years. Moors from Spain; Vandals from Africa,
Vikings from Scandia; all had sought to rape,
burn and pilfer what men such as Augustine,
Jerome, and Benedict had built.
The meeting was greatly advantageous to
Leo because his ulterior motive was to elevate
his position as pope in the face of a mighty king.
On that fateful day, the day of Jesus’s birth, the
pope placed the crown of Holy Roman Emperor
on the head of Charles. The king kneeling at the
foot of the pope was startling for both its political
and religious significance. The pope was now
establishing the papacy as the overseer of the
Empire. All succeeding kings would supplicate
themselves in homage to the pope. The papacy
would now enter a new era in which its religious
authority over the king was without question.
This would be the case for the next one thousand
years as kings from the newly emerging nations
of Europe would all reign in the name of the
cross. We don’t know if Charles really cared
about this. He was busy ruling from his castle
and his dome. But we do know that he cared
about the stability of the papacy. He ran down the
enemies of Leo, established control of Rome and
returned to Aachen satisfied in his efforts. The
years 800 A.D. to 814 A.D. are the height of his
rule as both king and follower of Christ. And it
was during this time that the fruits of his labor to
build his church were realized. His vision is the
stunning cathedral that occupies the center of
Aachen today.
The following descriptions are the result of
Charles’s vision.

The Dome and the Basilica
The early basilica was based on the Eastern
Byzantine design method, principally the use
of the octagonal concept of church design.
This included the use of domes, arches, and
columns which would characterize later Roman
design (400-600 A.D.). Scholars believe that
much of the architecture of Aachen’s basilica
was based on that of San Vitale the stunning
northern Italian basilica built by the Emperor
Justinian in the mid-fifth century A.D. As with
other castles in Germany, the basilica formed
one of the cornerstones of its defense. Circular
in nature so that it was difficult to ascend, and
with carved beveled slits, it formed a protective

stone bulwark against attack. It was essentially
an eight-sided box of stone with each side
supported by a columned arch. A squinch or
a stone octagon allowed the box to assume
eight sides with eight columns. The columns
were equal in size-kept together by “traveling
arches” that led into one another and finally
formed a perfect circle. Some theologians have
suggested that the octagonal design of the dome
represented the “eighth day of the creation as
the new redeemed creation of God. The walls of
the castle merged with it to form an outpost for
observation into the surrounding countryside,
announcing its presence to friend and foe, a pillar
of God standing in the way of the brutal men who
attempted to destroy it. Although the basilica
Exterior view of the Basilica

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Christian Culture
today is made of grey granite and slate, originally
it was covered in red brick with a wooden
superstructure and a flat roof as opposed to the
merging semi-globes of the roof today. One might
say that the dome encompassed the Christian
world as Charles saw it; a world of no boundaries,
encircled by the Christian God, universal in
scope, eternal in vision, and united against all
enemies in the life of Christ. To Charles, it was
perhaps the embodiment of St. Peter’s but set into
the wilderness of central Europe. He may have
even seen it as the “new Jerusalem.” Such was the
love of the Carolingians for their church.

The Interior of the Basilica
The interior of the Aachen basilica is
wondrously embellished compared to the
somewhat nondescript, plain exterior. William
Fleming, in his panoramic work Arts and Ideas
describes how the “Christian basilica turned the
Greek temple outside in.” We do not know what it
looked like in 800 A.D. but today, it is beautifully
adorned. When one enters the narthex or main
entrance of the church he looks in a somewhat
north-south direction since the nave is elongated
with a semi-circular apse surrounding the altar.
Seats for the clergy were placed along the walls
Interior view and medallion of St. Michael, Patron Saint of Germany

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on either side of the nave’s ambulatory with a
matroneum for women forming a vaulted gallery
around the interior of the nave. On the second of
three stories, high above the altar, the throne of
the king was placed, apparently so that he could
peer down on his congregation as they prayed.
There is, throughout the basilica, a distinct sense
of looking vertically. Fleming suggests that the eye
“is led from the central floor space to the dome.”
Surrounded by the figures of his adoring
disciples and Charles, Christ looms lovingly from
above as the Messiah or the “Lord or protector
of the universe.” His life is depicted through the
medium of mosaic art in which thousands of tiny
glittering pieces of glass or ceramic (tesserae)
were fused together to form a picture. They were
delicately placed on a bed of wet mortar with
the “cartoon” of the figure already drawn. The
process might be seen as a medieval style of
paint by numbers. When the tiles were in place,
tiny reflectors of silver and gold were sprinkled
on them to make them shimmer like a thousand
stars. When the light entered through the glass
windows of the apse, the effect was stunningly
beautiful as if the interior space was illuminated
with colored streams of gleaming light. One
scholar described the light emanating as the
“inner radiance of the spirit” of God. Today the
mosaics are beautifully preserved on all three

floors of the basilica, perhaps 1,200 years after
their initial installation.

The Windows
Although the windows were first built in 1355
A.D. and replaced many times over, the present
ones were installed after World War II. They
form the East wall of the choir section directly
behind the altar and the golden coffin-shrine
of Charles. That they point eastward may be in
recognition of the high recognition that Charles
held for Constantinople. They are supported by
eight limestone archways made of limestone and
measuring over 25 meters in height. Today, the
glass is a marvelous mixture of blue, purple, and
red glass that rises up within the inner curves of
the dome. Its leaded panels tell a story both of the
great king who inspired it, and of the history of
the Christian church. When the sun shines, the
light streams through the glass in colored rays.
Unlike its later cousins—the cathedrals—where
the dark, thin shadows of light conceal much of
the glass’s beauty, the dome allows for the light to
spill onto the altar. It is as if God had stood above
His church and ministered His heavenly light
upon His flock. It is only fitting that today the
cathedral is called the “glass house of Aachen.”

Postscript
The Basilica of Aachen has stood for twelve
hundred years. Parts of it have weathered with
age, or suffered destruction in war, or simply
been modernized. But its majestic windows,
mosaics, and columns have continued to sparkle.
Its dome, together with its attached medieval
spires, continues to dominate the skyline of
Aachen, Germany. Today, it is the seat of the
Holy See and remains a working episcopal
Catholic church with German priests and nuns,
a lovely choir, and a vibrant community of
adherents. Hence, it is appropriate that at 10:00
a.m. on a warm, sunny morning, the author was
in attendance as Mass was said. The Gospel
delivered that day was of Mt. 16:13-19. The words
were a fitting tribute to Peter who had just been
given the keys to heaven. The priest spoke in
German. “You are Peter, I will give you the keys
to heaven.”
One can just see the great King Charles
with the keys to the grand bronze doors of his
cathedral—his heaven on earth. Einhard best
describes the scene. “He cherished with the
greatest fervor and devotion the principles of the
Christian religion, the basilica he adorned with
gold and silver…and was a constant worshipper
at this church—going morning and night.”
Throne of Charlemagne and pulpit of the basilica

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Christian Culture

Education to
Dependency
by SSPX Sisters

“But Maman, I don’t feel like it!” Indeed, for
7-year-old Therese, this argument was quite
serious! Would Mme. Martin, weary of the battle,
give in to her little general?
On the road, we have to stop at a red light
whether we are in a hurry or not, whether we
feel like it or not; in the same way, it is absolutely
necessary for our little ones to learn that in life,
we first do what we must and not what we want.
Teaching this is an art, for a child’s obedience
and dependency must be developed and oriented
towards full maturity, and not servilely cultivated.
What is the goal of obedience? To bring a child
to do good, and more profoundly, to bring him to
want the good. Obedience, therefore, is not a goal
in itself; it is a means, and it is to be practiced
in good measure, according to a child’s age and
capacities and depending on the circumstances.
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Age and Obedience
A small child who has not yet reached the age
of reason needs to acquire certain automatic
reflexes: he does not yet know what is right and
what is wrong. His parents will teach him what
he must do and not do through their reactions
to his actions: a smile from her mother will
encourage Catherine, who was the first to come
when called; his father’s tone of voice will stop
Benedict when he starts answering back to an
order. For the early years, renowned educators
speak of “training.” This word offends our ears,
but it is a reality: the child does not yet have the
use of his reason and he must acquire reflexes
(that will become virtues later on): “yes” means
yes; “no” means no! If his parents say something,
it should be put into action immediately. For

example, if Isabel’s mother gives her a cookie and
she forgets to say thank you, her mother will say,
“Thank you, Mom,” so Isabel can repeat after her.
If she does, her mother’s smile will encourage
her to continue this habit. But if Isabel refuses
to say thank you, her mother will take back
the cookie and firmly repeat, “Say, ‘thank you,
Mom.’” Her mother must not give in no matter
what; the reflex must be formed: “when Mom says
something, I obey immediately.”
Later on, when a child has reached the age of
reason, his parents need to educate him more
profoundly by forming his judgment: the child
must learn what is true, good, and beautiful, and
what is wrong, so that his will may be formed by
tending towards that which is good and avoiding
that which is wrong. Orders are to be given when
the child strays from the right path or to show
him what he should do. But when an order (a
good order!) is given, it is not to be justified or
discussed. The child must learn to obey willingly
without “but’s” or “why’s,” simply because his
father or mother asked him, out of love for them
and love for God.

Aptitudes and Obedience
To be obeyed, an order must be in proportion
to a child’s capacities. We cannot ask the same
thing of everyone. Asking more than a child can
do is a way of exposing him not only to disobey
but also to get into the habit of disobeying.
There is one area in which submission is
certainly within a child’s ability, and that is
not giving in to his willful desires. Here is an
example from the life of Sister Lucia of Fatima:
“Maria Rosa raised her strictly and never gave
in to her whims. One day, she made beans for
lunch. Lucia refused hers, saying she did not like
beans. ‘Well! My little girl,’ her mother answered,
‘we don’t eat only what we like; we eat what’s
served.’ Lucia stubbornly refused. Maria Rosa
was inflexible. So the child left the table without
eating anything and was tormented by her
hunger all afternoon. ‘At suppertime,’ she would
later write, ‘I thought my mother would give me
what she had made for supper: rabbit stew with
rice. But she pulled my plate of beans out of a
drawer and said to me, ‘Take these; your plate

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Christian Culture
is going to stay here until you eat them, and you
will have nothing else.’ When Lucia had eaten
half of her plate of beans, her mother took it away
and gave her some rabbit stew, saying, ‘You have
overcome your willful desire, now you can eat
with everyone else.’ ‘It was a lifelong lesson for
me,’ she wrote. ‘I was never tempted to say, ‘I’m
not going to eat that because I don’t like it.’ Sister
Lucia concluded in her Memoirs, ‘At that time, I
did not yet know what it meant to offer sacrifices
to God, but that was how He prepared me. I thank
Him and the mother He chose for me.’”

Keeping the Circumstances
in Mind
As for the circumstances, they affect the
educator more than the child himself! Some
mothers let everything go when they are in a good
mood. They give no orders, they tolerate and put
up with everything. But when they are tired or
irritated, orders rain down, along with shouts and
spankings! This, dear parents, is not education!
Children must learn to obey for the good, not
depending on our passions. Orders must therefore
be given calmly and wisely.
What an encouragement to obey if a child also
knows (they sense this very well!) that his parents
exercise their authority out of love. It is so much
easier to obey someone who truly loves us! But
true affection is not weakness and, as everyone
knows, “he who loves well, chastises well.”
An order should be clear, precise, and heard by
the child! Do not ask several things at once; one
thing at a time.
Nor is it necessary to give too many orders. A
good educator gives few injunctions, but when
he gives one, he expects to be obeyed and the
children know it. No father or mother should let
an order go unfulfilled.
When parents who are respected and loved
voice a desire, it is as effective as an order and
lightens the family atmosphere that would be
weighed down by a flood of precepts. We mustn’t
hesitate to appeal to our children’s goodwill. For
example, instead of saying, “Peter, set the table,”
his mother can also “vary” the wording and with
a big smile ask her five little ones who are playing
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next to her: “Who wants to make Mom happy?”
Obedience is not to be bought with rewards
(“make your bed and I will give you a piece of
candy”) or begging (“Please, Anne, just obey…
please!”); it is due. If, once in a while, you wish
to reward an obedient child, do not promise the
reward when giving the order (that would ruin the
spirit of submission and risk making him act only
for the reward); offer it to him “freely” afterwards;
it will be a lovely surprise and will motivate him
to do his duty well at all times.
All of this will maintain the child’s respect for
authority and make it easier to obey.

A Capital Virtue
We have to admit that from a very young age,
all children, however charming, are more inclined
to follow their own desires than to obey; and
without the patient, gentle, but firm help of their
parents, they could become little monsters who
give in to all their passions…what a catastrophe
both for their earthly life and for eternity!
The first seven years set the tone. Do not wait,
dear parents, until your child is older to teach him
to do good and refuse evil.
Acquiring a spirit of submission has
repercussions on a person’s entire existence. We
will have to obey our whole life long, be it to the
alarm clock in the morning, to the rules of the
company we work for, or (and especially) to the
commandments of God and of the Church. And
the stakes are high! “But if thou wilt enter into
(eternal) life, keep the commandments,” Our Lord
tells us (Mt. 19:17)…No one is dispensed from
obeying, and it is something we learn during our
earliest years.

by Fr. Juan-Carlos Iscara, SSPX

Is pre-natal genetic testing
morally permissible?
A genetic disorder is a consequence of defects
in single genes or in whole chromosomes, parts
of which may be lost, duplicated, or misplaced.
It may also be due to the interaction of multiple
genes with external factors in fetal or early postnatal development.
Ongoing research has permitted scientists to
identify the genetic basis of many diseases. At
the same time, it has allowed the development

of tests to detect the presence of the genes
associated with those diseases, or predisposing
those who inherit the gene for a disease. The
overall aim of genetic testing is to diagnose the
disease early enough to initiate treatments that
will prevent permanent and irreversible damage,
even death.
Prenatal testing is performed to determine
whether a particular genetic disease is present
in the offspring before birth. It is suggested that
the information may be used by the parents to
plan ahead for raising a child with disabilities.
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Christian Culture
Unfortunately, it usually provides a motive
to abort, or, if the parents are using artificial
reproductive technologies, to discard gametes or
zygotes with the disorder.
The habitual techniques for prenatal testing
are amniocentesis and chorionic villi sampling.
Both methods imply serious risks for the child.
Amniocentesis has a rate of fetal loss of 1 in
200. Chorionic villi sampling poses greater
risks, such as limb reduction, malformation
and spontaneous abortion, results of its being
performed earlier in the pregnancy, that is, at an
earlier stage of development.
To discern the moral permissibility of any
medical procedure, we must first remember that
the complete morality of an act arises from the
combined consideration of (1) its object, that is,
the end to which the act tends by itself and which
is immediately achieved; (2) the circumstances
that surround the concrete performance of such
an action; and (3) the intention of the agent who
performs it. If those three elements are morally
good, the action is good. If any of them is morally
evil, the action is evil, whatever the goodness of
the other elements may be.
Regarding pre-natal testing, the Encyclopedia
Britannica states approvingly that “screening
of the susceptible population for Tay-Sachs has
significantly lowered the number of newborns
affected by this lethal disease in the United
States.” Translated, this terse “newspeak” means
that, following the genetic tests, the prospective
parents have chosen either to use contraceptive
methods or to abort.
Gilbert Meilaender, a Christian scholar, cuts
ruthlessly through the euphemisms: “The day
may come when we can treat and cure prenatally
or postnatally many genetic diseases; however,
for the moment, we can diagnose prenatally
far more that we can treat. In the meantime,
therefore, we screen and abort. For now, that
is essentially the only ‘treatment’ for illness
diagnosed prenatally. We know more and more
about the child in utero; hence, people…seek and
use such knowledge in order to select the babies
they desire and abort those they do not want.”
The object of the testing is to acquire
information about the health of the unborn child.
But knowledge, or information, although in
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itself morally neutral, cannot be separated from
the motive for seeking it. From that motive, the
pre-natal genetic test will receive its first moral
qualification.
If the knowledge is sought to initiate treatment
that may reduce the consequences of the defect,
and insofar as excessive anxiety and despair are
avoided, the genetic screening might be morally
good.
It is very easy to deceive ourselves by
asserting that the knowledge is sought to prepare
better for the raising of a child with disabilities.
Perhaps it is so, but it is imprudent to pursue
the acquisition of this information only for this
motive—it will taint the parents’ gift of life,
creating regrets, a reluctance to accept the child
even before he is born.
On the other hand, if the test is performed with
the intention of aborting the child if he presents
any of the tested for genetic defects, the testing
is morally evil—a sin. Nothing justifies direct
abortion. As Pius XII said, “Every human being,
even a child in the mother’s womb, has a right to
life directly from God and not from the parents
or from any human society or authority. Hence,
there is no man, no human authority, no science,
no medical, eugenic, social, economic or moral
‘indication’ that can offer or produce a valid
juridical title to a direct deliberate disposal of an
innocent human life; that is to say, a disposal that
aims at its destruction, whether as an end or as
a means to another end, which is, perhaps, in no
way unlawful in itself.”
To the basic moral qualification given by
the motive, there has to be added the moral
evaluation of the concrete circumstances of
the testing. As we have said, the most common
tests do imply certain risks for the fetus between
conception and birth. The desire of the parents
“to know” is not proportionate to the danger
imposed on the child.
The only possible exception would be that
such a test is needed to prevent a definite
commensurate risk of life or health, either to the
child himself or to the mother. In such a case,
the emergent risk for the child may be indirectly
permitted—that is, intending the good of life
and health to be protected by the testing, and
reluctantly accepting the fact that a similar but

less imminent danger is incurred. In almost every
other case, though, the testing should not be
performed—it is sinful to perform it.

What is the “Common
Good” of society?
Catholic doctrine defines the end of civil
society—the goal that unites all its members and
determines the manner of their organization—as
the “common good.” What is it?
The natural, and therefore necessary mission
of civil society is to facilitate to men, by means
of the social cooperation, the attainment of their
supreme and definitive good, their happiness. As
the human person finds his happiness in God, the
ultimate end of society is the glory of God and the
perfect happiness of men in the vision and love of
God.
This is what may be called the extrinsic
Common Good—“extrinsic” because it is external
to society, its attainment is beyond the reach of
civil society. The definitive union with God is
something personal: happiness is attained—or
lost—by the individual person, not by the social
group as a whole. Social cooperation is simply
an aid, creating the more favorable conditions
to attain that happiness—but it is the individual
who has to attain it.
Therefore, although God is truly the ultimate
end of society, He is not its direct and immediate
finality. Civil society has its proper “intrinsic”
finality, the temporal common good, for which
attainment it has all the necessary means. This
“common good” is the ensemble of vital and
moral means and conditions that every society
must provide to its members, to allow them to
attain—freely, spontaneously and in the measure
of their possibilities—the ends of their lives.

It includes all the goods whose possession will
facilitate to man the attainment of his temporal
perfection, in view of the eternal. It consists in all
those goods that give to men a certain material
ease: sufficient food, housing, rest, and all the
other means directed to the welfare of the body.
But is also includes honest goods—moral,
intellectual and religious—which communicate
some perfection and are intermediate ends
regarding God, the supreme end of human
activity. As all must participate in this kind
of goods, the Common Good implies also the
practice of justice and of the virtues that regulate
the use of material things: temperance, sobriety,
liberty, generosity, etc.
Consequently, the common good—the end
of civil society—is bene vivere, the virtuous
life, and not simply the temporal well-being.
Independently of the popular use of the term, the
“temporal” common good does not mean simply
material goods, or economic development—
it includes also the worship of God, the
acknowledgment and observance of the order
of nature, the preservation of the dignity of
marriage and of the family, the promotion and
protection of public morality, culture, etc.
The right social order implies the respect of
the due hierarchy between these goods, and,
concretely, the primacy of the spiritual goods.
A social organization is good when it is capable
not only of providing its members with the goods
necessary for their temporal perfection, but when
it procures those goods according to their just
hierarchy.
The modern world does not simply reject God,
or the dominion of God over the lives of men; it
also denies that the increase of human perfection
is the end of civil society, and in its place
proposes as sole end the preservation of man’s
freedom, security and resistance to oppression—
thus dissolving the common good into the good
of the individual.

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The riddles of God are
more satisfying than
the solutions of man.
(Introduction to The Book of Job, 1907,
G.K. Chersterton. Window, Cathedral
Milan, Italy)

News from Tradition
Traditional Rite Trappist Monastery to Close

74

The abbey of Mariawald, in the Westphalia
area of Germany will be closed and the monks
will be transferred to other abbeys. Following the
issuance of Summorum Pontificum in 2007, the
abbot of Mariawald, Dom Josef Vollberg requested
permission from Pope Benedict XVI to begin
using the Traditional Rite for Holy Mass and the
Divine Office, which was granted. (Pope Benedict
approved the change saying that this represented
“renewal of the church in the spirit of tradition”)
in 2008. Since that time, the monastery has been
celebrating the Mass and Divine Office using the
traditional liturgical books.

‘Keep the Rule, and the Rule will keep you.’ It must
also be said, and more certainly, that no one can
survive without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The
traditional form in which we now celebrate the
Mass, seems to suit us to an extraordinary degree.
And also, the reawakened wisdom of centuries
seems to help the Priest, more Priest, and the
monk, more monk.”
Unfortunately, the Vatican under Pope Francis
did not look kindly upon this return to tradition and
forced Dom Vollberg to resign as abbot in 2016. He
stated at the time that his resignation was taken
so as to avoid the danger that the abbey could be

In a 2013 interview, Dom Vollberg spoke about
the effects that returning to the Traditional
Liturgy has had on the monastic community. He
stated: “We must not underestimate the spiritual
enrichment, which has been brought about by
the search for and rediscovery of the sources.
Important features of ecclesial tradition can now
once again play a significant role. Our monastic
vocation receives its character from the Rule of St.
Benedict, which we have vowed to observe. The
Rule of St. Benedict and the Latin Liturgy, in the
older form constitute a symbiosis, within which
the one fosters the understanding and significance
of the other. Just as the Holy Sacrifice is offered
daily, so is a portion of holy Rule read every day,
and usually, it falls to me to interpret it. And
undoubtedly, there is a lot of truth in the old adage:

closed contrary to the wishes of the community.
Dom Vollberg continued at the abbey as prior while
Dom Bernardus Peeters from a Dutch monastery
would become the non-resident abbot.
Now, in 2018, it was announced that the abbey
would close its doors and the monastic community
would be dispersed to other Trappist monasteries.
While the announcement cited various reasons
for the closure, there can be little doubt that the
unstated reason for the closure was to rid the
Church of this traditional Trappist monastery.
The current administration in the Vatican has
consistently shown hostility to any religious order
or community that has made an attempt to restore
the traditional liturgy; one need only to remember
the treatment received by the Franciscan Friars of
the Immaculate.

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Bible Justifies Abortion?
As reported in the March/April edition of this
column, Pope Francis removed all the members
of the Pontifical Academy for Life and appointed
an entire slate of new members which included
some proponents of abortion and gave a new
mandate regarding the workings of the Academy
and insisted that it include immigration and
environmentalism in the scope of its work.
Now, one of the newly appointed members
of the Academy has publicly declared that the
Old Testament justifies abortion in certain
cases. Rabbi Fishel Szlajen states that when the
unborn child threatens the life of the mother,
Jewish law allows for abortion. He also cites
other examples such as: cases of anencephaly,
irreversible degenerative pathologies and
terminal disease where the “conceptus” will
certainly die are examples of tzorech gadol
(grave necessity) where “abortion is permitted
with severe restrictions.” The same goes for a
woman who has become pregnant through rape,
and for whom continuing the pregnancy would
result in “serious psychophysical danger.” The
rabbi is also on record as opposing abortion
on demand and recognizes the humanity of the
unborn child.
Another new member of the Academy, Rabbi
Avraham Steinberg, has stated that before 40
days after conception, the unborn child has “no
human status” and after 40 days has only partial
status as a human being.

Both of these rabbis are putting forward
teachings that directly contradict the Church’s
perennial teaching on the certain humanity
of the child in utero from the first moment
of conception. Additionally, they are citing
Talmudic law which, in itself, is merely human
law rather than any examples from Sacred
Scripture, thus the idea that the Bible sanctions
abortion in certain cases is indeed misleading.
It would also seem quite strange that there
are rabbis who are members of the Pontifical
Academy for Life who make use of Jewish law
rather than Catholic teaching in any official
statements. Why would any person be appointed
to the Academy who does not uphold the
sanctity of all human life from conception until
natural death? This is one more example of the
confusion being sown by Pope Francis.

Vatican Poised to “Sell Out” Faithful Chinese Catholics
It appears that the Vatican Secretariat of State,
led by Cardinal Parolin and supported by Pope
Francis, is on the verge of recognizing the Chinese
Patriotic Catholic Church as fully legitimate and
thereby making illegitimate the Underground
Chinese Catholic Church.
When China fell to Communism in 1949,
the government expelled all foreign Catholic
missionaries and native bishops and priests, along
with their faithful, and they were forced to go

“underground” or face arrest and imprisonment
(which many bishops and priest did). In 1957, in
order to try and eradicate the Catholic Faith, the
Communist government set up what they called
the Patriotic Catholic Church which was under
full government control. This obvious attempt did
not have the desired effect, and the Underground
Church continued to thrive despite persecution.
At the time of the establishment of the Patriotic
Catholic Church, some Chinese bishops and
75

News from Tradition
priests joined this government-sponsored church
and effectively rejected their allegiance to Rome.
Since that time, the Chinese government has
chosen bishops for their puppet church without the
approval of and in defiance of the Holy See. While
faithful bishops and priests were facing prisons
and reeducation camps, the Patriotic bishops and
priests were kowtowing to every whim of the
Communists, including approving the “one chid
policy.” In addition, it is known that a number of
these patriotic clergymen are secretly married
and a few are even members of the Communist
government.

According to reports, the Vatican is ready to
concede the naming of bishops to the Chinese
Communist government. In the lead up to this, the
Vatican has asked a number of the Underground
bishops to resign their Sees so that they can be
replaced by government-named Patriotic bishops.
Some have acquiesced to the Vatican request, but
others have refused this unjust action on the part
of the Vatican. Interestingly, this move by Pope
Francis’ Vatican to cede the naming of bishops
to the Chinese government is directly contrary
to the teaching of Vatican II which clearly stated
that: “no more rights or privileges of election,
nomination, presentation, or designation for the
office of bishop be granted to civil authorities”
(Christus Dominus, paragraph 20). This it would
appear that Pope Francis, who has stated that
76

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May - June 2018

there is “no going back from the Council,” has no
problem doing so when it suits his objectives!
There has been a good deal of “push back” to
this latest Vatican initiative from all parts of the
Church. Most notably, Joseph Cardinal Zen, the
retired Bishop of Hong Kong has written a lengthy
letter to Pope Francis protesting the danger to
the Faith this Vatican move presents. It should
be noted that in his letter, Cardinal Zen makes
reference to Pope Francis stating that “he didn’t
want another Mindszenty case” and then presents
a short explanation of the sad situation regarding
the former Primate of Hungary. What Cardinal
Zen did not include was that
Cardinal Mindszenty only
offered his resignation when
Pope Paul VI assured him
that no successor would
be appointed. However,
within a very short time
after receiving Cardinal
Mindszenty’s resignation,
a new Primate of Hungary
was appointed by Paul VI
—a man approved of by the
Communist government.
Although Pope Francis has
stated he does not want
another Mindszenty case,
he is, like his hero Paul VI,
selling out faithful Chinese
bishops, priests and laity
in order to appease an atheistic, Communist
government.
Interestingly, one would have expected that
this obvious Vatican appeasement of the Chinese
Communist government would have had led
to some softening of the regimes harsh antiCatholicism. The opposite has been happening. In
the past number of months, priests in the Patriotic
Church were ordered to put up signs stating that
no one under the age of 18 would be allowed
to enter the church buildings. Additionally, the
government has moved forward with its attempt
to remove any Catholic religious symbols from the
exterior of churches, stating that the crosses and
such are symbols of a foreign religion and pose a
danger to Chinese culture.

Professor Germain Grisez, RIP
Professor Germain Grisez died on February
1, 2018 at the age of 88. Grisez was a professor
of philosophy and Christian ethics at Mount St.
Mary’s Seminary and University in Emmitsburg,
Maryland for 30 years where he held the Most
Reverend Harry J. Flynn Chair in Christian
Ethics, retiring in 2009. He received his Ph.D.
in philosophy from the University of Chicago
in 1959. His desire to pursue the study of
philosophy was the result of his reading
St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on the
Sentences of Peter Lombard.
Professor Grisez rose to prominence for his
defense of the Church’s perennial teaching
on contraception following the widespread
rejection of this teaching in the wake of Pope
Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae. His first
defense of the Church’s teaching was in his
book Contraception and the Natural Law
which was published in 1965. Grisez also argued
the point that the teaching on contraception is
irreformable since, he believed, it formed part
of the infallible magisterium of the Church. In a
2003 interview he stated: “With Humanae Vitae,
Paul VI reaffirmed the constant and very firm
teaching of the Church excluding contraception.
I believe and have argued that teaching had
already been proposed infallibly by the ordinary
magisterium—that is, by the morally unanimous
agreement of the bishops of the whole world in
communion with the popes.”
In his later years, Professor Grisez also
argued that Catholic politicians who support
public funding for abortion, “ipso facto intend
that abortions be done. … As a general rule,
Catholic politicians who support abortion
funding as well as some other measures
consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973
abortion decisions, intend to promote the killing
of the innocent.”
When Pope Francis issued his Apostolic
Exhortation Amoris Laetia in 2016, Professor
Grisez issued (along with longtime friend and
associate John Finnis) a public letter to the
pope entitled “The Misuse of Amoris Laetitia

to Support Errors Against The Catholic Faith.”
Grisez and Finnis begin their letter with the
statement:

“We are convinced that certain statements in
the Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, and
certain omissions from it, have been misused
and/or, unless prevented, will be misused to
support positions that are or include errors
against the Catholic Faith. We shall identify eight
such positions, explain how AL is used to support
each of them, and show how each either is, or
includes error against the Catholic Faith.
Proponents of the erroneous positions may
respond that their readings of AL are accurate,
and that the Exhortation overrides and
supersedes the sources we quote from or cite to
show that the positions they defend are errors
against the Catholic Faith.”
May he rest in peace.

77

News from Tradition
Paul VI to be Canonized Later This Year
In February, Pope Francis announced that
he will be canonizing his predecessor, Paul VI
a saint towards the end of 2018. In making the
announcement to the priests of Rome, Francis
reportedly quipped that “Benedict and I are on the
waiting list.” This flippant comment clearly indicates

Paul VI meeting with Archbishop Romero on June 21, 1978,
shortly before Paul VI’s death on August 6, 1978.

that even Pope Francis has come to realize that the
seemingly unending parade of post Vatican II popes
canonized has become almost comical. As one

popular blog writer has said, canonizations have
become nothing more that election to the Vatican II
Hall of Fame.
Paul VI’s cause for canonization had been on
hold for many years after Dom Luigi Villa published
his well researched book Paul VI Beatified? which
documented many reasons why the former pope
should not be raised to the honor of the altars.
The reasons included in the text were that Paul VI
was certainly a Communist sympathizer as well
as a Freemason. It was not until after Dom Luigi’s
death in 2012 at the age of 95 that Paul’s cause was
taken up once again. Dom Luigi Villa was appointed
by Pope Pius XII to uncover the infiltration of
Freemasonry within the Church.
In addition to Paul VI, Pope Francis also
announced that he would canonize Archbishop
Oscar Romero, the murdered Archbishop of San
Salvador, El Salvador, by recognizing him as a
martyr. Although Romero was gunned down while
offering Mass, many have questioned whether his
murder was carried out in odium fidei (hatred of
the Faith) as is required to recognize a person as
a martyr, or rather because Romero had become a
political figure in El Salvador.

German Bishops Approve Communion for Protestants
During their annual meeting, the German
Bishops Conference approved (by a large majority
of votes) allowing the Protestant spouses of
Catholics to receive Holy Communion. Although
this has long been a practice in Germany, it has
never received the official approbation by the
bishops unit now.
Although the bishops state that this is to be
done on “a case by case basis after talking with a
priest,” there is little doubt that the “case by case
basis” will become the universal norm in Germany.
There is no mention in the statement issued by
the bishops that the Protestant must acknowledge
the Catholic teaching on the Real Presence of
our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament nor the need
for the Protestant to have received sacramental
absolution. Obviously, these requirements would
the beg the question: Why has the Protestant
78

The Angelus

May - June 2018

spouse not become a Catholic if he or she believes
what the Church believes about the Eucharist?
Of course, the answer is simply that syncretism
has become so ingrained in the post Vatican II
ecclesiology that even mentioning the idea of
conversion to the true Faith is anathema.
Of course, in addition to this false ecumenism,
the bishops of Germany also have to assure that
the Kirchensteuer or “church tax” revenues
continue to flow from the German government.
In recent years, there has been a decrease in the
number of Germans identifying as Catholic, which
has led to a decrease in the amount of revenue
received by the Church in Germany. This has led
some to speculate that the bishops of Germany are
doing all in their power to keep the faithful happy,
even at the expense of the loss of their souls.

Ireland Surreptitiously Selling Murder to the People
On the 7th of March, the Irish Supreme Court
issued a landmark ruling that the unborn child
has no constitutional rights beyond the right to
life contained in the Eighth Amendment to the
Irish Constitution.
The Irish Independent reported:
“...the seven member court unanimously
rejected a High Court ruling which found
that the unborn had other rights under the
Constitution and was considered a child, with
rights the State is expected to vindicate... The
ruling will remove much uncertainty ahead of
the referendum the government plans to hold
in May to remove Article 40.3.3, better known
as the Eighth Amendment, and to allow the
Oireachtas to legislate and to regulate the
termination of pregnancy. Delivering judgment
in Limerick, Chief Justice Frank Clarke said it
was the unanimous view of the court that the
unborn does not have rights outside the right to
life in the Eighth Amendment.”
This ruling was followed the day after by a
statement from the government advising that
citizens will be asked whether they want to
remove the Eighth Amendment, which gives
equal right to life to the mother and the unborn,
and replaces it with wording that would allow
politicians to set Ireland’s abortion laws in the
future. That wording will be: “Provision may be
made by law for the regulation of termination of
pregnancies.”
This makes the matter crystal clear given the
government’s previously stated position that
abortion would be made legal up to the 12th
week of pregnancy. If you vote ‘yes’ to change,
you condemn the future pre-born children
of Ireland to mortal danger for the first 12
weeks of their existence. The health minister
Simon Harris commented on how fitting it was
that the government was announcing this on
International Women’s Day! The irony seemed
to be lost to him that a large number of the
children due to be condemned by this proposed
legislation will be female.
Meanwhile, in Rome, on the same day our

ex-President Mrs. Mary McAleese was giving
a speech at the inaccurately named “Voices of
Faith” conference in Rome where she stated
that “A Church hierarchy that is homophobic
and anti-abortion is not the Church of the
future.” She referred to the Church as “one of
the last great bastions of misogyny.” She heaped
contumely on the Church of Christ and was
applauded for it. As one letter writer to the Irish
news wrote:
“How much longer must we mere mortals
endure the moaning and sanctimonious
pontificating of Mary McAleese? A relic from
the realm of the political undead, she wanders
around the interior of our churches and the
public forum like some unearthly Nosferatu
boring and annoying faithful Catholics in equal
measure.”
The writer also pointed out that Mrs.
McAleese prior to her presidential run had been
involved in a group called Brothers and Sisters
in Christ known as “BASIC” the forerunner
of “We Are Church” a pressure group which
advocates for female ordination and acceptance
of homosexuality. During her speech she
advocated for the same as well as abortion.
The progressive elite in this country has
been pushing for abortion since the referendum
for the Eighth Amendment was passed in
1983. In the intervening period, the people of
Ireland have fallen further away from the Faith
which sustained them through centuries of
persecution and seem more likely these days
to worship at a stock exchange than a Church.
While countries like Poland and Hungary are
experiencing a Catholic resurgence, Ireland
seems keen to divest itself of its Catholic Faith
and this is without doubt the cause of the attack
on the unborn. The reason we are having to
defend against abortion is due to the diminution
of the Faith. The push to legalise murder is a
symptom. The elites are selling murder in the
guise of compassion for women; the question is
will the people of Ireland buy?

79

Theological Studies

The Integrity
of Archbishop
Marcel
Lefebvre
by Fr. Paul Robinson, SSPX, Part 2

Editor’s Note: Part 1 of this theological study can be
found in the March-April edition of The Angelus.
The Changing Principles Objection
The members of the Resistance split Archbishop
Lefebvre into two entities: the pre-consecrations
Archbishop and the post-consecrations Archbishop,
without seeming to realize that, by doing so, they
destroy the Archbishop’s integrity.
The pre-consecrations Archbishop wanted autonomy for the SSPX under the authority of Rome, the
right to try the experiment of Tradition, a canonical
recognition “as is.” This first Archbishop is the same
as the one identified by Sanborn, the part soft-liner
and part hard-liner who wants recognition from a
hierarchy that he opposes in many respects.
According to the Resistance, the second
Archbishop Lefebvre realized, at the time of the con-

80

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May - June 2018

secrations, that the first Archbishop Lefebvre was
wrong—not just in the question of a prudential discernment, but in the very principles which directed
his negotiations with Modernist Rome. Recognizing
his mistake, the Archbishop then rejected the false
principles under which he had operated during his
entire ecclesiastical career and embraced the hardliner ecclesiology: you cannot place yourself under
the authority of Modernists, and so no canonical
recognition should be accepted until Rome returns
to Tradition. This second Archbishop, according to
the Resistance narrative, staunchly upheld his new
ecclesiology for the remaining two and a half years
of his life, and wanted his priestly society to follow
that ecclesiology in all future dealings with Rome.
The Resistance, then, agrees with Sanborn’s first
point above: the Archbishop was a man of wavering principles in ecclesiology. From there, however,

they part company with Sanborn and, so also, with
logic. What they do not seem to realize is that if their
Archbishop is the real one, then:
1. He is not a reliable reference point for traditional
Catholics or even his own SSPX.
2. They should, at least in principle, embrace
sedevacantism, for the hard-liner ecclesiology is
identical with a sedevacantist ecclesiology. Both
ecclesiologies make canonical recognition under a
Modernist hierarchy a question of principle rather
than one of prudence and so both ecclesiologies
hold, explicitly or implicitly, that a Modernist
hierarchy does not possess true authority.
In short, the Resistance destroys the credibility of
the Archbishop by portraying him as fundamentally
changing his perspective on the Church, and then
asks everyone to respect and follow their caricature of that great churchman. By their acceptance
of the hard-liner ecclesiology, they undermine the
principle of all authority, because they undermine its
very basis. From being an office granted by God that
is maintained regardless of how it is used, authority becomes a personal quality that is lost when
subordinates judge that the person no longer has the
quality. By casting this subjective notion of authority
onto the Archbishop post mortem, they undermine
all fixed points for the traditional Catholics who follow him. The fruit of this strategy is all too evident:
utter chaos.
Sanborn, at least, recognized that the consecrations did not cause Archbishop Lefebvre to change
his canonical recognition “as is” ecclesiology:
“Shortly after the consecrations of 1988, Archbishop
Lefebvre said that the negotiations would continue,
and that perhaps in five years, all would be resolved.”
In fact, the Archbishop did not change his position; the two-person Archbishop of the Resistance is
a myth. Throughout his entire ecclesiastical career,
Archbishop Lefebvre maintained the Catholic notion
of authority in general and the Catholic notion of the
Church’s authority in particular. Likewise, from 1975
until his death, he always held to the same prudential
criterion for canonical recognition, that the SSPX be
accepted “as is.” He was a man of principles, in both
his speculative and practical judgement. As such, he
was and is a reliable reference point for traditional
Catholics and the priestly society he founded.

Why, then, does the Resistance claim that he
changed?
Quote Mining
The primary strategy the Resistance uses to
convince others of their two-person Archbishop
Lefebvre is that of quote mining. This is the practice
of considering the words or writings of a person in
complete isolation from the context of the words and
the person using them, in order to project one’s own
position onto that person.
We can take an example of this practice from
the Feeneyite movement. It seeks to prove that the
Church teaches that only baptism of water can get
one to heaven, that the baptisms of blood and desire
are not salvific. But the Church does not teach that.
There are no statements of the Magisterium saying
something like, “Whoever believes that baptism of
blood is efficacious unto eternal salvation, let him be
anathema.”
As such, the Feeneyites cobble together an impressive series of quotations from the Fathers and
the Councils which, when taken out of context, seem
to favor their position. For instance, they cite the following from Pope Eugene IV:
“No one, no matter what alms he may have given,
not even if he were to shed his blood for Christ’s
sake, can be saved unless he abide in the bosom and
unity of the Catholic Church.”
The Feeneyites read this to mean that one cannot
be saved by baptism of blood. In fact, it means that
one who dies for Christ does not receive baptism of
blood if he dies in opposition to the Church.
The Words of the Archbishop
Now, the Resistance puts forward, as the primary
defence for its position, numerous quotations from
Archbishop Lefebvre. None of these quotations
say, “In principle, we must refuse the authority of
Conciliar Rome until the day that Rome returns to
Tradition” or “I used to believe that we should accept
canonical recognition if it kept us as we are, but
now I realize that I was mistaken” or “It would be
against the Faith for us to accept canonical recognition under any conditions before Rome returns to
Tradition.” Thus, the Resistance has to settle for
quotations which might seem to support its position,
when taken out of context.
Here, for instance, is a favorite Resistance
81

Theological Studies
post-consecrations citation, taken from the
Archbishop’s Spiritual Journey:
“It is a strict duty for every priest wanting to remain Catholic to separate himself from this Conciliar
Church for as long as it does not rediscover the
Tradition of the Church and of the Catholic Faith.”
The whole question here is what the Archbishop
means by “this Conciliar Church.” The immediate
context refers to a decision of the Secretariat for the
Unity of Christians to integrate non-Catholics into
the Church as they are. The Archbishop here seems
to identify “this” Conciliar Church with actions of
Rome that are against the perennial magisterium.
Thus, he seems to be saying that priests who want
to remain Catholic must not compromise their faith
by associating themselves with such activities.
But the question of whether the Archbishop holds
that there is no authority in Rome until it returns to
Tradition is not addressed by this quotation. It is entirely possible to reconcile this quotation with a canonical recognition that enables priests to operate
in autonomy from Roman congregations promoting
false ecumenism.
Perhaps the very first words of the Spiritual
Journey can clarify the Archbishop’s non-Resistance-filtered position:
“The pages which follow are addressed especially to you, priests and seminarians of the Priestly
Society of St. Pius X, to you who, on this day, will
renew your promises in this Catholic and Roman
society, officially approved by the Ordinary, and by
the Roman authorities.”
If we desire to hold that the Archbishop is, in any
way, a man of integrity and consistency, we must
reconcile this quotation, which recognizes the authority of the post-Vatican II Church hierarchy, with
his quotation that calls for us to separate ourselves
from “this Conciliar Church.” The logical means to
reconcile them is by having recourse to his clear and
constant position on Church authority: it is to be
followed when in accordance with the Faith, and to
be resisted when against the Faith. Instead of doing
this, the Resistance chooses to tear the Archbishop
into two pieces, to destroy his constancy and integrity, and so to undermine his entire moral authority.
The Charity of Defending Integrity
Perhaps more boldly, the Resistance does
the same thing with living people. It claims that
82

The Angelus

May - June 2018

Bishop Fellay and his General Council held the hardliner ecclesiology in 2006, but then changed to the
canonical recognition “as is” ecclesiology in 2012,
despite all protestations to the contrary by the very
people whose true positions the Resistance claims to
understand. Thus, the Resistance creates a second
Archbishop Lefebvre and a second Bishop Fellay, and
then proceeds to persecute the second Bishop Fellay
for not following the first Bishop Fellay and the second
Archbishop Lefebvre. It does not seem to occur to the
resistors that both Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop
Fellay are men of integrity, holding to unchanging
Catholic principles on the nature of authority.
It would seem to be a duty of charity for us to seek
ways not to judge that our neighbor has fallen into
contradictions, whenever possible. This is all the more
true concerning persons in authority. The Church
has a long history of practicing this charity when
interpreting the texts of its great personages. The
Fathers, for instance, always found ways to show that
the Gospels never contradict one another when they
relate the same episode from the life of Our Lord, but
in different ways. St. Thomas Aquinas is a past master
at finding ways of interpreting dubious quotations of
the Fathers that find their way into objections in such
a way that the Fathers do not fall into error.
Modernist exegetes, on the other hand, practice
an anti-charity by finding contradiction everywhere.
For them, the books of Scripture are constantly
contradicting one another, the individual books
themselves are so inconsistent that they must have
multiple authors, and each chapter and even verse
is so hopelessly diverse that it must have undergone
many changes throughout the ages. In the end, the
Modernists do not seem to believe that anything fixed
and constant can exist.
But let them just look at the life of Archbishop
Lefebvre and they will find there a living refutation of
their position. The consecrations in no way caused
him to change his principles. If the Archbishop withdrew his signature from the protocol of May, 1988,
the protocol that would have led to canonical recognition, it was not because he stopped recognizing the
authority of the prelates with whom he was dealing.
Rather, it was because he lost trust in them, in that
they continually refused to set a date for the consecration of a bishop. This setting of a date became the
Archbishop’s criterion for trusting Rome.
The date of August 15 was finally set, but it was

joined with the request of submitting new candidates for consecration. The Archbishop saw that
restarting the process for reviewing candidates
would cause the August 15 date to be missed and
so the consecrations delayed once more. As such,
he went ahead with the consecrations on June 30,
1988. He did so only after making clear that there
was no moral problem with signing the protocol. As
if addressing himself to those who would accuse
him of acting on bad principles, he told his seminarians on June 9, 1988: “Yes, it is true that I signed the
protocol on the 5th of May—a bit hesitantly, I must
add, but I did sign it… In itself, it was fine. Otherwise,
I would certainly not have signed it.”
Conclusion
Sanborn’s Archbishop Lefebvre, the one who
holds a contradictory and illogical ecclesiology, is
mythological. Far from it being contradictory to hold
that authority is to be obeyed or disobeyed on the
basis of its commands’ conformity to faith and morals, such a position is utterly Catholic.
The Resistance’s Archbishop Lefebvre, the one
who changed his notion of authority and its application to the crisis after the consecrations, is
also mythological. The Archbishop recognized the
authority of the Conciliar hierarchy to his dying day.
He was always, in principle, willing to accept a canonical recognition “as is.” Only when the malicious
motives of the Romans willing to recognise the SSPX
became clear did he prudentially withdraw, not his
principles, but his signature.
The real Archbishop Lefebvre—the man of the
Church, the champion of orthodoxy, the beacon of
doctrinal purity and missionary charity—was a man
of unflinching integrity, one who had the supernatural strength to apply the principles of the Catholic
Faith to even the most difficult concrete situations,
even to the point of heroism. As such, he is an eminently trustworthy reference point for Catholics in
general and for the members of the priestly society
that he founded in particular.

83

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The
Last
Word
Dear readers,
A vocation is truly a mystery, one of the truths we cannot fully understand. Why does the
Almighty want to be so dependent on us to save other souls? Why does He choose this one
and not that one, “dividing to every one according as He will?”
In the Gospel, it is interesting to notice Our Lord asking help for all kinds of things. For
instance, passing through Jericho “Jesus, standing still, commanded (the blind man) to
be called” (Mk. 10:49); at the tomb of Lazarus, He asked the bystanders to “take away the
stone!” (Jn. 11:32); on Palm Sunday He asked the Apostles to “loose them (the ass and her
colt) and bring them to Me” (Mt. 21:2). He definitely could have done all these things alone.
No, He wanted others to help Him.
There is also the manner in which He calls souls to His service. We see that already in
the way He Himself called the Apostles: through John the Baptist (John and Andrew), one
brother (Andrew) calling his other brother (Peter), directly (Phillip), a friend calling his friend
(Nathanael). Vocation statistics show that the Holy Mass and Holy Communion play the first
role in the sprouting of a vocation, then the example of a truly spiritual person, an old priest,
a good nun…Often it will be through a silent reading (St. Ignatius), hearing a sermon (St.
Anthony Abbot), a pilgrimage…Many decided to give all to God following a severe sickness, or
a near-death accident, or surviving a war…Then, you have, as St. Ignatius recommends, the
rational analysis, the pros and the cons, what is the best life for me, or looking at my life from
my death bed: what kind of life would I have liked to have lived?
The harvest is indeed very great and the workers so few. Let us listen to a world famous
recruiter of vocations; his words are so true even today:
“Many, many people hereabouts are not becoming Christians for one reason only: there is
nobody to make them Christians. Again and again I have thought of going round the universities of Europe, especially Paris, and everywhere crying out like a madman, riveting the attention of those with more learning than charity: ‘What a tragedy: how many souls are being shut
out of heaven and falling into hell, thanks to you!’ I wish they would work as hard at this as
they do at their books, and so settle their account with God for their learning and the talents
entrusted to them” (St. Francis Xavier).
Mitte, Domine, operarios in messem tuam!
Fr. Daniel Couture

The Society of Saint Pius X is an international priestly society of common life
without vows, whose purpose is the priesthood and that which pertains to it.
The main goal of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic
Faith in its fullness and purity, to teach its truths, and to diffuse its virtues.
Authentic spiritual life, the sacraments, and the traditional liturgy are its
primary means of bringing this life of grace to souls.
The Angelus aims at forming the whole man: we aspire to help deepen your
spiritual life, nourish your studies, understand the history of Christendom,
and restore Christian culture in every aspect.

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