50 Years of the Society of Saint Pius X—United States & Canada SSPX Timeline Mixing Joys with Sorrows The SSPX Canadian District: “From Sea to Sea” November - December 2020 “I have been able to confirm with great satisfaction the extraordinary development of the groups of faithful Catholics both at the chapels of our priest-friends and in the Society. St. Mary’s College, the school of St. Louis, Missouri, the beautiful chapel and rectory of Phoenix, and, at the last moment, the acquisition of a big church in Kansas City, are reasons to hope for the continuation of the Church in the United States.”—Archbishop Lefebvre (circa 1980) Letter from the Publisher Dear Reader, The Angelus is putting in your hands a new issue to commemorate the golden jubilee of the Society of Saint Pius X. November 1, 1970 marked the birth of the SSPX and the last great work of its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. In an earlier issue of this year, we concentrated on the Archbishop’s legacy in Europe and his impact on Church history when his resolute stand for 2000 years of Church doctrine clashed with the revolutionary changes tolerated by Pope Paul VI. It is interesting to note that, presently, conservative circles outside of the traditional groups are singing the praises of this great man. It is thanks to him that, today, some priests still know what they were ordained for and can still celebrate the Mass of all times and not a Protestantized version of the Mass. In hindsight, we see how the firmness of one man in the face of the world, not unlike St. Athanasius, changed Church history or, at least, slowed down the process of auto-demolition denounced by Pope Paul VI himself. Long live the spirit of Archbishop Lefebvre among his devotees! In the present magazine, the focus is on North America and the imprint of the SSPX in the U.S. and Canadian districts. Besides a sketchy timeline of the US events, a few lay and clerical writers bring up some memorable stories of the saga of the men and women who have shaped the traditional world in the last 45 years or so of our country. Whether it be articles on St. Mary’s or Shawinigan or words from a former apostate to those of a Superior General, you’ll discover snippets of our little Society still standing in the midst of spiritual ruins. And, perhaps, what sounds at first astonishing but, ultimately, is quite clear is the “fixation,” the one cape which directed our founder. Archbishop Lefebvre throughout his long missionary life was guided by one leitmotif, one thing which drove his every action. He spoke of it only in the last years of his long life but it was deeply embedded in him: “Before the progressive degradation of the priestly ideal, I wanted to transmit in all of its doctrinal purity and in all of its missionary charity, the Catholic priesthood of Our Lord Jesus Christ to transmit the profound and unchanging spirit of the Catholic priesthood and of the Christian spirit essentially bound to the great prayer of Our Lord which His Sacrifice on the Cross expresses eternally. I was haunted by this conviction which nothing could shake, that to save and continue the Church, one had to train priests: holy priests and true priests.” Let us make his wishes repeatedly known to the Sovereign Pontiff to liberate the Mass and allow all faithful Catholic throughout the world to “make the experience of Tradition.” Fr. John Fullerton Publisher November - December 2020 Volume XLIII, Number 6 Publisher Fr. John Fullerton Editor-in-Chief Mr. James Vogel Managing Editor Fr. Dominique Bourmaud Assistant Editor Mr. Gabriel Sanchez Associate Editor Mr. Patrick Murtha Marketing Director Mr. Ben Bielinski Design and Layout credo.creatie (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) Mr. Simon Townshend Director of Operations Mr. Brent Klaske U.S. Foreign Countries Subscription Rates 1 year 2 years 3 years $45.00 $85.00 $120.00 $65.00 $125.00 $180.00 (inc. Canada and Mexico) All payments must be in U.S. funds only. Online subscriptions: $20.00/year. To subscribe visit: www.angelusonline.org. Register for free to access back issues 14 months and older. All subscribers to the print version of the magazine have full access to the online version. Contents — Letter from the Publisher 4 Theme: 50 Years—United States & Canada — SSPX Timeline — “Beacon on the Plain”: Saint Mary’s — Mixing Joys with Sorrows — An Apostate’s Journey Back — The SSPX Canadian District: “From Sea to Sea” — Bishop Fellay Speaks: For the Love of the Church 6 16 20 28 32 40 Spirituality — Meditation on St. John’s Gospel — The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: The Canon—Part One — The Spirit of the Society — The Good Shepherd of the 1970s in the United States 46 50 54 58 Christian Culture — The Icon of the Baptism of Our Lord — Can Anything Good Come from France? — How to Educate the Child to Order Their Belongings — Questions and Answers 62 66 72 74 “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. ©2020 BY ANGELUS PRESS. OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE PRIESTLY SOCIETY OF SAINT PIUS X FOR THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA Catechism — Complex Questions & Simple Answers — Who is the Problem: The SSPX or Rome? — The Last Word 78 82 87 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada SSPX Timeline From the Regina Coeli Report (July - August, 2014) of Sorrows Chapel in Baton Rouge, LA, and St. Jude’s Church in Eddystone, PA, near Philadelphia begin. 1970 Bishop Charrière approves the statutes, canonically establishing the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X. Gregory Post of California becomes the first American to be accepted for seminary training in the newly founded SSPX. 1971 1972 6 Archbishop Lefebvre visits the U.S. twice to gain seminarians and discuss setting up SSPX houses in the dioceses of Covington, KY, and Pittsburgh, PA. He accepts Fr. Bonfil Battazzo’s request to put the faithful of his Detroit, MI, area parish under the Society’s care. Newly ordained Fr. Clarence Kelly arrives in Long Island to start a chapel in a converted garage that would later (1983) become St. Michael’s Chapel, Farmingville, NY. Our Lady The Angelus November - December 2020 1973 SSPX establishes the U.S. seminary in Armada, MI, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel chapel, later St. Benedict’s, in Louisville, KY, is founded. 1974 The first U.S. District Headquarters is established under the leadership of Fr. Clarence Kelly in Oyster Bay, NY. Fr. Gregory Post establishes Our Mother of Perpetual Help Chapel in Campbell, CA, which later became St. Aloysius Gonzaga Retreat Center in Los Gatos, CA. 1975 Our Lady of Fatima Chapel begins in various locations near Dallas, TX. Queen of All Saints Mission in Springfield, MO, joins the Society. Fr. Hector Bolduc begins celebrating Mass for the newly formed St. Michael the Archangel Chapel in Kansas City, MO. St. Michael’s Church in Carmichael, CA, near Sacramento, is founded. 1976 First Mass is celebrated at Queen of Angels Church, Dickinson, TX, by Fr. Hector Bolduc. St. John Bosco Mission in San Diego and St. John Fisher Church in Tulsa also celebrated first Masses. 1977 Queen of Angels Church is dedicated by Archbishop Lefebvre. Corpus Christi Chapel, Edmonds, WA, is founded. St. Pius X Chapel, Cincinnati, OH, which would later become Our Lady of the Assumption in Walton, KY, is founded. Queen of Angels Academy in Dickinson, TX, opens its doors. 1978 Priestly ordinations in 1985 at Ridgefield, CT. Conception Mission in Virginia Beach, VA; Infant of Prague Mission in Bay City, MI; Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Mission in Corpus Christi, TX; Our Lady of Victory Church in Davie, FL; St. Lawrence Chapel near Hartford, CT; and Sts. Peter and Paul Mission in Rapid City, SD. Angelus Press is founded at Queen of Angels Church by Fr. Carl Pulvermacher, O.F.M. Cap., and the first issue of The Angelus is published. Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel, Phoenix, AZ, opens in a converted Lutheran church. Mission Stella Maris located in the former military chapel for Fort McArthur, CA, opens. St. Pius X Chapel, later St. Anne’s (1983), purchases a church building in Redford, MI. Fr. Hugh Wish celebrates the first Mass at St. Pius V Shrine, Mukwonago, WI, in the old St. James Church. First Masses are celebrated at Assumption Chapel in St. Mary’s, KS; Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in St. Paul, MN; St. Michael’s Chapel in Roswell, GA, and St. Thomas Chapel in Carson City, NV. 1981 The first Sisters of the Society of St. Pius X arrive in St. Mary’s, KS. Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel, Albuquerque, NM, joins the Society. The North American Martyrs Chapel in Hudson Falls, NY; Our Lady of Fatima Church in Portland, OR; and Our Lady of the Snows Chapel near Sioux Falls, SD, are founded. The U.S. District is divided into two sections: Southwest and Northeast. 1979 St. Mary’s Academy and College, St. Mary’s, KS, opens its doors. The U.S. seminary moves to Ridgefield, CT, and is named St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary. Our Lady of Fatima Chapel, Sanger, TX, finds a permanent location. Fr. Hector Bolduc purchases Jesus and Mary Priory in El Paso, TX, and Queen of the Holy Rosary Academy in St. Louis, MO. Immaculate Conception Church in Post Falls, ID; Mary Immaculate Church in Wichita, KS; Our Lady of Grace Church near New Orleans, LA; St. Cecilia’s Church in Memphis, TN, and St. Mary Magdalene Chapel in Mexico, MO, are founded. 1980 First Masses are celebrated at Holy Redeemer Church near Raleigh, NC; Immaculate Archbishop Lefebvre solemnly blesses St. Vincent de Paul Church, Kansas City, MO, which was purchased the year before. While touring the church, Archbishop Lefebvre proclaimed: “C’est magnifique, c’est une cathédrale!” 1982 St. Joseph and the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Colton, CA; Annunciation Chapel of Fort Collins, CO; Old St. Mary’s Church in Goldsboro, NC; and Our Lady Immaculate Church near Chicago; Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel near Boise, ID; St. Anthony of Padua Church near Charlotte, NC; St. Isidore Church near Denver, CO; and St. Michael the Archangel Church in Spring, TX, are founded. Immaculate Conception Church in Post Falls, ID, joins the Society following the retirement of Fr. Edouard DeBusschere. 7 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada 1983 Corpus Christi Chapel, Edmonds, WA, purchases a church and priory from Church of the Open Bible. Archbishop Lefebvre dedicates Old St. Mary’s, Goldsboro, NC. Queen of the Miraculous Medal Chapel near Little Rock, AR; St. Michael the Archangel Church in Farmingville, NY; St. Thomas Becket Church in Veneta, OR, and Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Albuquerque, NM, join the Society. The Southwest U.S. District Office moves to Queen of Angels Church, Dickinson, TX. Fr. Richard Williamson is temporarily Northeast District Superior when “The Nine” Anchorage, AK. Archbishop Lefebvre visits St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Ridgefield, CT. 1987 Our Lady of Perpetual Help, South Bend, IN, starts in a rented motel room. Fr. Carl Pulvermacher, O.F.M. Cap., blesses Our Lady of Fatima Church in Portland, OR. Jesus and Mary Academy in El Paso, TX, opens its doors. 1988 St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary moves to the newly acquired property in Winona, MN. Child Jesus Chapel in Pittston, PA; Immaculate Conception Chapel in Kalispell, MT; Our Lady Queen of Angels Chapel in Ft. Myers, FL; and St. Michael’s Mission in Erie, PA, are founded. St. Ignatius Retreat House opens in Ridgefield, CT. 1989 Bishop Williamson blesses Our Lady of Fatima Church, Sanger, TX. First Masses are said at Our Lady of Sorrows Chapel in Crookston, MN, and St. Therese’s Church in North Lawrence, NY. Frs. Paul Kimball, Timothy Pfeiffer, Paul Tague and John Young are the first priests to be ordained in Winona, MN. Fr. Carl Pulvermacher speaking with Archbishop Lefebvre 1990 are dismissed from the Society and then temporary District Superior of the unified U.S. District with offices in Dickinson. 1984 1985 Archbishop Lefebvre visits Armada, MI, and administers the sacrament of confirmation in St. Louis at what later became Our Lady’s Assumption parish. Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God Church in Syracuse, NY, which later became Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Warners, NY, and Corpus Christi Chapel near Nashville, TN, are founded. 1986 8 Two new chapels in North Dakota join the Society: Guardian Angels Mission and St. Michael’s Church. Fr. François Laisney is named District Superior and moves the U.S. District office to Queen of the Holy Rosary, in Webster Grove, MO. Our Lady of the Bitterroot Chapel in Victor, MT; St. Athanasius Church near Binghamton, NY; and St. Therese Chapel near Madison, WI, are founded. St. John Fisher Church in Fort Wayne, IN, joins the Society. The “Catholicism in Crisis” radio program begins its every Sunday afternoon broadcast in Honolulu, HI. St. Therese, Patron of Alaska Mission begins with 20 families in The Angelus November - December 2020 Fr. Peter Scott becomes U.S. District Superior. Construction of Our Lady of Sorrows Retreat House and Chapel begins in Phoenix, AZ. St. Joseph’s Academy, Richmond, MI, and St. Anne’s School in Livonia, MI, open. 1991 St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Cloud, MN; St. John Vianney Chapel in Long Prairie, MN; and St. Aloysius Gonzaga Retreat Center, Los Gatos, CA; Our Lady of Fatima Church near Pittsburgh, PA; Our Lady of Lourdes Mission in Honolulu, HI; St. Joseph Mission in St. Maries, ID; St. Peregrine Church near Cleveland, OH; and St. Peter Chanel Mission in Hilo (The Big Island), HI, are founded. Our Lady Queen of Angels, Fort Myers, FL, joins the Society. First pilgrimage to the North American Martyrs Shrine in Auriesville, NY, is organized. St. Vincent de Paul Academy, in Kansas City, MO, opens. Immaculate Conception Academy in Post Falls, ID, is founded. Holy Family Academy begins in Belle Plaine, MN. U.S. District Office moves to Kansas City, MO. The Brothers’ Novitiate begins in El Paso, TX. The first U.S. seminary in Armada, MI. The ordination of Fr. Gregory Post in 1972 at Our Lady of the Prairies Shrine in Powers Lake, ND. Archbishop Lefebvre on a visit to St. Marys, KS. St. Ignatius Retreat House in Ridgefield, CT. Archbishop Lefebvre celebrates Mass in Phoenix in 1983. Profession ceremony of the Sisters of the Society of St. Pius X. St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, MN. Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada 1992 St. Thomas More Chapel starts with the first Mass being celebrated by Fr. Paul Kimball at the Radisson Airport Hotel, Orlando, FL. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel in Clayton, TX; Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Chapel in Lake Worth, FL; and St. Margaret Mary Church near Grand Rapids, MI, are founded. St. Therese Academy in Nicholville, NY, opens its doors in a new school building. 1993 Our Lady of the Angels Academy in Arcadia, CA, opens its doors. Immaculate Heart of Mary in Oak Grove, MN, begins its first school year, and St. Michael’s School in Carmichael, CA, is founded. Angelus Press moves to Kansas City, MO. The first Regina Coeli Report is published by the District Office. 1998 First pilgrimage along the Santa Fe Trail to the Padilla Cross just outside of Lyons, KS, is held. 1999 St. Pius V Church, Mukwonago, WI, joins the Society. The first Starkenburg pilgrimage is organized by Fr. Kenneth Dean, then pastor of St. Vincent de Paul in Kansas City, MO. 2000 Immaculate Conception Church, Post Falls, ID, sponsors the first pilgrimage to the Cataldo Indian Mission of the Sacred Heart. Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God Academy is founded in Syracuse, NY. BVM later became Mater Dei Academy in Warners, NY In Kansas City, MO, Superior General Fr. Franz Schmidberger blesses Regina Coeli House, enthrones the Sacred Heart, and consecrates the U.S. District to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. St. Margaret Mary Chapel, Grand Rapids, MI, moves into new chapel building. The priory for Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Syracuse, NY, is completed. A first Mass is celebrated in the new St. Thomas Chapel, Hartford, CT. Blessing of St. Thomas Becket Church, Veneta, OR, by Bishop Williamson. A new chapel for Sacred Heart Novitiate, Browerville, MN, is blessed. St. Christopher’s Mission in New York City is founded. Holy Family Chapel in Belle Plaine, MN; Mission Santa Maria near Prescott, AZ; and St. Francis of Assisi Mission in Austin, TX, celebrate first Masses. St. Robert Bellarmine Academy in St. Cloud, MN, is founded. St. Pius X Academy in Cincinnati, OH, opens its doors. It will later become Assumption Academy in Walton, KY. 1994 Bishop Fellay is elected Superior General and blesses St. John Fisher Church in Fort Wayne, IN. Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Girard, OH, near Youngstown is founded. 1995 Our Lady of Sorrows Retreat House and Chapel are completed in time for the first Ignatian retreat hosted in November. 2001 St. Thomas Becket, Veneta, OR, becomes a priory. St. Botolph’s Mission in Boston, MA, and St. Francis Xavier Cabrini Mission in Salem, MA, start. Our Lady of Mount Carmel Chapel, Louisville, KY, joins the Society. Our Lady Help of Christians Academy is founded in Watkins, CO. St. John Vianney Academy in Long Prairie, MN, starts in the fall and Our Lady Immaculate Academy opens its doors in Oak Park, IL. The Archconfraternity of St. Stephen is introduced for the proper formation of altar servers. 1996 1997 10 St. Joseph Academy, a boarding school for boys, opens in Armada, MI. St. Padre Pio Academy opens in Ridgefield, CT. St. Isidore’s near Denver, CO, constructs a new church. St. Michael’s in Roswell, GA; Holy Redeemer Church, Wake Forest, NC; St. Anthony’s Church in Mt. Holly, NC, are blessed. Angelus Press moves to a newly constructed office/warehouse on property adjoining the District Office in Kansas City, MO. 2002 Fr. John Fullerton becomes District Superior. St. Theresa in Klamath Falls, OR, opens. St. Peregrine’s constructs a new school in Richfield, OH. Maria Stella Maris Mission in San Pedro, CA, and Our Lady of the Angels Church near Los Angeles join the Society. St. Mary’s College in St. Marys, KS, begins a traditional Catholic radio station: KSMK-LP at 98.3 FM. St. Louis, MO, parish purchases St. Mary’s Assumption, a formerly Catholic Ruthenian Rite church in downtown St. Louis. St. Isidore’s, Watkins, CO, sponsors the first pilgrimage to the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, CO. The Angelus November - December 2020 Old Regina Coeli House, Kansas City, MO [1991- 2007]. Notre Dame de La Salette Boys Academy. Jesus and Mary Church and Priory, El Paso, TX. St. Isidore’s in Watkins, CO. Lyons Pilgrimage, KS. Bishop Bernard Fellay. 11 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada 2003 2004 St. Theresa Mission, Klamath Falls, OR, moves to a new church. Our Lady of Victory Church, Las Vegas, NV, completes its rectory. St. Thomas More, Sanford, FL, breaks ground for a new church. has a new church and parish complex blessed. A second Rosary Crusade is requested for the withdrawal of the excommunications of 1988. 2009 Our Lady of Mount Carmel Chapel, Louisville, KY, purchases a new building which is blessed by Fr. Brendan Dardis as St. Benedict’s Church. First summer boys camp in Georgia held with 36 boys in attendance and led by Frs. Christopher Danel and Kenneth Novak. Catholic Cadets of America is founded by Fr. Jean de l’Estourbeillon, Immaculate Conception Church, Post Falls, ID. Our Lady of Sorrows Academy in Phoenix, AZ, opens its doors. 2005 St. Joseph’s Boys Academy of Richmond, MI, moves to Notre Dame de La Salette Boy’s Academy, in Olivet, IL. St. Benedict’s Academy in Louisville, KY, is founded. A third Rosary Crusade is announced for the intention of the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. More than 19 million rosaries are offered in the U.S. District. 2010 The Brothers’ Novitiate moves from El Paso, TX, to St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, MN. 2006 A Priests’ Training Program is inaugurated for priests who want to learn how to properly offer the Tridentine Mass and complete a traditional formation. First Mass is celebrated in the newly constructed Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Albuquerque, NM. First annual Angelus Press Conference is held, celebrating 40 years of the Society. St. Thomas Beckett Academy in Veneta, OR, is founded. 2011 Our Lady’s Assumption Church, Walton, KY, is consecrated by Bishop Fellay. The Shrine of St. Philomena in Miami, FL, and St. John Bosco Chapel in Geneva, NY, join the Society. 2012 A new chapel building is blessed at St. Theresa, Patroness of Alaska Mission, Anchorage, AK. 2.5 million rosaries are said in the U.S. for the grace to free the traditional Roman Mass, to promote the Social Reign of Christ the King and for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Christ the King Mission near Lexington, SC; St. Michael’s Church in Bethany, OK; St. Therese Church in Chico, CA, and St. Pius X Mission near Washington, D.C., join the Society. Bishop Fellay blesses the newly built Regina Coeli House in Platte City, MO. 2007 St. Thomas Beckett Church in Veneta, OR, adds a cemetery and enlarges its school. St. Joseph’s House constructed at the U.S. District Office to accommodate guests and add conference rooms. 2008 Fr. Arnaud Rostand becomes U.S. District Superior. Angelus Press business office moves to St. Marys, KS. St. Catherine of Siena, Woburn, MA, is formed by the merger of St. Botolph’s, Boston, and St. Frances Xavier Cabrini’s, Salem, MA. Queen of All Saints Church, Springfield, MO, 12 New priories are opened at St. Isidore Church, Watkins, CO; Our Lady of the Assumption, Walton, KY, and St. Thomas More Church in Sanford, FL. The Angelus November - December 2020 2013 The Society of Saint Pius X is consecrated to St. Joseph, Protector of the Universal Church. New priories are opened in Chicago, IL, and Nicholville, NY. St. Joseph’s Church of Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Phoenix, AZ. Our Lady’s Assumption, St. Louis, MO. Immaculate Conception Church, Post Falls, ID. St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Dillwyn, VA. 13 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada Greenwood, IN, and Our Lady of Fatima Chapel in Richmond, VA, become SSPX chapels while St. Anthony Mary Claret Mission begins in Miramar Beach, FL. Old St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona becomes Holy Angels’ Novitiate for SSPX Brothers. 2017 Construction of a new seminary begins in Dillwyn, VA. 2014 First ordinations ceremony at new seminary in Dillwyn, VA. A new Rosary Crusade is launched to implore special protection for the traditional apostolate, the return of Tradition within the Church and the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the consecration of Russia. Dominican Sisters open new girls’ school in Walton, KY. December 8th marked end of Our Lady of Fatima Pilgrim Virgin’s nation-wide journey. Final festivities were held in Walton, KY. A new church for Our Lady of Sorrows is constructed in Phoenix, AZ. The U.S. District publishes a free online Ordo. St. Philomena Mission in Bremer, IA, is blessed by Fr. Arnaud Rostand. SSPX takes over the apostolate in San Jose, CA. SSPX takes over the chapel in Jacksonville, Florida Acquisition and renovation of the Bank of Farley as the Child Jesus Office for the U.S. District to house the offices for the lay staff. First Eucharistic Congress is hosted at La Salette Boys Academy, Olivet, IL. Decision to build a new church in St. Mary’s, KS: start of the planning for the project 2018 Fr. Jürgen Wegner is assigned District Superior for the U.S. 2015 Convent for Benedictine nuns opens in Silver City, NM. 2019 Blessing of St. James Pittsburgh. Acquisition of a new property for the Armada, MI, church and school. Consecration of the new Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Phoenix, AZ, by Bishop Bernard Fellay. 2016 2020 COVID-19 happened: New Rosary Crusade and Continuous Masses for deliverance from the virus. Oklahoma City, OK, public Mass in reparation for a black mass. Angelus Press warehouse moves from Kansas City to a newly constructed facility in St. Marys, KS. Groundbreaking for new school in Albuquerque, NM. Sanford groundbreaking and blessing of construction site for expansion of the priory complex. Groundbreaking for new Immaculata Church in St. Marys, KS. New Rosary Crusade for the 100th anniversary of Fatima, from 8/15/16 to 8/22/2017. Blessing of new seminary in Dillwyn, VA. 14 Institution of yearly vocations retreats for men and women. Bells for Walton, KY, chapel blessed. Our Lady of Good Success Church, Dickinson, ND, is completed and holds its first Mass. St. Vincent de Paul Academy in Kansas City, MO, purchased a new school building and completes a renovation of the church interior. Building and property acquired for the Falls Church parish in Upper Marlboro, MD. Pilgrim Virgin statue of Our Lady of Fatima begins her journey to visit all of the chapels in the U.​S.​District (from mid 2015 till Dec. 2017). 40th anniversary celebration in Armada conducted by Fr. Pfluger. Acquisition of the new Armada property. SSPX takes over the chapel in Lacombe, LA. Rev. Fr. Davide Pagliarani is elected Superior General. Two Oblate Sisters arrive in the U.​S.​to aid in the work at San Jose, CA. Angelus Press acquires the Immaculata Bookstore in St. Marys, KS Priory of Dickinson, TX, celebrates its 25th anniversary. The Angelus November - December 2020 Fr. John Fullerton is named District Superior. New Rosary Crusade for the 2020 presidential elections. Procession with the US District’s Our Lady of Fatima Pilgrim Virgin statue at Mission Santa Maria, Prescott, AZ. A public Mass is celebrated in reparation for a black mass, Oklahoma City, OK. Annual Christ the King Procession, St. Marys, KS. Candlelit Midnight Mass at St. Vincent’s, Kansas City, MO 15 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada “Beacon on the Plain”: Saint Mary’s By Andrew J. Clarendon During the summer of 1967, in response to falling numbers of vocations, the Jesuits left Saint Mary’s, Kansas, abandoning the site they had established almost 119 years before. In turns, an Indian Mission, a boarding school for boys, and a seminary—the campus, carved out of the prairie year by year until it was a self-sustaining complex, then fell prey to the blistering summers and freezing winters. The buildings that had housed and educated thousands of boys and men and theologians were scarred by vandalism and neglect. In the middle of campus, the old Immaculata Chapel, in which some 1,000 ordinations took place, was empty, the sanctuary lamp extinguished. The history of the current Saint Mary’s is intertwined with the dark days that followed; the post-Conciliar period with the imposition of 16 The Angelus November - December 2020 the New Mass, a time when the Church seemed to change overnight, and when things sacred to our ancestors were largely rejected. As the young Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) was reaching out to nascent traditional Catholics in the United States, the faithful were already looking for places not only to take refuge but also to lay the foundations for renewal. In January 1978, Fr. Hector Bolduc, SSPX, based in Dickinson, Texas, began coming to Topeka to offer Mass in the home of the David Gayner family. Later, when they showed him the nearby Saint Mary’s campus, he predicted that the Society would acquire the property. That May, Archbishop Lefebvre, making the first of eight visits to Saint Mary’s, inspected the grounds, and especially admiring the Immaculata Chapel. He urged Fr. Bolduc to continue negotiations for the property, working and praying to find the means to turn Saint Mary’s into a center of traditional Catholicism. For the Archbishop, the chapel was a symbol and a hope, a hope that this work, here in the heartland, would launch a Catholic renaissance. The Resurrection of Saint Mary’s The resurrection of Saint Mary’s is a story that is familiar in many places, especially in the west. While the altars and furnishings of venerable churches were smashed and trashed to update the architecture to a new vision of prayer, other places were sold or left abandoned. For those who inherited these places, it was like the Dark Ages; they experienced how difficult it is to restore that which is easily destroyed. What is more, it is one thing to renovate a physical building; it is far more difficult to restore a parish, a teaching staff with a reliable curriculum, or a seminary that forms holy and learned priests. The battle of restoration in Saint Mary’s has been unceasing since the campus was formally acquired on June 23, 1978, the Vigil of St. John the Baptist. The material aspect reflects the immaterial: to revive and rebuild, to take up what has been cast away, to pass on what has been received. With only a handful of volunteers, work on the physical campus began during the hot Kansas summer. As with the original mission in the mid1800s, the primary goal was to establish a chapel and then a school. Only now, instead of building from scratch, there was the immense task of cleaning and repairing the buildings, the oldest of which being over 100 years old. Catholics from other parts of Kansas and Missouri devoted their weekends; some of these early volunteers moved to Saint Mary’s permanently and became the earliest parishioners. Other families, confident that Saint Mary’s would feature a traditional Catholic school in addition to a chapel, began moving into the town and surrounding areas. On September 8, 1979, the Academy officially opened, offering grades K-10, with grades 11 and 12 added over the next two years. Recalling that the old SMC had covered both the high school 17 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada May 31, 2020, the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Immaculata took place. This new church will be the largest in Kansas and the largest SSPX church in the world, a monumental material manifestation of the spirit of traditional Catholicism. The Experiment of Tradition Continues and college years, the new SMC was opened on August 31, 1981. Catholic families and schools, in the words of Bishop Tissier de Mallerais, “offer to God the raw material for solid religious and priestly vocations,” vocations that Saint Mary’s and the wider District have been blessed with over the years. With an initial foundation in place, a tragedy familiar from the early years of Saint Mary’s struck: on November 8, 1978, a spark from an electrical short started a fire in the wall of the choir loft of the nearly restored Immaculata. The fire gutted the building, leaving only stone walls that later succumbed to the strong Kansas winds. While Archbishop Lefebvre noted that “the fire was a true catastrophe, a stroke of the devil,” the SSPX Superior General, Fr. Franz Schmidberger, encouraged perseverance, saying, “The physical rebuilding of the Immaculata will be the outward sign of the spiritual rebuilding in our own hearts.” In the meantime, the old seminary refectory was turned into a chapel where, year by year, the sacraments were administered to growing numbers of faithful. Over the past 40 years, Saint Mary’s has grown so large that rebuilding a chapel that seated 500 for a parish of now 4,000 does not make sense. On the Feast of Pentecost, 18 The Angelus November - December 2020 In the U.S. District, Saint Mary’s may be the largest sign, but is by no means the only sign, that what Archbishop Lefebvre called “the experiment of tradition,” has yielded fruit. Often accused of a backward isolationism by the world, Saint Mary’s is more a place of ideals than anything else. While there is a certain withdrawal from the corrosive effects of today’s culture (families being drawn to an authentically Catholic community with a vibrant parish and school), Saint Mary’s also requires engagement with the surrounding area: from growing businesses and cultural events to grand parish events during the year (a candle-lit Rosary procession, another large procession for the Feast of Christ the King, all of the Holy Week ceremonies, and other observances through the liturgical year). Now, well into the second generation of the post-Conciliar era, it has often been observed that traditional Catholicism is a youth movement. Particularly for those who visit Saint Mary’s, one of the more remarkable features is the many children. As far back as 1979, during one of his sermons preached at the campus, Archbishop Lefebvre said, “I congratulate you with all my heart to see that you have so many children. We observe that half of the assembly here is composed of persons less than twenty years old. This is a sign, a sign of your fidelity to the Catholic Church, a sign of your fidelity to the commandments of God. I congratulate you, and I am sure that God’s blessings are upon you.” With over 100 baptisms a year and nearly 900 students enrolled in the Academy, Saint Mary’s continues to grow as a living contradiction to the culture of death. Now, 50 years after the founding of the Society, which takes as its mission the motto of Pope Saint Pius X “to restore all things in Christ,” the heroic stand taken by traditional Catholic pioneers like Archbishop Lefebvre continues to bear fruit. As the long lines for Confession attest, Saint Mary’s is far from a utopia; as Eliot sings, we are those “Who are only undefeated / Because we have gone on trying.” We have, even in 2020, by the grace of God, the sacraments, the grace that sustained our ancestors in the Faith. In Saint Mary’s the swish of cassocks is still heard, and sisters in full habit are still seen walking to teach catechism. The old ways that the modernists thought to be finally buried have been preserved and are being passed on. In this way, Saint Mary’s is, as some of the words from our school hymn proclaim: the beacon on the plain, . . . Ennobled and by truth remade, Forever hopeful we remain: Assisted by our Mother’s aid Celestial joys at last to gain— Full of gratitude to Our Lord and Our Lady, Who have not abandoned us, their devoted servants, we celebrate this anniversary of the SSPX and pray ad multos annos. 19 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada Mixing Joys with Sorrows By Fr. Dominique Bourmaud, SSPX In response to the turmoil which upset the Catholic landscape after the Vatican II Council, Archbishop Lefebvre officially founded in 1970 the Society of Saint Pius X in Fribourg, Switzerland. As soon as the Society’s work was consolidated in France and Europe, he envisioned extending the benefits of tradition to other continents. The first to draw his attention was North America, particularly the United States and Canada. The Archbishop, as a Holy Ghost Father and, later on, as the order’s superior, had been familiar with both. Canada had sent many religious brothers and nuns to run hospitals and schools of Senegal. The United States had a prominent presence of Holy Ghost communities which the Superior had to visit regularly. Added to these, Lady Kinnoull from Carmel in California had offered him large funds 20 The Angelus November - December 2020 “to fight against the subversion in the Church. Her help provided much of the needs for the first years of the Society’s foundation. The First Seminary and Hardships The first seminary was created in Armada, MI, as early as 1974, with Fr. Anthony Ward as its rector. But soon, he butted heads with the headstrong Frs. Kelly, Sanborn, and Dolan. The Archbishop, grieved by the situation, thought it wise to take the side of the three priests, although he had been warned of their harsh tendency by Fr. Urban Snyder, a great priest and Cistercian monk from Gethsemani, KY, who taught at Écône from 1972 to 1976. The future would prove Fr. Snyder right, but the situation was delicate at the time. Also, the seminarians who had studied philosophy at Armada continued their theological training at Écône in 1978 with us. By 1979, Fr. Sanborn was put in charge of the American seminary and relocated to Ridgefield, CT, near New York City. Forty years later, it is difficult for us to visualize the difficulties which these pioneer priests met as they put the hand at the plough. These were the “heroic” years when the few SSPX priests from the District would gather faithful in hotel rooms and, little by little, establish churches for the Mass of all times. In Canada, Fr. Hector Bolduc with Archbishop Lefebvre in 1981 at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Kansas City, MO. Fr. Normandin, an SSPX friend, was running the width of the country each month in the back of a Greyhound bus to administer to souls. In the U.S. also, priests were spreading themselves very thin in a time when they were few and sparse but the demands for the traditional Mass were coming from all corners. In 1978, Fr. Bolduc acquired the Jesuit College of Saint Mary’s, KS, which was graced by the Archbishop’s visit the next August 15 for the Marian Pilgrimage. He himself congratulated the workers in the field, giving them his blessing: “It was a magnificent success. More than 2,000 people came from everywhere. I wish that this place become a great sanctuary for all America, and a center of devotion and prayers towards the Blessed Virgin, who alone is capable of stopping the moral corruption which does not cease to grow in this immense country.” A Prudent Division Very much aware of the tensions between the older priests, the Archbishop wisely divided the U.S. District into two: the North East District under Fr. Clarence Kelly, centered in Oyster Bay Cove near New York City, and the South West District under Fr. Bolduc, centered in Dickinson near Houston, TX. Each district had its own zone Seminarians outside St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, Ridgefield, CT [1986]. of apostolate and each ran its own magazine: Fr. Kelly had The Roman Catholic and Fr. Bolduc edited The Angelus magazine, which was printed by a Franciscan friend Fr. Pulvermacher. Fr. Bolduc also created Angelus Press whose first book was by the English writer and apologist Michael Davies. The North East District paced its apostolate according to its manpower. It also took advantage of the seminary staff for Sunday mission runs. Working on a more extended area, Fr. Bolduc had too few priests and was working around the clock with most “priories” manned by one lone priest. And so he took the bold decision to get outside help by bringing in priests from India who were familiar with the traditional Mass, a move that was criticized by the 21 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada Archbishop as soon as he heard of this strange initiative. As soon as he could spare a few new priests, our founder sent some solid reinforcements to the seminary as well as the districts. Fr. Richard Williamson was sent to second Fr. Sanborn, and Fr. De la Tour to take care of St. Mary’s Academy and College. A Rupture Within the District These reinforcements arrived just in time because the smoldering embers were ready St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, MN. to flare up again. Early in 1983, things came to a head in the North East district when the Archbishop came to ordain two priests. One of them refused his first assignment to the South West District, under the pretext that the district was using the 1962 Missal and Breviary which, in his mind, were not Catholic. The final act took place in Oyster Bay Cove a few days later. The Archbishop was asked to accept conditions which would make the American priests virtually independent from his authority. Following his surprise and square refusal, the North American priests told him that all of the 13 properties purchased for the SSPX were still under their name and the Archbishop and his Society would lose everything in the 22 The Angelus November - December 2020 North East District, including Ridgefield. The Ridgefield seminary, in these tense months, was virtually under siege and had to be protected with seminarians turned into sentinels with baseball bats stationed at strategic points. I recall an occasion when Fr. Kelly and some men came to take control of an unfinished floor, which was to be the foundation of the future seminary rooms of Ridgefield. Fr. Williamson came out to let him know he was not welcome here, and as he turned his heels, Fr. Kelly mumbled to his friends, “Anyone have a gun?” Things were rather strained between the two groups (the SSPX and the newly formed Society Christ the King Franciscan Convent, Kansas City, MO. of Saint Pius V), and it would take three years before they settled the property issues. An old friend of the Society and of the Archbishop, New Yorker Al Skidmore, deserves mention here in the lawsuit which vindicated the Archbishop. Such were the circumstances of the split of “The Nine,” the catch name given by Fr. Williamson in a memorable letter from Ridgefield. To make things worse, the following year three of the four priests ordained defected from the SSPX in favor of the nine priests just weeks after their ordinations. That is when Fr. Schmidberger, newly elected superior, said that he was about to throw in the towel on America. And, thank God, he did not because the following years saw a resurgence of the work of tradition, faithful to the French Archbishop, headed by Fr. Laisney at the District and Fr. Williamson at the seminary and, later on, Fr. Angles at St. Mary’s, KS. The Growth of Tradition in America Fr. Laisney, from 1984 till 1990, spent himself with his zeal and endless energy across the country to build up the District, now reunited after the unfortunate defection of Fr. Bolduc from the Society. Fr. Laisney was an indefatigable writer for Angelus Press and The Angelus St. Vincent de Paul, Kansas City, MO. 1988 from the cramped quarters at Ridgefield (the U.S. seminary for nine years) to ample Winona was the obvious sign of a spiritual revival of tradition in line with the spirit of Archbishop Lefebvre. That was the year of the episcopal consecrations, and a newly consecrated rector, Bishop Williamson, settled in a building worthy of a bishop. Meanwhile, Ridgefield became a retreat center for much of the Midwest and the East Coast. Our Lady of Guadalupe Benedictine Monastery, Silver City, NM. magazine, and corrected the harsh position of The Nine, including their sedevacantist tendency. Not only did he consolidate the undisturbed parishes of the South, he also made sure to protect his priests from over-activism and isolationism. He proudly gave the result of his achievements: the number of priests and faithful almost doubled in six years. A distinctive sign that the tables had turned was the purchase of the former Dominican novitiate outside of Winona, MN, in 1987. The campaign for funds had been very successful, and, within two years of the purchase, much of the mortgage had been cleared, as well as the much needed repairs which were headed by Long Islander Pete Sardegna and his sons. The move in Years of Growth By comparison with the troubled decade of the 1980s which finally saw the work of tradition being placed on a solid foundation, the 1990s were years of extraordinary growth under the leadership of Fr. Peter Scott (1990-2002). Shouldered by strong support from the seminary and St. Mary’s, seconded by a united clergy, he launched into a veritable real estate enterprise, buying magnificent churches in rundown cities in the hope of reviving them in Cincinnati, in St. Louis, in Kansas City (the District House, as well as the Franciscan convent), in Chicago, and in Atlanta. The U.S. seminary provided newly ordained priests who would be sent all over 23 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada the world to all continents with a real missionary spirit. There was also a resurgence of religious life with various congregations invited to the country. The traditional Carmelites had made a foundation in Phoenixville, PA, near Philadelphia, and soon relocated to Spokane, WA. Close to the Carmelites, the teaching Dominican sisters of Fanjeaux, France, built a graceful complex to run the Post Falls girls’ school in Idaho. The SSPX Sisters purchased an old hospital building to turn it into a novitiate in Browerville, MN. The Franciscan Sisters founded earlier on by Fr. Heidt, came from Oregon to set up their Starkenburg Pilgrimage. community in the magnificent Benedictine convent of the Perpetual Adoration in Kansas City, and Fr. Cyprian started building his monastery in Silver City, NM. During Fr. Scott’s 12-year tenure, the Society extended its apostolate to pilgrimages (the most popular among them were Starkenburg in MO; Lyons, KS; Cataldo, ID; Auriesville, NY; and Chartres pilgrimage in France). Not least of these was the “pilgrimage” to Winona for ordinations, which became the yearly meeting of tradition where thousand of faithful from all over the country enjoyed meeting like-minded souls and build companionships. The two decades beginning the new millennium may be called the time of 24 The Angelus November - December 2020 consolidation and centralization. Fr. John Fullerton, District Superior from 2002 to 2008, used his talents to build the District House in Farley, MO, near Kansas City. He also purchased La Salette in Georgetown, IL, which was to become the first boys only boarding school of the Society and a greenhouse for vocations. Fr. Rostand headed the District for the next six years and centralized the District activities, directing his attention to thinkers and intellectuals: he expanded communications with a redesigned website and new branding in tandem with Fr. Jürgen Wegner of the Canadian District; produced videos promoting tradition; The new District House in Platte City, MO. and launched the Angelus Press Conference in 2010, a highly successful event which reconvened with a different yearly theme. These were crucial years, especially in response to the infamous “Resistance” movement which rejected the authority of Bishop Bernard Fellay on the pretense that he was going to sign an “agreement” with Rome, thereby betraying the SSPX into the hands of neo-Modernism. The Work Continues Fr. Jürgen Wegner came to the U.S. District in 2014 and headed a united and peaceful front. With German dedication and precision, he proceeded to further organize things. He directed a strong administration by extending the accounting department which oversaw over 100 chapels. He set up the “Plan to Protect” commission for the protection of minors, along with much work on expanding the Society branding all over the traditional Catholic world. He travelled extensively through the country to meet over 60 bishops so as to obtain the official recognition of marriages performed by SSPX clergy. He also, with the cooperation of Fr. Rutledge and Br. Marcel, oversaw the plans for Mary’s new Immaculata church, presently under COVID-19 may just be one such challenge that needs to be overcome. Without a doubt, the real challenges will be spiritual. More than ever, souls and especially our faithful need to be reminded of the legacy left them by Archbishop Lefebvre: the Mass of all times, the integral catechism, the unveiling of the inner poison of some key Vatican II teachings. Along with this, his priests and elite members will have to deal with a new enemy: ignorance and sloth. We are far removed from the founders and fighters of the first hour who upheld the banner of tradition against the progressive agenda. Two generations later, there is a sense of Angelus Press Annual Conference. construction. It was during his tenure that Fr. Yves le Roux, who had been in charge of the Winona seminary since 2005, succeeded in building and moving the seminary to Dillwyn in 2015, in order to accommodate the numerous vocations knocking at his door. No doubt, the saga of the 46 years of SSPX presence in the U.S. has been a mixed bag of joy and sorrow—Miscens gaudia fletibus—to borrow the words of the Vespers hymn of St. Joseph. True, the forecast of tradition looks optimistic. It may seem as if things are in perfect order for the stability and extension of Tradition now that Fr. Fullerton is again taking the reins of the U.S. District. No doubt, reality will not be as smooth and easy going as planned and comfort and the natural inertia saying “go with the flow” and “do not make waves.” Forty years ago, we used to say: “They have the churches, we have the faith,” but perhaps we need to wake up now that we have our beautiful temples, lest we lose the faith in our spiritual slumber. 25 “O Priest! You are not of yourself because you are of God. You are not of yourself because you are the servant and minister of Christ. You are not your own because you are the spouse of the Church. You are not yourself because you are the mediator between God and man.”—St. Norbert Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada An Apostate’s Journey Back By John A. McFarland I apostasized on December 8, 1965, the day before the final session of Vatican II. I sometimes sardonically describe myself as the first fruits of Vatican II. Returning to the church in 1972, I made a general confession, and thereafter was a progressively more conservative Novus Ordo Catholic. I became a cooperator (a sort of fellow traveler) of Opus Dei in 1978 and remained one with varying degrees of participation and enthusiasm in three states for more than 20 years. Left with Confusion That Rome never cracked the whip on the obvious heterodoxy that was undermining 28 The Angelus November - December 2020 the Church puzzled me. In fact, I was already perplexed soon after my apostasy. In the late 1960s I was at an academic conference that included a Mass in which non-Catholics received Communion. When I expressed surprise, another attendee, who was a young Holy Cross priest, said that the Eucharist was a sacrament of acceptance. Even in those days I knew that this was nonsense. After my 1972 general confession and absolution, my confessor told me that since I’d been away from the Church since Vatican II, I would do well to study up on the developments in the Church. By that time, I knew a good deal about those developments, and was amused in a grim sort of way. The puzzlement continued for years. One of my Opus Dei spiritual directors in the 1990s was quite scandalized by John Paul II’s Ut unum sint. I was quite scandalized by Cardinal Bernardin’s autobiography, which had nothing Catholic about it, and by a homosexual men’s chorus’s involvement in his funeral. In the first few years of this century, another Opus Dei spiritual director told me better than 90% of what has come out to a wider audience about Theodore McCarrick, including that a dossier had been sent to Rome to try to prevent his becoming Archbishop of Washington. My director said that the response from Rome was that it was too late. The same spiritual director solved my puzzlement by accident. After confession and direction one evening, we got to talking about Pope John Paul’s position on capital punishment in his Evangelium Vitae encyclical, and my director made reference to “Iota Unum.” I knew what the Latin meant, but had no idea what he was referring to. At our next meeting he gave me some copies of some book pages that discussed the capital punishment issue. Its left-hand pages were headed Iota Unum. Afterwards I went online and ordered the book. Its publisher was called Sarto House. The connection with St. Pius X was obvious, and I also vaguely recalled seeing a newspaper attack article years before that mentioned Archbishop Lefebvre and the alleged awful racist things he’d done in Africa. (I don’t recall the SSPX was mentioned in the article; it may have preceded the Society’s foundation.) Rome Disobeys Tradition I didn’t go more than 50-75 pages into Iota Unum before I recognized the crucial fact: the Church’s terrible problems did not stem primarily from Rome’s being disobeyed. They stemmed from Rome’s being followed in its failure to oppose and its supporting the modernist offensive during and after the Council. I then started to dig out more information, and, as a sometime philosophy teacher and then lawyer, I was able to become a fairly knowledgeable amateur student of Vatican II and its aftermath. I soon concluded that the SSPX provided the gold standard of analysis of Vatican II’s origins and effect on the Church, based on a far fuller explanation of the Church and its traditional doctrines than anything I had seen before. I started with Bishop Williamson’s weekly pieces, but ultimately drifted away because of the superiority of the works of Archbishop Lefebvre, other priests of the Society, and the Angelus magazine. At the same time, I looked for the best place to assist at the traditional Mass, since the nearest Society chapel was a hundred miles away. I finally decided upon St. Athanasius in Northern Virginia because its pastor was then an SSPX ally, though not without differences. My Family’s Embrace of Tradition Our family became St. Athanasius faithful. My college-student son Mark started reading my SSPX and other traditionalist books. In 2006 he entered the SSPX seminary and was ordained 29 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada in 2012. Fr. McFarland’s ordination overlapped with the birth of the Resistance. He was home on vacation when I came home from Holy Name Sunday Mass and discovered online its foundational document, whose signatories included the pastor of St. Athanasius. When I told Father, he said “Well, you can’t go back there.” From then on, we helped establish a twice a month mission in Washington, D.C., and drove one hundred miles to Pennsylvania to attend Mass in Pennsylvania until we moved to St. Marys, KS. I also got involved in online polemics with the Resistance. Eventually either I was excluded from their sites, or I largely gave up because they were unable or unwilling to say anything of substance in support of their contentions or refutation of mine. In the case of the Resistance, they also were often scandalously lacking in charity towards me and each other. I also had a few exchanges with Bishop Williamson. He was quite polite, but not interested in anything of substance either. Most of those who consider themselves traditional Catholics and attack the SSPX refer to themselves as the Resistance. From the time that I first learned about them, it was obvious that they had no proof and that their thinking was incoherent. Even Bishop Williamson, who must have a great deal of SSPX internal information from before his break with the Society, has never offered testimony for any of the charges against Bishop Fellay circulating in the Resistance. In regards to thinking, in 2012 Bishop Williamson condemned what he styled the SSPX’s wishing to put itself under the authority of the pope. But if Bishop Williamson does not accept the authority of the pope, then His Excellency and those of his followers who agree with him look to be schismatics. 30 The Angelus November - December 2020 O God, Who in Thy kindness gave blessed Anne the grace to be the mother of her who mothered Thine only-begotten Son, graciously grant that we who keep her feast may be helped by her intercession with Thee. Virgin and Child with St. Anne (c. 1500). Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada The SSPX Canadian District: “From Sea to Sea” By Fr. Jacques Emily and Fr. Daniel Couture “Your story is an epic.” These words of the French-Canadian National anthem have a wonderful application with the history of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) in Canada. It is an epic in the true sense of the word in this country so vast, so diverse and once so Catholic, redeemed by the blood of valiant martyrs. It is a story where many trails providentially cross, like a delicate lace, some of them going back to the 1950s, some connected to a pilgrim statue blessed by a pope, all of them filled with beautiful graces. The Origins of the Canadian District This epic of the SSPX in Canada begins long before the Second Vatican Council, when 32 The Angelus November - December 2020 Archbishop Lefebvre, then archbishop of Dakar, came to Canada seeking missionary vocations for his archdiocese. It was in May 1955. The Archbishop visited several religious communities, amongst which the house for the African Mission Society of Lyons, based in Shawinigan (near Three-Rivers) in Quebec. Twenty-two years later, on March 19, 1977, this same property was bought by the Society and was to become St. Pius X Priory, the first bastion of the Society in Canada. Here are a few extracts of our founder’s speech to these Religious, back in the 1950s. We can hear the same anxiety for the salvation of souls which lead him to found our Society. “This is the purpose of my visit to Canada: to ask for your help in the immense work of evangelizing black Africa. The future of Catholicism in Africa will be played out in the quarter century to come, an immense harvest awaits the Divine Message. Will there be sufficient workers to convert them all? We need many of them and right away!” In 1971 the Archbishop returned to Canada at the invitation of Mr. Louis Even, founder of the Pilgrims of St. Michael (also known as the White Berets). He noticed, with much regret, how greatly things had changed since his last visit in 1955. Subsequent to the famous “Quiet Revolution” of the 1960s (which was essentially the destruction of Catholic schools), all the great values of Faith, Christian families and vocations which had so motivated him during his earlier visit to Canada, had collapsed. Unfortunately, on this occasion Mr. Evan, choosing the path of legality to the path of the preservation of the Faith with the Traditional Mass, parted ways with the Archbishop. In 1972, sensing that something could be done in French Canada, the Archbishop sent a small group of half a dozen Swiss faithful with Fr. Pierre Epiney, then the parish priest of Riddes, (the village in which the seminary of Écône was). The main contacts were made in Montreal, Quebec City and Sherbrooke. Some of these faithful had been reading the French magazine Itinéraires, thus already knew of the Archbishop, of the newly founded SSPX, and of the various battlefronts of the crisis in the Church. In French Canada, between February 1973 and December 1975, when the New Mass was rapidly overthrowing the Old Mass in all the parishes and convents of La Belle Province, Providence used two laymen and a team of old priests to alert French Canadians on the need to hold on to Tradition. About 30 times in less than three years, “Triduums of Prayers” were held monthly all over the province, in whatever parishes and convents that could still be found. It always Archbishop Lefebvre at the ordination of Fr. Dominique de Vriendt in Montreal, Nov. 9, 1985. The very first ever SSPX retreat in August 1977 in Shawinigan with Rev. Fr. Barrielle. Fr. Yves Normandin with Fr. Jean De l’Estourbillon. N.B. Fr. Normandin is still alive, he is 95. 33 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada started with the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament on Friday night at 6 pm, then the Rosary was said almost continuously, day and night, until Sunday afternoon; the old priests—a Jesuit, a veteran missionary with the Eskimos, a hospital chaplain—offering the traditional Mass and preaching solid doctrine. The seeds of our main Mass centers thus were planted. Our Lady’s Intervention At the same time, and for a few more years afterwards, a pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima, blessed by Pope Paul VI particularly for Canada, started to circulate from coast to coast. Our Lady was establishing a network of prayer groups many of which would later become our present-day SSPX Mass centers. Early in 1975, the Swiss group came a second time, scouting on behalf of the Archbishop. In November, the Archbishop himself came to support the battle of the early pioneers for Tradition in the country. He did this with a series of conferences. During this visit, he celebrated a Sunday Mass in the parish of Saint-Yvette, the Italian parish of Montreal, where the pastor was Fr. Yves Normandin. Fr. Normandin had returned to the Mass of his ordination a few months earlier. The consequences were seen rapidly. In January 1976, in the deep cold of January, Fr. Normandin was deprived of his post and expelled from his parish by the Archbishop of Montreal. What was his crime? Quite simply his fidelity to the Mass of all time. The detailed story of this heroic priest—still fighting at 95 years old as this text is being written—can be found in the book A Pastor Out in the Cold. God, who always draws good out of evil, then gave him the whole of Canada as a parish! Thanks to all the publicity around his expulsion, Fr. Normandin received invitations from some faithful across the country who understood that the battle was truly around and for the Traditional Latin Mass. Many of these faithful were associated with the Fatima groups, and thus, in a very short time, the parish priest of St. Yvette was doing a regular pastoral run, from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island (4,200 miles) 34 The Angelus November - December 2020 and back, every month, by bus, train, car, or plane. The faithful had to be ready to receive the priest at anytime, day or night, if they wanted to receive the sacraments. These were truly heroic days. Two of our priests are the fruits of such sacrifices, Frs. Violette and Lemieux. Later, in 1984, with the arrival of Fr. Emily as the district Superior, Fr. Normandin, having returned to Montreal, handed over his trail of Mass centers to the Society. That is the origin of most of our Mass centers in Canada. Deo gratias! The Archbishop made several more visits to Canada: in 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1982 and 1985. On each occasion he experienced the sadness of noticing more and more the ravages of the crisis in the Church in this country once so Catholic. However, our founder was also edified by the zeal of those who kept up the good fight: on the one hand, independent priests who were the pioneers of Tradition in the country; and on the other, our Society colleagues who carried on their work. St. Pius X Priory in Shawinigan Taking advantage of the encouragement given by the Archbishop’s visits, a group of lay people purchased a house which would serve as a spear head for the Society of Saint Pius X in Canada. This house was to act as a focal point for faithful priests who had been working with the traditional faithful of Quebec. On March 19, 1977, the former Novitiate house of the African Mission Society at Shawinigan, was purchased in the name of the Society. In the summer of 1977, Fr. Ludovic-Marie Barrielle (+1983) came to Shawinigan to preach the first Ignatian retreats. He had been the intimate companion of Fr. François de Paule Vallet (+1947), who had compressed the Thirty Day retreat of St. Ignatius into the Five Days retreat. This was to become a main apostolic tool for the Society in the coming years, to this very day. In October 1977 Shawinigan welcomed its first prior, Fr. Edmond Samson. Then on November 8 of the same year, Archbishop Lefebvre came to bless the first Society priory on Canadian soil. In his sermon, our founder recalled the Four Canadian priests in Winnipeg: (l to r) Richard Vachon, Dominique Boulet, Jean Violette (District Superior 2000-06), Jules Belisle. 1998. Archbishop Lefebvre with Fr. Jacques Emily (District Superior 1984-2000) and Fr. Paul Greuter. Ordination to the priesthood of Fr. Joseph Stannus and to the diaconate of his brother Marcel, in Zaitzkofen, in 2015. They are seen on the right of the photo, with Bishop Fellay. Graduation in Massena, NY, 2019: three Canadian Dominican sisters and all Canadian graduates and post-graduates. Holy Family School, Levis, Quebec. Pilgrimage to the Canadian Martyrs, in Midland, Ontario. Mrs. Rose Hu, author of Joy in Suffering (Angelus Press), on a visit to Canada. 35 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada providential circumstances that permitted the acquisition of this house for the Society. In those early years, the priory of Shawinigan was truly a center of attraction for Tradition in Quebec. We had too few priests for them to cover the whole province, so they organized the famous “Saturdays at the Priory,” a kind of day of recollection to which the faithful would come from all over Quebec, to strengthen their faith and rekindle their devotion. In July 1978 the first Solemn Mass of Fr. Diamond was celebrated, first Canadian priest of the Society, ordained on June 29 of that year. In the summer of 1978, Fr. Le Boulch, OSB (+1987), teacher in Écône, visited Shawinigan to preach retreats. 1984 saw the ordination of Frs. Daniel Couture, Andre Lemieux and Jean Violette, which gave the opportunity for a series of First Solemn High Masses at Shawinigan and Winnipeg. On August 15, 1985, the autonomous house of Shawinigan was given the status of District Headquarters, Fr. Emily being made the first District Superior. In November, Fr. Dominique de Vriendt was ordained by the Archbishop in our newly purchased church in Montreal. 36 The Angelus November - December 2020 Winnipeg and the West In 1980, a house and a small chapel had been bought in Winnipeg, Manitoba, by a lay association, The Society of Saint Pius X, Inc., to serve as a center for Fr. Normandin. In the autumn of 1984, when Fr. Normandin went back to Montreal, the faithful asked the help of the SSPX. Consequently, in January 1985, Fr. Jean Violette took up residence in Winnipeg, and the former home of Fr. Normandin, became St. Raphael’s Priory. That priory of Winnipeg was in charge of the apostolate all the way to the Pacific Ocean: two priests for half of Canada. From Winnipeg, in 1992 Fr. Violette founded the priory in Calgary, and not long afterwards, another veteran priest, Fr. Greuter, who had started an old people’s home on the west side of the Rockies, in Vernon, British Columbia, handed over his properties to the SSPX in early 2000. This priory in Vernon, later moved to Langley, a south-east suburb of Vancouver and became our base for the apostolate in British Columbia. The Priory and Holy Family School, Levis, Quebec This priory was opened in 1989, by Fr. Emily, in response to an agonizing appeal on the part of numerous families in Quebec, seeking a Catholic school for their children. After different projects involving the restructuring of the priory, Divine Providence sent us the magnificent building which was the former Msgr. Guay Institute— founded in 1905 for orphans—on the south bank of the St. Lawrence river, opposite the city of Quebec. A businessman acted as an intermediary for the transaction. In fact, the building belonged to the Diocese of Quebec, which was not particularly disposed to sell it to us. Imagine the surprise of the sisters acting as guardians of the property, when on the October 6, 1989, they saw Frs. Emily and Violette arriving, only to inform them that the SSPX was the new owner. The year 1989-1990 was devoted to the necessary renovation of the building, and in September 1990 it was ready to open its doors to a first contingent of students. The school, the only non-funded private school in the whole province of Quebec, has now opened its door for its thirtieth academic year. Over its history, it has changed a number of times from being a day-school, from Grades 1-12, for boys and girls, to having a mixed primary, and high-school for boys only, as it is in the present. The high-school girls can go to the Dominican Sisters’ school in Massena, NY, which is four hours away by car. The Precious Blood Residence for the Aged In 1994-1995 some faithful from Quebec bought the former convent of the Sisters of the Precious Blood in Levis, just opposite the Chateau Frontenac. These people then entrusted the project to the Society, which after the necessary renovations, opened this old people’s home in January 1996. At the present, it is full with about 140 residents. The priests from Holy-Family Priory offer daily Masses and minister to the sick. The Mission in Ontario During the years 1990-1992, when Fr. Emily St Joseph Center, Saint-Cesaire, Quebec. Fr. Daniel Couture (District Superior 2014-20). Fr. Arnaud Rostand, District Superior (2006-08) in 2007 with Fr. Boulet. Fr. Jürgen Wegner, District Superior (2008-14). Fr. David Sherry, new District Superior (2020- ). 37 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada was prior at the Holy Family School, Lauzon, he would jump onto a plane on the weekend to serve Toronto and Orillia where the Society had acquired churches in 1991. Very quickly a permanent residence was envisaged for Toronto so as to limit the cost and the fatigue of these journeys and to provide the District Superior with the necessary peace and quiet to carry out his task. A priory was bought in 1993, and Fr. Emily settled in, gradually making it the residence of the District Superior and supervising the missions of Ontario. In 2007, Fr. Rostand, then District Superior, acquired a school in New Hamburg, about 1 ½ hours west of Toronto. This is Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy, which, besides its little primary school, hosts the only boarding school for boys in the whole of Canada. (A number of students come from the neighboring United States.) In 2016, a church with its rectory were purchased in the town of New Hamburg for the growing numbers of families moving near the school. Lately, thanks to the pandemic of the last few months, attendance at St. Peter’s church, New Hamburg, almost doubled, going from 200 Sunday attendants to over 350. Saint-Joseph Center, Saint-Cesaire, Quebec In December 2010, a venerable convent of the Presentation Sisters came up for sale in the little town of Saint-Cesaire, near Montreal. Fr. Wegner wisely acquired it to make it the new headquarters for the district and the new retreat center, instead of Shawinigan. This convent, founded in 1857, can boast having been the first center for the devotion to St. Joseph in Quebec, before the famous Oratory, and having seen young Alfred Bessette, Brother André, live in its shadows for two years. Conclusion “O Lord, how great are thy works! thy thoughts are exceeding deep” (Ps. 91). Looking back at these last fifty years and beyond, we can only admire the work of Providence in this vast country, making use of so many souls of good will to prepare, bring and assist the work of the Society of Saint Pius X. Corpus Christi Procession in Saint Catharines, Ontario, 2019 with Fr. Dominic May, Fr. Raymond Lillis (r) and Fr. Marcel Stannus (l) Church of St Joan of Arc, Sherbrooke, Quebec. Holy Family School chapel. 38 The Angelus November - December 2020 By Archbishop Lefebvre This collection contains the fundamental works of Archbishop Lefebvre on the current crisis in the Church, the errors and ambiguities of Vatican II, and on the Society of St. Pius X. Call 1-800-966-7337 and get yours today! Visit www.angeluspress.org — 1-800-966-7337 Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music. 39 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada Bishop Fellay Speaks: For the Love of the Church By Bishop Bernard Fellay Editor’s Note: The former Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X, Bishop Bernard Fellay, conversed with Robert Landers in a book that has just been published by Via Romana under the title Pour l’amour de l’Eglise (For the Love of the Church). The full book will be available from Angelus Press early next year. The following article is a summary of the book, along with excerpts. It is clear simply from the title that the spirit of the book is the same as that of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s sermon for the 50th anniversary of his ordination on September 23, 1979, in Paris: “For the glory of the Most Blessed Trinity, for the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, for the love of the Church, for the love of the Pope, for the love of bishops, of priests, of all the faithful, for the salvation of the world, for the salvation of souls, keep this testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ! Keep the Sacrifice of Our Lord 40 The Angelus November - December 2020 Jesus Christ. Keep the Mass of all time! And you will see Christian civilization reflourish.” For Our Lord and the Extension of His Reign All of Bishop Fellay’s answers are indeed full of the same love for the Church that animated the Founder of the Society of St. Pius X. On page 80, for example: “Some people get the impression that it is more important for you to convert people to the Society’s ‘Traditional Catholicism’ than to Jesus Christ. What do you think, how would you respond to this objection?” Bishop Fellay: “This opposition between Jesus Christ and ‘Traditional Catholicism’ is a fallacy. If someone converts to Jesus Christ, he cannot refuse Tradition, the deposit of the Faith and the teachings of Revelation. In the Society, we are attached to Tradition precisely because we are working for Our Lord and the extension of His reign.” And on page 147: “We now have to make the light of Tradition shine around us, taking advantage of any promising contacts we may have. I am convinced that we have something to offer to the entire Church: we have to help the bishops, priests and faithful recover these treasures of Tradition that have been abandoned. Everything that is Catholic is ours.” This profession of the Catholic Faith was also shared by the new Superior General, Fr. Davide Pagliarani, in his interview with Nouvelles de Chrétienté, (n. 173, Sep.-Oct. 2018) just after his election: “The Society holds a treasure in its hands.…Tradition is a treasure. Our fondest wish is that the official Church will stop considering Tradition as a burden or a set of outmoded old things, but rather as the only possible way to regenerate herself.” Relations with Rome Regarding the relations with Rome, the book exposes a situation that has been ongoing 41 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada for many years. There is no reason to hope for any new revelations, for the interview was conducted two years before the General Chapter in July 2018 that elected a new Superior General. In the meantime, on June 26, 2017, Bishop Fellay received a letter from Cardinal Ludwig Müller, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, presenting—with Pope Francis’ approval—the necessary conditions for a doctrinal declaration, the indispensable prerequisite for any canonical recognition of the Society. There were three conditions: 1) “adherence to the new 1988 version of the Professio Fidei” 2) “acceptance of the teachings of Vatican Council II and those of the post-Conciliar period, granting these doctrinal affirmations the due degree of adherence” 3) recognition “not only of the validity but also of the legitimacy of the Rite of the Holy Mass and the Sacraments according to the liturgical books promulgated after Vatican Council II.” On June 30, Bishop Fellay passed this letter on to all the priests of the Society with the following commentary: “We find ourselves once again in a situation similar to that of 2012.” And he recalled his declaration after the meeting of the major superiors of the Society in Anzère (Switzerland) on June 28, 2016: “The Priestly Society of St. Pius X does not seek primarily a canonical recognition—to which it has a right because it is Catholic. The solution is far from being a simply juridical one. It is primarily a doctrinal question which we have the grave duty to manifest. (…) Divine Providence does not abandon its Church, the head of which is the pope, the Vicar of Jesus Christ. This is why an indisputable sign of this restoration will be the express desire will of the Supreme Pontiff to grant the means with which to reestablish the order of the priesthood, of the faith, and of Tradition, a sign which will moreover be the guarantee of the necessary unity of the family of Tradition.” Ever since the General Chapter in the summer of 2018, the relations with the Roman authorities have been in the hands of the new Superior General, as the Founder of the SSPX wished. Bishop Fellay has left them entirely to Fr. Pagliarani. And as he says at the end of his book, 42 The Angelus November - December 2020 in a chapter most fittingly entitled “The Future Is in God’s Hands,” there are no deadlines or timelines for this crucial question. Highlights From the Book The quality of the interview conducted by Robert Landers and the intellectual and spiritual level of Bp. Fellay’s responses are remarkable. They offer the reader a clear and informative presentation of Tradition’s positions. It is a pleasant surprise to see how the questions evolve over the course of the interview. At the beginning, they echo the objections and criticisms often aimed at the SSPX (risk of schism, danger of withdrawing into itself), then, little by little, they show a real desire to understand union with God, holiness, and the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in these troubled times. Here is a preview of the book with the kind permission of the editor. The Role of the Traditional Mass The Society is at the heart of the Church. Why? Because the Mass is the heart of the Church. It is the sacrifice of Calvary renewed in an unbloody manner, as the Council of Trent says. The Mass is the redeeming sacrifice through which the Church lives. Without the Mass, as Padre Pio said, the Church cannot survive. If there is no more Mass, the heart of the Church stops. In the Society of St. Pius X, we seek to live as closely as possible to this essential act of love that only the priest can accomplish. Archbishop Lefebvre liked to use the term transcendental to describe the connection between the Mass and the priest. It is important to understand this term well. A transcendental relation is a relation between two beings that is absolutely necessary for their existence. There can be no Mass without a priest, and a priest without the Mass no longer accomplishes the essential act of his priesthood. The priest is by definition a mediator. And the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the most fruitful act of this mediation, for the Church, for the world, and for the priest himself. What I say here sums up our position at the heart of the Church. But I do not mean to say that we are the only ones living this reality. The “State of Necessity” in Today’s Church The Society really is not attached to any particular spiritual school? No … We draw on all the schools of spirituality. We turn to the contemplative orders to learn to pray, to the Benedictines to acquire a true liturgical spirit, to the preaching or missionary orders to develop our apostolic zeal… We take everything, while avoiding distinctive identities. Anyone can feel at home in our midst. We have all the facets of Catholic spirituality. Somewhat like St. Therese of the Child Jesus, who said, “In the heart of the Church, my mother, I shall be love”? Deep down she had a missionary soul, a contemplative soul, a priestly soul… Yes! The historical circumstances and the spiritual distress of the faithful have imposed upon us this spirituality that is universal, so to speak. We have taken on an apostolate that we did not invent. After the Council, when many Catholics felt abandoned and were unable to find their footing, many came to us, saying, “Feed us!” It is this spiritual famine that we call “the state of necessity.” We seek to give souls the food they need to get to Heaven. attention to the circumstances. Besides, priests are sometimes inflexible out of fear, because they are seeking a false security. A serene priest who counts on God has no reason to be afraid, so he is not rigid. Virtue is the only thing that makes it possible to avoid rigidity and its opposite, laxism. The path of virtue is a balance, a summit between two abysses. It is not easy to find. Each person has to ask God to enlighten him so that he may see clearly, but also take the time to think. How should he act in a given case? Should he be more clement? To what extent should mercy temper justice? It is the order of action and practical applications. It cannot all be learned in books… Do you refuse on principle any educational, practical, or even verbal adaptation that would make it possible to touch hearts in the world as it is today? It has been said that in the Society nothing can be changed because otherwise everything would collapse… There has to be a balance. I think that some adaptations are possible. It is obvious that one should not speak to little children preparing for their First Communion the same way one speaks to adults. The same truth can be transmitted with different words and examples. It is important to distinguish between the essential and the form of what one is saying. The truth must never be deformed, hidden or distorted. It must be transmitted entirely. However, the form is not immutable. A good teacher knows how to find the right and appropriate words for his audience, while remaining perfectly faithful to the truth he wishes to transmit. Virtue is a Summit Happiness Consists in Union with God How can a priest be a man of doctrine and at the same time have “a heart of flesh”? When it comes down to it, what is your definition of happiness? The two are perfectly compatible. The priest needs to acquire not only a speculative, but also a practical science that considers man’s way of acting and the application of principles to specific situations. Rigid priests often do not pay enough True happiness, I would say, is possessing God, being united to Him, having one’s soul at peace. Even here below, we can enjoy this happiness which surpasses all understanding. A soul in the state of grace already tastes 43 Theme 50 Years—United States & Canada it. The tribulations, difficulties and sufferings that are part of life on earth do not destroy this happiness, for they do not hinder union with God. That is the key to happiness. If someone truly lives with God, he finds happiness. The Path of Ordinary Sanctity What would you say to those who feel incapable or who consider holiness as something that is not for them or impossible for them? They are wrong. They have a false idea of what holiness is. And I regret that certain lives of saints attribute too much importance to miracles and extraordinary things, for in doing so, they suggest that that is the essence of holiness. No! Miracles are not what make saints. It is true that heroic virtue is necessary for a saint to be canonized. However, the path of ordinary sanctity to which all men are called is simpler: it is the state of grace. One has to possess “sanctifying grace,” the grace that makes saints. This treasure is a real participation in the divine nature, as the Epistle of St. Peter says so well— divinae consortes naturae—the offertory of the Mass as well—ejus divinitatis esse consortes. It is extraordinary! We are walking along the path of sanctity if, by living with God and possessing His grace, we place our existence in harmony with this grace. To put it more simply, sanctity consists in charity. This supernatural virtue infused by God transforms all our actions. If we do something for the love of God, in the name of this love, the amplitude of our act surpasses all human events. Is this not magnificent? The Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ The word “secularism” has evolved and now illustrates a rupture between the temporal and the spiritual. Originally, secular meant that which was in the care of laymen. This evolution is tragic, for human society is 44 The Angelus November - December 2020 being transformed little by little into a living hell! How can we return to the order willed by God? We have to repeat in season and out of season the words of St. Michael, “Who is like unto God?” and turn to Our Lord. The world is constantly speaking of human rights, but it forgets man’s duties. And yet rights imply duties. One of these duties is obedience to the natural law, submission to the law of God, adoration of God. This is true for Christians, but also for every man who is a creature of God and therefore subject to God’s laws. We should reflect upon God’s position in society and in our lives. Who do we think we are when we tear away His scepter? We are members of the Church, but also members of a society, members of a country. We cannot live in one way in the Church and in another way in society. That sort of two-faced behavior would make us schizophrenic. There has to be a unity between our personal life and our social life. And for this reason, man must build society around Our Lord. Besides, He alone gives true freedom and an accurate understanding of what human rights are. Christian society is not a theocracy. It is simply a society that lives according to the principles taught by Scripture and Tradition. Take and Read At the end of these 150 pages that are easily read in one sitting, the reader will find himself regretting that we often speak of Tradition but too rarely let Tradition speak for itself, deeply, beyond the dialectics kept up by journalists with a perfunctory religious culture. We can only be grateful to Robert Landers and Via Romana for offering Bishop Fellay the opportunity to do so. A reader who discovers Tradition through this book will feel the urge to go further and seek to learn more. A reader who is attached to Tradition will feel a legitimate pride in having served this cause for 10, 20, 30, 40 years…and it will not fail to give him a keener sense of the duties this service demands. “I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of thy house; and the place where thy glory dwelleth.”—Psalm 25:8 Fountains Abbey, England Spirituality Meditation on St. John’s Gospel By Pater Inutilis We are still, in this chapter (Jn. 3), early in the Public Life of Our Lord, with St. John the Baptist not yet cast into prison and still baptizing (1:23f), when Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. In our bibles he is mentioned only by St. John (chs. 3, 7 & 19), but his true glory is to be written in the Book of Life (Apoc. 20, 12 & 15), having his feast on August 3 (Roman Martyrology). Nicodemus comes as to a teacher sent by God (Jn. 3:1f). This he very correctly deduces from Our Lord’s working of miracles, now multiplied since that at Cana (2:23). Nicodemus himself is a “ruler of the Jews” (3:1), a member of that “Council” (11:47 etc.) known to us as the Sanhedrin, and a “teacher in Israel” in his own right (3:10). He was also a Pharisee (3:1), and so a believer (unlike the Sadducees) in the spiritual (Acts 23:8). To him Our Lord should be able to speak 46 The Angelus November - December 2020 of the “Spirit.” [By way of aside: some overly stress nomenclature—Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. But English often has two names for the same, derived as it is from Latin and Anglo-Saxon roots. “Spirit” is merely from the Latin, whereas “Ghost” is from the Germanic, and both are used in our Rheims translation (cf vs. 5 & 6; Lk. 23:46)]. “Spirit,” though, in its first use, but not second, in vs. 8 should rather be understood of the “wind”— another meaning for the Latin spiritus, for Christ is definitely making a comparison between the doings of the invisible wind (personified) and those of the transcendent Spirit. Thus too do St. John Chrysostom and all the Greek Fathers understand this verse. And Our Lord’s teaching on the “Spirit” and our need to be born of Him is indeed lofty, although of “earthly things” (3:12), escaping Nicodemus’ grasp. The Greek of the “again” in vs. 3 & 5 (“unless a man be born again”) could be translated either by “again” or “from above,” and both give excellent readings: our birth in this world (“of the flesh”) needs another (“of the Spirit”)—3:6; 1:13. This new birth, this regeneration, comes about by the baptism of Christ. On this mystery Our Lord is speaking very solemnly. We note Christ’s “Amen, amen” (“most truly”) thrice in this passage (vs. 3:5 & 11); and that, of the gospels, this expression is found only in the fourth. It is a way of Our Lord to emphasize a point, as He wants to do here. This being “born again of water and the Holy Ghost” (vs. 5) refers to the sacrament of baptism. This is De Fide (Tradition & Trent). The Fathers of the Church are not so unanimous though when it comes to calling the baptism already administered by Our Lord (3:26) “Christian baptism,” the sacrament of baptism. (We note that John’s disciples are speaking generically—Our Lord is not Himself doing these baptisms—4:1f). John’s baptism had rather been what we would call a “sacramental,” disposing recipients to Christ’s baptism (much as exorcisms etc. in the rite of baptism to the actual grace of the sacrament.) This being so, and Christian baptism not yet being promulgated, John could still continue his ministry—vs. 23. Was Christ’s a “sacramental” or already the “sacrament”? St. Thomas Aquinas, for his part, having considered the different Patristic explanations as was his wont, thinks it already to be the sacrament, water having been sanctified for this ministry by Jesus having been baptized by John in the Jordan —1:31-33. The water already had now this efficacy, though its promulgation and necessity for eternal life would wait until after His resurrection (Mt. 28:19; Mk. 16:16). The umbrage taken by John’s disciples at Jesus’ growing popularity affords the Baptist the chance to make another testimony of Him. It is given Him from heaven; He is the Christ; He is the bridegroom (already that illustrative metaphor explaining the relationship of Christ with His mystical body, the Church, to which St. John—as well as St. Paul (e.g. Eph. 5:22-29)—will return (Apoc. 21:2 & 9)); He comes from above; He is the Son the Father loves (3:27-36). The Forerunner’s mission is coming to a close, as is the Old Testament. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” His mission—it is He Whom God has “sent” (vs. 34)—is beginning, mine is ending. [Some extrapolate prettily: He must be raised up on the cross (vs. 14), but I must be beheaded.] Modern commentators discuss willingly whether the Baptist’s words to his disciples do not end with verse 30, vs. 31-36 being rather the (inspired) reflections of the Evangelist, just as they do for Our Lord’s: do not His words to Nicodemus end with verse l5, vs. 16-21 being those of St. John? The ancients had no such scruples, being more interested in the substance of what was being said. A similar question will be asked with regard to all the rather long discourses of Our Lord we shall meet in this Gospel. But this disciple whom Jesus loved had much opportunity to ponder at length the Master’s words; and had He not promised that “the Paraclete... will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you” (14:26)? Let us not finish our brief look at this third chapter without noting the beautiful passage in verses 14–17. This is a resume of the whole gospel of Christ and the economy of salvation. The motive for the work of redemption is the love of God (vs. 16). This love will ordain the giving, the sending, of His Son (vs. 16 & 17). The end will be the salvation of men (vs. 15, 16 & 17); and the means will be Christ’s crucifixion (vs. 14). This is what Our Lord means by His “exaltation,” as He will also in 8:28; & 12:32 & 34. “The Old Serpent,” as St. John calls him, “which is the devil and Satan” (Apoc. 20:2), brought sin and death into this world. The sinful Israelites were punished with death by fiery serpents in the desert (Num. 21), but Moses was commanded to make a brazen serpent—one therefore, in the likeness of a serpent, but without venom. It was to be raised up for a sign, that any bitten, gazing upon it, might be healed. So Jesus Christ, sent in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3) and raised up, exalted, on the cross, would be the salvation of those who look upon, and to, Him; “that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (vs. 16). 47 O God, Who, out of all the angels, chose the Archangel Gabriel to announce the mystery of Thy incarnation, mercifully grant that we who keep his feast on earth, may have him as our patron in Heaven. Spirituality The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: The Canon Part One By Fr. Christopher Danel In this article we begin an examination of the Canon of the Mass, presenting the work of Msgr. Nicholas Gihr in his fundamental liturgical commentary The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: Dogmatically, Liturgically, and Ascetically Explained. Msgr. Gihr was a priest 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 Saint Pius X. The early years of his work were contemporaneous with the last years in the work of Dom Prosper Guéranger. (The English translation of his study appeared in 1902; the original is: Gihr, Nikolaus. Messopfer dogmatisch, liturgisch und aszetisch erklärt. Herder: Freiburg im Breisgau, 1877.) Introduction With the Canon the holiest and most sacred moments of the Sacrificial Celebration are ushered in: this part of Holy Mass, still more then than the other portions, claims attention, devotion and reverence. Above all, the passion and death of Christ should be devoutly meditated upon. We are exhorted to this by the image of the 50 The Angelus November - December 2020 Crucified, which is placed before the Canon, in order that the painful, bitter and bloody death of Christ may be presented to our view in a striking manner. Some persons also recognize a certain special and divine touch from the circumstance that the Canon commences with the letter T (from Te Igitur). For the Tau (T) bears a resemblance to the Cross, and, consequently, it meets us already in the prophet as the seal of the elect who are spared the chastisements of God, or as the sign of deliverance, life and salvation, which the predestined bear on their foreheads. “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem,” thus says the Lord, “and mark Tau upon the foreheads of all men that sigh and mourn for the abominations that are committed in the midst thereof” (Ezech. 9:4, cf. Apoc. 7:3). The Name, Origin and Antiquity of the Canon The word Canon in ecclesiastical language has many different meanings; but here, where it serves to designate the principal portion of the Mass liturgy, it signifies the standard formula, the fixed standard, the invariable rule for the accomplishment of the essential act of Sacrifice. The Canon of the Mass, which begins after the Sanctus and ends before the Pater noster, includes the Consecration or Sacrificial Act, as also those prayers and ceremonies that introduce the Consecration and are most closely connected with it. It, therefore, covers the divine sacrificial act with a mystical veil and encloses it in a most precious case. As the Sacrifice which the eternal High Priest offers on the altar to the end of ages, is and ever remains the same, so, in like manner the Canon, the ecclesiastical sacrificial prayer, in its sublime simplicity and venerable majesty, is and ever remains invariably the same; only on the greatest feasts, including Easter and Pentecost, are a few additions made in order to harmonize with the spirit and change of the ecclesiastical year. As to the origin of the Canon there is an express explanation of the Church: “Since it is befitting that holy things should be administered in a holy manner, since this Sacrifice is the most holy of all things; the Catholic Church, in order that it might be worthily and reverently offered and received, many centuries ago established the sacred Canon, so free from all error, that nothing is contained therein which does not diffuse in the highest degree a certain odor of holiness and piety and raise to God the minds of those who offer it. For it consists partly of the very words of the Lord, and partly of the traditions of the Apostles and also of the pious ordinances of holy Popes” (Council of Trent, Session XXII). On account of the want of reliable historical testimony, we are not able to state more accurately and minutely what parts of the Canon are of apostolic tradition and what are the later additions of holy Popes. Yet it is correct and a matter of fact to state that Pope St. Gregory I (590-604) completed the formula of the text of the Canon as we now have it and that the text of the Canon of the present Roman Missal corresponds with that form in which it proceeded from his hands and in which it was handed down in the ancient Roman Sacramentary manuscripts. The Canon is, therefore, through its origin, antiquity and use, venerable and inviolable and sacred. If ever a prayer of the Church came into existence under the special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, it is assuredly the prayer of the Canon. It is pervaded throughout by the spirit of faith, and permeated with the sweet odor of devotion; it is a holy work, full of force and unction. Its simple language, by its pithiness and its antique and Scriptural stamp, produces a touching effect on the mind of him who prays and offers the Sacrifice; it charms the soul, just like the dimly lit ancient, venerable basilicas of the Eternal City. Is it not a pleasure and a joy to the heart that we still utter the very same words at the altar which so many devout and holy priests throughout the entire Church and in all ages have always used in praying and offering the Sacrifice? Already in the times of the Martyrs and in the chapels of the Catacombs these prayers of the Canon of the Mass were recited and sanctified. The Silent Recitation of the Canon The manner in which the Canon is to be recited, that is, silently, deserves special notice and explanation. It is a strict ordinance of the Church that the Canon be said silently (secreto), namely, in a voice so subdued that the celebrant may hear himself, but not be heard by those around him. Historical testimonies and reasons 51 Spirituality drawn from the nature of the thing justify the most general assumption, that it has been a custom from the earliest times to pronounce the words of Consecration, together with the Canon, in silence. Still it is not merely the Church’s scrupulous solicitude with which she preserves the original traditions in performing the Sacred Mysteries, but there are other reasons besides, weighty, indeed, that move her to adhere so earnestly to the precept, that the Canon be said in silence, and that the Eucharistic Sacrifice be enacted in speech wholly secret. We will here cite the chief reasons that demonstrate not the necessity, indeed, but the expediency and appropriateness of the recitation of the Canon in silence. a) The silent recitation of the Canon betokens the Consecration and Sacrificial Act to be an exclusively priestly function. The prayers of the Canon being liturgical, are, therefore, to be recited not merely mentally, but also vocally (vocaliter), that is, the words must be pronounced with the mouth. But this recitation of the Canon must be made softly, that is, be so constituted as to be inaudible to those who are around, and yet audible to the priest himself. The silent recitation is in contrast to the loud. Now while the loud tone of voice invites those present to join with the priest, and reminds them that the prayers are said in common, the silent recitation appropriately indicates that there is question of a mystery, which it is for the consecrated priest alone to accomplish, and not the people. Such is the case with respect to the Eucharistic Sacrifice. To consecrate the material elements, to offer the Body and Blood of Christ, is a priestly privilege: the congregation present cannot bring about the accomplishment of the Sacrificial Act. This is symbolically indicated by the silent recitation of the Canon. The priest does not here, as in the other portions of the Mass, commune with the people; he has entered into the Holy of Holies, there to commune with God alone and to pray and sacrifice for the whole Church. “Moses was alone on the top of the mountain; he conversed with God and God answered him.” Thus does the priest stand alone at the altar, when, as the representative and minister of 52 The Angelus November - December 2020 Christ the eternal High Priest, he accomplishes and offers up the Holy Sacrifice for the entire Church. b) The silent recitation of the Canon text harmonizes very beautifully with the accomplishment and the essence of the mystery of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. The material elements are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, without the senses perceiving it, or the created mind being able to comprehend it; the real presence and sacrificial life of the Savior under the sacramental species is concealed beyond all discernment. In every Host there are miracles, as numerous as stars in the firmament, yet not the slightest trace of the wonders appears externally. With all this the ecclesiastical rite harmonizes perfectly. The holy silence is quite suited to indicate and to recall the concealment and depth, the incomprehensibility and ineffableness of the wonderful mysteries that are enacted on the altar. c) Silent prayer is related to religious silence, and, therefore, expresses the humility, reverence, admiration and awe wherewith the Church administers and adores the Mystery of the Altar. “The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him!” The sight of the priest at the altar, communing amid profound stillness with God alone, is, therefore, also an excellent means afforded to arouse and promote in those who are present the proper dispositions, with which they should admire, adore and offer along with the priest so grand and sublime a Sacrifice. Now, precisely this silence that reigns at the altar during the most sacred moments of the Sacrifice and directs attention to the mysteriousness of the sacrificial act forms the loudest summons to enter silently into ourselves, to be recollected in mind and to stir our hearts to devotion. d) Finally, a mystical reason may be alleged. The priest at the altar is the representative and image of the praying and sacrificing Savior. Now, as on the Mount of Olives and on the Cross, Jesus prayed not only in loud tones, but also in a low voice and in the silence of His heart to His Father, so also it is proper that the priest should even herein resemble His Divine Model when representing and renewing the Sacrifice of the Cross. The Meaning of the Prayers of the Canon Prayer forms the liturgical accompaniment of the Sacrifice. The Canon contains those prayers which most closely relate to the Eucharistic Sacrifice. They are oblation prayers, which refer to the Consecration; for they contain in part petitions for the blessing and consecration of the sacrificial elements, in part an offering of the Sacrificial Body and Blood of Christ, and in part supplications to obtain and to apply the fruits of the Sacrifice. As to their contents, they harmonize with the foregoing prayers of the Offertory and we behold in them a copy of the prayers of our Divine Savior. He lived praying and praying He died: praying He redeemed the world. The longest and the most solemn, the most fervent and touching prayer of the Lord is the one which He uttered when He was about to accomplish His Sacrifice on the Cross; it is the so-called prayer of the High Priest. He makes known therein to whom, for whom and for what purpose He would offer His sacrificial death; He supplicates for His disciples and for all who through their word would believe in Him, that is, for the entire Church Militant. He prayed thus the Father that He would deign to fill all the faithful in time and in eternity with His saving gifts: that He would preserve them here below in unity, keep them in truth and sanctify them by grace, that hereafter they might be transformed in beatitude and behold His glory. Does not this prayer of the High Priest resound throughout the Canon of the Mass, wherein the Church expresses what gifts of grace she would draw for herself and for all her children from the Holy Sacrifice? How powerful, forcible and effective do these petitions and intercessions of the Church become, as they ascend to the throne of mercy, in union with the voice of the Blood of Christ, steeped in the sacrificial cup of the redeeming Blood, which more loudly and more strongly cries to Heaven than did the blood of Abel! 53 Spirituality The Spirit of the Society By Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Translated by Lauren Webb. The spirit of the Society of Saint Pius X is before all else that of the Church. Recognized by the Church as a society of common life without vows and as a priestly society, our Society is grafted onto the trunk of the Church, and draws its nourishment of sanctification from the most authentic tradition of the Church and from the living and pure sources of Her sanctity. In this manner those societies recognized by the Church over the centuries grew and flourished with new branches and bore fruits of sanctity, which are the honor of the Church Militant and Triumphant. All of Scripture is turned towards the Cross, towards the Redemptive Victim, radiant with glory, and the whole life of the Church is turned towards the altar of sacrifice. Consequently, Her principal solicitude is the sanctity of the priesthood. We ought to have this profound 54 The Angelus November - December 2020 conviction that the Church will be holy in the measure that Her priests are holy. For the Seminarians, the ever-growing discovery of the great mysteries to which they are destined, ought to give a particular character to their life. Captivated by Our Lord and His Sacrifice, they ought, for this same reason, to renounce the world—its vanities, its futilities. They ought to manifest this detachment by their garb, by their attitude, by the love of silence and of a retired life, even if the apostolate will ask of them later on to go to souls. The Church forms those who give holy things—sacerdos—that is to say—sacra dans—those who give holy things, those who perform holy and sacred actions— sacrificium—that is to say—sacrum faciens. She places into their consecrated hands divine and sacred gifts—sacramenta—the Sacraments. The spirit of the Society is before all else that of the Church. Its members—priests, brothers, sisters, oblates, tertiaries, will strive to know ever more fully the mystery of Christ as St. Paul describes it in his Epistles, especially in the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Hebrews. Here we will discover that which guided the Church for twenty centuries. We will understand the importance that he gives to the sacrifice of Our Lord and, consequently, to the priesthood. We ought to deepen our understanding of this great Mystery of our Faith which is the Holy Mass. We should have an unlimited devotion for this Mystery, placing it at the center of our thoughts, of our hearts, of all our interior life. This will be to live by the spirit of the Church. Profoundly convinced that the source of life is found in Christ Crucified, and thus in the Sacrifice that he has bequeathed to us, the members of the Society will discover with an ever growing joy that the Mystical Spouse of Our Lord, born from the pierced Heart of Jesus, has nothing dearer to Her heart than to transmit this previous Testament with a magnificence inspired by the Holy Ghost. The spirit of the Society is essentially a priestly spirit, illuminated by the radiating Redemptive Sacrifice of Calvary and of the Mass, Mystery of Faith. This great Mystery, summit of our Faith, is transmitted to us by the Church in Her Liturgy, where, as a Mother, She strives to unfold the infinite riches of this Mystery in the actions, words, chants, and liturgical vestments, which follow the admirable liturgical cycle. The Society, anxious to live this Mystery, is zealous to know the liturgy and to accomplish it in all its beauty and splendor. “I have loved, O Lord, the beauty of Thy house,” says Psalm 25. The spirit of the Society is a liturgical spirit. The priest is consecrated before all else for the Sacrifice of the Mass, for the public prayer of the Church. The Society will strive to acquire this liturgical spirit in all it profundity in order to live the Mystery of Christ, offering Himself to His Father and offering His entire Mystical Body. The splendors of the Liturgy sing of Jesus Crucified and Resurrected. The Church has known how to show us and have us live of this Mystery in a truly divine manner, which captivates hearts and 55 Spirituality elevates souls. Everything has been arranged with the love of a faithful Spouse, and of a merciful Mother. Every kind of inspiration is found in the holy places, the ceremonies, the vestments, the chants, and the choice of prayers, in the Missal, the Breviary, and the Pontifical, in the Ritual. The members of the Fraternity will nourish their spirituality at the sources of living water that the Church offers them in the holy Liturgy—incomparable source of wisdom, of faith, of grace, of aesthetical 56 The Angelus November - December 2020 and mystical life. Nothing is little, nothing is insignificant in the service of such a Lord and King. Let us always be aware of this. It is a very efficacious means of the apostolate. If the Liturgy is before all else the praise of the Most Holy Trinity, offering the Sacrifice, source of divine life, it is also the Catechism, in its most efficacious and living form. Happy are the faithful whose priest is enamored of the Liturgy of the Church. The spirit of the Society is the spirit of the Church, the spirit of faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ and in His work of Redemption. The whole history of the Church in the past twenty centuries manifests the fundamental principles of the Church, animated by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Our Lord. The priest is at the heart of this work of the rebirth of souls, of their divinization in view of their future glorification. All his thoughts, his inspirations, and his actions ought to be inspired by this spirit of Faith. This spirit of faith is essentially a spirit of contemplation of Our Lord Crucified and Glorified. How I wish that all Society members have a thirst of the contemplative life, that is to say, this simple and ardent gaze upon the Cross of Jesus. May everyone acquire the spirit of prayer, of the interior life, in the image of Our Lord Who Himself lived for thirty of His thirty-three years retired from the world. The profoundly interior, spiritual, and supernatural aspect of our life, of our piety, the contemplative aspect of our life, is that which has justified all the contemplative foundations. From thence comes the spirit of prayer of the Society, the necessity of spiritual exercises in common, of mental prayer. The consequence of drawing closer to God in His Redemptive Sacrifice will produce in the souls of the Society members the same effects, with due proportion, felt by privileged souls who received the Stigmata of Our Lord. These effects are multiple: an ardent desire of total oblation as a victim with the Divine Victim; love of God, of Our Lord, up to selfsacrifice; a total abandonment to the Holy Will of God; an ardent union with the pierced Heart of Our Lord. If contemplation is a loving gaze at Jesus crucified and glorified, it transfers the soul into the hands of God. This cannot be realized except by a complete abandonment of our will into the hands of God. That is to say, a consummate obedience to His Holy Will: the Will signified by God and by those who participate legitimately in His authority, and rightly use this participation; His Will of Good Pleasure, manifested by God Himself in the course of the events which touch us during our lives—illness, trial. Let us meditate on these great teachings of the Church and let us strive to put them into practice in the circumstances of our lives. This assumes that we are truly humble. This explains the Benedictine spirituality in its entirely, founded upon the progression of the virtue of humility. Contemplation, obedience, and humility are the elements of one reality: the imitation of Our Lord Jesus Christ and participation in His Infinite Love. The effects of the Spirit of Love which manifested Himself on the Cross are continually manifested on the altar and in the Eucharist. They separate the soul from the world. The soul despises passing goods to attach itself to the eternal; it shuns material goods to attach itself to spiritual ones. The soul has a great horror of sin, a profound contrition of its faults, an immense desire to expiate for itself and for others. We must give thanks to God for having communicated His Spirit of Love and immolation for the glory of God. The Society members will found their missionary and apostolic zeal upon the conviction that they are “useless servants.” Our Lord could very well do without them, but He wills to use them, and it is an unmerited honor. They will always remain in this profound awareness of their nothingness and of the greatness of God, trusting only in His grace. The apostolate is essentially a supernatural work of grace. Grounded on these convictions, they will go courageously to the souls entrusted to them and are waiting for them. They will preach with confidence, evoking the aid of Our Lord and of the Virgin Mary. Their preaching ought to be simple, with conviction, that which will edify and lead souls to convert to God. If souls do not come, they will go to meet them with a compassionate and humble heart, trusting in His grace, excluding no one. They will avoid every form of domination or contempt. They will be everything to everyone, taking care not to fall into the error of those who think to adopt the foul language and vulgar looks of certain circles. Even these people expect a good and simple attitude from us, one that is always worthy of our priesthood.” Spirituality The Good Shepherd of the 1970s in the United States By a Benedictine Monk The 1970s were a turbulent time for the Catholic Church. The application of the Liturgical changes of the Church were brutally implemented with the so-called spirit of the Council. We witnessed the destruction of the main altars of the churches, being replaced with what was known as the 1970 butcher block table. We saw the church being gutted of the communion rail, statues of the saints, and the crucifix above the main altar being replaced with a bare cross and a white veil representing the resurrected Christ as opposed to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. The tabernacle was hidden in some obscure part of the church. The sacred Gregorian chant was replaced at best with “Kumbaya, My Lord” or at worst with the “clown” Masses or the “rock-n-roll” Masses. The most devastating change was the sacred rite of the Mass itself, 58 The Angelus November - December 2020 which was disfigured to the point of being essentially unrecognizable. The Churchmen of the times became man-centered. They no longer preached sermons concerning God and souls but denounced social injustice of the lower working classes. The victims of all of these changes were the priests themselves and the flocks they cared for. Some estimates speak of 120,000 priests abandoning their priesthood. Only God knows the damage caused to the souls of the faithful during these terrible times. These poor priests fell victim to the illusion that man and the world had more to offer than God. It was in these same years that the USA legally accepted the murder of the unborn child. Such was the sad state of affairs of the Church in the 1970s. These examples are well known, but there are many others that remain hidden in the consciences of the victims. It was as if robbers had stripped us of our Church and left us half dead on the side of the road of life. Most of these families, confused by their shepherds, simply left the Church in search of a meaning to life. Many disillusioned souls turned to the hippie communes where they tried to satisfy their thirst for the supernatural with hallucinogenic drugs and sensual pleasure that they called “free love.” These wounds inflicted upon the entire society make us think of the parable of the Good Shepherd. Before Our Lord explains this parable, He says: “Blessed are the eyes that see the things that you see.” He then explains that the greatest law is the love of God and the second is the love of neighbor as self. The lawyer, trying to trap Our Lord in His words, asks: “Who is my neighbor?” At this occasion, Our Lord presents the parable of the Good Shepherd. A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jerusalem symbolizes the city of heavenly peace and Jericho the city of worldly vanity. In the 1970s we went down as a group from the traditional Catholic life to the vanity of a druginfested, decadent society. We fell into the hands of robbers that stripped us of the sacrifice of the traditional Mass and the formation of true priests. They beat our souls with a heretical catechism leaving us morally half dead on the side of the road of life. The man-centered Novus Ordo priest and the group counselor offering sensitivity training instead of doctrine passed by, but they could not help our wounded souls. These were dark times for the Mystical Body of Christ. There seemed to be no hope while we were awaiting what seemed a certain death for our souls. For those of you that did not live through the 1970s, try to imagine yourself spiritually lying half dead on the side of the road awaiting death, unable to help yourself. Those that should have helped you passed you by. Try to look through the eyes of that half dead soul when you finally see someone stopping to help you. Imagine your joy when you encounter this unknown face that looks upon you with compassion. Joy, hope and gratitude return to this wounded body. The only desire of this kind man is to help you without expecting anything in return. For those of us that were in the midst of that terrible storm, I think that we can truthfully say that we experienced joy, hope and gratitude return to our wounded souls when Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre came to America. He did not need us, he only offered to help our struggling souls because no other bishop in the USA would come to our aid. He was really like the Good Shepherd. The wine that he poured into our wounds can be compared to the holy sacrifice of the Mass that once more was offered in our makeshift chapels. The soothing oil that he poured upon us was the unction of the priesthood given to our country with the seminary that he founded on our soil. He took us to the inn by strengthening our faith in Holy Mother the Church. He confided our souls to the innkeeper which can be compared to the young priests of the Society of St. Pius X. The two coins given to the innkeeper for our care were the formation he gave them in true Catholic doctrine and traditional morality. In all reality, the only Good Shepherd is Our Lord, but He works through the ministers of the Church. In the 1970s the minister of the Good Shepherd of the wounded Catholics of America was H.E. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. He discovered our country to be beaten, wounded and half dead. His love of God and neighbor pushed him to come to our aid. We saw with our eyes his charity in action. “Blessed are the eyes that see the things that you see.” 59 “And now, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, you that judge the earth. Serve ye the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto him with trembling. Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way.”— Psalm 2:10-13 Christian Culture The Icon of the Baptism of Our Lord By Romanus At Christmas, the Word of God appears in the silence of the night, alone, with only a few chosen souls present, witnesses of the Mystery, but without knowing the true nature of the Child just born. On the day of His Baptism, the Word makes Himself known to all, at the beginning of His public ministry, the fulfillment of the divine plan of salvation, confirmed by the voice of the Father and the light of the Spirit, descending upon Him in the form of a dove. These events, although separated by thirty years, are united in the liturgy of the universal Church, East and West, in one great festive season, a common celebration of the manifestation of the Word Incarnate to men. Until the 4th century, Christmas, the adoration of the shepherds and the Magi, all of the childhood events of Our Lord such as his 62 The Angelus November - December 2020 circumcision and presentation into the Temple, His Baptism and His miracle at the wedding at Cana, symbol of the mystical nuptials of the Bridegroom and the Church, were celebrated in one great feast, the Epiphany, a “manifestation from on high,” the “shining forth” of God to the world in the human form of Jesus of Nazareth. In Egypt and Cappadocia, the feast was fixed on January 6th, the winter solstice according to their astronomical calendar, celebrated by the pagans as the feast of Sol Invictus, the “Unconquered Sun.” From the 5th century, the Christian celebrations were separated: Christmas was transferred to December 25, the corrected date of the solstice in those times, while the Baptism remained on January 6. The same happened in the West, although the Epiphany became more the feast of the adoration of the Magi, while the other aspects became less central, but still to this day memorialized in the Roman liturgy: “This day is the Church joined unto the Heavenly Bridegroom, since Christ hath washed away her sins in Jordan; the wise men hasten with gifts to the marriage supper of the King; and they that sit at meat together make merry with water turned into wine, alleluia” (Benedictus antiphon at Lauds). In the ancient world, the term “epiphany” was used to refer to a manifestation or appearance of a divine or superhuman being, for example, when a Roman emperor made a rare visit to a far-flung province. Some deluded rulers even applied the term to themselves, as Antiochus IV Epiphanes (“god manifest”), king of Syria, who was brought back to reality by the rebellion of the Maccabees. The Eastern Church has preferred to call the feast the Theophany, “the shining forth and manifestation of God.” The emphasis is on the appearance of Jesus as the human Messiah of Israel and the divine Son of God, One of the Holy Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit—and all these mysteries were visibly manifested on the occasion of Christ’s Baptism. Thus, in the baptism by St. John in the Jordan, Jesus identifies Himself with sinners. He appears almost naked, as deprived of dignity, made brother of those who require the remission of their sins. He assumes our sins and submits to the Law, a submission that will be completed by the gift of His life on the Cross for our salvation. It is not only a gesture of infinite condescension, but also an act that inaugurates a new reality: the Son becomes the Messiah that rescues all men 63 Christian Culture by His submission to the Law. He manifests Himself as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29), the “Beloved” of the Father whose messianic task it is to redeem men from their sins (Lk. 3:21, Mk. 1:35). And He is revealed as well as One of the Divine Trinity, testified to by the voice of the Father, and by the Spirit in the form of a dove—a dove that, as the one that returned to Noah’s ark, is a sign of reconciliation between God and men. This is the central epiphany depicted in the icon, as it is described in the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Luke. “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan, unto John, to be baptized by him. But John stayed him, saying: I ought to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering, said to him: Suffer it to be so now. For so it becometh us to fulfill all justice. Then he suffered him. And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened to him: and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him. And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:13-17). At the top of the icon, a semicircle indicates an opening of the heavens, signifying the Father, whose voice is heard. On a ray of light, the Holy Spirit descends upon Christ in the form of a dove. Thus, the Most Holy Trinity is at once revealed. The paradox that Jesus Christ might be revealed as God through an act of submission to a mere man, John, is shown well in the icon. Though John is baptizing Christ, it is the former who is shown bent over in reverence to the latter. In other icons, John is shown with his face turned toward heaven and beholding the miracle of the Theophany; either way, despite being the baptizer, he is not central to the scene. Sometimes the iconographers present, near to the Forerunner of Christ, a tree with an axe laid at the root, recalling John’s sermon of repentance to those who came to him: “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire” (Mt. 3:10). On the bank opposite to John the Baptist, 64 The Angelus November - December 2020 angels incline toward Jesus, reverently holding the cloths over their hands that are a sign of touching something sacred, waiting with reverence to accept the newly revealed Son of God. In the middle—the moment of revelation itself. Despite being the one submerged in the Jordan, Jesus is shown as though hovering over the waters, standing up and staring straight at us. He appears almost as wide as the river Jordan itself; indeed: it is as though it is Jesus Christ, rather than the river, which cuts a swathe through the rocky wilderness on either side. Although standing in the middle of the Jordan, the waters do not submerge Him. The prominence of Jesus’ body over the water shows that it is not Jesus being reborn, but it is actually creation being renewed. This renewal begins at the very moment when the Most Holy Trinity manifests itself to men to accomplish their redemption. God turns again towards the primeval waters, touches them by the body of the Word, purifies them and makes them an instrument of His salvation. The waters also appear as a “flowing tomb” which surrounds Jesus on all sides, emphasizing that He was immersed as a sign of His burial, as Baptism signifies the Lord’s death, as St. Paul states: “Buried with him in baptism, in whom also you are risen again by the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him up from the dead” (Col. 2:12). The icon of the Theophany, as well as depicting the Holy Trinity, also answers the question of St. John the Baptist: “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” The answer is in what Jesus does with His hands. Whilst in Western art Jesus is shown as submitting to John’s authority, in the icons of the Eastern Church, Christ’s hands are not shown in prayer, but with His left hand pointing to the waters, which He is blessing with His right hand. These details make the point that, rather than the waters of Jordan cleansing Christ, it is Christ Who cleans the waters to make of them an instrument of His sanctifying power. This is why in the bottom of most Theophany icons, little creatures, representations of the waters of the Jordan and of the sea, appear to be fleeing from the feet of Christ. This is a reflection of the words of the Psalmist regarding the Messiah: “When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people: Judea was made his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea saw and fled: Jordan was turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like the lambs of the flock. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou didst flee: and thou, O Jordan, that thou wast turned back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams, and ye hills, like lambs of the flock? At the presence of the Lord the earth was moved, at the presence of the God of Jacob: Who turned the rock into pools of water, and the stony hill into fountains of waters” (Ps. 113). The icon of the Theophany contains a rich theological teaching. It shows us the revelation of Christ to the world: how His gesture of humility reveals His true nature, divine and human. And this first manifestation does not stop with Christ: it is the revelation of the Trinity, made explicit for the first time. Finally, this revelation of the divine life is, at the same time, a revelation of the true nature of the world to the eyes of faith. 65 Christian Culture Can Anything Good Come from France? By John Rao, D.Phil. Oxon. “Blessed be the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck” (Lk. 11:27). Anniversary celebrations of both individuals and societies enable us to judge whether the expectations accompanying their birth have or have not been fulfilled. I would therefore like to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Society of Saint Pius X and take stock of its achievement with reference not to its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, but, rather, to the broader womb from which both he and it emerged. And I think it appropriate to do so in response to a question that I already once asked sixteen years ago in the pages of another Catholic journal: “Can anything good come from France?” Why would I even dream of approaching this “stock taking” by posing such an odd sounding query? I feel compelled to do so for two reasons, 66 The Angelus November - December 2020 the first of which is that I am always upset by the disdain for France that seems to be a prejudice deeply ingrained in mainstream pluralist American life. Such disdain most powerfully comes to the fore whenever that mainstream attitude is confronted with any effort to defend that nation’s traditional possession of a truly distinct, substantive, and therefore thoroughly anti-pluralist culture. My second reason is the fact that my whole career has been a battle against this pluralist mentality and its inevitably nihilist conclusions under influences so many of which are French in origin that I feel myself to be an adopted child of Archbishop Lefebvre and the SSPX’s natural mother, whose honor and culture producing skills I therefore must defend. The Deposit of French Culture Our common natural and adoptive mother’s chief cultural concern has always been expressed in a passion for education and the perfection of society at large, through which the people living in it are lifted upwards as well. Nothing could be more destructive to pluralist nihilism, built as it is upon the vision of a world where toleration of an anarchic individualism is the key to happiness, than the kind of socially educative and uplifting alternative to formless openness that French culture has represented through the ages. For the breeze wafting in from a tradition-soaked Gaul has always nudged—and still in many ways continues to nudge—people into a pilgrimage towards a clear, exalted, and common goal that pluralist America cannot help but recognize as dangerously alien to its drab, materialist, individualist raison d’être. What is it that most perfectly shaped the traditional French understanding of this clear goal and the passion for offering the kind of education needed to reach it? Catholicism; Catholicism in all of its fullness; the Catholicism that appreciated every “Seed of the Logos” that came before it, and therefore worked together with those precious elements in a Greco-Roman culture that had already rooted itself deeply in the soul of the educated classes of ancient Gaul. And since that Catholicism was universal in its mission, those to whom it gave such an education recognized their need not to keep this treasure hidden under a bushel, but to spread it to the very ends of the earth. A charitable Christian sharing of both her spiritual gifts as well as the beautiful wrapping in which she learned to offer them has always been Catholic France’s most glorious contribution to the enhancement of the Mystical Body of Christ at large. She gave of her abundance in the eighth and ninth centuries, when the greatest of her contemporary prelates and teachers, inspired by men like the Carolingian Bishop Chrodegang of Metz (d. 766), lovingly accepting the Roman Rite, enriched the universal Church’s rather Spartan liturgy, endowing it with a more appropriate and lasting splendor. She added still further to this largess by means of the reform of the tenth through the twelfth centuries, which began with the monks of Cluny from Burgundy, who then went on an international march through Christendom, strengthening the Holy Roman Empire politically, and the Papacy in spirit and administratively, so as to allow both to work for the transformation of all men in Christ. Gallic gifts of the mind followed those of the spirit, with Paris soon providing the theological and philosophical guidance that gave the grand culture of the High Middle Ages the means not only to use of all of nature for the greater glory of God but also to explain why and how it could do so. The French Catholic Reformation As we move into modernity, the land that for my purposes here I should now refer to as the Eldest Mother of Christendom continued her charitable and universal labors in two distinct phases. The first of these came along with the French Catholic Reformation and a mammoth contribution to the education of the faithful, 67 Christian Culture both clerical and lay, and in a myriad of ways. Education of the clergy to a sense of its dignity and its lofty responsibilities was the theme of Cardinal François de la Rouchefoucauld (1558-1645) in his De la perfection de l’état ecclésiastique (1597). This was put into practice through the unofficial seminary set up by Père Adrien Bourdoise (1584-1655) at a certain Parisian Church to which we will return below, and more formally by Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle (1575-1629) with the French Oratory, JeanJacques Olier’s (1608-1657) through the Company of Saint Sulpice, and St. Jean Eudes’ (1601-1680) Congregation of Jesus and Mary. Meanwhile, colleges of French Jesuits and Oratorians, and, a bit later, those of the Brothers of the Christian Schools of St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle (1651-1719), sought the elevation of laymen. Laywomen, whose education was more and more considered to be crucial to the improvement of family life, were also formed—to begin with, by the Ursulines, and later, backed by the encouragement of Louis XIV’s (1643-1715) second wife, Madam de Maintenon (1635-1719), and the great François de Salignac Le Mothe Fénelon (1651-1715), Bishop of Cambrai. General education was continued through the development of the episcopal pastoral letter and the perfection of the preaching art, which reached its apex by the end of the century with Fénelon, Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet of Meaux (1627-1704), and the Jesuit Louis Bourdaloue (1632-1704). The fathers of the Society of Jesus, worked to the same purpose through such pious guides as Nicolas Caussin (1583 -1651), confessor to King Louis XIII (16101643). Orders founded by French-speakers, including St. Vincent de Paul’s (1581-1662) Congregation of the Mission and the Visitandines of St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) and St. Jeanne de Chantal (1572-1641), played a significant role here as well. The Jesuits were inventive in the number of educative tools that they utilized, especially those theatrical, and the period also saw the widespread dissemination of devotional and catechetical works. The Jesuits, St. Jean Eudes, and the Congregation of the Mission, convinced that France itself was a mission country in need 68 The Angelus November - December 2020 of evangelization, organized highly sophisticated sweeps of the countryside to teach, preach, and firm up commitment to practice of the faith. Each sortie was repeated at regular intervals to make sure the good seed had not fallen by the wayside. A rich French strain of mystical writing soon emerged, including the Capuchin Benoit de Canfield’s (1562 -1660) Règle de perfection (1609), Pierre de Bérulle’s Discours de l’état et des grandeurs de Jesus (1623), Olier’s Journée chrétienne (1670), and the posthumous (1694) compilation of the teachings of the Jesuit Louis Lallemont (1588-1635), the Doctrine spirituelle. Marie Guyard (1599-1672), an Ursuline active in Canada under the name Marie de l’Incarnation, and many others, taught mystical concerns by example. Different in their specific approaches, all urged some form of meditation on Christ’s Sacred Heart and His love for mankind, self-abasement before His majesty, grace, and goodness, imitation of the Holy Family, friendship with Mary, and specific penitential and eucharistic practices. One type of devotion to the Sacred Heart received especially powerful support from the revelations to Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) and the writings of her Jesuit confessor, Claude de la Colombière (1641-1682). Devout Humanism But were personal and corporate prayer life alone sufficient for education and elevation of the soul to union with God? A resounding “no” came from different pious circles. What was referred to as “devout Humanism,” as found in the Jesuit Pierre Coton’s (1564-1626) Intérieure occupation d’une âme dévote (1608), or the spirituality of Saint Francis de Sales’ Introduction à la vie dévote (1609) and Traité de l’amour de Dieu (1616), spoke volumes about the need for active individuals to raise themselves to God through their particular vocations in the world. All Christians, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Louise de Marillac (1591-1660), and their friends argued, had charitable responsibilities to perform for the sick and the poor, educating them in this regard. All these prelates, priests, and religious were aided immeasurably in making their influence felt by an army of laywomen, among them Madame Barbe Acarie (1566-1618), who eventually entered religious life as the Carmelite Marie de l’Incarnation, and St. Louise de Marillac whose work with St. Vincent de Paul led to the creation of the Daughters of Charity. Louise’s uncle, Michel de Marillac (1563-1632), was one of the most important political figures from the large pool of laymen in the dévot camp. While Jesuit Marian congregations, and sodalities sponsored known to most believers. Nevertheless, there was a second stage, reflecting France’s crucial role in stimulating the general Catholic revival of the 19th century. Interestingly enough, this French role followed and responded to what might be considered a corruptio optimi pessima of the overall national commitment to a universal cultural mission—the one that erupted violently in 1789 in support of a recipe for the destruction of all of mankind under the aegis of the naturalist Enlightenment and Revolution. by other priests and religious, were often the locus for lay involvement, private homes also became dévot foyers. Nobles such as Henri de Lévis (1596-1680), Duke of Ventadour, created and fueled the lay Company of the Blessed Sacrament, which operated in France almost as a kind of Catholic Freemasonry. Here, too, the evangelical and broadly educative fruits that were produced and spread freely throughout the globe were too many to number, among which were: the massive labor for the revitalization of the foreign missions, built upon both clerical and lay pillars; the further and more intensified encouragement of devotional life, not just through increased commitment to the Sacred Heart but to that of Eucharist Adoration as well; the restoration of Gregorian Chant which was the life work of Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805-1875); the general battle for freedom of education that characterized the entire century and mobilized parents through Europe; the flexing of the muscles of the Press as an educative tool, by means of Catholic The 19th Century Catholic Revival I have dedicated a lot of space to the Eldest Mother of Christendom’s first stage of modern educative largess, all of which resonated round the entire Catholic world, because it is much less 69 Christian Culture athletes like Louis Veuillot (1813-1883); the decisive support given to the Ultramontanist Movement on behalf of the strengthening of the Papacy as the supreme teacher of the individual and society as a whole; and, finally, that mass of Catholic political theory discussing how to defend the Catholic religious mission in the secular realm which has been the nourishment of believers outside the borders of France everywhere. The SSPX Continues the French National Mission Has the SSPX continued the French national mission, cultivated its international responsibilities, and given its mother cause for great pride? I do not see how anyone with a single honest bone in his body could answer this question with anything other than an unqualified “yes”! Certainly Père Bourdoise must be looking down with pride over the more formal clerical education under very difficulty circumstances offered by a Society connected so intimately with the Church of St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, where he set us his unofficial seminary in the first place. St. Chrodegang and Dom Guéranger must both be rejoicing as well, knowing that sons of France had maintained the role of Gregorian Chant within a Roman Rite enhanced in splendor through the influence of Gaul, and recruited followers the globe over to aid them in the task of raising the minds and hearts of the faithful through the educative power of the Divine Liturgy. And we can certainly at least hope that the great nineteenth century supporters of Ultramontanism are recognizant of the fact that the Society’s founder and all of his disciples have illustrated just how much commitment to a strong Papacy, loyal to the whole of the Catholic Tradition in general and the First Vatican Council’s teaching on Papal Infallibility in particular, benefits from the presence of a religious fraternity ready to point out the necessary limitations on papal authority gone mad. “My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials” (Sirach, 2:1), Sirach 70 The Angelus November - December 2020 told his fellow Jews in the days of the Old Covenant. The whole of Church History proves this to be true for the New Covenant as well. But there is a special character to the torment inflicted upon those coming to serve the Lord in New Covenant days that applies to the work and the glory of the SSPX: the treatment of those defending the fullness of the Catholic Tradition as though they were somehow actually straying from the fold. This redefinition of Tradition on the part of Catholics who are real and dangerous innovators is a phenomenon that true “reformers”—-believers who fervently seek to “restore all things in Christ”—have regularly faced through throughout the Christian centuries, including such heroes as the monks of Cluny, Pope St. Gregory VII, the men behind the Observant Movements seeking the restoration of the discipline of the older orders in the 1400s and 1500s, and the early promoters of the Catholic Reformation. Although I myself never felt the mainstream American disdain for French culture, and had been introduced to many of the spiritual, intellectual, and aesthetic achievements noted above in my undergraduate university career, I nevertheless have to confess that I was not prepared for the personal experience of the full meaning of them, which came through my first trip to France in the early 1970s. It was love at first sight, and unlike other such love affairs it is one that has endured. That love affair is strengthened every time I lecture at the SSPX seminary or worship at an SSPX altar, whether that of a tiny chapel or a large church like St. Nicolas du Chadonnet. My adopted mother has been good to me, both directly and through the assistance of one of the finest of her natural sons, Archbishop Lefebvre. Blessed indeed is the womb in which he and his society were born, and blessed be the paps that gave them suck! Viva Cristo Rey! 168 pp. – Softcover – 4.5” X 6.5” – STK# 8778 – $9.95 Pocket Apologetic The Truth of the Catholic Religion Attested by Holy Scripture and Reason This book provides a brief, easy-toabsorb guide to the absolute bare necessities of apologetics. It gives a breakdown of Holy Scripture, the history of the Early Church, testimonies of the Early Church Fathers, and the rise of Protestantism. Learn to defend these commonly attacked Catholic doctrines, sacraments and truths. Call 1-800-966-7337 and get yours today! Visit www.angeluspress.org — 1-800-966-7337 Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music. Christian Culture How to Educate the Child To Order Their Belongings By the Sisters of the Society St. Pius X The calling of an educator is the most beautiful, but without a doubt also the most difficult. It means making of the child, so inclined to satisfy his little instincts and passions, a child of God, reflective and reflecting, who finds his joy in imitating his Father: Truth, Beauty, and Eternal Perfection. Here is a beautiful program, which should begin from the youngest age. We can say that the human soul resembles a ski course: at the start, it is uneven, bumpy…but the more one passes over it, the more it becomes smooth, to the point where one can glide without even looking for it. It is the same for our actions: the more we accomplish something, the more we get used to it, and the easier it becomes, without effort. We have noticed that the children who are quick to fool around are often the children who 72 The Angelus November - December 2020 are not sufficiently occupied. Certainly, the occupation ought to be suitable for their age! It seems that from the age of two years old they can “help Mother tidy the bedroom or the toy chest” in order to then do it all by themselves, “like the big kids.” Order in their belongings has a great pedagogic value! What Order Implies Let us simply think how many notions this word implies: order is certainly to assure that nothing is left out, it is also a schedule in the day—that is to say punctuality—duties done without delay; it is also order in the relations with those around us, the respect of elders for example! The child who has taken the habit to be ordered in little exterior things will also show himself ordered in his interior, that is to say his character. One does not go without the other. He who keeps his desk in order, leaving only what he needs at the present for his assignments, who keeps his notebooks in order—clean and tidy— who keeps his clothes in order, his dresser, etc., that child’s soul is very likely ordered. Ordered within himself, in his little personal world; with others, who he respects and will never keep waiting; he is also ordered toward God. His thoughts do not wander, they are ordered… to God! This child learns little by little from four or five years old: all his little belongings have their proper place, which he knows well, so that he could find them in the dark. Toys that are well put away in their chest (which is easier when there are not too many), clothes in the closet, crayons in their box, notebooks and books carefully stacked, what else is there? There will be the advantage of not being irritated, neither the child nor Mother, in order to find a sock or a math assignment before leaving for school, and thus to lose neither time nor patience. This also is part of the order of not hesitating to return lent items to their legitimate owner. “That which is little, is little, but to be faithful in little things is a great thing,” says Saint Augustine. Thus habituated to order, our little Christian will be strong against his bad inclinations, which result from a disordered nature! He will not be superficial, inconstant; he will do his work completely. He will be joyful, because nothing delights the heart like having a peaceful and ordered conscience! Growing up, we will place confidence in him, because he will radiate exteriorly the interior order of his soul. He will not be precipitous or untidy; he will not forget his engagements… me something, I will without doubt keep it in my memory; but let me do it, and it will be engraved in me.” Tidy his or her room with them, or put away their toys patiently, until they are able to do it themselves. It will not be perfect right away, but encourage them. Do not fall into the temptation to put things away for them, “because it is quicker.” They will no longer have the taste for work. If necessary, redo it with them and little by little it will come. With the love of order, they will also have acquired that of perseverance and of self-mastery. Practical Application Practically, how do we accomplish this? A psychologist has affirmed, “If you tell me something, I will certainly forget it; if you show 73 Christian Culture by Fr. Juan Carlos Iscara, SSPX Protestants often reprimand us, Catholics, for disobeying Our Lord’s command by calling our priests “Father.” Are they right? Are we truly disobedient? Protestants easily quote the Scriptures, but too often separating the words from their context and from any reference to parallel texts—while it is that context and reference which illuminates 74 The Angelus November - December 2020 the true meaning of the expressions, a meaning that has been confirmed, many centuries before Luther, by the Catholic Church’s reading and understanding of them. In the Gospel of St. Matthew (Mt. 23:8-10), we certainly read that Our Lord has said: But be not you called Rabbi. For one is your master; and all you are brethren. And call none your father upon earth; for one is your father, who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; for one is your master, Christ. As Our Lord does not seem to make any exceptions, these words would demand that absolutely nobody could be called father or teacher or master. Therefore, if understood literally, it would be forbidden to use those terms even for those who have given us life or who have taught us at school… Nonetheless, He Himself, the Word of God, has applied those terms to men in the Scriptures He has inspired. He has used the term “father” in reference to our biological parents when revealing and then restating the Commandments (Ex. 20:12, Lk. 18:20). But it is also abundantly used in reference to relationships that go beyond the purely biological generation. The prophet Eliseus used the term in a spiritual sense, claiming after Elias when taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire: And Eliseus saw him, and cried: My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the driver thereof (IV Kings 2:12). It is used when addressing a person deserving a special respect, as when the rich man calls up to Abraham from his damnation in hell: And he cried, and said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame (Lk. 16:24). It is applied to our elders, even when they persecute us, as Stephen did when addressing those who condemned him: Ye men, brethren, and fathers, hear (Acts 7:2). It is applied to those who have the temporal care of others, as the patriarch Joseph did in Egypt: Not by your counsel was I sent hither, but by the will of God: who hath made me as it were a father to Pharao, and lord of his whole house, and governor in all the land of Egypt (Gen. 45:8). The Apostles considered themselves as the spiritual fathers of their disciples and called them sons and St. Paul glories himself in this spiritual paternity: I write not these things to confound you; but I admonish you as my dearest children. For if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the gospel, I have begotten you (I Cor. 4:14-15). It is in this sense that we, Catholics, call our priests “Father.” It is therefore clear that Our Lord does not forbid us to use the term “father” in these senses, which the Word of God has abundantly used in the inspired Scripture. He expresses Himself forcefully, in a hyperbole, to condemn those who demand special titles and honors, seeking to exalt themselves above others. Therefore, no, we are not disobedient to Our Lord’s commands, because we are doing exactly what He Himself has done. In traditionalist circles, when talking about certain groups or individuals, we tend to toss around too much the accusation of heresy. But what is, exactly, a heresy? Originally, the Greek word hairesis was a neutral term, signifying holding or choosing a particular set of opinions. Appropriated by Catholic theology, the term now commonly means the profession of an error against the faith. When someone expresses an opinion that contradicts Catholic dogma, he is asserting a heretical view, but that does not mean, necessarily that he has committed the sin of heresy or that he has to be considered as a heretic. As defined in Canon Law, heresy is a voluntary and pertinacious error, in the external forum and before God, against a truth which must be believed with divine and Catholic faith, by a baptized individual who confesses faith in Christ. It is a voluntary error—a false judgment of the intellect, elicited by a malicious will. Although 75 Christian Culture the person is aware that his opinion contradicts a dogma revealed and proposed as such by the solemn or ordinary Magisterium of the Church, he nonetheless willingly denies or positively doubts that truth of faith. It is neither an error arising from mere ignorance (even if such ignorance is culpable), nor the simple assertion of an error, by word or action, out of fear or other motive, insofar as the internal faith is kept. The error must be manifested in the external forum, as canonical law deals only with what can be ascertained from the exterior, with words and actions externally manifested, and not with the internal dispositions of an individual. It is a pertinacious error. This “pertinacity” is not simple stubbornness in holding one’s views, but a precisely defined canonical term; it means that the competent ecclesiastical authority has made the person aware of the fact that his opinions contradict Catholic dogma and that, in spite of those repeated warnings, the person persists in his erroneous opinions. Finally, to be heresy, it also must be professed by a Catholic who has acknowledged the divine authority of the Church to teach men the truths of faith. Therefore, it is not heresy if it is professed by one who is not baptized (infidel, Jew, etc.) or who has been baptized in infancy but never made a personal act of faith. In today’s world, it is evident that many Catholics hold heretical opinions, but—unless all the above elements are present—we cannot necessarily conclude that all of them have fallen into the sin of heresy. 344 pp.–Hardcover–STK# 8343✱–$25.55 The Best of Questions and Answers The best questions and the best answers of 40 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 Angelus 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 76 – The Bible and Biblical Matters – The Trinity, Jesus Christ, The Virgin November - December 2020 188 pp. – Black coil-bound – 5.5” x 8.5” – STK# 8781 – $15.95 2021 Daily Planner Stay organized and center your life around the great liturgical feasts of the year. The long-awaited Angelus Press Daily Planner is now available to all! This new product takes the favorite elements of our best-selling calendar and offers it as a highly functional, attractive, traditional Catholic Daily Planner. It clearly indicates the class of the feast, the vestment color, the classic fish image for fast and abstinence days, as well as Holy Days of Obligation according to the 1962 Roman Missal. Includes: - Popular saints of the month with illustrations and short biographies - Saint of the day, class of feast, vestment color, days of fast and abstinence and Holy Days of Obligation are indicated - Space for day-to-day journal entries, weekly, monthly notes and to-dos - Pages for additional notes and sketches - Full year calendars, full month calendars, names and addresses and much, much more! This handy journal size planner is a must-have for those Catholics who like to have something physical in which to schedule their day, week, month and year. A perfect and popular gift for your Catholic circle! Visit www.angeluspress.org — 1-800-966-7337 Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music. Catechism Part Five: Prof. Felix Otten, O.P. and C.F. Pauwels, O.P. Editor’s Note: This article continues the series of straightforward responses to frequently-encountered questions and objections concerning the Catholic Faith. The questions and answers are adapted from Professor Felix Otten, O.P. and C.F. Pauwels, O.P.’s The Most Frequently Encountered Difficulties, published originally in Dutch in 1939. Why are Catholics arrogant in their pretense that their Church is the true means of salvation and that no one outside the Church can be saved? In order to be able to judge this claim properly, one must first properly understand the expression: “there is no salvation outside the Church.” In the Catholic Church, a distinction is made between the soul and the body of the Church. To the body of the Church, that is, to the 78 The Angelus November - December 2020 visible organization, belong those who have been baptized Catholic, profess the Catholic Faith, and live according to the laws of the Catholic Church. In other words, those who have not openly separated themselves from the Church or been banned by the Church herself can be saved. At the same time, all who live in the love of God belong to the soul of the Church, that is to say to the inner spiritual community. We’ll touch on this in our answer to the next question. Catholics call their Church the all-saving Church because no other confession or sect purporting to be the Church is willed and founded by God, and in no way can be a means of attaining salvation. No one outside the body of the Catholic Church can belong to the Church’s soul as such just because he is a member of another religious association. In that way, someone may be instructed in the true Faith and receive the means of grace established by God, namely the sacraments. It is the safe and secure way of attaining salvation. As such, if one has the opportunity to be part of the body of the Church, one must do so. This seems to say that there is no chance of salvation for those who are not Catholics. What about those who are outside the true Church and yet, in good faith? Is there no way for them to obtain salvation? It is not lack of knowledge or ignorance as such which can save someone, but good faith and fidelity to divine grace and the “baptism of desire” does bring about salvation. According to Catholic doctrine, however, God’s infinite love and mercy opens a “roundabout” way to the goal of salvation, albeit only for those who do not know or do not have available the straight and narrow path of being a formal member of the Catholic Church. Nobody thinks that their non-Catholic neighbor who wishes to come to the truth, and then in faith and love performs his duties to God as his conscience prescribes and who, if he has sinned, returns to God in sincere repentance, cannot be saved. Here is the way Pius XII presents the case of souls outside the Church, in his encyclical on the Mystical Body. When most affectionately inviting to unity those who do not belong to the body of the Catholic Church, he mentions those who “are related to the Mystical Body of the Redeemer by a certain unconscious yearning and desire,” and these he by no means excludes from eternal salvation, but on the other hand states that they are in a condition “in which they cannot be sure of their salvation” since “they still remain deprived of those many heavenly gifts and helps which can only be enjoyed in the Catholic Church.” With these wise words he reproves both those who exclude from eternal salvation all united to the Church only by implicit desire, and those who falsely assert that men can be saved equally well in every religion. In conclusion, the Catholic principle, “there is no salvation outside the Church” is thus nothing but a necessary and inevitable consequence of the doctrine that Christ founded only one Church. And, in their explanation of the possibilities of salvation, Catholics are far wider and more generous than many others who purport that there is a wider path to Heaven. While upholding the truth of the Catholic Church, Catholics always keep a close eye on the unfathomable mercy of God and His love for the entire human race. Many Catholics like to call their church the Roman Catholic Church. But the use of that name is incorrect: they only speak then of a localized Roman Church. Because Catholic means universal, then they cannot be speaking of the one, true, universal Church. To this objection we could say: What is in a name? Anyone using the word Catholic right now is almost always referring to Roman Catholics; and that parlance will not change anytime soon. And when Catholics are called Romans, they are not ashamed of that name. After all, Rome is the center of Western ecclesiastical life, because that is where the successors of St. Peter reside and keep their ecclesiastical see. There are dangerous misconceptions that can arise, namely that to be part of the Church, one must be “Roman,” or that is, follow the rites and customs of the Roman Church. This is untrue. The Catholic Church is a room with many mansions. This is attested to in part by the numerous Eastern churches in communion with Rome. Catholics believe that Christ founded one church, but within this body there is diversity across time, languages, and culture. That has never been a problem, even in the earliest 79 Catechism centuries of the Church where peoples across disparate cultures were brought into the Church with their own unique rites and customs. At the same time, Catholics reject the notion that there is an “invisible church” that exists alongside the Catholic Church. In other words, there is not a “hidden church” encompassing all sects that profess to be Catholic. The Catholic Church has always had a concrete existence in time and space, open and available to all who hear the Gospel and accept the Faith. That the Catholic Church may manifest herself in various ways in accordance with venerable traditions of local peoples is nothing new; but all Catholics profess the same faith in fullness, which is what unites them regardless of liturgical rites or spiritual disciplines. Every good Christian must long for the restoration of unity among all Christians. At the moment, this is being done in all kinds of ways. Why does traditional Catholic doctrine call for the Catholic Church to be aloof from that enterprise? Why have Catholics historically been told to reject ecumenical societies and other similar enterprises? Catholics long no less than dissenters from the Faith for unity among all Christians. But by virtue of their beliefs, they have their own conception of the nature of the Church and nature of this unity. Further, Catholics have their own understanding of how this unity should be achieved. And so, they cannot cooperate with various attempts by non-Catholics to attain that unity, because those efforts must end in the wrong kind of unity. In the first place, Catholics believe that the unity of the Church herself is already there and has always existed unabated. This is true despite how divided those who call themselves Christians may be. For the true Church, the Catholic Church, has a perfect unity. So, 80 The Angelus November - December 2020 Catholics do not assume that unity is yet to be established, much less that a new, one Church should be established; but Catholics believe that all Christians must be brought into that existing one Church, and only thus can the division end. Then Catholics believe that there must be unity in all that Christ has willed and instituted: in doctrine, the means of grace, and ecclesiastical organization. In other words, three things converge to produce the unity of the Church: the same faith, the same sacraments and the same submission to the Pope as Vicar of Christ. A more or less vague unity of feeling is not enough. So, Catholics do not believe that unity can be achieved through some kind of compromise, through a give and take, by covering up differences. Christians can only truly become one if they all accept the truth. However, the Catholic Church maintains that for the sake of unity it can yield to everything that is established and arranged by custom, history, and local culture. Thus, for example, it leaves Eastern Christians free to preserve their own ancient rites and their traditional customs, which are not based on error but rooted in their acceptance of the Faith; but it cannot compromise with that which she regards as ordained and taught by God. The Church cannot be blamed for that. The Church would therefore be in a skewed position if it participated in today’s reunification efforts and congresses, because there is generally a more liberal spirit there and these groups seek to achieve rapprochement between varying confessions while preserving each individual’s character. But the Church rejoices in the existing desire for unity, because this can be the beginning of the search for true unity. 1,408 pp. – Printed hardcover – STK# 8770 – $74.95 Michael Davies defends the Archbishop in this classic 3-volume set Now Available in Hardback! Limited Print Run. Michael Davies’ monumental Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre defends the Archbishop and his epic fight for the Faith during the crucial liturgical battles of the 1970s and early 1980s. This beautiful hardbound three-volume set is essential for every catholic home library and for anyone who wants to understand the scope and impact of what actually happened at Vatican II. Michael Davies on the Archbishop: It is thanks to Archbishop Lefebvre more than any other individual that the Mass is now being celebrated throughout the world. Without the Archbishop, there would be no Indult Masses, no Fraternity of St. Peter, no monastery at Le Barroux. One might hope that all those who now assist at the Tridentine Mass each Sunday outside the auspices of the SSPX would appreciate that they owe this inestimable privilege to Monsignor Lefebvre. In my opinion, the Archbishop is a saint and will emerge with more credit than any other prelate when the history of these troubled times is written.—Michael Davies Visit www.angeluspress.org — 1-800-966-7337 Please visit our website to see our entire selection of books and music. Theological Studies Who is the Problem: The SSPX or Rome? By Fr. Jean-Michel Gleize “We mustn’t be surprised that we are unable to get along with Rome. It will be impossible so long as Rome does not return to the Faith in the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, so long as she gives the impression that all religions are good. We disagree on a point of the Catholic Faith, as Cardinal Bea and Cardinal Ottaviani disagreed, and as all the popes disagreed with liberalism”—Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, November 27, 1988. “The problem will remain so long as the Society of Saint Pius X does not adhere to the doctrinal declaration approved by Pope Francis and presented by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.” After quoting these words by Archbishop Pozzo, we remarked in our article that “the problem, therefore, is indeed, first and foremost, a doctrinal problem,” and that “in Rome’s own eyes, 82 The Angelus November - December 2020 the canonical recognition depends on the resolution of this problem.” Resolving the Doctrinal Problem Coming from Rome, this is nothing new. Archbishop Pozzo had already clearly voiced the same opinion in the beginning of the year 2017. “The reconciliation,” he said, “will occur when Monsignor Fellay formally adheres to the doctrinal declaration that the Holy See presented to him. This is also the necessary condition to then proceed to the institutional regularization with the creation of a personal prelature.” These declarations, authorized on the whole, provide an opportunity to show exactly where the fundamental problem between the Holy See and the bishops and priests of the SSPX lies. The explanation is simple: it is the Rome of today’s divergence from the Rome of all times and this divergence has to do with the way of understanding and presenting the doctrine revealed by God. That is why this problem can in no way be explained by the attitude adopted so far by Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society towards the Rome of today. Let us be clear, at the risk of provoking astonishment and incomprehension from more than a few in the Holy Church of God: the problem is not the SSPX, it is the Rome of today, the Rome “of neo-Protestant and neo-Modernist tendencies,” as His Excellency Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre liked to say, in somewhat convoluted terms. The problem today is the Rome of today, because in Rome the current members of the hierarchy, the Pope and the bishops, have adopted this new Protestant and Modernist tendency, and in so doing have broken away from eternal Rome. And this happened with Vatican Council II. In the eyes of many who, despite their numbers, are not among the most clearsighted, the problem would at first sight seem to be that the Society does not have a regular situation in the Church. To quote the exact words used by Archbishop Pozzo, the problem is supposedly that the priests and bishops of the SSPX exercise their ministry “illicitly and illegitimately.” Consequently, the problem would come from the Society and its members, the Society first and not the Rome of today. But in reality, by the secretary of the Pontifical Ecclesia Dei Commission’s own admission, this supposed illegitimacy is but a consequence, and the fundamental problem lies in the doctrinal divergence that opposes the Society to the current representatives of the hierarchy, precisely because the latter claim to adhere to Vatican Council II. This divergence is therefore the cause, and the supposed illegitimacy but one of its possible effects. And as far as this divergence is concerned, the problem comes from the Rome of today. The Society’s situation is but the consequent effect. If the Society can potentially and apparently present a problem canonically or ecclesiastically speaking, this is first of all because the Rome of today presents a problem doctrinally speaking. For the effect proceeds from its cause. The Church being a supernatural society, the unity of Faith is necessarily at the principle and foundation of the unity of government and that is why any divergence on the former level causes a divergence on the latter level. The supposed canonical irregularity is the effect that follows from the doctrinal divergence. The Rupture Within Rome As for all effects, this one is to be judged in the light of its cause. This is an absolutely necessary principle that allows for no exception in any domain, for it is a metaphysical principle. If we wish to understand why, in the eyes of the Rome of today, the Society remains in what they call an “illegitimate” situation, we have to start by understanding why this Rome of today is herself in rupture with the Rome of all times. This rupture is doctrinal. And the fundamental problem, of which the supposed illegitimacy of the Society is but a consequence on the canonical or ecclesial level, is the Rome of today’s acceptance on the doctrinal level of the reforms undertaken by Vatican Council II. The problem is not that the Society refuses the Council, for to remain Catholic and in the Church, one has no choice but to refuse such a Council. The problem is that the Rome of today accepts it, with no heed for her bimillenary Tradition. If we had to resort (with all the necessary precautions) to the eloquent and picturesque terms of a metaphor, we would say that the Society is in good health, and the Rome of today is sick. And when a sick man is in denial about his own illness, he almost inevitably accuses those in good health of being sick. But let’s move on. The problem, therefore, is not, on the SSPX’s side, what we might today call a problem of “ecclesiality.” The Society is and remains a work of the Church, a society that is fully part of the Church, so fully and so completely that it even represents one of the healthiest parts in the Church. Indeed, the Society is defined by goal and this goal is (Statutes, II, 1) “the priesthood” and therefore (Statutes III, 1) the works of priestly formation, which “will carefully avoid the modern errors, especially liberalism and all its substitutes.” The Society’s attitude towards the Rome of today follows immediately from this principle: to protect the Catholic priesthood from the modern errors and to protect also the Faith of the Church that it is the priesthood’s mission to preach for the sanctification of souls. This attitude—or this role—of the Society is absolutely vital since in the Holy Church the priesthood represents not only an indispens83 Theological Studies able principle, but a first principle. The priesthood is the very principle of the Church, for without it, the Church would cease to be what she is. The corruption of the first principle is the worst thing possible, and the defense of it is the most necessary and most urgent need. Insofar as the Rome of today is infected with these modern errors that corrupt the priesthood and the Church, it is the Society’s duty to act with regards to this present-day Rome in such a way as to neutralize these errors. This should be the profound explanation of the entire combat of the Faith waged by the Society so far. And the entire attitude of the Rome of today (ever since the Council) that considers the Society’s action illegitimate is but the other side of this combat being fought by the Society, the side of the men of the Church who currently hold the power in Rome. If the light disperses the shadows, the shadows try to smother the light, but never succeed. This defense of the Catholic priesthood that is the first principle and the common good of the entire Church, is a properly ecclesial goal, which makes the Society a work of the Church. The ecclesiality of the Society comes from this: it comes from the finis operis, the proper and specific object of the society founded by Archbishop Lefebvre and duly recognized as such by Bishop Charrière in 1970. No dent has since been made in this ecclesiality by the conciliar authorities, for no dent could be made. It is rather the ecclesiality of the members of the hierarchy that has become increasingly problematic since Vatican II and modernism that are destroying the current authorities. Canonical Legitimacy Is Not the First Goal The Society should therefore not set up as its absolutely first goal, that is, its principle of action, to seek to obtain canonical legitimacy that would supposedly remedy a lack of ecclesiality. The question of the Society’s ecclesiality does not exist in reality. It only exists in the minds of some, who are not members or faithful of the Society in the Church, and who believe in good faith that the Society is “against the Pope” or “schismatic” or “not in full communion” or “not in a legitimate situation.” To express these things in the technical language of scholastic logic, we would say that the question does not arise of itself but accidentally. Some people make the mistake of believing that 84 The Angelus November - December 2020 this question arises in reality and of itself; others make the diametrically opposite mistake of believing that it does not arise at all, not even in the minds of some and accidentally. The solution is to say that the question arises not in reality or of itself but in the minds of some and accidentally. This means that the Society does not need to have a guilt complex, or to suffer or make excuses for not being in the Church, (besides, “he who excuses himself, accuses himself,” as the French saying goes); it should rather maintain and assert that it is right and at the same time denounce the wrongs of the modernists; and it should do so in a pastoral and prudent way, taking into account the weakness of the ignorant, according the precept of the Apostle: “We that are stronger, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Rom. 15:1). The Society is perfectly legitimate and regular, for it is in the Church and of the Church, and that is absolutely certain and beyond doubt. Coming from the Rome of today, a canonical legitimation would add nothing, from this viewpoint, to the intrinsic goodness of the Society. It could only add a certain extrinsic goodness, to the extent that in the minds of many, it would put an end to a false and unjust opinion that is being encouraged to the detriment of the Society. The full importance of this should not be forgotten, but it is a different question, a secondary question in the eyes of the Society of St. Pius X’s founder. “What interests us first of all,” he used to say, “is to keep the Catholic Faith. That is our fight. So the canonical question that is purely exterior and public in the Church is secondary.” What is important is that we remain in the Church… in the Church, that is to say, in the Catholic Faith of all times and in the true priesthood, and in the true Mass, and in the true sacraments, in the catechism of all times, with the Bible of all times. That is what interests us. That is what the Church is. Being recognized publicly is secondary. So we must not seek after what is secondary while losing that which is primary, that which is the first object of our fight. The full importance of this question, we repeat, must not be forgotten, and “secondary” does not mean “insignificant”; but to be answered fittingly, this significant question must remain in its proper place, that is, dependent upon the essential goal. And what we wish to do here is to show what the absolutely first goal of the Society is: the preservation of the Catholic priesthood, with as its necessary consequence the neutralization of all the harmful errors that are today causing its generalized corruption. It is the corruption of the first principle of the Church, her hierarchical priesthood. These errors are serious in themselves, as are all errors, because they are a denial of divine truth; but they are even more harmful for the unprecedented reason that they are being spread to the entire Church by the hierarchy that has been won over to these errors and corrupted by them. Introduced with Vatican Council II into the ordinary preaching of the men of the Church, these errors have given birth to a new way of thinking and living that has progressively spread to all the members of the Church. The expression “Conciliar Church” is meant to express this new situation as in a metaphorical ellipsis. quently also of an “operation survival of Tradition,” the necessity and legitimacy of the latter coming from the reality of the former. Let us return, then, to Archbishop Pozzo’s initial declaration: “The problem will remain so long as the Society of St. Pius X does not adhere to the doctrinal declaration approved by Pope Francis and presented by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.” The secretary of the Pontifical Ecclesia Dei Commission gives in this phrase the profound reason for which the problem is ongoing: it will remain precisely as long as the Rome of today seeks to oblige the Society to adhere to Vatican II, and therefore it is the Rome of today that is the cause of the problem. For initially, the problem was not the refusal but rather the obligation to adhere: the obligation to adhere to errors that go against the truths revealed by God and already condemned by the Rome of all times. How to Speak of Rome We now speak of a “Conciliar Church” as we have hitherto spoken of the “Rome of today,” and we could very well speak of a “Conciliar Rome.” For, for the time being, we can no longer speak of the Church and Rome without distinctions. The Church as God willed her is a supernatural society, that is to say, the ordered congregation of the baptized faithful who profess the same Faith and practice the same cult under the direction of the same hierarchy. The particular and complex situation in which we are living is that within this ordered congregation there is now another disordered congregation that is endangering the Catholic Faith and cult and using the bad influence of the members of the hierarchy to do so. If we spoke simply of the Church and Rome, we would be saying too little; if we spoke of two Churches or two Romes, we would be saying too much. The Church is one and there is one Rome, but at present there is a generalized cancer in Rome and in the Church. We speak of the Conciliar Church and the Rome of today, distinguishing them from the Catholic Church and the Rome of all times, as a way of expressing this unprecedented situation in which the men of the Church are working from within to destroy the Church, working against her own living forces. Such is the mystery that appears for now as that of an “occupied Church” and conse85 Simply the Best Journal of Catholic Tradition Available! “Instaurare omnia in Christo” For over three decades, The Angelus has stood for Catholic truth, goodness, and beauty against a world gone mad. 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Everyone has FREE access to every article from issues of The Angelus over two years old, and selected articles from recent issues. All magazine subscribers have full access to the online version of the magazine (a $20 Value)! The Last Word Dear Reader, “The exception proves the rule” is a proverb often used by charlatans to justify the unjustifiable—“I’m not usually in favor of abortion but in the case of X, the exception proves the rule,” etc. What does it mean? The key is the meaning of the word “proof.” When the government mint wants to produce a new coin, it first produces a proof coin which is a test. The exception proves the rule in the sense that the exception tests the rule. The rule exists for a purpose. When the purpose cannot be achieved by the rule, there is an exception. All man-made rules are like this. Only God’s laws can be without exception. I remember one time that my parents told my brothers and me to stay at home. “Now,” said my mother, “on no account are you to set foot outside the door while we’re gone!” A rule: don’t go out; a purpose: safety. Simple. And then, my brother, Johnny decided he wanted to open the windows to let in some fresh air, the wind blew over the candle underneath the curtains in his bedroom and the next thing we knew, our house was blazing! Paul said, with the air of one with authority: “This is it my brothers, we must die now because it is forbidden to us to leave this house! We shall be martyrs to obedience!” Then, my younger brother Marcel said, “No, we must exit the burning house to save our lives. We will not be disobedient in doing that because the exception proves the rule. The purpose of the man-made law given us by our parents is the salvation of our persons. Now that the house is on fire, we must go beyond the man-made law and exercise the virtue of equity which consists in not obeying the strict letter of the law but judging that this is the case where the man-made law does not apply.” Yes, dear reader, Marcel said all that while we stood in the burning house. This story bears a remarkable resemblance to what happened in the Church: in the wake of Vatican II, churchmen ceased preaching the Faith, protestantized the Mass, confirmed the heretics and led Catholics to lose their birthright—the Faith. In this danger for the Faith and the salvation of many, Archbishop Lefebvre, proved the rule: Catholics obey the pope—except when the pope commands them to sin or to lose the Faith. Fr. David Sherry The Society of Saint Pius X is an international priestly society of almost 700 priests. Its main purpose is the formation and support of priests. The goal of the Society of Saint Pius X is to preserve the Catholic Faith in its fullness and purity, not changing, adding to or subtracting from the truth that the Church has always taught, and to diffuse its virtues, especially through the Roman Catholic priesthood. Authentic spiritual life, the sacraments, and the traditional liturgy are its primary means to foster virtue and sanctity and to bring the divine life of grace to souls. The Angelus, in helping the whole man, tries to be an outlet for the work of the Society, helping them reach souls. We aspire to help deepen your spiritual life, nourish your studies, understand the history of Christendom, and restore the reign of Christ the King in Christian culture in every aspect. $ 9.00 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: THE ANGELUS, 480 MCKENZIE STREET, WINNIPEG, MB, R2W 5B9