Digital Dependence
A Harmful Dependence
The Birth of the Digital
Smartphones

September - October 2018

It is common knowledge that civilization adapts to technology
and that modern inventions deeply affect human behaviors.
It is easy indeed to see the change in culture produced by the
various modifications of human language alone—that vital
vehicle of thought. Man’s mind has certainly gone through new
modes of thinking; He processes words as the human language
becomes fixed, perfected, and multiplied indefinitely.

Letter
from the
Publisher
Dear Reader,
The present issue of The Angelus deals with technology and communication. This
year, we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Angelus Press, the central instrument
of communication of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) in America. Originally founded to
defend the Faith and provide the public with the proper teaching of Archbishop Lefebvre,
we are proud to say that, today more than ever, we are still dedicated to this purpose with
the SSPX extending far and wide within the continent and even spreading the message of
Tradition to the whole English-speaking world.
Technology is a very pertinent topic in this issue. Few of you will be surprised that we
are addressing this theme after a study of social media in January 2016. Most of us acknowledge how encroaching the screen devices have been to public and private life. Need
we make illustrations? Google’s top leaders define man simply as a computer machine,
reduced to zeroes and ones. Silicon Valley had told us time and again “Privacy is dead. Get
over it!” Mark Zuckerberg, the guru of Facebook, is facing scrutiny before Congress.
The giants of the Web world possess human data, communication means, monetary
power and intrusion into countries in ways that an enemy army could never have dreamed
of before. A worldwide revolution has taken place and politicians are only waking up to the
threats these foreigners are bringing over their country. China is spanned by its Great Wall,
but Google knows no border. And no web giant fears local courts which operate at a snail’s
pace when they are already light years ahead treading other laws under foot; The lion is out
of the cage.
Yet, it is within our own sphere of influence that we can act. Modern technology needs
to be assessed properly within our human existence. Is it a rhetorical question to ask who,
between man and the machine, is the master and who is the slave? Whether we like it or
not, the Web with its multiple tentacles is here to stay. We are confronted in all walks of life
with a new and invasive lifestyle and we need to appreciate its interests and pitfalls. Thus
forewarned, it should help us to inform our mind and form our conscience as well as those
entrusted to us.

Fr. Jürgen Wegner
Publisher

September - October 2018
Volume XLI, Number 5
Publisher
Fr. Jürgen Wegner
Editor-in-Chief
Mr. James Vogel
Managing Editor
Fr. Dominique Bourmaud
Assistant Editor
Mr. Gabriel Sanchez
Copy Editor
Miss Jane Carver
Design and Layout
credo.creatie
(Eindhoven, The Netherlands)
Mr. Simon Townshend
Director of Operations
Mr. Brent Klaske

		
U.S.
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Contents
Letter from the Publisher

4

Theme: Digital Dependence
––On the 40th Anniversary of Angelus Press
––Tilting at Windmills
––A Harmful Dependence
––Knowing Who We Are
––The Birth of the Digital
––Smartphones

6
9
12
17
20
28

Spirituality
––The Introit
––Thoughts of God

34
38

Christian Culture
––The Cathedral of Chartres
––Book Review: Half-Life: The Decay of Reality
––The Quest of Literature to Define the Child
––Book Review: Fatima 1917-2017
––Blessing Your Children
––Teaching Little Ones Devotion to Mary
––Questions and Answers

40
48
49
53
55
58
69

“Instaurare omnia in Christo”

The Angelus (ISSN 10735003) is published bi-monthly
under the patronage of St. Pius X and Mary,
Queen of Angels. Publication office is located at
PO Box 217, St. Marys, KS 66536.
PH (816) 753-3150; FAX (816) 753-3557.
Periodicals Postage Rates paid at Kansas City, MO.
Manuscripts and letters to the editor are welcome
and will be used at the discretion of the editors.
The authors of the articles presented here are solely
responsible for their judgments and opinions.
Postmaster sends address changes to the address above.
©2018 BY ANGELUS PRESS. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE
PRIESTLY SOCIETY OF SAINT PIUS X FOR THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA

News from Tradition
––Church and World
––Fortes in Fide
––The Last Word

74
80
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Theme Digital Dependence

40th
Anniversary
Angelus Press

Interview with James Vogel, Editor-in-Chief of Angelus Press

Editor’s Note: The following is an interview with James Vogel, Editor of Angelus Press and
Communications Director for the U.S. District of the Society of Saint Pius X.
Let’s start from the beginning. When
was Angelus Press founded and for what
purpose?
Angelus Press was founded in 1978 in
Dickinson, Texas, by Fr. Carl Pulvermacher,
OFM. We began as an apostolate of the Society
of Saint Pius X to provide traditional Catholic
literature and doctrine to Americans confused
by the changes in the Church after the Second
Vatican Council and the introduction of the New
Mass. Although run almost entirely by volunteers,
Fr. Carl Pulvermacher and his small band of
faithful helpers ensured that, in the whirlwind
of changes happening in the 1970’s, faithful
Catholics could find reliable, traditional Catholic
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September - October 2018

teaching. Shortly after this humble beginning,
Archbishop Lefebvre gave us the mandate to be
the official publisher of his works in English.
He wanted to be sure that Americans and other
English-speaking Catholics would know of his
work and that of the Society of Saint Pius X.

Was Angelus Press intended to only be the
publishing apostolate for the U.S. District?
The history is a bit complicated since there
were technically two separate U.S. Districts at
the time. Once the Districts were united to form
a single U.S. District, we gradually became the
publishing arm of the whole SSPX in America.

You have referred to Angelus Press as
an apostolate. What do you mean by that?
Because I think many think of the Press as a
publishing business.
There is no doubt that there is a financial or
business aspect to what we do: we have lights to
keep on, websites to run, and employees to pay.
But we don’t exist to make money as such; when
we have, for instance, our yearly production
planning meetings, the first question is never
“Which books will make the most money?” The
questions are: what do the priests want the
faithful to have? What will help people restore
all things in Christ in the modern world? And, of
course, this is something that applies not just to
our books, but our videos, our annual conference,
and so on.
What would you identify as some of the
main challenges to running and maintaining
this specific apostolate of the Society of
Saint Pius X?
I would say there is one “internal” and one
“external.” Internally, so to speak, I don’t think

most followers of the SSPX realize how Angelus
Press has grown to be more than just a publishing
house. Essentially, we are the communications
department for the District: we publish all the
newsletters, run the websites, handle e-mails and
calls from priests and faithful, etc.
Externally, we are trying to find the best way
to reach souls in 2018. We just finished a huge
survey to see how people can be reached most
efficiently: the written word? Videos? Audio
products like podcasts? With limited time and
resources, it’s a challenge to know how the voice
of Tradition can resonate as loudly as possible.

Finally, for those out there who wish to
assist Angelus Press’s apostolate, what can
they do to help?
First and foremost, to pray for the apostolate.
One of the most encouraging things, every week,
is seeing that there are souls out there looking
for the truth. When a priest calls wanting to
learn the Old Mass, or someone has finally found
a “safe haven” in one of our chapels, it makes

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Theme Digital Dependence
everything we do worth it. With the way things
are in the Church and the world, it’s easy to
despair. More than most, though, we see these
little signs of hope on a daily basis.

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Second, perhaps, is to take a look at our
website or call us to learn about some of the
other apostolates we do: our prison outreach
program has been growing, and we would love
to do more to help the missions. As an SSPX
publishing house, we try to help priests and
seminarians above all.
Finally, to play the mendicant, we always
have underwriting opportunities for our books,
sponsorships for priests and religious who want
to attend our conference, and apostolates we
could expand or initiate with more funds. If
there’s something dear to your heart—getting
the right books to priests outside our circles
or helping prisoners or our News site—we can
always use help. Without the support of all of you,
we would be able to do nothing.
The fact that we’re celebrating 40 years is
nothing short of miraculous. On a human level,
Angelus Press should have been swallowed up
by the crisis in the Church or hampered by the
general decline in reading. Instead, we’re growing
and reaching more souls than ever. Everyone
here realizes this is due to Our Lady. May she
guard and assist us for another 40 years!

Tilting at
Windmills
A Warning from 1605

by Andrew J. Clarendon

The primal curse of Genesis remains: “with
labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the
days of thy life…In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return to the earth
of which thou wast taken.” All attempts to
fabricate a new paradise on earth have failed,
with the experiments of 20th century atheistic
materialism standing as particularly deadly
examples. Nevertheless, man has employed the
gift of the intellect to develop ways to try to make
life easier or to at least solve certain problems
in our fallen world. From the most primitive
tools to today’s supercomputers, technology is,
in a wide sense, both “applied science [and] the
things people make and use”; the word itself
comes from the Greek for “art” or “skill.” Dante
and Shakespeare among others, write eloquently
about how it is natural to man to imitate the

Creator by using or even improving upon what
is found in nature. In The Winter’s Tale, for
example, Shakespeare cites cross-breeding
flowers as “an art / Which does mend nature—
change it, rather—but / The art itself is nature.”
Today, in the midst of rapid developments in
technology that were recently the stuff of science
fiction, mankind is faced with a Pandora’s box
of future advancements with at least partially
unknown consequences. We are at—or perhaps
beyond—a crossroads, one that involves
both the individual and the planet as a whole.
Interestingly, the poets have not only sounded
warnings today and as the Industrial Revolution
was beginning, but also centuries earlier. One of
the earliest examples pointing to this ambivalent
relationship between man and the machine is the
famous windmill episode in Miguel Cervantes’
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Theme Digital Dependence
1605 comic masterpiece Don Quixote.

The Shift to Modernity
Occurring early in the novel, this iconic
moment illustrates central concerns of the work
itself as well as the great cultural shift from the
medieval to the early modern period. Quixote
is an hidalgo, a minor nobleman, who spends
his time reading chivalric romances—knights
in shining armor, damsels in distress, fantastic
magical adventures, and the like—until one day
his wits turn, and he decides that it is his mission
in life to become a knight errant, riding out to
seek adventure. After an initial sally, Quixote
convinces his neighbor, Sancho Panza, “a peasant
and an honest man...but not very smart” to join
him as his squire. So, the greatest comic odd

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September - October 2018

couple in literature sets out on the dusty roads of
La Mancha to right wrongs and battle foes. The
episode with the windmills is, appropriately, the
first adventure the two encounter and is a type
for all the rest. Seeing “30 or 40 windmills” on a
plain before them, Quixote’s crazy imagination
turns them into what he calls “monstrous giants.”
He goes on to tell Sancho that he plans to “take
all their lives, and with their spoils we’ll start to
get rich. This is righteous warfare, and it’s a great
service to God to rid the earth of such wicked
seed.” Although Sancho tries to warn him,
Quixote attacks; after his lance gets stuck in one
of the sails, he is lifted into the air and thrown to
the earth, with his horse on top of him.
At the most basic level, this is slapstick
comedy: the proud man is literally brought
down to earth—an image of humility. The core
of Cervantes’ genius, however, is to include a

deeper, philosophical point within the comedy.
At this profound level, Quixote is right: the
windmills are giants. This machine grinds wheat
much faster than a human being and so man can
quickly become dependent upon it. In his crazy
yet noble imagination, Quixote has realized an
important point: man can become a slave to the
machine, even to the point that he can hardly
imagine life without this or that gadget. It is
disturbing to contemplate what would happen,
particularly in the big cities, if electricity—the
most fundamental modern technology—were
to disappear; indications of the consequences
have already been seen after hurricanes. What is
more, it is interesting to note that the first time
the Pilgrim sees Satan in Dante’s Inferno—a
work Cervantes must have known—the fallen
angel of light’s wings are compared to the
sails of a windmill. Brilliantly extending the
point, in his unfinished film version of Don
Quixote, the great director Orson Welles has
a scene in which Quixote and Sancho ride into
contemporary Barcelona. They make their way
into a movie theater and in a moment that recalls
the windmills and other moments in the novel,
Quixote attacks the movie screen to the anger of
the adults and the cheers of the children in the
theater. To fight for the right while crazily fighting
against the machine is the original quixotic
adventure.

A Word About Warfare
As Quixote chooses the profession of arms,
a word must be said about warfare. Later in the
novel, Quixote notes that technology is very
often used in combat where the same concerns
are present. Speaking to a group of young nobles
at an inn, he says, “happy and blessed were
those ages that lacked the dreaded fury of those
devilish instruments of artillery—whose inventor
I’m convinced must be in hell as a reward for his
diabolical invention—with which it’s possible for
a despicable and cowardly arm to take the life of
a brave knight.” Modern industrial warfare has
shown Quixote to again have a valid argument.
While it is part of Quixote’s noble insanity to
react against the monstrous machine, even the

last of the knights is easily brushed aside by
the giant windmill just as he could easily be
shot and killed. It is enough that he stands up
to it. In later centuries, authors like Jonathan
Swift and Charles Dickens take up the warning
in wider social terms, arguing against thinking
of people as only useful products or as cogs in
the industrial machine. In our own age, it is not
accidental that the dystopian novel has continued
to grow as authors explore the possible effects
of our technological times in war and in uneasy
peace.

A Question of Balance
Of course, even Quixote cannot do entirely
without machines: swords and armor do not
grow in nature. The question therefore is one
of balance. Clearly, our environment has been
severely impacted over the decades and the
effects on the individual are only really beginning
to be understood. One need not be a video game
or smart phone addict to feel disturbed by the
near ubiquity of modern machines in one’s life.
Surely the answer is something along the lines of
the appropriate technology movement associated
with E. F. Schumacher and the various bioconservative movements that seek to at least
put a check on our rapid development. As G. K.
Chesterton puts in The Outline of Sanity, “The
best and shortest way of saying it is that instead
of the machine being a giant to which the man is
a pygmy, we must at least reverse the proportions
until man is a giant to whom the machine is a
toy.” Anyway, after a day of staring at a screen,
there is hardly anything more pleasant than to
work outside in the garden, handling real soil,
water, and living things. Not only does our age
need to again affirm the divine order, but also,
in a world of so-called virtual reality, even the
natural order needs to be championed. Even now,
in the 21st century, we declare with Hopkins, “for
all this, nature is never spent; / There lives the
dearest freshness deep down things; /…/ Because
the Holy Ghost over the bent / World broods with
warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”

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Theme Digital Dependence

A Harmful
Dependence
for the Mind of the Youth

by Fr. Philippe Bourrat

Screens and digital devices, which have taken hold on the lives of people, are not just useful
machines. They transform the human universe, simulating behaviors. What is their effect on the human
mind and upon social behavior?
The constant connection of man to the
machine, with the occurrence of the smartphone,
is one of the most visible manifestations of the
digital and social revolution that has occurred
in developed countries since the beginning of
the new millennium. In 2013, 21 million French
people owned a smartphone. The numbers would
then jump to 40 million within a year. While
waiting to increase the power of the human mind
by the widespread implantation of digital devices,
everything is done in order that dependence
on this pocket computer becomes irreversible.
Applications of all types have invaded every
aspect of daily life, thus drawing up the priorities
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and the outlines imposed upon a contemporary
human life: games, videos, services, commerce,
health, leisure, culture, information and security;
everything passes by the mobile screen. In
addition to the initial function of communication:
telephony is now social networks.
The result is another life, traced by technology
itself: that which consists in relying essentially
on the data of the smartphone, the constant
consultation of the machine distances more
and more from real life, from the persons and
realities which surround us. A new happiness
is drawn up through the expression of one’s
tastes, the publication of one’s least sentiments,

humors, and favorites. The machine analyzes
what is good for you and seeks to anticipate the
activity or purchases that you should complete.
As the trans-humanists predict, who swear by
the artificial intelligence whose exponential
capacities suggest a war between biological
humanity and augmented humanity, that is to
say transformed by the potentialities of NBIC
technologies (Nanotechnology, Biotechnology,
Internet and Cognitive Sciences), a simply natural
life will not be more envisioned in the upcoming
year than would be the return to candles as the
ordinary way of lighting.

The Transformation of Man
This transformation of man into an informed
human reposes upon a promethean faith without
limit in the technological capacity to surpass the
physical and temporal limits of his nature: his
intelligence and the acquisition of his knowledge,
the brevity and fragility of his life could see its
constraints diminished or suppressed. That
which the theatres formerly envisioned in the
scenarios of science fiction, the digital giants
(Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft,
without forgetting certain Chinese giants),
already realize. More than a race of obvious
financial issues, this revolution would like to
reform man integrally, by making a creature of
science and technology. Ultimately, man becomes
god, an immortal and omniscient god.
The dazzling progress made in the knowledge
of the functioning of the human brain and in
nanotechnology opens the horizons to men of
power that are digital and internet giants. Their
materialistic presuppositions and the scientific
ambition that animates them oppose any idea of
a moral limit, (a fortiori) let alone any respect
for natural or divine law. For them, there is no
earthly happiness, no dignified human life except
that which will benefit from the ever-increasing
potential of digital progress. All genetic
failure, all physical weakness, all intellectual
incompetence must be repaired in order that
human life be judged compatible with the
standards of the time. Eugenics (or a good birth)
and euthanasia (a good death), become the two

cornerstones of modern life. They are now the
great business of the digital devisors, who spend
billions of dollars on research in these fields.

A Return to Order
While with these technological
transformations loom strong hints of
totalitarianism, we must remember that
human life is not reduced to good health, to
the satisfaction of one’s body, or to the removal
of all limitations. The happiness of man does
not consist in a knowledge worthy of an online
encyclopedia or in the abilities of analytic or
calculation software that has in fact, for quite
awhile, gone beyond human intelligence. It
is not by increasing the intellectual quotient
of the world population that one will make it
continually happy. The happiness of man rests
in God and in the participation of His life that
has been offered to us since the redemptive
Incarnation, not by the conquest by man himself
of a digital earthly life.
Man is made to know and to love, and
ultimately to know and love God who created
him. He may be dispensed from learning and
desire, or may lessen suffering and many physical
limitations by technology. It may even prevent
him from taking risks or giving his life in a heroic
gesture, however, it may not replace in him the
desire to love and be loved, to invent, to express
in art his reflections on life, death, love, or on the
natural world which surrounds him. There is not
a philosophical robot nor a software that replaces
artistic genius, nor a love to share coming from
a machine, nor courage, virtue, nor liberty in
a machine no matter how sophisticated it is.
Any counterfeit in these domains would itself
be the fruit of human inventions, which would
simulate in algorithms potentialities properly and
exclusively human. A machine may speak and
dialogue, but in this, it is merely developing the
potentialities of its programming, including when
it acquires for itself new competencies (artificial
intelligence.)
Natural human life should still be able to
exist, unless we wish to renounce the humanity
desired and created by God. This human
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Theme Digital Dependence
life is put in danger by the omnipresence of
technology. Before, the machine aided man in
the accomplishment or the facilitation of tasks
necessary for his life, though often arduous,
which mitigated his time for contemplation and
properly cultural and human activity. Since then,
the smartphone—and all that it represents—
constitutes the center of his life. It dictates his
actions, his thoughts, his knowledge, his tastes,
his purchases, his deportment, his morals, and
his virtual social life. Thus, the slave consents
to depend solely on his control screen to which
he surrenders his body and soul. To give this up
would already be for him a taste of death. This
dependence is really dehumanizing. For, by dint
of relying on software programming, we adopt
the binary mode of operation and its inhumanity.
Hence comes the importance of understanding
the moral and existential issues of this
technological and social revolution. However,
these should not make us forget the nuisances
that are easier to spot, which many medical
and educational specialists have denounced for
many years and which many have found in their
entourage.

Why Do We Become
Dependent on Devices?
Dopamine is a biochemical molecule that
permits communication of information between
the neurons and certain parts of the brain.
It provokes a sensation of pleasure that is
communicated from the brain to other parts
of the body, following the accomplishment of
various acts. Whether is it the chemical drug
or the stimulation of curiosity or well-being
linked to the attainment and the satisfaction of
the act of playing a game, of consulting a digital
device, of the surprise linked to an alarm, etc.,
everything is in favor of a system of recompense
which engenders a dependence.
The designers of the software for social
media, games, and online shopping multiply
the modalities linked to the repetition of acts
which give a recompense and notable favor the
production of dopamine. The dependence thus
created pushes users to come back repeatedly to
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the use of an application or the software which
procures for him this form of pleasure that
requires a continual renewal.
However, the dependence on video games,
games on the smartphone, following and using
social media and news sites neutralize the mental
capacities linked to judgment and reflection. Like
any drug, it necessitates a continual renewal of
stimulation in order to provoke a pleasure of the
same caliber as the former one. It renders one
even more dependent as the reason and will find
themselves weakened in the face of the strength
of the physiological addiction thus created.

Screens and Academic Results
It is popular to affirm that the recourse to
technology at school and at home is favorable to
academic progress. In 2016, however, a report of
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) observed that in countries
where students used computers moderately
in class, they performed better academically.
On average, 72% of students from countries in
the OECD use a computer or a tablet at school.
There is only 42% in Korea and 28% in Shanghai,
two places with a reputation of high academic
achievement. In the countries of the East, where
it is more common to use the Internet at school,
academic performance declined between the
years 2000 and 2012.
The use of screens by small children is the
source of deficiencies in numerous domains. Dr.
Anne-Lise Ducanda, Doctor of the Protection
Maternelle et Infantile (PMI) of Essonne, made
know in the Spring of 2017 the striking increase
of autistic behaviors in children that she received
for consultation. The frequent usage of screens
was the diagnosed cause for the most part—
parents having given over to tablets and other
screens for their educative mission. Trouble
maintaining attention and concentrating, using
language, behavioral problems, sleep difficulties
and thus academic struggles were the most
visible consequences of this new slavery.
With eyes fixed for 5-6 hours a day on a screen
(2016), these children are incapable of responding
to a question that is asked them, to put the pieces

of a game together, or even less to hold a pencil.
Their language is not structured and has a grave
deficiency of syntax and vocabulary. The child
who is left in front of screens cannot participate
in a veritable exchange of conversation. This is
because it is in speaking that one progresses
most in mastering a language. It will be the
beginning of a heavy deficiency in the capacity
of abstraction for these children and an even
greater difficulty in handling the language. This
follows, as a deficiency of language, a deficiency
of thought and reflection. It is an obstacle for
good socialization, for exchanging with their
surroundings and simply expressing themselves.
Words, now too rare, place those who are lacking
them in situations of inferiority, that which favors

a series of obstacles in their scholastic years
where the expression and comprehensions of
language is indispensable.

A Disturbed Social Deportment
In a more advanced age, one also notices
the anxious and perturbed character of
social media: the regard that one has towards
themselves causes narcissistic behavior, a
desire to be conformed to social standards, a
sickening concern to please and make themselves
important, a culture of self which dries up
the quality and authenticity of human ties.
Furthermore, the mania of judging everything

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Theme Digital Dependence
without competence, to give one’s advice and to
express one’s sentiments and one’s tastes to a
crowd of anonymous connections and “friends”
convinces minds of the reign and superiority
of opinion over the truth, or the perceived and
sensed over the intelligence. In its natural
derivative, the media solicits the anonymous
demolition and lynching solidarity that fuels
unreasonable group psychological mechanisms.
Sheep bleating on the same tone, yet claiming
originality. They react by order and live their
indignant lives in the digital markets that know
how to exploit them financially.
From the point of view of character, the
regular use of screens, of video games, and of the
internet is favorable to the disorder of passions
and the weakening of the will submitted to an
incessant incitement to curiosity, impulsivity,
and the expansion and valorization of man’s
ego. Without moral limits, the virtual world is
open to all forms of violence, all possibilities of
voyeurism and immorality, and to a life ruled by
the basest instincts of man wounded by original
sin.

The Children of Bill Gates
The intelligence and the memory are the great
victims of the machine, which dispenses from
knowledge and reflection. This is because a man
without an active memory, without the capacity
to reflect at length, is no longer apt at judging
and comprehending. He is content to sense, as a
simple animal. One can manipulate him without
effort; one can domesticate him.
This is without a doubt the same consideration
that pushes parents who work in the digital
sector to protect their children from the dangers
of the machines that they develop.
Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, forbids his
children to have a smartphone before they are
14 years old. Steve Jobs, deceased co-founder of
Apple, did not give digital devices to his children,
but spoke with them about books and history.
Chamath Palihapitiya, former vice-president
charged with the growth of Facebook users,
forbids his children to use social media. Chris
Anderson, the ancient Editor-in-Chief of the
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American magazine Wired and actual PDG of 3D
Robotics, limits the use of technological devices
and gadgets by his children. For his family, a
rule of life: no screens allowed in bedrooms.
Even more symptomatic, in southern San
Francisco, the Waldorf School of the Peninsula,
a private charter school, attracts its students
through teaching methods that do not use any
technological devices. Numerous children of
employees from eBay, Google, Apple, and Yahoo!
are educated there. Can this show an indication
that a good academic formation and a healthy
education can overlook digital devices and the
dependence on the smartphone?
We have not finished discovering the
consequences of the digital revolution, which
are becoming a reality before our eyes, and
the deportment and social life of connected
individuals. Those who have been identified are
designing a new man who prepares the robotic
man, which the trans-humanists announce. In
an insidious manner, the spirit of enjoyment, of
immediacy, of incapacity to engage and judge
according to principals, are also the bitter fruits
of these contemporary technologies, no matter
the practical advantages, which render them so
attractive. Choosing to live as a man presupposes
knowing what man is and what the machine is,
even when this surpasses human capacities. In
this consists the survival of true humanity and
the relationship of man with God.

Knowing
Who We Are
by Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, SSPX

Lately, journalists have picked their brains
about a new social trend. It is the trend made of
a long list of scandals perpetrated by middleage highly successful leaders. The journalists
are quite correct in asking the question: how is
it that such powerful figures of the modern age,
involved with the young, could go down the path
of violence over powerless victims? No doubt,
this is because they did not respect them but,
most of all, they did not respect themselves. In
other words, they had difficulty coming to grips
with their true size and role in life, in a word,
with who they are.
From a different angle, we now have social
media gurus facing Congress and mega moral
issues, like Mark Zuckerberg, but they too ignore
who they are and their role in life. Zuckerberg,
for one, appears to have difficulties knowing who

he is, with his cool look, unpretentious, dressing
with clothes which appeal to kindergarten
children rather than adults. But he is not a child,
he is a giant and one of the richest men on the
planet ever. His virtual empire and colossal
fortune seemed to have made him forget the
sense of responsibility and duty to society. Like
Prometheus, he is playing at god on behalf of
fallen men.

A Different Type of Life
Like many of my readers, I have lived in an
era when nothing was taken for granted: no free
lunch, no easy way out of homework and chores,
no nonsense allowed by our parents. We knew
life was meant to be hard lived, ploughing
17

Theme Digital Dependence

Cardinal Michael Browne and Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre at the Centenary of Rockwell College, Ireland, 1964

our field with sweat long before we could reap
its fruit. We instinctively understood too that
each action had consequences, for better or for
worse, and that we fully deserved the merit or the
blame for them and there was no point arguing
about it. This too was essential to our bringing
up and making men out of us. More so, in the old
country, abundance and wealth were virtually
unknown and only seen as a remote planet
occasionally seen on the screens. They told us of
an Eldorado in the Americas, profusely portrayed
as the land of plenty and of the free, but we were
wiser. It sounded all too hollow and artificial and
we did not believe this fantastic fairyland could
do justice to its golden promise of happiness.
Europe had, at that time at least, a sense of
depth, of history, of one’s position in life where
no one took the revolutionary mottos of “liberty”
and “equality” seriously. It was a place where
there was orderly behavior because there was
order and authority. In the old country, we knew
that some people and places and attitudes had
more relief than others: from casual to proper to
sacred. And if teenagers were still uncomfortable
navigating the etiquette which suited each
situation, they were on the whole quick enough to
18

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accept the remonstrance of their stern parents,
to imitate prudently the mass of people, and to
follow their inner sense of propriety inculcated
at a very young age. They knew there was a
time to play and a time to be serious; there was
relaxation and there was decorum; there was
chit-chat and there was articulate conversation
even in chance occasions. No adult would
debase himself by screaming or proffering rough
language in company: some things were simply
not done! Ideas were taken seriously and life was
seen as meaningful and worth struggling for,
especially for Catholic families.

Some Illustrative Examples
Perhaps a couple of examples could help
delineate the concept of knowing who you are
and how to dress and act in company. I recall
this youth in uniform at a small Swiss railroad
station. He must not have been more than 22,
and yet, his demeanor, his professionalism, all
betrayed the man in total control of himself and
of the importance of his function as the station
manager with important responsibilities fully

assumed. On another occasion, in Rome, you
could also see this old restaurant’s waiter acting
with the grace and seriousness of ages past. He
was serving with the gusto and effervescence
proper to the Romans, and yet, with such
grace and punctiliousness you thought he was
tending to Julius Cesar himself. You felt that
he was carrying 2,000 years of Latin culture on
his shoulders and it exuded from the slightest
movement. This I think is what Shakespeare
portrayed as he described King Lear being “Every
inch a king.”
I’d be impious if I were not to bring out some
example from my father in the priesthood,
Archbishop Lefebvre. Here was a man of stature
who had held important roles under Pius XII,
as he was heading all of French Africa with
60 bishops under his jurisdiction. Later on, he
became Superior General of the world’s largest
missionary congregation, the Holy Ghost Fathers,
before heading the Coetus at Vatican II to offset
the liberal attacks. And, because he had wisdom
coupled with a profound experience, he was at
ease in every circumstance imaginable. He did
not seem to feel the pressure from the media or
the attacks coming from Rome or other episcopal
denunciations, as I witnessed time and again.
But more remarkably, he was most affable and
patient with obnoxious youth or the shy young
priests that we were. To us, he was the father
listening attentively to his sons and, while
adroitly redressing our awkward views, he was
gauging our worth and purity of heart. In all this,
he was not getting out of his role of founder and
father. He was ever the same smiling, effaced,
humble man who dealt with all things, in season
and out of season. In hindsight, I think that, if he
was somewhat detached from contingent events
and troubles of life, it was because his soul was
anchored in faith and prayer, which gave him
the strong convictions and sound principles that
guided his every action.
The habit does not make the monk. This truth
does not quite hide the other side of the coin that
the deliberate absence of the habit would greatly
damage the monk. In ages past, adults dressed
and acted in ways demanded by their stature
and class in life, and were honored accordingly.
Anyone would have been rightly scandalized

to witness a young woman misbehaving at a
bar or a city mayor spewing swear words out
of anger. Why were they scandalized by such
misbehavior? Simply because these people were
acting in contradiction with who they were and
with what authority or status in life they had to
uphold; because there was an accepted order and
hierarchy and these were being transgressed.

Where Are We Now?
What of today? Going through the busy city
streets in daytime or through a crowded airport
hub, the way people talk, dress and act, a visitor
from a remote island would think he was at a
bazaar or a circus, or by the beach. Yet, nobody
takes notice of the scandal anymore. Why is this?
It is because we have lost the sense of propriety,
we have lost the sense of place, of decorum. Yet,
more profoundly, it is because we have lost the
sense of our own identity of reasonable men and
children of God. We behave as children in the
school yard where it is all up for grabs: all equal
and free in the muck of society.
A last word on this issue of who we are. The
ancient Greeks had a horror of the hubris:
the hybrid monster. The good and beautiful,
kaloskagathos, was cultivated by the Greeks,
who had the cult of beauty, meaning propriety
with due order and measure. Each item and
person had to have the due proportions, neither
too small nor too large. Each had its place in
the universe which was called the “kosmos”,
from which came our “cosmetics”, because it
was beautiful and ordered. Moving on to the
supernatural plane, we have a properly Christian
virtue, humility, which consists in keeping one’s
place in life. And, hereafter, faith teaches us that
the city of the devil is where chaos and confusion
reigns. By contrast, the city of God, as described
in Dante’s Paradiso, is set in order with the
nine choirs of angels and the corresponding
planes of the elect. In the divine ordering and
hierarchy, there is ample room for the liberty of
God’s children. So, when all is said and done,
we may conclude that, on both the natural and
supernatural plane, knowing our place in society
is key to success.
19

Theme Digital Dependence

The Birth of
the Digital
by Fr. Jean-Dominique, O.P.

Screens have been invited into human relationships; they modify interactions between men and affect
their sociability. Ultimately, their impact is even political. Using imagery in language, here are some
observations on this phenomenon.
Humanity is rich in imagination. It has invented
the most unbelievable mythological creatures, the
Loch Ness monster, the blue Smurfs, and the green
two-legged aliens surging upon earth in UFO’s.
It has succeeded still more in the current day.
It has placed in focus a bizarre creature: cold,
metallic, omnipresent, though invisible, allpowerful and yet so fragile, an octopus with a
thousand tentacles, and soft as a newborn lamb.
What a marvel! It is so cheerful that it dispenses
you from smiling, so admirable that is frees you
from admiring, so serviceable that it doesn’t oblige
you to serve, so prudent that you don’t have to look
ahead, so intelligent that no thought is necessary,
20

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September - October 2018

so lively that is doesn’t require you to live.
You have guessed it; it is Mr. Digital.
Let us see to what degree this extra-terrestrial
of a new genre has visited the earth, our life, our
heart, and above all, our social life. Because it
is not nothing for a man to be a “social animal”!
It is in the common life, in the innumerable
relations who make the family, the village, and
the community in which one will be fully human
and fully Christian. What has become of social
life and the beautiful Christian society since the
debarkment of Mr. Digital?
Let us consider it in relief, in situations that
have, in reality, all existed.

Frequent Electronics
Cecilia is engaged and she is so happy.
However, there is something that causes her
chagrin. For professional reasons, her fiancé
Vincent has left the country. Six months away,
an emptiness ensues that a few rare visits will
not satisfy. Alas, Cecilia confides to a friend: “We
console ourselves. Every day, we send each other
emails.”
Excuse me, Cecilia? You write kind words to
your fiancé, you open your heart, you express
your affections and your mutual plans in the same
way one buys a train ticket, with this cold and
conventional means of communication, open to
indiscreet glances! You give Digital a right to see
your heart, which God alone visits! You deprive
your fiancé of the beautiful stationary with your
favorite designs that you love, which he will then
love, and your own beautiful handwriting. What
would you say if your good Vincent would offer
you instead of beautiful, freshly opened roses,
delightful in both color and scent, plastic flowers?
A false support soon engenders a false love.

indispensable Digital. Mrs. Simone irons while
watching tv. The child finds the heart and mind of
his mother plunged into a screen. Poor orphan!

A Screen Between People
Mrs. Simone is a mother of a family. She and
her husband were inspired numerous years
ago to adopt the Traditional Mass, sacraments,
and doctrine. Their children were educated
and instructed in good schools. God gave them
six children. Six children and a husband, not
counting numerous relationships with neighbors,
ought to suffice to satisfy the talent of a woman
for communication. But no, they crudely invite
Digital to their home.
—Come in, make yourself at home!
And Mr. Digital accepts the invitation. With
calculation, there are now 20 screens in their
home, counting the smartphone (pocket Digital)
of the older children!
The saddest part of this affair is the fate of
the youngest. As all children, he goes to see his
mother often to receive a kind word, a smile, for a
hug, or some other necessity. He thus approaches
his mother, who is ironing. But, horror of horrors,
what does he see behind the ironing board? The

A New Genre of Friendships
We were invited on Saturday night to the home
of some good friends. With good Christians, a
good meal and selection of wine, it is always a joy
to see them again. We arrive on time, though not
too soon to be a nuisance. Mrs. Boitsansoif, that’s
their name, opens the door for us precipitously.
“Excuse me, I was delayed.”
The noise of the microwave, which comes from
the kitchen, foretells of reheated leftovers. It is
not a problem; the friendship overlooks all. The
father of this large family is a balanced, cultivated
man, competent in his profession.
“Would you like to drink something?”
“Very much so; homesickness has already made
me thirsty.”
We sit down, happy to be able to converse
21

Theme Digital Dependence
on subjects that unite us. But suddenly, my friend
Boitsansoif gets up, opens his computer and
consults Mr. Google (an accomplice of Digital).
His favorite player won the tennis tournament! He
sits down to celebrate the victory. Then my friend
takes out his pocket Digital. Look what I saw
yesterday! He displays before our eyes 20 photos
of an antique car that passed in front of his house
yesterday—the same one that my neighbor shines
on Saturdays. And we took advantage of this to
look at some photos of a mutual friend and his
last vacation, without forgetting to look at the last
messages that his friend Digital spattered on his
device (for everything is urgent). Politeness kept
us from revealing our thoughts: If I am a bother to
you, I can leave!
But something strange held our attention.
Besides some noise from the kitchen, a profound

But this evening, nothing such as this is occurring
in the Boitsansoif household. And we shared our
amazement with our friend:
“Your children are perhaps out tonight?”
“No, they are all upstairs in their bedrooms.”
“Well, congratulations! They are truly well
behaved.”
“Oh yes, they leave us be. They each have
their games, according to their age: tablets with
innumerable video games for the smallest viewers
so that the older children can watch movies (of
which perhaps there is 1 in 100 which does not
wound purity?), or they exchange messages on
Twitter or Facebook. Mr. Digital has brought
peace to our home.”
Thank you, Digital, but it is the peace of a
cemetery. And when the children leave their tomb,
when, constrained by their parents or obliged by
hunger, they condescend to come to the table, it
is with glassy eyes, the faces of beaten dogs in a
dinosaur-like approach. And in the course of the
meal, they bring only empty words, reflections
on the poorly-cooked quiche, exchanges of words
without sentences, and sentences without heads
or tails.
Truly, this visit to the house of Mr. Digital was
splendid!

Concrete Friendships

silence reigns in the house. And yet our good
friends have eight children. At our house, when
everyone is home, we laugh, we cry, we invent
games that end in a fray; the children are alive!
22

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September - October 2018

Let us leave the family circle now. Our friend
Bricolo recently established himself in a small
village of the province. He plans to construct a
garage to shelter his car. Around here, winters
are rugged, people have told him. Before raising
the framework, he must pour a concrete slab. It
is not very complicated, but the young Bricolo is
inexperienced. What would you do in his place?
Nothing is simpler! I ask Mr. Digital. I sit down in
front of my computer, I open the empty screen of
Mr. Google, I type “concrete screed” and that’s it:
the preparation of the ground, the width of the
slab, the quantity of sand, of cement, of gravel
and water for the intended area, everything is
explained, the menu is served, click to order.
Very good, but my friend Bricolo has had
another idea, you can compare.
The newcomer crossed the street (a dead end).
Across the street lives an elderly man of the

village. His wife was born on the outskirts of the
suburb, and he a few miles away. And then, guess
what, this worthy man is a mason by trade. All his
life, he has enriched the region with fines houses.
He has poured concrete slabs; he knows what to
do. And since his retirement, he thinks again and
again about the buildings he has constructed.
“Sir, my neighbor, I have just moved into the
village. I would like to build a garage, over there,
in the corner of my garden. Would you perhaps
know how to help me?”
The luminous smile of the old man would have
sufficed to repay Bricolo for his trouble.
“Why of course I can help you, young man!
I will pour your concrete footing. We will do it
together. We can begin right away.”
Then they measure, they count, and they leave
to purchase the material. The garage is born.
It only cost Bricolo the price of the supplies:
the sand, the gravel, the cement, the wood, the
tresses, and some good beers! Above all, he has
created a true social relationship, an exchange of
service and joy, a complementarity. And what a
consolation for the wife of the old man, to receive
the visit of Mrs. Bricolo to introduce her first-born
child!
Mr. Digital would not have thought of this!

One of the proofs that the self-image people
give here is false, is that they never show sadness.
In all the photos, they smile, they stick out their
tongue, they have their arms around the shoulders
of friends, they toast, but they never shed tears.
They never reveal themselves totally; the identity
presented there is artificial.

Old Friendships, New
Friendships
One of the most beautiful elements of our
human life is that of friendship. There, you say,
Mr. Digital is unbeatable. He promises me, by his
social media, to give a host of friends! Think then,
Facebook users have on average 130-150 friends,
some having up to 1,000 relations!
But what are these Facebook friendships
founded on? People pose—often in groups—while
eating, at work, when angry, merry after a party,
or in immodest clothing. Each time, it is the same
message that is sent to the community:
“I have an amazing life; I go out frequently, I
know how to have a good time, I know so many
people and I invite you to be just like me.”
They seek to show others that they are
young, beautiful, “cool”, and thus purchase their
friendship.

And the friendship that flows from that will be
so, likewise.
Definitively, it is totally oriented towards self,
towards the image that one creates of themselves,
towards the illusion to be the center of their
own little world. In fact, as for friendship, it is a
narcissistic dream.
Ask the friends of Mr. Digital what this
showcase friendship is worth.
—I have 100 friends on Facebook, writes one of
them, but I eat alone at the cafeteria.
“I have 257 friends on Facebook, complains
another, but not a single one to help me move.”
On Facebook, one is paid for their friendship by
a “click” which costs nothing, by some coarse
23

Theme Digital Dependence
pleasantries, by some news which falls under
the heading of road kill cats (what one man has
eaten for lunch, how another lady is dressed this
morning, and all with photos to reference). Above
all, the relations with Facebook correspondents
fall under voyeurism. As I recall, it certainly
arouses a curiosity on the part of my friends.
What good is it to play hide and go seek if nobody
is looking for me. Thanks to Facebook, no one
has the need to look through the hole in the fence
any longer, my life and that of its members of my
social media are exposed to the daylight. Where is
this “have you seen me?” lifestyle leading? To the
destruction of true friendship.

It would be necessary now to visit the various
domains and the economic life to attest to the
stranglehold of Mr. Digital: the control of banks,
the purely utilitarian authority of the new leaders
and the feeling of the inferior classes of being
manipulated, the intrusions upon economic,
political, and private life. The arrival of Digital
has also transformed the rapports of medicine to
24

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September - October 2018

the sick, of the professor to his students. Armies
are not exempt from these denigrations. A few
years ago, an unhappy virus was introduced in
electronic media of the French marines. This was
the occasion of a breakdown and a general panic
during 48 hours. We resumed to write slowly with
pen and ink!

A New World
Each person will enrich their observations with
their proper experience. Three characteristics
that define well enough the “club” of the friends,
or the slaves of Mr. Digital.
The first is the artificiality of human relations.
It is in his nature, even so, that man live in
society. The relationships that unite him to
others and help him contribute to the well-being
of the whole body of which he is a member, are
natural relations—those which are frank, full of
ease, joyful. Mr. Digital has rendered them false,
overrated, and full of self-interest. The other (the
individual or the community in question) is no
longer anything other than an instrument in the
service of self, an additional Digital.
The second characteristic trait of the Society
of Digital is the turning towards self. Digital
devices permit everyone to construct a cozy
world in which he is the only master, alone with
his sentiments and his emotions, absorbed by
a fictitious realm from which it is painful to
leave. Recognizing his shortcomings, receiving
a reprimand, greeting strangers, confronting a
thought that is different than one’s own, working
together as a team which requires listening,
respect, and understanding of the thoughts of
others; everything becomes a torment. How then
can we undertake real social relations, which
ought to help us grow in enriching others?
Finally, the usage of electronic devices, if
it is not moderated by a severe asceticism,
independently of the assault against intelligence
and virtue, this usage has a political dimension,
contributes to the formation of a mass of slaves,
of drops of water lost in a vast ocean, of robots in
the service of a worldwide collectivism.

There is no better way to instill
a love of God in your sons than
by teaching them to serve the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Letters to an
Altar Boy
The duties of an altar boy aren’t
always easy. The author aims at
convincing boys that serving Mass
is a great privilege and a profound
honor compared only to that of the
priest at the altar.
120 pp. Softcover. Color photographs.
STK# 8497✱ $16.95

How to Serve
Low Mass
Teaches the necessary Latin (with a
pronunciation guide) and the proper
movements and responses for serving Mass and Benediction according
to the 1962 Roman Missal.
46 pp. Softcover. STK# 5016✱ $5.50

Laundering
Liturgical Linens
Guidelines and tips for laundering, ironing, and mending.

www.angeluspress.org — 1-800-966-7337
Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books

Includes tidbits that even the
“old pros” will find useful.
12 pp. Softcover. STK# 8286✱ $3.95

Fr. Davide Pagliarani, elected fourth
Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X

The newly elected Superior General with
his two assistants and two counsellors.
From left to right:
Bishop Bernard Fellay, Bishop Alfonso de
Galarreta, Fr. Davide Pagliarani,
Fr. Christian Bouchacourt,
Fr. Franz Schmidberger

General Chapter 2018
Group photo of all the members of
the General Chapter 2018

Theme Digital Dependence

Smartphones
by Fr. Alvaro Calderon, SSPX

The Means of Communication
Communication is a matter of paramount
importance for a human being, because he is
by nature social. Without communication in
neither family nor society, there is no education
and man does not develop his personality. And
communication is even more important for the
Christian, because Jesus Christ has willed that
between Himself and His faithful there should
be a union so great that it should be like that
which is in the bosom of the Holy Trinity: “I do
not ask only for these (the Apostles), but also for
those who, through their word, shall believe in
me, that they shall all be one. As Thou, Father,
are in me and I in Thee, that they shall also be
one in Us, so that the world believe that Thou
hast sent me” (Jn. 17). From thence, this brings
28

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about communication and union with God,
which likewise brings about communication
and union with our fellow men: charity, the
divine love which has as its object both God and
our neighbor. Without communication there is
neither Church nor salvation.
For this reason is there also a fundamental
importance to the means of communication.
Yes, we are using this expression on purpose,
since there is so much talk nowadays about
the media of communication. What is the
principal means of Christian communication?
The principal means of Christian communication
is the Eucharist. Men have always united
themselves to God through sacrifice and have
communicated with one another by sharing
a supper, and the Eucharist is both: divine
sacrifice and divine supper, by which the

Christian unites himself to God and to his
brethren, becoming a member of the mystical
body, whose head is Jesus Christ. The Eucharist
is the Sacrament of ecclesiastical unity, the
means that engenders, increases, and strengthens
the divine society which is the Church. A pure
and simple sign, capable of being understood by
the simplest of intellects, and at the same time
most efficacious, for under the sacred species
of bread and wine are the true Body and Blood
of Christ present. And, by way of explanation of
this sign of divine love, by which Jesus Christ
gives Himself to the Father as victim and gives
Himself to us as our food, the Church sets the
jewel of the double consecration in the liturgy
of the Holy Mass, by which we are formed in
true Catholicism, and from which flows all of
that most rich Christian culture. The means
of Christian communication is truly the
Eucharist.
But there are also the means of human
communication, which insofar as they are not
used in a Christian way, deserve to be called
means of worldly communication, and which
in these latter times have been perfected in a
truly astonishing manner. Now, then, these have
been integrating men in a society which is also
universal—it is now possible to say so—which
constitutes a true anti-Church, whose invisible
head we can already guess: Satan. And today,
the principal means of communication is the
smartphone (in English, which is the sacred
language of the worldly anti-liturgy), the
cunning little telephone which constitutes a sort
of anti-eucharist by which people communicate
in this inverted society. This is today, because
perhaps tomorrow everyone will already have a
chip in their brains and 666 on their foreheads.
This is an anti-traditional society in which
everything changes at an ever-increasing pace.
You are perhaps ingenuous enough to be taken
aback by the exaggerated antagonism that we
make between the cell phone and the Eucharist.
Do you perchance not notice how these little
devices trap and captivate, tearing away from
prayer, the family, good friendship? How many
times is not a conversation interrupted by the
sly little voice of the cell, or we see a person
speaking alone into space in the middle of a

gathering? It is not for nothing that we ask that
cell phones be turned off upon entering church: it
is in opposition to Our Lord. And much more than
what one is wont to recognize.

The Anti-Christian Revolution
The link between the progress of the means
of communication and the advance of the
anti-Christian revolution are very clear.
The process we are living began in 1300 with
the ill-named humanist Renaissance, when
so many Christians left off putting God in the
center of their lives and began to put themselves
there. But it is a recognized historical fact that
this anthropocentric movement was decisively
influenced by the invention of paper and the
printing press, and the consequent reduction
of the price of books. Cultured men no longer
wanted to have as their teachers the priests and
theologians, but to gain access to the fountains
of wisdom by themselves: to the Bible and the
ancient philosophers.
Two centuries later, in 1500, the propagation
of translations of the Bible and of easy books by
self-styled theologians provoked the ill-named
Protestant Reformation (the names of this
history has been given by the revolutionaries),
all of which could not have occurred without the
systems of paper manufacture and the printing
of texts. The same and more must be said of the
French Revolution, which took place in another
200 years, in 1700 (now the historians began
to call things by their names, although good
Frenchmen do not like the adjective). It was
made possible by the flood of magazines and very
simple little pamphlets, which denigrated the
Christian order without bothering with so much
argumentation as even the Lutheran heresiarchs
still did. Notice that the greater the richness of
the means of communication, the greater the
poverty of the content being communicated.
Two centuries later we come to the Second
Vatican Council, in 1900, through which the
modernist revolution infected the very hierarchy
of the Church. Well then, this was the Council
of the press, in which the council Fathers paid
more attention to the journals than to the Holy
29

Theme Digital Dependence
Ghost. It is a plain fact of the conciliar reform—
which is no more than the infection in the Church
of the anti-Christian revolution—could not have
been possible without the modern means of
communication: the rotary printing press, which
vomits millions of newspapers every day; radio,
which aturde with its incessant chatter; and
television, which maddens the imagination with
its vertigo. Newspapers knocked at the door, the
radio entered the home, and the television placed
its smoke chair at the head of the family’s dining
room table. Catholics, were then no longer able to
think.
But the means of communications on which

we rely today are vastly more powerful and they
are not merely at home, but they have entered
our pockets! Today, not only are the libraries of
the world in available in the cell, but everyone is
called to be an author; not only may one listen
to the incessant voice of the radio, but all are
encouraged to become channels that talk without
a pause; and not only is the mouth foolishly open
before the television show, but everyone is a star
invited to act. If we leave naivete behind, what
shall we expect will happen when we see how
powerful are the instruments with which Satan
can rely to possess the minds of men?

Eight Disquietudes
of Smartphones

we believe that we must be quite clear.

We priests never cease to be astonished by the
manifold injuries caused by these little demonic
devices. We are astonished, frightened, and
moreover, if we are not horrified as we should it
is because they have occurred little by little and
one ends by getting used to it. Let us try to make
a list of the evils, which are sometimes so grave
that it becomes awkward to describe them, but
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The disquietude of impurity, One carries in
one’s pocket a vast print-audio-video library with
an almost infinite selection of pornography to
access, which it is not necessary to go through
the embarrassment of standing in line at a movie
theater of ill-repute, nor to show one’s sad face
before a cashier at a kiosk that draws money
from the misfortune of others—it suffices to
press a button. One lives in a perpetual occasion,

with a bag of dirty gasoline in one’s hand, ready
to burn with the spark of the first temptation.
What virtue is not needed not to end up on fire?
The disquietude of immodesty. In the
male there is more of the temptation to see; in
the female, of being seen. To be seen but not
touched. And in her pride, the young lady wants
to be seen without it being noticed that she is
showing herself, as if by chance. Well, then, the
little screen offers her the most calibrated and
systematic way to build up vanity and scale down
shame, because it permits her to manage her
image and seems to her to be a protective fence.
There are some that are still shocked by the filth
of the reality shows, and who knows what else,
while there are millions of tiny video cameras
that record everything, the entire society is
showing itself in the same way. The parents are
unconcerned when the boyfriend has an open
window into their daughter’s room.
The disquietude of seduction. A seducer has
at his disposal the best means to access his prey.
The young lady values herself enough not to
stand and talk to a stranger, but who can restrain
herself from reading a text? Nobody allows just
anyone to approach their daughter to whisper
into her ear—or into their husband’s or their
wive’s—but the cell phone manages to do so.
Worse still are all the anonymous conversations,
because it is alluring to deal with the pervert
or the prostitute; just as Eve was allured by the
knowledge of good and evil. And these little
devices allow one to enter into these infernal
regions with the apparent certainty that one can
leave in an instant, by the tap of a finger. But
one regularly hears how, like a young mouse
hypnotized by a snake, a girl walks to the house
of her strangler.
The disquietude of greed. The desire for
things grows infinitely. Already, the credit card
was an occasion of unrestrained expenses that
few can control, for which one had to keep
compulsive shoppers at home. But now, there is
no need to go to the stores to go shopping, the
cell phone is a showcase of everything that is for
sale in the universe, to be bought in installments
with a click. And the minimum expenditure for

communication itself. Poor Traditional Catholics
with their numerous children, how can they pay
for a cell phone for each of them? In times past,
children begged for a quarter for candy or for
trading cards; now they beg for a cell phone.
The disquietude of irreality. Humanity has
by nature always suffered from the conflict
between appearance and reality, because faces
do not always manifest what is in the soul, and
almost all cover their real personality with
the mask of an artificial persona. How hard it
is to get to know one’s own brother! But now,
the virtual stage in which the entire society is
acting, intensifies the problem to a true collective
madness, a mass drug addiction, or worse, a type
of social diabolical possession. After thorough
consideration, we do not believe that we
exaggerate. The sophisticated virtual appearance
creates illusions that are very difficult to dispel.
Today, even our good faithful believe to have
virtual friends, virtual apostolates, virtual
charity, and the distance to the reality can be
enormous (we only warn, not condemn). A sad
confidential fact: we are sure that a great part
of the priests that have left the Society in recent
times, did so having allowed themselves to be
trapped by an illusory virtual brotherhood. If this
happens to us in our priestly family, it happens
no less to you, dear faithful, in your own families.
Or is it not so?
The disquietude of thoughtlessness. We have
already shown how, with the increase of the
means of communication, thinking diminishes.
He who reads a little reflects a lot, and he who
reads a lot ponders little. (Let it be understood
that we are not against the habit of reading good
books)! And if the letter exhausts the spirit,
how much more does the talking and moving
picture! Today, one has 1,000 movie theaters in
one’s pocket, carries on 1,000 conversations,
has 1,000 breaking news stories bombarding
the brain. There is not a second left, no longer
to contemplate, but to think. The boiling over of
imaginary activity becomes obsessive and tends
to suppress all properly intellectual activities.
Demonic possession does not take place
differently.
31

Theme Digital Dependence
The disquietude of spiel. There are some
who wish for the intellectual life and discover
the virtual university environment. But to
the irreality that ails them is added another
sin: it does not know authority [disregard
for authority]. It does not matter who knows
something; everyone has a right to teach. It is
like an immense town square, the Agora of the
new Athens, where anyone brings his soapbox.
Hundreds of thousands speak and millions listen
(because there is no blog without visitors), but
nothing is taught and nothing is learned, because
whatever true things might be said are scattered
in an ocean of nonsense, and nobody trusts
anything.
The disquietude of freedom. The internet is
the illusory triumph of freedom of expression.
We have even heard it from a priest, “Newspapers
and television are controlled, but on the internet
one may speak.” What a false illusion! The enemy
of man knows how to lose ten to gain a million:
Let the little traditional Padre say whatever he
wants, I’ll just take care that he has 1,000 others
all speaking at once, for and against Tradition.
Let everyone go to the Agora of Athens to learn
the truth!
Let us stop here, but know well that the list of
evils could be much longer.

If Our Justice is No Greater
Our dear families live, at this point, a certain
Pharisaical hypocrisy, of which we priests are
not totally exempt. The attachment to cell phones
is so great, and the evils that it brings are so
shameful, that what is certainly recognized in
the confessional, is not mentioned at the family
dinner table and it becomes difficult to treat
from the pulpit. But Our Lord warns us, “If your
justice is not greater than that of the scribes and
pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom
of Heaven (Mt. 5).” Let us not act like the ostrich,
closing our eyes before the disease that ails us.
If the press opened the door for the Protestant
Reformation, if radio and television made the
conciliar revolution possible, what new epoch is
the internet and the smartphone ushering in? We
must do something.
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The truth is that the Catholic attitude before
the world and its things is not one of physical
separation, as in the Old Testament, or as do
the Menonites today. Our Lord said it, “I do not
ask you that you remove them from the world,
but that you deliver them from evil” (Jn. 17). The
saints printed books and pamphlets, and today
they will use those little devices, because the evil
is not in electronic circuits, but in the use that is
made of them. It is a matter of using the things
of this world with Christian virtue, taking the
good and eschewing the evil. It is not a universal
solution to resolve never to use a computer
or a cell phone; that is a material remedy that
generally makes things worse.
But the humility to acknowledge that one is
inclined to evil due to original sin is also very
Catholic. We have but little virtue, for which
one should not propose behaviors that can only
be kept up with heroic virtue. We need to avoid
occasions of sin as much as possible, and behold,
that is what the cell phone is.
What to do? The same measures are
not prudent for everyone, not everyone is
capable of the same, for which it may even be
counterproductive to give a general formula.
There is a false illusion of safety by having a
cell phone, when, in fact, people are more often
assaulted so as to steal them—place your trust in
your guardian angel, who is not virtual reality.
When it is necessary to use then? It is useful
not to have personal cell phones, but family cell
phones that one takes when necessary.
Don’t use them at home, but when going out,
leaving them at the entrance, like the umbrella.
Block wi-fi connection in the home.
Ah! Why go on, no measures taken are enough
if one does not detest the source of so much
evil! One should speak evil of it, give it the
reputation it deserves, fight against the spell
under which it casts us. The Eucharist or the
smartphone. The one draws us upward, the other
sinks us into the base: that is the real opposition.
If we do not turn it off, we lose Our Lord.

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Spirituality

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

The Introit
by Fr. Christopher Danel

“The Introit strikes the tone and note proper
for the ecclesiastical day and Mass: the chord
thus struck sounds again after shorter or longer
intervals, in the Gradual as well as in the Offertory
and Communion. As the variable prayers and
didactical readings also harmonize with these
pieces of chant, there pervades throughout the
whole Mass a uniform fundamental tone, namely,
the idea of the feast or the thought of the day.”
—Monsignor Nicholas Gihr

Introduction
In this article, we examine the Introit,
presenting the work of Monsignor Nicholas Gihr in
his fundamental liturgical commentary The Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass: Dogmatically, Liturgically,
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and Ascetically Explained. Monsignor Gihr was a
priest of the Archdiocese of Freiburg in Breisgau
whose work of liturgical research took place
during the time frame spanning the pontificates
of Popes Pius IX to Pius XI, including that of
Pope St. Pius X. The early years of his work were
contemporaneous with the last years in the work
of the eminent Benedictine liturgist Dom Prosper
Guéranger of Solesmes. The English translation
of his study appeared in 1902; the original is: Gihr,
Nikolaus. Messopfer dogmatisch, liturgish und
aszetish erklärt (Herder: Freiburg im Breisgau,
1877).

The Introit as Keynote
While at all times the unchangeable prayers at

the foot of the altar form the general introduction
to the whole celebration of the Mass, the variable
Introit begins, in a special manner, the principal
changeable part of its liturgy. This part does not
directly touch upon the sacrificea, but serves
merely to prepare the way for the actual sacrifice
by infusing into the minds of those present
such holy thoughts, devout affections, and good
resolutions, as dispose them for the worthy
celebration of the divine mysteries. Accordingly, it
consists, on one hand, of reading and instruction
calculated to enliven and strengthen the faith; and,
on the other hand, of prayer and chant to awaken
and nourish devotion: for faith and devotion
are, above all, required to derive fruit from the
celebration of the holy mysteries. These prayers,
Psalms and readings of the Introit vary principally
according to the course and character of the
ecclesiastical year; for they are intended to give
suitable expression to the idea of the ecclesiastical

celebration of the day or feast, which principally
induces the offering of the Holy Sacrifice and is
intimately connected therewith.
In its present form, the Introit (meaning
entrance, entering, introduction) is a Psalm
abbreviated as much as possible; it consists of
Psalm verses with a Gloria Patri, which (like
entire Psalms usually are) is introduced and
concluded with an antiphon. The antiphon is
generally taken from the Psalter (the book of
Psalms), often too from other books of the Old or
New Testament, and only rarely is it composed
expressly by the Church herself. The antiphon is,
as a rule, though not in every case, followed by the
beginning (the first verse) of a Psalm. During the
joyful Eastertide, generally two or occasionally
three Alleluias are added to the antiphon. In
those Masses which do not have the Psalm Iudica,
the Gloria Patri is omitted after the verse of the
Psalm. In the Gloria Patri, this solemn praise
35

Spirituality
of the Blessed Trinity, there resounds an air of joy;
hence, it is omitted in the Masses of Passiontide
and of Holy Week as well as in the Masses for the
dead, in order to indicate the profound sorrow,
affliction, and grief of the Church.
The Mass of Holy Saturday and the principal
Mass of the vigil of Pentecost, that is, the one
which is preceded by the Prophecies (with or
without the blessing of baptismal water) have
no Introit. The reason for this may be that
the foregoing chants, prayers, and lessons
were regarded as taking the place of the usual
introductory Psalm, and consequently, a further
introductory chant could well be omitted. On these
days, the preliminary solemnities constituted a
whole or joint service with the Mass; hence, the
ordinance of the Church laid down that one and
the same celebrant should discharge the entire
function, namely, the Mass together with the
blessings.
Whilst the priest is saying the first words of the
Introit, he makes the sign of the Cross, because
the Introit forms the beginning of the variable
Mass formula, that is, of the particular day or festal
celebration. In Requiem Masses, the celebrant
does not make the sign of the Cross on himself, but
over the Missal, at the same time imploring from
the Lord eternal rest and perpetual light for the
departed souls; this sign of the Cross is, without
doubt, not intended for the book, but for the
suffering souls, that is, it would indicate that the
fullness of the blessing of the Sacrifice may fall to
their share. The Introit is read on the Epistle side,
namely, on the right side of the altar, and with the
hands joined before the breast, to signify and to
manifest the priest’s prayerful disposition.

Liturgical Purpose
As it is the introduction to the celebration of the
particular feast or day, the Introit belongs to the
variable component parts of the Mass-Rite, and
is to be considered under the same aspect as the
Gradual, Offertory and Communion verse.
These four pieces belong to the chants, with
which the choir, in the name of the people,
accompany the sublime, divine tragedy of the
Eucharistic sacrifice. In their present form, they
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are but brief remnants of longer chants, which
consisted of whole Psalms or of an indefinite
number of verses of the Psalms, and which were
rendered while the priest was going to the altar
(Introitus), or after the reading of the Epistle
(Graduale), or while the faithful were presenting
their offerings (Offertorium), or while they
received Holy Communion (Communio). At the
beginning of the fifth century, these chants were
already introduced into the Roman Church, but not
all at the same time: the Communion chant was
probably the most ancient, while the Introit Psalm
was the latest. St. Gregory the Great had already
abridged these choral chants, as may be seen from
his Antiphonarium; they were later on simplified
still more, such as they are at present to be found
in the Missal.

The Church’s Selection
Evidently these Psalms, or passages from
the Psalms, did not find their way into each of
the Mass formulas by chance or by mere fancy,
but were inserted after judicious selection.
The ecclesiastical year with its feasts and holy
seasons, or the special, extraordinary occasion or
intention of the Mass, suggested and determined
their adoption. The celebration of Mass is most
intimately connected and interwoven with the
mystical, marvelously arranged cycle of the
holy year: Sacrificium et Officium, Missal and
Breviary, mutually harmonize and complete each
other, and both together make up the entire and
perfect liturgical celebration of the holy days
and seasons. Like the Breviary of the priest, the
formula of the Mass is also intended to impress
and represent from all sides the idea of the feast
or the fundamental thoughts of the Sundays and
week days. Hence, it follows that the changeable
chants of the Mass formulas were selected with
a view to the appropriate celebration of the feast
or day; this should always be had in mind as a
guiding principle, in ascribing a natural, suitable
and edifying liturgical relation and meaning to the
choral chants taken from Scripture.
What has just been said is especially applicable
to the Introit. Throughout its contents, it is as full
and varied as the liturgical year of the Church: joy,

jubilation, sadness, sorrow, lamentation, hope,
longing of the soul, fear, praise, thanksgiving,
petition, deprecation, in short, every religious
sentiment with which the soul should be filled
in the course of the ecclesiastical year, finds in
the Introit brief and forcible expression. The
Introit “seems intended to be the key-note to the
whole service; which being one in its essence,
yet adapts itself to all our wants, whether of
propitiation or of thanksgiving, whether of evils to
be averted or of blessings to be gained. Sometimes
this introductory verse is loud and joyous—
Gaudeamus omnes in Domino; sometimes low
and plaintive—Miserere mihi, Domine, quoniam
tribulor; in the Paschal solemnity the Alleluia
rings through it all, like a peal of cheerful bells;
in Passiontide, even the Gloria Patri is silent,
and it falls melancholy and dull; when a saint is
commemorated, the nature of his virtues and
triumphs is at once proclaimed; if it be a festival
of Our Lord, the mystery which it celebrates is
solemnly announced” (Wiseman).

Seasonal Specimens
That the Introit introduces the theme of the
Mass is easily seen in a few examples taken
from the seasons of Advent and Eastertide.
The ecclesiastical year begins with Advent; the
time of the expectation of salvation, the time of
preparation for the coming of the Lord and His
redemption. As the season of Advent advances,
the sentiments of the Church go on increasing in
joy and longing, and thus find their corresponding
expression in the Introits of the four Sunday
Masses.
On the 1st Sunday of Advent the Church prays:
Ad te levavi animam meam; Deus meus, in te
confido, non erubescam (To Thee have I lifted
up my soul; in Thee, O my God, I put my trust:
let me not be ashamed). We raise our hearts and
minds above the perishable things of this world
and look up to God, our last end, and to Christ,
“the eternal light of the faithful” (aeterna lux
credentium); thus on the 2nd Sunday of Advent
we have: Populus Sion: ecce Dominus veniet ad
salvandum gentes: et auditam faciet Dominus
gloriam vocis suae in laetitia cordis vestri
(People of Sion, behold the Lord will come to save

the Gentiles: and the Lord will make the glory
of His voice heard to the joy of your hearts). Joy
increases with the promise made that the Lord
Himself will come to redeem us; thus, on the
3rd Sunday of Advent, the Introit is: Gaudete in
Domino semper: iterum dico, gaudete (Rejoice
in the Lord always; again, I say, rejoice). Finally,
the Introit for the 4th Sunday of Advent runs thus:
Rorate coeli desuper, et nubes pluant justum:
aperiatur terra et germinet Salvatorem (Drop
down dew, ye heavens, from above and let the
clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened and
bud forth a Savior). The longing for the Savior, who
is to come, reaches the highest point. On the Vigil
of Christmas, the Church announces to us: Hodie
scietis, quia veniet Dominus, et salvabit nos: et
mane videbitis gloriam ejus (This day you shall
know that the Lord will come and save us: and in
the morning you shall see His glory).
The Introit of the feast of Easter places the
glory and the beauty of the risen Savior before our
eyes: Resurrexi et adhuc tecum sum, Alleluia (I
have arisen, and am still with thee, Alleluia). The
Introits of Easter Week present in picturesque
language to the contemplation of the soul the
blessed effects and graces of holy baptism; on
Low Sunday, the Introit is taken from the first
Epistle of St. Peter: Quasi modo geniti infantes,
alleluia: rationabiles, sine dolo lac concupiscite.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia (As newborn babes,
alleluia, desire the rational milk without guile,
etc.). The above admonition of the Prince of the
Apostles applies not only to the newly baptized,
the first Communicants, and the newly-converted,
but in general to all Christians who have been
regenerated by the holy sacrament of baptism.

Conclusion
In his Exposition of the Mass, the Belgian monk
Denis the Carthusian (+1471) explains succinctly
the essence of the Introit: “The Introit contains
the praise of God, and with a measured pace
is sung to the honor of the Most High, so that
the hearts of all the faithful present are exited
and inflamed with the charity of God, and holy
devotion; by this means, they may attend the whole
following office with fervor and lively delight.”
37

Spirituality

Thoughts
of God
by a Benedictine monk

We can choose to have bad or good thoughts.
We choose the object of our thoughts which
becomes our love. In the latin word diligere (to
love) there is the word eligere (to elect or choose).
We truly choose what we love as Our Lord says
“Where your heart is, there is your treasure.” We
can choose to read very good material or very
bad. Our thoughts really depend upon the chosen
treasure of our heart. The ultimate goal of any
Catholic magazine is to supply the human mind
with good thoughts. Today’s technology does the
contrary by using pornography to enflame the
passions of man for financial gain. The human
mind is left to try and satisfy itself with the
world, the flesh and the devil.
The word pornography is of Greek origin:
pornographos (writing about prostitutes). Forty
years ago, pornography was only available in
38

The Angelus

September - October 2018

the printed form or in films labeled with their
appropriate ratings. Today’s modern society is
drowning in sensuality. Images of immodest
dress and behavior are essentially virtual
prostitutes presented on-line. This sensuality
is presented as the only means to happiness.
Today’s technology makes these ideas available
for the human mind via “smart-phones” found in
almost everyone’s pocket including teenagers and
children. The very strong passion of sensuality
enslaves the soul with these images by dulling
the intellect and weakening the will.
About 2,500 years ago, the prophet Zacharias
seemed to explain to his readers in chapter 5 of
his prophecy the dangers of today’s internet.
“...I turned and lifted up my eyes: and behold
a volume flying.” A volume is a type of book
containing information and this volume is

flying through the air. This seems to be a good
description of the information contained in
today’s cyberspace.
“...and he said to me: This is the curse that
goeth forth over the face of the earth...” This
information contains a curse within it.
“...And I said: What is it? And he said: This is
a vessel going forth...this is their eye in all the
earth.”
In today’s technology, we have the possibility
to Skype with correspondents around the globe
and with a webcam, there seems to be an eye that
can penetrate even the most private places of our
homes. Detailed satellite images seem to be able
to see everything on the planet.
“...and behold a woman sitting in the midst of
the vessel. And he said this is wickedness. And he
cast her into the midst of the vessel, and he cast
the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.” Could
this vessel be a type of space vessel or satellite?
A woman called wickedness sitting in a satellite
seems to be a type of a prostitute mentioned in
the book of the Apocalypse as well. She is called
wickedness because by the God-given gift of her
beauty, she chooses to lead others away from
God for financial gain. She received something
good and chooses to use it for evil.
“...and they lifted up the vessel between the
earth and the heaven.” Could this be the way that
the prophet explains a satellite in orbit between
heaven and earth?
This modern system of communicating
information seems to be explained by Zacharias.
We know that the information that we receive
from the internet depends upon our choice.
Although we can choose good information found
on the internet, the choice of the vast majority of
users is pornography. The mind is saturated with
bad images and thoughts.
The greatest battle of the Catholic life is to
learn to choose good thoughts. John Cassian in
one of his conferences, speaking of the Desert
Fathers, compares our thoughts to a water mill.
The paddle is always turning by the flowing river.
Our thoughts, like a turning wheel are always
active. The miller puts clean wheat to be ground
into flour and with the flour he bakes bread in
order to sustain his life. If he put poisonous
seeds into the mill, he would make flour that

would be baked into dangerous bread and that
would indeed, if eaten, end his life. It is the same
with our thoughts. If we think of noble and
good thoughts, we will have good desires and
accomplish good deeds. If we are occupied with
an impure or any type of evil thought, our desire
would be impure and as a consequence so would
our actions be evil. What we think of is what we
desire and what we desire is what we do.
Pornography and any other type of impure,
heretical or evil literature would be like that
poisonous seed of which we choose to think. As
we think of that poison we finally end up desiring
to do what we think. Immodesty becomes like a
second nature both in dress and behavior. Like
a slave addicted to these sensual thoughts, our
lives are bound to our way of thinking. This is
why The Angelus magazine and any other good
publications are such important apostolates for
the Church today. Good books and magazines
furnish the Catholic mind with good thinking
material. The thought forms the desire, which
is put into action. May The Angelus magazine
always publish good Catholic thought in order to
feed our souls with the thoughts of God.

39

Spirituality

The Cathedral
of Chartres
by Dr. Marie-France Hilgar

The cathedral of Chartres represents the
high point in the development of Gothic style.
The vicissitudes of time and the depredations of
man have affected Chartres far less than other
cathedrals and it is here as nowhere else where
one can experience the spiritual enchantment
that the medieval cathedrals were intended to
evoke in man. The stained-glass is almost intact,
and on the portals one can follow the entire
development of Gothic sculpture. The cathedral
is 426 feet long, 108 feet wide and a height of 121
feet. The north tower is 377 feet high.

The History of the Cathedral
On the site of the present cathedral, in heathen
times, it was a grotto with a fountain which was
40

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September - October 2018

dedicated to the mother goddess. According to
an old source, the picture of a virgin who was
to give birth was venerated there. The Christian
missionaries believed this cult to be prophetic
of Mary, and ever since, the Madonna has been
honored in that place. The celebrated miraculous
image in the crypt, Notre-Dame-sous-terre, is
still visited by pilgrims today. The statue has
repeatedly been restored over the centuries
with the least possible departure from the
original. The bones of the Christian martyrs,
who had been cast into the fountain, rendered
it holy and endowed it with miraculous powers.
In the Middle Ages, the sick gathered near the
fountain seeking to be healed. In the crypt,
remnants of a building of the 9th century are
still preserved. After a fire in 1020, a church of
the same dimensions of the present cathedral

was built. Chartres became the most famous
shrine to the Virgin in northern France. The
veil of the Madonna, which had come from
Constantinople, was presented to Chartres
by Charles the Bold. Its renown was greatly
enhanced when the liberation of the town
from the Normans, in 911, was attributed to its
miraculous powers. The precious shrine was
plundered during the Revolution and the relic
torn to pieces and dispersed. In the 19th century,
the pieces were re-collected and returned to the
cathedral. It consists of fine antique silk wrapped
in an oriental cloth. Scholars agree it could very
well date from the time of Christ. The crypt is
extended beneath the entire length of the upper
structure. Two towers were built during the first
half of the 12th century, and a little later the
present façade, to the height of the rose window,
was erected between them. The sculpture of this
façade, the famous Kings’ portal of Chartres is a
production of the 3rd quarter of the 12th century.
This period of building, to which also belongs the
three large stained-glass windows of the facade,
had a decisive influence on the development
of the Gothic style. In 1194, the church burned
to the ground. Only the crypt, the towers and
façade were preserved. Many people mourned
the disaster. Kings, princes and the lowly-born
made donations and even worked side by side on
the actual reconstruction of the edifice. Within
20 years, the entire cathedral was rebuilt. By the
time of the consecration in 1260, the transept
portals with their sculptures, as well as the glass
windows, had also been finished. In the 14th and
15th centuries a few chapels were added. In the
beginning of the 16th century, the delicate spire
of the north tower, as well as the clock pavilion
on the north side of the church were built. In the
18th century, before the Revolution, the beautiful
13th century choir screen was destroyed. In
1793, the treasury of the church was plundered
and the lead covering of the roof of the church
melted down for cannon balls. Overall, however,
as stated before, the venerable cathedral
survived the storms of the Revolution without
much damage. The roof of the cathedral with its
numerous wooden beams, was destroyed by a fire
in 1836 and the was replaced by the government
by a roof of iron. In recent years, we from the

SSPX, make a pilgrimage. Our pilgrims go on foot
from Chartres starting on Saturday and walk into
Paris on Monday. A Mass is then celebrated in
the afternoon. It used to take place on the steps
of the Sacré-Cœur, but now is in front of the
Invalides plaza.

The Cathedral’s Unique Façade
The façade of the cathedral has no uniform
structure. Its three parts: towers, middle section
with portals and windows, and the great rose
window, 23 feet in diameter. Each has its own
particular beauty. Both towers are essentially
identical in structure to the level of the upper
gallery. The moss-colored roof of the south tower,
however, has an unforgettable patina, while
the slender spire of the north shows the refined
elegance of the late Gothic. The independence
of those towers from the rest of the building is
emphasized by the absence of portals in their
lower stories. The three doors are grouped
together in the middle section of the façade,
forming the famous portail royal. The jambs,
tympanums and archivolts are decorated with
sculptures from the 12th century. Here, the
fervent faith of the early Gothic can be seen
most clearly. The figures on the jambs are not yet
detached from the columns behind them as will
be the case in the Gothic style of a few decades
later. Their arms are pressed to their bodies,
just as are their rigidly folded garments. Their
faces are serene and contained. Yet, the clear
purity of this “archaic” early stage of sculpture
is by no means inferior to the full unfolding
of the human figure in the “classical” stage of
Gothic sculpture on the transept façades. In
every artistic development, innovations are
achieved only at the expense of some of the
most vital characteristics of old. The sense of
the divine in these severe early figures is much
more convincing than in the freely developed
human forms of a half century later, as one can
see most clearly in the Christ Triumphant on the
central tympanum. In this representation, there
is no action. Christ appears to us enthroned, as
on the day of His second coming. He is framed by
a mandorla and surrounded by the symbols of
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South transept rose window, c.1221-30 1145-1170 - shutterstock.com

the four Evangelists.
An undulating band encloses the entire
scene, while above it, from the keystones of the
archivolts, angels hold the celestial crown over
the divine majesty. Directly below it, the twelve
apostles are seated. The three portals, both in
their structure and their symbolism, constitute
a magnificent unity. In the lower region are the
kings and queens of the Old Law, the ancestors
of Christ. The Ascension of the left tympanum
is rendered in the same solemn manner as the
Christ Triumphant in the center. On the right we
find, for the first time on a portal tympanum, Our
Lady in her celestial majesty. On the archivolts
of the central portals, angels and the elders of
the Apocalypse surround the Christ Triumphant.
The archivolts of the side portals, however,
are devoted to secular subjects. The large rose
window and the Kings’ gallery above it date from
the 13th century, the same period as the nave.
The transept portals, with their porches, also
date from the 13th century. Their sculpture forms
a unity with that of the west portals. The poses
of the Apostles, Martyrs and Confessors of the
south portal are more relaxed and the figures
possess a greater sense of corporeal reality
than it is the case with the kings of the western
façade. The figures still have a certain degree of
rigidity in their gestures, yet beneath the folds of
their garments, one is aware of the human body.
Christ, on the trumeau of the central portal, is
the serene and beautiful Son of God who dwells
on earth.
The sculptures on the north portal portrays
those personages of the Old Testament whose
significance is revealed only after the coming
of Christ, in which event, their prophecies are
fulfilled. Thus, on the jamb of the left portal,
Isaiah stands next to the Annunciation and
Daniel next to the Visitation. The Mother of God
is the last link in a long chain of progenitors.
She belongs to both worlds, the old and
the new. Hence her principal place in these
representations: she is seated, on the center
pier, enthroned in the arms of her mother Anne,
and farther up on the tympanum, she appears
transfigured, in the act of being crowned by her
divine Son. The figures of the prophets are more
varied in pose and more strongly individualized

than are those of the confessors on the south
portal. Expressive figures such as Abraham
with his son Isaac or John the Baptist with the
Divine Lamb are full of humanity. Those figures
represent the latest period of medieval sculpture
in Chartres (from 1230).

An Interior Like No Other
The incomparable beauty of the interior is
due not only to the red and blue light that fill the
space like a delicately colored mist, but also to
the perfect harmony of its proportions. The plan
is cruciform. A two-bay narthex at the western
end opens into a seven-bay nave leading from
the crossing, from which wide transepts extend
three more bays each to the north and south.
East of the crossing are four rectangular bays
terminating in a semi-circular apse. The nave and
transepts are flanked by single aisles, broadening
to a double-aisled ambulatory around the choir’s
apse. From the ambulatory radiate three deep
semi-circular chapels and three that are more
shallow. The elevation, which has three stories,
arcade, triforium, clerestory, is uniform and
compact. The gallery has been eliminated and
the vaults are no longer sexpartite. By eschewing
the gallery level, the architects were able to make
the richly-glazed arcade and clerestory levels
larger and almost equal in height, with just a
narrow dark triforium in between. Chartres was
perhaps the first example to make a success of
this design and to use it consistently throughout.
Round and hexagonal pillars alternate, each
of which has four attached half-columns at the
cardinal points, two of which support the arches
of the arcade. This acts as the springing for the
aisle vault and supports the cluster of shafts
that rise through the triforium and clerestory
to support the high vault ribs. This pier design
gives the space a sense of rhythmic progression.
The result was a far greater area of window
openings. Increasing the size of the windows
meant reducing the wall area considerably,
something which was made possible only by the
extensive use of flying buttresses on the outside.
The buttresses supported the heavy lateral
thrusts resulting from the 34 meter high stone
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Christian Culture
vaults, higher and wider than any attempted
before. The vaults are quadripartite, each bay
split into four webs by two diagonally crossing
ribs. Another architectural breakthrough was
a resolution of how to attach columns or shafts
around a pier in a way that worked aesthetically.
A labyrinth, 42 feet in diameter, is set in the floor
stones in the nave of the cathedral. It may be the
world’s most recognized and famous path, yet it
is surrounded in mystery. There have been many
theories and elaborate mythology surrounding
the original construction of the labyrinth. It was
most likely constructed in the first decade of
the 13th century. An excavation in 2001 claimed
that its center was the site of a memorial or
tomb but no evidence was found to back up such
claims. Pilgrims have been coming for some 1,000
years and the tide shows no sign of slowing. It is
uncovered, free from chairs, every Friday from
10:00 am to 5:00 pm from Ash Wednesday to All
Saints’ Day.

Our Lady of the Pillar
At the north end of the ambulatory is another
much-venerated image of the Madonna, Our Lady
of the Pillar. It dates from the 15th century. The
choir walls, begun in 1514, but not completed
until 200 years later, mirror the development of
sculpture from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
In no other cathedral are the windows so well
preserved. Almost all of the windows date from
the same time as the architecture, the first half of
the 13th century. The three large windows in the
west are contemporary with the façade, from the
12th century. After accumulating some 800 years
of grime, the French government decided it was
time to get them cleaned. It took some ten years,
and a lot of money…It would be rather tedious to
give the a of the 124 stained-glass windows, so
we will concentrate on just a few of them.
1. The most famous window seems to be that
of the Belle Verrière, in the south ambulatory,
dating from the 12th century and having escaped
the 1194 fire which destroyed the Roman
cathedral. A set of angels frame the Virgin on
each side. The ones on the upper part hold
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censers. The Virgin is dressed in luminous blue
which outlines the darker blues around her. She is
sitting on a throne supported by angels. From the
dove of the Holy Ghost fall rays of light. The baby
Jesus is holding an open book.
2. In an oculus close by, the Virgin is seen
breastfeeding the baby Jesus who blesses her.
Again, two angels swing two censers. The crown
worn by the Virgin signifies that she is a queen
because she is the mother of Christ and nourishes
Him with her milk.
3. On the southern aisle is found the Creation
of Eve. God, looking like Christ, looks at Eve
whom he has just created. Adam is sleeping, his
head resting on his bent arm. Eve is taken out
of Adam’s side. The careful drawing shows one
pair of legs only, which can be attributed to the
woman as to the man.
4. In an absidial chapel, the stained-glass
window of St. Cheron details the work of masons,
stone cutters and sculptors. On the left, a mason
verifies the verticality of a tower, a handyman
chops a large stone with a hammer that also cuts.
Other stone cutters work on other big blocks of

stones. On the right is the sculptors workshop.
One of them is drinking water during a pause. His
co-worker is wearing some kind of bonnet that
ties under the chin.
5. In the central northern part is, on the left,
David and beneath, the suicide of king Saul. On
the right is Salomon and beneath, king Jeroboam
kneeling in front of golden calves. In the center is
St. Anne holding in her arms the child Mary.
6. In the northern side of the transept is a
young Salomon, looking somewhat like Louis IX.
His scepter displays a fleur-de-lys and the blue
coat lined with ermine fur is, of course, the coat
worn by French kings.
7. In the south façade of the transept are
four lancets where the great prophets carry the
evangelists on their shoulders. The idea is that
the New testament rests on the Old.
8. The Virgin with the seven gifts is found on
the north side of the nave. Six doves with halos,
presented around the Virgin symbolize six of the

seven gifts from the Holy Ghost. The seventh, the
Child Jesus, is in a halo at the level of the Virgin’s
womb. He represents, symbolically, Wisdom.
9. In the stained-glass of the Assumption, in
the southern lower side is the Dormition of the
Virgin. Mary, lying in bed is surrounded by the
Apostles. They show great sadness, but with
restrain.
10. The last one of the stained-glass
windows we will discuss is that of St. Nicolas and
the three children. It dates from the 13th century
and shows the three children in a salting keg. One
can appreciate how much the art of stained-glass
has evolved, including more details, using yellow,
silver and colored enamels.
In one of the southern chapels, there is
a window of the late Middle Ages. Thus, in
Chartres, one can follow the development of
Gothic stained-glass through the 12th, 13th and
14th centuries.

Christ in Majesty with symbols of the Four Evangelists; tympanum of C. door of West front, “Royal Portals,” ca. 1145-1170

45

Chartres Cathedral presents outstanding
authenticity, both through its structure and its
decor, notably the portals and their sculptured
decoration having undergone little alteration.
Chartres has an exceptional ensemble of stainedglass from the 13th century, which are the object
of constant conservation measures and even today
they remain in a remarkable state of conservation.
The only important alterations undergone by the
edifice are the demolition of the rood screen in the
17th century and the roof fire of 1836.
Choir screen (shutterstock.com)

Book Review

Half-Life: The Decay of Reality
By Fr. Jean-Pierre Boubée, SSPX (Angelus Press, 2018)

???????????????????????????????

half-life
the decay of reality

Angelus Press

At long last, a balanced and easy to read
booklet about the cyber world!
Many a parent is at a loss before the tsunami
of screen devices which confronts them and
their loved ones. These tools are designed to
facilitate life, to offer information ready at our
fingertips, to communicate with anyone all the
time and everywhere. Yet, after the first inebriating sense of this nectar of the gods, adults
realize quickly the hypnotizing effect of these
powerful machines: information overload; loss
of rest; loss of thoughtful time to digest things;
lack of privacy and control over their children.
After 40 years spent educating the youth,
Fr. Boubée starts with the way man is naturally
meant to think and act. This is a healthy start
before delving into the problems created by the
world of screens.
“Man is wonderfully structured to attain the
highest forms of understanding. His senses
allow him direct contact with the world around
him, and the intellect is thereby able to grasp
the nature of things. Grappling with that reality, he can then assemble his ideas, compose
them, and link them together. These ideas lead
him to make practical and prudent judgments.
The role of man’s will is then to move toward
the good, which leads to proper love. The will is
meant to regulate the emotions or passions in
order to keep them from being as disordered
as they would otherwise be. Being so structured, man aims at his own perfection, all in respecting that order willed by the Creator which
is called morality; what is noblest in morality
is in fact a form of love which is called charity.
That is how man functions.”
From this vantage point, the author is in a
position to survey the new trend. He needs only
confront man’s normal action with the person
who sees through a screen. Without being
altogether negative, the reality imposes itself
to us all. Our age is fast losing the sense of
reality and the sense of personality. Teens are

disengaged from properly human activity. Ours is a
“click, copy and paste” age, not the age of thinking
and memorizing. The social media feeds the acting
and character creating at the expense of serious
and lasting friendship.
There are multiple reasons—I mean excuses—
for the older generation to adopt the laisser faire
attitude in this regard: powerlessness, fear of being
a control-freak, naiveté or discouragement. Yet,
nothing is reason enough to surrender the battleground of your children’s souls to the enemy. This
is why every head of family, every educator, every
adult needs to read this short study of Cyberman.
–Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, SSPX

The Quest of
Literature to
Define the
Child
by Jane Spencer

“All children, except one, grow up,” wrote J.M. Barry of his young hero, Peter Pan. The child’s
transformation into an adult—which Peter cleverly sidestepped—is usually unavoidable. In the past two
hundred years, children’s authors influenced by the philosophies of their eras have treated the process
of “growing up” from widely differing standpoints. Their work reflects evolving and often bitterly
contending opinions regarding the adult that the child is meant to become; what does it mean to mature,
and what is the child in relation to the adult? The Catholic answers that maturing is the development of
a “sound mind in a sound body,” sound because the whole child is being trained to achieve Heaven. This
article will examine a few opposing philosophies about growing up which arose around the critical time
of the 18th century, and how these were manifest in children’s literature.

The early Puritan would emphasize (often
morbidly) that the child must be trained to
fight against his inherently sinful nature; the
adult is the guardian angel who guides him in
this spiritual purification. Later Enlightenment
thinkers, however, rejected the supernatural,
focusing instead on training the child to think

and act rationally. Following the Enlightenment,
late 18th century children’s literature began
to glorify the child’s own natural freedom and
imagination. Rejecting the idea of original sin,
it often portrayed the child as a pure being
untouched by corrupt society who should, in fact,
be imitated by adults instead of instructed
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Christian Culture
by them. Children’s literature as a medium
of education reflects this evolving concept
of childhood, becoming less an authoritative
guidance for the child, and more a celebration of
his innocence.

The Puritan Child
For the puritan parent of the late 17th to early
18th century, to celebrate the child’s innocence
would be to ignore the glaring reality of his
original sin. In her Critical History of Children’s
Literature, Cornelia Meigs describes the
puritanical influence on children’s schoolbooks,
which urged the young student to “be sensitive
to [his] Original corruption…[and] groan under
it and bewail it as Paul did.” The saintly young
heroine of one story says before her premature
death: “Who am I but poor dust and ashes?”;
Meigs claims that the era’s high rate of child
mortality coupled with the puritan emphasis on
original sin produced an urgent atmosphere of
religious training. Keenly (and often morbidly)
aware both of the child’s mortality and inherent
sinfulness, Puritans plainly warned their children
of death and its eternal consequences. Literary
critic Peter Hunt summarizes “children’s duties
as Puritans saw it—to read their Bibles, think on
death and hell, avoid idleness and evil company,
and obey their parents.” Conversely, one preacher
described hell as the dark abode of children who
“make light of their parents.” The child could save
his soul only if he obediently respected authority.

In her article, “Nurseries of Good and Wise
Men,” Stacy Nall describes that it was the task
of education to write carefully upon this slate
so that “the child, through learning to control
his own desires, would become a self-regulating,
selfless citizen.” Nall claims that late 18th century
American children’s primers, while encouraging
the virtues of obedience and industry, did so for
both “moral and political” reasons; “the ultimate
goal of eternal life through obedience to God
is replaced with a hybrid goal consisting of
religious, economic, and political consequences.”
Locke claimed that the good of the nation
depended on training children to respect their

The Child as a Future Citizen
Protestant children’s literature influenced
by John Locke, however, reveals a less spiritual
motive for inspiring the child to respect authority.
Locke, whose Some Thoughts Concerning
Education strongly impacted both British and
early American children’s literature, emphasizes
the training of the child not only as a safeguard of
the child’s soul, but also as a benefit to the state.
Locke saw the child’s soul as a tabula rasa, or a
blank slate, in contrast to the Puritan belief that
the soul was stained by sin even at birth.
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parents, who were “their Lords, their Absolute
Governors.” Strong parental guidance would
strengthen the State by planting habits of rational
thought and action in young future citizens. Locke
focused on the need for an authority to train the
child because without it, the child is “guided more
by self-love, than by reason or reflection,” and
makes a poor addition to society.

The Child as a Rational Animal
This is suggestive of a belief which Darren
Howard claims was widely accepted in the 18th
century: that the child was close to an animal,
and required education to replace animalistic
passions with cultivated reason. In his essay,
Talking Animals and Reading Children, Howard
describes a new movement in children’s literature:
animal stories which impressed on the child the
similarities and differences between himself
and beasts without reason. In a story written
in 1749, a child whose cat has passed away is
instructed by her mother: “consider, my child, that
you are not meant to give way to any passions
that interfere with your duty; for whenever there
is any contention between your duty and your
inclinations, you must conquer the latter, or
become most wicked and contemptible.”
Howard comments: “an excess of feeling for
animals, the mother implies, renders the child
more like an animal.” These books taught the child
to appreciate a natural hierarchy in which man
is more noble than beasts because of his unique
intellectual powers. Reasonable behavior—
including devotion to duty, industry, obedience
to authority and charity towards inferiors—
was seen as the virtue that defined the child
as distinctly human. To sum up the confusion
that followed, Howard claims that “children’s
literature…develops into a site for exploring the
identity crisis of the Enlightenment, which defines
the human as an animal whose difference from
other animals lies in its self-definition as notanimal.” In other words, Rationalist philosophers
cheapened the human soul by valuing it only
because of its natural power to reason. Replacing
the supernatural language of sin and grace with
the natural language of rationality or brutishness,
they rejected original sin as the child’s
fundamental flaw only to replace it with the “sin”
of irrationality.

idea of original sin, Rousseau further claimed
however, that the child was naturally pure, and
most perfectly educated by learning from his
own experiences. Rousseau deemed Robinson
Crusoe the best children’s book because, as Meigs
states, it “showed man reduced to a state of nature
and gradually building up out of his own spirit
and ingenuity a workable scheme of living and
security.” This suggests a more individualistic
approach to education, and a lessened presence of
a guiding authority.
Rousseau’s theories, however, are strangely
incongruous with his own work for children,
Emile. Emile is a boy supposedly given the
freedom to learn through experience, guided by
his intrinsic morality; still, in practice the freedom
is “illusory.” Rousseau as the author “seeks to
control the child’s experiences invisibly in order
to inculcate specific patterns of thought…Emile
learns the lessons of self-denial and self-control
through a circumscribed physical freedom and
staged social interactions.” While in theory
Rousseau might have meant to free the child from
supposedly overbearing adults, in practice he
didn’t hesitate to exercise his own authority.
John Bewick’s popular illustrations of
children’s books such as The Oracles exemplify
this strange phenomenon; These depict a mother
and father hang speaking pictures, or oracles,
in the nursery to which their children can turn
“for advice and moral guidance…illustration
and text show images of children controlled by
strings and enclosed by clothing, curtains, walls,
and then frames,” according to researcher Hilary
Thompson. Bewick’s strict use of constraints
and borders in his illustrations of The Oracles
exemplifies that in some cases, a restrictive, heavy
decorum and the constant presence of a guiding
adult resulted from Rousseau’s efforts to weed out
anything hinting of irrationality in the child.

Romanticizing Children
The Child: Naturally Pure?
In France, Locke’s successor Rousseau also
taught that fostering reason was paramount in
a child’s education. Completely rejecting the

The child’s freedom from constraint that
Rousseau had advocated in theory if not in
practice was achieved more successfully,
however, by romantic writers who reacted
against the heavily correctional approach
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Christian Culture
of the rationalists. In his article, “Politicizing
the Nursery,” Matthew Grenby claims that the
Romantics saw in the child “a state of natural
innocence that should be protected from
contamination by adult issues.” Like Rousseau,
romantics rejected the doctrine of original sin
and saw the child as a pure being; however, they
scorned the rationalist method of education and
emphasized instead the child’s imagination.
Romantic poets often believed that the most
profound truths were experienced within the
human soul through its own individual reflections.
The child, with his artlessness and impulsive
imagination, seemed to express these truths more
purely than the adult. Years of maturity elevate a
person by increasing his power to reason as the
rationalists believed, instead lessened his original
purity and weighed him down with contamination
from corrupt society. Grenby claims that poets
like Wordsworth “argued that childhood should
not be seen merely as a preparation for adulthood,
which was essentially still Rousseau’s position,
but that it was a state to be valued in itself…from
which adults could derive their spiritual and moral
values.”
The Romantic poet William Blake expresses a
similar sentiment in his Songs of Innocence and
Songs of Experience, two sets of poems which
contrast childhood and experienced maturity.
Rather than portray this change in the positive
light of acquiring reason, as Rousseau might have
done, Blake’s poems about growing up are heavy
with a sense of lost innocence. While the Songs
of Innocence begin with the laughter of a happy
child listening to a song about a Lamb, the Songs
of Experience begin with weeping, and the desire
to renew a “fallen light;” the imagery throughout
darkly depicts the cruelty and selfishness of men
and ends by lamenting the “clouds of reason, dark
disputes and artful teasing. Folly is an endless
maze…” Innocence, Blake implies, is too often lost
with experience, and reason can become a mere
tangle of folly. Thompson’s claim that illustrations
in more Romantic children’s books “appeal [partly]
to the adult’s nostalgia for lost innocence and lost
freedom” applies also to the Romantic philosophy
that childhood was a treasure that should be
protected from the evil of “growing up.”
Hunt suggests that Blake’s Songs of Innocence
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foreshadowed the direction that children’s
literature would take. Over time, the Romantic
emphasis on imagination flourished, resulting
in the popularity of fairy tales and fanciful
stories. He summarizes, “Wordsworth…saw
childhood as characterized by freedom and
vitality of imagination…only too often, growing
up diminished this capacity, and conventional
education frequently hastened the process of loss.
Writing that stretched the imagination—fairy tales
of the Arabian Nights—was thus more nourishing
for the child than facts or tracts.” A shifted
perception of the relation between the adult
and the child led Wordsworth to famously call
the child “father to the man” in his Intimations
on Immortality, a poem which urges adults to
keep close to the innocence of their childhood.
The Romantics’ often cynical disenchantment
with adulthood is perhaps a reaction against the
Rationalists’ re-definition of what it meant to grow
up.
The early Protestants held the Christian view
that the child’s maturing was a process of spiritual
growth towards God; nevertheless, their morbid
emphasis on sin destroyed the attractiveness of
religion. Enlightenment philosophers rejected
spirituality, worshipping instead the goddess
Reason. To them, the purpose of a child’s
education—and thus his literature—was not
sanctification, but rationalization. Romantic poets
sensed that reasonability alone could not be the
essence of adulthood; they tried to re-connect
with the spiritual by glorifying the innocence
and imagination of the child, the person least
contaminated by a society which had rejected
faith. While they reach for spirituality sadly in
the wrong direction, the sense of wonder and
beauty which fills many of their works is true, and
no child could truly mature without absorbing
it. Going through many warped attempts to
understand the process of growing up, we are
reminded of the wisdom of G.K. Chesterton: “Take
away the supernatural, and what remains is the
unnatural.”

Fatima 1917-2017
By Fr. Bertrand Labouche, SSPX (Angelus Press, 2017)

In his book, Fatima 1917-2017, Father Labouche
gives an account of the apparition from the perspective of one who is in a unique position to do
so: he has not only lived in Fatima for 10 years, but
also studied the Faith that paints its landscape
in vivid colors. He presents first-hand insight into
the children’s characters alongside details such
as “the why” behind the First Saturday devotions,
which correspond to the five offenses against the
Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Father also addresses a hot-button topic in today’s Vatican: the Third Secret. We learn the key
to it in all its simplicity: keeping the Faith, come
what may!
Echoing her message at Lourdes, Our Lady
explains to the little seers: “Many souls go to hell
because there is no one to pray and do penance
for them.” Not only this, but she also shows them
hell, the place where poor sinners go. The children, consoled with the promise that they would
go to heaven, nonetheless courageously took on
the means to ensure that they would not be going
there alone! Jacinta would add many sacrifices to
her prayers and—when the time came—consent
to die in a hospital alone. As for Francisco, his
main concern was to console Our Lord, to spend
time with Jesus Escondido, the “hidden Jesus.”
What, then, is the cost of a life without penance? The loss of souls. What is the gain for
the Christian? Everything. It is Father’s unique
perspective that will make the reader rethink and
remodel his own life according to this very spirit.
From the Rosary Crusade called for by Bishop
Fellay in 2016 to the threats to society posed
by ISIS, extremist groups, and an ever-growing
interest in Satanism, Father presents these very
different pieces as of a puzzle, fitting together to
give us a clear picture of our battle lines. As Sister
Lucy said, we are either fighting with Christ or for
the enemy. There is no middle ground.
Yes, Our Lord is much offended, but Our Lady

has come to save sinners, whose conversion
is “the theme which comes back most often in
Fatima, after that of the Immaculate Heart of
Mary.”
Let us take for our models, then, the three
shepherds who hearkened to her message and
lived the timeless one: “Unless you become as
little children, you shall not enter the Kingdom of
Heaven.”
–Christina Kochanoswki

53

Do you really know the story
of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre?
Learn how it all began!

Go to

www.marcellefebvre.info

Blessing Your
Children
Anonymous

Can anything in a Christian family equal in
beauty to the sight of children who, from the
youngest to the oldest, present themselves
each night with reverence before their father
and mother to receive their blessing before
retiring to rest? This touching ceremony enobles
a family and consecrates authority; natural
affection :finites a spark of the love of God, and
the domestic hearth becomes a threshold of
Heaven! God grant that this pious custom may
be ever maintained where it already exists, and
be adopted where, either through neglect, or the
chilling effect of a Protestant atmosphere, it has
hitherto not been practiced!
A blessing imparted in the name of God
is more than a good wish: it is also a prayer.
Such a solemn invocation of the authority of
God, made by a parent for his children, cannot

fail to be efficacious. The Holy Ghost Himself
makes Ecciesiasticus say: The father’s blessing
establisheth the houses of the children (Ecclus.
2:11).
The sign of the Cross was still unknown in
the time of the Patriarchs. The day had not
yet dawned when the Man-God, by dying the
ignominious death on the Cross, was thereby
to change that sign of foolishness into one in
which the great St.Paul, and all Christians after
him, were to glory. The Patriarchs of old, in
blessing their children, extended their hands
over their heads. With such a rite did Abraham
bless Isaac, and Isaac his son Jacob, and Jacob
his twelve sons. Under the Old Law, only the
fathers seemingly had the privilege of giving their
blessing to their children; but under the New
Law—ever since, through Mary, women have
55

Christian Culture
been raised to a loftier condition: and ever since
one of their sex “blessed among all women” (Lk.
1:28) was found worthy to become the Mother of
God, the right of blessing their children has been
conferred also upon mothers.
The history of parental blessings presents
many edifying examples, for our admiration and
imitation. The fathers and mothers of the martyrs
used to give their blessings to their sons and
daughters as they lay in chains in their prisons;
and these blessings filled them with a renewed
courage to suffer more for Christ.
In the history of the Fathers of the Church, we
read that the saintly Macrina daily blessed her
grandsons: one lived to become the great St. Basil
and the other St. Gregory of Nyssa. Norma, the
mother of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also blessed
her son; and since his childhood she consecrated
him to Jesus Christ, by placing his little hands on
the sacred Scriptures.
St. Louis, King of France, when about to die
on the African coast, addressed the following
words to his son who stood by his deathbed: “My
dear son, I give you all the blessings which a good
father can give to his son.”
St. Francis de Sales reverently knelt every
night at the feet of his parents to receive their
blessing; until the day, when, having received the
episcopal consecration, these Christian parents
knelt in their turn before their son, to receive his
blessing.
The historian of St. Jane Frances de Chantal,
speaking about the manner in which she
educated her children, proceeds thus: “Shortly
after supper, this pious mother used to withdraw
with her children to make them say their night
prayers, of which a De Profundis for the soul of
the late Baron, their father, formed a part that
was never omitted. After a few moments devoted
to the examination of conscience, she made them
say aloud and all together the short prayer: “In
manus tuas commendo spiritum meum”—Into
thy hands I commend my spirit (Lk. 23:46)—after
which she blessed each with holy water and the
sign of the Cross, and made them undress with
modesty.”
The writer of the life of Saint Thomas More
makes the following remark: “In our country,
children are wont to ask on their knees, at
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morning and at night, the blessing of their
fathers and mothers. This is the common usage
in England. But I must confess that when grown
up, married, or raised to some high dignity in the
Church or in the State, children generally give
up this pious practice, or at least it is retained
by but few.” The more remarkable in this respect
was the faithfulness of Sir Thomas himself.
During the whole of his father’s lifetime, and even
when he was holding the office of Chancellor of
England, Sir Thomas never failed to come every
night to ask him reverently for his blessing.
In monasteries, at night at the hour of
Compline when the monks are dismissed to their
cells, the Abbot, who stands to his subjects as
a true father, making the sign of the Cross over
them, pronounces the words: ‘May the Almighty
and merciful God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
bless and guard us.” And in like manner, in the
morning at the hour of Prime: “May the Lord
bless us and defend us from all evil and lead us to
eternal life.”
This parental blessing instils into the hearts
of children a greater and purer love for their
parents. Their filial affection daily grows by this
impressive rite, in which the parent stands before
the eyes of his children as the representative of
God, and as the minister of His divine blessing.
He performs essentially an act of authority. This
Cross which you have traced on the forehead of
your children, O fathers and mothers! changes
their natural love for you into a more spiritual
dutifulness, and helps to ensure forever their
respect and veneration for you.
Under the influence of your blessing, the child
will also learn to treat his body with respect. May
it not suggest, in a critical moment of temptation,
that it would ill-become this brow, which but this
morning, or this night, was blessed with the sign
of the Cross, to have reason to blush under the
silent, but scrutinizing look of a father or mother,
when the time for the next blessing has come
round? The time of this blessing is also a most
favorable time for acknowledgement of faults,
for pardon, for solemn and serious advice; the
blessing should be withheld in case no signs of
repentance are shown for some fault committed
in the course of the day.
Finally, the blessing is not without its

beneficial effects upon him who confers it, for
it must needs make him better, more Christianlike, more holy. When a parent sees his children
bowing down before him, it brings home to him
the great fact that he, also, as well as the Bishop
of his diocese, or the Priest of his parish, has
in a certain sense the care of souls, and that he
owes his family the good example of a lively and
practical Faith, and that he must be to them the
pattern of all Christian virtues; for it is written:
“The just that walketh in his simplicity shall leave
behind him blessed children” (Prov. 20:7).
Let, then, this blessing recover the place of
honour it held in all Christian times! Fathers and
mothers! Confer it in the simplicity of the rite of
old, and of better days. When after night prayers,

or before retiring to their rest, your children are
come to you to wish you a good night, place for
an instant your left hand upon their heads, and
with the thumb of the right hand trace the sign
of the Cross upon each forehead either silently,
or saying: “May God bless you, my child;” or, “In
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost.”
It is the “Goodnight” of the Christian, a
goodnight eminently religious, which brings to
their minds the wholesome thought of eternity!
Perhaps you are not rich; it may be you have
no great fortune to bequeath to your children;
but what you have at least to bestow upon them
is the inheritance of your blessing; and far more
profitable than riches is eternal salvation.
57

Christian Culture

Teaching
Little Ones
Devotion
to Mary
by SSPX Sisters

Mom or Mommy?
Dad or Daddy?
“Oh Mommy, I love you so much I can’t even
tell you how much!” What mother would not
be touched by such words from her little four
year old daughter? They are a child’s way of
expressing his gratitude. Of course, the greatness
of a mother’s sacrifice and her great love remain
partially hidden. But a child, even a small child,
feels the love in his mother’s heart. He sees—or
rather he knows—that Mom is always there…
for him. If he falls down while playing, he runs to
Mom. If his sleep is interrupted by nightmares,
he cries for Mom. If he is thirsty or sick, without
even thinking about it, he knows that Mom can
help him.
Yes, even in the eyes of a small child, a
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mother’s heart is indispensable and unlimited. In
his own way, he tries to show his love in return.
The flowers with no stems picked with so much
affection for Mom! “Dad does that for Mom, I’m
going to do it too.” When Mom is sick or tired, her
child comes to her with a glass of water and a
kiss. “Mom does that when I am sick; I’m going to
do it too.”
You know well, dear mothers, that your child
has another mother, the Mother of God Himself.
Your greatest desire is for him to learn to know
this excellent Mother who, without being visibly
present in your house, pours out her motherly
affection on each one of her children. During
the inevitable separations that occur here below
between mother and child, what a consolation to
know that this same Mother will watch over him!
How to put this truth into practice, how to

teach our child to know and love our heavenly
Mother? Is he capable of understanding even
though he is still so young?

Pictures and Bouquets
From the earliest age, little ears listen to
what Dad and Mom are saying. A baby quickly
recognizes the voice of his parents and it does not
take long for him to recognize the faces around
him. Do we not speak to him even before he is
able to say “Mommy”…“Daddy”? These names are
repeated to him thousands of times before the
day he pronounces them himself. Why not add the
holy Names of “Jesus” and “Mary” to the list of his
first words? Take the time to show him pictures
of his heavenly family: it will not take him long to
recognize them.
At each step in his soul’s awakening, there
are opportunities to introduce songs, beautiful
stories or little books that speak to him of Mary.
And if the statues or pictures of the Blessed
Virgin are given a place of honor in the living
room, the child’s thoughts will naturally turn to
the queen of the family. Every word, every act
inspired by Dad and Mom’s love for the Blessed
Virgin will be noticed. A baptized child will find
them normal and imitate them.
The opportunities to direct the hearts of little
ones are countless: Mom puts the bouquet Dad
or one of the children offered her in front of the
picture of Our Lady; Dad says his thanksgiving
in front of the statue of Our Lady after Mass on
Sunday; the entire family goes to the processions
and ceremonies in honor of Our Lady.
And the Rosary…What is a good age to start?
And how? Is it too much to ask of children? Let us
consider these questions.

habit of thinking often of God throughout the day.
The family Rosary can only help him to do so.
As soon as we see that a child is capable of
learning the Hail Mary, we can let him take
a turn reciting the beginning of a decade. Of
course, it takes great patience at first, to let him
say every word with Dad and Mom. If they are
encouraging, the child will learn more quickly
and willingly.
The Rosary! What an excellent lesson for our
little one to have a book in which he can follow
the life of Jesus and Mary with the mysteries
of the Rosary! After the prayer is over, what a
joy for the little ones to take turns blowing out
the candle that was lit before the picture of Our
Lady, and the older ones will take the privilege of
lighting it before family prayers most seriously!
We have to admit; family Rosary requires a lot
of effort at first. The timing needs to be practical;
it needs to be at a time when everyone can
participate (but not when everyone is tired!). God
gives us the grace to be faithful to this practice,
and little by little, it becomes a habit. Is 20
minutes a day really too much time to spend with
a Mother we truly love?
Our Lady herself asked the three children of
Fatima to pray the Rosary, and although they
were quite young, they were already in the habit
of doing so.
To conclude, let us admire the religious
education Madame Vianney gave her children. As
a small child, the holy Curé listened to his mother
who spoke to him of Heaven and the Blessed
Virgin Mary as she tucked him in for the night. As
soon as little Jean-Marie was able to—at the age
of three—he learned the Hail Mary, the prayer,
he would say, that never tires God. Years later,
he would say: “The Blessed Virgin is my earliest
affection; I loved her before I even knew her…
After God, this was my mother’s doing; she was
so wise!”

The Rosary for Little Ones
The Rosary is made up of the basic prayers
that every Catholic should know by heart. What
better way for a child to learn these prayers than
by repeating them in the Rosary?
A child is never too young to begin saying his
morning and evening prayers and to get into the
59

Fr. Guiseppe Sarto, after many successive
ecclesiastical functions, was elected to the papacy
in 1903. His chief care as the Vicar of Christ was
for the priestly formation in seminaries, the fight
against Modernism, and the promotion of the
frequent reception of the Eucharist by young
children and among the faithful against the heresy
of Jansenism. He also taught dogmatic and moral
theology wherein he implemented the doctrine
and methodology of St. Thomas in seminaries and
restored Gregorian Chant in the liturgy.

Frequent mediation is key to finding lasting
peace and ordering your life around the things
that really matter!

146 pp. Softcover. STK# 8544✱ $10.95

Minute Meditations
Each meditation presents a practical application of spirituality for those who
seek to acquire the art of prayerful reflection. Here is a practical step-by-step
program for spiritual progress.

478 pp. Softcover. STK# 8507 $26.45

Classical Catholic Meditations
Daily meditation is a proven remedy for dangerous spiritual lethargy, and in
our day it is more important than ever before. That’s why the wise Dominican
priest Bede Jarrett, penned for busy Catholics like you, more than 120 meditations collected here, none longer than 1,000 words each, to ensure that
each of your days contains at least one brief, thoughtful encounter with God.

50 pp. Softcover. STK# 8463. $6.45

Fifty Meditations on the Passion
Archbishop Goodier wrote these meditations for a particular religious that had
difficulty in prayer. He found that by suggesting particular meditations “she
would fly along a line of contemplation.” These points have been collected
and printed by special request. Very useful for anyone that wants a little help
praying.

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Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music.

Sacred Art
Woven Into the Canvas of the Catholic Faith

by Brian M. Fahlstrom

From the holy card used to mark our place
in the missal, to an ancient fresco of the Good
Shepherd in the catacombs, artistic images
have been woven into our daily lives of faith as
Catholics from the beginning of the Church to the
present day. Is art worth thinking about during
this time of crisis, decline, and spiritual warfare?
Yes, as we can see that sacred images have
always been with us, no matter the state of the
Church or world. Christ Himself made an image
on the veil of St. Veronica during the hours of His
Passion.
The suffering face left impressed upon the
cloth of Veronica has long been considered the
ultimate image of faith. Medieval scholars, taking
the name of Veronica, connected the Latin Vera
(true) with the Greek Eikon (image)—making
a “true image” of Christ. Veronica showed

great faith, pity, and charity extending her soul
towards Jesus. This act resulted in Our Lord
giving an image of Himself in return. There is
also the Shroud of Turin, and the tilma of Juan
Diego, miraculously “painted” by the Blessed
Virgin—an image which led to the conversion of
a nation. These types of miraculous images are
called in the Greek, Acheiropoieta, “Icons made
without hands.” Following from these examples
given to us by supernatural means, men of faith
have in turn attempted to use raw material like
stone, mineral, fiber and wood to create images
which may in turn help us look towards Heaven,
leading us through our senses to contemplate
things which are not of the senses, but of faith.
The making of images and their use for
prayer and meditation is inherently Catholic,
and deeply woven into the faith. We can see
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Christian Culture

the rejection of sacred images by Judaism,
Islam, and Protestantism. The Revolution in
France, the Reformation in England, and the
Iconoclastic movements in the East of the 8th
and 9th centuries, as well as the modernists
of the Church have all sought to suppress and
destroy sacred art, as it is so thoroughly redolent
of the true practice of the Faith. It is an inherent
tendency of the Church to make images. God
grants us talents and intellect to create material
objects which serve to contemplate and worship
Him. The aforementioned religions have rejected
these gifts given to man, while the Catholic
Church embraces and has sought throughout
her history to develop these gifts and talents to
supreme heights, far exceeding the visual arts of
any previous culture of the West, as well as pagan
and tribal art traditions throughout the world.
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Meditative dimension of art
Besides the prayerful and meditative
dimensions of art, there are the more earthly,
material aspects for a viewer to consider. There
is great satisfaction one may experience in
simply looking, taking time to drink in an object,
absorbing it through the sense of sight. This is a
different kind of sensing than when we listen to
music, an art which exists and unfolds in time.
A painting or sculpture is completely in front of
us, all at once—wholly in the present moment.
We can take in the overall composition of the
picture, admiring the manner in which the artist
has chosen to depict his subject, the touch of the
hand, and the skillful manipulation of materials.
We may also observe the individual artist’s
philosophical approach to his subject, and in the

case of sacred art, the theological message, as
well as the emotional tone of the image.
The Church in her wisdom has always granted
artists a wide latitude in their approach to
sacred subjects, recognizing the God-given gifts
of human inventiveness and the individuality
of the soul. This individuality is best expressed
when it is aligned with our inherent need to
follow tradition and models that precede us. The
“relentless cult of novelty”1 in the arts of the
last century is a modern affliction, leading to the
complete collapse of artistic work and thought.
The great artists of the past knew that invention
and renewal of their craft came naturally through
following tradition and the emulation of what
came before them. The apprentice artisan would
learn alongside his master for many years before
establishing his own workshop. And so, ideas
and craft were handed down for centuries,
at times changing quickly, at times slowly,
always allowing for new pictorial and technical
developments (for example the widespread
use of oil paint in the 15th century), along with
developments in regional stylistic taste. The
common glue, so to speak, of the entire Catholic
world was the clergy commissioning the art,
acting as the guiding hand to keep sacred art
spiritually and theologically true. Artists of the
past rarely had interest in being radicals, but
rather sought to use their talent in the service
of the Church or lay patrons in a way that
would lead naturally to technical and pictorial
innovation.

Tangible treasure of the
Church on earth
The variety of form and technique utilized
throughout the history of Catholic art is
astonishing: The boldly colored force of
Romanesque frescoes, the fantastical sculptural
flights of Cluny, the grandeur of Giotto and
later the mystical beauty of Fra Angelico, the
technical sublimity of the Northern Renaissance,
the Baroque intensity of Rubens in the North
and Zurbaran in Spain, onwards to the pious
academic mastery of Bouguereau in the 19th
century.2 This wide and deep wellspring of art

is a tangible treasure of the Church on earth
and though material and made by man, it has
in many times and places led to prayer and the
conversion of souls. Some may say that many
of these paintings and sculptures of the distant
past look quite radical, even crude or grotesque
to our eyes. This aversion that many may have
to pre-renaissance and pre-baroque art is most
likely an inherited cultural prejudice, and in
fact it is a prejudice of the neo-paganism and
classicism of the late renaissance, and the
naturalism, realism, and scientism of postrevolutionary times. All of these movements
in artistic and philosophical thought tended to
exclude that which made art so great in the Age
of Faith—the mystical feeling of religion with
which artists were able to imbue their works.
Think of the stained-glass windows of NotreDame de Chartres Cathedral, and the sculpture
of its portals. Realism, naturalism, and classical
ideals are nowhere to be found in their forms.
These works of the 12th and 13th centuries
carry with them an intense power of religious
expression and a sophistication of imagery that
has rarely been exceeded. The intellectual and
academic discipline of art history and aesthetic
philosophy as we know it today was developed
primarily by Protestants and atheists in the
18th and 19th centuries.3 These Enlightenmentminded writers labeled most Pre-Renaissance
artworks as primitive, being that they were not
based on ancient classical art. Therefore, we got
the idea of the Italian Primitives, the Flemish
Primitives, the Gothic (read: barbarian) and so
on, privileging pagan and humanist ideals while
slyly undervaluing nearly a thousand years of
Catholic art and architecture of the broader
Medieval era.

One example
One such “primitive” artist is Dieric Bouts,
who lived in the Netherlands in the middle of the
15th century. His painting of the Resurrection
was originally part of a five panel altarpiece,
which included depictions of the Annunciation,
the Crucifixion, and the burial of Christ.
Bouts’ painting speaks to a culture of great
65

Christian Culture
sophistication and to a talent of the highest
degree. Primitive he was not. The Western
Schism, with at least three claimants to the
papacy, ended near the beginning of Bouts’
lifetime at the Council of Constance. Saint Joan
of Arc’s victories, trial and execution took place
when Bouts was 11 years old. By the time he
was born, half of Europe’s population had died
from the plague. Various wars throughout the
continent dragged on for years. The Protestant
revolt boiled up only several decades after his
death. Despite the time and place of its making,
Bouts’ work is a vision of absolute serenity,
certitude and hope.
Within a blossoming green landscape of the
breaking dawn, Christ steps out of the tomb
at the center of the picture, supremely radiant
with confidence. He is clothed in a red cloak
symbolizing His divinity. Serious yet gentle,
His expression greets us with a direct gaze.
His concealed left hand carries a staff with a
triumphal cross, and His right hand is raised in
blessing us, the viewers. We can see the fresh
wounds of the crucifixion and the lance, red
with blood. The sarcophagus that He steps out
of is not just a tomb, but an altar and a cross.
An angel cloaked in billowing white stands atop
the stone lid seemingly just alighted, gazing at
Christ with devotion while awaiting the women
disciples, seen approaching in the distance. Two
of the three guards are still sleeping, their heads
turned away from Christ, perhaps an allusion to
the disbelief of the Jews. One has just awoken,
confused and uncertain as he raises his arm as
if to protect himself, astonished at the graceful
majesty of Christ. The entire picture is composed
in a manner that elicits a stilled sense of awe.
This painting was made with a form of tempera
paint using animal hide glue and powdered
pigment from the earth. It is an exceedingly
fragile technique and not many works made in
this manner have survived from the era. These
materials imbue the painting with a soft and
radiant glow, mimicking the way light looks in
the early dawn—mysterious, quiet, and intensely
spiritual. When this painting was originally seen
as part of an altar, the Holy Eucharist would have
been elevated and held aloft by the priest just
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inches away. Picturing this, one may begin to
contemplate the profound importance of sacred
images in the Catholic liturgy. It is a time to
seriously think about a resurrection of Catholic
sacred art, which has been impoverished
and nearly left for dead by two centuries of
revolution. Without question, one must first look
to the past, wherein lies the way forward. This
is a monumental task of rebuilding starting from
almost nothing. If artists such as Bouts, and
the patrons which supported him were able to
produce and provide such rich works for the aid
of worship during times of extreme turmoil in
the world, should we not be able to do the same
now in our time? There is most certainly a power
in images whether they be made miraculously
through God, or by the hands of man. Bouts’
painting of the Resurrection is compelling and
alive now as it was when first installed upon an
altar in Northern Europe 500 years ago. After
the Crucifixion, the apostles had nowhere to
turn, seemingly nothing left and no way forward.
The Resurrection changed this. Catholic sacred
art has and will continue to resurrect itself, as
long as the Church and her artisans choose to
embrace the artistic traditions of the past in all of
their diversity and richness, while rejecting those
formal approaches and aesthetic philosophies
which are incompatible with Catholic sensibility
and antithetical to the arts, which the Church has
birthed over its many centuries.
1

See Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s essay, “The Relentless Cult of
Novelty and How It Wrecked The Century”.

2

It is worth mentioning the work of the Nazarene School painters
of the 19th century (primarily Johann Friedrich Overbeck).
These German artists sought to renew Catholic art by looking
back to art of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Rejecting
classical and humanist ideals being propagated by the intellectual
establishment of the time, they attempted to develop a historically
informed Catholic approach to art. Ironically, this was possibly
the first avant-garde art movement of the modern era. A Catholic
movement, where the path forward was found in following
tradition. Similar attention is due to the work of the same era in
Paris of Delacroix’s murals at Saint-Sulpice, and Corot’s altar
painting of the Baptism of Christ at Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet.

3

However, Johann Winckelmann (1717-1768), the pillar of modern
art history did in fact convert—at least initially, as a career move
to gain access to the antiquities held at the Vatican. See also, Kant,
Goethe, Hegel, Schiller, et al.

67

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Keep Learning 		 Keep Growing

Keep the Faith

by Fr. Juan-Carlos Iscara, SSPX

Editor’s Note: The intent of this recurring
series is not to write an academic paper on
the matters covered, but simply to provide our
reader with some basic information. Therefore, to
avoid burdening these answers with a excess of
footnotes, some of the sources lightly used in our
research are not properly acknowledged.

What is “addiction”?
Until recently, medical literature defined

“addiction” only in reference to compulsive
drug abuse despite detrimental consequences.
Thus, the World Health Organization defined it
as “the state of periodic or chronic intoxication
detrimental to the individual and to society,
produced by the repeated consumption
of a drug. Its characteristics include an
overpowering desire or need (compulsion) to
continue taking the drug and to obtain it by
any means, a tendency to increase the dosage,
and a psychological, and sometimes physical,
dependence on the effects of the drug.”
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Christian Culture
But now many researchers are re-defining
“addiction” as a chronic disease, affecting the
reward, reinforcement, motivation, and memory
systems of the brain, and which is manifested
in an individual’s pathological pursuit of
gratification and/or relief by substance use and
other behaviors. While previous definitions
were focused on the substances associated
with addiction, such as alcohol or drugs, this
new definition is extended so as to include
compulsive behaviors that are gratifying.
We know that, in creating human nature, God
has established certain operations as necessary
for the survival and well-being of the individual
and for the perpetuation of the human race. God
has also established the physical mechanism—
the chemistry and neural pathways of our brain—
that gives us a sense of pleasure and contentment
when those actions are performed, in order to
help us to perform them and to remember the
experience, thus providing a compelling incentive
to repeat them as often as necessary to attain the
ends intended by God. Unfortunately, we are also
capable of abusing our free will and the physical
faculties with which God has endowed us by
seeking that pleasure in a disordered manner,
that is, in a manner contrary to God’s design.
It is well known that drug abuse causes real,
demonstrable physiological effects that make it
harder and harder for a person to stop using the
drug, even though he knows it is harmful. As
the recent change in the definition of “addiction”
reflects, scientific research is now showing
that when some individuals are engrossed in a
particular behavior, they are physically affected
in the same direct and intense way that a drug
addict is affected by a particular substance.
The drug addict’s cycle of preoccupation/
anticipation (craving), binge/intoxication, and
withdrawal/negative effect stages are reproduced
in behaviors such as compulsive gambling,
compulsive shopping, compulsive eating,
compulsive sexual behavior, and compulsive
exercise.
These behavioral addictions are recognizable
in the following: first, inability to consistently
abstain from a disordered action, that is, the
impairment of the control of one’s behavior;
second, an increased “hunger” for gratifying
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experiences of pleasure or relief, to the extent
that even when negative consequences occur,
this behavior continues or escalates; finally,
a diminished recognition of the serious
alteration of one’s behaviors and relationships,
due to the fact that the disordered behavior takes
precedence over other activities, thus leading to
significant distress and damage in personal,
family, social, academic or occupational
functioning.

Is there any element of personal
responsibility in an addiction?
The medical research quoted is rightly
focused on the neurobiological effects (i.e. brain
chemistry) of drug abuse or addictive behaviors.
It is for us, as Catholics, to draw its implications
for personal morality and the social common
good.
Scientific studies are conclusively showing that
addiction, not only to drugs but also to certain
behaviors, severely alters the brain’s chemistry
and pathways, slowly eroding a person’s ability
to choose otherwise to the point that he becomes
a helpless victim of forces beyond his control.
There are some biological factors and even
particular and social circumstances that may
contribute to the acquisition of an addiction,
removing or seriously diminishing the personal
responsibility of he who has now become an
addict. In that sense, then, both in its origin
and at its present stage, it is an illness requiring
professional attention.
But in most of the cases that come to the
attention of a confessor, the now addictive
behavior began with the free, conscious choice

of a morally disordered action—that is, an
action contrary to the design of God for our lives,
and thus, forbidden by His law.
Many who are now addicted to some morally
disordered behavior have, in the past, freely
chosen to perform a sinful action, and have
persisted in seeking its gratifying effect by
repeatedly making the same morally disordered
choices, while at the same time being aware that
such repetition of acts may create a habit, leading
to further sinful actions, which, in turn, may have
seriously damaging consequences for their lives
and relationships.
At that stage, the disordered behavior becomes
part of the moral activity of the individual: the
inclination towards the moral good is relegated
to a lower level and replaced by the inclination
towards the addictive object. The person’s moral
conscience is thus transformed. His personal
responsibility and the moral gravity of his
actions may be diminished by the now addictive
character of the behavior, but he is not exempt
from sin.

Is there something like an
“Internet addiction”?
It is a fact that the internet has invaded our
daily lives. It is available everywhere—in our
places of work, schools, libraries, and at the
tip of our fingers in our smartphones, tablets,
computers...We use it for virtually everything—
for work, study, research, news, communication,
banking, shopping, entertainment, or even
for indulging our sometimes unwholesome
curiosity, or perhaps for finding long lost friends
or directions to a place…It was very useful for

doing the research for this article and it will give
you the possibility of reading it in The Angelus
Online!
But such technological novelty has come
with a price—it has considerably modified
our individual behavior, our social habits and
our norms of politeness, but also, and more
profoundly, our mental processes, and our moral
vulnerability, by constructing a whole new
universe of sins and temptations.
In truth, the internet is a tool, an instrument,
for which there are many legitimate uses which
could not be classified as an addiction. Internet
use is not an activity in and of itself—we use it for
something else. The pervasiveness of the internet
has turned it into the instrument of choice for
pursuing a myriad of addictive behaviors. But
some researchers point out that when we talk
specifically of “internet addiction,” we should be
referring to an addictive use of the tool itself, the
gratifying feeling of being online, connected to
something, rather than to any particular activity
that could be accomplished by means of that tool.
In their opinion, then, if we compulsively use the
internet for gambling, what we have is a gambling
addiction, not an internet addiction.
As researchers do not agree on the criteria
to determine when the excessive use of the
internet becomes an addiction or what its proper
object is, there is not one clear definition of
“internet addiction.” No single pattern of behavior
defines it, but when a person is engaged in a
compulsive use of the internet, preoccupied
with being online, lying or hiding the extent
or nature of his online behavior, and unable to
control or curb such behavior, then certainly
an addiction exists, one that takes control of
the addict’s life and becomes unmanageable.
It is an addiction that interferes with one’s life,
causing severe stress on the work environment,
on family life and relationships, on school, etc.,
and the alteration of one’s moods. The excessive
use of the internet has been shown to impair
cognitive function, decision making, information
integration, working memory and impulse
control.
Why do people become addicted to the
internet? Mostly because it is easily accessible,
at any time of day or night. A person can go
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Christian Culture
online whenever he wants, without anybody
knowing, and thus giving the satisfying feeling of
being in total control of his own life. Moreover, as
it is the case with other addictions, going online
gives some people a sort of “high,” an excitement
lacking in their lives and not so easily attainable
otherwise, which makes them to continue going
online.

God’s creation, instead darkening their vision,
causing them to view others as objects to be used
and manipulated. It has been excused as an outlet
for free expression, supported as a business
venture, and condoned as just another form of
entertainment. It is not widely recognized as a
threat to life and happiness. It is not often treated
as a destructive addiction. It changes the way
men and women treat one another in sometimes
dramatic but often subtle ways. And it is not
going away.”

Pornography is Widespread

Can a person be “addicted”
to pornography?
Pornography is any kind of material that
explicitly exposes and/or describes sexual acts,
aimed at provoking the sexual arousal of the
recipient.
In a pastoral letter, Bishop Paul S. Loverde
(Arlington, VA) has succinctly and forcefully
described the evils of pornography: “In my
nearly 50 years as a priest, I have seen the
evil of pornography spread like a plague
throughout our culture. What was once the
shameful and occasional vice of the few has
become the mainstream entertainment for the
many—through the internet, cable, satellite and
broadcast television, smart phones and even
portable gaming and entertainment devices
designed for children and teenagers. Never
before have so many Americans been so tempted
to view pornography. Never before have the
accountability structures—to say nothing of
the defenses which every society must build to
defend the precious gift of her children—been so
weak. This plague stalks the souls of men, women
and children, ravages the bonds of marriage
and victimizes the most innocent among us. It
obscures and destroys people’s ability to see one
another as unique and beautiful expressions of
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Truly, it is not going away… Judging for what
we see around us, pornography has become
both legal and socially acceptable, a matter of
casual conversation, personal entertainment and
widespread practice—it is at our fingertips on
the internet, almost every neighborhood has an
“adult store,” “erotica” is postulated as an artistic
category…The statistics published by different
research groups present a morally distressing
picture.
The change in the social attitudes towards
pornography has, in large part, been enabled and
driven by technology. In the past, pornographic
material was not too abundant or too easy to find;
it had to be bought, and the simple fact of buying
it exposed the buyer to some public scrutiny. All
these factors had a deterrent effect on the use
of pornography. With the advent of the internet,
Wi-Fi and mobile devices, those deterrents
have vanished. Pornography is now accessible
anywhere, anytime, in any amount, and in every
kind. It is affordable for everyone, since an
enormous amount of it is available online for free.
It allows the user to remain anonymous, invisible
to the provider and to everyone else…In fact,
statistics show that pornography has gone almost
completely digital.

Pornography May
Become an Addiction
Modern research shows that pornography use,
especially over the internet, fits into the addiction

framework and, as said above, shares similar
basic mechanisms with drug addiction.

Pornography Inflicts
a Grave Damage on
Individuals and Society
In accordance with the will of God, creator of
our nature, sexual relationships may only proceed in private, in the intimacy of the spouses,
that is, then, within the framework of heterosexual marriage, and even then, only certain sexual
acts are permitted. Pornography is a violent corruption of God’s design for the relations between
husband and wife.
Pornography use is a grave sin, an act of lust
that vulgarizes the sexual acts represented
and confuses them with the reality of human
sexuality. It leads to indifference for long-term
monogamous relationships and disinterest for
procreation, and thus, it undermines the traditional values of marriage, family and children. As
it offers only a temporary, perverted and unfulfill-

ing excitement, it soon leads to the commission
of other grave sins, such as masturbation, fornication, adultery, and unnatural acts.
Moreover, “children are harmed when
pornography is used by adults. A society which
accepts and uses pornography as if it were
moral will not be able to teach children right
from wrong on the topic of sexual ethics. Adults
who use pornography are setting a bad example
for children and teenagers. Children and teens
eventually become aware of the existence and
use of pornography by adults. Therefore, this
usage by adults includes the sin of scandal.
Also, when adults in society accept and use
pornography, committing many gravely immoral
sexual sins, some of those adults might also
commit other sexual sins, such as the sexual
abuse of children. A society that accepts
pornography as if it were moral will not be able
to rid itself of the sexual abuse of children, nor of
other crimes such as rape and spousal abuse. The
human person is harmed by pornography, and as
a result, the whole of society is also harmed.”

344 pp.–Hardcover–STK# 8343✱–$25.55

The Best of Questions
and Answers
The best questions and the best answers of 30 years of The Angelus. This will be a family’s
heirloom reference book for everyday Catholic living to match the Catholic Faith we believe
and the Latin Mass we attend. Over 300 answers classified under 30 subtitles.
–– Marriage, Parenting, Family Life
and Child Rearing
–– Science and Medical Matters

–– The Bible and Biblical Matters
–– The Trinity, Jesus Christ, The Virgin
Mary, Angels, and Saints

–– Life After Death

–– The Mass and the Liturgy

–– Church Practices and Customs

–– The SSPX and the Crisis

–– The Papacy and the Church Teachings

73

News from Tradition
Archbishop Sheen and New York vs. Peoria: The Saga Continues
For over four years, the Archdiocese of New
York and the Diocese of Peoria (Illinois) have been
engaged in a civil court battle over the mortal
remains of Archbishop Fulton Sheen. Sheen,
who died in 1979, was buried in the crypt of St.
Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, (ostensibly at his
own request) since he had spent most of his time
as a bishop living, working and preaching in the
Archdiocese, although he was ordained a priest for
the Diocese of Peoria.
In 2002, the Diocese of Peoria officially opened
the cause for his canonization. At that time,
Edward Cardinal Egan, then the Archbishop of
New York, agreed to allow Archbishop Sheen’s
remains to be moved to Peoria when the time
came during the canonization process. Between
2012 and 2014, Sheen’s cause had moved forward
with the Congregation of Saints having declared
that Sheen exhibited “heroic virtue” and
recognizing a miraculous cure through Sheen’s
intercession. The next stage in the process would
be the examination of the mortal remains and the
taking of first class relics from the body—this is
necessary before the Beatification of Archbishop
Sheen could take place.
It was at this point, in 2014, that Timothy
Cardinal Dolan refused to allow Sheen’s body to be
moved from St. Patrick’s to Peoria for the official
identification and the taking of relics. Dolan also
stated that the Archdiocese of New York had no
desire to pursue the canonization of Archbishop

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Sheen. Because of this deadlock, Sheen’s cause
for canonization has been suspended until the
Diocese of Peoria could obtain his mortal remains.
In 2016, the family of Archbishop Sheen officially
petitioned, in the New York State court to have
Archbishop Sheen’s body removed from the crypt
of St. Patrick’s and brought to Peoria. Over the
ensuing two years, courts have ruled in favor
of New York rather than Peoria in an agonizing
game of judicial ping pong. All the while, the
Archdiocese of New York has maintained that
its only reason for fighting the transfer is that
Archbishop Sheen’s request was to be buried in
St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
In the beginning of June of 2018, an Appellate
Court in New York handed down what was hoped
to be the final judgment in the case. The presiding
judge ruled that although Sheen had requested
to be buried in New York, the cause for his
canonization overruled his final request (which,
as the Diocese of Peoria argued in court, was
somewhat vague in the first place). On June 15,
2018 the Archdiocese of New York announced that
it would move to appeal this decision.
Of course, one is left wondering what would
be the motivation of Cardinal Dolan and the
Archdiocese of New York to continue to delay
the continuation of Archbishop Sheen’s cause
for canonization (especially considering the cost
of continuing litigation when the Archdiocese is
struggling to keep parishes and schools open).

German Bishops and Protestant Communion
At the conclusion of their annual meeting earlier
in 2018, of the German Bishops’ Conference issued
“pastoral guidelines” for allowing the Protestant
spouses of Catholics to receive Holy Communion
when attending Mass. Although this had been
going on unofficially for years, this marked
the first time the practice had received official
acceptance. Only a few bishops objected to the
issuance of the guidelines and, in a meeting with
all the German bishops gathered in Rome, Pope
Francis told them to find “unanimity” concerning
the guidelines instead of clearly articulating true
Catholic practice.
After considerable outcry, the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith made public a letter to
the German Bishops’ Conference forbidding the
implementation of the guidelines. The Prefect,
Cardinal Luis F. Ladaria wrote to Cardinal Marx
(president of the German Episcopal Conference):
“At the end of our fraternal conversation on May
3, 2018 on the document “Mit Christus gehen…”
[“Walking with Christ. On the path of unity.
Interconfessional marriages and joint participation
in the Eucharist. A pastoral guide from the
German episcopal conference.”] we determined
together that I would inform the Holy Father about
the meeting.
Already in our audience of May 11, 2018 I spoke
with Pope Francis about our meeting and gave him
a summary of the conversation. On May 24, 2018, I
again discussed the question with the Holy Father.
Following these meetings I would like to bring
to your attention the following points, with the
explicit approval of the pope.
1. The multiple ecumenical efforts of the
German episcopal conference, in a particular
way the intense collaboration with the council
of the Evangelical Church of Germany, deserve
recognition and appreciation. The joint
commemoration of the Reformation in 2017
has shown that in recent years and decades a
foundation has been found that allows bearing
witness together to Jesus Christ, the Savior of
all men, and working together in an effective and
decisive way in many areas of public life. This
encourages us to move forward with trust on the

road of an ever deeper unity.
2. Our conversation of May 3, 2018 showed
that the text of the guide raises a series of
problems of noteworthy significance. The Holy
Father has therefore reached the conclusion
that the document is not ready for publication.
The essential reasons for this decision can be
summarized as follows:
a. The question of admission to communion
for evangelical Christians in interconfessional
marriages is an issue that touches on the Faith of
the Church and has significance for the universal
Church.
b. This question has effects on ecumenical
relations with other Churches and other ecclesial
communities that are not to be underestimated.
c. The issue concerns the law of the Church,
above all the interpretation of Canon 844 CIC.
Since in a few sectors of the Church there are open
questions in this regard, the dicasteries of the Holy
See concerned have already been instructed to
produce a timely clarification of these questions at
the level of the universal Church. In particular, it
appears opportune to leave to the diocesan bishop
the judgment on the existence of “grave and urgent
necessity.”
3. For the Holy Father it is of great concern
that in the German episcopal conference the
spirit of episcopal collegiality should remain
alive. As Vatican Council II has emphasized, “the
Episcopal bodies of today are in a position to
render a manifold and fruitful assistance, so that
this collegiate feeling may be put into practical
application.” (Dogmatic Constitution “Lumen
Gentium” no. 23).”
Although this document prohibited the
implementation of the guidelines, it is clear that
it did not put an end to the possibility of the
practice. Additionally, it praises two of the most
detrimental innovations of Vatican II: ecumenism
and collegiality. Some have pointed out that Pope
Francis realized that the time was not ripe
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News from Tradition
to foist intercommunion with Protestants upon
the Church but that he is in favor of such. Given
Pope Francis’ admitted distaste for doctrine and
traditional Church discipline, there can be little

doubt that this latest work of sacrilege put forward
by the German bishops will be spread to the
universal Church when the “time is ripe.”

Cardinal McCarrick Removed from Ministry
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop
emeritus of Washington, D.C., has been forbidden by
Pope Francis from exercising public ministry after
allegations that he had abused a male minor while
a priest in the Archdiocese of New York. McCarrick
became an Auxiliary Bishop of New York in 1977,
the first bishop of the newly established Diocese of
Metuchen, N.J. in 1981, Archbishop of Newark, N.J.
in 1986, Archbishop of Washington, D.C. in 2000 and
was made of member of the College of Cardinals in
2001.
Because the abuse occurred in the Archdiocese
of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan was asked by
the Vatican to investigate the allegation. On June 19,
Cardinal Dolan issued the following statement:
“The Archdiocese of New York, along with every
other diocese in the country, has long encouraged
those who, as minors, suffered sexual abuse by a
priest, to come forward with such reports.
As he himself announced earlier this morning,
a report has come to the archdiocese alleging
abuse from over 45 years ago by the now retired
Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore
McCarrick, who, at the time of the reported offense
was a priest here in the Archdiocese of New York.
This was the first such report of a violation of
the Charter for the Protection of Children and
Young People ever made against him of which the
Archdiocese was aware.
Carefully following the process detailed by the
Charter of the American bishops, this allegation
was turned over to law enforcement officials, and
was then thoroughly investigated by an independent
forensic agency. Cardinal McCarrick was advised of
the charge, and, while maintaining his innocence,
fully cooperated in the investigation. The Holy See
was alerted as well, and encouraged us to continue
the process.
Again according to our public protocol, the
results of the investigation were then given to the
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September - October 2018

Archdiocesan Review Board, a seasoned group of
professionals including jurists, law enforcement
experts, parents, psychologists, a priest, and a
religious sister.
The review board found the allegations credible
and substantiated.
The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro
Parolin, at the direction of Pope Francis, has
instructed Cardinal McCarrick that he is no longer
to exercise publicly his priestly ministry.
Cardinal McCarrick, while maintaining his
innocence, has accepted the decision.
This Archdiocese, while saddened and shocked,
asks prayers for all involved, and renews its apology
to all victims abused by priests. We also thank
the victim for courage in coming forward and
participating in our Independent Reconciliation and
Compensation Program, as we hope this can bring a
sense of resolution and fairness.”
Cardinal McCarrick’s statement was released at
the same time as Dolan made the announcement in
New York. He stated:
“Some months ago, I was advised by the
Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan,
that an allegation of sexual abuse of a teenager
from almost 50 years ago had been made against
me. At that time I was a priest of the Archdiocese of
New York.
While shocked by the report, and while
maintaining my innocence, I considered it
essential that the charges be reported to the police,
thoroughly investigated by an independent agency,
and given to the Review Board of the Archdiocese
of New York. I fully cooperated in the process.
My sadness was deepened when I was informed
that the allegations had been determined credible
and substantiated.
In obedience I accept the decision of The Holy
See, that I no longer exercise any public ministry.

I realize this painful development will shock my
many friends, family members, and people I have
been honored to serve in my 60 years as a priest.
While I have absolutely no recollection of this
reported abuse, and believe in my innocence, I
am sorry for the pain the person who brought the
charges has gone through, as well as for the scandal
such charges cause our people.”
The same morning, the Bishop James Checchio
of the Diocese of Metuchen, N.J. issued a statement
saying, in part, that: “This very disturbing report
has prompted me to direct that the records of our
Diocese be re-examined, and I can report to you
that there has never been any report or allegation
that Cardinal McCarrick ever abused any minor
during his time here in Metuchen. In the past,
there have been allegations that he engaged in
sexual behavior with adults. This Diocese and the
Archdiocese of Newark received three allegations
of sexual misconduct with adults decades ago; two
of these allegations resulted in settlements.”
Following suit, Cardinal Tobin, the current
Archbishop of Newark, N.J. stated: “The
Archdiocese of Newark has never received an

accusation that Cardinal McCarrick abused a
minor. In the past, there have been allegations that
he engaged in sexual behavior with adults. This
Archdiocese and the Diocese of Metuchen received
three allegations of sexual misconduct with adults
decades ago; two of these allegations resulted in
settlements.”
The entire situation is, of course, very disturbing.
What is even worse, is that even though it was
known both in the Diocese of Metuchen and the
Archdiocese of Newark that Cardinal McCarrick
had been involved in sexual behavior with adult
males, he was still promoted to the Archdiocese of
Washington, D.C. and made a Cardinal under the
watch of Pope John Paul II.
Given that the statute of limitations for the
sexual abuse of minors in New York has long ago
run out, it is clear that Cardinal McCarrick will
never face criminal prosecution. What his fate
will be under Canon Law is still uncertain, but
with Pope Francis’ “who am I to judge” attitude
toward homosexual activity even amongst the
clergy, it would seem unlikely that there will be any
ecclesiastical penalties forthcoming.

Vatican Diplomate Convicted
On Saturday, June 23, a Vatican Tribunal
convicted Monsignor Carlo Capella of the
possession of child pornography and sentenced
him to five years in prison and a fine of 5,000
Euros. This was the first such civil trial of its kind
in Vatican City.
Capella was the number four official in the
Vatican embassy in Washington, D.C. and was
recalled to the Vatican in August of 2017 after
the United States State Department informed the
Vatican of possible violations of child pornography
laws by one of its diplomates. Soon after his
recall, Canadian officials issued an arrest warrant
for Capella stating that he had accessed child
pornography while staying in a parish in Windsor,
Ontario. At the time, many criticized the Vatican
for recalling Capella as opposed to handing him
over to civil authorities for prosecution.
Since his recall to the Vatican, Capella has been

held in the Vatican barracks where he will serve
out his five year sentence. He will still face a trial
under Canon Law which could result in his being
laicized. It is unlikely Canadian officials will seek
his extradition to Canada to face trial there since
the Vatican does not extradite its citizens.

77

“And with regard to ourselves, how deservedly do we keep the feast of the
Assumption with all solemnity. What reasons for rejoicing, what motives
for exultation have we on this most beautiful day! The presence of Mary
illumines the entire world so that even the holy city above has now a more
dazzling splendor from the light of this virginal lamp. With good reason,
thanksgiving and the voice of praise resound today throughout the courts
of Heaven…let us not complain for here we do not have a lasting city, but we
seek one that is to come, the same which the blessed Mary entered today.”
St. Bernard of Clairvaux

Theological Studies

Fortes in Fide
by Fr. Jean-Michel Gleize, SSPX

On June 21, Pope Francis will travel to Geneva to
participate in the celebration of the 70th anniversary
of the foundation of the World Council of Churches.
This year, 2018, also marks the anniversary of
the episcopal consecrations made by Archbishop
Lefebvre with the assistance of Bishop de CastroMayer on June 30, 1988, at the Seminary of Ecône,
exactly 30 years ago.
Continuing the Fight
In many respects, the event on June 30 was
the crowning of the fight begun by the Fathers of
the Coetus during Vatican Council II. The former
Archbishop of Dakar and the Bishop Emeritus of
Campos turned out to be the only survivors, the only
ones to remain faithful and defend the Tradition of
the Church to the end against the novelties introduced into Holy Mother Church by the liberals and

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modernists. In a sense, the consecrations in Ecône
were already included in the resolution made by the
two prelates just after the Council, 20 years before
June 30, 1988, as can be seen in this letter sent by
Bishop de Castro-Mayer to Archbishop Lefebvre on
May 21, 1968: “Allow me, dear Archbishop Lefebvre,
to ask you most frankly: can we, by our attitude,
make people believe that every one of the Council’s
documents can be admitted without reserve?”1
Thirty years later, we would like to offer our
readers a glimpse of the correspondence between
Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop de Castro-Mayer
during the first 10 years after the end of the Council.
These archives kept at the Seminary of Ecône2 offer
an enlightening testimony of these decisive years,
during which Tradition’s “Operation Survival” took
shape little by little, leading up to the historic day of
June 30, 1988. They reveal the role of the bishop of

Campos at the side of the Founder of the Society of
Saint Pius X, but also the latter’s constant support of
his fellow bishop.
Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop de Castro-Mayer
knew at the end of the Council that the fight was only
just beginning, for Vatican II had laid down evil principles that would need to be uprooted: “Does not the
declaration on Religious Freedom require an exegesis
that interprets it in terms that go against the words
we read in it? Can we apply to all the passages of
Populorum Progressio the words of Our Lord: ‘He who
hears you hears me’, when it takes mental gymnastics
to avoid saying that they contradict the teaching of
Pius XI or St. Pius X? Either we prepare a clear document to enlighten the conscience of the faithful or
it would be better to say nothing and pray that God
will maintain the faith of His people.”3 The two prelates had very precise plans: they intended to gather
together men capable of developing a doctrinal study
of the texts of Vatican II and pointing out the major errors; they planned to reaffirm the traditional doctrine
by writing a Profession of Faith that would clearly
contrast with the errors denounced and serve as a
reference; and they intended to start a journal.4 They
saw clearly that they would have to warn the faithful
and react against the pastoral consequences of these
errors. In Brazil, immorality was being preached by
those who should have been fighting it, and on the
political level, priests were encouraging a regime inspired by the ideas of Fidel Castro, while the spiritual
life was being steadily reduced to a Catholicism without mortification and centered on earthly happiness.5
Lastly, they intended to fight against the evil influence of the Episcopal Conferences that the Bishop of
Campos considered to be a “Monster in Church Law”
and against the Communist infiltration.6 He believed
that the Faith was no longer being defended and
that the faithful would soon have to do without the
hierarchy.7 The Episcopal Conferences of Brazil and
South America were the spearhead of post-conciliar
progressivism.8 The root cause of all these disorders
was the Council itself with all its errors that were now
beginning to reveal their true gravity, so much so that
they now needed to think of forming future priests
in a context free of any contamination from these
errors.9
True Causes of Harm in the Church
In a letter to Archbishop de Proença Sigaud,

Archbishop Lefebvre pointed out, as he would never
cease to do, the true causes of these harmful consequences. “The disorder,” he said, “is very serious
in all the Roman Curia. They condemn the effects
but uphold the cause. Rome has imprisoned herself
in a contradiction that they do not wish to abandon
because that would reveal the scandalous responsibilities in the Council’s proceedings.”10 Alluding to
Ralph Wiltgen’s book The Rhine Flows into the Tiber,
he added that this book “reveals the conspiracy of
the progressivists and the weakness of the popes.”
Bishop de Castro-Mayer echoed his words: “I believe
the time has come to say openly that in the Church
there is a very great and very widespread heresy
and that the faithful must defend their Faith in a very
personal way because they will receive no help from
the hierarchy.”11 […] “I am convinced of what I said
to you in a previous letter: today the faithful can no
longer depend on the hierarchy as they used to; they
must nourish themselves on the Church’s Tradition
if they wish to maintain a solid spiritual and doctrinal
formation.”12 The bishop of Campos received a copy
of I Accuse the Council: “Bravo and when will it be
translated into Portuguese?”13 He was also sent the
Vade-Mecum by Frs. Coache and Barbara, but the
text seemed weak to him, as it insisted only upon the
liturgical deviations, but said nothing about doctrinal
relativism and Communism, even though these are
the two main errors that destroy the Faith.14
A Difficult Position
During the year 1968, Bishop de Castro-Mayer
was put in a difficult position by the three religious
congregations of Dutch priests in his diocese: the
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the Redemptorist
Fathers, and the Priests of the Holy Cross. The first
two were revolutionary and subversively opposed him
in the name of the Council. The priests published a
book full of “insolence, an invitation to disobedience
and insults to the bishop.”15 They stirred the people
up against him. “These are men with no religious
spirit and no education. They are doing much harm to
souls and that with the approval of the Nuncio. That
is why many Brazilian bishops have had to resign,
because the Nuncio was not supporting them.”16 The
Nuncio was playing so well into their hands that he
was likely to send an unfavorable report to Rome on
the Bishop of Campos. So Bishop de Castro-Mayer
asked for Archbishop Lefebvre’s help.17 Thanks

81

Theological Studies
to his help, Bishop de Castro-Mayer held strong. On
December 31, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart
were forced to hand over their parishes to priests
chosen by the bishop. They lost their jurisdiction in
the diocese. On January 10, 1969, they left, “taking
with them two cars that were needed by the country
parishes.” But two of these Missionaries remained;
“welcomed by the Redemptorists, they visit their
former parishes and do great harm.”18 The Nuncio accused the bishop of inflexibility and wrote to tell him
he had reported him to the Sacred Congregation for
the Clergy. There was likely to be an apostolic visit to
the diocese. Bishop de Castro-Mayer ended his letter
informing Archbishop Lefebvre of the latest developments of this sad story with these words: “I apologize
for sending you such a small sum. I would like to help
your apostolate more effectively. Alas! My poverty
makes it impossible. God will fill up what is lacking.
[…] Please excuse my poor French. In Portuguese,
we say that an old parrot no longer learns how to
speak.”19
Archbishop Lefebvre was dismayed and indignant,20 but he had to admit that the same situation
was occurring elsewhere in Los Angeles with the
poor Cardinal MacIntyre, in Spain, and in Portugal.
In Rome, there was dialogue with theologians from
Holland, and with 600 dissenters from France.
Things continued to degenerate. They needed to stay
strong, to stick together and support each other, “for
the time is coming when many priests and perhaps
bishops will fall into total apostacy. […] Do not worry
about the money or about your French that I admire.
If only I could speak as much Portuguese!” This affair is revealing, for it was a joint maneuver against
Tradition. The Nuncio acted as the accomplice of
the modernist revolutionaries. Bishop de CastroMayer won his case, but it was not easy: the Roman
Congregation for the Clergy intended to disavow
him. 21 It was Archbishop Lefebvre who made the
happy ending possible with his diligence; from Rome,
he facilitated all the negotiations, and he advised the
Bishop of Campos on the procedure he should follow
and warned him against his false brethren. 22
The Coming Liturgical Reform
Archbishop Lefebvre kept Bishop de Castro-Mayer
informed on Paul VI’s liturgical reform that ended
with the promulgation of the New Mass, for Brazil was
far from Rome. Bishop de Castro-Mayer reflected

82

The Angelus

September - October 2018

and slowly clarified his position; Archbishop Lefebvre
helped him with his advice. Both prepared a doctrinal
counterattack. This Novus Ordo, believed the Bishop
of Campos, was “the beginning of the capitulation
to Protestantism.”23 He was pessimistic as to the
outcome, for the reform had been approved and the
majority of the bishops were following it. “Those bishops who are not reflecting are not of those who die for
the Faith.”24 Bishop de Castro-Mayer was tormented,
however, and turned to his brother bishop for enlightenment. “How can we reconcile the Faith we say
we profess with a Mass that moves away from this
Faith?” […] “After reading the pamphlet you sent me
[the Brief Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae], I
am convinced that I cannot in conscience follow the
New Mass. Am I being radical or am I with the truth?
In the second case, can I by my silence allow my flock
to follow the New Mass? Can I leave them in good
faith? Would I not be deceiving them by my silence?
Would you be so good and kind as to send me a few
words on all these questions? I thank you ever so
much. Pray for me, dear Excellency.”25
A Fateful Response
The practical solution came to light little by little,
for the facts and events called for a proportionate
reaction. Nonetheless, the Bishop of Campos kept
a circumspect and measured attitude, and took the
time to reflect and weigh the pros and cons. “And yet,
the matter is very grave. We are on the path to a new
Church. I think that we cannot accept the new Ordo.
In my diocese, I do not say anything to the priests
who wish to follow it because the Holy See has direct
and immediate jurisdiction in omnes et singulos
fideles; and I think that the time has not yet come to
publicly denounce the heretical direction that can
be found in several official documents and in the attitudes of some of the highest ecclesiastical authorities. Am I exaggerating? I do not think so. What you
say of the teaching in the Roman universities sounds
like a modern-day Honorius. It is Rome that is leading
souls to heresy.” […] “It seems to me that we cannot
accept all the documents of Vatican II. Some of them
cannot be interpreted according to Trent and Vatican
I. What do you think?”26 In the end, he made the firm
decision to refuse the Novus Ordo Missae of Paul VI.
Bishop de Castro-Mayer had the Brief Critical
Study presented by Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci to
Paul VI translated into Portuguese and distributed:

“It seems preferable to me for the scandal to erupt
before the creation of a situation in which we slip into
heresy. After thorough reflection, I am convinced that
we cannot participate in the New Mass and that even
to be present at it we must have a serious reason. We
cannot collaborate in spreading a rite that although
not heretical leads to heresy. That is the rule I give to
my friends.”27 The following events confirmed that he
was right to be firm: “A letter from Switzerland has
come saying that Bishop Adam of Sion and Bishop
Charrière of Freiburg have forbidden the Mass of
St. Pius V in all the churches and chapels of their
dioceses, including the chapel of your Seminary. The
letter explicitly says so. Is this true? You would do me
a great favor if you were to send me a few words on all
of this.”28 As for the Episcopal Conference of Brazil, it
considered Bishop de Castro-Mayer guilty of schism
because of his refusal of the Novus Ordo. 29 Bishop
de Castro-Mayer was almost the only one to react
and he was saddened by the weakness of the resistance around him. It was mostly laymen who took
up a stance, but only timidly. “That is to say, without
studying the question more deeply, and always leaving a door open for retreat. That is the impression I
get from an article by Gustave Corçao in the S. Paulo
Globo et O Estado. Plinia Correa de Oliviera, apparently neutral, has written on the question in the S.
Paulo Fohla, pointing out the dangers of the New
Mass.”30
A Deeper Evil in the Church
Nonetheless, the New Mass was but a consequence, the result of a deeper evil. Bishop de CastroMayer always saw the root of this evil in the initial
Modernism of Vatican II. “We are in a situation that
the Church has never experienced in history. I think
that we are wasting our time if we do not tear off
the neo-modernist mask of those now leading the
Christian people. How? That is the question.”31 […]
“The responsibility for the evils afflicting the Church
falls upon a Council from which the scholastic
philosophy was banished.”32 This judgment did not
change over the years. “In my opinion, we have no
other option than to accomplish Canon 1326, §1: publicly denounce the heresy in the hierarchy and in the
official documents. That is why I think that the means
in our hands is prayer, mental prayer. We have to lead
the faithful to constant prayer begging for the preservation of the Faith in the Church. This does not mean

that we admit the Church could fail. This means that
the Faith within the Church can be so lessened that it
confirms the words of Scripture: when the Son of Man
comes, will He find Faith on all the earth?”33
This fight was very trying for Bishop de CastroMayer, who wrote: “In order to maintain the true doctrine and my authority despite the deaf opposition of
the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, I have to keep
up a very exhausting mental tension.”34 With time, he
became the target of an increasingly subversive and
hateful maneuver: “The circle to make me resign is
growing tighter.”35 […] “Parish priests who have resigned, civil court cases, slander in the newspapers,
and a series of persecutions that require a response
since it is always the Faith they are trying to distort.
All of this takes up all my time and the war goes on.
To sum up the present episode, the current technique
is attempting to discredit us in the eyes of the people,
while feigning a true desire for dialogue and reconciliation. They portray us as the stubborn, proud ones
who give in on nothing because we have a monopoly
over the truth. In this climate, they can declare everywhere that the Masses are valid and licit, and it is
not easy for us to convince the simple people of the
contrary. You can well imagine the obstacles we have
to deal with constantly.”36
Desertions added to their troubles: little by little
Bishop de Castro-Mayer and Archbishop Lefebvre
watched the ranks around them grow thinner and
thinner. The most resounding desertion, in 1969, was
that of Archbishop de Proença Sigaud (1909-1999),
Archbishop of Diamantina, Brazil, and secretary of
the Coetus during the Council. Archbishop Sigaud
took a stand against the Bishop of Campos in a press
conference, criticizing his book on the social doctrine
of the Church. Later, during the general assembly of
the archbishops and bishops of Brazil, he “warmly
promoted married priests; not yet the marriage of
priests, but the first step in that direction.” And his
former comrade-in-arms concluded sadly: “He has
received his reward: he has been applauded by the
left, even by Archbishop Helder Camara. Shortly
before, he encouraged a course at the seminary for
men and women, a preparation course for Eucharistic
ministers; that is what they call those who receive
the power to distribute Communion. Archbishop
Sigaud encouraged this course against the will of the
majority of his clergy!”37 The following year, Bishop
de Castro-Mayer told how Archbishop Sigaud

83

Theological Studies
“wrote up a whole decree to introduce the New Mass
in his diocese.”38 Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop de
Castro-Mayer found themselves alone very early on,
as early as the 1970’s, alone as they would be on the
historic day of June 30, 1988. The application of the
Council would be a long war of attrition, trying the
perseverance of the early fighters and their fidelity to
their initial positions.
These initial positions regarding both the Council
and the New Mass would hardly change. They found
their full expression in the Open Letter that the two
prelates addressed to Pope John Paul II on November
21, 1983. The facts show that this fight did not begin
in 1969 with the New Mass; it was simply the continuation of the fight begun by the Coetus Internationalis
Patrum during the Council. Archbishop Lefebvre and
Bishop de Castro-Mayer’s first care was to defend
the Faith of the faithful against the errors of the
Council by their acts as much, if not more than, by
1

2

3

84

Letter to Archbishop Lefebvre, May 21, 1968, kept in the Archives
of the Seminary of Ecône.
Archives of the Seminary of Ecône, filed under the reference E
05-01 in Archbishop Lefebvre’s office. All the letters we quote
here are taken from this file. We will abbreviate Archbishop
Lefebvre’s letters to Bishop de Castro-Mayer with an “L” and
Bishop de Castro-Mayer’s letters to Archbishop Lefebvre with a
“CM.”

their words. And their attitude was dictated by great
prudence: the positions they took up with regards to
the New Mass and the pope were formulated little by
little.
A Head of State who could have served his country
better, Charles de Gaulle, had at least the perspicacity to say that “clarity and firmness are always the supreme skills.” The great merit of Archbishop Lefebvre
and Bishop de Castro-Mayer was that they practiced
this supreme skill to the end, and in their case, it was
clearly the fruit of the Holy Ghost’s inspirations. Their
clarity and their firmness were a dike to keep out the
harmful consequences of Neo-modernism and made
themselves felt not only in the face of the errors but
also in the face of the craftsmen of these errors,
Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, the major craftsmen
of this “Conciliar Church.” Such is the example the
act of June 30, 1988, offers us.

19

CM, January 26, 1969.

20

L, February 2, 1969.

21

CM, December 12, 1968 ; January 26, 1969 ; February 2, 4 and 20,
1969 ; April 27, 1969 ; May 28, 1969 ; June 1, 1969.

22

CM, February 2 and 4, 1969.

23

CM, October 5, 1969.

24

CM, October 6, 1969.

25

CM, October 12, 1969.

26

CM, December 8, 1969.

27

CM, January 29, 1970.

28

CM, February 10, 1973.

29

Ibidem.

CM, May 21, 1968.

4

CM, February 27 and May 21, 1968; L, May 28, 1968.

5

CM, June 29, 1968 ; March 7, 1969.

6

CM, August 4, 1968 ; June 29, 1968 ; October 1, 1968.

7

CM, February 20, 1969.

8

CM, March 7, 1969.

9

CM, January 28, 1969.
30

10

L, Janaury 28, 1969 (Letter addressed to Archbishop Sigaud and
communicated to CM).

CM, January 29, 1970.

31

CM, September 7, 1970.

11

CM, February 20, 1969.

32

CM, February 10, 1973.

12

CM, March 7, 1969.

33

CM, October 5, 1983.

13

CM, October 1, 1968.

34

CM, October 5, 1969.

14

CM, October 1, 1968.

35

CM, February 3, 1972.

15

CM, January 26, 1969.

36

CM, October 5, 1983.

16

CM, January 26, 1969.

37

CM, October 5, 1969.

17

CM, December 12, 1968.

38

CM, January 29, 1970.

18

CM, January 26, 1969.

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The
Last
Word
Dear readers,
The sense of touch
Back in 1950, when TV was still in its early stages, a wise philosopher understood what a
new era was beginning and gave a prophetic warning: “Thanks to television, man will soon be
two huge eyeballs and a pin-point brain.” He continued:
“In other words, our culture seems to be altogether too visual. Why is it that an overemphasis on sight could possibly throw light on the character of our thought and indeed of our action?
A neglected sense of touch and a reduction of all sensation to that of sight as the only relevant
one would surely entail extraordinary consequences from an Aristotelian point of view, which
is, I believe, also that of common experience.
“Sight is indubitably the most objective sense in the order of representation—it is the sense
of clarity and distinction—but on the other hand, touch is the most basic of our senses, and it
is, besides, par excellence the sense of certitude. It is the sense of existence, of reality, of substance, of nature, of experience and of sympathy. It is because of this that our attitude towards
touch, towards the tangible, will have its counterpart in the quality of our religious thought and
sentiment, in our philosophy, in science, in the fine arts, and indeed in our whole life of action,
especially in politics” (Charles de Koninck).
Even Our Lord used the sense of touch, over that of sight, on the night of Easter, when He
appeared to the Apostles to prove the reality of His resurrection.
Parents, educators and doctors are most concerned today, and rightly so, to see the everpresent screen replacing reality. What a contrast between watching a game of baseball, and
playing baseball; watching a concert and playing an instrument, even reading a book on a tablet or holding a real book in one’s hands, and feeling, even smelling its pages…
When Archbishop Lefebvre urged a return to the land, it was to encourage this contact with
reality and with nature, which modern education lacks so much. We have gone from a 3D real
world to a 2D, mainly visual one, which, as Professor de Koninck wrote almost 70 years ago, is
now “moving in upon us with its undiscerning, but at the same time, all too tangible bulldozer.”

Fr. Daniel Couture

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