$4.45 MARCH 2007 “Instaurare omnia in Christo” A JournAl of romAn CAtholiC trAdition india argentina Poland Ukraine Germany ermany ph ot co o n the holy land te es st sa y france Lebanon of (se th e p is .4 iss 4 ue ) australia more lenten reading Cross and Crown Fr. Robert Mäder An excellent collection of meditations by the famous preaching priest and Catholic newspaper editor. His delivery of the traditional Catholic Faith was so much in the apostolic spirit of primitive Christianity that he was called “The Thunder of the Holy Ghost.” Three booklets in one: “Thoughts for Lent”, “Christ’s Sufferings” and “Christ the King”. Excellent Lenten meditation “material.” 166pp, softcover, STK# 6718✱ $12.95 The Crucifixion of Jesus Dr. Frederick Zugibe (the world’s leading expert on crucifixion) takes 35 years of forensic pathology experience and uses them to shed light on the Passion. From the Garden, His crucifixion and burial (including the Shroud of Turin), Zugibe explains everything in FASCINATING detail: the species of thorn used in the crown of thorns, the location of the nails, the precise cause of death, etc. Zugibe provides the most in-depth analysis of the Shroud to date. 384pp, hardcover, index, 103 illustrations, STK# 8123✱ $29.95 Spiritual Conferences Blessed Be God (1925) During Advent, Lent, & months of Mary, Fr. Faber preached these conferences which were honed to perfection for this book–one of his most popular. Covers: kindness, listening, death (extensively and fascinatingly), Christian simplicity, the seven varieties of self-deceit and its five sources, confession, confidence in God, “monotonous” piety, Heaven, Hell, and so much more! INCREDIBLY COMPREHENSIVE PRAYER BOOK. From the publisher: “In the nearly 25 years that we have been in the used book business, the book which has been in the greatest demand is Blessed Be God.” Novenas, prayers, litanies, a missal, meditations and readings from the Bible and The Imitation of Christ, Sunday Vespers, Prayers for the Dying, and a lot more. By Fr. Frederick Faber, D.D. 345pp, sewn-hardcover, STK# 8216✱ $29.95 Frs. Callan & McHugh 754pp, hardcover, STK# 8164✱ $32.00 Intimate Life of St. Therese The Mystery of Fr. Albert Dolan, O.Carm. the Crown of Thorns The Heart of the Mass 389pp, softcover, 37 illustrations, STK# 4053✱ $29.95 166pp, softcover, STK#6711✱ $12.95 A unique look at the spiritual journey of St. Thérèse. The author traveled to her home, and to convents where he interviewed her four sisters, and others who knew her personally. He also went to Rome and spoke to Pope Pius XI about his apostolate to make the “Little Way” more known in America, where he founded the “Little Flower Society” and lectured on St. Thérèse. Did you know there was an Office and Mass of the Crown of Thorns celebrated the First Friday of Lent? Or that the most striking figures of the Crown of Thorns are pointed out in the Old Testament: concerning Adam and Eve, Moses, Abraham and Isaac, to name but a few? The history of the whereabouts of the crown are related. This book will help you to understand something of the true ugliness of sin and the price Our Lord paid in conquering it. Learn to bring something to Mass—Understanding. Dissects the Mass into its component parts, prayer by prayer with Latin and parallel English. Explanations from the Fathers, Doctors, and Saints; teachings of the Church, history, and mystic commentary. Tells you what the celebrant and ministers are doing, the symbolism of their gestures, and the spiritual significance of articles used for celebrating Mass. 302pp, sewn softcover, STK# 8204✱ $19.95 Christian Warfare A prayer book to assist with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. Includes the full text of the Exercises plus all the prayers and hymns needed for a retreat. The rest is a fabulous compendium of prayers, hymns, devotions, and doctrine necessary in today’s crisis. Fine quality paper allows this 500+ page book to be only 3/4 of an inch thick! An excellent companion–everywhere. 506pp, hardcover, STK# 8155✱ $24.95 Divine Intimacy Gift of Self to God meditations on the Interior life for Fr. Nicholas Grou every Day of the liturgical year Precious gems of holy wisFr. Gabriel, O.C.D. dom–the fruit of a pastor well Shows you how to join prayer acquainted with the modern stratagems of the Devil to and action and put Catholic get the focus of battle-weary spiritual doctrine into daily practice. For each day of the Catholics off the straight and narrow course leading to peryear: A brief introduction, a sonal sanctity. An extremely two-part meditation, a colprovoking meditation dealloquy based on the truths ing with the necessity and just meditated upon. About three pages per day, so even salutary advantage of giving the busiest person can use it our all to God. It is a perfect compliment to the spirit of regularly. De Montfort’s True Devotion 1,227pp, leather hardcover, STK# 8215✱ $48.00 to Mary. 70pp, Hardcover, STK# 8163✱ $9.95 “Instaurare omnia in Christo—To restore all things in Christ.” Motto of Pope St. Pius X The ngelus A Journal of Roman Catholic Tradition 2915 Forest Avenue “To publish Catholic journals and place them in the hands of honest men is not enough. It is necessary to spread them as far as possible that they may be read by all, and especially by those whom Christian charity demands we should tear away from the poisonous sources of evil literature.” —Pope St. Pius X March 2007 Volume XXX, Number 3 • Kansas City, Missouri 64109 English-language Editor and Publisher for the International Society of Saint Pius X PublisheR Fr. John Fullerton Editor Fr. Kenneth Novak Assistant Editor Mr. James Vogel business Manager Mr. Jason Greene Editorial assistant and proofreading Miss Anne Stinnett Design and Layout Mr. Simon Townshend MARKETING Mr. Christopher McCann comptroller Eastern Europe: Christendom Angelus Press Edition NEWS Interview With Fr. Jenkins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 lebanon: In the Land of St. Charbel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Fr. Benedict-Joseph Villemagne the holy land: Christmas 2006 at Bethlehem . . . 8 Germany: New Desire for the Old Mass . . . . . . . . . . 10 An interview with Fr. Nicholas Pfluger india : Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Fr. François Chazal argentina Ordinations 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 australia Ordinations 2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 . . . . . . . . . . . 26 france Brothers Novitiate Christendom NEWS Angelus Press Edition Miss Lisa Powell customer service Mrs. Mary Anne Hall Mr. John Rydholm Shipping and Handling Mr. Jon Rydholm THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT ISLAM: An Unbridgeable Abyss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 The “Black Legend” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 the privilege of the privilege . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Bro. Gabriel-Marie the swiss guard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Martin Peltier The Angelus (ISSN 10735003) is published monthly under the patronage of St. Pius X and Mary, Queen of Angels. Publication offices are located at 2915 Forest Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri, 64109, (816) 753-3150, FAX (816) 753-3557. Periodicals Postage Rates paid at Kansas City, Missouri. Copyright © 2007 by Angelus Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Manuscripts are welcome. They must be double-spaced and deal with the Roman Catholic Church, its history, doctrine, or present crisis. Unsolicited manuscripts will be used at the discretion of the Editorial Staff. Unused manuscripts cannot be returned unless sent with a self-addressed, stamped envelope. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Angelus, Angelus Press, 2915 Forest Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64109-1529. word and affection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Fr. Bernard-Marie de Chivré, O.P. Questions and answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Fr. Peter Scott the angelus photo essay contest . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 The Angelus Subscription Rates 1 year 2 years 3 years US $34.95 Foreign Countries (inc. Canada & Mexico) $54.95 $64.95 $104.95 $99.95 $159.95 All payments must be in US funds only. Eastern Europe Tallinn ESTONIA 2 Baltic Sea Riga LITHUANIA Vilnius an interview with Fr. John Jenkins, sspX, about the current state of tradition in eastern europe. POLAND GERMANY Warsaw Minsk BELARUS Lodz ´ Prague CZECH REP. Kraków SLOVAKIA RUSSIA LATVIA Kiev Lvov UKRAINE Bratislava Budapest PerSeCUTeD BUT Never overCoMe HUNGARY Christendom NEWS Angelus Press Edition Father, we have just heard of the ordinations at Warsaw, Poland, on November 22, 2006. Could you give us some news? This last week we had the honor of having a large group of our friends from the Ukraine for the ordination of nine of their seminarians in our church here in Warsaw by Bishop Williamson. Seven seminarians were ordained to the diaconate and two to the priesthood. It was also an occasion of great joy for us all to see so many faithful from the Ukraine amongst us for the day–close to 200 made the long voyage by bus, amongst whom five Basilian Sisters from Lvov. The ANgeLUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org Newly ordained priest receives the chasuble. 3 The ordinands enter the chapel of the Warsaw priory. The prostration during the Litany of the Saints. Certainly the ordination of priests is always a great consolation for all, but could you tell us something about these young men? These young men are members of the Society of St. Josaphat, a religious order similar to the Society of St. Pius X but of the Eastern Rite. It was founded in September 2000 under the aegis of Bishop Fellay for the priests of the Eastern Rite who wish to remain faithful to Tradition. Fr. Basil Kovpak is their superior, and there are currently 13 priest members. Some 8,000 faithful assist at the liturgy every Sunday in just one church in Lvov. Some 25,000 faithful are attached to Tradition throughout the country. There are also many other Ukrainian priests, around 15 or so, who are friendly to the Society of St. Josaphat but who do not yet have the courage or opportunity to join them in the struggle for Tradition. Tradition is thus a growing movement in the Ukraine? Yes, very much so. There are many vocations, though the seminary at Lvov has but 16 seminarians at the moment due to the lack of an adequate building and the very strict rules of admission. We must add also that the Basilian Sisters at Lvov number close to 20, with some postulants as well. The number of faithful is ever on the increase, in spite of the severe persecution they are undergoing. www.angeluspress.org The ANgeLUS • March 2007  Group photo after the ceremony. Bishop Williamson and the two newly orained priests. Persecution? Yes, persecuted but never vanquished. The Catholic Church in the Ukraine has always had to suffer enormously for her unity to the one true Church, especially this last century. In 1939, when the Ukraine fell into the hands of the Soviets by the MolotovRibbentrop Pact, all the material possessions of the Church were confiscated, many church buildings destroyed, and in the Fall of 1939 some 50,000 faithful and 41 priests were deported to Siberia whilst 34 priests were massacred on the spot. After the horrors of the Second World War, in 1946 the Communist government organized a pseudo-synod which declared “the return of the Greek-Catholic Church to the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church,” and over 1,400 priests, 800 religious, and around 10,000 faithful would pay for their fidelity by the sacrifice of their liberty or of their own lives. Nonetheless the Catholic Church in the Ukraine would survive clandestinely, in circumstances that remind us of the persecutions of the first Christians, and whose voice would be heard throughout Western Europe by such confessors of the Faith as Cardinal Slipyi. These faithful kept the Faith by an intense Christian life, in spite of the fact that it was not possible for them to assist at the liturgy or receive the sacraments regularly. Their Christian life was nourished by those devotions which today one contemptuously calls “Latinisms,” which had been known in western Ukraine since the time when the Ukraine was part of Poland and successively part of the Austrian Empire. The Catholics of the Ukraine had always seen in these devotions such as the Way of the Cross, the Rosary, the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, etc., a THE ANGELUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org powerful expression of their doctrinal and spiritual attachment to Rome and their distance from the Orthodox. These devotions are for them a powerful protection and sign of their fidelity, and often a means of the heroic practice of Christian virtue. Yet certainly after the fall of the Iron Curtain, things would be better for the Church in the Ukraine? After perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian Catholic Church was officially recognized, though the attempts to reestablish the material structures has never been without difficulty. Of the 11 million Ukrainian Catholics, and the several thousands of Orthodox who converted in the years following the official recognition, not many have received any regular religious instruction. Many priests from the times of persecution were never sufficiently instructed due to the urgent need of the sacraments and the lack of seminaries. The entire material structure of the Church must be renovated and rebuilt. Never has good will been lacking, but in view of the enormity of the task, the help of the West was imperative. Yet exactly at the moment when one would hope for the help of the Good Samaritan, the modernist and the materialist were found on their doorstep. Instead of sending to the Ukraine men who would form the clergy and monasteries, the Europeans and Americans would send the technocrats of Vatican II. Up until the late 1990’s the Church in the Ukraine had almost completely ignored the reforms of Vatican II. Yet at that moment when Ukraine was most in need of aid, the Ukrainians were confronted with the unhappy truth that they represented an enormous “obstacle” to the ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox. The Ecumenists were quick to realize that “dialogue” with the Orthodox would be impossible without the elimination of the Ukrainian Catholics. The “Uniates” had always worked for the conversion of their schismatic brethren, and thus were always an affront and a “danger” to the Orthodox. Thus in order to minimize this “danger,” the infamous protocol of Balamand was ratified in 1993, forbidding the conversion of the Orthodox to the Catholic Church with the proclamation that the idea of “union” (and thus the existence of the Ukrainian Catholic Church) was a “false step.”  Some of the faithful who attended the ordinations. In the background: the chapel and school buildings. Newly ordained deacon kisses the Bishop’s ring. And thus instead of deportation to Siberia, the faithful now have the Catholic Faith hijacked by ecumenical dialogue in the perspective of making one unique (Orthodox) Church. Thus on a practical level one begins by “purifying” the liturgy of the “Latinisms” in order to “return to the sources of spirituality,” in order to bring the rite closer to that of the Orthodox. The churches are “purified” of statues, Ways of the Cross, sacred images, vestments and sacred ornaments which had been such instruments of grace and fidelity during the Communist persecution. Thankfully, a good part of the clergy and the faithful see the mortal danger of this ecumenism, but a great confusion is everywhere. And thus the foundation of the Society of St. Josaphat? Precisely. In the early nineties, a group of Basilian Sisters, as well as some local clergy, learned of the presence of the combat for Tradition in the West, and several initiatives to come to their aid took form. In 1997 six Basilian Sisters asked to continue their religious life in Tradition and are welcomed at the priory here in Warsaw. In the same year Fr. Basil would invite the priests of the Society of St. Pius X to his parish and to make contact with a dozen priests attached to the traditions of their ancestors. Thus gradually the Society of St. Josaphat would come into existence under the spiritual protection of the Society of St. Pius X. The role, however, of the Society of St. Pius X consists principally in aiding the seminary at Lvov in the forming of priests and the preaching of retreats. The fruits are abundant, as we can see from the ordinations this last week. Yet such fruits can only come at the price of great sacrifice. The clergy attached to Tradition are continuously attacked by the modernists as “schismatic”; two of their priests have been “excommunicated” by the local authorities, with more sanctions on the horizon. One of their churches was just recently burned to the ground by local ruffians sent by the modernist clergy. Add to this the extreme poverty and material want that they live with continually, and one can well imagine their need for our prayers and material assistance, especially for the continuation of their seminary. Yet in all this one sees clearly the hand of Our Lady of Fatima. She demanded the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart, which will in the end triumph. Certainly the witness of those who have already made the costly step towards the Catholic Church is a powerful instrument in her hands, and thus the combat for Tradition in the Ukraine is absolutely vital for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart. Thus in closing I would beg your readers for their prayers and sacrifices, assistance both spiritual and material for our friends in the Ukraine so that they might continue the good combat for the salvation of souls. This article was taken from Christendom, No.8. Christendom is a publication of DICI, the press bureau of the Society of Saint Pius X (www.dici.org). Readers who are interested in helping the combat for Tradition in the Ukraine may send their offerings to the General House at Menzingen (FSSPX, Schwandegg, CH–6313 Menzingen, Switzerland) with an express mention of the Society of St. Josaphat. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • March 2007 6 Lebanon a priest of the society of st. pius X, Fr. patrick laroche, has been visiting lebanon annually for 22 years. SYRIA LEBANON Damascus Beirut IRA Tel Aviv Jerusalem ISRAEL EGYPT JORDAN iN The lAND of ST. ChArBel SAUDI ARABIA A priest of the Society of St. Pius X, Fr. Patrick Laroche, has been visiting Lebanon annually for 22 years. The ties of the Society to this ancient Catholic land have been strengthened by the recent ordination of two Lebanese members of the Society, Fr. Sayed Elias (2005) and Fr. Raymond Taouk (2005) [Fr. Taouk is of Lebanese extraction and was educated at Holy Cross Seminary in Australia, and St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Winona, Minnesota.–Ed.] During the summer of 2005, two important events occurred in Lebanon. The first was political: the liberation of the “Christian” (meaning Catholic; as opposed to Moslem) leader, Samir Geagea, who had been unjustly imprisoned for more than 11 years in a tiny cell 20 feet underground. The announcement of the deliverance of the leader of the Lebanese Forces, the true symbol of Catholic and national resistance, unleashed enthusiasm and even euphoria amongst Lebanese Catholics, who regarded it as a great sign of hope for the future of Lebanon. The Western world, though, refrained from reporting the event, his trip to Paris to undergo medical examinations being described by the government as a “private visit.” But the main event was religious: that June 29, the first Lebanese member of the SSPX, Fr. Sayed Elias, was ordained at Ecône. Surrounded by a few members of his family, he celebrated a first Mass in Lebanon on July 17, the Feast of St. Charbel, the most popular saint in Lebanon. The sermon was preached by the rector of the seminary where Fr. Elias studied. Traveling to Lebanon for the first Mass, he and his traveling companions took advantage of the occasion to explore this land of the Near East, little known to them. The altar of the hermitage where Fr. Charbel said his last Mass and died while elevating the Host. S 7 A Heavy Schedule AQ That same summer, Fr. Laroche spent two weeks in July, accompanied by the Rev. Messrs. Villemagne and Kowalski, deacon and subdeacon respectively. Besides all the preparations for Fr. Elias’s first Mass (intensive Gregorian chant practices for Maronite Rite faithful who do not know Latin, etc.), the program also included a four-day spiritual retreat which drew eight participants. This was combined with meetings patterned on our “circles of Tradition” groups in which talks were given covering the essential themes of Christian life, as well as a prudent initiation into the problems of the crisis in the Church. The crisis even affects Lebanon, yet it is still not readily perceived, principally because of the long war that strained the country through the 1980’s until 1991, but also because ecumenism appears as a kind of utopia for these Christians daily confronted by the challenge of Islam: from the village pastor to the missionary in Moslem cities, and even the nuns. Understanding the Lebanese mentality so as to be able to advise and counsel people requires a certain “inculturation,” and this need imposes a visit to the two places most symbolic of the nation: the Maronite cloister where the tomb of St. Charbel lies, the Maronite monk-hermit (d.1898) and wonder worker, through whose intercession the Lebanese obtain countless healings and miracles; and the Valley of the Cedars, where the most majestic of them (115 feet tall with a circumference of 45 feet), date from the time of our Lord. The deep roots of this civilization are discovered also by a visit to Byblos, the cradle of Phoenicia, which compasses 7,000 years of history and the ruins of more than 17 civilizations; and by a visit to Baalbek, which encloses the vestiges of a gigantic acropolis constructed by the Romans in honor of the Sun god Baal: its Temple of Jupiter–the columns were almost 70 feet tall–excelled in its dimensions and beauty all the ancient temples of the Greco-Roman world. Lastly, it is necessary to be able to communicate, even if French is spoken by the majority. But before perfecting the difficult pronunciation of Arabic, one must first learn to read it, and so write it. The hypothetical installation of the SSPX in Lebanon would fulfill the hopes of the small band of some 50 faithful who have been warmly welcoming Fr. Laroche for the last 21 years. But while awaiting the appearance of the providential signs in favor of a foundation in this very Catholic land, we turn our gaze to the Virgin of Harissa, Our Lady of Lebanon, to whom we entrust this prayer intention. Translated from Fideliter, Jan.-Feb. 2006, exclusively for Angelus Press. An historical survey of Lebanon appeared in the October 2006 issue of The Angelus shortly after the Israelis unleashed a 33-day attack upon the whole nation, allegedly in retaliation for the capture of two Israeli soldiers. The author of this article, Fr. Benedict-Joseph de Villemagne, still a deacon when he wrote this article, was ordained on June 29, 2006, for the Society of Saint Pius X. He is currently stationed at St. Joseph de Carmes School in the Pyrenees Mountains, France. St. Charbel Makhlouf of Lebanon (Above) The cloister where he worked his miracles and is buried. (Right) The intact body of the servant of God, exposed in a new coffin (August 7-25, 1952). 96pp, color softover STK# 8198 $4.95 St. Charbel, a Maronite Rite Catholic religious, priest and hermit of Bekaa-Kafra, Lebanon, is considered by many to be the masculine counterpart of the Little Flower of Lisieux. He led a hidden life of virtue, humble labor, obedience, severe penance, extreme fasting and profound devotion to the Holy Rosary and the Mass, which he said daily at 11am after his 11-hour preparation that started at midnight! His entire life, without the slightest exception, was completely supernatural. Fr. Charbel suffered a stroke during the Offertory of the Mass while reciting the prayer: “Father of Truth, behold Your Son, a sacrifice pleasing to You. Accept this offering of Him who died for me...” He was helped to his cell, where he continued to repeat that prayer until his death on Christmas Eve, 1898–eight days later. His body remained perfectly intact (supple skin, flexible joints, no odor) for over 75 years after his death and exuded a miraculous liquid that healed hundred of sick people and converted many others, including Moslems, to the True www.angeluspress.org The ANgeLUS • March 2007 Faith. His casket rotted; he did not. 8 holy land DIcI, the press agency of the society, often informs its readers of noteworthy news around the world. let this brief article be a reminder to pray for those in the household of the Faith in the holy land. SYRIA LEBANON IRA Tel Aviv Jerusalem ISRAEL EGYPT JORDAN SAUDI ARABIA ChriSTMAS 2006 AT BeThleheM Main entrance into Bethlehem. The wall continues for some distance in each direction and then becomes a twin wire fence. The ANgeLUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org Archbishop Paul Joseph Cordes, President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum for Human and Christian Development visited the Holy Land from 13-18 December “to manifest the Pope’s spiritual closeness to the Christians, and his encouragement” to them to remain in these places, there “to build the civilization of love.” Archbishop Cordes presented a million euros (about US$1.3 million), a gift from the faithful of the dioceses of Munich, Ratisbonne, and Passau collected during Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Bavaria, to aid the Christians of the land of Jesus’ birth, the Vatican News Agency stated. The sum will be dedicated to the construction of a 36,000 sq. yd. pastoral center at Nazareth to be situated near the Basilica of the Annunciation, where the faithful and AQ A 9 pilgrims can meet, receive catechism instruction, play sports, and lodge. In his Christmas message, Bethlehem’s Mayor, Victor Batarseh, declared that the influx of tourists and pilgrims has visibly declined and has been made much more difficult because of the security measures imposed by Israel...for entering the village. Usually, as Christmas approaches, Bethlehem would fill up with people. Today the village appears quite calm under the shadow of the [Israeli defense] wall. Many Palestinian farmers cannot get to market to sell their produce. Unemployment in Bethlehem has reached the unbearable figure of 65%. And the financial crisis has kept the City of Bethlehem from paying the salaries of its own employees for the last three months. of responsibility were sincerely determined to pursue them. Salvation will come from bringing the two peoples together, not from separating them. In that lies the salvation of the Palestinians and the Israelis, as well as of the entire region. The two peoples are capable of living together in peace and tranquility. When that comes about, murders, vengeance, rejection, and extremism will disappear little by little, as they progressively cease to feed on oppression, occupation, poverty, and humiliation.1 On December 21, Benedict XVI, too, addressed a message to the Catholics of the Middle East published by the Vatican News Service on December 25: You are well aware, dear brothers and sisters, of my ardent desire that Providence will allow me to make a pilgrimage to the Land made holy by the events of Salvation History. I hope to be able to pray in Jerusalem....While we await the fulfillment of this desire, I encourage you to continue along the path of trust, with acts of friendship and good will....Peace is such an important and urgent good that it warrants great sacrifices on the part of all. ...In the present circumstances, marked little by light and too much by darkness, it is a cause of consolation and hope for me to know that the Christian communities in the Middle East, whose intense suffering I am well aware of, continue to be vital and active communities, resolute in bearing witness to their faith with their specific identity in the societies in which they are situated.... ...[These communities, while often in the minority and] numerically of little significance constitute something... which can greatly encourage ecumenism. For some time now it has become clear that many Christians are leaving the Middle East, to such an extent that the Holy Places are at risk of being reduced to archaeological sites, void of any ecclesial life. Undoubtedly, minorities find it difficult to survive in the midst of dangerous geopolitical situations, cultural conflicts, economic and strategic interests, and forms of aggression which claim justification from a social or religious basis. In fact, many Christians eventually give in to the temptation to emigrate.2 The population of Bethlehem, Christian in the past (65% of the population in 1965), has today become principally Islamic (less than 12% of the population is Christian). “But it is the entire population that is suffering,” without distinction of religion, the mayor explained. “Let us pray that the shepherd’s [sic] star may shine once again on Bethlehem.” Archbishop Michel Sabbah, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, addressed the faithful of Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Cyprus: This year again, Christmas is coming to Bethlehem amid the same circumstances of death and frustration, with the Wall and the checkpoints on the ground and in the hearts. The occupation and deprivation of freedom on one side, and fear and insecurity on the other, continue as before. Gaza remains a big prison, a place of death and of internal Palestinian dissension. Even children have been killed....In this context, world terrorism is feeding on all of the open wounds. ...We are grateful for all the messages of brotherhood we have received from around the world. But our fundamental need is for peace, justice, freedom, and an end to the occupation. Faced with this, the world seems powerless. However, we say: each and every person, even soldiers and political leaders, have the capacity to appreciate love, salvation, and life. But for that to happen, a conversion must take place, a conversion from death to life, from viewing the other as an enemy and a murderer to viewing him as a brother and a giver of life.... Bethlehem is meant to be the city of peace. Unfortunately, it is now just the contrary, a city of conflict and death. Life and peace, however, would be easy and possible to come by if only those in positions From DICI, the press bureau of the Society of Saint Pius X (www.dici.org). 1 English version taken from the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land “Cyberspot,” http://198.62.75.5/opt/xampp/custodia/?p=1709. 2 Christmas Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI to Catholics Living in the Middle East Region, posted on line at www.vatican.va/holy_father/ benedict_xvi/messages/pont-messages/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_ 20061221_medio-oriente_en.html. www.angeluspress.org The ANgeLUS • March 2007 10 Germany the society is having more success with its endeavors to introduce and re-introduce the riches of the latin mass to diocesan priests, this time in germany. Berlin GERMANY STUTTGART NeW DeSire for The olD MASS ZAITZKOFEN There is new interest in the traditional Latin Mass around the world, especially on the part of younger clergy. In response to this, the Society of St. Pius X in Germany recently produced a DVD for priests there to learn the traditional Mass. The overall results are encouraging. Angelus Press has translated this interview with Fr. Nicholas Pfluger, First Assistant to the Superior General, Bishop Fellay. Father, first we want to congratulate you on being elected First Assistant during the General Chapter of the Society. Does this mean you will relocate to the General House of the Society in Menzingen, Switzerland, after having come to Germany just two years ago? Thank you for your congratulations. Yes, the General Chapter assigned me to this new office. Usually, a District Superior has a six-year term and can be appointed for a second or even third term. But now that I was elected First Assistant, for the foreseeable future I will exchange my current home for Menzingen in the (Swiss) canton of Zug, where our General House is situated. For some time now, there has been a strong desire to have both assistants live at the headquarters to support and to lighten the burden of the Superior General in his The ANgeLUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org A New Desire for the Old Rite.This 104-page book is being sent, in stages, to every priest and seminarian in the German-speaking world (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein). Germany itself has a population of 80 million in a region twice the size of the state of Missouri and having a little over 16,000 Catholic priests, active and retired. 11 The front and back covers of The Celebration of the Latin Mass:The Rite of Holy Mass According to the 1962 Missale Romanum. This 170-minute DVD is available free, upon request, to every priest and seminarian in Germany. As of early February, 1,500 have been distributed. worldwide tasks, and the last General Chapter decided it. The increasing worldwide expansion of the Society makes it necessary; in particular, the establishments in America, Asia, and Australia demand a closer contact with the headquarters of the Society. In the short term, the contacting of priests among the diocesan clergy and religious orders was of special concern for you. There were several meetings of priests in the seminary at Zaitzkofen near Regensburg. That is correct. This fall (2006), another one of these meetings for priest-friends among the diocesan clergy is planned in northern Germany, to spare the long trip to Zaitzkofen (south of Regensburg). These meetings began with an initiative of Fr. Franz Schmidberger during his time as Superior of the Seminary of the Sacred Heart in Zaitzkofen, via a newsletter to priest-friends, which is sent out from Zaitzkofen to 800 priests in the German-speaking countries four times a year. The first aim of the statutes of the Society is the education and sanctification of its own priests and members. The care of our own clergy and the contact with others was by far my most extensive task in Germany. But our statutes mention as a further aim of the institution to impart the priestly ideals to priests beyond our own ranks–an example of the farsightedness of our founder in facing the crisis in the Catholic priesthood. The friendships we cultivate– in newsletters and meetings–also serve this purpose. We are convinced that the treasures of Tradition will aid those priests to live their priesthood in the modern world in a better way, especially since the formation in normal diocesan seminaries has to be considered quite deficient, particularly regarding the formation of an authentic priestly spirit and character. It is our This interview, translated by Angelus Press, originally appeared in Kirchliche Umschau (pictured above), a prominent traditional Catholic German newspaper. desire to help all priests have access to the treasures of Tradition and to bestow on them a new joy in their vocation. How is the feedback? We found that there is a great openness for Tradition, and in particular for the traditional Catholic rite, the Mass of all time, among the young clerics. Such contacts existed already during the 1970’s and early 1980’s, but mostly for nostalgic and clerical reasons. Now we are discovering something quite new, in fact everywhere, in the US, in France, Italy, and also in Germany. The requests of fellow priests are noticeably increasing in quantity lately. They feel a desire for the old liturgy although they never experienced or knew it in their youth. While talking to such priests, I get the impression that they are by intuition, and even physically, sensing that with their modern education they are lacking something very essential for their priesthood, and they thirst for what characterizes the Catholic priesthood–the celebration of the sacrifice of the Mass. First and foremost a priest is ordained to offer the sacrifice, the bloodless sacrifice of our Lord. These priests of the Church–particularly young priests–feel that they are lacking what is most important. So they approach us and several begin to experience and to learn how to celebrate the so-called “old” rite at our seminary in Zaitzkofen or at one of our priories. We see a desire for a solid basis of the priestly life, a foothold in the eternal, the unalterable, and the divine in a time when apparently even the Church submits to the law of universal change. Those priests are in search of the true identity of the Church and of the priesthood as our Lord Jesus Christ instituted it. This movement has another effect: The bishops and those elderly priests who are still www.angeluspress.org The ANgeLUS • March 2007 12 Greetings in God! I am on the path towards the priesthood and I pray–no, I beg God that the eyes of the Church be opened to the errors of Vatican II and that things will again be made right. Thanks be to God for your efforts!–A German seminarian who had received the mailing convinced of the rectitude of the Second Vatican Council seem to be concerned. And that’s good. Learning the traditional rite is surely not easy for those priests? Yes, this is obvious. The old rite has to become a habit. It calls for one’s entire obedience to the wise adjustments of the Church together with great reverence. The old rite demands great fidelity–may I say obedience?–to the rubrics, the ancient instructions of the Church, and they prevent the priest from vain posturing or self-glorification, which can quickly slide into clericalism (being understood in the worst sense of the expression) or, what’s even worse, gentrified affectation. Today the faithful know this well enough from the modern “liturgies.” Meanwhile, the traditional rite is entirely “virgin soil” for the younger generation of priests. There are priests ordained this year who were born in the 1980’s. We should bear in mind: Because the Novus Ordo was invented in 1970, one has to be 60 years old to have been ordained in accordance with the old rite! There is a gap of 40 years in the handing down of the classic rite to the next generation of priests, and The ANgeLUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org unfortunately those have been 40 years of an incredible “self-destruction of the liturgy.” This expression doesn’t stem from me but from our current pope. He used this expression in his autobiography. So it is understandable that the traditional liturgy must be like a revelation of the Church, an epiphany of the priesthood, for many priests of the younger generation. Learning to celebrate the old rite requires an intense preparation for months, because over the centuries the Church left nothing to the discretion of the priest at presenting the holy sacrifice, but directed with utmost precision how the priest is to act at the altar. Leaving the procedure to a priest’s subjective ingenuity, you impress the seal of being optional, adjustable, and superficial on the Most Holy. We have been able to observe this since the implementation of the Novus Ordo. To speak about it in the words of Martin Mosebach, an author highly respected by the pope: Only holy men like Ambrose or Augustine or Thomas Aquinas should be permitted to add something to the holy Mass, but it should never be permitted to men in offices, even if those are situated in the Vatican. 13 During the first week of September 2006, volunteers began the first stage of mailing a book and letter that ultimately will be sent to every priest and seminarian in the German-speaking world. Included was an offer for a free DVD on how to celebrate the old rite of Mass. As of January 29, 2007, 7,500 priests and seminarians have received these materials and over 1,500 have requested the instructional video! 4,000 more priests and seminarians will receive the book and letter the first week of February, 2007. There has to be a return to virtue and reverence for the patriarchal traditions of the Church, agreed? Yes. A true reform can only ever take place in reverence for Tradition; this applies in particular to the liturgy. The demand of “renewing” everything and leaving nothing untouched is a certain sign of the spirit of destruction being at work. Pope Benedict stated with the following words, which for clarity leave nothing to be desired: The proscription of the pre-1970 form of the liturgy has to cease. Whoever pleads for the continuity of this liturgy today or takes part in it is treated like a leper; every tolerance ends there....There has never been such a thing in history, since you are proscribing the whole past of the Church. How should one trust in the Church’s present if that is so? ( Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, God and the World: Belief and Life in Our Time–A Conversation with Peter Seewald, 2nd edition [Munich, 2000], p.357.) The rite that “had been valid until 1970” is often called the Tridentine rite, referring to the Council of Trent. But this seems to be a bit shortsighted, doesn’t it? Yes, the famous liturgical scholar, Msgr. Klaus Gamber, asserts in his book The Reform of the Roman Liturgy that there is strictly speaking no “Tridentine” Mass because a new Ordo wasn’t formed after the Council of Trent. Msgr. Gamber remarks that the missal of St. Pius V–who strove to realize the Council’s decrees–is nothing other than the missal of the Curia, which accrued centuries before in Rome and was introduced in great parts of the West by the Franciscans. The modifications of the missal made by St. Pius V only catch the eyes of experts. In fact, the Canon of this Mass was already developed under Gelasius I (492496) in the form which is valid now, except for slight modifications under Gregory I (590-604). That means the Latin rite basically dates from the time of the early Church? Yes, of course! We can even assume it dates to apostolic tradition. In the aforementioned book of Msgr. Gamber, he quotes Pope Innocent I (402-417), www.angeluspress.org The ANgeLUS • March 2007 1 who describes all this as commonly known in his letter to Bishop Gubbio (Migne, PL 20, 551-561), in which primarily liturgical questions are discussed. He accounts for his claim for continuity in the rite with the words: Namely, who doesn’t know that what was handed down from the first Apostle Peter (!) to the Roman Church and what was conserved until today, has to be preserved by all…? And in his letter to the Metropolitan of Braga, Pope Vigilius (538-555) speaks about the Canon of the Mass, “which we received through God’s grace by apostolic tradition” (PL, 69,18). So basically this rite is an immemorial practice of the Church, which is as old as the Church herself. It is inconceivable that it was virtually destroyed by the new Ordo. How did Pope Benedict express it in his autobiography: “The old building was demolished and a new one was built” (About My Life, [DVA 1997], p.173). This has to do with a reform as serious as the one at the time of the so-called Reformation, and a true renewal of the Church. So there is only one thing to do: Turn back! If you are standing in front of an abyss, every step back is an advance. This is our current situation. I know a diocesan priest who complained: “I’m the last of my class that was ordained the same year. All the others are married. Now I see: It’s impossible with the new rite.” And that’s it! One must return to the reverence the Council of Trent speaks about concerning the traditional rite in its 22nd Session. You really have to “savor” those words spiritually, because those lines diffuse a truly ecclesiastical spirit: And since it is fitting that holy things be administered in a holy manner, and this sacrifice is of all things the most holy, the Catholic Church, that it might be worthily and reverently offered and received, instituted the sacred canon many centuries ago, so free from all error, that it contains nothing in it which does not especially diffuse a certain sanctity and piety and raise up to God the minds of those who offer it. For this consists both of the words of God, and of the traditions of the apostles, and also of pious instructions of the holy Pontiffs. (Dz. 942) You commissioned making a video to enable priests to relearn the traditional rite. How did this come about? The impulse came from our fellow priests in the US. Seminarians from our seminary in Winona were given the mission of interviewing diocesan priests and religious who had returned to the old rite–after saying the New Mass for some time–after they had learned the old rite again. More than a dozen priests were interviewed about the reasons which made them return to Tradition and how they evaluate the influence of the old traditional Mass on their priestly life in comparison to that of the Novus Ordo. These interviews were sent to all the priests in America in the form of a book with the title Priest, Where Is Thy Mass? Mass, Where Is Thy Priest? [published by Angelus Press, see advertisement below– Ed.] In this book attention was called to a training video for the traditional rite. About 400 priests ordered this video and began to learn the old rite. Our fellow priests in England, Australia, and France have organized similar campaigns. Following the English example, a video was made in German. The video is a kind of priests’ training handbook in visual form. We asked our German confrere, Fr. Wolfgang Goettler, to help in this undertaking. He had worked in our American seminary for over 15 years, and all that time he had the special task of teaching the aspirants to the priesthood and diaconate how to celebrate the holy Mass. He arrived from the US for the shooting last fall (2005). They were made over three days of shooting at the high altar of a parish church. The parish priest was very friendly–and brave–to make his church available to us. We–and I think a lot of priests in Germany–are quite thankful for that. After about 300 hours of post-production, the video, with a running time of 170 minutes, was finished. It basically contains two parts: In the first section, Fr. Goettler explains the old rite step by step at the altar, with the camera positioned up close–of course, not during an actual Mass–to make visible what is usually not visible to the faithful attending a traditional Mass, because the priest is celebrating towards God, with his back towards the people. The second section shows an old PRIEST, whERE IS Thy maSS?–maSS, whERE IS Thy PRIEST? Seventeen Roman Catholic priests (none of whom are members of the Society of Saint Pius X) explain why they celebrate the old rite of the Latin Mass instead of the New Mass. In question and answer format, these priests tell their trials and triumphs over the Novus Ordo establishment. Inspiring and often heroic examples of fidelity to their priestly vocation. Who ever would have thought that it would come to this?  Fr. Ronald Conrad (Arizona)  Fr. Christopher Danel (Georgia)  Fr. Vincent Michael  Fr. Francis Le Blanc, R.I.P., (Arizona)  Fr. Paul Greuter (Canada)  Fr. Brian Hawker (Florida)  Fr. Eugene Heidt, R.I.P., (Oregon)  Fr. Harry Marchosky (Oregon)  Fr. Vidko Podržaj (Slovenia)  Fr. Clement Procopio (Arizona)  Fr. Carl Pulvermacher, R.I.P., (Florida)  Fr. Ronald Ringrose (Virgina)  Rev. Raymond Ruscitto (California)  Fr. Graham Walters (Oklahoma) 232pp, color softcover,  Fr. Paul Wickens, R.I.P. (New Jersey)  Fr. William Young (California)  Fr. Stephen Zigrang (Texas) The ANgeLUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org 15 photographs, STK# 8024✱ $12.95 15 Mass without any commentary so that the rite can be observed without disruptions. The ability to skip to specific points in the film allows the viewer to easily repeat sections of the rite to aid the learning process. All priests are heartily invited to learn the Mass in our priories and our seminary. In the end, rubrics can not substitute for live instruction from priest to priest. During the last week of September (2006) you began to mail a book with a personal letter from you to all the priests of Germany. There is attached an order form for the DVD. Yes, the letter is an appeal to all the bishops and priests of Germany to get to know the traditional Catholic liturgy (again) and to restore the right of the liturgy, for the love of the Church and for concern about the salvation of immortal souls, which have difficulties staying firm in belief without the rite of the Mass which expresses that belief with unsurpassed clarity. By that, we also want to express officially that we don’t consider the issue of the old rite as an issue concerning us alone. We don’t want a special permission from Rome only for our Society. We don’t even want “indults.” What we want is the old rite for all priests in the whole world without any conditions! It’s a duty of justice to acknowledge this right to all priests, because a rite which dates from the early Church’s tradition can’t be abolished! The law of the Church is clear on this point. Through this campaign we hope to find combatants among the diocesan clergy and religious orders, and perhaps even among the bishops, who with us will raise their voices in Rome with this attitude and decry the nameless injustice that is almost everywhere prevailing in the Church at the moment, namely, that priests must anticipate incurring the strictest disciplinary measures the instant they take the liberty of celebrating the old rite in public. There was a detailed booklet entitled New Desire for the Old Rite attached to your letter. The book, over 100 pages long, begins with the reaction of the press to the 40th anniversary of the liturgical constitution of Vatican II. We argue in the first part that the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council has failed. In the second section of the book, we collected numerous statements of well-known individuals in the Church and in society who are in favor of the traditional Catholic liturgy and against the New Mass, amongst them in the first place the statements of our current pope, Benedict XVI, and the liturgist who is so esteemed by him, Dr. Klaus Gamber, who rendered outstanding services to defend the old rite. During his time as cardinal, Pope Benedict showed his sympathy for the old rite again and again, and called for a reconciliation with the 2000-year-old liturgical tradition of the Church, because the outcome of the liturgical reform after the Council “wasn’t re-animation, but devastation” (in Der Gedenkschrift für Msgr. Klaus Gamber, edited by Wilhelm Nyssen, Cologne: 1989], 14). The book should be thought-provoking and contribute to a critical debate concerning how the dilemma of this liturgical pile of rubble, in front of which we are standing today, could happen. It is shown in particular that the “makers” of the new rite, who cannot point to a directive from the Council at all, have betrayed the Council’s mission by changing and profaning the Church’s holiest possession to further indifferentist ecumenism. An open letter to the German bishops rounds out your campaign. It ends with the request: “Would you please admit this legally correct status of the traditional rite and remove the threat of sanctions against priests wishing to renew their loyalty towards the old Mass, which has shaped the Church’s life for over 1500 years?” We feel prompted to make this appeal, because the misery of our brothers, who have found a guarantee for their priesthood in the traditional Latin rite and no longer want to deprive their parishioners of this treasure, cannot exert strong pressure. At the moment it is impossible in Germany to get an official post for pastoral ministry if you only want to offer the old Mass and remain faithful to Tradition. This injustice can’t be tolerated any longer, especially considering that except for traditional practice, nothing is prohibited in church: disco Masses, Masses for homosexuals, self-made Offertory prayers and changed prayers of Consecration, etc. For many pastors there seems to be only one grave sin left–and that’s the old Mass and the return to Tradition. This structure of injustice has to be broken by all means; otherwise the Church in our country will suffocate in this stranglehold. It has to be broken first by intense prayer and second by our personal dedication to the spreading of the old rite. Father, how many priests will receive your mail? According to the information of the German Bishops’ Conference, there are 16,100 priests at the moment. We hope to address all of them. During the last week in July alone, almost 700 priests received our mail, among them priests of the dioceses of Cologne, Treves, Berlin, Munich, and Muenster. God willing, we’ll address the rest within the next months. Furthermore, our fellow brothers in German-speaking Switzerland will follow our campaign. Thank you for the interview. May God bless your project with success. Translated exclusively for Angelus Press by Mrs. Christine Karl from Kirchliche Umschau, July-August 2006, pp.4-6 (see upper right hand corner of p.11 in this Angelus). Mrs. Karl lives in Regensburg, Germany, with her husband Paul and their newborn son Leonhard. They operate a new Catholic publishing house, Patrona Bavaria Verlag. You can view their titles on the web at www.patrona-bavaria-verlag.de. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • March 2007 16 india New Delhi Jaipur some recent newsletters from India cast a glance at one of the society’s most mysterious and farflung missions. learn how catholic tradition is making great strides in the land of st. thomas the apostle. Lucknow Kanpur Nagpur INDIA Vasai (Bassein) Bombay Goa Cuddapah Bangalore Channai (Madras) Dear Friends and Benefactors, Tuticorin Trichy Palayamkottai Nagercoil The India Mission closes out the year 2006 with a flurry of activity in the priory, hostel, orphanage, academy, and circuit chapels. Certainly we can say that God rains down His graces with superabundance upon this parched land. Simultaneous with torrential downpours this monsoon season (with record-breaking levels of rain), the souls entrusted to our care have made great progress by a generous outpouring of divine favors. The ANgeLUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org “Swarna means business.” 17 Calcutta The Nav Jeevan Orphanage India is a pagan society, and the child is the first one to pay for that, with 6 million abortions yearly, 15 million children slaves, 50 million orphans, and child prostitution. The second statistic got the attention of a young lady named Swarna Vongala five years ago. She had just finished her studies in computer engineering in Iowa, with a nice high-paying job to start her career–the Indian dream in its purest form. Inexplicably, she retraced her steps and returned to Cuddapah, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, one of the hottest states of India, like Rajasthan or Tamil Nadu to a certain extent. She then set up the “Servi Domini,” a locally approved society, rented a house, bought a plot for the future, and started to walk down the streets of Cuddapah in order to harvest samples of lost humanity. In a little time, 50 were on board the little Ark, one third of them being old folks, who, like the orphans, are the refuse of Indian society if they lack money. All of them smelled very bad and had to be washed thoroughly and clothed again, if not medically treated. Some had worms and lice, which stay under their skin for months. All the little ones were poorly educated in the beginning, but the cheerfulness of unspoiled childhood remains in addition to a total trust in those who have rescued them. It is by discovering their affection and their lack of distrust that one begins to realize the enormity of the sin committed against them a million times a year. In the meantime, Swarna’s cousin, Dr. Suneel, discovered the existence of Tradition (another brilliant subject, who likewise sacrificed a whole medical career in order to serve God). He then informed Swarna about the precious pearl hidden in the deserted field of India. Fr. Blute first paid a visit, and then Fr. Couture made several stops in Cuddapah. Swarna gives the impression of having always been a traditional Catholic, considering how all our arguments persuaded her without resistance, and her way of praying and behaving is devoid of all Novus Ordo-ish emotionalism. Fr. Summers always says, “Swarna means business.” In a way she realizes that sentence of Solomon: “The ornament of the woman is her silence.” But all this didn’t solve the issue of the Mass, since the Society is completely overstretched in India, with its 1,000 faithful dispersed over the south of the Deccan. Therefore a new plan came about: the whole little Telegu tribe (those who inhabit Andhra Pradesh) will have to pack. Swarna stripped the entire place down to the last valueless light and all the beds, fans, etc., were loaded in trucks that were sent one week ahead of time, leaving the little community with the bare necessities for its last days in Andhra. As a farewell, the local press accused Swarna of scheming the whole move in order to lay her hands on the orphanage’s money from the sale of its property. The diocese joined the fray with the fulminations that are routine for us. Swarna responded to all of this with great calm. One good day last January, the little group boarded the train for the 20-hour journey that separated them from Palayamkottai, accompanied by Fr. Couture. All in praise and admiration, they arrived the next day at 5:00am quite exhausted. They took up residence in a house that Mr. Selvaraj (our biggest local supporter) found for them. The buildings are ancient colonial houses, somewhat awkward, with a bizarre central staircase, caged from the inside. The owners are Muslims and the rent is a little expensive, but it will have to do for at least two years. Swarna is looking for an appropriate place to be able to make the orphanage grow. Donations are slowly coming from the West, people being relieved now to know that they can give safely for the Third World without having their means misled and mismanaged by the Masonic and bureaucratized non-governmental organizations which, from what we can see from the ground, are far less effective than they claim. For instance, the World Bank gave a big loan to the city of Palayamkottai to establish a sewer system. Everything was done on the cheap because the money was entrusted to unscrupulous contractors, who, besides the bribes to the local politicians, made a big return by buying the cheapest pipes for the system. Roads simply became worse for two years, and the system is already broken before being finished. Charity, therefore, never works at a distance–you have to have somebody close to the misery of his neighbor. Veritas Academy Another big consequence of the establishment of the orphanage is that it triggered the opening of a school run by the Society itself, about a mile away from the priory. Frs. Blute and Summers were aware of the limitations of our hostel and always longed for something, but were not quite able to find a solution. With the coming of all these children, the whole problem became an emergency. We began the school in the priory for the first few weeks, the dormitories being turned into classrooms every day, and found that it is not so easy to get good teachers locally. With Dr. Suneel and others, however, we have a good pool of talent for the moment. The school system in India is not as perverted as our public school system, but it is nevertheless quite deficient. Once again, Selvaraj found us a place to rent right away, and there it is: the Veritas Academy. For textbooks, we use the program of Our Lady of Victory School, run by Scott Jones in Post Falls, www.angeluspress.org The ANgeLUS • March 2007 18 Nav Jeevan Orphanage Idaho. It seems to work perfectly on Indian minds. We only have 30 kids, half of them orphans, but it is good to start the real thing at last. It is almost overstaffed, but we want to do the right thing from the beginning. The coming of the orphans is really a turning point for the mission of India. God gives us the opportunity to stoop a little bit lower to the misery of India, to extend hopefully the victory of Faith through that of Charity. Besides the orphanage, we are building in Trichy and Ramanpudur [in Nagercoil–Ed.]. These projects had stalled in recent months for lack of funds, but both Fr. Summers and I tried to remedy the situation during our vacations, so the work has restarted. In Trichy, neighboring Hindus are objecting to us, but the local faithful answered that it was only a house and chapel for an old priest. As in Ramanpudur, we were consoled to see that they granted a big contribution for the building of a place, not yet what the Jesuits of old would request (the land and the walls), but approaching. Even here, the priory was under some attacks by the BJP [the Bharatiya Janata Party–Ed.] and the VHP [the Vishva Hindu Parishad–Ed.], some Hindu parties that are, thanks be God, a small minority in Tamil Nadu (which is essentially dominated by regional ethnic and caste parties). Fr. Blute was mentioned explicitly in a rally of the BJP on the public square of Palayamkottai, and the VHP filed a complaint to the police against him, accusing him–hold your breath–of handing over CIA funds to some layman in order to force conversions. Fr. Blute is no longer here, and it was easy for that layman to refute the allegation (the police laughed at the matter), but it seems that we are at times attracting some local attention. Some Hindus don’t like to see us going about with our stylish cassock(!) and sometimes we are advised to keep a low 19 Fr. Summers supervises a new church for Nagercoil. profile, but we cannot avoid occupying some public place in order to work. Fr. Jackson left us for New Zealand because of poor health in India. The superiors did not insist he stay given the past history of the Society in India. If India doesn’t like you, it can demolish a man. Fr. Valan has replaced him, and being a Tamilian, his knowledge of the local tongue is invaluable. It normally took 15 years for the Jesuits of old before they could start to preach in Tamil. A Religious Foundation for South India The months of September and October were witness to the long awaited visit of the Italian nuns from the Consoling Sisters of the Sacred Heart, a small but vibrant traditional religious community who made great sacrifices to come and spend some time with the ladies of the orphanage who desire to consecrate their souls to the Eternal Bridegroom. The first of November finished with a simple but moving “Lives of the Saints” production by the Veritas Academy children (thanks to many hours of behind the scenes labor from the teachers and staff). The orphanage also finished their purchase of a beautiful five acres of land some four miles down the road from the Most Holy Trinity Priory. The feast of the Immaculate Conception was splendidly celebrated with a High Mass followed by a picnic outing. The construction of St. Thomas Church is nearing its completion, to the great joy of the long-suffering parishioners in Ramanpudur. The India Mission continues its noble attempt to infuse Catholicism into the lifeblood of India. The foundress of the Nav Jeevan Orphanage and her assistant spent several weeks in early summer of 2005 and late November (respectively) in Italy visiting a lesser-known traditional order of nuns by the name of the Institute of the Consoling Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Having seen the life of these nuns, both Miss Swarna and Miss Swarupa agreed that they would like to join this order of Sisters. Where does this order of Sisters originate and what is their history? They were founded in 1961 by a Passionist priest by the name of Fr. Basilio Rosati. The primary ends of the order are: to console the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to sanctify their own souls, to pray for priests, to help with religious instruction, to care for the elderly, and also to help in schools. After a long life of holiness and zeal, Fr. Basilio was nearing his death in 1996 and he called upon the SSPX in the person of Fr. Emmanuel du Chalard to take charge of the Sisters and to be their spiritual guide. Obviously, the work of the orphanage and old age home in India can easily dovetail with the work of the Consoling Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Therefore, on August 21 three Sisters from the order traveled to south India along with their chaplain, Fr. Emmanuel 20 Veritas Academy du Chalard. Only two of the four visitors spoke English fluently and thus the priests of the Indian Mission, the Sisters, the chaplain, and the orphanage ladies all communicated with a mixture of hand signals, facial expressions, kitchen English, French, Italian, and Latin. Fr. Emmanuel was only able to stay for two weeks but the three Sisters were able to spend two months living at the orphanage. The main purpose of this privileged visit of the Sisters was in order get a grasp on the situation, to obtain good information “on location,” and to make possible plans for the future with the ladies of the orphanage. Altogether there are five women presently living at the orphanage waiting to go to the convent, and several other young ladies are anxiously awaiting the day of their entrance. The Consoling Sisters helped the ladies to set up a daily schedule of prayer, work, and recreation. The sight of religious habits (white, of course) walking around, talking, singing, and full of joy truly lit up the eyes of all the children and the parishioners. It has been many years since the south Indians have seen nuns in true religious garb since they now wear THE ANGELUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org secular dress. The nuns and Fr. Emmanuel were happy with all that they witnessed, and plans to set up another house in south India are currently being drawn up. After experiencing the magnificent driving customs of India, the priest and nuns admitted that they could no longer complain about Naples or Rome. They were pleased to see the conservative morals and hardiness which still hold place in rural south India, and realize that true religious life requires those predispositions which still exist here. The Sisters also visited several 21 Blessing the chalice for the Bombay mission. His Excellency shares tea time with the author. mission chapels to give talks to the parishioners on the religious life and to describe the daily schedule of a nun, especially in their institute. Many tears were shed at the departure of the nuns. All the adults noticed a remarkable change for the better in the girls after two months of cohabitation with the Sisters. Episcopal Visits The coming of a bishop to India is a rare event for the Society’s mission here, but this year we were recently gratified with two visits, one of H.E. Bishop Tissier de Mallerais in late December 2005 and January 2006, and more recently of H.E. Bishop Williamson this last September. Bishop Williamson arrived at Bombay International Airport on September 15th, a Friday afternoon, after a tiring flight from Europe. Fr. François Chazal and Fr. Summers were anxiously waiting to meet him at the terminal since both priests had been under the Bishop when he was Rector at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, Minnesota. Thanks to the generosity of some of the faithful, His Excellency was provided with a car for the three days he would spend in the sprawling metropolis. The first task was to find a good local restaurant to give the Bishop a sample of the tasty Indian fare. Fr. Chazal knew of a good “Guj arati” diner which provided a unique and delectable lunch. After the spices and sauces had been sampled, the Bishop and two escorting priests decided to see some of the interesting sights of the locality. Fr. Chazal guided them into the labyrinth mazes of the Dadar train station market. To the great amusement of Bishop Williamson, Fr. Chazal forged ahead into the small lanes teeming with buyers and sellers of all possible descriptions. The sights, sounds, and smells of the Dadar market finished, the trio made their way to the suburb of Malaad where an apartment was furnished for the hosting of the Bishop. The next day (Saturday) would be confirmations in the morning in a rented hall in the suburb of Bandra. The rented hall was packed with nearly 130 people who came from all parts of Bombay to attend the ceremony of Confirmations and the sung Mass. On a small table in front of all those present the Bishop first consecrated a new chalice for the mission station so that all could see this ceremony, which is almost unknown to the faithful. The singing of the Veni Creator Spiritus began the ritual for the sacrament of Confirmation. One by one, more than 40 parishioners of all ages came forward to receive the graces and indelible mark of this powerful sacrament. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • March 2007 22 In his sermon, the Bishop asked the faithful to avoid the evil influence of the corrupted West and to give to the Church Catholic families with the number of children God wants them to have. His Excellency also said they should live without all the electronic gadgets that bring insanity and disruption, and to have a clear definition of the respective role of the father, mother, and children. The Bishop used very strong words against the destructive influence of television in the Catholic families and urged the Indian woman to remain the example of femininity that she still is in most parts of India. Similar to Bishop Tissier de Mallerais on his visit ten months before, the patience of Bishop Williamson was quite impressive, always finding time to speak to people, to spend time for the photographs, to wait and keep smiling in the heat. After the socializing and photographs were finished, the two priests and the Bishop climbed into their car and headed north for a visit to Vasai. Specifically, they were going to visit a fishing village and old Portuguese fort where the traditional Mass is still said on occasion by Fr. Chazal. There all three visited the orphanage of a friend, the remains of the fort which was filled with churches and convents in ruins, and finally the fishing village nearby. He was most impressed by the seriousness of the work of the Portuguese there and the history of the place. There are a good number of historic churches built by the Portuguese missionaries, and one was even commissioned by St. Francis Xavier himself. In the Footsteps of St. Thomas In the local fishing village he was able to see for himself that there are still places where men and women can live in natural and normal circumstances even though the rest of the world is spiraling ever downwards in a technological dreamworld. The village was a resolute finish to a day of sightseeing. The Bishop was happy to see that there was little or no technology prevalent in the village to disrupt the normal and natural flow of their lives centered around their families and fishing and not around machines. Just like in every other place, it seems that big modern cities are the crushers of families. It will be interesting in the years to come to observe how these families will survive, because, so far, the Society can only provide a tiny survival monthly ration amounting to a Mass and the visit or a priest here and there. No schools, no retreat houses, no pilgrimages, no newspapers worthy of the name, no bookstores, youth groups or adult groups–just the bare necessity of survival. Mid-morning on Sunday, the Bishop and Fr. Summers left by plane for the city of Chennai. Here Bishop Williamson was to celebrate a sung Mass for the hardy people of this capital city of Tamil Nadu. After a light lunch near the airport, some good parishioners escorted the Bishop and Fr. Summers to see the holy places in and around Chennai. First they visited THE ANGELUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org and prayed at St. Thomas Mount, the place of the martyrdom of the Apostle St. Thomas. On this mount is the rock which was stained by the blood of St. Thomas when he was speared by the enemies of the Faith. Next to be seen was the famous St. Thomas Cathedral, which was built over the burial place of the great Apostle. There are still some remnants of his body there, but the greater part were taken to Europe many years ago. Ever mindful of the time, Fr. Summers got the group moving to the location for Mass. Thanks to the kindness of the correspondent of St. Anthony’s School, an entire floor of the school was prepared for the Mass of the Bishop. However, only a short walking distance down the street was the famous cave of St. Thomas. In this cave there is a miraculous water well which has always provided drinking water, even when all other wells fail. This cave was the intermittent home of St. Thomas when he was being persecuted by the local ruler. Almost 1500 years later the great Apostle of the Indies, St. Francis Xavier, spent time in the local area and was known to pray throughout the night in this cave. Bishop Williamson was very edified by these pilgrimage places, which were almost unknown to him before his visit. During the Holy Mass, Bishop Williamson thundered against the corruption and immorality which was being imported into the once conservative land of the Tamils. Tuesday morning saw the Bishop recovering and ready to make the short flight down to the priory and to give Confirmation to 37 people. Unfortunately, the confirmations circuit called for him to continue on to the Philippines the evening of the next day and therefore his visit to the priory was a short but pleasant one. His Excellency was always eager to know more about the country and customs of India, once the jewel in the crown of the British Empire. The British Raj certainly left its marks (for good and for evil) all across India, and these buildings, railways, roads, and administration were pointed out to the Bishop. Certainly the arrival of this “Britisher” into his former colony was not for the advancement of the English empire, but solely for the advancement of another kingdom, not of this world. A New SSPX Outpost in the Middle East A little group has developed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Currently it includes three Indian families and a few young adults, all from Bombay. They are all working relentlessly for the lonely emirates, awash with an embarassing amount of money. Our faithful there work until 7:00pm, the only time I can provide Mass and confession. There are some Tamilians working in Dubai, whom we hope to add some day to our new outpost in the Middle East. Article compiled by Angelus Press from several of the India mission newsletter Apostle. Photographs by Fr. François Chazal. argentina Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior general of the society, traveled to la reja, argentina, where on December 23, 2006, he ordained four priests and one deacon. Our Lady Coredemptrix Seminary, La Reja, ARGENTINA 23 PERU BRAZIL Lima Brasília La Paz BOLIVIA Santa Cruz PARAGUAY San Miguel de Tucumán CHILE Santiago Rio de Janeiro São Paulo Asunción Córdoba Mendoza URUGUAY Buenos Aires LA REJA Montevideo ARGENTINA [Left to right] Fr. Ferrer (Philippines), Fr. Blandon (Colombia), Fr. Vieira (Brazil), Fr. Gonzalez (Chile), and Deacon Rev. Mr. Alejandro Rivero (Argentina). www.angeluspress.org The ANgeLUS • March 2007 2 australia Bishop richard Williamson traveled to australia in December to perform ordinations at holy cross seminary in goulburn, australia. on December 23, he conferred the tonsure on two young men, ordained three seminarians to the minor orders of porter and lector and another three to acolyte and exorcist. In addition, one seminarian was ordained to the subdiaconate. on December 27, he ordained three priests and one deacon. Darwin Alice Springs A U S T R A L I Perth Adelaide GOULBURN Canberra Melbourne Holy Cross Seminary, Goulburn, A (Foreground to background) Frs. Lavin, Curtis, and Johnson. The ANgeLUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org 2 Cairns A Brisbane Sydney N a AUSTRALIA FR. MICHAEL JOHNSON Originally from Washington, D.C., Fr. Johnson (in the two pictures above) lived most of his adult life in California. At the age of 62, he is a late vocation, having sought his entire life for the traditional formation that he finally received in the Society of Saint Pius X. He first entered into the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales in 1962, and after four years, two of which in temporary vows, he was forced to leave on account of the changes that immediately followed Vatican II, destroying the religious life. After four years in the US Air Force, he entered St. Mary’s Cistercian Monastery in New Ringgold, Pennsylvania, in 1971, being forced to leave in 1975, also on account of the modernist changes. After studies in Accounting and Computer Science, Fr. Johnson spent the next 20 years as an accounting and payroll manager and computer programmer analyst in California, also taking care of his sick and elderly mother. After his mother’s death in 1996, he applied to enter the Society’s seminary, and after a period of probation, he entered St. John Vianney Seminary in Flavigny, France, in October 2000. This was followed by one year at St. Pius X Seminary in Ecône, Switzerland, after which he transferred to Holy Cross in November 2002, spending the last four years of his long formation at Holy Cross Seminary. FR. CHRISTOPHER CURTIS Fr. Curtis (at immediate left, center), of Anglo-Indian origin, but born and raised in Melbourne, is now 34 years of age. His secondary studies were accomplished at Chadstone Salesian College. Afterwards he studied at the Victorian College of the Arts and worked as a classical guitarist and teacher. In 1995, along with his father, he found Tradition at Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Andrew Church in Hampton, Victoria. Following Ignatian retreats in 1996 and 1997, he determined to follow a religious vocation. He arrived at Holy Cross Seminary in March 2001 to enter the Brothers’ novitiate, but was advised to follow a priestly vocation, which he has done ever since, accomplishing very well the necessary studies. FR. MICHAEL LAVIN Fr. Lavin, now 23 years of age, grew up near Cambridge, New Zealand. His parents became traditional in 1987, knowing that otherwise they would never have any vocations among their children. Rev. Lavin spent the year 1997 at St. Thomas Aquinas College in Tynong, at which time he was in Year 9. His parents then moved to Wanganui in 1998 to be close to the priory of the Society of Saint Pius X. He had always felt the calling to follow a priestly vocation, but it was during an Ignatian retreat in 1999 that he resolved to follow through with it, under the guidance of Frs. Delsorte and De la Tour. He entered Holy Cross Seminary in March 2001, and www.angeluspress.org The ANgeLUS • March has now completed his sixth year of studies. He will be the fourth New Zealander priest in 2007 the Society. france 26 Lille Paris FLAVIGNY FRANCE Lyon Christendom NEWS Angelus Press Edition Marseille Novitiate of the Brothers of the Society of Saint Pius X, Flavigny, FRANCE On September 29, Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, four Brothers took their first vows during the pontifical Mass celebrated by His Excellency Alfonso de Galarreta at the St. Curé d’Ars Seminary. On the previous day, four young men received the Brothers’ habit and became novices. The SSPX numbers 90 Brothers, and 32 of them are in France; there are 10 Brothers in the US. The novitiate of the French-speaking Brothers is located in Flavigny, a picturesque medieval village in Burgundy, France. In the US the novitiate is located at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Winona, Minnesota, where Fr. Phillipe Pazat is Novice Master. All the Brothers present renew their vows before the Blessed Sacrament in the open tabernacle. (Above) Four new Brothers take their first vows. After the ceremony, the Brothers have lunch in the refectory with their families. si si no no The Angelus English-Language Article Reprint Let your speech be, “Yes, yes,” “No, no”; whatever is beyond these comes from the evil one. (Mt. 5:37)  March 2007 Reprint #74 Islam An Unbridgeable Abyss The daily unfolding of current history invites us to state unequivocally the fundamental choice upon which Catholics and Moslems will be judged at the terminus of their earthly sojourn, namely, the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Putting it thus, we find ourselves before the insuperable abyss that separates Islam from the Catholic Faith; and no ecumenical intention, no matter how well-meaning, can efface or fill this chasm. The two “revelations” clash on this point and with such opposition about the essential that necessarily one must be entirely true and the other entirely false. 27 THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT Incoherence or Imposture? Let us leave aside considerations of lesser importance to recall that only a revelation coming from God has the right to speak of God with authority and certitude. Now, in the aforementioned antagonism, what precisely do we see? In Jesus Christ all is divine: His birth, His life, His doctrine, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His permanent assistance to the Church. His Apostles and the Evangelists have forcefully asserted it: no one can know and love God save by His only begotten Son “in whom He is well pleased.” Contrariwise, everything is human, all too human, in the person of the founders of Islam. We find in them many of the traits of the heretic [Luther] who arose in the Church in the 16th century: exaltation of spirit and senses, will to power, unscrupulousness in action; in short, the same initial presence of sin skewing from the start the spiritual adventure thus launched. Because God is infinite Sanctity, His revelation does not tolerate combination with sin. In these conditions, to consider Mohammed and Luther as genuine prophets or reformers proceeds from total incoherence if not pure imposture. For lack of edifying examples of holiness, which they are incapable of providing, such men only succeed in imposing their imaginary doctrines by applying permanent pressure, playing upon the complicity of the disordered desires by which each of us tries to arrange for himself a life wherein the pleasures of earth and the desire for heaven can be reconciled without too much trouble. The knowledge of God being perverted from the outset and heaven closed, it is not surprising that Moslem thought absorbs and annexes the things of the temporal order by transferring to it man’s thirst for the absolute. But beneath this stifling blanket, there exists neither sacraments, nor liturgy, nor priesthood capable of aiding humanity to go out from itself and to merit to see God in eternity. A Dizzying Regression of Revealed Truth The alleged “revelation” made by the Archangel Gabriel [to Mohammed] expressly falls under St. Paul’s condemnation (Gal. 1:8): “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.” It is necessary to draw the conclusion: far from being, as is pretended, the culmination and conclusion of all preceding revelations, Islam constitutes a dizzying regression in regard to the truth revealed by the living God and His works. Conversely, the considerable influence of Jewish thought and Christian heresies in the formation of Islamic thought has often been pointed out. The favor from which Islam benefits today from some Catholic quarters also proceeds from their loss of the essentials of their faith. With our Lord Jesus Christ, not only did Revelation come from God, but it was taught by the Word of God Himself; one can even say that it is one with Him from the moment that He became incarnate in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary. Only this Revelation is at once divine, holy, and Heaven Closed Let us get back to the specific sin of Islam. Someone who maintains, contrary to the life and miracles of Jesus Christ, that the Son is not God commits the greatest offense possible with regard to God, consubstantial with the One sent by Him; someone who pushes men to profess this negation commits towards them the greatest offense, depriving them thus of the only access to eternal life. For, ultimately, redemptive grace does not exist in Islam because [according to them] God did not stoop to us; access to holiness is impossible in it, and man remains in his original misery. After his death, the presence of God will be inaccessible to him, and the “Prophet” is reduced to imagine an Elysian paradise on the model of earthly pleasures. In such a climate of spiritual darkness, how could the five pillars of Islam—profession of faith, prayer, alms deeds, fasting, and pilgrimage—be pleasing to God? Antonio Melina/ABr. 01.Dec.2003 28 The ANgeLUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org certain, for God cannot deceive mankind. The same requirement of holiness is found in the human intermediaries willed by the Most High for this great work: the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the sublime holiness of His Precursor and of His foster father, and the conversion demanded of all of us. By contrast, it is necessary to have the frankness to say that error is inseparable from the founders of Islam, for by denying the divinity of Jesus, they have abusively arrayed themselves against God; by rejecting Trinitarian monotheism, they have falsified faith at its essential level, that of divine reality; by refusing the Incarnation, they have cut themselves off from the sources of grace and have reduced them to a formalism “ex voluntate viri–of the will of man” substituted for the authentic supernatural. The Responsibility of Catholics The survival of this immense world closed to the revelation of the Son of God has implications for our responsibility as Catholics as well as that of clergymen. Great souls have announced the evangelization of the Moslems after tribulations that will undoubtedly be in proportion to the greatness of the intention in question. In the perspective of this hour of grace, it behooves us to renounce the too frequently adopted presupposition that Islam cannot be open to receive the Christian message. Undoubtedly, this is difficult for its adherents in the measure that they are impeded from access to the Good News; but it must not be forgotten that the Almighty speaks to every man in his inmost conscience and that He can make everyone benefit from His grace as He wills. In this sense, it would undoubtedly be more exact to say that the Moslem MOSLEMS Hilaire Belloc and G. Oussani life and teachings of Mohammed • The What’s and where we can agree • What’s heresy in the Koran? sampling • How close the MoslemsA healthy came to dominating • Europe and why their military threat collapsed Islam and women • How Moslems adapt •to and use technology • The origins and rapid development of Islam • Why it remains a potent religious force to this day • The Crusades • Christianity in Arabia: once dominant, then dominated. 164pp, hardcover, STK# 7051. $18.80 www.angeluspress.org The ANgeLUS • March 2007 can be converted because he must and because Someone calls upon him to do so. This is where our prayers for the obtaining of such a signal grace come in. It is very surprising that the hierarchy never solicits prayers for this intention even though its principal mission is to announce to all men salvation in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Met with this omission, the Islamic world thrusts itself upon the sword of blinding contradictions, frets itself in unending violence, and becomes enmired in its spiritual unhappiness. “We do not want the Christian message to be diffused in Islamic countries,” one of their diplomats bluntly declared. Since we find ourselves in the presence of the same constant, millennial opposition, the same missionary duty continues to be incumbent upon the Catholic Church. A Desire For the Lord, who has confided the means of salvation to His Mystical Body, a thousand years are as a day. Thus, at the conclusion of these reflections, let us form the wish that the Church give a special luster to the celebration of the descent of the Word Incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. One might well think that the glorification of this great mystery would merit an exceptional grace of visitation for the whole world and particularly for the Moslems of good will, until now cut off from the sole saving Word. The hour is grave for us all: by seeking to embrace the successive movements of a paganized civilization and by unduly favoring the demands for a deviated liberty to the detriment of the message of Jesus Christ, we are but advancing the moment of the redoubtable failures that, in extreme suffering, will lead Catholics and Moslems to their essential duties, namely, perfect fidelity for the former and a necessary conversion for the latter. Blessed will they be who live to see the men of Islam take the road to the holy Crib and hear them exclaim, contrite of heart but rejoicing in spirit: “Who would not love Him who loved us so much?... “We are come to adore Him” (Mt. 2:2). Pyrenaicus Translated exclusively by Angelus Press from the April 2006 issue of Courrier de Rome (pp.5-6), the French edition of the Italian SISINONO. THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT 29 THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT For years, the dominant history in America has told stories of the Spanish settlers as cruel opportunists who came to the New World and subjugated the peaceful and naturally good natives who lived here. But does this theory hold up to intense scrutiny? And what do we truly know of the indigenous people here? The “Black Among the peoples inhabiting Mexico’s high central plateau centuries ago were the Toltecs. They spoke different dialects of the Nahuatl language. Four centuries before Columbus opened the route to the New World, the warlike tribes of the Aztecs arrived, having migrated from California, and subjugated the various indigenous peoples, in particular the Toltecs, whose dominant Nahuatl dialect they adopted for their own. Soon the Aztec domination reached from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Who has not heard sung the high praises of the Aztec civilization? Who has not heard the condemnation of the perfidious Spanish colonists who destroyed it? And to convince you, the proponents of this historical interpretation point to the numerous 30 THE ANGELUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org massive monuments that remain to bear witness to the glory of that civilization. But look closely at the sculptures adorning them; observe them attentively, and you will become convinced that only the devil could have inspired them. You will not find one, not a one, that represents a worthy human face–gracious, gentle, smiling, or even weeping, but in a human manner. Would this be from lack of skill? Not at all. Those sculptors knew their art. The reason is much more profound. Psychedelic Drugs Among the Aztecs, hallucinogens were in use. There was the teonanacatl, or “flesh of god,” a “sacred mushroom” that was eaten during a ceremony and that, according to their belief, enabled its user to enter into communion with God, though in reality artists sculpted in stone the horrifying phantoms of their cruel polytheism. Human Sacrifices I have mentioned their human sacrifices in passing, but let me take up the subject again. In 1486, while Montezuma Xocojotin II the Young was emperor, a new temple to the war god Huitzilopochtli was inaugurated. It was bathed by the blood of 70,000 people, liturgically slaughtered for the solemn occasion. When I hear prelates exhort missionaries–are there any more?–to adapt Catholic worship to indigenous cultures, I wonder how many of the faithful in some of these countries will have their throats slit at Easter and at Pentecost for the sake of authentic inculturation. The legal system in force in the Aztec empire k legend” it was with demons surrounded by frightening phantoms. There was also peyotl, or peyote, a cactus causing intoxication and driving its users to dance all night and all day. The ingestion of such drugs regularly took place at the conclusion of the human sacrifices, during which the Aztecs drenched with blood the steps of their pyramids. Under the influence of such hallucinogens, they began to converse with the demons, which pushed them to commit suicide with such urgency that many really killed themselves. Some of these practices continue today: some sorcerers are able to mix potions for their clients capable of causing persistent mental traumas and even forms of incurable insanity. The basis of such potions is constituted by the little mushrooms of the genus Stropharia and of the genus Psilocybe, which surely some devil suggested they call angelitos: little angels. Everything leads us to believe that today’s shamans inherited their baneful formulas from the Aztecs. But we conclude with a remark about their sculptural art: hallucinating on drugs, the Aztec is exalted, as if the level of taxation were not really exorbitant; as if the non-taxpaying individual, because he was indigent, did not automatically become a slave of the State to be sold as such to the highest bidder. The goodness–which was not goodness, but only fear–of the last Aztec emperors is praised without mentioning that no Aztec ruler could be crowned without having personally captured a certain number of enemies to be sacrificed to one god or other during the coronation celebrations. I pass over other sacrifices in the Aztec liturgical calendar too cruel and obscene to mention. The prosperity of Aztec agriculture is exalted, without mentioning that the land was cultivated almost exclusively by serfs attached to the land, by slaves subject to the will of their masters. Prisoners of war without exception became slaves. The Aztecs needed to maintain a state of perpetual war with the neighboring populations in order to be able THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT www.angeluspress.org The ANgeLUS • March 2007 31 THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT to dispose of a sufficient number of slaves whose services they could employ, whatever these might be, including that of being fattened up for the feasts and then roasted to perfection and served up at table as a specially prized dish. Naturally the populations that had been subjugated and tormented by the Aztecs were restless under the yoke, but they were not yet capable of shaking it off or breaking it without some extraordinary help from outside. It was the year of grace 1519 when such help came in the form of a young man of the lower ranks of Spanish nobility: Hernando Cortez, commanding an “immense army”–600 men, a few horses, and even fewer canons. How could such a paltry force prevail against the Aztecs, who could muster on the battlefield thousands and thousands of warriors? Because right away the Spaniards had on their side the populations that had been tyrannized by the Aztecs. Cruelty Customary It must be said, though, that the civilization or culture of the populations liberated by the Spanish was hardly better than that of the Aztecs. Cortez wrote to the Emperor Charles: We were ever afterwards more occupied with keeping our allies from killing and using atrocious forms of cruelty than with fighting against the Aztecs: we have never seen such inhuman cruelty, so contrary to the natural order and yet so customary to the native peoples. Why should so much credit be given to the Brevissima Relacion de la Distruycion de las Indias by the Dominican Bartolomé de Las Casas? In the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Dominican Abele Redigonda himself had to admit that while Las Casas as an apostle is a personage of the first order, he is “questionable” as an historian. In his work, in fact, besides accusing his compatriots of injustice and cruelty towards the natives, he also formulates–completely forgetting Original Sin–the theory of the naturally good savage, the theory which subsequently would give rise to Jean Jacques Rousseau’s political theories advocating a return to the innocence of nature. Las Casas wrote: There is no other people in the world more calm, more peaceful, more gentle, more benevolent....These natives are, moreover, extraordinarily intelligent thanks to their good and praiseworthy nature, exempt from the passions of the soul that cause troubles and are an obstacle to the intellect, such as joy, sorrow, fear, sadness, anger, rancor, and the like. Naturally, in the writings of Las Casas you will not find any mention of the experiment of peaceful 32 xochipilli Black Tezcatlipoca colonization that resulted in the extermination of the peasants influenced by Las Casas and sent by him into the midst of the indigenous populations without the usual military protection. An illustrious Italian historian, not suspected of any sympathies for Hispanic Catholics, Corrado Barbagallo, in his magisterial Storia Universale, did not hesitate to write: The destiny of the Aztec empire was well merited. It was not the few horses of Cortez that was able to surprise the Aztecs, who did not know them; nor his weak and rudimentary artillery up against the immense work it would have to do; nor the divine prestige of the Spanish, for the Mexicans were not slow to grasp that they were fragile, mortal men like themselves. None of that was responsible for the catastrophe. It was their own ferocious politics in dealing with the vanquished. The presence of these few determined adventurers was enough to bring the action of the Aztecs over the subject peoples to a halt, and for these peoples and their neighbors to see prosperity return to their own lands; and for them to be able once again to enjoy the use of cotton fabrics, gold, and even salt, which they had not tasted for a long time; and for the vanquished to rise up, and in their hatred choke and submerge their ferocious oppressors. Heaven’s Hand And now listen to the account of a Quiché Indian [Mayan Indians of Guatemala–Ed.]: Someone from the village of Ah Xepach, IndianEagle, went with 3,000 Indians to fight the Spanish. The Indians left at midnight, and the captain, Indian-Eagle, was ready to kill the Adelantado Tunadiu [that is to say, the Conquistador Pedro de Alvarado, who conquered the Quiché Indians in 1524], but he did not succeed in killing him because he was defended by a girl all white; everyone wanted to enter, but as soon as they saw this THE ANGELUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org Xiuhtecuhtli Red Tezcatlipoca Tlazolteotl girl, they suddenly fell to the ground and could not get back up, and suddenly many footless birds arrived, and these birds hovered all round the girl. And the Indians wanted to kill the girl, and the footless birds defended her and blinded them. The Indians who tried to kill both Tunadiu and the girl left, and sent in their place another Indian, a captain who makes thunder, named Ixquin Ahpalotz Utzakibalha, and his name was Nehaib. This Nehaib the Thundermaker went where the Spanish were in order to kill the Adelantado. Scarcely had he arrived, when he saw hovering above all the Spanish a very white dove that defended them, and when he attacked, his sight was blurred, he fell to the ground and could not get up. Three more times this Captain Thundermaker sallied forth against the Spanish, and in the same way he was blinded and fell to the ground. And when the captain realized that it was impossible for him to fight the Spanish, he left and they [the two captains] had the caciques of Chi Gumarcaah warned, telling them that both of them had gone to see if they could kill Tunadiu and that there had been a girl and footless birds and a dove who defended the Spanish. Now, no one with a grain of common sense could hesitate to admit the historicity of the supernatural intervention in favor of the Conquistadores, who opened these lands to the gospel and especially to devotion towards the Immaculate Mother of God. It is in fact impossible that a Quiché Indian could have imagined as defenders of the soldiers of the Catholic emperor birds without feet, a girl all white, and a dove also white; that is to say, angels, the Immaculate, and the Holy Spirit. That is why the first load of American gold to arrive in Spain was sent right away to Rome, and is still in Rome, covering the great coffered ceiling of St. Mary Major on the Esquiline Hill. “To serve God and His Majesty, and to give the light of faith to those who were in the darkness of polytheism,” wrote the common soldier Bernal Diaz del Castillo Xipe Totec [see his book The Conquest of New Spain, advertised on the last page of this article–Ed.], and with a great frankness he added, “but equally to acquire riches, as every mortal so desires and so seeks.” Supernatural Ambition As for Christopher Columbus, here is what the great Pope Pius IX said of him: Christopher Columbus undertook the most audacious of sea voyages to discover the New World, not for the sake of adding other lands to those over which Spain exercised her authority, but because he was inflamed with a genuine zeal for the Catholic Faith, and for the sake of extending over the new populations the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, the Catholic Church. And this was not his only ambition. With the resources he hoped to gain from his discoveries, Christopher Columbus had pledged himself to delivering the Holy Sepulcher from the hands of the Moslems, peacefully if possible by using the leverage the gold would afford him; and if not, by hiring at his own expense 50,000 foot soldiers and 5,000 horsemen. And blessed be Alexander VI, for if indeed he was the miserable man he is known to be, as Sovereign Pontiff he fostered the conversion of the Amerindians; which is why our present prelates should blush for shame, preoccupied as they are with global humanitarian activity when instead they should be devoted to missionary activity for the conversion of the world, according to the formal commandment of God. THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • March 2007 33 THE ANGELUS ENGLISH-LANGUAGE ARTICLE REPRINT The Conquest of New Spain T women o read this ep should are welcome ic, be b an exam required. He ut men p le o f the co rein lies fortitud ur e faith in , hope, and str age, on our holy needed religio g for today.– our spiritual n Fr. Patr b ick Cra attle ne Bernal Diaz “Whenever we fired our guns, the Indians gave great shouts and whistles, and threw up straw and earth so that we could not see what harm we had done them.” Vivid, powerful and absorbing, this is a first-person account of one of the most amazing military episodes in history: the overthrow of Montezuma’s doomed Aztec Empire by Hernán Cortés and his band of adventurers. Bernal Díaz del Castillo, himself a soldier under Cortés, presents a fascinatingly detailed description of the Spanish landing in Mexico in 1520 and their amazement at the city, the expulsion and flight of the Spaniards, their regrouping and eventual capture of the Aztec capital. The author brings a deep Catholic sense to his writing. Consequently, this chronicle is not just about how good men (courageous, prudent, just and restrained) bring civilization to a pagan world, but how the author explains that he and his fellow soldiers gave the dignity of the sons of God to the Indians, that they were men of honor, performing a high and unique mission: to bring salvation and the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who sit in darkness. The Conquest of New Spain has a compelling immediacy that brings the past and its characters to life and offers a unique eye-witness view of not only an amazing point in history, but a momentous victory for God. J. M. Cohen’s translation is supplemented by an introduction (less than integrally Catholic, unfortunately) and maps of the conquered territory. 416pp, softcover, STK# 8178. $15.00 But, you may ask, how did the “Black Legend” come about? It was created thanks to the ill will of our brothers, brothers in everything save the Faith: the Calvinists who colonized North America. By spreading the Black Legend, their goal was not only to defame Catholics, but also to turn people’s attention away from the misdeeds they perpetrated against the Indians. How many Indians survived the programmed, systematic extermination by the colonists? Whereas the millions and millions of men peopling the America colonized by the Catholics–the Spanish and the Portuguese, not to include the immigrants who arrived subsequently–descend almost exclusively from marriages contracted between the colonists and natives, and for me it is not a small point of pride to be one of them. $1.95 per SISINONO reprint. Please specify. SHIPPING & HANDLING US Foreign $.01 to $10.00 $6.95 $10.01 to $25.00 $8.95 $25.01 to $50.00 $10.95 $50.01 to $100.00 $12.95 over $100.00 13% of order $11.95 $13.95 $15.95 $17.95 18% of order AIRMAIL surcharge (in addition to above) Foreign 21% of subtotal. Available from: ANGELUS PRESS 2915 Forest Avenue Kansas City, MO 64109 USA Phone: 1-800-966-7337 www.angeluspress.org W. M. Translated exclusively by Angelus Press from the February 1992 issue of SISINONO. Society of Saint Pius X District of the United States of America REGINA COELI HOUSE 11485 N. Farley Road Platte City, Missouri 64079 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID KANSAS CITY, MO PERMIT NO. 6706 35 B r o . G a b r i e l - m a r i e The Privilege of the Privilege The Case of the Privilege of the Privileged Altar The bronze plaque at the base of the marble high altar reads Altare Privilegiatum. Sometimes the faithful (who have acute eyesight) and the altar servers (who are always in the sanctuary) ask what that means. We can decipher that Altare Privilegiatum is Latin for Privileged Altar, and a short explanation may suffice to calm passing curiosity, but for the devoted curiosity of more pious souls, the complete answer is a bit more difficult, especially in light of Rome’s conciliar change of heart. Our sample here is actually from the St. Vincent de Paul Church in Kansas City. The church is a neo-Gothic structure built in the 1920’s, and its high altar, the one with the Altare Privilegiatum plaque, was installed in 1944.1 There are privileged altars like this one throughout the world, especially in the old cities of renown like Paris or Rome. So what answer can we offer people who ask what a privileged altar is? the soul is freed from its purgation, there is, however, a certain probability of deliverance (otherwise the privilege would have no value), which is ever at the discretion of Divine Wisdom. Since the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the most efficacious of all prayers, the plenary indulgence obtained at a privileged altar is more efficacious than other indulgences applicable to deceased souls (e.g., the Way of the Cross, Toties Quoties, etc.). Therefore it is commendable and effective to celebrate Mass many times for the same soul at a privileged altar; and if it happens that the soul is already delivered, any extra Masses will go to benefit other souls. Every priest who says Mass on a privileged altar may enjoy the privilege attached to it. But there are certain requirements for an altar to receive this privilege. What Is It That Makes the Altar Privileged? When a priest offers Holy Mass, he gains many graces for the poor souls in purgatory, even more if he offers a Mass for the Dead. But when a priest offers a requiem Mass on an altar that is privileged, once a day he can gain for the soul for whom the Mass was said a plenary indulgence (should that Mass, however, be for more than one soul, he must specify to which soul it is to be applied). For this reason, a privileged altar is sometimes called altare animarum, or altar of the souls. Although there is no infallible guarantee that The Details of the Privileged Altar. In the beginning there was allowed only one privileged altar per church, but in time the Holy See came to grant additional ones for special reasons, so that now we can find churches like St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, which has seven. The privilege lasts as long as the church in which it is located, and if the altar is moved, the privilege lasts as long as the church to which it has been relocated. The altar must be fixed 2 (the regulations for the construction of altars are rather lengthy and detailed: see the footnote below for a brief explanation of the difference www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • March 2007 36 in fixedness) or semi-fixed. There ought be an indication of the privilege located somewhere on the altar where the priest can easily notice it, but this indication is not necessary for the validity of the indulgence. Usually there is a bronze plaque located near the base of the altar, like the one, as we mentioned above, at St. Vincent de Paul Church. The privileged altar can be granted to a church either permanently or temporarily. At first only the Pope could give permission for the erection of a privileged altar,3 but it happened that when a bishop was consecrated, he would request permission from the Pope to erect them himself in all the parish and collegiate churches of his diocese. Once accorded this permission, the bishop’s privileged altar would be privileged for seven years. Since the 1917 Code of Canon Law, however, bishops have the power to erect permanent privileged altars. Two Types of Privileged Altars. The two types of privileged altars are Local and Personal. A local privileged altar is the permanent altar we just described. There are also times when every altar temporarily becomes privileged,4 such as on All Souls’ Day and its octave, or during 40 Hours devotions. A personal privileged altar is not actually an altar, but a privilege attached to the priest himself, usually to cardinals (and sometimes to the priests of certain societies by special indult). Thus, whenever or wherever he celebrates Mass, any altar he uses (even if it is a portable altar) is privileged while he uses it. This can be granted to the priest permanently or temporarily.5 At one time, a personal privileged altar was granted to the priest who made the Heroic Act of Charity on behalf of the poor souls.6 The Privileged Altar in History. The privilege goes back to times and places beyond St. Vincent de Paul Church in Kansas City. The most renowned privileged altars are those of the famous Seven Basilicas of Rome (whence comes the Way of the Seven Churches) and the Seven Privileged Altars of St. Peter’s. We see that an altar was originally raised to the status of privileged when it was highly esteemed. It was as if the altar received a promotion. “The custom of visiting the seven principal churches in Rome is of most ancient institution.”7 For embarking on this pilgrimage, a special indulgence was granted to pilgrims who visited the privileged altar in each of the seven basilicas of St. Peter’s (the Vatican), St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls, St. Sebastian’s, the Lateran, Santa Croce, St. Lawrence, and St. Mary Major. The custom of the pilgrimage was approved by Pope Sixtus V as early as 1586 in his Bull Egregia Populi Romani Pietas. We mention this here not because of the indulgence granted to the pilgrim, but because the pilgrims were required to visit privileged altars. There are decrees from the Sacred Congregation of Rites that date back to the 15th Century.8 Pope Pius XII, in 1948, granted a privileged altar to priests for THE ANGELUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org his episcopal jubilee.9 The main altar at Lanciano in Italy, where the miraculous Host and Blood are kept, was declared a privileged altar during the Octave of the Dead and during every Monday by Pope Clement X in 1672.10 In 1575,11 after the visit and request of two native Indian priests, Pope Gregory XIII declared privileged the altar of the Church of St. Thomas in Paravur, India. “Most ancient also is the custom of visiting the seven privileged altars…in St. Peter, on the Vatican; a record of this custom being found in the archives of this church as far back as the times of Pope Innocent II, who flourished in 1130.”12 These seven altars in St. Peter’s are the altars of: Our Lady (the “Gregoriana”); SS. Processus and Martinianus; St. Michael the Archangel; St. Petronilla, Virgin; Our Lady of the Pillar; the Holy Apostles St. Simon and St. Jude; and St. Gregory the Great. Ancient traditions don’t die easily, and so people still make a point to visit these altars today.13 Can the Privileged Altar Ever Lose Its Privilege? It can, but not easily. Sometimes we hear of the desecration of an altar,14 where the consecration of the altar is destroyed and Mass can no longer be said upon it. Now, the consecration and the privilege are two separate things. A privileged altar, however, that is desecrated 15 does not lose its privilege, because the privilege is attached to the structure, not to the altarstone. It does not even lose its privilege if the church is desecrated. For a privileged altar to lose its privilege, either the very structure of the altar must be destroyed or Rome must lose its faith in indulgences. Status of the Privileged Altar after the Conciliar Reforms. The privileged altar was codified in the 1917 Code of Canon Law, and the liturgical books used in church sacristies and seminaries drew from this source. Generally, anytime books describe the privileged altar, it will be according to this former measure. But in 1967, Paul VI released his Doctrine on Indulgences, which was revised in the 1968 Enchiridion of Indulgences (the new Raccolta). His reforms reduced the number of indulgenced prayers16 and modified how they were gained. But the death stroke to the privileged altar was rooted in a new viewpoint of the concept 17 of an indulgence. According to traditional understanding, an indulgence 18 is the remission of part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin, and this remission was formerly the primary focus of a pope granting or bestowing an indulgence: it was the relief of this debt owed by the poor souls in purgatory which was the goal of the privileged altar. The new emphasis, however, is that indulgences serve rather to inspire fervor and charity in the faithful, and so the actual remission of temporal punishment is granted only in proportion to their devotion. To illustrate this it will suffice to show how a partial indulgence was formerly granted in terms of periods of time, i.e., 300 days, or seven years. 37 As a loving mother, Holy Mother Church “indulged” the penitent by granting them the equivalent of 300 days of penance in three minutes of prayer. The new idea, however, is no longer that of “indulging” the penitent who sought to make reparation, but rather of “rewarding” the faithful soul for its act of faith and love. There is no longer a count of days or years because the faithful are not acting out of repentance so much as devotion, and only God knows the actual devotedness of the faithful. Even in the case of the plenary indulgence, it is now gained only as a reward for devotion and not precisely for the remission of temporal punishment. So the privileged altar became “unimportant” to the conciliar faithful19 because the faithful could not make an “act” for which to be rewarded because only a priest who said Mass could gain the indulgence. The Final Word. The privileged altar was abolished because it was not an act performable by the faithful and because the conciliar theology considered that the poor souls did not need more suffrage20 than what was provided through any holy Mass. Perhaps the change is a sad fact, but we as Catholics must recognize that the Holy Father is the keeper of St. Peter’s keys, and he can change the discipline21 if he so wishes, and that even if we persist in saying the old indulgenced prayers, God is no longer bound therein by the power of Peter (although it is reasonable to hope that as God sees how we are abandoned by the hierarchy He will look kindly on our pious desires and nevertheless grant the indulgences linked with the old privileged altar). So, for the case of the privilege of the Privileged Altar, the short answer is that there are no more privileged altars; the long answer is as complicated as history. Brother Gabriel-Marie is a brother of the Society of Saint Pius X and is stationed at the District Office in Platte City, Missouri. 1 Regina Coeli Report, No.186, Dec. 2005 (Kansas City: Regina Coeli House). 2 Rt. Rev. Msgr. Harold E. Collins, The Church Edifice and Its Appointments (Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1954), Part II: “The Furnishings of the Church,” Chap. 1: “The Altar.” A fixed altar is a permanent structure made of stone, attached to a floor of stone or earth, where both the mensa (table) and the support are made of solid slabs of stone, and consecrated together (Canon 1197 §1, n.1) and inseparable. A semi-fixed altar is likewise a permanent structure but can be made of lesser materials like wood or cement, having an inserted altar stone. A portable altar is what we normally refer to as an altar stone, which is inserted into the altar structure of a semi-fixed altar. 3 Fr. Beringer, S.J., Les indulgences: Leur nature et leur usage (1925; translated for me from the French by Fr. Marie-Dominique, O.P., c. January 2007). 4 Code of Canon Law, Canon 97, §§1 and 2. 5 Quod Anniversarius, Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on his sacerdotal jubilee, 1888. He bestowed the privilege to all priests as a special suffrage for the poor souls. 6 The Raccolta, No.140. The Heroic Act of Charity is a special vow dating back to a papal decree of 1728. The Raccolta says, “This heroic act of charity in behalf of the souls in purgatory consists in a voluntary offering made in their favour by any one of the faithful of all works of satisfaction done by him in this life, as well as of all suffrages which shall be offered for him after his death.” 7 The Raccolta, No.147 8 Index Generalis in Decretis Sacr. Rituum Congregationis (Rome, 1901), V, 15. This is a book of decrees from the Sacred Congregation of Rites. It contains decrees concerning the privileged altar that fall in the category of being between the years 1588 and 1705. Also, P. Innocentius Wapelhorst, O.F.M., Compendium Sacrae Liturgiae (Cincinnati & Chicago: Benziger Brothers, 1904). In this book there are rules dating from 1867, 1846, and 1836 concerning the privileged altar. 9 Collectio Decretorum ad Sacram Liturgiam Spectantium ab Anno 1927 ad annum 1946, 2nd ed. (Rome: Edizioni Liturgiche, 1947). Conceded by Pope Pius XII was an indult of a personal privileged altar for the suffrage of souls who fell in war, No.110.3. He also granted to all priests for his episcopal jubilee a privileged altar from May 12-13, 1948. 10 This is recorded in the general history of the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano. It can also be found in the book This Is My Body, This Is My Blood: Miracles of the Eucharist I, Book I, by Bob & Penny Lord. See also the article by Maria D’Andrea at www.acfp2000.com/miracles/eucharistic.html. 11 History of St. Thomas Kottakkavu Forane Church, North Paravur, India; founded by St. Thomas the Apostle. See their website at Kottakkavuchurch. org. 12 The Raccolta, No.147. 13 In August of 2000, the SSPX District of Asia made the voyage to Rome, and in the course of the pilgrimage they visited with great faith the Seven Privileged Altars of St. Peter’s. Although the indulgence attached to visiting these seven altars is in the old Raccolta, it is not in the new Enchiridion of Indulgences. You may visit their site at http://www.sspxasia.com/Newsletters/2000/SepOct/Rome-Pilgrimage-Day-5-6.htm. 14 In this instance, desecration refers to the destruction of the altar (i.e., if the relics are removed or if the altar stone is cracked or broken) as opposed to the violation of the altar (i.e., if the altar is used improperly). Desecration destroys the consecration, rendering it invalid for Mass, but violation does not destroy the consecration. 15 In every altar a reliquary is inserted (the hole is called a sepulcher) into either the mensa or the altar stone and sealed with a single solid stone cover. This reliquary contains the relics of at least one martyred saint as well as three grains of incense. It is this stone upon which Mass is said. To desecrate an altar is to cause a noticeable fracture in the altar stone or to disturb the relics. See note 2. 16 This is taken from the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary Decree. It states, “All general grants of indulgences, not included in this same Enchiridion, are hereby revoked. Revoked also are any ordinances concerning indulgences, not included in the Norms on Indulgences given below, whether in the Code of Canon Law, or in Apostolic Letters, even if issued ‘Motu proprio,’ or in Decrees of the Holy See.” This Decree is contained in the book Enchiridion of Indulgences. 17 In order to understand the full scope of the conciliar changes, see Fr. MarieDominique’s article in The Angelus Magazine, Vol. 27, “Indulgences in the Life of the Church,” Part One, September 2004; Part Two, October 2004; and Part Three, November 2004. 18 Baltimore Catechism No. 3, Nos.436-40. 19 From Preliminary Observations, a sort of foreword for the Enchiridion of Indulgences: “…The Enchiridion of Indulgences is to be revised with a view to attaching indulgences only to the most important prayers and works of piety, charity, and penance.” 20 Enchiridion of Indulgences, Norm 21. The Enchiridion states, “Holy Mother Church, extremely solicitous for the faithful departed, has decided to apply suffrages to them as abundantly as possible in every Sacrifice of the Mass, abolishing every particular privilege in this regard.” Thus, since the privileged altar was not in the new Enchiridion, then it was abolished. This is given in the Doctrine of Indulgences, Norm 20; Documents on the Liturgy, §3213; and reaffirmed in The Code of Canon Law: A Text and Commentary, commissioned by the Canon Law Society of America; edited by James A. Coriden, Thomas J. Green, and Donald E. Heintschel (New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1985), pp.991-92. Chapter IV on Indulgences: “Of specific historical interest are the suppression of the so-called toties quoties plenary indulgences, understood as available with unlimited frequency, and the suppression of the so-called privileged altar, to which plenary indulgences for the dead were attached on the occasion of Eucharistic celebrations. The privileged altar had been defined in Canons 916-918 of the former Code.” 21 Fr. Sélégny, while General Secretary of the Society of Saint Pius X, declared the official position of the Society: “Concerning indulgences, the position of the Society and of Bishop Fellay in particular is very clear cut. We recognize that the Pope has the power of the keys and hence the power to change the discipline in this matter. We can miss the former discipline and hope that heaven might make up in some way the ‘loss’ experienced by the disappearance of so many indulgenced prayers, but we accept the new [discipline]…” For a copy of the entire letter, please refer to Part Three of Indulgences in the Life of the Church (see note 8). www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • March 2007 38 M a r t i n P e l t i e r The SWiSS gUArD The Swiss Guard has been in the news of late for the celebration of its 500th anniversary, celebrated officially in January 2006. However, as with many historical events, a cluster of anniversaries marks the debut of the Swiss Guard as the Pope’s special defense force, from Pope Julius II’s letter of June 21, 1505, inviting them to Rome, to their departure from Switzerland on September 24, 1506, to their arrival in the Eternal City on January 22, 1507. The parade uniform of the Guards today, in the Renaissance style, with morion, cuirass, and halberd,1 reminds the spectator of the Guard’s origin during the terrible convulsions of the Italian Wars.2 The ANgeLUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org 39 The Swiss On January 22, 1506, at sunset, 150 Helvetian mercenaries commanded by Captain Kaspar von Silenen, of Canton Uri, entered the Vatican through the Porta del Popolo (the People’s Gate). There they received the blessing of Pope Julius II: such was the official act founding this special corps, which today can be considered one of the oldest armies in the world. Why the Swiss, and why Julius II? Without going all the way back to the Roman historian Tacitus, who vaunted the valor of the Helvetian warriors even then, the reputation of Swiss soldiers was solidly established at the end of the Middle Ages after the defeats inflicted by them on the great Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Temerarious. Then, Switzerland was a poor, over-populated country, and since the mountains did not produce enough to sustain so many mouths, they emigrated. Many Swiss men would go off to be mercenaries for seasonal employment, fighting during the summer so as to be able to feed their families during the winter, living off their soldier’s pay and booty. Julius II In 1494, the King of France, Charles VIII, established a permanent guard manned by Swiss: the Hundred Swiss. Pope Julius II followed the king’s example a dozen years later. As the bishop of Lausanne, before he became the Cardinal Giulano della Rovere, he had followed the French to Naples, and had been able to experience for himself the loyalty of the Hundred Swiss. With a constitution of iron, born in a poor milieu, Franciscan, and having entered at a very young age into pontifical politics under the staff of his paternal uncle Sixtus IV, Julius II was struck by the disorder of an Italy divided amongst the Empire, Spain, and France, and ravaged by the interplay of alliances between princes, cities, and prelates. He feared that the Church would find itself subjugated to foreign interests and intentions. His entire politics would therefore tend toward re-establishing the Vatican’s independence. This optic accounts for a number of his regime’s accomplishments: great public works and the embellishment of Rome; the protection of the arts; reforms in agriculture, maritime and monetary law; ecclesiastical laws declaring null and void the election of a pope by simony and excommunicating anyone who would impede the free exercise of pontifical authority. The temporal power of the papacy was strengthened by upholding the authority of the Pope in the Papal States, reconquering lost territory, and evicting foreigners from Italy. This was the background that elicited a complicated diplomacy and the understandable need to have good troops; thus, the recruitment of mercenaries, and for his personal service, the creation of the Swiss Guard. 1525: Pavia Julius II’s successors experienced even greater instability in the Italian wars. When Cardinal Julius de Medici was elected pope on November 19, 1523, taking the name of Clement VII, he believed he had found a clear compromise between the Holy Roman WHO GETS TO BE A SWISS GUARD? entrance in the Swiss Guard, which numbers about 100 men, is restricted to Swiss bachelors between the ages of 19-30.They must be catholic, at least 5'11" tall, and willing to enlist for a two-year tour of duty. Before 1914, only German-Swiss were allowed to belong to the Guard; subsequently membership was widened to include Swiss from any of Switzerland’s four linguistic groups.There are 10 officers, who must be officers in the Swiss army, 10 corporals, 10 vice-corporals, and 70 halberdiers. Their patron saints are St. Martin of Tours, St. Sebastian, and St. Nicholas of Flüe (a major patron also, it so happens, of the Society of St. pius x). Saint Nicholas of Flüe Fr. Clement St. Nicholas warned, “The Church will be punished.... The Church will sink deeper and deeper until it finally seems to have been destroyed, and the Succession of Peter and the other Apostles will seem to have ended. But after that, it will be triumphantly exalted 78pp, pocket-sized, in the sight of all doubters.” softcover, illustrated, www.angeluspress.org The ANgeLUS • March 2007 Fascinating story of his life, a STK# 7091. $4.95 delight to read. 40 Emperor and the French faction. But the agreements with neither party held up, and in October 1524, France’s King Francis I again occupied Milan, pushing Clement VII, for expediency’s sake, to draw closer to France. Emperor Charles V’s reaction was immediate: “I shall be avenged in Italy. Today or tomorrow. Martin Luther will perhaps be a big help.” The threat was made good: German foot soldiers, called lansquenets, and Spanish mercenaries upset the French and Swiss at Pavia on February 25, 1525. Francis I was taken prisoner–his captive children were not liberated until 1530 after payment of a heavy ransom. For Rome, it was a catastrophe: While the Colonna, partisans of the Empire, battled the Orsinni, friends of France, Clement VII was obliged to pay a heavy tribute to Charles V and make an alliance with him to keep the Imperial troops from heading towards the Eternal City. That event, however, was merely postponed: on the morning of May 6, 1527, the Imperial forces, after other diplomatic maneuvering, gave the assault. They staved in the Torrione Gate, invaded the Borgo Santo Spirito neighborhood and St. Peter’s. Heroic Stand It was almost the end, and this was the moment for the Swiss Guard to distinguish itself. Assembled at the base of the obelisk which then stood near the Campo Santo Teutonico, guardsmen fought desperately; 147 halberdiers were massacred, and the commandant, Kaspar Roist, finished off by the Spanish before the eyes of his young wife, Elizabeth Klingler. The 42 survivors, commanded by Hercules Goldli, accompanied the flight of Clement VII to the Castel Sant’Angelo, through a secret passage that had been built in the walls of the Vatican by Alexander VI. The Sack of Rome After crossing the Sisto Bridge, the German foot soldiers and the Spanish pillaged Rome for a week. Nothing was spared: neither theft, nor rape, nor massacre, nor sacrilege. The tombs of the popes, including that of Julius II, were profaned. The dead numbered 12,000 and the booty some 10 million ducats.3 The Imperial forces, especially the Frundsberg lansquenets, were animated by antipapist hatred. Before the Castel Sant’Angelo, beneath the Pope’s very eyes, a parody of a religious procession was organized, in which they demanded Clement VII to hand over to Luther the sails and the oars of the “Barque,” the Church. The soldiers exclaimed: “Vivat Lutherus pontifex.” The prior of the Canons of St. Augustine wrote: “Mali fuere Germani, pejores THE ANGELUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org Itali, Hispani vero pessimi–the Germans were bad, the Italians worse, and the Spanish worst of all.” The treaty that followed the Sack of Rome was scarcely less bad. Clement VII was forced to give up three citadels; several cities, including Modena, Parma, and Piacenza; and payment of monetary damages. The papal garrison comprised four companies of Germans and Spaniards. The Swiss Guard was suppressed, replaced by 200 German foot soldiers. The survivors, upon the Pope’s intervention, had a right to be affected to the new guard; most of them did not take advantage of the offer out of hatred for the lansquenets. A Discreet but Effective Rule In 1548, the fluctuations of Italian politics led to the return of the Swiss Guard, but thereafter its role would be more discreet, closer to what it is today. The French Revolution had the same effect upon Swiss Guard as the Sack of Rome. In 1798, Pius VII had to leave the Eternal City and his Guard was disbanded. Reconstituted in 1800, disbanded again in 1809, it did not return to Rome definitively until 1814. The Franco-Prussian War that erupted in 1870 marked the end of the Church’s temporal power, since Napoleon III saw himself constrained to pull his troops back into France. The Italian government had assured the Pope that the accords of September 1864 would be respected, but as soon as Napoleon III’s fortunes began to wane, the Papal States were quickly encircled by the Kingdom of Italy’s army. Thus ended the period of centuries during which, because of the possession of the Papal States, the Sovereign Pontiff had required an army at his service. Thereafter the Swiss Guard’s only duty would be to oversee the Pope’s physical security and that of the Vatican City and the pontifical villa of Castel Gandolfo. The question posed by Stalin about the number of divisions at the Pope’s disposition was surely moot, betraying a too carnal and myopic conception of the factors determining the vicissitudes of history. Translated exclusively by Angelus Press from Fideliter, Jan.-Feb., 2006, pp.73-77. 1 A morion is a metal, high-crested open helmet with the front and back edges turned upward. The color of the ostrich-feather crest indicates the Guardsmen’s rank. The halberd is an 8-foot combination pike and battleaxe. 2 The Italian Wars refers to the struggles in the late 15th and early 16th centuries between various nations in Europe. It began as a territorial dispute between Milan and Naples but became more involved as European nations chose sides. 3 The ducat is a gold coin that was used as a trade currency throughout Europe before World War I. Its weight is 3.494 grams, which is 0.1125 troy ounce, and of .986 pure gold; that is about a tenth of an ounce of pure gold, hence ten million ducats would be about a million ounces of gold, which in today’s market is worth about US$660 million. 41 Ten Minutes with Fr. de Chivré: Word and Affection Do you want to know how to talk to your spouse or fiancée? Have you ever considered how important a simple conversation can be? Let us, as always, look to the Almighty for insight. God only speaks to create or to rebuild. Whether in the temporal order of Creation or the supernatural order of Redemption, the word of God always serves to bring into existence. Given that He is Love, His Word takes its meaning from the particular role spontaneously assigned to it by affection. It only imposes or proposes in favor of an increase of love. Now, love only increases when confronted with an abundance of unexpected quality, which elicits our appreciation and esteem and moves our love to an even greater attachment. Within marriage, the word should remain at the service of affection. It should only step forward if it can develop the quality of the one who speaks, to make that quality more captivating to the one who listens. Thus, our word is responsible for communicating either the best of what we are or the best of what we think. It provokes in return the joy of knowing ourselves appreciated and of delighting in the assent of the other, tasting an increase of happiness by this communication of ourselves. From that moment on, thanks to our word, the other person becomes our echo, our mirror. He takes pleasure in that new appreciation for the one who speaks, and this pleasure increases the harmony between the listener and the one he loves. The function of the word is not pridefully to declare who you are but to communicate yourself in the service of the Good and the True with such selflessness that this Good and this Truth become the cause of an admirable attachment on the part of your listeners. There is a certain psychological impartiality or selflessness to bring to conversation in married life which will heighten your affection by the intermediary of a word anxious to speak a good or a truth capable of triggering understanding and consent, even at the expense of our point of view. Here are some examples: Open yourself up in a confidence both unexpected and yet so appreciated that your union will be strengthened in a new need to step outside of banalities and ready-made phrases, even though your confiding called for a meritorious effort against vanity and selfishness. Propose an outing which may or may not appeal to you but which you know will appeal to the other person. It can only strengthen the reciprocity of your tastes and solidify your friendship. The role of talking is to establish a harmony upon which both can express themselves more freely and more affectionately. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • March 2007 42 In the realm of affection, talking is meant to achieve a qualitative development of the soul, mind, and heart through a spontaneous—and also qualitative—appreciation elicited in the one who listens to you as to another self. Talking in married life then ceases to be a way of selfishly declaiming your wants or your points of view, which would only harden you both in your opinions and deepen the divide between you. It becomes on the contrary a way of affectionately opening yourself to the mind of the other person, becoming the echo of your own self rather than the victim of your individualistic, selfish, and sinful demands. Married life is only possible in an atmosphere of confidence, and that is why the value of the spouses remains the chief cause of happiness, for their spiritual and moral value constantly supplies each one with excellent realities to present to the other and excellent conversation to offer. In turn, the life of grace maintains in the judgment of the spouses a permanent disposition to express themselves only in favor of the mutual value of one another. Then will talking be fulfilling its mission, which is to accustom each one to seeing their life in a superior manner: in the life of the home, that superior manner will mean the part given to God; in that of education, the sense of honor, plus respect for God; in that of work, the sense of honesty and of duty of state; and in recreation, the sense of morality. Then will husband and wife speak to each other of these things with a view to expressing themselves in a Christian way; with a view to willing nobly, to sensing with delicacy, and to communicating the deepest of who they are. Understood in this way, their confidences become a more and more binding tie to the fidelity they have promised and the trust they desire. The law of beauty when expressed by the word, like the law of perfection and the law of delicacy, is to create an attachment to the other person by a heightening of esteem, by a renewed admiration. When a couple has grown accustomed to respecting in this way the divine and perfect sense of conversation, that conversation becomes a lasting support for the two spouses, able to sustain the mystery of their distress and their fidelity. Then will the word, having created confidence, give to both spouses the right to encourage one another toward an improvement of their life, knowing how to point out, with affection, each other’s faults, which have now become principles of exchange and mutual education. Then, too, will talking become a means for stimulating the spiritual and virtuous advancement of each one, without turning into a kind of indelicate sermon or “pious” expression of nagging. Our way of speaking can possess an intellectual and moral healthiness guaranteeing in advance the most meritorious acts of consent. Finally, once the word grows accustomed to respecting its mission, it will quash almost by instinct our inclinations to lower THE ANGELUS • March 2007 www.angeluspress.org ourselves or compromise our quality in moments of disappointment. There will be no more of those offended, self-absorbed withdrawals; but there will be comforting exchanges of spiritual strength capable of transformation. In marriage, not only is the word at the service of the best that there is in us, but we should also put it at the service of the best that we glimpse in the other person. The duty of love is formal: it should facilitate and favor the ideal, the call to perfection, the spiritual traits of the other capable of improving him, to the benefit in return of the one who is helping. We have to go out to the other person, not to judge him according to our own points of view but to help bring out the best in him, even without the hope of a psychological salary for ourselves, by approving, out of pure goodness, what is highest in his personal expectations, without criticizing or opposing them. The law of marriage is not to enslave but, on the contrary, to leave open to each one his chances for perfection, for the benefit of the other who will seize the occasion for an increase of love—since true perfection never damages affection. From that moment on, the law of sacrifice by love cannot do otherwise than come into play, whether it be the sacrifice of your time or your preferences or your preoccupations, in order to be at the service of the perfection of the other, in the form of a given superior activity which we encourage for him: esthetic, cultural, athletic, liturgical, or supernatural activity. Affection does not hesitate to offer to the love of the other to sing its participation, as on-key as possible, that we might hear the harmony and thereby nourish our own perfection. Whoever sings his life in quality, thanks to the selflessness of the other person, will taste the need to prove his gratitude through an even greater attachment. Then, to use a word no one ever uses… everything becomes dialogue: verbal dialogue in the word of encounter; the dialogue of the senses and fusion in confidence; a virile dialogue in nobility of mind in suffering; a dialogue of silence that unites in hours of forced separation; the dialogue of God, who speaks the same language in both of the spouses, by the intermediary of a common spirituality. With couples like that, with homes like that, we can build a society. In married life, you have to will to leave behind words that are too vulgar, too profane, forever calculating, or much too worldly—meaning conventional and empty—in order to echo the Word who speaks in us and who disposes us always to speak something of Himself, by words of truth and moral beauty. Translated exclusively by Angelus Press. Originally published as “La Parole et l’Affection” in Carnets Spirituels: Le Mariage, No.3, February 2005, pp.13-17. Fr. Bernard-Marie de Chivré, O.P. (say: Sheave-ray´) was ordained in 1930. He was an ardent Thomist, student of Scripture, retreat master, and friend of Archbishop Lefebvre. He died in 1984. F R . p e t e r Is it permissible to go to confession during Sunday Mass? It has always been the custom for confessions to be heard during Mass whenever this is possible, preferably during weekday Masses, but also during Sunday Masses. This gives some of the faithful the opportunity of going to confession who would not otherwise easily be able to do so. A quick confession during Sunday Mass does not interrupt the assistance at the Mass, for it is a prayer, like the Mass, and does not involve a notable part of the Mass. However, if a person were to spend a notable part of Sunday Mass in the confessional, for example receiving spiritual advice and direction from the priest, then he would not have filled his Sunday obligation and would have to stay for the next Mass. A person does not have the right to place himself in this situation, and he ought not to go to confession after the Offertory or before Communion when he anticipates that the confession might take a long time. Furthermore, there is also the question of respect. In general the confessor who is hearing confessions during Mass will stop during the sermon, so that the penitents also can receive instruction, and he will also stop during the Consecration of the Mass, out of respect for this great miracle. These times should be avoided when going to confession during any Mass. Q In order to avoid the error of naturalism, must I despise natural virtues? The Church has defined, against Jansenism, that there is such a thing as natural virtue, that it is good, and consequently not to be despised. However, it cannot possibly be of itself any help towards attaining a supernatural goal, the supernatural domain being infinitely above the natural. This being said, the naturally acquired cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, learned by repeated efforts, and the natural virtues associated with them, are a marvelous preparation for the infused, supernatural virtues. When the supernatural virtues are received, they immediately take advantage of all the acquired good habits, which give the facility in the exercise of supernatural virtue. A person who practices natural temperance, for example, will become very generous in practicing the supernatural virtue when in the state of grace, and he will have an especial ease and joy in so doing, that a person who has never practiced natural temperance would not have. This applies to the public, social order of the State also. When a State promotes natural virtues, such as temperance, fortitude, and justice, then the citizens will have a certain preparation and facility in the supernatural order, if they should receive the Faith and the state of sanctifying grace. Consequently, Catholic men should do all in their power to bring about a social order that is based upon the practice of natural virtue, i.e., that is based upon the natural order. It is a great help to the Church for the salvation of souls. Strange though it may seem, A R . 43 s c o t t it is precisely the error of naturalism that prevents this, because it denies the natural order and the importance of natural virtue. Denying the reality of human nature and the natural law as well as original sin, its wounds and consequences, naturalism arrives at the strange paradox of denying the very existence of natural virtue. This perversion of nature makes it very difficult to accept the Church and supernatural revelation, given that grace builds on nature. Can we say that the present crisis in the Church has destroyed its indefectibility? That the Church will never fail, and that it will always teach the same truths, and administer the same sacraments through its visible structure, is a teaching of our Faith, explicitly taught by Our Lord: “Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Lk. 22:32). However, Our Lord did not promise that the indefectibility of this visible structure and of the teaching authority might not be obscured through the sins and infidelities of members of the Church’s hierarchy. This is precisely what is happening now. The teaching of ecumenism implicitly denies the doctrine that “Outside the Church there is no salvation.” However, although it has been constantly reiterated, Ecumenism has not been taught as a dogma, nor could it be; likewise Collegiality and the rethinking of Papal primacy, which implicitly mean a denial of the Pope’s supreme authority of government and teaching. Yet this has not been taught as a dogma, to deny the official teaching. Likewise, the question of religious liberty as opposed to the rights of the Church and the Social Kingship of Christ. The same can be said of the new concept of justification, to be shared with the Lutherans. Although accepted by a joint statement, this false theory was immediately contradicted by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The end result is complete confusion, obscuring of the visible boundaries of the Church, obscuring of Catholic doctrine, now confused with and overlapped by false, modern, liberal, democratic philosophies. However, this in no way means that the Church has failed, regardless of how many people think that the Church is now different. The reality remains that doctrine has not changed (remember that Vatican II was not doctrinal, nor have the Popes since been doctrinal), and that the Church’s hierarchy and authority have not changed (although they are not being applied or used). It is simply that few are those now who are able to identify true doctrine, authority, government in the Church from the infiltrated modern errors and liberalism. This is the supernatural miracle of the Church that despite the human weaknesses and betrayals of its members, it does remain indefectible. Fr. Peter Scott was ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988. After assignments as seminary professor and the US District Superior, he is currently the rector of Holy Cross Seminary in Goulburn, Australia. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • March 2007 The Angelus announces its first monthly photo essay contest The Angelus is offering $150 for a 250-word essay on the above picture. If none is deserving of the prize, none will be awarded. The winning essay may be published if there is a winner. An extra $50 is available if one is a member of the SSPX Eucharistic Crusade (and can be verified as such: include a letter from your chaplain). Entrants must attempt to briefly and clearly “explain” the picture in their own words. Submissions must be hand-written and will be judged on content, legibility, and creativity. The essays will be judged by parties outside of Angelus Press. Any member of a household aged 10-18 is eligible. There may be more than one entry per household if more than one child is eligible. Essays must be received by March 31 and be addressed to: Angelus Press Attention: The Angelus Photo Essay Contest 2915 Forest Avenue Kansas City, MO 64109 W E N ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MODERNISM A GENEALOGY OF THE PRINCIPLES OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL Fr. Dominic Bourmaud “Change” was the buzzword of the 1960’s and ‘70’s. When it hit the Catholic Church, its faithful were told to expect a glorious springtime. Instead, doubt and instability have prevailed. Where has the destruction come from? All indicators point to the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) as its epicenter. To prove it, the author reconstructed a family tree–a genealogy–of Vatican II to uncover the chain of causes that resulted in this Council and its novelties. The Vatican II “effect” is related to a heresy going back one hundred years: Modernism. The modernists, actively combatted by Pope Pius X (1903-14) and condemned by the encyclical Pascendi (1907), had been working ever since to align the Church with new ideas in philosophy. But their “new ideas” had an origin, too. Following back links in the chain, the author reached the first link: Martin Luther. One Hundred Years of Modernism is an Everyman’s survey of the history of philosophical ideas from Aristotle’s sane realism to the existentialists’ insanity. In chronological order, from its roots in Luther’s principle of private judgment through its subsequent developments, it shows that modernism, prematurely declared dead after St. Pius X’s reign, revived after World War II and reached the highest levels of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy. From causes to effects and from masters to disciples. The book is divided into five historical periods: Christian Truth, Protestant critical modernism in Germany, modernism in France, neo-modernism in Europe, and triumphant modernism in Rome itself. 364pp, softcover, STK# 5242✱ $24.95 Saint Pius X: Restorer of the Church Yves Chiron Chiron breaks new ground by establishing an exact, fair portrait of St. Pius X, who is often portrayed as a pious pope of great Faith, but “retrograde, simplistic and close-minded to modern...ideas.” In fact, he was not a pietistic simpleton, but a powerful and brilliant defender of the True Faith in the face of the Modernism that was invading the Church even in those days–the beginnings of the Liberalism that resurfaced at Vatican II. Mr. Chiron demonstrates that he was a tireless defender of the rights of the Church against secularism, a great reforming pope; restoring Gregorian chant as the sacred music of the Church; reforming the Curia; initiating the codification of Canon Law, and devoting himself especially to reforming the seminaries in order to form pious, zealous young priests, on guard against the creeping infection of Modernism. Chiron draws from many sources, especially Italian, where this man rose from being a poor farm boy to being the Vicar of Christ. The author was also able to research the Vatican Archives. There is no better “rags-to–riches” story, for he came from a poor but hardworking family and rose to the heights of spiritual riches. 352pp, 6" x 9" softcover, 24pp. of illustrations, STK# 6768✱ $19.95 Poems, Schemas, Introduction, and Chapter Summaries by BISHOP RICHARD WILLIAMSON THE LIBERAL ILLUSION LOUIS VEUILLOT Louis Veuillot’s mid-19th century condemnation of liberal Catholicism throws a flood of light on the crisis of Church and world following on the Second Vatican Council. Catholics who read The Liberal Illusion will grasp, once and for all, that the crisis is primarily due not to Vatican II, but to a centurieslong struggle between Revelation and Revolution. Vatican II was merely a decisive moment in that struggle when power within the Church passed from the servants of Revelation to the deluded victims of the Revolution. This edition offers readers a pictographic overview and outline in the form of a unique fold-out insert to provide them with a thread to connect together the 38 chapters. Bishop Williamson helped us to prepare this book to be studied. The “Schema” at the front unfolds so the chapter numbers are exposed, giving the reader Main Parts, Subdivisions, Tickets for Chapters, and One-line Summaries. This chart gives a horizontal breakdown of the book. “The Game Plan” is available on the reverse side. This chart-like analysis is a vertical breakdown of the main principles (whether they be right or wrong) and their consequential sub-principles which have become the battle cries of modernity. Each short chapter is preceded by a crunch paragraph summarizing its contents authored by Bishop Williamson. “I am very glad that this important book is now available for English-speaking Catholics.”–Bishop Bernard Fellay. 146pp., softcover, double-sided color fold-out, STK# 8147✱ $12.95 PartisansMichael of Error Davies Explains why modernism is the most dangerous of all heresies and the steps taken by St. Pius X to suppress it. Rarely refers to the contemporary Church, yet the reader will want to say, “But this is just what is happening today!” Gives a basic understanding of modernism which will strengthen your resolve to fight against it and protect yourself and your family from its influence. 109pp, softcover, STK# 3011. $14.00 Pascendi Dominici Gregis On Doctrine of the Modernists (1907) Pope St. Pius X The prophetic encyclical of Pius X which defined Modernism, cut it up, and let it hang out to dry. Modernists can’t hide from this light. 77pp, STK# 5306✱ $3.95 Out of print for 13 years!  New, Expanded Edition! ARCHBISHOP MARCEL LEFEBVRE A Bishop Speaks WRITINGS AND ADDRESSES 1963•1976 W E N Out of print for 13 years, A Bishop Speaks is back! Posthumous thanks are due to Mr. Michael Davies, RIP, who continually encouraged us to reprint this book while revising Pope John’s Council and Pope Paul’s New Mass. He said, “You must reprint A Bishop Speaks. It’s a very important work.” He referred to and quoted from his old copy constantly. This book is a chronological collection of key letters, sermons, conferences, and interviews (1963-1976) that are critical to understanding his founding of the SSPX, his defense of Catholic Tradition, and his opposition to Vatican II and the New Mass. “We hope that this English edition will be widely read. May it also help many Catholics–bishops, priests, and laity–to understand the tragedy that is ruining the Church, and the new betrayal of which Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Victim,” said Archbishop Lefebvre in the first English edition. Includes: 1963: Letter to Members of the Congregation of the Holy Ghost on Wearing the Cassock  Letter on the First Session of Vatican II. 1964: After the Second Session of the Vatican II. 1965: Between the Third and Fourth Sessions of Vatican II. 1968: Light on the Present Crisis in the Church  For a True Renovation of the Church  Authority in the Family and in Society as an Aid to Our Salvation. 1969: After the Council: The Church and the Moral Crisis of Today. 1970: To Remain a Good Catholic Must One Become a Protestant? 1971: The Priest and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass  The Fruits of the New Mass. 1972: The Priest and the Present Crisis in the Church. 1973: Priests for Tomorrow. 1974: Crisis of the Church or Crisis of the Priesthood? 1975: Declaration  Account of the “Three Cardinals’ Commission” in Suppressing the SSPX  Letter to Pope Paul VI (both) 1976: Letter to Pope Paul VI (three)  Ordination Sermon  The Sermon at Lille s Includearts p those lished unpub riginal in the o edition English 312pp, softcover, STK# 5067✱ $19.95 Open Letter to Confused Catholics I Accuse the Council! STK# 5045✱ $11.95 89pp, softcover, STK# 3072✱ $9.95 Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre A major player at Vatican II, A popular study of the crisis Archbishop Lefebvre made these 12 official statements in the Church written for all at the Council exposing the to understand. Covers the danger of its documents. He Mass, Sacraments, Priestwarned that the faithful would hood, the New Catechisms, become confused, doubting Ecumenism, etc., and demonstrates the new spirit in the the necessity of the Church, the sacraments, the converChurch which has caused doubt and confusion among sion of non-Catholics, and the the faithful. Has served as a necessity of authority. Covers collegiality, the priesthood, beacon for thousands; cermarriage, religious liberty, tain to become a classic. and ecumenism. 163pp, softcover, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre Pastoral Letters Religious Liberty Questioned They Have Uncrowned Him Written 1947-68 while the Archbishop of Dakar, Senegal, these letters aimed to protect the faith of the priests & faithful of his mission field “and to strengthen them against the seductions of the world.” From “Dangers of Religious Ignorance,” to “the Church and its Social and Political Evolution” and the profound “Life and Truth.” His consistent teaching shows a life of Faith over the years. Card. Ratzinger invited Abp. Lefebvre to submit an official statement concerning his opposition to Vatican II's declaration on religious liberty. This is it. Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop Tissier de Mallerais meticulously explore the question of religious liberty and give a crystal-clear picture of what the Church has always taught, what Vatican II taught, and how they are contradictory. You, too, will be faced with a choice. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre 148pp, softcover, STK# 3045 $2.50 Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre 178pp, softcover, STK# 7060✱ $12.95 264pp, softcover, STK# 5240✱ $14.95 The Summa of Archbishop Lefebvre. Covers the origins of liberalism, the subversion of orthodoxy by Vatican II, the decline of the missionary spirit by dialogue, the bad fruits of post-Conciliar reforms, and his vision of restoration. Includes Card. Ottaviani’s On the Relations Between Church and State and On Religious Tolerance, replaced at Vatican II by Dignitatis Humanae. www.angeluspress.org  1-8 00-9 6 6-73 37 Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music.