$4.45 OCTOBER 2010 “Instaurare omnia in Christo” 1970-2010 Sp ec ia l1 6pa ge The Society of Saint Pius X H th isto Col e ry or S up SS o PX f pleme nt A JOURNAL OF ROMAN CATHOLIC TRADITION www.angelusonline.org www.angeluso sonline.org The Angelus Magazine Online. On Demand. Subscribe today. Angelus Press is pleased to announce the launch of its brand new website—www.angelusonline.org— devoted to providing The Angelus magazine in digital format. In addition to the site’s informative content, the design and interface have been newly developed to provide an excellent user experience. Moreover, the site’s navigation has been redesigned and the topics are better defined and categorized. • Complete redesign! Easy to navigate. • Paid subscribers can view current issues of The Angelus and SiSiNoNo online or download them in PDF format. • Hundreds of articles from past issues available for free. • Fully searchable. • Easy subscription process. • Only $20.00 for complete one-year access! The “Instaurare omnia in Christo — To restore all things in Christ.” ngelus Volume XXXIII, Number 10 OCTOBER 2010 English-language Editor and Publisher for the International Society of Saint Pius X PUBLISHER Fr. Arnaud Rostand EDITOR Fr. Markus Heggenberger ASSISTANT EDITOR Mr. James Vogel OPERATIONS MANAGER Mr. Michael Sestak EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Miss Anne Stinnett DESIGN AND LAYOUT Mr. Simon Townshend COMPTROLLER Mr. Robert Wiemann, CPA CUSTOMER SERVICE Mr. John Rydholm Miss Rebecca Heatwole Miss Anne Craig SHIPPING AND HANDLING Mr. Jon Rydholm “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 SUBSCRIPTION RATES US Foreign Countries (inc. Canada & Mexico) 1 year 2 years 3 years $35.00 $65.00 $100.00 $55.00 $105.00 $160.00 All payments must be in US funds only. ONLINE SUBSCRIPTIONS Contents Motto of Pope St. Pius X 2 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Fr. Markus Heggenberger, FSSPX 3 INTERVIEW WITH FR. NIKLAUS PFLUGER Angelus Press 8 THE 1974 DECLARATION Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, FSSPX 10 THE AUTHORITY OF VATICAN II QUESTIONED PART 10 Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre 13 TOWARDS AN EVALUATION OF MUSIC John A. Oesterle 18 LEGAL PROCEEDINGS AGAINST CATHOLIC PRIESTS Norbert Clasen 23 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SOCIETY OF SAINT PIUS X 39 INTERVIEW WITH FR. STEN SANDMARK DICI Fr. Sten Sandmark, FSSPX 41 DANTE’S PURGATORIO: READING AND COMMENTARY PART 6 Dr. David Allen White 49 THE MEANING OF WAITING: TWO RESPONSES TO SUFFERING IN MODERN DRAMA Andrew J. Clarendon $15.00/year (the online edition is available around the 10th of the preceding month). To subscribe visit: www.angelusonline.org. 53 THE LORD’S PRAYER PART 6 Register for free to access back issues 14 months and older plus many other site features. 56 CHURCH AND WORLD The Angelus (ISSN 10735003) is published monthly under the patronage of St. Pius X and Mary, Queen of Angels. Publication office is located at 2915 Forest Ave., Kansas City, MO 64109. PH (816) 7533150; FAX (816) 753-3557. Periodicals Postage Rates paid at Kansas City, MO. ©2010 by Angelus Press. Manuscripts will be used at the discretion of the editors. Postmaster sends address changes to the address above. Fr. Thomas Jatzkowski, FSSPX 58 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Fr. Peter Scott, FSSPX 59 THE LAST WORD Fr. Christian Bouchacourt, FSSPX ON OUR COVER: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre celebrates Mass at Ecône. 2 Letter from the Editor Having received much positive feedback following the expanded edition of The Angelus in March 2010, we decided to use the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the SSPX to highlight the event by dedicating a special edition to it. With all of the criticism and bitterness surrounding the Church, it is a happy event that we are able to celebrate 40 years of restoration, 40 years of God’s blessings, and 40 years of fidelity. This anniversary occurs in a unique situation. The world is attacking the Pope–mainly because they feel that he is too “conservative” (whatever that means)–and those who defend him, his office, and the Church–are members and faithful of the SSPX! For a long time the SSPX has been accused of promoting a bitter mentality which never accepts anything good in others, especially not in the Catholic Church. And while many expected (and hoped) that the SSPX would elect its own pope, declare its independence, and complete a schism, this never happened. It did not happen and was never intended to happen due to the founder of the SSPX, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a man of the Church who labored during his whole life for the Catholic priesthood. That this brought him finally into trouble with Rome is a singular tragedy of his life. Accusations against Catholic priests and the Pope abound. They are not coming from the so-called traditionalists, but rather from the liberals. Whatever we think about those accusations, we know that even a small (and sad) percentage of truth in them is sufficient to upset the world against the Church. But, interestingly enough, the accusations from the liberal world are indirectly a condemnation of the liberal agenda of Vatican II and a vindication of the SSPX. Not so much because liberal thinkers would suddenly argue in favor of a traditional Catholic order, but rather because of the inherent logic of the facts. People have to decide whether they finally want the program of the 1960s or Catholic teaching and morals. Vatican II was, after all, nothing else than an ecclesiastical prototype of the “cultural revolution” of the ’60s. And just as many of the intellectuals and promoters of the “cultural revolution” turned away from their idealistic or unrealistic ideas, this will have to be done by the modernist hierarchy of the Catholic THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org Church also, one way or another. When the world pretends to be more Christlike than the Church, it is time to reflect on the words of Christ, that He prayed His Father to keep His disciples from evil ( Jn. 17:15). At that point we can see that it is not sufficient (and not even accepted by the world) to proclaim God’s mercy (without mentioning His justice) and to tell people that everyone goes to heaven. Some rusty post-conciliar ecclesiastics and neo-Protestant modernists may believe that, but the liberals don’t. They do not believe that it does not matter how Catholic priests behave. Perhaps this is not a belief that is inspired by supernatural faith, but by common sense. It is a clear and full condemnation of Vatican II and its inherent contradiction, which tries to sell a package of liberal content in Catholic trappings. The position of Archbishop Lefebvre was so clear on this point that it did not even come to his mind to accept this “new faith.” Why should he do things in his old age which he had rejected during his whole life, being a bishop of the Catholic Church toiling in the African missions, and being convinced of what he was doing? He could see the good fruits of Catholic missionary work and the sad fruits of neglecting the Catholic Faith and Catholic life in different forms. For him it was evident that Vatican II was just another attempt (perhaps the most dangerous of all times) to undermine the Church. That he was right with his views was evident to many others. But, by the grace of God, he could undertake a new beginning–not without tears and sorrows, but finally successful. Of this new beginning we are celebrating the 40th anniversary. Instaurare Omnia in Christo, Fr. Markus Heggenberger 3 INTERVIEW FR. NIKLAUS PFLUGER In this interview with Angelus Press, Fr. Pfluger, First Assistant of the Society of St. Pius X, speaks about the growth of the SSPX around the world and the challenges it faces. As First Assistant of the SSPX, you travel a lot. Could you give us an impression of how often you are traveling, and how much are you at home, i.e., at the General House in Switzerland? In fact, both assistants of the Superior General are on the road very often. In these first years since the General Chapter of 2006, we have had to get to know the priests, the priories, and their communities around the world. In recent years, we have been absent from the General House about two thirds of the time. For example, in 2008, Father Nély was in Menzingen 111 days and myself, 112. How many retreats do you preach per year and to whom? Every year there are between six and eight retreats; this year it will even be nine. Four retreats have been held for our priests in various districts (England, Canada, America, and Mexico), and another I will preach for a priestly community associated with us in France. The remaining four are for sisters: Carmelites, Benedictines, and Oblates. Do you get the impression that the SSPX is growing? Certainly in number. The apostolate in the schools and the missions is growing worldwide, in addition to the apostolate of the printed word and of catechesis on the Internet. In some regions, the number of faithful is increasing: the United States, France, Italy, Poland, Asia, and Africa. In the last two years we have had an above-average number of priestly ordinations. Finally, new houses are opened every year, which means that pastoral activity has to be intensified. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 4 A particular growth is coming from families, that is, children and young people. Also, since Summorum Pontificum in 2007, many Catholics have come from the Novus Ordo to Tradition and the traditional Mass. This particularly struck me in America, where I was able to visit several chapels in August. There are also individual priests who have given up the celebration of the New Mass to work with us. The devastation which is a consequence of the crisis in Church and society is growing every year. There is thus a bigger field for the SSPX to work in. As a result, we need more priestly and religious vocations, particularly in the missions. What about the growth in quality? A very different kind of growth is the increasing influence of the SSPX on the universal Church. This is not only the case for many young, conservative priests who have begun to celebrate the Tridentine Mass all over the world. For them, the SSPX is a sign of real hope and provides stability in the present-day theological and pastoral chaos. The theological discussions with Rome especially show that, after all, for whatever reason, the pope takes us seriously. Five years ago it would have been unthinkable to discuss the Council officially or even to question it. Rome is backtracking and trying to provide a new interpretation in order to salvage the Council. What was unchallenged in the past suddenly has to be justified: the Council and its alleged fruits. This is new. Without the SSPX, this would have been unthinkable until recently. The SSPX has always been a stumbling block. But now we have to be taken seriously and it is no longer possible to ignore us. The events of recent months, and especially of last year in Europe, show that modernist bishops can no longer ignore us. Now and then some of them give the impression that they hate us and Tradition. That is, they must be scared of us. That the media are attacking us viciously from time to time–I think of the TV show Les Infiltrés in France or the press campaign in 2009–is an indication that they can no longer ignore Tradition; they are rather obliged to take us seriously. And last but not least: although it is normally not mentioned, there are many members of the SSPX around the world, religious and many laymen, who walk with the grace of God in the way of holiness. This is a special gift of God to our time. What are the most difficult tasks for the SSPX? Perseverance: to maintain the spirit of strength and perseverance. The main threats often come not from outside, but sometimes we block ourselves. The crisis continues and is becoming more violent. There is a wearing out. As a result there is a double risk: you lose courage and hope, resignation and defeatism spread, people lose momentum and THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org motivation, and perhaps even their “first love.” As a result you sometimes hear sentiments like “You can’t do anything.” Or, what is worse, you try to adjust and align; you want to make peace at any cost and you are satisfied with some compromise. It is thus important that we be aware of our duty–priests and laity alike– and that we discover the enthusiasm and the spirit of faith from the beginning of the SSPX and its founder. We are a work of the Church! We are not just saving the Mass and the Faith for ourselves; we have a task in and for the Church. We are apostolic; the terrible situation of the Church and of souls cannot leave us indifferent. Some have accused the SSPX of working towards a compromise. Do you see reasons for such fears? Those are fears without foundation. They are mostly complaints from people on the outside who believe they can judge internal questions of the Society. Those are fears that do not bear witness to a spirit of faith. The authors of such allegations–mainly people close to sedevacantist ideas–simply do not want to admit that something has changed. Or they simply have a wrong idea of how this terrible crisis of faith is to be overcome. They think the modern church will turn Catholic again in a single day; it is the illusion that one falls asleep as a modernist and wakes up a Catholic. If it were that easy! A return to orthodoxy, a true reformation, is a long and arduous path. It took decades before the reforming decrees of the Council of Trent were applied to some extent. The regions which had turned to Arianism in both West and East only slowly and gradually became Catholic again. The SSPX does not compromise; Bishop Fellay has no secret plan, strategy, or policy regarding the Faith in dealing with Rome. We have to respond to a new situation. We have to say to this “conciliar church”: “Stop! You cannot continue this way. There is a big problem in the Church. The Council is the reason for this apostasy, and not the solution to the crisis.” Some want to retreat to a kind of ghetto thinking that they can wait until the crisis is over. This is not a Catholic position; it is rather a weakness of faith. The light has to be placed on a candlestick, and must not be hid under a bushel, says the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount. It really is only a small minority of priests and faithful who are afraid. The large majority trust the leadership of the SSPX and the Superior General. In early July we had a meeting for several days between all the superiors in the SSPX at Ecône. We have to thank God for the profound unity of the SSPX in all essential matters. This is not easy in such stormy times. 2010 Ordination ceremony, St.Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Winona, MN. Photo by Fr. John Young. y, s N. g. 5 Some accuse the SSPX of being “fundamentalist.” What would you say to that? The problem is not fundamentalism in itself, but rather from what source it draws its principles and in which direction it goes. A fundamentalist Muslim is, of course, a problem because we have to fear terrorist attacks. A fundamentalist Christian is not, in itself, a problem because our religion is the religion of love. This means that the modern world, i.e., liberalism, has fallen away from God. Therefore, they must justify their principles and values in themselves. That is why the world falls away from Christianity, is fighting it, or–at best–misunderstands it. They call “fundamentalist” what is fundamental and radical. When a Christian leaves his foundation, which is Christ, he will not be like the fundamentalist Muslim, but rather like salt that loses its flavor. The best example of this “Christendom without principles” are many modern Christians. There is no need to fight them, and they will not be persecuted. They fall away from their faith like dry leaves from the tree. On the other hand, convinced and missionary Christians are the pride of the Church. We call them martyrs, because they give witness to their faith in Christ. What is the best way for the SSPX to act in a world that is hostile to the Catholic Faith? Christ Himself tells us: “You are in the world but not of the world.” There is a tension, but it is the solution as well. The apostles understood this. Because their faith was still weak, they were not able to bear the hate of the world against their Master, His passion, and His cross. So, for fear of the Jews, they locked the doors. After Easter and Pentecost, their faith in Christ was unshaken; they went out into the world, and Peter, the first Pope, converted in a single sermon 3,000 Jews and Gentiles. St. John summarizes this experience of faith which is able to move mountains in the motto: “All that is born of God overcomes the world. And that is what overcomes the world, our faith.” The SSPX has to do what the Church always did until Vatican II: go into the whole world, preaching and baptizing. And above all, we should have no fear, neither of the world, nor of the Jews, nor of the media. Sodom and Gomorrah are not an invention of the homosexual lobby of the 20th century; we find it in the Old Testament. Do you really believe the times were easier 2,000 years ago? God has not saved the world with the resources of the world but “In some regions, the number of faithful is increasing, like in the United States, France, Italy, Poland, Asia and Africa. In the last two years we have had an above-average number of priestly ordinations, and new houses are opened every year...” 6 with a manger and a cross. St. Benedict did not burn Rome, but renewed the Christian world with his Ora et Labora. It is foolish to try to convert the world with human intelligence, shrewdness, and cunning arguments. We must finally understand–and believe!– that there is no other way to save this evil world of vice and lies than faith in Jesus Christ. That is our strength. And if it is not strong enough, it is also our weakness. Do you see signs which suggest that Rome is seeking some kind of restoration? Who or what is Rome? The pope, the curia, the cardinals, certain prelates? It is difficult to assess; distinction is urgently needed. We can judge things from the outside. There we see evident signals: the motu proprio on the release of the Tridentine Mass, the withdrawal of the ridiculous excommunication of 1988, the will of the Pope to discuss theological issues with us. All this is imperfect, certainly, but it is there and it is real. Even if you try—and you should never do so–to suppose certain intentions of the Pope, what he has done is evident. The attack against Benedict XVI on the part of bishops, the media, and even the parliament revealed that the world did not like those steps. Even the inadequate document Dominus Jesus about the uniqueness of the Church brought the ecumenical bishops in Germany and Switzerland to anger. And more: the Pope has launched a debate which is unstoppable. Even if the theological discussions with us stopped tomorrow, even if a new excommunication against Tradition would be pronounced, even if no tangible result emerges: the return to Tradition is unstoppable inside the Church. The damage that this Council has done is too great. It’s like “twilight of the gods”: priests and Catholics of good will who want to remain Catholic are more and more approaching Tradition. Perhaps 2010 Ordination ceremony, St.Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Winona, MN. Photo by Fr. John Young. it is slow and not in big numbers, but it is steady and inexorable. The modernists know it and so does the world. This is why we see such concentrated attacks against Pope and Church. As you can hear and read in the newspapers, there are many Catholic churches and monasteries that are being demolished or sold. Is this a positive development for the SSPX? No, certainly not. Any weakening and decline of Catholic life is bad news and fills us with pain. But “unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies...” In such a time we live. It is the promise of a new and better future. At some time the Antichrist will complete his work. But before that happens, the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary will triumph. Therefore our pleasure is rather the flourishing of Christianity and the growth of Catholic life in today’s world. Every priest who discovers the Old Mass, every return to the true faith, is a sign of hope. It might hurt a priest to realize that other priests have more success and are more convincing and apostolic than we. That should encourage rather than extinguish the smoldering wick in the official hierarchy of the Church. In the parable of the workers in the vineyard, the Lord condemned the envy of the workers of the first hour, who did not recognize the time of grace. This is for all of us a serious warning. The “New World” (USA) has much higher numbers in the SSPX than it did 10 or 20 years ago. How is this fact interpreted by the superiors of the SSPX? It not only has higher numbers, it grows faster. The District Superior of the United States, Fr. Rostand, who is a European, told me some time ago that in America you could see the same zeal and enthusiasm as in traditionalist Europe of the 7 1970s and early ’80s. And, in fact, I hope very much that we will be able to make use of the enthusiasm, generosity, and loyalty of American Catholics. I think of the awakening of vocations of brothers and sisters, of the formation of true parishes and priories and of the consolidation of schools. There is a huge potential lying dormant quantitatively and qualitatively: overall it is a very encouraging development. Do you think that governments will take an anti-religious attitude in the future? An anti-religious attitude and persecution by the State are a reality now; it is the Christian’s daily bread. The Cardinal of Cologne said recently that no religious community is as much persecuted as Christians all over the world. It was a naive illusion of the popes of Vatican II that the world might be sweet and nice, if you adapt to it (aggiornamento). As the proverb says: Give the devil an inch, and he’ll take a foot. That is exactly what happened. Perhaps the increasing hatred and the struggle against God are the last gasps of atheism? In any case, the State is ultimately unable to do anything against “the revenge of God.” Since 9/11 at the latest, God is back in vogue and religion must be taken seriously again. In the U.S. this has been evident for a certain time; in Europe it is becoming more and more apparent. A few months ago one of the most liberal newspapers in Germany wrote an article on the topic: “O God! Religion is coming back.” I quote the beginning of the text, which reveals the incapability of atheism: From Karl Marx to John Lennon, the prophets of Modernism were unanimous: Religion was doomed. Alan Posener asks why it’s been different. When John Lennon said in 1966 that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, the British public reacted with a shrug. This seemed so obvious that it needed no commentary. After all, all prophets of modern times assumed that religion was basically superstition, “the spirit of spiritless conditions,” as Karl Marx said. Sigmund Freud thought about the “Future of an Illusion” and thought that she would disappear along with sexual repression which would be produced by it. In short, more modernity means less religion. Christianity would not last longer than the cult of the Beatles, Lennon said, it would soon “wither away.” And what was true for the relatively enlightened Christianity was, in the eyes of modern men, even more applicable to the mentally rigid, backward-looking Islam. And then two aircraft hit the heart of Manhattan, and from the fireball Osama bin Laden proclaimed the victory of Allah. Religion was back. Suddenly, intellectuals had to deal with concepts that they had banished to the most obscure corners of the smallest faculties: Sunni and Shia, Sharia, Fatwa and Jihad. But not only Islam had returned with “9/11.” Osama’s mortal enemy in the White House, President George W. Bush, was a born-again Christian who habitually opened the meetings of his inner circle with a prayer....At the beginning of the millennium, it would have been among German intellectuals almost indecent to confess Catholicism; five years later, everyone agreed that atheism “is intellectually poor,” as a Catholic writer like Martin Mosebach said in the very church of St. Paul, launching an attack on the Enlightenment, and drawing a line from the French Revolution to Heinrich Himmler and the Holocaust... Is it a coincidence, or is it a result of the development in the Church, that Catholic bishops in many countries do not take a clear stand on natural law questions, such as abortion or Catholic teaching in sexual matters? Sometimes this failure may actually be a consequence of a modernist attitude: a new faith engenders a new morality. Actually, they are to be regretted: their enlightened and modern faith is so banal, weak, and ridiculous. They follow a Jesus whom they don’t actually believe rose from the dead, that the grave is actually empty, and that Jesus is not the true God! The old joke comes to mind: A Jesuit calls the Jesuit General, and says: “Listen, we have found Jesus’ grave, but it is not empty.” A long silence ensues. Finally, the general said: “Do you mean to say that he really lived?” The modern type of adapted faith is without conviction and power. But there may be many other bishops who simply do not have the courage to proclaim the truth. The power of the media and fear from public opinion are greater than loyalty to Christ and love for the truth. A wellknown critic of the post-conciliar period in Germany, Professor George May said, “The backbone of most of the bishops is like the inner tube of a bicycle.” Much prayer for the pope and the Church is urgently needed! What would be the most effective means to strengthen the credibility of the Catholic Church? The living faith. The Church will only be credible again if its members live by faith. Faith is not simply a personal hobby or an intellectual game. It is life, commitment, action. “The Lord wants to see works,” says the great St. Teresa of Avila. The tree must bear fruit, or it is cursed. A Christianity without works, without fruit, and without virtue is not worthy of the name. St. Thomas Aquinas explains quite aptly: The Christian must be the light of the world. In order to be this, however, he first has to be the salt of the earth, which means he has to acquire virtues and put them into action. This is a deep, living faith; a faith that is not only personal, but that is crowned by “missionary love,” as Archbishop Lefebvre wrote. Fr. Niklaus Pfluger was ordained for the Society of St. Pius X in 1984. He has been superior of the district of Switzerland, rector of the SSPX seminary in Zaitzkofen, Germany, and superior of the district of Germany. He is currently the First Assistant to the Superior General of the SSPX, Bishop Bernard Fellay. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 8 F r . d o m i n i q u e b o u r m a u d , f s s p x ARCHBISHOP LEFEBVRE: THE DECLARATION OF NOVEMBER 21, 1974 On November 11, 1974, two apostolic visitors from Rome arrived at the Seminary of St. Pius X in Ecône. They spoke to the seminarians and professors, maintaining scandalous opinions. These comments acted as the catalyst for the famous declaration of November 21, 1974. In a moment of indignation, the old prelate, in one stroke of the pen and without a scratch, wrote this declaration of principle as a rebuttal to Modernism. G o back in time: this was November 1974. The Society of St. Pius X was still an infant, hardly walking yet, but this infant was closely watched by Church officials from France and Rome. Why? This was because its founder, the retired Archbishop Lefebvre, had succeeded in filling his new seminary in the mid ’70s, at the peak of the spiritual desertion of the Church’s ranks. The old missionary had simply gone on with the regular business which had been his life’s story: building churches and seminaries, preaching the unchangeable faith, celebrating the Mass of all times. On November 11, 1974, two apostolic visitors from Rome arrived at the International Seminary of St. Pius X in Ecône. During their brief stay, they spoke to the seminarians and professors, maintaining scandalous opinions: the ordination of married men is a hoped for option; truth changes with the times; THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org the traditional conception of the Resurrection of our Lord is open to discussion. These comments acted as the catalyst for a public declaration, dated November 21, that has since become, with good reasons, famous within Tridentinist circles. In a moment of indignation, the old prelate, in one stroke of the pen and without a scratch, wrote this declaration of principle as a rebuttal to Modernism. When he presented it to the seminary staff and student body, everybody understood that the Archbishop had crossed the Rubicon and that the dice had been cast. Before long, it was going to be open war, and, at hearing this firm profession of faith, the seminarians were excited with glee while the staff, rather frightened by the turn of events, was suggesting a moderate re-writing of the declaration. Rome quickly reacted and summoned the founder to appear before a commission of Cardinals which turned out to be a trial ready to convict him 9 because of the Declaration. The “dialogue” between Cardinal Garrone and Archbishop Lefebvre sounded frank and French: what is written is a “manifesto,” an “open opposition to the Pope and the Council,” a “mad act.” Yet, to the Roman authorities, as to his seminary staff, the Archbishop opposed a relentless rebuttal. “I am not advocating for the free examination like the Protestants because our judgment must be formed by the constant Magisterium of the Church. Of course the present or living Magisterium is a rule of faith, but only in as much as it is ruled by the past Magisterium.” An unruly living Magisterium cannot be the rule of faith. The test of veracity is tradition. Understandably enough, if we look at it from the side of Roman diplomacy, the man who pronounced such utterances had to be crushed. He was condemning no less than 15 years of the “conciliar church” which had aligned the Papal Rome with the Lutheran Reformation, throwing away the old clothes of hierarchy, sacredness and the divine rights of Christ. His was the only voice speaking out loud of the betrayals of the Roman authorities when all others were in a dumb state of servility in the face of illegitimate acts of the authorities. By this declaration condemning the doubly modernist Vatican II Council and Rome, the missionary’s cry sounded like the troublesome voice of the child in the fable: “The emperor has no clothes!” Understandably enough, the whole body of the Roman authorities saw the greatest threat in this man who was upsetting its strategy, and used all its weight to silence such a dissonant cry of alarm. What is revealing also of the character of the man is that, like another Athanasius and with a clear vision of the stakes, the Archbishop held his ground, alone against the world. He had no qualms about affirming: “We should rather be right with the truth than wrong with the Pope,” that it is “neither I nor the Pope who makes the truth,” and “we turn a deaf ear to the novelties destroying the Church.” He was a stonewall and would not budge, regardless of the pressure exercised by the Secretary of State, the three Cardinals who were his judges, the Pope himself with the punishments of suspension and excommunication, his local bishop and most of the seminary staff. He did not change then, and would not change one iota in the next decades he remained at the helm of the Society. Behold the strong man! Behold the lover of the truth! To paraphrase Aristotle, who had befriended Plato, he could truly say: “I love the Pope, but I love more the truth.” And indeed, this Declaration was to be the Society’s Magna Charta. Everything is there and we can say that the Society of St. Pius X, born in the midst of the Church’s debacle in wartime, would simply have to draw from this position of principles to pursue its course. The Declaration is to the present-day Society of St. Pius X what the acorn is to the tree, what the fetus is to the full-grown adult. This is our DNA, our barcode and our ID number. Although it does strike as a declaration of war, it is also based on the perennial principles which are the rock foundation of Peter’s Church, and that is what makes his stand so forceful: We hold fast, with all our heart and with all our soul, to Catholic Rome, Guardian of the Catholic faith and of the traditions necessary to preserve this faith….We pursue our work of forming priests, with the timeless Magisterium as our guide…. We hold fast to all that has been believed and practiced in the faith, morals, liturgy, teaching of the catechism, formation of the priest and institution of the Church, by the Church of all time…assured of remaining faithful to the Roman Catholic Church and to all successors of the Pope.... Only after he has elaborated on the building up of the Church does he clearly deal a war till death to its enemies, i.e. those foreign bodies which, like a cancer, can only disrupt and deform the spouse of Christ: We refuse to follow the Rome of neo-Modernist and neo-Protestant tendencies which were clearly evident in the Second Vatican Council and the reforms which issued from it.…To the Novus Ordo Missae correspond a new catechism, a new priesthood, new seminaries, a charismatic Pentecostal Church. And although it sounds very much like hot and cold, the Declaration concludes with a serene disclosure of a peace plan which consists simply in doing what the Church has always done, hoping for better times when Rome will have regained its composure. The Archbishop, with the sure instinct of the Pastor of souls guided by the Spirit of Wisdom, knew that he was tapping on the only solid grounds, which we are presently discussing with Rome around the vague expressions of “present Magisterium and living tradition.” He takes again the theme which brought Cardinal Newman to conversion when he discovered that the Catholic Church of his time was the same as the Church of the Fathers. No doubt, this plea for genuine tradition will be heard some day in Rome and it is to be hoped that Benedict XVI, who is about to beatify Newman, will heed the voice of another giant of the faith close to home. Fr. Dominique Bourmaud has spent the past 25 years teaching at the Society seminaries in America, Argentina, and Australia. He is presently stationed at St. Vincent’s Priory, Kansas City, where he is in charge of the priests’ training program. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 10 a r c h b i s h o p m a r c e l l e f e b v r e THE AUTHORITY OF VATICAN II QUESTIONED PART 10 The Pope’s Power The Pope’s power is not above revealed truth, Archbishop Lefebvre reminded his seminarians at Ecône on December 19, 1983. The laws of the Church are at the service of the Faith.–Fr. Gleize Fr. Gleize is a professor of ecclesiology at the seminary of the SSPX in Ecône and now a member of the commission involved in the doctrinal discussions with the Holy See. In 2006, he compiled and organized Archbishop Lefebvre’s thinking about Vatican II. It was published by the Institute of St. Pius X, the university run by the SSPX in Paris, France. THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org The Pope’s power is absolute, but within limits, since his power must be subject to God. It is subordinate to the divine authority expressed in Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and in the definitions already promulgated by the extraordinary magisterium, which are irreformable. The Pope is at the service of Revelation, a Revelation which has become ever more explicit since the death of the last apostle. As I already said, the age of the prophets came first, and now we are in the age of dogma. Since the death of the last apostle, there are no more prophets. The Prophet is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the great prophet; there cannot be any greater. He gave us Revelation. The apostles communicated it, and, with the death of the last apostle, Revelation came to an end. Sacred Scripture also closed with the death of the last apostle. Afterward follows the dogmatic age, the age in which the content of Revelation is defined. This is the role of the popes, the councils, the theologians: the task of defining the content of Revelation. Such is the pope’s role; it is not suddenly to declare: “Now is the time to adapt to modern man and to adopt modern ideas.” Where is such a thing to be found in Revelation? It is even contrary to Revelation! contrary to everything that has been defined by the popes concerning Revelation. It is beyond his power. The pope is no longer fulfilling his role when he draws the Church into a new way, a way that is not grounded in Revelation. Clearly, in such a case, or in similar cases, it is the duty of the clergy and faithful Catholics to resist and to refuse obedience. 11 Obedience is not blind. No one is exempt from responsibility for obeying men rather than God. It is too easy to say, “I’ll just obey, and if I’m mistaken, I’m mistaken with him. I’d rather be wrong with the pope than be right against the pope.” This should rather be stated: “I’d rather be with the pope against our Lord Jesus Christ than with our Lord Jesus Christ against the pope!” Incredible! We stand with our Lord Jesus Christ and, consequently, insofar as the pope is truly the Vicar of Christ and acts as the Vicar of Christ and gives us the light of Christ, we are, of course, ready to close our eyes and to follow him everywhere. But seeing that this light is no longer our Lord’s, that they are leading us toward new horizons–which are explicitly called new; they don’t hide it; everything is new: new Code of Canon Law, new Missal...new ecclesiology–this no longer works… Resistance should be public if the evil is public and an occasion of scandal, according to St. Thomas. The State of Necessity Final warnings before the episcopal consecrations: On three different occasions, Archbishop Lefebvre commented on the conciliar authorities’ insistence on imposing the novelties of Vatican II, from which he concluded the existence of a state of necessity in the Church.–Fr. Gleize 1) Archbishop Lefebvre’s Letter to Pope John Paul II of August 31, 1985 During the fortnight preceding the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Your Holiness has decided to gather together an Extraordinary Synod in Rome, with the purpose of making the Second Vatican Council, which closed twenty years ago, “an ever more living reality.”… That is why, if the coming Synod does not return to the traditional Magisterium of the Church, in the question of religious liberty, but instead confirms this serious error from which heresies flow, we shall be forced to think that the members of the Synod no longer profess the Catholic Faith. For their actions are contrary to the immutable principles of the First Vatican Council, which stated in the fourth Chapter of the Fourth Session: “For the Holy Ghost was not promised to the successors of Peter that by His revelation they might disclose new doctrine, but that by His help they might guard the revelation transmitted through the Apostles, or the Deposit of Faith, and might faithfully expound it.” This being so, we can only persevere in the Church’s holy Tradition and take whatever decisions are necessary for the Church to keep a clergy faithful to the Catholic religion capable of repeating with St. Paul, “For I received of the Lord what I also delivered unto you.” Holy Father, your responsibility is heavily engaged in this new and false conception of the Church, which is drawing clergy and faithful into heresy and schism. If the Synod under your authority perseveres in this direction, you will no longer be the Good Shepherd.1 2) Archbishop Lefebvre, They Have Uncrowned Him (1987) …By their declaration that the Council was to be “pastoral” and not dogmatic, and their emphasis on aggiornamento and ecumenism, these popes thereby deprived the Council and themselves from the outset of the charism of infallibility which would have preserved them from error. 3) Archbishop Lefebvre’s Letter to Cardinal Ratzinger of July 8, 1987 …A new magisterium without roots in the past, and all the more if it is opposed to the magisterium of all times, can only be schismatic and heretical. The permanent will to annihilate Tradition is a suicidal will, which justifies, by its very existence, true and faithful Catholics when they make the decisions necessary for the survival of the Church and the salvation of souls.2 Operation Survival The day of the episcopal consecrations, Archbishop Lefebvre summed up his position by arguing the state of necessity.–Fr. Gleize 1) The “Mandatum” (At the beginning of the rite of the consecration, a dialogue takes place between the consecrating bishops and the archpriest who presents the bishops-elect for consecration.) –Do you have the Apostolic Mandate? –We have it! –Let it be read. We have this Mandate from the Roman Church, always faithful to the Holy Tradition which She has received from the Holy Apostles. This Holy Tradition is the Deposit of Faith which the Church orders us to faithfully transmit to all men for the salvation of their souls. Since the Second Vatican Council until this day, the authorities of the Roman Church are animated by the spirit of modernism. They have acted contrary to the Holy Tradition, “they cannot bear sound doctrine, they turned their ears from the truth and followed fables” as says St. Paul in his second Epistle to Timothy (4:3-5). This is why we reckon www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 12 of no value all the penalties and all the censures inflicted by these authorities.3 2) Archbishop Lefebvre’s Homily for the Episcopal Consecrations of June 30, 1988 It seems to me, my dear brethren, that I am hearing the voices of all these Popes—since Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII—telling us: “Please, we beseech you, what are you going to do with our teachings, with our preaching, with the Catholic Faith? Are you going to abandon it? Are you going to let it disappear from this earth? Please, please, continue to keep this treasure which we have given you. Do not abandon the faithful, do not abandon the Church! Continue the Church! Indeed, since the Council, what we condemned in the past the present Roman authorities have embraced and are professing. How is it possible? We have condemned them: Liberalism, Communism, Socialism, Modernism, Sillonism. All the errors which we have condemned are now professed, adopted and supported by the authorities of the Church. Is it possible? Unless you do something to continue this Tradition of the Church which we have given to you, all of it shall disappear. Souls shall be lost.” Thus we find ourselves in a case of necessity. We have done all we could, trying to help Rome to understand that they had to come back to the attitudes of the holy Pius XII and of all his predecessors. Bishop de Castro Mayer and myself have gone to Rome, we have spoken, we have sent letters, several times to Rome. We have tried by these talks, by all these means, to succeed in making Rome understand that, since the Council and since aggiornamento, this change which has occurred in the Church is not Catholic, is not in conformity to the doctrine of all times. This ecumenism and all these errors, this collegiality–all this is contrary to the Faith of the Church, and is in the process of destroying the Church. This is why we are convinced that, by the act of these consecrations today, we are obeying the call of these Popes and as a consequence the call of God, since they represent Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Church. “And why, Archbishop, have you stopped these discussions which seemed to have had a certain degree of success?” Well, precisely because, at the same time that I gave my signature to the Protocol, the envoy of Cardinal Ratzinger gave me a note in which I was asked to beg pardon for my errors. But if I am in error, if I teach error, it is clear that I must be brought back to the truth in the minds of those who sent me this note to sign. “That I might recognize my errors” means that, “If you recognize your errors we will help you to return to the truth.” What is this truth for them, if not the truth THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org of Vatican II, the truth of the Conciliar Church? Consequently, it is clear that the only truth that exists today for the Vatican is the conciliar truth, the spirit of the Council, the spirit of Assisi. That is the truth of today. But we will have nothing to do with this for anything in the world! That is why, taking into account the strong will of the present Roman authorities to reduce Tradition to naught, to gather the world to the spirit of Vatican II and the spirit of Assisi, we have preferred to withdraw ourselves and to say that we could not continue. It was not possible. We would have evidently been under the authority of Cardinal Ratzinger, President of the Roman Commission which would have directed us; we were putting ourselves into his hands, and consequently putting ourselves into the hands of those who wish to draw us into the spirit of the Council and the spirit of Assisi. This was simply not possible. This is why I sent a letter to the Pope, saying to him very clearly: We simply cannot [accept this spirit and proposals], despite all the desires which we have to be in full union with you. Given this new spirit which now rules in Rome and which you wish to communicate to us, we prefer to continue in Tradition; to keep Tradition while waiting for Tradition to regain its place at Rome, while waiting for Tradition to re-assume its place in the Roman authorities, in their minds. This will last for as long as the Good Lord has foreseen. It is not for me to know when Tradition will regain its rights at Rome, but I think it is my duty to provide the means of doing that which I shall call “Operation Survival,” operation survival for Tradition. Today, this day, is Operation Survival. If I had made this deal with Rome by continuing with the agreements we had signed and by putting them into practice, I would have performed “Operation Suicide.”4 (To be continued.) Fr. Gleize is a professor of ecclesiology at the seminary of the SSPX in Ecône and now a member of the commission involved in the doctrinal discussions with the Holy See. In 2006, he compiled and organized Archbishop Lefebvre’s thinking about Vatican II. It was published by the Institute of St. Pius X, the university run by the SSPX in Paris, France. Although slightly edited, the spoken style has been preserved. Text of the letter online at www.sspxasia.com/Documents/ArchbishopLefebvre/A-Letter-to-His-Holiness-Pope-John-Paul-II.htm. 2 Rev. Fr. François Laisney, ed., Archbishop Lefebvre and the Vatican, 2nd ed. (Kansas City: Angelus Press, 1999), p. 22. 3 Ibid., p. 123. 4 Ibid., p. 118-19. 1 18 N o r b e r t C l a s e n Legal Proceedings Under Against Catholic Priests Nazism For several months self-righteous outrage in the public media has fallen on the Catholic Church throughout Germany as if on command. Looking back on the legal proceedings during the Third Reich concerning sex offenses leveled against the clergy and others divinely ordained might help us better understand the current campaign against the Church. THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org Goebbels delivering a speech in Berlin. Joseph Goebbels was Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933-45. Today, the Catholic Church is being isolated like a branded scapegoat. Forty years ago, however, unnatural sexual acts were being promoted as “sexual liberation” in alternative circles. As Joseph Schumacher has pointed out: “Precisely those who earlier fought the Church over its supposedly lovekilling moral teachings are now attacking the Church for not promoting enough nor applying as a standard those very moral teachings.” Church critics and modernist Church circles see in this scandal of impropriety a welcome opportunity to fundamentally steer the Church into modernism and thus have it fit the modern world. Well-known publications critical of the Church especially use the opportunity to point out that “the root of the scandal lies in the structure of the Church: its sexual morals and celibacy.” The basis of the impropriety is nothing less than “an outgrowth, particularly the loss of identity of the Church and its reaching out to the n h zi 5. 19 world, a secularization of the Church that drives to its marrow” (Schumacher). The problem is not “the ossified, antiquated structure, but rather a growing deficit in faith, spirituality, the religious way of life and morals; or, to put it succinctly: the entire internal erosion of the Church” (Martin Mosebach). Catholic clerics and teachers were especially presented as culprits and [the Church] as an institution that was being held collectively responsible before the law for immoral deeds. This had nothing to do with “cleansing” and applying justice as it was an attempt by the National Socialists to expose and discredit the Church in 1936 when a series of trials for sex offenses were staged, leveled at priests and members in Holy Orders. In the years 1936 and 1937 these so-called legal proceedings were concerned with the sexual molestation of children or acts of indecency with guardians, but in the majority of cases it involved homosexuality. Goebbels labeled the Church a “breeding ground of vices,” and to make his point he saw to it that the trials were linked together. Often they were opened in a spectacular way. All newspapers of the Reich were required to report on the proceedings. The manner in which the articles were to open, headlined, and the general tone were meticulously detailed by the Propaganda Ministry. Goebbels further gave his director of the Ministry, Berndt, the task of presenting the official version: this was accomplished at a special news conference at the end of April 1937. At that conference, Berndt gave the entire desired contents (to the smallest detail) that were to be placed in any commentary covering the legal proceedings. It was designed to reveal by incessant repetition that 1,000 clergy and members in Holy Orders were involved in the process and were to be judiciously dealt with. The press was not allowed to deal with individual cases, but rather was to demonstrate repeatedly that the entire Church was involved. In the style of sensational press coverage, scenes and circumstances were to be presented as if these were the every-day norm in the Church: Churches and cloisters give today a disgusting picture. The clerics are not holy. The sacristy has become a brothel. Cloisters are breeding grounds for homosexuality. Apparently the Church fights for a denominational school so that the lusts of the monks cannot be observed as to what goes on in the Catholic toilets. The initiator of this line of thinking was Goebbels, who, in the Berlin Deutschlandhalle, a month later, repeated it word for word and laid bare the fundamental goal of the entire propaganda operation: The right of the Church to demand educational freedom for teaching the youth with the full intention of covering the breeding nest of lust [i.e., in the cloisters] to carry on their purpose is decisive. No father and mother were any longer sure if their child in a parochial institution was safe from the agony of being mistreated. The Propaganda Ministry made sure that the press reported conditions in the cloisters as representative of the decay and low-standing of the clergy throughout the Catholic Church, thus drawing upon the Church political consequences. To bring the Catholic Church into open discussion from the ground up, the Völkissche Beobachter (VB) served to launch the Propaganda Ministry’s attack upon the behavior of the Church’s leaders. The second attack of the VB attempted especially to discredit the Church leaders in the eyes of the faithful. “In most cases, the immediate superiors had known of the crimes but chose not to get involved.” This accusation became the leitmotif for all of the legal proceedings. Evidence of the enormous guilt of omission by the ecclesiastical authorities came from a trial that the VB chose to use to make its point, that against the bishop of Mainz, Bishop Stohr, who was invited as a witness to attend the proceedings. However, Bishop Stohr was not willing to become involved in such a highly propagandized legal process and placed himself under the immunity of the Papal-German Concordat, which the VB immediately interpreted as a sure proof of guilt. In May 1937 the VB concentrated on the sexual crimes in ecclesiastical circles which “are the natural result of an unnatural system” (VB, No. 141, 1937). Month after month (during 1936-37) the newspapers (with a circulation of 14.7 million [1937]) were flooded with column after column reporting the details of these proceedings. The politically correct Catholic and civilian press limited themselves, in most cases, to printing the reports handed to them by the Deutsches Nachrichtenbüro [DNB ] (i.e., the government-controlled news bureau). The Propaganda Ministry particularly saw to it that these reports appeared in the media of areas populated by Catholics. In the spring and summer of 1936-7 there wasn’t a day that these proceedings were not printed in the press. There were days when two, three, or sometimes four reports were required to be reported; the newspapers (e.g., the former Saarbrückener LandesZeitung) reserved an entire section under its own headline: “Legal Proceedings for Sex Offenders.” Alongside the newspaper reports and incessant radio broadcasts coming directly from the Propaganda Ministry, a flood of pamphlets and books concerning legal proceedings against sex offenders and degenerate cloister life came forth. Purposefully thrilling titles included 1600 Years of www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 20 Cloister Proceedings, Flight from the Convent, Psychological Abuse in the Cloisters, The Morals of Jesuits: A Danger to Justice and Our Way of Life, and Two Years behind Cloister Walls. They overwhelmed the bookstores and newsstands. “Findings” of unfaithful monks and nuns became typical. One such popular book, over 500 pages long, recounted a former Trappist monk who made all sorts of “revelations.” This propaganda was intended to so radically slander the Church and undermine the authority of the bishops, priests, and those in Holy Orders that it would leave a lasting devastation which not only forced those faithful who were normally inactive to break off ties with the Church completely, but also attempted to break the trust between devout Catholics and their clergy. To achieve this goal, the Propaganda Ministry made sure that the compulsory newspaper reports in Catholic districts were carefully reviewed before being printed. The apparent goal of the sex trial reports and its propaganda was to get on the nerves of the Catholic population to the point that they would lose their trust in the Church hierarchy. They concentrated on destroying the Church’s resistance in its attempts to retain and deepen the trust and loyalty of the faithful. As the opportunity to use public media was all but denied the German Church, it had to rely essentially upon pastoral letters and sermons from the chancery. The Catholics nevertheless streamed into their churches as they wished to hear what the clergy had to say concerning the sex proceedings and propaganda. The bishops’ pronouncements were in particular taken very seriously, often reflected in the Sunday sermon on the Sunday after the latest trial reports were released. In at least nine dioceses those attending church in June 1936 heard their bishops’ first statements which condemned the offenses but also denounced the exaggeration and false reporting made in the media. As an example, in the pastoral letter of Bishop Hilfrich of Limburg, he made it clear that “in cases where sexual offense proceedings were leveled against clerical persons in entirely open and public proceedings, that would be one matter; but we are not speaking here about love of the truth, justice, and behavioral indignation, but rather entirely different matters.”1 At the end of August 1936 the entire episcopacy decided at their conference in Fulda to send a general pastoral letter to the faithful giving encouragement and admonition to the abbots and provincial superiors. At the same time they sent a memorandum to Hitler complaining about “the slanderous stories that are officially circulated in the press with the object of distancing the youth from the clergy and thus from the Church” (Protocol from the Plenary THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org Conference of the German Bishops, August 18-20, 1936).2 One of the best champions of the Church was Bishop Count von Galen, assigned to the diocese of Münster. This prelate was one of the first superiors to look with no illusions through the consequences and significance of the ruling Nazis’ campaign and goals. Knowing he had little chance of success, in early 1937 he dared to take on the government with steadfast opposition. At the end of May he sent a detailed rebuff to Goebbels for which he took sole personal responsibility. He already had sent a strongly worded letter of opposition to the Propaganda Minister in February.3 Doing this, he was determined to show the line of thought, instructions, and items which the Minister Director Berndt delivered at a special press conference on April 28. He discussed point by point the critical positions. By Berndt’s citing unreliable numbers, the bishop proved that the authorities had come up with figures which entangled secular and regular clergy far above the reality of 0.23 percent of the total number. In a direct hit, the bishop destroyed the methodical program of the ministers. The bishop closed with the advice that the sowing and fanning of white-hot hatred towards the Church and the publication of a flood of filth upon youthful souls would have only devastating consequences. The bishop himself stated in his petition to Goebbels that he had no illusions as to the success of his petition but he wanted to make it clear to the Propaganda Minister that he would untiringly see through any deflection of this campaign. The bishop sent, at the same time, a copy of his petition to all ministers in the government, as he hoped that his precise and urgent analysis would not be entirely ignored. Through openly preaching to the clergy he set all German bishops to the task of tightening the defensive episcopal front. Already, at the beginning of April 1937, a month before the bishop’s petition, the Nazi attacks upon the Church became more frequent than ever. In the presence of Hitler, on the 6th of April, the proceedings against sex offenders were reopened. They were reopened then because, during the Olympic Games of the previous year, the proceedings had been shelved for tactical reasons. Now they were reopened in an even more concentrated manner with the intention that their propaganda become more radical and systematic than before. The reason for this was that Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Mit brennender Sorge (“It is with deep anxiety”), expressed the official Vatican observations of the condition of the Church in Germany. Couriers had brought copies of the encyclical into Germany secretly. There the publishing houses affiliated with the Church were 21 to print it in time to be read from the pulpits on Palm Sunday, March 21, 1937. At first the encyclical addressed the sex scandals. It should be clear how strict the Church and everyone would judge these things, having the words of Christ in mind: “It is impossible that scandals shall not come. But woe to him through whom they come” (Lk. 17:1-2). The encyclical particularly warned the priests and those in Holy Orders of their “holy duty” to unanimously bring their lifestyle and faith in line with the commandments of God. Furthermore, the Vatican accused the hidden and public persecution of the Church in Germany as continuously destroying the Concordat, and at heart building a war of destruction against the Church. The main theme of this document was the principal irreconcilability of the Christian faith with any “substitute faith” which emphasizes blood, people, race, or a definite form of State as the worthy norm. The encyclical declared that the totalitarian claims of the National Socialists stood directly opposed to the commandments of God and the rules of nature. The Vatican declared its willingness to broaden its dialogue with the German Reich if there were a return to the terms of the Concordat and if the persecution of the Church would be properly rescinded. The encyclical demanded nothing less than that the German government clearly distance itself from its current policies and from its basic views concerning the Church if it wished to come to an understanding with the Church.4 The reaction of the government came at once: the German government protested at the Vatican against this “open challenge” implicit in the encyclical, the distribution of which was promptly forbidden. The Gestapo took harsh measures against those publishers who had printed the encyclical, as well as those who distributed it. All this, however, was the opening phase of retribution; a second wave of the sex offender trials commenced with its propaganda. Barrages from the press, radio, brochures, and flyers spun more and more propaganda. The height was reached on the 28th of May when the Propaganda Minister, Goebbels, addressed a mass demonstration in Berlin’s Deutschlandhalle. He took pains that the “important historic coming to terms with Catholicism” (Press conference 1937)5 be dealt with urgently by every German. The largest part of the text was a newspaper editorial given prior to the beginning of the speech so that it would be reported in its unabridged form, following the fundamental commentaries already laid down in purposeful packaging that was to be printed. All German radio stations were switched to the broadcasting of the speech in the Deutschlandhalle. The Berlin section of the party had assembled 20,000 men, who marched with all the standards of the entire Berlin SA formations. Marches and battle songs, hours on end, had heated the mood of the crowd into a frenzy by the time the Propaganda Minister appeared on stage. In his customary manner, Goebbels calmed everyone down before he began to speak: “The German government had wished to keep quiet about the disturbing abuses but Catholic impertinence destroyed this intention.” Meticulously Goebbels painted a general moral decline in the clergy: “How shocked I was, outraged by its dimensions which never before had reached that level in all of human history. Thousands of clergy and members of Holy Orders and thousands of sex offenders had planned sex offences against children and the sick.” He refused to allow the Church to criticize the National Socialist government or to have anything to do with the upbringing of the youth. He pointed out on the one side “the many-leveled unscrupulous defilement of the youth exercised by the Church” and on the other side the State’s attempt to raise the youth with “not a stuffy but rather a fresh, and non-prudish upbringing.”6 The Church has enough to keep it busy caring for the spiritual life of its followers; everything else is the business of the State, a business the Church has no right to get embroiled in. “We are caring for our people; they are caring for eternal souls.”7 After this shocking polemic, Goebbels felt the slanderous operation was nearing an end and that the Church faced with the power potential of the National Socialist State would capitulate as all the other groups had, and would tow the line. Hitler, at the end of 1937, in his speech to the Sonthofen conference of party functionaries, brought forth these same demands in an infamous formula: “We all know that the German is always ready to follow the Church; however, in this case, the German will follow the German nation through their Leader.” He wished to simply clean up the situation by the free selection of “conveyance of God’s intention.” This meant always, as the protocol of the bishops’ conference in Fulda in January 1937 formulated it, “A return of the Church to a situation where the total destruction of the Church is at hand.” (See: Protocol of the Plenary Conference of the German Bishops, January 12-13, 1937.)8 While the German bishops were still strongly protesting the closing of Catholic schools in their various dioceses, the Educational Minister, Rust, in July 1937, proposed to the government a law which would create a nonsectarian school system wherein all students (i.e., Christians of various denominations, non-Christians, and atheists) would attend the same classes and thus create a uniform student body. In the same month the propaganda moved its target to Catholic parents. Its object: to totally destroy their trust in the Catholic educational system so www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 22 they would accept its elimination. At the same time (1937), the final phase of the struggle against the Catholic youth organizations began. Supported by the “findings” of the sex offender trials, the Gestapo closed the competitive Catholic youth organizations to the advantage of the National Socialistic ones. In July 1937 the first diocesan Catholic Young Men’s Club was dissolved. Further closures continued in the next months; eventually they were all prohibited. The propaganda offensive against the clergy and those in Holy Orders never did, however, reach its intended goal, despite violent acts by the authorities. The faithful would not believe the accusations against their clergy. The year 1937, however, saw the greatest falling-away of Catholics in the Hitler era: 108,000 left the Church.9 The sex offender trials did not spare the Protestants; in fact, it proceeded at a quicker pace. Meanwhile, there was an increase in attendance in the Catholic Church. Masses, novenas, processions and pilgrimages had more participants than earlier years. The number of faithful remained firm; bishops, priests, and religious attained a respect from their flocks as never before. The basis for the strong resistance of the Catholic population to the insinuations of the propaganda and psychological pressures of their peers was the fact that the firm strength of the Catholic population still existed despite four years of Nazi leadership. In addition, one was not left defenseless against the propaganda: pastoral letters, sermons, private conversations, and fliers provided ammunition against its effects. What the propaganda failed to consider concerning the moral life of the clergy and those in Holy Orders was that they dealt with persons with whom steadfast Catholics were in constant contact. Thus the faithful could judge the propaganda’s supposed allegations with their own personal observations, the results of which the Church had nothing to fear. The campaign of sexual offender trials, in fact, remained to a large extent unsuccessful. One State attorney from Coblenz reports that daily he had to conclude: “The entire legal procedure [i.e., against sex offenders] and particularly our open endeavors simply achieved discredit. Even the juridical circles realized that the entire sexual offender trials were viewed as ‘a Christian persecution.’”10 Particularly important, and well substantiated, is a report concerning “Effects of the Publicized Handling of Sexual Offenders Trials” which Bishop Preysing of Berlin presented to the bishops’ conference in Fulda in August 1937. Whereas “among lukewarm Catholics and a section of the emerging youth it had a certain effect, in general the entire campaign of the sexual offender trials was a wash out.” Dr. Kausch, then the correspondent for many THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org German newspapers and constant participator at the press conferences of the Propaganda Ministry maintained: “The entire wave of propaganda was a complete failure....There would not have been such an abrupt cancellation had there been any chance of success.”11 In fact, the proceedings were suddenly closed and the government turned a blind eye to the whole endeavor. The reason for this was that Hitler’s foreign policy plans and war expectations became more and more pressing in 1937, which did not allow for internal conflict. He saw that it was wiser not to take precarious steps and wished to avoid a conflict with the Church for administrative discretion and to facilitate State police procedures. The failure of the slander campaign of the Nazis in 1936-37 made it evident to what limits National Socialism could go. It was best to get the Church out of the public eye rather than try to overwhelm it. Hitler did achieve restricting the Church’s activities to church services and care for souls and, most importantly, keeping the Church out of the educational sphere. It was not possible for him to weaken the tight bond of the German Catholics with their Church, to split bishops, clergy, and the faithful from each other. Most importantly he did not achieve taking away from the Church its “normative power of human life, with universal claims for creativity and as center of a sense of purpose” which the faithful tenaciously held on to.12 However, it cannot be overlooked that the faithful Catholics were only a minority of the German community; just as it is not to be overlooked that this minority, outside their Church, lost all of their institutions, elements, and ability to lead life in a Catholic milieu and were subjected to a restricted life. Catholic existence now meant “living on the rim of society,” or as Bishop Preysing said in his pastoral message of November 30, 1937: “The believing Catholic in Germany lives a quarantined existence.”13 Norbert Clasen is president of Initiativkreis Eichstätt, a group dedicated to promoting the traditional Latin Mass. This article appeared in Kirchliche Umschau, a traditional monthly review based in Germany. Hans Günter Hockerts, Die Sittlichkeitsprozesse gegen katholische Ordensangehörige und Priester, 1936/1937 (Mainz, 1971), p. 160. Ibid., p. 152. 3 Ibid., p. 153. 4 Ibid., p. 73. 5 Ibid., p. 113. 6 Ibid., p. 115. 7 Ibid., p. 116. 8 Ibid., p. 134. 9 Heinz Hürten, Deutsche Katholiken 1918 bis 1945 (Paderborn, Munich, Vienna, Zurich, 1992), p. 298. 10 Hockerts, Die Sittlichkeitsprozesse, p. 210. 11 Ibid., p. 211. 12 Hürten, Deutsche Katholiken, p. 298. 13 Ibid. 1 2 A Brief History of the Society of St. Pius X On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, we present a revised and updated history. Long before the Second Vatican Council, which was the final, visible eruption of long-suppressed modernist infiltration in the Church, the Society of St. Pius X was made possible by the providential foresight of an extraordinary man, Fr. Henri Le Floch, Superior of the French Seminary in Rome. In the 1920s he formed a small group of young men, future prelates and priests who, having been fully instructed by him as to the true nature of the heresy of modernism, remained faithfully attached to Tradition. Fr. Le Floch announced in 1926: The heresy which is now being born will become the most dangerous of all; the exaggeration of the respect due to the Pope and the illegitimate extension of his infallibility. A grateful Archbishop Lefebvre often spoke of his great teacher. We will see repeatedly in this historical recollection many churchmen close to the Society of St. Pius X who studied with our great founder under the great Fr. Le Floch. 1968 In the spring of 1968, in the Swiss village of Saxon, several local men purchase the old chapel and farm of Ecône. It was once run by the Canons of St. Bernard, and contains the shrine of Our Lady of the Fields. It is saved from being developed into a motel with a 24 restaurant and nightclub. The local bishop is glad to sell it off. In the same year, the General Chapter of the Fathers of the Holy Ghost revises its Constitutions in the spirit of the new Council. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Superior General of the order, protests before the Sacred Congregation of Religious in Rome. He is invited to take a break and go on vacation. He presents his resignation and retires as chaplain to a convent in Rome. In May of 1968, in the French Seminary of Rome, where the great Fr. Le Floch was Superior only a generation ago, the Communist flag now hangs from the main balcony in support of the revolutionary students in Paris. A minuscule group of seminarians, still dressed in their cassocks and being shunned by the rest of their comrades and teachers, seeks out the retired Archbishop Lefebvre to ask him for help. He directs them to the stillconservative University of Fribourg in Switzerland, encouraged by the presence there of the Abbot of Hauterive and the Dominican theologian Fr. Philippe. In the words of the Archbishop: I said to these gentlemen that wanted to force me to do something for the seminarians, asking me to take care of them personally, “I’m going to see Bishop Charrière. If he tells me, ‘go ahead,’ then I will see in it a sign of the will of God.” I said this because I really didn’t want to do it; I felt old and I was sure that I could not undertake such a 40th Anniversary Supplement work. When you are 65 years old you do not undertake a work like the one of the Society. Had somebody told me the number of priests and what the Society would be today I would just have smiled sweetly. So I didn’t want to, but Bishop Charrière insisted, “Il faut, il faut, you must, you must; faites, faites, do it, do it! Do something, rent a house, don’t abandon these seminarians. You know what’s going on in the Church. We need absolutely to keep the good traditions.” This was the sign. The Society is therefore not a personal work; it would never have been blessed by God as it has been. It was definitely a work of God. 1970 The Swiss laymen offer the property of Ecône to Archbishop Lefebvre via a local parish priest, Fr. Bonvin, a confrere of the Archbishop in the French Seminary at Rome. The seminarians leave the rented rooms of the Don Bosco House in Fribourg and in September the first year starts at Ecône with the warm approval of Bishop Adam of Sion. On the 1st of November the Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg approves and confirms the constitutions and proceeds to the canonical foundation of the International Priestly Society of Saint Pius X in his diocese. 1971-74 The Archbishop expected to wait a long time for the second canonical step, the approval of Rome. Only four months later, in February Fr. Le Floch Armada, Michigan Archbishop Lefebvre, Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org Don Bosco House in Fribourg A Brief History of the Society of St. Pius X of 1971, Cardinal Wright, Prefect for the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy, officially approves the Society. The official Roman document recognizes the Society’s international character and the fact that many bishops from the world praise and approve it. The Cardinal is happy that the Society will amplify the number of Catholic clergy in the world. Much to the surprise of our founder, his small work of faith receives further encouragement. When a few priests wish to join him in the Society’s work, the Archbishop submits the case to Rome, and the Roman Curia, anticipating his desires, detaches these priests from their bishops and from their religious orders to make them depend exclusively on the Society of Saint Pius X. This official act of Rome recognizes the right of the Society of St. Pius X to incardinate its members. Ultimately, this mandate of the Church, along with a state of necessity, constitutes the main reason for the episcopal consecrations of 1988. In 1971, 24 candidates enter the seminary of Ecône. In 1972, 32 candidates enter the seminary. The French bishops, almost all Modernists, are closely watching the expansion of the young Society. Jealous of its unexpected success, they start a campaign of discredit. They want to close Ecône. Society seminaries are opened at Armada, Michigan, in 1973, and Albano (Rome) in 1974. The plot to close Ecône continues and the French bishops put pressure on Rome to suppress the Society. In November of 1974, two apostolic visitors from Rome come to Ecône. Although they are modernists, their report on the seminary is positive. 1975 Nineteen seventy-five starts with a large-scale press campaign against the Archbishop. Vandalism thickens the atmosphere around the seminary. In February three cardinals interrogate Archbishop Lefebvre, and one of them, French Cardinal Garrone, calls him a fool. In May, against the provisions of Canon Law, the Society is invalidly suppressed. French Cardinal Villot forces Cardinal Staffa to refuse the Archbishop’s rightful canonical appeal to the Supreme Apostolic Signatura. The Secretary of State writes to all the bishops of the world, asking them to refuse incardination to the members of the Society. The trap is now set: Without incardination there will be no priestly work, and since the Society is supposedly suppressed Archbishop Lefebvre can no longer ordain priests. He answers this illegal condemnation with a pilgrimage to Rome of the whole Society to gain the indulgences of the Holy Year of 1975. 1976 Paul VI denounces the Archbishop as disobedient to the new liturgy. Cardinal Benelli asks the Archbishop to celebrate the New Mass just Ecône, Class of 1971 The seminary in Ecône, Switzerland 25 Albano, Italy THE ANGELUS • October 2010 Archbishop Lefebvrewww.angeluspress.org with seminary professors 40th Anniversary Supplement 26 once, promising in the name of the Pope that this will suffice to solve the difficulties. The Archbishop refuses, and on June 29, he ordains twelve priests at Ecône. In July the Vatican issues its decree of suspension. In August more than 10,000 assemble at Lille to show their support. 1977 In February of 1977, traditional Catholics liberate the church of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet in Paris. Fall 1977 sees 38 new seminarians, despite the condemnations. The Society now has 40 priests, 150 seminarians, 20 priories, and 3 seminaries. The Sisters of the Society, founded in 1974, move their novitiate to Albano, and their general house to St. Michel-enBrenne under the direction of Mother Mary Gabriel Lefebvre. 1978 Pope Paul VI died on August 6, 1978. Pope John Paul I reigned 33 days. John Paul II became Pope on October 16. On November 16, the new Pope receives the Archbishop in Rome. After a long conversation he says he is willing to remove all restrictions on the Traditional Mass, but Cardinal Seper, standing nearby, exclaims immediately, “They make a banner of this Mass,” This remark changes the Pope’s mind. For the Society, 1978 sees the acquisition of four priories in France, a property in Long Island, and the priory of Madrid. The German seminary of Weissbad moves to Zaitzkofen. The Jesuit College in St. Mary’s, Kansas, almost in ruins, was bought by the Society. And in Argentina, the Society opens a small new seminary in Buenos Aires, with 12 candidates. Father Pulvermacher, a friend of the Society, founds Angelus Press and The Angelus. 1979 An old inn is purchased at Rickenbach in Switzerland to be our first General House. A large property is bought just north of Turin at Montalenghe in Italy for a retreat house. The American Seminary transfers to Ridgefield, Connecticut. On August 15, the Archbishop is in St. Mary’s, Kansas, for the first Marian Pilgrimage. He wrote: It was a magnificent success. More than 2,000 people came from everywhere. I wish that this place become a great sanctuary for all America, and a center of devotion and prayers towards the Blessed Virgin, who alone is The Mass in Lille, France The Credo Pilgrimage to Rome (1975) St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, Paris THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org St. Michel-en-Brenne A Brief History of the Society of St. Pius X capable of stopping the moral corruption which does not cease to grow in this immense country. And about France: The experience of our first two schools of St. Michel in Chateauroux and of l’Etoile du Matin gives us great hopes for the truly Christian formation of young men and for vocations that will certainly spring up in such an excellent atmosphere. May God allow our schools to multiply. The year is crowned on September 23 by the celebration of the priestly golden jubilee of the Archbishop in Paris, where he calls for a Catholic Crusade of restoration: We must make a Crusade founded on the sacrifice of the Mass, to re-create Christendom as the Church wants it, on the same principles, the same Mass, the same sacraments, the same catechism, the same Holy Scripture. A crusade of young people, of Catholic families, of heads of families, a crusade of priests. 1980 On the occasion of our tenth anniversary, the Archbishop writes: Our attitude for the last ten years must continue now without hesitation for the good of the Church, to help the authorities of the Church who want it to come out from the disorder in which they have imprudently engaged themselves. The conclusion of this anniversary must be depositum custodire, to keep the deposit of the faith, source of grace and sanctification. University of St. Pius X in Paris In France, the Archbishop announces the opening of the Society’s University of St. Pius X in Paris. In May, he visits the United States and he is especially pleased with the recently acquired church of St. Vincent de Paul in Kansas City. Ecône sees the arrival of 9 seminarians from Argentina. In Ridgefield we have 12 new candidates. 1981 In the United States, Archbishop Lefebvre dedicates the complex of Jesus and Mary in El Paso, Texas. He then crosses the border for what turns out to be a triumphant tour of the country of the Cristeros. In Rome, Cardinal Seper, the Pope’s delegate for the dialogue with the Society, writes of the possibility of sending a cardinal to find a solution to the problems of the Society. The Archbishop goes for a long missionary trip to South Africa and then to Argentina, where he lays the first stone of the seminary in La Reja. He also visits Brazil at the request of Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, who is soon going to be forced to retire from his diocese. The Archbishop then travels to Australia to prepare the foundation of the first priory in Sydney. In Rome, Cardinal Seper goes to his reward. His last letter of October does not present any solution. St. Vincent de Paul, Kansas City, Missouri Archbishop Lefebvre visits St. Mary’s, Kansas 27 The German seminary in Zaitzkofen THEConnecticut ANGELUS • October 2010 Ridgefield, www.angeluspress.org 40th Anniversary Supplement 28 1982 On March 1, St. Joseph gives us our first church in London, seating 300 faithful. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger replaces Cardinal Seper as personal representative of the Pope. The Archbishop has a long interview with him in March. Rome wants the Society to agree that even though there may be some reservations about it, the liturgical reform is basically good. The Archbishop says: We believe that the reform is evil, poisoned by ecumenism, and we refuse to accept it and we are obliged to advise all the faithful against it. God only knows how long the reformers will close their eyes to the destruction of the faith, of morals, of institutions. March 20: An all-night prayer vigil is held in Martigny, near Ecône, inspired by the message of Our Lady of Fatima asking for prayer and penance. Three thousand pilgrims assist at the consecration of the world, and especially of Russia, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In anticipation of the present frenzy about the new millennium, Archbishop Lefebvre declares calmly and firmly: The 21st century will be Catholic or it will not be at all. Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer and the priests of Campos, Brazil The church of Sts. Joseph THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org and Padarn, London At Easter time, 5 monsignori and 20 diocesan priests of the diocese of Campos in Brazil publish a profession of Catholic faith in the face of the present errors, a splendid document defending the pristine doctrine and traditions of the Church, writing: We have the absolute certainty that our position is legitimate, not by virtue of our arguments and ideas, but because we take our stand on that which the Church herself has taught us. For the Church, we wish to give our lives if it is necessary. The first general chapter of the Society of Saint Pius X takes place in Ecône in September. In the Acts we read a declaration of principles and directives of the Society of Saint Pius X, decisions on pastoral action in the present crisis, and warnings against liturgical changes and false ecumenism, and the rejection of liberalism but also sedevacantism: The Society of Saint Pius X is founded on the history of the Church and upon the doctrine of theologians. It believes that the Pope can favor the ruin of the Church by choosing and letting act bad advisors, also by signing documents and decrees which do not engage his infallibility and that cause considerable damage to the Church. Nothing is more dangerous for the Church than liberal popes who are in a continual incoherence. We pray for the Pope, but we refuse to follow him in his errors on religious freedom, ecumenism, socialism and Msgr. Ducaud-Bourget Fr. Franz Schmidberger, Archbishop Lefebvre the new Superior at La Reja, Argentina General of the SSPX A Brief History of the Society of St. Pius X the application of reforms destructive for the Church. Our apparent disobedience is true obedience to the Church and to the Pope as successor of Peter in the measure that he continues to maintain holy Tradition....All the members of the Society have one desire, to be submitted in filial obedience to a Rome returned to Tradition. Fr. Franz Schmidberger is elected Vicar General with right of immediate succession as Superior General. In the seminaries, the course of studies is extended from five to six years. We have 60 new entries in Ecône, Ridgefield, Zaitzkofen, and Buenos Aires. 1983 This is the year of the publication of the new Code of Canon Law, which expresses in canonical terms the new Conciliar conception of the Church. In March, Fr. Barrielle, an apostle of the Exercises of St. Ignatius, dies at Ecône. He was Spiritual Director of the seminary of Ecône, where he helped generations of priests, inspiring them with his zeal and giving them the key to the Exercises. The Archbishop said of him that “he had a heart of fire.” In June, 28 new priests are ordained in Ecône. Ireland receives the first priest of the Society. The Archbishop wishes that God will bring many vocations from this island which once gave so many priests and missionaries to the Church. In August, Switzerland sees the first traditional pilgrimage to the sanctuary of St. Nicholas of Flue, with more than 4,000 faithful attending. In Ecône 65 priests follow the priestly retreat, and in Ridgefield, 11 new students join the seminary. In Germany, Don Bosco School starts with 15 students. In November, the Archbishop visits the United States, confirming 360 in Ciudad Juarez in the morning, and in the afternoon 350 in El Paso. Then he traveled to New York to bless St. Michael’s Chapel in Long Island. 1984 The Pope preaches in the Lutheran church of Rome in March. In May he bows before a bonze in a Buddhist temple in Thailand; at the same time the Vatican abrogates the concordat with Italy. At this point the Archbishop begins to consider seriously the necessity of an episcopal consecration. The Society now has 120 priests and 120 seminarians at Ecône. Mother Mary Jude is named Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X Sisters, and in the United States the northeast and southwest districts are reunified. 29 Msgr. François Ducaud-Bourget dies in Paris in the middle of June. Chaplain of the Order of Malta, renowned poet and writer, faithful to the traditional Mass, he was responsible for the liberation of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet. Expansion starts with foundations in Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, Holland, and Portugal. Seminarians spend one month in Rome inaugurating what will become a yearly summer tradition. Directed by a priest, they are exposed during four weeks to the history, art, and majestic beauty of the Eternal City. October 3, the Indult. The Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship officially states that diocesan bishops may allow the celebration of the Mass according to the 1962 typical edition of the Roman Missal. But, among the draconian conditions, public evidence should exist that the petitioners have no ties with those who deny the doctrinal soundness of the missal promulgated by Paul VI, and that the celebration may take place only on those days and circumstances approved by the bishop. The letter is signed by Archbishop Mayer, afterwards Cardinal in charge of the Ecclesia Dei Commission. He indicates that this Indult is to be used without prejudice to the liturgical reform. On October 18, in the so-called Document of Flavigny, the Society of Saint Pius X and 40 priests and laymen leaders of traditional works refuse the conditions of the Indult and ask for a wider application without compromise regarding the Liturgical Reformation. The Archbishop travels to Chile in November. Four hundred confirmations are announced in Santiago; 1,200 arrive. During a ceremony of four hours the Archbishop proceeds to the longest confirmation session in his life. On December 8 in Ecône, all the superiors make the Consecration of the Society of Saint Pius X to the Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Mary, prepared by an evening of prayers at Martigny attended by more than 4,000 faithful. On December 21, Don Francesco Putti dies. He was a spiritual dirigé of Padre Pio. He founded the Disciples of the Cenacle, and the journal SìSìNoNo. He once sued L’Osservatore Romano, obtaining the first public apology that newspaper ever published. At the end of the year, Archbishop Lefebvre visits Cardinal Ratzinger, then goes to Africa, and on his return to Rome he visits Cardinal Gagnon, who gives shocking details of the network of conspiracy and corruption in Rome. The Archbishop comments: “The situation is even worse than what we had thought until now.” www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 40th Anniversary Supplement 30 1985 In March, Father Schmidberger presents to Cardinal Ratzinger three large packages with the petitions of 129,849 traditional Catholics asking the Pope to solve the problem of tradition. Meanwhile, the Archbishop writes his Open Letter to Confused Catholics. In Chartres, 8,000 faithful attend the pilgrimage of tradition. At the end a message of encouragement from Cardinal Gagnon is read. In Mexico, during the Holy Week in Tlaxiaco, 15,000 faithful attend the Palm Sunday procession, and 2,500 confessions are heard during the holy days. At the end of July, the Society preaches retreats in Lebanon. Also during summer, there are missionary trips to India, Ceylon and Gabon, where two bishops encourage a foundation. In Ireland, a new church is bought in Dublin seating 700, and 10 new chapels open in Germany. A world-wide campaign led by the Society protests against the blasphemous film Hail Mary. On July 22, Lady Kinnoull dies in Carmel, California. She was the very first providential benefactress of the Society. English countess, very cultivated, knowing profoundly her religion with a solid attachment to tradition, with the character of a crusader, and with a great fortune, she supported financially General Franco during the Spanish War. Restless fighter, in 1964 she flew to Paris to meet Archbishop Lefebvre while he was still Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, to tell him that her fortune and influences would be at his service if he needed help to fight against the subversion within the Church. During the first years of the Society of Saint Pius X in Fribourg, she covered most of the expenses of that early foundation. At her death, the Archbishop wrote: She could consider the young priests of the Society as her children because without her help at the beginning it would not have been possible to fulfill our priestly work. Mother Marie Christiane, blood sister of Archbishop Lefebvre, visits the United States in October to found the American Carmel in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. In La Reja, Argentina, the Archbishop celebrates his 80th birthday. 1986 The Pope visits Togo and India, again scandalizing the faithful by taking public part in ceremonies of a pagan nature. In January, Cardinal Gagnon calls Archbishop Lefebvre to Rome and announces that the Holy Father wants him to be associated to Cardinal Ratzinger in the Society’s case. Our house of Gabon is founded on January 14. The President invites Archbishop Lefebvre to visit the country. Regular missionary trips begin to New Guinea, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Congress of Religions in Assisi Mother Mary Gabriel, co-foundress and first Superior of the Sisters of THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org the Society of Saint Pius X Chartres pilgrimage A Brief History of the Society of St. Pius X The pilgrimage of Chartres brings 15,000 faithful and more than 100 priests; more than 3,000 attend the pilgrimage to St. Nicholas of Flue. The priory of Wanganui, New Zealand, opens in August. A priory is also founded in Port du France, Martinique. Monthly Masses start in Luxembourg, and in Santiago, Chile, a large church is bought with 500 faithful in attendance. The Castle of Jaidhof is purchased in Austria to become a center of retreats and missionary work. A summer retreat in Lebanon brings 65 men to follow the Exercises. The Society prepares a foundation in Zimbabwe, and starts a small beginning of the apostolate in India. In the United States, at the beginning of August, the Society Sisters found a novitiate at Armada, Michigan. The headquarters of the Society moves from Dickinson, Texas, to St. Louis, Missouri. 1987 The Society now has 205 priests working in 23 countries and 263 young men filling the seminaries. The General Council determines that it is time to move the seminary in Ridgefield, Connecticut, elsewhere, and convert it into a retreat house. St. Mary’s has 700 faithful, and in France a new Carmel is founded, the seventh after the foundations started by Mother Marie Christiane Lefebvre in 1977, one Carmel for each seminary. Archbishop Lefebvre is welcomed to Mexico 31 In January, Mother Mary Gabriel dies. She was a Holy Ghost Sister, co-foundress and first General Superior of the Sisters of the Society of Saint Pius X. Also in January, Fr. Raymond du Lac dies. He was a renowned canonist who studied at the French Seminary with Archbishop Lefebvre under Fr. Le Floch. In France, the Society founds the Confraternity for the Deliverance of the Souls in Purgatory, a work that keeps growing every year and that today is in possession of its own chapel in France. During the ordinations, the Archbishop says that after the Pope’s visit to the Synagogue of Rome, and the Congress of Religions in Assisi, after all the warnings, Rome is now in darkness. Twenty-one new priests, 130 assisting priests and 6,000 faithful are present at the historical moment when the Archbishop announces publicly that he believes it is an obligation to save the priesthood by proceeding to an episcopal consecration. In the United States, a magnificent building that belonged to the Dominicans becomes the new seminary at Winona, Minnesota. On July 26, Fr. Stephen Abdoo, after one year of most fruitful priestly work since his ordination, dies in a car accident in New Zealand. In July, Cardinal Ratzinger writes to the Archbishop offering at last concrete proposals for a solution, including the possibility of a Cardinal visiting the works of the Society. The Archbishop Don Francesco Putti St. John’s Church, Dublin, Ireland The flourishing mission in Libreville, Gabon Arcbishop Lefebvre with www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 Fr. Carl Pulvermacher Mother Marie Christiane (center) 32 goes to the Eternal City and Cardinal Ratzinger informs the Synod of Bishops that the Pope has named Cardinal Gagnon as Apostolic Visitor to the Society. In October, Archbishop Lefebvre celebrates his 40th anniversary at Ecône, surrounded by 80 priests, 150 seminarians, and 4,000 faithful. 1988 In February, the Archbishop announces in Flavigny before television cameras that he will consecrate three bishops on June 30. Our Australian seminary, Holy Cross, opens with 14 seminarians on the Feast of St. Joseph. Rome seems confused. After a series of ambiguous negotiations, an obscure protocol is signed the 5th of May. The day after, the Archbishop discovers that there are no assurances that the conditions will be promptly fulfilled, and he decides to proceed to the consecration of auxiliary bishops. It is a survival operation of tradition, absolutely justified by the unjust persecution of faithful Catholics and the betrayal of the faith by Roman authorities. Ecône, June 29: At the priestly ordinations, the two faithful bishops, plus 173 priests who come from all over the world, impose hands on the ordinands. That very evening Rome makes a last attempt to avoid the episcopal consecrations, sending a beautiful black Mercedes limousine to take the Archbishop on the spot to Rome. The next day, June 30, 8,000 faithful witness the historical consecration of four Catholic bishops to continue the work of Tradition. Our Bishops do not have vacation; they go immediately on long confirmation trips. Bishop Williamson visits England, Ireland, South Africa, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii in the months following his consecration. Bishop Fellay visits Asia, India, and Australia. 40th Anniversary Supplement In October, the seminary at Winona opens. In Australia, our sisters open a convent in Sydney. Fr. Marchal, one of our young priests, dies in a car accident in France. In November, Fr. Joseph Le Boulch, a Benedictine monk and spiritual director at Ecône, dies. He joined Archbishop Lefebvre in 1975. In December, the six Traditional bishops consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. 1989 The Society starts a perpetual Mass in honor of the Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Our Lady. Perpetual Adoration is also begun, the Blessed Sacrament remains exposed at some house of the Society throughout the world. In one year the four new bishops have ordained 34 new priests. Winona sees the first priestly ordinations in the new seminary. In France, summer study sessions for priests on theological subjects are started. On November 19, at Le Bourget, 23,000 faithful gather to celebrate the 60th Priestly Jubilee of the Archbishop. In December, in Italy, Katharina Tangari dies at the seminary of Albano. Spiritual daughter of Padre Pio, she was commanded by him to consecrate her life to help priests and laymen in Communist countries. She also was a great benefactor of the Society. 1990 In May, Fr. Schmidberger visits Hungary and celebrates Mass for 200 faithful. In April, 20 years of the Society are celebrated before 10,000 faithful in Friedrichshafen. The Carmelites move to Spokane, Washington. In Ridgefield the great number of retreatants make us realize that a new retreat house is needed immediately for the Southwest. THE EPISCOPAL CONSECRATIONS (1988) THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org F A Brief History of the Society of St. Pius X 33 FUNERAL OF ARCHBISHOP MARCEL LEFEBVRE In September, in Canada, Holy Family School opens in Quebec. In Gabon, 3,000 faithful attend the Christmas Mass in our mission. Also at Christmas time, our sisters’ novitiate moves from Armada to Browerville, Minnesota. 1991 On March 25, Archbishop Lefebvre dies. According to the ancient martyrologies it is also the date of the death of our Savior. The epitaph he chose is inscribed on his tombstone: “Tradidi quod et accepi” [I have transmitted what I received]. Exactly one month later, on April 25, Bishop de Castro Mayer follows him to heaven. In July, the bishops of the Society consecrate Msgr. Licinio Rangel to continue in Brazil the survival operation of the Catholic Faith of Bishop de Castro Mayer. In May, Dom Edouard Guillou dies. He was a monk of Solesmes, a specialist in liturgy and in art, a writer of history and literature; he was one of the early teachers at Ecône. In the U.S. District, a property is bought in Los Gatos, California, for a new retreat center. 1992 Nineteen ninety-two brings the start of missionary work in Eastern Europe: Prague, Budapest, visits to Poland, Lithuania, the Ukraine, and Russia. Itinerant missionary priests of the Society also visit Kenya, Sri Lanka, and the Dominican Republic. In January, Fr. Spiq, a Dominican, internationally renowned as a scriptural scholar, dies in Switzerland. He was one of the early professors who helped Archbishop Lefebvre to form the first seminarians. In May, in the U.S., the Regina Coeli House opens. Fr. Schmidberger blesses the new District Headquarters and consecrates the U.S. District to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In August, the first priory of the Philippines is founded in Manila. Also in August, Bishop Williamson blesses St. Pius X’s Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. In September, in Brussels, 300 religious leaders– Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, and Animists–are invited by Cardinal Daneels to pray for world peace. The Society organizes a group of Catholics for a ceremony of reparation for the Cardinal’s sin with the Stations of the Cross. 1993 Forty-one priests gather in Winona for the third annual Priests’ Meeting. In April, the General House is transferred to Menzingen. One hundred and ten Ukrainians visit Ecône, and 20 Russians spend a week at the seminary of Zaitzkofen. Our priests start to visit Albania, Belarus, and the Baltic countries. Fr. Paradis, an old Canadian priest in Shawinigan since 1985, goes to his eternal reward. In May, Fr. Henri La Praz consummates his Calvary on earth. In the summer, 400 attend the five-day Ignatian Exercises preached in South America. Priests of the Society visit Moscow, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Guatemala on a regular schedule. A house is bought in Fatima, just behind the Basilica of Our Lady. A new priory is based in Austria to take care of the spiritual needs of Eastern Europe. 1994 In July, the General Chapter of the Society, assembled at Ecône, elects a new Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 40th Anniversary Supplement 34 documents from Rome which declared that the SSPX and its adherents were in “formal schism” due to the 1988 Consecrations. However, neither of the texts were signed, dated or listed with the required Vatican Protocol Number. The SSPX then investigated the matter; at the end of the year, the Vatican published the texts! In August, the Pope issues another encyclical, Veritatis Splendor, another modernist masterpiece of obscurity and ambiguity. In August, Fr. Coache dies. He was a doctor in Canon Law and parish priest for many years. 1995 In January, Fr. Urban Snyder dies. He taught at Ecône from 1972 to 1976. In May, Fr. Barcelonne dies in France at 94 years of age. He worked for 27 years in China, and was expelled in 1952 by the Communists. He was a missionary in Brazil, in the diocese of Campos. He spent his last ten years at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, where he was affectionately called “The Patriarch.” The Pope issues another modernist encyclical, Ut Unum Sint. 1996 In Italy, the second theological congress of SiSiNoNo is held at Albano. Five years after the death of Archbishop Lefebvre, Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais is charged with writing his biography. In Winona, nine priests are ordained. Bishop Salvador Lazo from the Philippines attends the priestly ordinations at St. Pius X Seminary in Ecône. 1997 In May of 1997, the Bishop of Sion in Switzerland presented two texts that purportedly were official 1998 In October, Msgr. Perl issues a letter which states: “While it is true that participation in the Mass at the chapels of the Society of St. Pius X does not of itself constitute ‘formal adherence to the schism,’ such adherence can come about over a period of time as one slowly imbibes a schismatic mentality which separates itself from the teaching of the Supreme Pontiff and the entire Catholic Church.” In October, the new church at the seminary of Ecône is blessed. Almost 100 priests and 3,000 faithful attend the magnificent ceremonies. 1999 In January, in Italy, Muslims hold a public prayer service for Ramadan. A conservative Italian political party calls the SSPX to offer a public Mass in reparation. Fr. Simoulin does so, in the presence of nearly 800 people. The Society continues to spread in Eastern Europe, as Bishop Fellay joins Belarus, Russia and Ukraine to the District of Austria. Bishop Tissier de Mallerais confers confirmations in the Czech Republic, and the first Czech priest is ordained by Bishop de Galarreta. In France, Fr. Laurençon institutes a Letter to Fellow Priests. This regular initiative is sent to every Bishop Fellay with Bishop Lazo St. Isidore the Farmer, Denver, Colorado Fr. Henri La Praz SSPX General House, Menzingen, Switzerland THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org Fr. Urban Snyder with Dr. John Senior Bishop Fellay, Superior General of the SSPX A Brief History of the Society of St. Pius X priest in France. He receives over 300 responses to the introductory letter. In April, Dr. John Senior dies and is buried at St. Mary’s. He was a famous and very influential teacher; he was a longtime friend and supporter of the Society. His funeral is the largest to date at St. Mary’s. The Year of Humanities is introduced at the seminary in Winona. In Asia, the District Houses moves from Manila in the Philippines to Singapore in order to be more centrally located. St. Bernard’s, a pre-seminary and novitiate, is founded in the Philippines. At the initiative of Fr. Onoda, the works of Archbishop Lefebvre are published in Korean for the first time. The Oblates of the Society continue to grow, prompting their novitiate to be moved from Menzingen to an old school in Salvan, Switzerland. 2000 In February, Fathers Couture and Wailliez go to Vietnam for the first time. Although the political climate makes such visits dangerous, there is much reason for hope in the apostolate there. In March, Pope John Paul II apologies for various “sins” the Church has committed throughout history, such as the Inquisition and the Crusades. In April, Bishop Lazo passes to his eternal reward. Bishop John Bosco Chuabsamai Manat, bishop of the Diocese of Ratchaburi, Thailand, begins to collaborate with the SSPX. In August, the Society leads a Pilgrimage of Tradition to Rome for the Jubilee Year. Over 5,000 35 faithful attend in addition to the bishops of the Society and hundreds of priests. The official Vatican version of the Third Secret of Fatima is released, amidst much speculation and controversy. Many point out problems indicating that parts may still be missing. The Society continues to expand in America, opening a priory in Syracuse, New York. Bishop Tissier de Mallerais takes up residence at the seminary in Ecône. The Society reaches two more milestones: The number of priests now tops 400, and the Society celebrates its 30th anniversary. In September, Pius IX and Dom Columba Marmion are beatified by the Pope. The Society of St. Josaphat is founded in the Ukraine to work alongside the SSPX. Their first superior is Fr. Vasyl Kovpack and they found a seminary. 2001 In February, the Society presents a study on the New Mass to Pope John Paul II. It is entitled The Reform. Problem of the Liturgical Reform DICI (International Catholic Documentation and Information) is founded as the official communication agency of the Society. In the United States, St. Isidore’s in Denver, Colorado, is finished and r, The new church at the seminary of Ecône The Society of St. Josaphat, Ukraine St. Joseph’s, Brussels THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org 40th Anniversary Supplement 36 SSPX PILGRIMAGE TO ROME (2000) Militia Immaculatæ. A priory is also opened in Lithuania, further solidifying the work of the Society there. 2003 blessed. It is arguably the most beautiful of the Society’s churches in the United States. In Europe, the Society acquires St. Joseph’s in Brussels, Belgium, an edifice bigger even than St. Nicholas in Paris! In Argentina, the Society blesses the church at the seminary in La Reja. 2002 In June, Padre Pio is canonized. In the United States, St. Mary’s Academy and College starts a radio station. In Eastern Europe, Fr. Karl Stehlin restores St. Maximilian Kolbe’s In April, Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia is published. The Society opens its newest African apostolate in Kenya. In March, the British District of the SSPX founds Mater Dei, a new journal dedicated to the spread of Tradition in England. In April, St. Bernard’s Novitiate in the Philippines is vandalized and robbed; Brother Hyacinthe is shot in the process but recovers. Missionary work is not confined to Eastern Europe; in Asia, Fr. Couture visits China. The Society celebrates the centenary of St. Pius X’s election to the Pontificate with a variety of conferences, celebrations, and studies. The Society now numbers more than 450 priests. St. Mary’s Academy and College celebrates its 25th anniversary, with 775 students enrolled. Fr. Roch passes away, leaving behind a legacy of fruitful work in the vineyard of the Lord. 2004 In May, Hindus are allowed to perform a prayer for peace at the altar in the Shrine in Fatima. The Society interviews 17 priests—none of whom are members of the Society—about why they remained faithful to the traditional Mass, learned how to say it, or came to Tradition. These interviews Bishop Bernard Fellay, Fr. Niklaus Pfluger (left), and Fr. Marc-Alain Nély (right) THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org The new US District Headquarters, Regina Coeli House, Platte City, Missouri Notre Dame de La Salette Boys Academy, Olivet, Illinois e e y, is A Brief History of the Society of St. Pius X in book form are sent to all 46,000 priests in America. Many hundreds of priests respond, asking for further information. Following on their liturgical study, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the pontificate of Pope John Paul II, Bishop Fellay addresses the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church in a letter about the disastrous effects of ecumenism effected through Vatican II and the Novus Ordo Missae. Included with the letter is the study From Ecumenism to Silent Apostasy. In December, Pope John Paul II beatifies Charles de Foucauld. 2005 On April 2, after nearly 27 years as the Vicar of Christ, Pope John Paul II passes away. On April 19, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy. He takes the name of Benedict XVI. In May, Benedict XVI announces the opening of the cause of beatification for John Paul II. In Ireland, the Society opens its second priory, located in Athlone, in the center of the country. In the United States, a new boys’ boarding school, Notre Dame de La Salette Boys Academy, opens in Illinois. 37 In Britain, the Society mails a video, brochure and letter about the old Mass and Tradition to all 5,000 priests in the country. In August, the Society leads a pilgrimage of reparation to Fatima. Cardinal Hoyos, President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, publicly states that the situation of the Society is not one of formal schism. 2006 On January 25, Pope Benedict XVI issues his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est. The Third General Chapter of the Society meets in Ecône and re-elects Bishop Bernard Fellay as Superior General. Fr. Niklaus Pfluger is elected First Assistant and Fr. Marc-Alain Nély, Second Assistant. In July, Bishop Fellay announces a rosary Crusade: he declares his intention to present Pope Benedict with a million rosaries by the end of October. Among the intentions, the first is “To obtain from Heaven for Pope Benedict XVI the strength necessary for him to completely liberate the Mass of all Time, called the Mass of St. Pius V.” In October, the Congregation for Divine Worship (Cardinal Arinze, Prefect) sends a letter to the bishops’ conferences, ordering that the words “pro multis” henceforth be translated as “for many” instead of “for all.” SSPX PILGRIMAGE TO FATIMA (2005) www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 38 Yet another group of former SSPX priests forms a new Ecclesia Dei organization: The Institute of the Good Shepherd. 2007 In July, the Pope issues a motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum. It declares that the Old Mass was never abrogated, and that all priests are free to say it, even without permission from their bishop. The Rosary Crusade is seen to be a success, as this answers the first condition requested by the Society before beginning doctrinal discussions. A Te Deum is sung in the churches of the SSPX in thanksgiving. In November, Bishop Fellay announces a second, and perpetual, Rosary Crusade: “Thus, we are now launching a perpetual Rosary Crusade to obtain from Heaven not only that the decree of excommunication be withdrawn, but especially that Catholic Tradition be fully re-established in its due place—a crusade that will continue until the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” 2008 In October, the Society leads a pilgrimage to Lourdes, with over 20,000 souls in attendance. Bishop Fellay announces a second Rosary Crusade for the intention that the invalid excommunications of 1988 be retracted. 2009 On January 21, Pope Benedict XVI officially remits the excommunications of the four bishops of the Society. SSPX Pilgrimage to Lourdes (2009) 40th Anniversary Supplement The second Rosary Crusade is seen as a success, as this fulfills the second condition the Society had requested. The way is now paved for doctrinal discussions. Bishop Fellay announces a third Rosary Crusade, for the intention of the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as requested at Fatima. 2010 The Society of St. Pius X celebrates its 40th anniversary. From October 15-17, Angelus Press hosts the first annual conference of the U.S. District of the Society of Saint Pius X. Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Society, Bishop Fellay headlines “The Defense of Catholic Tradition as Transmitted by Archishop Lefebvre.” Other speakers include Fr. Rostand, Fr. Iscara, and Fr. McMahon. As of its 40th anniversary, the Society of Saint Pius X numbers 4 bishops, 529 priests, 233 seminarians, 104 brothers, about 160 sisters, and 73 oblates, living in 183 houses in 32 countries. Together they seek the goal of the priesthood: the glorification of God, the continuation of Our Lord’s redemptive work, and the salvation of souls. They accomplish this by fidelity to Christ’s testament—the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. With innumerable publications and an apostolate that extends to all kinds of priestly activities, the Society continues the work for which it was created. In the preface of his Spiritual Journey, the great Archbishop wrote a mysterious and unusual paragraph: Before entering into the bosom of the Holy Trinity, I will be allowed to realize the dream of which God gave me a glimpse one day in the cathedral of Dakar. The dream was to transmit, before the progressive degradation of the priestly ideal, in all of its doctrinal purity and in all of its missionary charity, the Catholic priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ, just as He conferred it on His Apostles, just as the Roman Church always transmitted it, until the middle of the twentieth century. That dream is now a reality. This timeline is based heavily on the appendices to Most Asked Questions of the Society of St. Pius X. The period from the beginning to 1995 was originally written by Fr. Angles and the period from 1995 to the present was compiled by Angelus Press. Edited by Mr. Andrew Senior. THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org 39 Interview with FR. STEN SANDMARK Almost four weeks after his ordination as a Catholic priest in the SSPX seminary at Zaitzkofen, Germany, the Union of the Nations of Christian Europe (UNEC) conducted an exclusive interview with Rev. Fr. Sten Sandmark, formerly a Lutheran pastor in Sweden, for the Internet site La Porte Latine. Can you tell us what you have been doing for the past ten years? During the last ten years I’ve worked as a curate at Nas/Dalarua (from 1999 to 2002), and as vicar at Oskarshamn from 2002 to 2006, in the Lutheran State Church. At one moment you started to wear the Augustinian habit? We (five men) took the Augustinian habit in 1994. Fr. Lennart (R.I.P., 2002) and I made our perpetual vows in 1997, i.e. the three traditional religious vows, but the Lutheran Church never accepted this. Most of the Lutheran clergy want to live as quiet, ‘normal’ non-Christians. I had as little contact as possible with this nomenclature. Did you have any contact with the Catholic Church in Sweden? My first contact with the Catholic Church in Sweden was in 1965, when I attended the Tridentine Mass. But starting around 1967 and 1968, they started with the New Mass and I found this more ugly and boring than the Lutheran Church’s High Mass. In 1995, I had my first contact with the Catholic bishop in Sweden, Bishop Brandenburg. Later I also met with his successor, Bishop Aborelius. Both of them wanted me to stay in the Lutheran Church and not to convert to the Catholic Church. During the pilgrimage of UNEC to Sweden, in 2005, what happened? Through the visit of pilgrims from Paris at Oskarshamn in 2005, I suddenly found a contact with the Catholic Church, a gate which was opened. I visited Paris, Ecône, Menzingen, and Zaitzkofen and found places and people with a deep Catholic faith. My last Lutheran Mass was on July 16, 2006, and I formally converted to the Catholic Church on July 30, 2006, in Paris. It was a great day because, for the first time in my life, I could go to the ‘real’ Communion. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 40 This new life first involved the study of Catholic theology in Germany, right? Fr. Sandmark Yes, a new life started, and I had to use my Latin and German which I hadn’t used since 1968. Three hard years of studies, but necessary years to prepare myself for the future life as a Catholic priest in Sweden. Hard years, but also years filled with great joy. I will miss all the wonderful people I met at Zaitzkofen when I will start my work in August at Bristol in England. Did the devil get involved in order to hamper your conversion? Through all these problems–articles in newspapers, problems with my health, an accident, and the famous TV program on Swedish television–I more and more understood the way God wanted to lead me. The strongest power in the world is not the devil, but God. And through the Mother of God I received an enormous amount of help. These difficulties made my faith even stronger. So I thank God today for these events… And Sweden–what will become of Sweden? First Mass I think we must be very humble and search the way God wants to have the mission. Today there are not so many traditional Catholics in Sweden, so we can start from the ground up again. This is a big challenge and possibility. We can’t expect any help from the High Church in the Swedish Church; not so many belong to this group, and moreover I think within 26 years there will not be any Lutheran Church left in Sweden. That ‘sect’ has betrayed Our Lord through same sex-marriages, women pastors and so on. Because of this betrayal they no longer have any shelter from the Lord. We must be prepared to help all these people who will leave the ‘sect’ and assist them to become traditional Catholics by catechizing and conversion work. Under whose patronage would you like to place your future mission? St. Nicholas-du-Chardonnet Since I’ve found Saint Mary, and since I really love her, I would put the future mission in Sweden under her control. She is stronger than any army. A little (traditional Catholic) monastery in Sweden would be something immensely important, a kind of ‘Kraft-Zentrum’ [powerhouse] for the whole of Scandinavia. Sub tuum praesidium, Sancta Dei Genitrix! Thank you, Reverend Father, and may God and the Most Holy Virgin Mary protect you, as well as this new mission in Sweden. Interview conducted on July 24, 2010 by UNEC. Reprinted with permission. 41 “Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them; there is no third.” –T.S. Eliot DANTE Dante’s Purgatorio : Reading and Commentary PART 6 D r . D a v i d The question of the nature of art is a complicated and interesting one. The relationship between faith and art is also admittedly difficult. (Consider the problem faced by Palestrina dealing with the holy churchmen of his time, a conflict so dramatic that the dilemma itself produced a work of art–the opera Palestrina, composed by Hans Pfitzner.) The question is important. As a preface to a further consideration of the Purgatorio, let us consider these questions further. It is noteworthy that so many characters in the Purgatorio are artists. There were a few in the Inferno, but there are many more in the Purgatorio. Further, art itself plays a large role in the Purgatorio. Dante, a complex thinker, gives us different visions of art as we climb Mount Purgatory. From the very beginning of the work in the first canto he announces that he is singing “about that second realm” where death’s poetry will arise to life. So as he begins the Purgatorio he is aware of himself as a poet and aware of his own art. He has a greater awareness of this after going through the Inferno. There is some measure of clarity in his mind now and, thus, he is going to focus on his art. In the Paradiso, art will become even more important. But as he ascends through Paradise Dante speaks of his own role as artist, giving a description of what he sees, a different approach from his analysis of art in the Purgatorio. At the A l l e n W h i t e end of Canto 2 in the Purgatorio, the ship of souls has arrived on the shores of the ante-Purgatory. Those souls who go directly to Heaven still have to arrive there, and they get to go very quickly up the mountain; God’s love pulls them right up into the Paradiso. Nevertheless, they still arrive on the shores with the other souls, those whose movement upward will be delayed. When they arrive, Dante runs into a friend of his, whom he knew, named Casella. We begin with the arrival of the souls singing together, in a single voice, the In exitu Israel de Aegypto. This is interestingly the same verse Dante uses to explain the nature of his art throughout the whole Divine Comedy. The levels on which that same Biblical verse can be read are profound. Then Dante meets this individual singer, musician, and poet, Casella. Casella had set one of Dante’s earlier secular poems to music. Dante is delighted to meet him and says: …“pray sing, and give a little rest to my poor soul which, burdened by my flesh, has climbed this far and is exhausted now.” St. Thomas had taught that the soul needs diversion just as the body needs rest. Dante above is speaking of the soul being burdened by the flesh, which needs some entertainment. So Casella begins singing: www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 42 Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona, began the words of his sweet melody– their sweetness still is sounding in my soul. My master and myself and all those souls that came with him were deeply lost in joy, as if that sound were all that did exist. The art transports them. And while we stood enraptured by the sound of those sweet notes—a sudden cry: “What’s this, you lazy souls?” It was the Just Old Man. The Just Old Man is Cato. Why would Cato be in charge of overseeing the entryway into Purgatory? Mark Musa, the translator, indicates that it may be because he was the lawgiver in Rome; thus, he is connected with human reason. We are entering that realm in Purgatory where things operate very much according to laws, orders, and rules, even more so than before in the darker domain. Hence Cato oversees it. “What negligence to stand around like this! Run to the mountain, shed that slough which still does not let God be manifest to you!” The sense of this passage is essentially this: why are you wasting your time sitting around listening to earthly songs? Even if the lyrics are by Dante, and the music is from a very good musician, you are still wasting your time. It is an interesting passage. Time plays a very important part in the Purgatorio. Dante makes the point that time is precious to these souls. They are constantly aware of time, how much time they have to spend in the ante-Purgatory, how much time they can climb the mountain on any given day while the sun is up, etc. Time is crucial to them. The lesson we are meant to learn is how much more this should be the case with those of us still living. If those dead souls are so aware of time and concerned with spending it wisely, and are ordered by Cato not to waste their time, we who are alive should be even more aware of time, its value and its passing. Is it, however, also a criticism of art itself? “Don’t waste your time on secular art.” Is this fair? Once we get through the ante-Purgatory, in which art plays a role, Purgatory is filled with song. The souls are constantly singing. Contrast this with the unending horrendous noise and terrible cacophony in Hell. Purgatory is a place of beautiful music where the suffering souls spend much of their time singing sacred songs and hymns. More than this, however, there is a certain art that is part of Mount Purgatory itself. Look at Canto 10, where we come upon the souls of the proud. Keep in mind the order is THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org inverted from Hell; in the Inferno, the further down we went, the graver the sins became. On Mt. Purgatory, the graver sins are closest to the base of the mountain. When we begin to ascend, those who are most weighed down are the prideful. Dante comes to that first terrace of the proud and, at the beginning, suddenly realizes that there are carvings, bas-reliefs, in the ground and on the sides as he is walking. They are pictorial representations of those proud souls who suffered for their pride. Then we get visions of humility, of souls that were humble. In both extremes we are getting pictorial lessons carved into the very rock. These are for the sake of the souls that are climbing. So if there is a criticism of art in the Purgatorio, the criticism would be of secular art; such as the love poem of Dante’s set to music by Casella, a secular love song. But there is also praise for the kind of art that instructs. Let me emphasize: the two functions of art are to delight and to instruct. It seems as if the entertainment side of art is lost in the Purgatorio. It is not as important anymore. Art as instruction, however, is elevated here. The very lessons we need to learn can be taught through such images as appear to the souls of the proud. Beyond the bas-reliefs in the realm of pride, there are further artistic visions. In the terrace of envy there are disembodied voices speaking lines of poetry and Scripture; there is no visual side to the terrace of envy since the envious have their eyelids sewn shut “like falcons,” as the poet says. Because they have been envious of what they had seen, now they are not allowed to see at all. They sit weeping with tears streaming from their sewn-shut eyes: it is an incredible and disturbing vision. The emphasis for the envious is on what they hear. In the realm of wrath or anger, the souls are given ecstatic extraordinary visions to calm them. So art is everywhere in the poem: visions, sounds, and other representations. All of this is artistic in nature and this seems to be a good thing. There is thus a double vision: on the one hand, a criticism of art in its secular form, an art that must be left behind, and on the other hand, an acknowledgment that art in its instructional power is good and necessary. Dante seems to be exploring this subject of art to a degree as he makes his way through the entire journey. We will find something very different in the Paradiso. Art, however, will still be a subject. Returning to the proud, let us look at when Dante first sees these figures moving toward him: “Master, what I see moving towards us there,” I said, “do not seem to be shades at all; I don’t know what they are, my sight’s confused.” “The grievous nature of their punishment,” he answered, “bends their bodies toward the ground; 43 my own eyes were not sure of what they saw. Try hard to disentangle all the parts of what you see moving beneath those stones. Can you see now how each one beats his breast?” The vision of the proud is of souls bent over, doubled over. They are looking at the ground. This is why the lessons to be taught are etched in bas-reliefs on the ground. Each one is carrying an enormous stone on his back, as if each one cannot bend of his own will so he must carry the stone to force a punishment. As they move along, they are beating their breasts. It is an extraordinarily imaginative vision. This is a perfect example of how the Catholic tradition is necessary to understand great Catholic art. Anyone who knows the Tridentine Mass understands this imagery. The lesson being taught to the proud is that they must humble themselves by carrying these stones and beating their breasts; the image is that of the Confiteor. This is a moment where the liturgy meets art to give us the full vision of how the liturgy moves us through this world and teaches us lessons which, if we do not learn now, we will have to learn in Purgatory. Let us also take a look at the nature of love as defined in the Purgatorio. Cantos 16, 17, and 18 are the center, not only of the Purgatorio, but of the whole Divine Comedy. This is where Dante chooses to explore his major theme, the nature of love itself. We can see examples of false love in the Inferno. We will have visions of pure and perfect love in the Paradiso. The souls in Purgatory are actually being taught about the real nature of love. Therefore, all the way up the mountain, we are somehow getting improper love. The souls knew love. If they had not had some understanding of love, they would have never made it to Purgatory. The souls in the Purgatorio have somehow known love. When we hit the depths of the Inferno, we met souls that did not know love. Satan separated himself from Love. Indeed, there is a reason why those with Satan— Judas, Brutus, and Cassius—are those who had betrayed friends and benefactors; they denied love altogether to those to whom they most owed love. In fact, they gave hate and betrayal instead. At the core of Hell, there is no love. It does not exist there at all. Everywhere, as we climb Mount Purgatory, is love. But it is a kind of imperfect love. There are lessons of love that must be learned. Purgatory is divided into three parts: the antePurgatory, Mount Purgatory, and, at the top of the mountain, the earthly Garden of Eden. But Mount Purgatory itself is divided into three parts, the number three again dominating the entire poem. As we go up, we travel through Lower Purgatory, MidPurgatory, and Upper Purgatory. Lower Purgatory is the first three levels in which we encounter the first three of the seven deadly sins—pride, envy, and wrath—all have to do with love that has been perverted. This is easy enough to see. Pride is a love of self that has been perverted from love of neighbor. Envy is a perverted love of what the neighbor possesses, or a desire to be in his position. Wrath is a perverted emotional connection with others, replacing love with anger. The first danger then is that love can be perverted, twisted from what it should be. In mid-Purgatory we reach the center of the mountain, the fourth level. This is the level of sloth. This is defective love. It is a love which is lacking in fullness. It is a love which is so small and withered that it is not what it should be. This applies to both love of neighbor and love of God. On the level of the slothful we meet examples of both defective loves. Finally, Upper Purgatory contains the last three levels. Here we encounter excessive love. It is an over-abundance of love that has gone wrong. The fifth level is avarice, those who have loved goods and material things too much. The sixth level is gluttony, those who have excessively loved food and drink. Finally, we have the seventh level, that of the lustful. These have loved the physical too much. Quite literally they have loved their fellow man but in a physical way; thus, they are punished, but they are at the top of Purgatory. We have three different twistings of love, if you will: perverted, defective, and excessive love. In the center, just at the level of sloth, we have discussions of love. At the end of Canto 16, the wrathful are enclosed in smoke, blinded by smoke, just as they had been blinded by anger in life. Dante hears their voices beautifully singing the Agnus Dei. One of the souls, Marco Lombardo, steps out of the smoke. He gives the first of the lessons on love. The Pilgrim and Marco Lombardo discuss God as He creates creatures, the beginning of love: You are free subjects of a greater power, a nobler nature that creates your mind, and over this the spheres have no control. So, if the world today has gone astray, the cause lies in yourselves and only there! Now I shall carefully explain that cause. From the fond hands of God, Who loves her even before He gives her being, there issues forth just like a child, all smiles and tears at play, the simple soul, pure in its ignorance, which, having sprung from her Creator’s joy, will turn to anything it likes. At first she is attracted to a trivial toy, www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 44 problems politically simply because of the rise of hostilities between them. Dante insisted on the importance of monarchy, and even wrote a prose work called De Monarchia, On Monarchy. The vision of monarchy naturally leads to one head, and that would have been the Emperor. The Emperor’s job was to rule the Empire and Dante was critical of the attempts of city-states to be independent. In De Monarchia, he talks about the proper function of humana civilitas, “civilized humanity”: “to keep the whole capacity of the possible intellect constantly actualized, primarily for speculation and secondarily for action.” That is, the Empire exists, proper government exists, so that the intellect can be constantly actualized for thought and then action in the secular realm. He saw this order breaking down. He saw, if you will, a kind of inversion where the Empire was crumbling and the city-state was taking over; eventually, we can follow this through to when the individual intellect becomes the source of all definition. In the same way, in the ...The twenty-four elders stand for the books of spiritual realm over time, the Church the Old Testament, as counted by St. Jerome. has lost its authority, rejected by men and replaced by individual protesting and, though beguiled, she will run after it, sects, each claiming to be the true one. This finally if guide or curb do not divert her love. leads to each man being his own church and priest. This process had already begun in the secular realm Men, therefore, needed the restraint of laws, and Dante was aware of it. But he locates it in two needed a ruler able to at least different realms: the Church and the State. discern the towers of the True city. In fact, he saw that the Church was gaining the power that the Empire was losing and criticizes it, If the pure soul will turn to anything it likes, as he was very skeptical of the Church gaining too there must be order. Law is important all through much control in the secular realm. His ideas here the Purgatorio, from Cato the Lawgiver in the anteremain controversial even today and continue to Purgatory to the end. Marco Lombardo makes be debated. Perhaps one can simply say that having it clear—and this is an obsession for Dante—that experienced the Church authorities uniting with his we were provided with two different lawgivers, political opponents in Florence, a religious-political restraints, or rulers. One is the Church and her laws. alliance that resulted in his permanent exile from She is able to control men’s souls and give the laws that city, his beloved home, how can we be surprised necessary to order that unrestricted love in the right that he was critical of the melding of these spheres direction. This is, of course, specifically the case with of influence? These ideas appear in the midst of a spiritual things. The other thing, however, is secular discussion about the soul, and love born in the soul. government. Specifically for Dante the Empire is We see the love of the spiritual realm for its children, that secular government, a large political system that governs as the secular equivalent of the Church. Both grabbing power when it can, perhaps out of good motives, but nevertheless intruding into a sphere that are necessary. Dante says is not proper for it: There is a great deal of political criticism in the Divine Comedy. Dante had been aware that there had been an upheaval in his own time. This was the weakening of the Empire, the strengthening of the Church in political matters, and, as a result, the strengthening of independent city-states. Those city-states, as they grew stronger, caused increasing THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org Tell the world this: The church of Rome, which fused two powers into one, has sunk in muck, defiling both herself and her true role.” 45 Her role, as Dante believed, is spiritual, the guidance of souls entrusted to her. The secular realm, the Empire, was to oversee in much the same way, with a similar structure, the temporal concerns of souls, but the Church has taken over secular authority, spending its time immersed in politics. This is Marco Lombardo’s argument. Dante’s response is “Well argued, my dear Marco.” This is the first vision of love, the simple soul issuing from God, longing for everything. If you then look at the end of Canto 17, Virgil is now giving a lesson. Throughout all of the Divine Comedy, especially the Inferno and the Purgatorio, Virgil is the voice of reason. Here is a reasoned analysis of love. It occurs right as we have come to the terrace of the slothful, those who were lacking in love. Theirs was an ineffective and inadequate love. Dante asks where they are and “what offense is purged on this terrace?” Virgil replies: “That love of good which failed to satisfy the call of duty, here is fortified: the oar once sluggish now is plied with zeal. But if you want to better understand, give me your full attention: you will reap excellent fruit from this delay of ours. Neither Creator nor his creatures ever, my son, lacked love. There are, as you well know, two kinds: the natural love, the rational. The first point is that the Creator is all love, perfect love. Hence, His creation must also possess love. Nothing that God created has ever been without love. Natural love is what is given, what is infused in the soul which allows it to exist at all. Natural love may never be at fault; the other may: by choosing the wrong goal, by insufficient or excessive zeal. Natural love can never be at fault because, if natural love were withdrawn, the animating power of God’s nature, we would all cease to exist. It would be the end of us. The rational love is the love that we choose. Here we also get a definition of the levels in Purgatory. While it is fixed on the Eternal Good, and observes temperance loving worldly goods, it cannot be the cause of sinful joys; but when it turns toward evil or pursues some good with not enough or too much zeal– the creature turns on his Creator then. So, you can understand how love must be the seed of every virtue growing in you, and every deed that merits punishment. Here is the definition. Love is the source of everything in us that is good, but also the seed of everything that is defective since we are somehow turning away or perverting it by choice. The damned souls in the Inferno chose, with their rational love, to be there. They had the potential to make the right choice in love and they chose otherwise. God is just in putting them there. The beginning of Canto 18 goes back to the creation of the soul and natural love. We are still in the terrace of the slothful. We are here about to be given visions of zealous souls. One involves the Blessed Virgin and another Julius Caesar, a curious combination. It is, in some way, the counterpart to Judas, Brutus, and Cassius in the pit of Hell. Here we get lessons in love from Our Lady and Caesar. Judas deserted our Lord, Mary stood by the foot of the cross; Brutus and Cassius betrayed their emperor; Caesar was the one betrayed. Lines from Canto 18: “Now focus your mind’s eye on what I say,” he said, “and you will clearly understand the error of the blind who lead the blind. The soul at birth, created quick to love, will move toward anything that pleases it, as soon as pleasure causes it to move. From what is real your apprehensive power extracts an image it displays within you, forcing your mind to be attentive to it; and if, attentive, it inclines toward this, that inclination is love: Nature it is which is through pleasure bound anew in you. Just as a fire’s flames always rise up, inspired by its own nature to ascend, seeking to be in its own element, just so, the captive soul begins its quest, the spiritual movement of its love, not resting till the thing loved is enjoyed. It should be clear to you by now how blind to truth those people are who make the claims that every love is, in itself, good love. They think this, for love’s substance, probably, seems always good, but though the wax is good, the impression made upon it may be bad.” The central vision of the Divine Comedy is love and its nature. These are the cantos in which it is explored. They deserve closer study. Dante continues to rise and he begins to encounter the great love he was given on earth. For the rest of the Purgatorio, he will live through what is described here. Certain recognitions will be brought upon him. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 46 Let us jump almost to the end, to Canto 29. Let us look at Mark Musa’s introduction of this canto, which leads us to Beatrice. This is the last moment before she appears. We get a curious and mysterious pageant which Musa describes perfectly. The entire vision is a vision of the history of Scripture and the Church up until Dante’s time: The seven candlesticks represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit....The twenty-four elders stand for the books of the Old Testament, as counted by St. Jerome. The four creatures symbolize the four Gospels....The chariot represents the church. Literally, the griffin is a mythical beast who is part eagle and part lion. Here, his dual nature is symbolic of the two natures of Christ, who was both human and divine. The three ladies dancing to the right of the chariot are the theological virtues... the four to the left, the cardinal virtues....The seven men who follow the chariot are the rest of the books of the New Testament...the four men of humble mean are the other minor epistles. The final figure represents the Apocalypse. There is a moment later where the chariot goes through different stages, the history of the Church. It includes an attack by the dragon. Scripture and the Church occupy much of Canto 29. This is the definition of our sources of truth. Once that appears, and the procession comes to a halt, the elders turn to face the chariot, the Church. They begin singing and, through a rain of flowers, Beatrice appears. There is a quotation from the Song of Solomon, there is the Alleluia, there is the Benedictus, and then a line of Latin verse: Manibus, O, date lilia plenis. (“O, give handfuls of lilies.”) This comes from Virgil. The words were written by Virgil when he was describing the death of the young child Marcellus. The cost of founding Rome was the death of the child Marcellus. In Virgil, the line is one of great sadness. In Dante, the line is quoted at the moment Beatrice is about to appear. What we have is the sorrow, the weight, and the imperfect vision of the classical world transformed into the hope that is presented by the true Faith. The appearance of Beatrice in the poem is profound; if Virgil represents reason, Beatrice is grace. As reason is replaced by grace, this single line of poetry is transformed from sorrow to joy. It is a magnificent moment. Dante is so overwhelmed that he is about: to say to Virgil: “Not one drop of blood is left inside my veins that does not throb; I recognize signs of the ancient flame.” But Virgil was not there. We found ourselves without Virgil, sweet father, Virgil to whom for my salvation I gave up my soul. Virgil does not say goodbye. At some point, reason is superseded by grace. Beatrice is there instead: THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org All the delights around me, which were lost by our first mother, could not keep my cheeks, once washed with dew, from being stained with tears. But then Beatrice speaks: “Dante, though Virgil leaves you, do not weep, not yet, that is, for you shall have to weep from yet another wound. Do not weep yet.” Notice her coming. It is a symbol of grace touching the Christian soul. It is not sentimental. This is the moment he has hoped and dreamed for. It is the reason he took the journey. The presentation was magnificent, the flowers rained down, she stood before him—and told him to stop crying. Just as an admiral, from bow or stern, watches his men at work on other ships, encouraging their earnest labors—so rising above the chariot’s left rail (when I turned round, hearing my name called out, which of necessity I here record), I saw the lady who had first appeared beneath the angelic festival of flowers gazing at me from beyond the stream. Although the veil that flowed down from her head, fixed by the crown made of Minerva’s leaves, still kept me from a perfect view of her, I sensed the regal sternness of her face, as she continued in the tone of one who saves the sharpest words until the end: “Yes! Look at me! Yes, I am Beatrice! So, you at last have deigned to climb the mount? You learned at last that here lies human bliss?” I lowered my head and looked down at the stream, but, filled with shame at my reflection there, I quickly fixed my eyes upon the grass. I was the guilty child facing his mother, abject before her harshness: harsh, indeed, is unripe pity not yet merciful. This is magnificent. A lover is confronting his beloved, but what happens? The whole tradition of courtly love is transformed into the child before a stern mother. The whole nature of the relationship is changed, with all that implies. Beatrice is now no longer earthly or worldly love; she is a representative of the Blessed Virgin. This is what 47 Dante is confronting. Here is the woman he loved, but she is different. It is not what he expected. As soon as she stops speaking, the angels rush into the psalm Domine, in te speravi. Beatrice begins nailing Dante. And although she is speaking to him, it is the voice of God’s grace speaking to every human soul. At this point we all become the pilgrim if we have followed him in his journey. It is the dramatic climax of the poem. If, in the center of the Purgatorio, we had the intellectual climax with the vision and definition of love, here is the dramatic climax as the pilgrim soul stands before his beloved. It is a surprise ending; it is not what one thought or expected. “With your eyes fixed on the eternal day, darkness of night or sleep cannot conceal from you a single act performed on earth; and though I speak to you, my purpose is to make the one who weeps on that far bank perceive the truth and match his guilt with grief. Not only through the working of the spheres, which brings each seed to its appropriate end according as the stars keep company, but also through the bounty of God’s grace, raining from vapors born so high above they cannot be discerned by human sight, was this man so endowed, potentially in early youth—had he allowed his gifts to bloom, he would have reaped abundantly. But the more vigorous and rich the soil, the wilder and the weedier it grows when left untilled, its bad seeds flourishing. There was a time my countenance sufficed; I allowed him to look into my young eyes for guidance on the straight path to his goal; but when I passed into my second age and changed my life for Life, that man you see strayed after others and abandoned me; when I had risen from the flesh to spirit, became more beautiful, more virtuous, he found less pleasure in me, loved me less, and wandered from the path that leads to truth, pursuing simulacra of the good, which promise more than they can ever give. I prayed that inspiration come to him through dreams and other means: in vain I tried to call him back, so little did he care. To such depths did he sink that, finally, there was no other way to save his soul except to have him see the Damned in Hell. That this might be, I visited the Dead, and offered my petition and my tears to him who until now has been his guide. The highest laws of God would be annulled if he crossed Lethe, drinking its sweet flow, without having to pay at least some scot of penitence poured forth in guilty tears.” The Pilgrim is speechless; the canto ends. If you look at the very beginning of Canto 31, without a break she continues: “You, standing there, beyond the sacred stream,” she cried, not pausing in her eloquence and turning now the sword point of her words toward me, who had already felt its blade, “speak now, is this not true? Speak! You must seal with your confession this grave charge I make!” I stood before her paralyzed, confused; I moved my lips, my throat striving to speak, but not a single breath of speech escaped. She hardly paused: “What are you thinking of? Answer me, now! Your bitter memories have not as yet been purged within this stream.” My fear and deep chagrin, between them, forced out of my mouth a miserable “yes”– only by ears with eyes could it be heard. A crossbow, drawn with too much tension, snaps bowstring and bow together, and the shaft will strike the target with diminished force; so I was shattered by the intensity of my emotions: tears and sighs burst forth, as I released my voice about to fail. They go back and forth with Dante refusing to look at her. He finally begins speaking with her and admits to what he has done: Weeping I said: “Those things with their false joys, offered to me by the world, led me astray when I no longer saw your countenance.” She gives him lesson after lesson. After she finishes her speech, the poet gives this description: As children scolded into silence stand ashamed, with head bowed staring at the ground, acknowledging their fault and penitent– www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 48 He looks at the angels first. Dante still cannot look directly at Beatrice. Then when I turned my unsure eyes once more, I saw that Beatrice faced the beast who in two natures is one single being. This is the griffin; Beatrice is facing the symbol of the image of Christ. Though she was veiled and on the other shore, lovelier now, she seemed, than when alive on earth, when she was loveliest of all. I felt the stabbing pain of my remorse: what I had loved the most of all the things that were not she, I hated now the most. The recognition of my guilt so stunned my heart, I fainted. What happened then is known only to her who was the cause of it. The Pilgrim is now ready; the seven P’s are gone from his forehead and he has gone through the wall of fire. He is about to cross over the river, a vision of a kind of new baptism. so I stood there. Then she: “If listening can cause you so much grief, now raise your beard and look at me and suffer greater grief.” Notice that we are back at the beginning of the Inferno, an echo of the moment when he was seduced by Francesca. He was then so overcome with false pity that he fainted. This is the second time Dante faints. The first time is caused by a false love; now he faints out of true remorse and pity. The Pilgrim is now ready; the seven P’s are gone from his forehead and he has gone through the wall of fire. He is about to cross over the river, a vision of a kind of new baptism. He will now be guided into the Paradiso by Beatrice. Let us close with the last lines of the Purgatorio: From those holiest waters I returned to her reborn, a tree renewed, in bloom with newborn foliage, immaculate, eager to rise, now ready for the stars. (To be continued.) Notice the word “beard”; the implication is that Dante is a man of some age who should know better. With less resistance is the sturdy oak uprooted by the winds of storms at home in Europe or by those that Iarbas blows, than my soul offered to her curt command that I look up at her: she called my face my “beard”! I felt the venom in her words. And when I raised my head, I did not look at her, but at those first-created ones: they had already ceased their rain of flowers. THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org Dr. David Allen White taught World Literature at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, for the better part of three decades. He gave many seminars at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, Minnesota, including one on which this article is based. He is the author of The Mouth of the Lion and The Horn of the Unicorn. All quotes from The Divine Comedy are taken from Mark Musa’s translation, published by Penguin Books. Illustrations by Gustave Doré. 49 A n d r e w J . C l a r e n d o n The Meaning of Waiting: Two Responses to Suffering in Modern Drama Literature often has many profound truths to teach us about reality. In the 20th century, two plays stand out as presenting alternate worldviews. One represents the spirit of the age; the other recalls the Catholic way. O ne of the ways that I have organized a literature class for high school seniors is to consider modern problems and remedies. The aim is intellectual inoculation: armed with the Faith and some sense of the ideas that modernity uses to try to destroy that faith, the hope is that the graduate is ready to take his place in the great struggle of our time. I like to end the last weeks before Christmas with two important 20th-century dramas that clearly illustrate this debate: Samuel Becket’s Waiting for Godot and T. S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, two plays that express the modern and traditional views of suffering and reality. My students’ response to Godot is nearly always the same. All of them find the tedious monotony of the dialogue to be hardly worth their time. The better students sense the dark humor in the play; every student reacts against the despair Murder in the Cathedral www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 50 and anguish even before they understand why the characters feel the way they do. Yet, Godot is one of the most respected and highly regarded works of the 20th century; it is often assigned in upper level high school and college classes. As recently as last year, the famous actors Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart performed the play to sold-out audiences in London. The action centers on two evenings in the life of two bums–Vladimir and Estragon–who at times are characters of out the Laurel and Hardy vaudeville tradition and at others are poor wretches complaining about what a sick joke the world is. The plot, like the dialogue, is anti-Aristotelian: there is no beginning, middle, or end, but a circular pattern of the same absurd action. While nothing of real consequence happens to Vladimir and Estragon, the only other main characters in the play, a bully named Pozzo and his slave Lucky, go blind and dumb. A tree, presumably a willow, has no leaves in part one, then gains “four or five leaves”1 the next day; human suffering is in the foreground, while the material world has just enough order to keep the prank going. All is circular deterioration, “signifying nothing.”2 The first line of the play encapsulates the message: there is “[n]othing to be done.”3 Vladimir and Estragon take their shoes off, stand up, sit down, think about killing themselves, talk incessantly; but, finally, all they really can do is to continue to wait for Godot, who, of course, never does arrive. They wait without hope and experience a suffering without meaning. The first thing to understand about Godot is the philosophy behind it; the play’s style and structure cannot be understood, nor can its tremendous influence be accounted for without a grasp of Beckett’s outlook on reality. Godot was first written in French in the late 1940’s; it was later translated into English by Beckett himself, a native Irishman. The philosophical foundation of the play is existentialism: a set of ideas and attitudes that were formulated by philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus during and after World War II. In brief, existentialism is ultimate subjectivity: since “existence precedes essence” (that is, “to be” comes before the “whatness” of a thing), we and other things exist, but these things have no meaning for us except as we create meaning through acting on them. As in the case of poor Hamlet, having to provide an absurd and meaningless universe with one’s own meaning causes anxiety, loneliness, and despair. While the chief figures of existentialism—Sartre and Camus—produced plays and novels describing these ideas, others wrote dramas more loosely based on this outlook. A form of this is a style called “Theatre of the Absurd”: plays in which the “philosophical base is a form of existentialism that views human beings as moving from the nothingness from which they came to THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org the nothingness in which they will end through an existence marked by anguish and absurdity.”4 The most widely acclaimed example of “Theatre of the Absurd” is Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Produced at the mid-point of the last century, this atheistic nihilism is one product of Western civilization after the devastation of two world wars, a result of what historian Warren Carroll calls “the age of apostasy in the twentieth Christian century.”5 Godot is a serious play that discusses serious ideas and presents what have become influential challenges. There is no sentimentality in it; other than some moments of low humor—Vladimir and Estragon are, remember, bums—all is the anguish of absurdity. Any talk about how Vladimir and Estragon are heroic because they continue to endure and that at least they have their friendship is at best a sidestep; as Pozzo memorably puts it: our mothers “give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.”6 This nihilism is born out of a century that will certainly be remembered for two things: tremendous technological advances and heaps of corpses. One reaction to this is the great temptation of our time, a corrosive cynicism and debilitating doubt that reduces all to the dusty shadows and idiotic absurdity and grinning skull7 of Godot. It would be a grave fault for a teacher to give students a play like Waiting for Godot and not provide answers to the arguments it presents. In today’s schools, the best that can usually be expected is for the teacher to provide a variety of works that give various points of view and then leave the high school or college students to figure out for themselves what is the truth; it is a relativity of texts in which any sort of idea is just as good as any other. In places where objective truth and reality are still affirmed, a happy example of a direct rebuttal to Godot—and one that also dovetails nicely with Advent and Christmastide—is T. S. Eliot’s dramatization of the martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, Murder in the Cathedral. Murder is a traditional play in a number of senses. The subject matter immediately evokes the rich tradition of medieval plays about saints, while the inclusion of a chorus that comments upon the action recalls ancient Greek drama. These two streams—the medieval and classical—reflect the entire Western dramatic tradition; in essence, Murder is a play about the past designed to show that the lessons of tradition are still valid in modern times. Composed in 1935 for a festival at Canterbury Cathedral, Murder was the first play written in verse for many years. In an effort to get closer to modern speech, Eliot avoids a set metrical pattern, favoring lines with four stressed beats and any number of unstressed syllables. By 1935, dramatic poetry had moved beyond the blank verse of earlier eras; 51 We do not wish anything to happen. Seven years we have lived quietly, Succeeded in avoiding notice, Living and partly living.11 Waiting for Godot already a giant in 20th-century lyric poetry, Eliot’s dramatic verse reflects the horrors, temptations, and glories of his subject in modern language. The ideas are ancient and eternal; the language both elevates the subject and speaks to our time. This subject is one with which Waiting for Godot is also concerned: how to make sense of the reality of a life that is often filled with suffering. Like Beckett’s play, Murder is about waiting, waiting for something to happen, waiting for meaning, and, above all, waiting for death. The play opens on December 2, 1170, the day St. Thomas returned to Canterbury after his exile, with a speech given by the Chorus. This Chorus is made up of women of Canterbury, the non-sacerdotal, non-knightly part of the population, “the scrubbers and sweepers”8 who immediately announce this theme: “Here let us stand, close by the cathedral. Here let us wait.”9 These women, the practical, down-to-earth caretakers of the home, know that they are being “compelled to witness”10 something and can only wait for it. It soon becomes clear that they are waiting for the Archbishop’s martyrdom. Their response is typical, human, and in the spirit of Godot: O Thomas, return, Archbishop; return, return, return to France. Return. Quickly. Quietly. Leave us to perish in quiet. As the martyrdom approaches, the choral speeches are filled with increasing anguish and horror, until, like Lady Macbeth, the Chorus stands before Thomas’s butchered body and cries: “It is not we alone, it is not the house, it is not the city that is defiled, / But the world that is wholly foul. /... Wash the stone, wash the bone, wash the brain, wash the soul, wash them wash them!”12 Opposed to the absurd anguish of Godot, here is horror and humility; a debasement that leads not to nihilism or despair, but, at the end of the play, to the Chorus reciting an act of faith while a choir sings the Te Deum in the distance. However, it is Thomas’s speeches that contain the essence of Eliot’s answers to Beckett’s challenges–problems that Eliot himself formulated in one of the most influential poems of the modern age, The Waste Land. After the exposition given by the Chorus and priests, Thomas announces his arrival on stage with the words of Christ: “Peace,”13 a word that both belies and points to his approaching martyrdom. The fruit of his exile is given in the speech that follows, verses that provide the answer to the modern problem: action is suffering And suffering is action. Neither does the agent suffer Nor the patient act. But both are fixed In an eternal action, an eternal patience To which all must consent that it may be willed And which all must suffer that they may will it.14 The choice is starkly clear: one can say that life is too filled with suffering, that it is random and meaningless and ends in nothingness; or one can assert that there is an eternal design, an Agent Who orders things toward the ultimate good. That there is suffering in this life is undeniable; it is the meaning and even utility of the suffering that Eliot, like Shakespeare and Solzhenitsyn and so many others, affirms. Especially for us comfortable moderns, this can be hard to believe and accept. It is significant that immediately after this assertion, this alter Christus, now in the desert of Canterbury, is tempted by “the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life”15 in the form of three figures: the desire to regain the earlier life of pleasure he enjoyed with the king, the desire to unite with the king and do what he wants to gain political power, and the desire to overthrow the king and assume power himself. After the temptations accuse him of avoiding their blandishments out of pride, a fourth temptation diabolically uses religion to tempt him: to allow his martyrdom out of the pride of being a martyr and to glory in the damnation of his murderers. This www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 52 episode ends with a moment that could be taken out of Godot. The temptations counsel despair since it seems impossible for Thomas not to act out of pride, and besides: Man’s life is a cheat and a disappointment; All things are unreal. Unreal or disappointing: All things become less real, man passes From unreality to unreality.16 The paradoxical truth is that earthly things, in relation to spiritual ones, are less real and have little meaning. It is not accidental that more than once Eliot quotes and echoes the book of Ecclesiastes, with its famous second verse: “vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.” But if there is no soul, no grace, no redemption, if human life is really nothing more than to be a fool and madman in a hovel, stinking of mortality,17 then life is certainly a cruel joke–the skull of Godot grins again as “Sweet and cloying through the dark air / Falls the stifling scent of despair.”18 Thomas defeats the temptation the way all men must: resignation to the providential will of God, to assert meaning, even if the specifics are unknowable, to “no longer act or suffer, to the sword’s end.”19 For him, like Hamlet, “the readiness is all”20; as he shows in the Christmas sermon that makes up the interlude between parts one and two, Thomas understands true martyrdom since he “has become the instrument of God...lost his will in the will of God, and...no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of being a martyr.”21 Our acts, the Archbishop teaches us, have meaning precisely as they are born out of the love of God, and it is through this that everything, from martyrdom to sweeping the floor, has the highest meaning. In the end, as the drunk knights violate the sanctuary of the Church to commit the murder, Thomas has already triumphed: We have fought the beast And have conquered. We have only to conquer Now, by suffering. This is the easier victory. Now is the triumph of the Cross all things Proceed to a joyful consummation.22 In these paradoxes are a joy and glory not against, but beyond, reason. It is a consummation that the Samuel Becketts of the world will not believe in, but the St. Thomas Beckets have achieved. At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century these questions of meaning and purpose continue to haunt the mass of mankind. The traditional view of reality and suffering must be proclaimed and applied to the specifics of our age. It has always been true that these lessons must be continually passed on, since “[w]e do not know very much of the future / Except that from generation THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org to generation / The same things happen again and again.”23 In other words, it should not be surprising that there are all manner of troubles in Church and State in our day; the real tragedy would be if mankind accepted the temptation of Godot and forgot the piercing reality of Murder. To this end, while performing our own duties, waiting for the consummation, we could do worse than to meditate upon these words from the final speech of Eliot’s play: We thank Thee for Thy mercies of blood, for Thy redemption by blood. For the blood of Thy martyrs and saints Shall enrich the earth, shall create the holy places. For wherever a saint has dwelt, wherever a martyr has given his blood for the blood of Christ, There is holy ground, and the sanctity shall not depart from it From such ground springs that which forever renews the earth Though it is forever denied. Lord, have mercy upon us. Blessed Thomas, pray for us.24 Andrew J. Clarendon currently teaches Literature and History at St. Mary’s Academy and College while helping his wife keep track of their six young children. Previously, he taught at the United States Naval Academy and was one of the original faculty members at La Salette Boys Academy in Olivet, Illinois. Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (New York: Grove Press, 1954), 62. Macbeth 5.5.28. All Shakespeare quotations are from David Bevington, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, 4th ed. (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, Inc., 1992). 3 Beckett, Godot, 2. 4 William Harman and C. Hugh Holman, A Handbook to Literature, 8th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2000), 2. 5 Warren Carroll, The Glory of Christendom (Front Royal, VA: Christendom Press, 1993), 684. 6 Beckett, Godot, 103. 7 Cf. Beckett, Godot, 47. 8 T. S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1963), 86. 9 Ibid., 11. 10 Ibid., 11. 11 Ibid., 19. 12 Ibid., 77-78. 13 Ibid., 21. 14 Ibid., 21-22. 15 I Jn. 2:16. 16 Eliot, Murder, 41. 17 Cf. King Lear 3.2, 3.4, 4.6.133. 18 Eliot, Murder, 44. 19 Ibid., 46. 20 Hamlet 5.2.220 21 Eliot, Murder, 49. 22 Ibid., 74, 70. 23 Ibid., 25. 24 Ibid., 87, 88. 1 2 53 F r . T h o m a s J a t z k o w s k i , F S S P X “THE LORD’S PRAYER” “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread” Part 6 of 10 1) Introduction 2) Our Father who art in heaven, 3) hallowed be Thy name; 4) Thy kingdom come; 5) Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven! 6) Give us this day our daily bread 7) and forgive us our trespasses, 8) as we forgive those who trespass against us, 9) and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 10) Amen. It appears obsolete and insignificant to ask for bread in a world of material prosperity. Satiation has become a marginal issue for Western civilization with no existential importance. This petition also seems incomprehensible for someone who is striving for total independence and autonomy; potential risks and uncertainties are covered by insurance policies. Modern man no longer knows childlike trust in God with his worries, fears, and needs. Material prosperity is deceptive and is only a facade behind which there is often an ambivalent emptiness. Behind material satiety and external freedom there is often the spiritual famine of a “culture of death.” Freedom is only superficial, and a high price is paid for it: dependencies, mental defects, and deformities. Just think of the many addictions in our time! How proud modern man is of his independence, of being able to shape his life according to his own standards, and not according to God’s commandments! 1. Change of perspective With the fourth petition of the Our Father, we find in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer a change of perspective. While the first three requests are about the sanctification of God’s name, the coming of His kingdom, and His will, the focus from the forth petition on is on man. Humanity itself asks for “our daily bread.” The central arrangement in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer creates an evocative link between the three preceding and three subsequent requests. The petition for bread is a kind of bridge between the God-complex and man-complex of the Lord’s Prayer. 2. “Give us” The overall tenor of these words is an expression of childlike trust in the heavenly Father, the real addressee of this prayer. Not only does this petition sound “childlike,” but even unworried and happy. This detachment results from the ability of letting go from regulating everything personally. The true internal liberty of the Christian results from a trusting surrender to God, from the open www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 54 confession of dependence in everything on God. In the Sermon on the Mount, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us this attitude of a child’s trust (cf. Mt. 6:2534). This is in no way similar to a kind of Buddhism, a coldness of heart by killing all emotions, or an apathetic indifference; rather, it is a need and ability to surrender fears and anxieties into the hands of God. Children of God know that they are protected by the heavenly Father. 3. “Our Bread” We should not ask for “my” bread, but for “our” bread. This request once again proves the necessary social character of the children of God and the renunciation of any selfish and exaggerated individualism which seems to destroy the necessary anchor of society. All children of God have to care for one another so that none among them may suffer hunger. How much suffering could be avoided if that social spirit among all Christians were not only confessed with the lips, but were practiced as well! The “Church of the Our Father” at Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives is the place where, according to tradition, the Lord taught His disciples to pray. The first church in this place, built by Constantine’s mother, Queen Helena, was destroyed during the Persian invasion in 614, and a replacement was built by the Crusaders. The present building dates from the 19th century and is part of a Carmelite convent. The walls of the monastery and of the church are covered with panels that render the Lord’s Prayer in over one hundred languages. This custom dates from the time of the Crusaders. 4. “Bread” as a vital food Our body continually needs food for its existence. Just as God has created us, He also keeps us constantly in our existence. God has given us life, and we owe to Him every necessary material basis of life. Saying grace before and after meals is an expression of childlike supplication and thanksgiving. Saying grace is the prayer of the Christian family for daily bread, for God’s blessing, for the meal. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself practiced it and thus gave us an example and role model. 5. “Bread” in the sense of the holy Eucharist (the spiritual sense) The early Church Fathers interpreted the request for daily bread in the Eucharistic sense. The “bread” for which the soul is hungry is first of all the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. The Holy Eucharist has always been the center of life for Christians. This natural interpretation of this request in its spiritual sense is also reflected by the place of the Lord’s Prayer in the celebration of Holy Mass, THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org where the Pater Noster is prayed at the end of the canon before Communion. 6. “Not by bread alone”: Bread as spiritual food In the Lord’s Prayer we ask not only for earthly bread for the conservation of natural life, we also ask for a different intellectual and spiritual nourishment for the conservation of supernatural life. Therefore this request can be understood in a spiritual sense, to which our Lord alludes in the following words: “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4). From what context is this saying? After the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, our Lord Jesus Christ went into the desert to fast for forty days. There, Jesus is tempted repeatedly by the devil. Satan tries to ensnare Christ by saying, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” But Jesus replied: “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4). “Not in bread alone” means bread, yes, but not by all means! For man not only needs nourishment for the body, but also spiritual food from God for the soul. “Blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it” (Lk. 11:28). That is, it is not sufficient for salvation only to listen to the word of God. The acceptance of this word and its practical implementation in everyday life decides the fate of the soul. True Christians, therefore, must always be ready to continuously deepen their faith, to renew and sharpen their knowledge. Otherwise, the “spiritually starving” Christian is vulnerable and without protection against the temptations of life; he is in danger of some day falling away from faith. This is what we are experiencing today everywhere: the apostasy of the formerly Christian West. The hunger of the soul is much more serious than the hunger of the body! How many people today are saturated materially and suffer miserably at the same time from intellectual and spiritual hunger. How unhappy a soul will be without spiritual food, far from God! God has created man for Himself. Only the soul which is rooted in God and has in Him its solid foundation and lives continually on His grace, will not wither away. 7. “Daily”: Vulnerability and dependence on God Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us, by saying “this day” a necessary trust in God; “this day” is an expression of faith taught by the Lord Himself. The children of God should live with the knowledge that the heavenly Father will always provide sufficiently for their material existence. Of course, God does not provide for a life of extravagance and pleasure. 55 We are to pray daily “give us today” in order to express in a humble submission our dependence on God and our need to meditate upon it. The decisive factor is the renunciation of material concerns and the absolute trust in God, because: “Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow...” (Mt. 6:34). The goal of life for a Christian is not earthly happiness and an unrestrained pursuit of pleasure, but selfless contentment and satisfaction. On the other hand, the Savior does not simply ignore the natural concern of people for the necessities of life. Rather, He takes away from our care for our daily bread any exaggerated importance and helps us to bring material concerns into perspective. The Christian should not drown in the swamp of materialism, despair, and become bitter, but despite all constraints, see the positive part in his life. Thanks to his intellectual gifts and his spiritual devotion to God, the baptized Christian should not rely absolutely on material things. The heavenly Father provides and cares for us! True, the Catholic is not free from troubles, worries, and work, but he can see everything in the light of God. In the light of faith, everything looks different. Instead of being desperate and bitter, the Catholic has to show in his life the spirit of unshakable faith. In the Lord’s Prayer we ask not only for the earthly bread for the conservation of natural life, we also ask for a different, intellectual and spiritual nourishment for the conservation of supernatural life. Therefore this request can be understood in a spiritual sense, to which our Lord alludes in the following words: “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4). 8. The gift of God and our gratitude The petition for bread is a study of the attitude of gratitude. What matters is how the children of God understand the expression of “daily bread.” When the children of God ask about it, they see themselves as the first recipients of the gifts of God. The focus thus is not on the absolute independence and autonomy of modern man, but, rather, that any possession of a Christian comes from the hands of God. With this attitude, a Christian should be protected against avarice and greed. The Christian who is grateful will not out of panic and fear hoard excessive stocks and cling to his possessions. Instead, the Catholic practices gratitude and a childlike trust in God. The Christian is inwardly free and independent of the material goods of the world, but he knows very well how to use them usefully and meaningfully. 9. Freedom of the Christian To be able to live with God’s gifts provides an unforeseen freedom and independence from earthly worries. A true Christian will always look through the virtue of hope and be confident of the future. He will not squander the time of his earthly life for misunderstood apocalyptic scenarios. Let us pay attention not to fall into the snares of Satan and thus be at the mercy of all sorts of conspiracy theories. These obscure the Christian Faith in its most beautiful form. Whatever will happen to a true Christian, he need not despair; unlike the infidels, he always has the heavenly Father on his side. The true Christian may have true sorrows, but not without hope for a happy ending or the certainty of a deeper meaning that we cannot yet detect. Let us take the words of this petition seriously and base our whole attitude on them. (To be continued.) Fr. Thomas Jatzkowski, FSSPX, was ordained in 2004, and is currently prior of St. Teresa of Avila Priory, Hamburg, Germany. www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 Church an 56 Lay Eucharistic Ministers Not Entitled to Position according to Archbishop Burke The rights of girls and Catholic lay faithful to carry out certain roles on the altar are not prescribed as “rights” within the Church, according to the Church’s top legal authority, Archbishop Raymond Burke. The statement came in a clarification he wrote about the consequences of the reintroduction of the Latin Rite Mass by Pope Benedict. Archbishop Burke is the prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, which Mission Rosa Mystica in the Philippines E very year for four years, the Rosa Mystica Medical Mission has arrived in the Philippines. Fr. Daniel Couture, the District Superior of Asia for the SSPX, gives a written account of the beginning of this year’s mission. “Finally! We are about to start! Rosa Mystica 2010 officially begins today, on the feast of St. Ann, under a shining sun. It is 7am and our mission is already a little ‘ants’ nest.’There are people everywhere. By 8am, strengthened by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered for all the miseries of the world, breakfast over, the pharmacy opens its doors. Each doctor, each dentist prepares his countryside clinic and comes to ‘pillage’ the pharmacy of Hughes, the chief pharmacist, who has to face this early ‘flood’ of requests. Each medical prescription must pass through his able hands. He is assisted in this delicate task by the efficient and polyglot Sr. Mary Concepcion, a Society Oblate, whom we meet again with great joy. “The Filipino smile and tears touch every heart. What do you do when this poor mother of seven, living alone, walks away from the Mission leaving behind her 3-year-old boy with the Sisters? We are truly reliving the days of St. Vincent de Paul… “During this time the Sisters, the Bethanians, and Legionaries of Mar y catechize, distribute rosaries and sacred pictures, and even find time to make a few more rosaries when the supply runs short. “Meanwhile Fr. Couture is gone on THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org a particular mission: with Col. Etis, he succeeds in meeting Brigadier General Amat of the Second Division of the Philippine Army to thank him for the aid the military base is giving to our mission, and to ask for tents and transportation for our people. In return, Fr. Couture proposes a little singing concert by our volunteers to the military base this coming Sunday. “At the end of the day, our goal hasn’t really been reached: ‘only’ 207 patients instead of the 300+ we were aiming at. This can be explained by the fact that two of our efficient doctors are on other missions, and many cases are demanding more attention. But, in fact, we find out that we are well over our goal considering the mission as a whole. “A team had gone mid-morning to the Barangay of Teresa where the SSPX has had a Mass center since the days of Fr. Santiago Hughes (+ 2004), in the late 1990s. Our team, composed of a priest, a seminarian, a doctor and his assistant nurses, pharmacist and interpreter, set to work after the Holy Mass. Fr. Castel blesses, blesses and blesses again.When he blesses one of these shanty houses, with raised split-bamboo floors, split bamboo walls, all open to air and bugs, Father stresses the importance of living Christian lives, now that the house has been blessed. “From 12 to 6pm, our herculean doctor saw 179 patients. God bless her heart! It was a long day, but all was orderly, and much was accomplished. Deo gratias!” (Source: DICI) is often described as the supreme court of the Catholic Church. In his foreword to a commentary published by the Church in Germany on the application of Benedict XVI’s 2007 Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, the American archbishop went on to point out that certain elements may need to be clarified in this regard. For exam- and World ple, he wrote, among the “rights” of the baptized, assistance by “persons of the feminine sex” at the altar is not included. Additionally, serving as a lector or as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion is not a right of the laity, he noted. As such, out of respect for the integrity of the liturgical discipline within the Roman Missal of 1962, these more modern modifications are not observed in the extraordinary form. Archbishop Burke clarified that neither the presence of girls at the altar nor the participation of lay faithful “belong to the fundamental rights of the baptized.” (Source: Catholic News Agency) Spain: The Bishops Speak Out Against the Abortion Law On July 5th, the law liberalizing abortion came into effect in Spain. This new law allows women to obtain an abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy without limitation and up to 22 weeks in cases of risk to the health of the mother or of serious abnormalities of the fetus. Girls under the age of 16 will be able to acquire an abortion without parental consent, although they must inform one of their parents of the decision beforehand. Up until now, abortion was not permitted except in the cases of rape, serious malformation of the fetus, or danger to the physical or psychological health of the mother. The Spanish Catholic hierarchy reacted as expected, although none have spoken as virulently as the archbishop of Burgos, reported the daily Spanish newspaper El País. Bishop Francisco Gil Hellín, Archbishop of Burgos and member of the Pontifical Council on the Family, addressed this issue on July 19th in an open letter to the Spanish government and Parliament. He called for the Catholics of the country to act with disobedience concerning the law on abortion: “This law is not a law, even if it is presented thus because of political and legislative authorities. It is not a law because no person has the right to kill an innocent. For that reason it does not oblige. On the contrary, it requires direct opposition....Let us go out to meet all the mothers who are in difficulty, and make their maternity easier....Let us prevent tyranny,” declared the Archbishop. “Let us stop this plague that is abortion and which to date has killed more people than all those who live in the cities of Zaragoza, Cordoba and Burgos combined.” The low level of abortions practised in the public hospitals in Spain can be explained by the objections of conscience advanced by the doctors. In 2009, the vast majority of abortions (97 percent of the 115,000 annual abortions) were performed in private clinics. Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, Spanish president of the Pontifi cal Academy for Life, harshly criticized the new law as “completely insane” in a July 29th interview granted to Il Consulente Re, the Italian Catholic on-line monthly magazine. This law “corresponds to the mentality” of the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, “who has an obsession with the question of rights,” although, the bishop asserted, he is “incapable of understanding what a right is.” In an interview granted to L´Osservatore Romano on July 30, 2010, Bishop Carrasco de Paula also warned against the recourse to the pill RU 486, also called the abortion pill. This pill “could cause the trivialization of abortion and 57 treat an undesired pregnancy as the equivalent of an annoying cold that one can eliminate with the help of a pill,” he declared. In the face of this situation, the Pontifical Academy for Life is working on “an in-depth document” to answer “the numerous polemics which always incite a passionate debate” such as that on abortion, “even at times within the Catholic world.” The President of the Academy for Life went on to explain that there is a considerable, deeply urgent need to address the subject of post-abortion syndrome which strikes many women and about which little is spoken publicly. “I refer to a state of depression which attacks many women who have obtained an abortion. Sometimes it may appear as a state of anxiety or as a more serious condition. We are looking to determine the pattern of these symptoms,” he added, “because it is certain that abortion, in addition to killing an innocent, weighs deeply on the conscience of the woman. It is a question which one cannot ignore, especially from the pastoral point of view.” On July 30th, in closing a conference on the theme of “the immense value of life” with Aranjuez (Spain), Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, declared that the laws which do not protect life are not “respectable.” When a law legalizes abortion or euthanasia, “it ceases to be a true, morally binding, civil law....The moment will arrive soon when we will become as ashamed of abortion as we have already with slavery.” (Source: DICI) www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 58 F R . p e t e r R . s c o t t QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Does mortal sin destroy merit forever? Q No merit for good deeds is properly our own, for no act can be supernaturally meritorious except through the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone is by Himself perfectly pleasing to His Father in heaven. Our merits are entirely dependent on Jesus’ merits, and are in effect their fruit. Consequently, if one has the misfortune to lose the union with Our Divine Savior that is given to him by sanctifying grace, then becoming spiritually dead, he separates himself from Him and consequently loses all the merits of his previous life. All his past good deeds are wasted and of no more benefit to his soul than if he had never done them. However, when a man makes a good, humble confession and recovers the grace that he had lost, he is once again united with our Divine Savior, source of all merits. It is manifestly obvious that Jesus, who is God, has not in the meantime forgotten all his good deeds, but is very mindful of them. They were never destroyed in themselves, but only unable to have the weight and value of merit on account of the sinner’s separation from Christ. However, with the return to sanctifying grace, this obstacle to merit is removed. Consequently the sinner who does penance recovers all the merit from all the good works of his entire life that were performed in the state of sanctifying grace and for the love of our Divine Lord. Here we penetrate just a little into the depth and the power of God’s mercy. It truly is a restoration of everything that was lost through sin, and not only the washing away of the fault. Justification of the sinner brings with it as well sanctifying grace, a share in the divine life, the friendship with God, the adoption of sons of God, and returns the soul to the state it was in before sin, with the exception of the punishment due to sin. Indeed, frequently the situation of the mortal sinner returned to the state of grace is better than before he committed mortal sin, for having realized his weakness and escaped from his accursed lukewarmness, he now has a greater love of God and degree of sanctifying grace. Having returned to its former state, the soul recuperates with sanctifying grace the sharing in Jesus’ merits and life, and the fruit of Jesus’ merits, namely its own merits for good deeds accomplished in the state of grace. O admirable and incomprehensible disposition of Divine Providence, yet inseparable from the mystery of the justification of the sinner. This recovery of the merits of past good deeds is called reviviscence. Consequently, mortal sin does not destroy merits forever, but only destroys merits until such time as the sinner, having made a good confession, recuperates the divine friendship. Does one strike one’s breast at the Hail Holy Queen and the consecration of Mass? Pious practices are good and merit worthy when done with the right intention. However, we should always endeavor to ensure that they make sense, and that the external gesture corresponds with the interior sentiment or conviction. Otherwise, they become private, bizarre, excessive and off-putting, regardless of the good intentions of the persons involved. The symbolism of striking one’s breast is both clear and evangelical. We find it clearly described by our Divine Savior in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican: “But the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his breast, saying: O God be merciful to me a sinner!” (Lk. 18:13). Consequently, the Church prescribes the rubric of striking one’s breast when the sentiment is that of sorrow for sin and the prayer one for forgiveness. It is an outward sign that our heart is crushed by its sense of unworthiness, which is what contrition really is. Thus it is that the striking of one’s breast is prescribed at the triple mea culpa in the Confiteor at Mass and in the Divine Office and the administration of the sacraments of Penance and Extreme Unction. It is also prescribed at the triple invocation at the Agnus Dei of Mass, when the people pray “Have mercy on us, Have mercy on us, Grant us peace,” and at the triple prayer “Domine, non sum dignus” which is recited by the priest before Holy Communion, and then by the faithful. It is interesting to note that it is not to be done at the Agnus Dei of a Requiem Mass, for then we do not ask for forgiveness and peace for ourselves, but rather eternal rest for the poor souls in Purgatory. The “custom” of striking one’s breast at other moments, in which the sentiment is not one of profound contrition, is abusive. Consequently, this gesture is not to be made in the prayer of the Hail Holy Queen, at the invocation “O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary,” as is sometimes piously but wrongly done. Likewise it is not to be done at the consecration or elevation during Mass, for the sentiment then is not one of contrition, but rather one of profound adoration, in which we repeat silently to ourselves the words of St. Thomas: “My Lord and my God.” Such striking of one’s breast, as pious as it may seem, is not to be retained, for it makes no sense. A THE ANGELUS • October 2010 www.angeluspress.org Fr. Peter Scott was ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988. After assignments as seminary professor, US District Superior, and Rector of Holy Cross Seminary in Goulburn, Australia, he is presently Headmaster of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy in Wilmot, Ontario, Canada. TheLastWord 59 Fr. Christian Bouchacourt Crimes and Punishment Every time a catastrophe occurs somewhere, like not long ago in Haiti or Chile, modern man breaks loose in a cataract of commentaries. Some see it as proof that God does not exist, since—to the contrary—He would prevent such events from happening. Others, frequently Catholics, refuse to see the hand of God. This kind of tragedy, they affirm, is simply due to the anomalies of the laws of nature. The possibility of a punishment from God doesn’t occur to anyone since He is good! Consequently, the clergy abstain from calling men to do penance, and insist that in those difficult situations the Church is on the side of victims to comfort and help them like a good NGO. All this is very human, too human… After all, the Old and New Testaments, and the Church’s teaching, provide us with tremendous enlightenment to illuminate such dramatic events. It is evident that suffering and evil are great mysteries on which faith alone can shed any light. From the beginning of creation, God reminds man of his duty. When man resists, He punishes. And so it is that Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise after their disobedience, while the deluge destroyed the greater part of a human race that did not stop moving far from God. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed due to their excesses of sins against nature. Recall also the seven plagues that punished Egypt for oppressing the people of Israel. This was no more than a reprimand from heaven. In the Old Testament, each time that the Jewish people withdrew from the divine teachings transmitted by the patriarchs and the prophets, God pun- ished this “hard-necked people” so they would return to the right track. Moses was punished by God for doubting when he struck the rock twice: he died before entering the Promised Land. Examples such as these abound in the Bible. Nevertheless, in His goodness and His justice, God rewards the just man who obeys His will, respects His commandments and does penance. God promised Abraham numerous descendants for demonstrating heroic obedience. Likewise, Jonas prevented the wrath of God from falling on the city of Nineveh for their sins: their authorities and inhabitants did penance. Because God is good, He is also just. He cannot treat the person who submits to His will the same way as the one who resists it. Some might object that in the catastrophes that demolish the world, not only the wicked have to suffer, but also the just. Isn’t this an injustice? God, in fact, wants the evil to fall on sinners to punish them and call them to penance, but He also permits it to affect the good who follow Christ’s example. They endure these terrible trials and offer them resignedly to expiate and repair the sins of mankind, appease divine wrath and bring down graces on a world that never stops offending God. This is the doctrine that Our Lord taught. Let us recall those terrible words that He addressed to the multitude following Him: “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish.”1 These words are an echo of the ones Isaias pronounced in the Old Testament: “For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, and the Gentiles shall be wasted with desolation.”2 Fr. Christian Bouchacourt Setbacks and misfortunes that strike men and the world are the consequence of sin, and they will occur until the end of the world. Pope Leo XIII but confirmed this teaching when he said: In like manner, the other pains and hardships of life will have no end or cessation on earth; for the consequences of sin are bitter and hard to bear, and they must accompany man so long as life lasts. To suffer and to endure, therefore, is the lot of humanity; let them strive as they may, no strength and no artifice will ever succeed in banishing from human life the ills and troubles which beset it. If any there are who pretend differently— who hold out to a hard-pressed people the boon of freedom from pain and trouble, an undisturbed repose, and constant enjoyment—they delude the people and impose upon them, and their lying promises will only one day bring forth evils worse than the present. Nothing is more useful than to look upon the world as it really is, and at the same time to seek elsewhere, as We have said, for the solace to its troubles.3 Fr. Christian Bouchacourt is District Superior of South America. Reprinted from the March/April 2010 issue of Iesus Christus. Lk. 13:3. Is. 60:12. 3 Rerum Novarum, 18. 1 2 (To be continued.) www.angeluspress.org THE ANGELUS • October 2010 New from Angelus Press ewbook N dio Au OPEN LETTER to CONFUSED CATHOLICS What our customers are saying... “My listening experience with Angelus Press’s latest audiobook was one of profound awakening and spiritual consolation. Never before have I listened so intently to an audio production.” “Since listening to this audiobook, my perspective on the fundamental truths of the Catholic Faith has been forever strengthened.” “Incredible. After listening to these CDs, I felt like I was able to personally connect with the mind of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.” Visit angeluspress.org to hear a sample Six CD’s (over 6½ hours). STK# 8477 $29.95 “What touched me most was the firm balance Archbishop Lefebvre possessed in his views on the Faith.” “One notices how the narrator does an exquisite job of captivating his audience.” Essential listening for Catholics everywhere. The definitive introduction to the 20th century’s crisis in the Catholic Church. The Grand Organ: St. Nicolas du Chardonnet The grand organ of St. Nicholas du Chardonnet has a long and fascinating history. The organ was rebuilt by Cliquot in 1787 and inaugurated by François Couperin. It was spared during the Revolution and was played by the most illustrious Parisians. It has since gone through another crucial restoration giving it a new life, but keeping the heritage from Cliquot. This recording reflects the three events during the inauguration of the instrument: ● The blessing of the organ with a presentation of the instrument made by the organ builder Michel Gaillard. ● The celebration of a Papal Mass, which includes the full richness of the Catholic liturgy offering a beautiful melding of choir and the organs of the church. ● The organ concert given by the owner, Marie-Agnes Grall Menet. STK# 6622A $19.95 www.angeluspress.org ● 1-8 00-9 6 6-73 37 Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music. RS . Traditional Rite PRIESTLY ORDINATION Our stunning 2011 Liturgical Calendar features professional photographs by Fr. John Young, FSSPX, taken during the 2010 ordination ceremony at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, Minnesota. Each month presents a different liturgical action from the ceremony. Detailed descriptions of each step are included at the front of the calendar. The 12"x12" dimension gives you plenty of room for notes and appointment reminders. All the feast days of the year according to the 1962 Roman Missal are listed with class and liturgical color, along with reminders of days of fast and abstinence. 12" x 12" Calendar, STK# CAL2011✱ $11.95 Calendar (with Chapel Directory) STK# CAL2011A✱ $12.95 Pocket-size US and International Chapel Directory. AVAILABLE AT A SPECIAL DISCOUNT WITH YOUR CALENDAR ORDER. It replaces the US and Canada listing that formerly appeared inside the calendar. 64pp. 4" x 6¼". STK# 8411✱ $1.95 THE ANGELUS DO YOUR PART TO SUPPORT THE CATHOLIC PRESS SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND RECEIVE 15% OFF! (Offer good until November 2, 2010) SHIPPING & HANDLING 5-10 days 2-4 days USA For eign Up to $50.00 $50.01 to $100.00 Over $100.00 $4.00 $6.00 FREE 25% of subtotal Up to $50.00 $50.01 to $100.00 Over $100.00 $8.00 $10.00 $8.00 FLAT FEE! ($10.00 minimum) 48 Contiguous States only. 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