Both, religious ignorance and the reaffirmation of the unfortunate direction of the Second Vatican Council cannot but aggravate the tragic situation of the Church. It will take a superhuman effort to counteract this constant threat for souls and for the Church. Therefore the Society will start the fourth Rosary crusade, a crusade of one's duty of state.

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

At this year’s end it is appropriate to look back at the main events in the Church and in the Society so as to learn from them the lessons that will enable us to help advance the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In this analysis of the present situation, we will not forget that “all is in the hands” of Divine Providence which, without diminishing human freedom, infallibly disposes all things so that they work together for the good of those who love God (cf. Rom 8:28). This in no way relieves us of our obligations; quite the contrary! “In this is my Father glorified: that you bring forth very much fruit” (Jn 15:8)!
The new pope is different from earlier popes

It seems to me necessary to mention once more the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of his successor, Pope Francis. From the first days of his pontificate, the Supreme Pontiff from Argentina has appeared to be very different from anything that we have seen until now. The recent Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium illustrates the difficulty of categorizing an unconventional person who does not hesitate to formulate vehement and repeated critiques of the contemporary world and the modern Church. He points out many real problems; yet one might wonder about the effectiveness of the methods being extolled and doubt that they can be implemented.

It is not easy to care for a dying patient, and some treatments that are even more revolutionary than the ones already applied for that purpose could very well finish him off! We do not conceal from you our fears about the future of the Church, humanly speaking. We firmly believe in the assistance of the Holy Ghost promised to the Bride of Christ, but we know that that does not prevent churchmen from being able, really and truly, to ruin souls by leading them to hell.

At first glance one could not say that the recent months of the new pontificate have improved this situation.

Two major threats for souls

Although we continue to hope that an authentic taking of control inspired by God will come one day, the reality of the spiritual sufferings of the Church Militant remains nonetheless. So many of her members are ignorant even of the fact that their lives are at stake! Saint Pius X said at the beginning of the twentieth century that the main cause of the loss of souls was religious ignorance, the ignorance of the truths of the faith. This will only be aggravated, both by the decrease in the number of priests that is weighing heavily upon Europe and other regions, and also by the formation being given in the seminaries.

The change of pope has in no way modified this disastrous situation, and the reaffirmation of the unfortunate direction of the Second Vatican Council makes us fear that, since the same causes produce the same effects, the worldwide situation of the Catholic Church will remain tragic, and that it is not about to improve.

The canonizations of two popes closely connected with the Council and its implementation are not going to fix it. Furthermore, the recent announcements of the decentralization of papal authority — of its dilution in an expanded collegiality — have been applauded by the worst modernists, such as Hans Küng, and only increase our apprehensions about the future.

Fidelity to the Faith procures fruits

In the midst of these worries, the welfare of the entire Church must remain dear to every Catholic heart. The development of our Society that we see being accomplished before our eyes is a cause for joy and thanksgiving, and concrete proof that fidelity to the traditional faith and discipline always procures the blessed fruits of grace.

The 43 new seminarians who entered our seminaries in the northern hemisphere in October and the 210 or so seminarians in formation in our houses are a real consolation. In the United States the construction of a new, larger and more beautiful seminary in Virginia is progressing month by month. If all goes well, in 2015 this house will open its doors to continue the important work of priestly formation taking place now in Winona, Minnesota.

At this time our dear priests are traveling through the world to minister to still more believers who discover us and call on us for help. The priests assigned to Central America and Africa do not suffice for the missions that we have started in Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and San Salvador; in Africa, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia and Uganda do receive regular visits from our missionaries, but that is so little to quench the spiritual thirst of so many, many souls.... Oh Lord, give us priests!

Catholic schools form well-tempered souls

In a world that is increasingly hostile to keeping the commandments of God, we must have a genuine concern for forming well-tempered souls who take their sanctification and salvation to heart. This quite naturally leads us to give a great deal of attention to our schools and to their development. In these works of formation we invest the greater part of our resources and efforts, both human and material. Throughout the world, priests and religious are dedicating themselves to the magnificent task of Catholic education and teaching in more than one hundred institutions.

Catholic family is center of holiness

Well aware, dear faithful, that the salvation of a soul starts in the cradle, we struggle with all our might to preserve the treasures of the Christian home, a center of holiness in the midst of a decadent world that can only lead souls to hell. We do appreciate and share the concerns of fathers and mothers of families who have understood that the salvation of their children’s souls is priceless. Yes, it is necessary to be ready to make all possible sacrifices of temporal goods — even to the point of giving one’s life — in order to assure the blessed eternity of a soul.

We start a Crusade of fidelity in the duty of state

We know that there is something superhuman in what is demanded of a Christian today. The traditional support that one used to find in the Christian organization of temporal society no longer exists. Everywhere we see an unfurling of errors in the area of faith (to the point of heresy), a relaxation of morality (particularly the abandonment of the laws of marriage and family), and an increasing lukewarmness in Christian life that is unprecedented. The new liturgy leaves many souls anemic.... Jerusalem desolata est! Here too, the works of the Society are seen as oases in the desert, as little islands standing in the middle of a threatening sea.

In this dramatic context, it seems to us essential to launch a new crusade in the same spirit as the preceding ones, keeping in view the requests and the promises of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as they were expressed at Fatima, but insisting more this time on its universal character. We have to put our whole heart, our whole soul into this new crusade: not just being content with the daily recitation of the Rosary, but carefully carrying out Our Lady’s second request, which is penance. Prayer and penance. Penance, understood certainly as the acceptance of certain forms of self-denial, but especially as the very faithful performance of our duties of state.

Abp. Lefebvre is our guide

This is why this fourth crusade will be based on the one desired by Abp. Marcel Lefebvre in 1979. A crusade centered on the Holy Mass, which is the source of all grace, of all virtue. In the sermon at his priestly jubilee in Paris, he forcefully called us to a threefold crusade: a crusade of youth, a crusade of families, a crusade of heads of families for Christian civilization.

In that sermon, our venerable founder declared:

“I think I can say that we should have a crusade based on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, on the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, on that invincible rock, that inexhaustible source of grace which is the Mass.... We must undertake a crusade, a crusade which is based specifically on this idea of sacrifice, in order to recreate Christendom, to re-establish a Christendom such as the Church desires, such as she has always done, with the same principles, the same Sacrifice of the Mass, the same sacraments, the same catechism, the same Sacred Scripture. We must recreate this Christendom! It is to you, my dear brethren, you who are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, you to whom Our Lord Jesus Christ addressed Himself in saying: ‘Do not waste the fruit of My Blood, do not abandon My Calvary, do not abandon My Sacrifice.’ And the Virgin Mary, who stands beneath the Cross, tells you the this as well; she, whose heart is pierced, full of sufferings and sorrows, and yet filled with the joy of uniting herself to the Sacrifice of her divine Son, she too says it to you: ‘Let us be Christians, let us be Catholics!’”

Abp. Lefebvre described the role that everyone — young people, families, heads of families — had to play in this crusade:

“If we want to go to heaven we must follow Our Lord Jesus Christ, carry our cross and follow Our Lord Jesus Christ, imitating Him in his Cross, in his suffering, in his sacrifice. Thus, I ask the youth, the young people who are here in this hall, to ask the priests to explain to them these things that are so beautiful and so great, so as to choose their vocations, and in whatever calling they may choose — be they priests or religious men and women, or married, they embrace the Cross of Our Lord. If they choose to form a family under the sacrament of matrimony, and therefore under the Cross of Jesus Christ and the Blood of Jesus Christ, married by the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, let them understand the greatness of this path and let them prepare themselves worthily for it by purity and chastity, by prayer and reflection. Let them not be carried away by all the passions which agitate the world. Thus, let this be the crusade of the young who must aspire to the true ideal!

Let it be, as well, a crusade of Christian families. You Christian families who are here, consecrate your families to the Heart of Jesus, to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, and to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pray together in the family! Oh, I know that many of those among you already do so, but may there always be more and more of you who do so fervently! Let Our Lord truly reign in your homes! ...

Finally, a crusade for the heads of families. You who are heads of your households, you have a serious responsibility in your countries.... Just a few moments ago you sang, ‘Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!’ Are these just words, mere lyrics, mere songs? No! They must be a reality. You heads of families, you are the ones responsible for that, both for your children and for the generations to come. Thus, you should organize yourselves now — hold meetings and come to an understanding, so that France [your country] might become Christian again, Catholic again. It is not impossible — otherwise one would have to say that the grace of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is no longer grace, that God is no longer God, that Our Lord Jesus Christ is no longer Our Lord Jesus Christ. One must have confidence in the grace of Our Lord, for Our Lord is all-powerful. I have seen this grace at work in Africa — there is no reason why it should not be at work here as well, in our countries.”

Then, addressing his priests in particular, Abp. Lefebvre asked them:

“And you, dear priests, who are listening to me now, you too must form a profound priestly union to spread this crusade, to organize this crusade so that Jesus Christ might reign. And in order to do that you must be holy, you must seek sanctity and manifest sanctity, this grace which acts in your souls and in your hearts, this grace which you receive by the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and by the Holy Mass which you offer. You alone can offer it.”

Encouraged by these vibrant words of our founder, all the members of the Society will join with you, dear faithful, in a great crusade for Our Lord and his reign, for Our Lady and the triumph of her Immaculate Heart. When we have a declared enemy, as the Apocalypse puts it, we must respond to his attacks proportionately. God wills it!

We begin this Rosary crusade on January 1st

We encourage you therefore to adopt a permanent spirit of crusade, although, because of human considerations, we will officially begin this new Rosary crusade on January 1, 2014, and conclude it on the Feast of Pentecost (June 8, 2014) for the purpose of collecting a spiritual bouquet of five million Rosaries in reparation for the outrages committed against the honor of Our Lady, against her Heart as a Virgin and Mother of God.

We commend to her maternal goodness your sufferings and your joys, your cares and your hopes, so that she may keep you all faithful to the Church, until heaven.

On the feast of Saint Nicholas, December 6, 2013

+ Bernard FELLAY

2014 Rosary Crusade

January 1st until June 8th 2014
Goal: 5 million Rosaries:

• To implore from the Immaculate Heart of Mary a special protection for the traditional apostolate;
• For the return to Tradition within the Church;
• For the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary by the consecration of Russia.

Means:

• Prayer and penance as asked for at Fatima;
• Sanctification through the duty of state;
• Spirit of sacrifice in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The Society found itself in a delicate position during most of the year 2012, following the approach of Benedict XVI in attempting to normalize our situation. The trouble caused by the uncertainties vanished as of June 13, 2012, by a letter from Benedict XVI himself. As Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, wrote in a letter addressed to the members of the Society of St. Pius X, "on the doctrinal level we are still at the point where we started out in the 1970s."

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

It has been quite a long time now that this letter has kept you waiting, and it is with joy, in this Easter season, that we would like to take our bearings and to present a few reflections on the situation of the Church.

On the doctrinal level we are still at the point where we started out in the 1970’s

As you know, the Society found itself in a delicate position during most of the year 2012, following the final approach of Benedict XVI in attempting to normalize our situation. The difficulties resulted, on the one hand, from requirements that accompanied the Roman proposal — to which we could not and still cannot subscribe — and, on the other hand, from a lack of clarity on the part of the Holy See that did not allow us to know precisely the will of the Holy Father or what he was ready to concede to us. The trouble caused by these uncertainties vanished as of June 13, 2012, with a clear confirmation, on the 30th of the same month, by a letter from Benedict XVI himself clearly and unambiguously spelling out the conditions that were being imposed on us for a canonical normalization.

These conditions are of a doctrinal nature; they entail the total acceptance of the Second Vatican Council and of the Mass of Paul VI. And so, as Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, Vice President of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, wrote in a letter addressed to the members of the Society of St. Pius X at the end of last year, on the doctrinal level we are still at the point where we started out in the 1970’s. Unfortunately we can only agree with this observation by the Roman authorities and acknowledge the current relevance of the analysis by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of our Society, which was unwavering in the decades following the Council, until his death. His very accurate insight, which is at the same time theological and practical, is still valid today, 50 years after the start of the Council.

Archbishop Lefebvre's analysis remains guiding principle

We would like to recall this analysis, which the Society of St. Pius X has always made its own and which remains the guiding principle of its doctrinal position and of its activity: while recognizing that the crisis that is jolting the Church has external causes also, the Council itself has been the chief agent in her self-destruction.

At the conclusion of the Council, in a letter to Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani dated December 20, 1966, Archbishop Lefebvre explained the havoc caused by the Council throughout the Church. I cited it already in the Letter to Friends and Benefactors no. 68, dated September 29, 2005. It is useful to reread several excerpts from it today.

Whereas the Council was preparing to be a shining cloud [i.e., to proclaim the truth clearly] in today’s world, if it had only used the prepared schemas that contained a solemn profession of sure doctrine with regard to modern problems, one can and unfortunately must affirm:

... that, [almost universally], when the Council innovated, it shook the certitude of the truths taught by the authentic Magisterium of the Church as belonging definitively to the treasure of Tradition.

Whether it be the transmission of the bishops’ jurisdiction, the two sources of Revelation, the inspiration of Scripture, the necessity of grace for justification, the necessity of Catholic baptism, the life of grace among heretics, schismatics and pagans, the ends of marriage, religious liberty, the last things, etc.: on all these fundamental points, the traditional doctrine was clear and unanimously taught in Catholic universities. Now, numerous Conciliar documents on these truths henceforth allow doubts.

The consequences have been rapidly drawn and applied to the life of the Church:

Doubts about the necessity of the Church and the sacraments lead to the disappearance of priestly vocations.

Doubts about the necessity and the nature of the ‘conversion’ of every soul lead to the disappearance of religious vocations, the ruin of traditional spirituality in the novitiates, and the futility of the missions.

Doubts about the legitimacy of authority and the duty of obedience provoked by the exaltation of human dignity, the autonomy of conscience, and of freedom shake all societies starting with the Church, religious societies, the dioceses, civil society, and the family.

The normal result of pride is the burgeoning of the concupiscence of the eyes and of the flesh. Perhaps one of the most frightful observations to be made about our epoch is to note to what a level of moral degradation most Catholic publications have descended. They speak without the least reticence about sexuality, birth control by any means, the legitimacy of divorce, about co-education, dating, dances as a necessary part of Christian education, about priestly celibacy, etc.

Doubts about the necessity of grace in order to be saved provoke the undervaluing of baptism and its postponement, and the abandonment of the sacrament of penance. Moreover, this especially involves an attitude of priests and not of the faithful. The same goes for the Real Presence: it is the priests who act as if they no longer believed by hiding the Sacred Host, by suppressing all marks of respect towards the Blessed Sacrament and all the ceremonies in Its honor.

Doubts about the necessity of the Church as the unique source of salvation and about the Catholic Church as the only true religion originating in the Declarations on Ecumenism and Religious Liberty, destroy the authority of the Church’s Magisterium. Indeed, Rome is no longer the unique and necessary Magistra Veritatis [“Mistress of Truth”].

Compelled by the facts, it is necessary to conclude that the Council has favored, inconceivably, the diffusion of liberal errors. Faith, morals, and ecclesiastical discipline have been shaken to their foundations according to the predictions of all the popes.

The destruction of the Church is rapidly advancing. By an exaggerated authority given to the episcopal conferences, the Sovereign Pontiff has rendered himself ineffectual. In a single year how many painful examples of this have we witnessed! Still, the Successor of Peter, and he alone, can save the Church.

Let the Holy Father surround himself with vigorous defenders of the Faith; let him appoint them in the important dioceses. Let him deign, by important documents, to proclaim truth, pursue error without fear of contradictions, without fear of schisms, without fear of questioning the pastoral guidelines of the Council.

May the Holy Father deign: to encourage the bishops to uphold faith and morals, each in his respective diocese, as befits every good pastor; to support the courageous bishops, encouraging them to reform their seminaries and to restore studies according to St. Thomas; to encourage the general superiors to uphold in the novitiates and communities the fundamental principles of Christian asceticism, especially obedience; to encourage the development of Catholic schools, a doctrinally sound Catholic press, associations of Catholic families; and, finally, to reprimand the instigators of errors and reduce them to silence. The Wednesday allocutions cannot replace encyclical letters, mandates, and letters to bishops.

Undoubtedly, it is bold of me to express myself in this way! But it is from a burning love that I write these lines, love of God’s glory, love of Jesus, love of Mary, love of the Church and of the Successor of Peter, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ."

On November 21, 1974, after the apostolic visitation of the seminary in Econe, Archbishop Lefebvre deemed it necessary to summarize his position in the famous declaration that would result, several months later in the unjust canonical suppression of the Society of St. Pius X, which our founder and his successors have always considered null and void. This document, which is of capital importance, opened with this profession of faith, which is that of all the members of the Society:

We hold firmly with all our heart and with all our mind to Catholic Rome, Guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary to the maintenance of this faith, to the eternal Rome, [school]mistress of wisdom and truth.

We refuse on the other hand, and have always refused, to follow the Rome of Neo-Modernist and Neo-Protestant tendencies, which manifested itself clearly during the Second Vatican Council, and after the Council, in all the reforms which issued from it.

Indeed, all these reforms have contributed and continue to contribute to the destruction of the Church, to the ruin of the priesthood, to the abolition of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments, to the disappearance of the religious life, and to a naturalistic and Teilhardian education in the universities, in the seminaries, in catechetics: an education deriving from liberalism and Protestantism which had been condemned many times by the solemn Magisterium of the Church."

And this declaration concluded with these lines:

The only attitude of fidelity to the Church and to Catholic doctrine appropriate for our salvation is a categorical refusal to accept this reform.

That is why, without any rebellion, bitterness, or resentment, we pursue our work of priestly formation under the guidance of the never-changing Magisterium, convinced as we are that we cannot possibly render a greater service to the Holy Catholic Church, to the Supreme Pontiff, and to future generations.”

In 1983, recalling the meaning of the fight for Tradition, Archbishop Lefebvre sent an Episcopal Manifesto, co-signed by Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, to John Paul II, in which he denounced, once again, the havoc caused by the post-conciliar reforms and the disastrous spirit that spread everywhere. He underscored, in particular, the following points on the subject of false ecumenism, collegiality, religious liberty, papal power and the New Mass.

False ecumenism

This ecumenism is likewise contrary to the teachings of Pius XI in the encyclical Mortalium animos. Concerning this point it is timely to expose and reject a certain false opinion which is at the origin of this problem and of this complex movement by the means of which non-Catholics strive to bring about a union of Christian churches. Those who adhere to this opinion constantly cite these words of Christ: ‘That they all may be one ...and there shall be one fold and one shepherd’ (Jn. 17:21 and 10:16), and they claim that by these words Christ expresses a desire or a prayer which has never been realized. In fact, they claim that the unity of faith and of government, which is one of the marks of the true Church of Christ, until now has never existed in practice and today does not exist.

This ecumenism condemned by Catholic morality and law, now goes so far as to permit the reception of the Sacraments of Penance, Holy Eucharist and Extreme Unction from ‘non-Catholic ministers’ (canon 844, CIC 1983), and encourages ‘ecumenical hospitality’ by authorizing Catholic ministers to give the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist to non-Catholics….”

Collegiality

The doctrine, already insinuated by the document Lumen Gentium of Vatican Council II, is taken up again explicitly by the new Code of Canon Law (can. 336). According to this doctrine, the College of Bishops united with the pope, also possesses supreme authority in the Church, in a habitual and constant manner.

This doctrine of a twofold supreme authority is contrary to the teaching and practice of the Magisterium of the Church, especially in Vatican Council I (Denz. Sch. 3055), and in the Encyclical of Leo XIII, Satis cognitum. The pope alone has this supreme authority which he can communicate, in the measure which he judges expedient and in extraordinary circumstances.

This grave error brings with it the democratic orientation of the Church, with the power residing in the ‘People of God’ as it is defined in the new Code. This Jansenist error is condemned by the Bull Auctorem Fidei of Pius VI (Denz. Sch. 2602)….”

Religious liberty

The Declaration Dignitatis humanae of Vatican Council II affirms the existence of a false natural human right in religious matters, contrary to the papal teachings which repudiate such a blasphemy.

Thus Pius IX in his encyclical Quanta cura and in the Syllabus, Leo XIII in his encyclicals Libertas praestantissimum and Immortale Dei, Pius XII in his allocution Ci Riesce to the Italian Catholic jurists, deny that reason and revelation provide any basis for a right of this sort.

Vatican II believes and professes, universally, that ‘The Truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own Truth.’ This is formally opposed to the teaching of Pius VI against the Jansenists of the Council of Pistoia (Denz. Sch. 2604). The Second Vatican Council thus absurdly ends up affirming the right not to adhere to, and not to follow the Truth, in order to oblige civil governments to cease discriminating for religious motives, thus establishing a juridical equality between false religions and the true one….

The consequences of the recognition by the Council of this false human right destroy the foundations of the social reign of Our Lord. They undermine the authority and power of the Church in its mission to cause Our Lord to reign in souls and in hearts, for the Church must combat the satanic forces which subjugate souls. The missionary spirit will be accused of exaggerated proselytism.

The neutrality of States in religious matters is injurious for Our Lord and His Church, in the case of a State with a Catholic majority.”

Papal power

Certainly the authority of the Pope in the Church is a supreme authority, but it cannot be absolute and unlimited, since it is subordinate to Divine Authority, which is expressed in Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the definitions already promulgated by the ecclesiastical Magisterium (Denz. Sch. 3116).

The authority of the Pope is subordinate to and limited by the end for which this authority was given to him. This end is clearly defined by Pope Pius IX in the Constitution Pastor aeternus of Vatican Council I (Denz. Sch. 3070). It would be an intolerable abuse of power to modify the constitution of the Church and to claim to appeal to human rights against the Divine Right, as in religious liberty, as in the Eucharistic hospitality that is authorized in the new Canon Law, as in the assertion of two supreme authorities in the Church.

It is clear that in these cases and in other similar cases, it is the duty for each member of the clergy and every faithful Catholic to resist and to refuse obedience. Blind obedience is a misunderstanding and no one is exempt from responsibility for having obeyed man rather than God (Denz. Sch. 3115). This resistance must be public if the evil is public and an object of scandal to souls (Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 33, a. 4).

These statements are elementary principles of morality. They regulate the relations of subjects with all legitimate authorities.

Moreover this resistance is corroborated by the fact that henceforth those who hold firmly to Tradition and the Catholic Faith are penalized; those who profess doctrines which are heterodox, or who commit veritable sacrileges are in no way troubled. That is the logic of an abuse of authority.”

The New Mass

Contrary to the teaching of the Council of Trent in Session XXII, contrary to the encyclical Mediator Dei of Pius XII, the role of the faithful in the participation of the Mass has been exaggerated, and the role of the priest, now become a simple presider, has been diminished. The importance of the Liturgy of the Word has been exaggerated, and the importance of the propitiatory Sacrifice has been diminished. The meal of the community has been exalted and the Mass has been laicized, to the detriment of the respect and the faith in the Real Presence by transubstantiation.

By the suppression of the sacred language, the rites have been infinitely multiplied. They have been profaned by worldly and pagan additions. False translations have been propagated to the detriment of the true faith and the true piety of the faithful.”

In 1986, Archbishop Lefebvre vehemently protested the interreligious meeting at Assisi, which was an unprecedented scandal in the Catholic Church, and above all a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments: “You shall adore the one God alone,” in which the Vicar of Christ publicly invited the representatives of all religions to call upon their false gods. Our founder later said that he regarded that event, which was intolerable to anyone with a Catholic heart, as one of the signs that he had asked for from Heaven so as to be able to go ahead and consecrate bishops.

In the Letter to Friends and Benefactors no. 40 dated February 2, 1991, Fr. Franz Schmidberger, the second Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X, took up the question in its entirety and restated the Catholic position in a short compendium of contemporary errors against the Faith. And we asked several confreres to summarize in a sort of vademecum [manual] all of these points in various works that have been published since, including the remarkable The Catechism of the Crisis in the Church by Fr. Matthias Gaudron (Angelus Press).

Today, along the same lines, we can only repeat what Archbishop Lefebvre and Fr. Schmidberger in turn declared. All the errors that they denounced, we denounce. We beg Heaven and the authorities of the Church, in particular the new Supreme Pontiff, Pope Francis, Vicar of Christ, Successor of Peter, not to allow souls to perish because they no longer learn sound doctrine, the revealed deposit of the faith, without which no one can be saved, no one can please God.

What good is it to devote oneself to serving people if one hides from them what is essential, the purpose and the meaning of their life, and the seriousness of sin that turns them away from it? Works of charity done for the poor, the needy, the infirm, and the sick have always been a true concern for the Church, and we must not excuse ourselves from it, but if it becomes merely man-centered philanthropy, then the Church is no longer carrying out her mission, she is no longer leading souls to God, which can really be done only by supernatural means: faith, hope, charity and grace. And therefore by denouncing anything that is opposed to them: errors against faith and morality. Because if people sin, for want of that denunciation, they are damned for eternity. The Church’s reason for being is to save them and to help them avoid the misfortune of their eternal perdition.

Now obviously that could not possibly please the world, which then turns against the Church, often violently, as history shows us.

Here we are then, at Easter 2013, and the situation in the Church remains almost unchanged. The words of Archbishop Lefebvre take on a prophetic tone. It has all come to pass, and it all continues for the greater misfortune of souls who no longer hear from their pastors the message of salvation.

Without becoming upset over the duration of this terrible crisis or over the number of prelates and bishops who pursue the self-destruction of the Church, as Paul VI acknowledged, we continue, to the extent of our abilities, to proclaim that the Church can change neither her dogmas nor her morality. For no one can meddle with these venerable institutions without provoking a genuine disaster. Although some accidental modifications pertaining to the external form must be made — as it happens in all human institutions — in no case can they be made contrary to the principles that have guided the Church in all the preceding centuries.

The consecration to St. Joseph, which the General Chapter decided on in July 2012, is taking place right at this decisive moment. Why St. Joseph? Because he is the Patron of the Catholic Church. He continues to carry out for the Mystical Body the role that God the Father had entrusted to him with regard to His Divine Son. Since Christ is the Head of the Church, Head of the Mystical Body, it follows that he who was in charge of protecting the Messiah, the Son of God made man, now finds his mission extended to the entire Mystical Body.

Just as his role was very discreet and for the most part hidden — while being perfectly effective — so too this role of protector — which is quite effective with regard to the Church also — is carried out today with great discretion. Only over the course of the centuries was devotion to St. Joseph manifested more and more clearly. One of the greatest saints, one of the most discreet. Following Pius IX, who declared him Patron of the entire Church, following Leo XIII who confirmed this role and introduced the magnificent Prayer to St. Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church — which we recite every day in the Society — and following St. Pius X, who had a very special devotion to St. Joseph, whose name he bore, we want to adopt as our own, in this tragic moment in the history of the Church, this devotion and his patronage.

Dear friends and benefactors of the Society of St. Pius X, I bless you with all my heart, while expressing my gratitude to you for your prayers and your generosity for the benefit of the work of restoring the Church that Archbishop Lefebvre undertook. Moreover I ask St. Joseph to obtain for you the divine graces that your families need in order to remain faithful to Catholic Tradition.

+ Bernard Fellay

April 15th, 2013

The basis for the current problem in the Church can be summarized as a loss of the faith in the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This loss is manifested in the teachings of the Second Vatican Council on religious liberty, ecumenism and collegiality. That is why the Society speaks so often about the Kingship of Christ for it is the summary of our recognition of His Divinity.

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

In a few days we will celebrate the happy coming of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The holy liturgy of Advent and the Christmas season is filled with faith in the divinity of Our Lord. Citing above all the Old Testament passages where His coming is foretold, it imbues our minds and hearts with the infinite grandeur of the prerogatives and the rights of the newborn Child.

He who from all eternity is born of a Father without a mother, is born in time of a Mother without a father! (Profession of faith of the 11th Council of Toledo)

Receiving His human nature from the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, His Mother, whose Virginity He preserves, He thereby proves that He has lost nothing of His Divinity. “In the burning bush that Moses saw and that was not consumed, we recognize your praiseworthy Virginity that was preserved.” (Antiphon at Lauds, January 1). The Church is pleased to welcome the Savior Jesus, true God and true man, honoring Him with the title of King.

The King of peace, Rex pacificus. Here we would like to elaborate somewhat on this truth, which is so to speak at the heart of the crisis that is shaking the Church and affects the relations of the Society of Saint Pius X with the Holy See.

Loss of faith in the divinity of Our Lord

Indeed, it seems to us that the basis for the current problem can be summed up as a loss of faith in the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh! Of course many people protest that they believe that Jesus is God, but very few are ready to draw the practical consequences of that truth which will manifest itself in the sight of the whole world at the end of time. At that moment, He will finally allow his glory to shine forth in all its perfection. The extent of His powers over every creature will be such that all human beings — pagans, Christians, atheists, infidels, bandits and believers — all will be prostrate before Him, for at the mention of His Name every knee shall bend on earth as in heaven (cf. Phil 2:10).

For the short space of His earthly life, during which He was pleased to be among us, He partially hid His sovereignty. But that was only the time of testing, the time to accomplish His redemptive mission: “He died for our sins” (1 Cor 15:3).

But during that time when He hid His omnipotence from our eyes, He lost none of it. “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth” (Mt 28:18) is a statement to be taken literally; He is the one who created all things, for whom all was created, without whom was created nothing that was made (cf. Jn 1:3).

The practical rejection of the divinity of Our Lord is often manifested in human history by the rejection of His Kingship; this was already the title and reason for His death sentence: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (Jn 19:19).

And very often in history the rejection of God is manifested in the refusal to submit to Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Church adapts to human society

It was not until the mid-twentieth century that mankind witnessed that unbelievable event that let us see a Council which, supposedly in the name of adapting to the concrete situation of human society, which was thoroughly decadent, changed the perennial proclamation: “For He must reign” (1 Cor 15:25). People claim that this way of acting would be in harmony with the Gospels, whereas it is quite the contrary.

The sophists of liberalism have sent out the word that the State, human society, which is also a creature of God, ought to treat the one true religion on a par with all the false religions, granting equally to each the right to exist, to develop without restrictions and to conduct its worship.

It was claimed that this was in opposition to the abuses of the totalitarian State which unjustly crushes human beings and oppresses the conscience of each individual. The Freemasons themselves expressed their joy upon hearing these theses, which are their own, resound beneath the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica (cf. Yves Marsaudon, L’oecuménisme vu par un franc-maçon de tradition, 1964).

Tolerance versus religious liberty

Quite obviously, there is an element of truth in the evil that is denounced. But the remedy is the one that the Church has always pointed out: tolerance. The right to religious liberty, as proclaimed at Vatican II, is something else. That is one of the points over which we come to grief with the Holy See.

This religious liberty, in placing what is true and what is false on equal footing, deliberately dispenses the State and human society from their duties to honor and to serve God, their Creator. It opens the door to all sorts of license in religious matters. It is as though, within the Church, they had renounced the prerogative of being the unique path of salvation for all mankind. Those who still believe this no longer say it. Many even lead you to think the contrary. This concession to today’s world is made at the expense of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ecumenism no longer wants to make converts

Another consequence, which follows directly from what has just been said, can be seen in the practice of ecumenism. On pretence of being able to be closer to our “separated brethren”, Catholics not longer proclaim these truths, which are nonetheless salvific, because they are difficult for them to hear. Catholics no longer even deliberately seek to convert them. Ecumenism no longer wants to make converts. This word has been banished; it is still tolerated, but in the name of religious liberty! Where, then, is the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ? Where has the pride of Catholics gone? And their leaders are the ones who are making them faint-hearted! As everyone could observe recently in France, when they should have condemned some blasphemous dramas. If similar offenses had been committed against the Moslems, the country would have been set on fire and drenched in blood! The Christians today have become so soft that they allow anything to happen! People are attacking the honor, not of a worldly king, but of the King of kings, the Lord of Lords, our Savior from whom we have received everything!

Quite obviously we have at heart the salvation of all those souls that are so dear to the Heart of Our Lord and their return to the fold, since He redeemed them at the price of His life! But the current way of doing things no longer has anything in common with the concern for the unity of the Church in past centuries. The whole world is supposed to be good and, consequently, the prospect that some of them could be eternally damned causes the wise of this world to inveigh against the scandal. They preach that hell is empty, or nearly so. The teaching of the Church is entirely different….

Democracy imported into the Church

A third stumbling block is also connected with the diminishment of authority.

Our Lord is the Head of the Church. But since He willed that His Church should be visible, after His ascension into heaven, He gave her a visible head, who is His Vicar on earth, Peter and his successors... To him alone did Our Lord give the power to feed the sheep and the lambs, he alone has full, sovereign, and immediate authority over each and every member of the Church. That is why the Church has always proclaimed herself to be a monarchy, governed by one man. Certainly, the human character of government makes it quite understandable to seek counsel and the advice of wise persons, but a form of democracy imported into the Church by collegiality and by the parliamentary parody of bishops’ conferences allows all sorts of abuses and subjects to group pressure the decrees of Divine Law that declare that each diocese has only one head, the bishop of the locality.

Authority today is seriously shaken, not only outside, through the litigation of secular leaders who claim a share in government, but also within the Church, through the addition of a number of councils and commissions which, in today’s atmosphere, prevent the just exercise of the authority delegated by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Authority of Jesus Christ is sacrificed

Isn’t it startling to note, with each of these stumbling blocks, that we find basically the same problem? In order to please the world, or at least in order to adapt to it and get along with it, they sacrificed in one way or another the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ over believing Christians, over all the human beings for whom He shed His Blood, over all the nations of which they are members.

This is what is doing such harm to the Church. In order to overcome this crisis, it is necessary to “re-establish all things in Christ” (Eph 1:10). Everywhere and in all things to give Him first place, to Him who wants to be all in all. As long as people are unwilling to leave this liberal atmosphere that is poisoning the Church, she will continue to waste away.

Recognition of Christ's Divinity

It is because of this painful reality that our relations with Rome are difficult.

This is why in the Society we speak so often about the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is the summary, in practice, of our recognition of His Divinity. To put it purely and simply: He has all rights over us.

It is to Him that all human beings, pagans or Catholics, young or old, rich or poor, powerful or weak, all, absolutely all will give an account of their life here below, to Him, their sovereign Judge and their God from whom they received everything. Let us hope that these lines show how relevant the doctrine of the Kingship of Our Lord is, that the battle for this Kingship of Our Lord is not out-of-date but on the contrary very necessary. Today it is an obligation if we are to survive.

May Our Lady, the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, deign to hear our prayers for the glory of her Son. May she protect us, may she guard our little Society in the midst of so many perils, and may she be our guide, our advocate, our victory over ourselves and our faint-heartedness. May she be our hope, while awaiting her triumph for which we pray constantly, so that she may be our joy here below and for eternity.

Nos cum Prole pia benedicat Virgo Maria. [May the Virgin Mary bless us with her dear Child.]

† Bernard Fellay

On the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, December 21, 2011

Spiritual catastrophes wound or kill souls. The scandalous pontificate of Pope John Paul II promotes the triumph of revolutionary ideas within the Church. The coming of Pope Benedict gives hope for a rectification of the situation, but the revival of Assisi will lead to indifferentism in everyday life. Therefore a third Rosary Crusade has been launched.

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

The new year has brought us quite a few surprises which are rather unpleasant, not to say dramatic. Obviously we are speaking about events that affect the Church, and not the catastrophes cascading over Japan, nor the troubles in Arab countries and in Africa, which nevertheless should serve as a warning to everyone! But who still understands them in that way?

Spiritual catastrophes

Yes, much more damaging than any natural catastrophe — with its deaths, tragedies and very painful sufferings — are the catastrophes that wound or kill souls. If people took as much care of their souls as they do of their bodies, the face of the earth would be transformed. But the thing that rightly makes us react and seek healing at the level of the human body — because of the immediate pain that is felt — is almost nonexistent, alas, at the level of our minds. Sin, which causes so much harm to all humanity and to each human being, is perceived only very little, and that is why people do not seek adequate remedies for it. We are talking about a spiritual catastrophe: indeed, what other name can be given to an event that leads a multitude of souls astray? That imperils the salvation of millions, if not billions of souls? Now at least two events, likely to result in non-conversion and therefore the eternal loss of souls, were announced in Rome at the beginning of this year: the beatification of Pope John Paul II and the revival of the Day of Prayer in Assisi on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the first meeting of all religions organized in Assisi by the same John Paul II.

Scandalous pontificate

For those who may have difficulty understanding the significance of these two events, we simply quote what was written by Fr. Franz Schmidberger, the first successor to Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre as head of the Society of St. Pius X, twenty-five years ago in this same “Letter to Friends and Benefactors”. In it he made a partial list of the acts performed by John Paul II, the pope who is about to be beatified:

And on January 25, [1986], the Pope, in a sermon given in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, invited all religions to Assisi to pray together for peace. It suffices to cast a glance over the events of the last three years to see just how close we are now approaching to the establishing of a great worldwide religion presided over by the Pope, having for its one and only dogma the liberty, equality and fraternity of the French Revolution and the Masonic lodges.

• The new Canon Law promulgated by the Pope himself on January 25, 1983 abolishes the clerical state. Henceforth the Church is “The People of God” in a Protestant and egalitarian sense, without subordinates and without superiors. The hierarchy is no more than “a service” according to the explanation of Pope John Paul II in his Constitution [Sacrae Disciplinae Leges — Ed.], the Church is to be defined as “a communion” and by its “concern for ecumenism.” Canon 844 explicitly allows intercommunion, Canon 204 confuses the priesthood of the priest with the spiritual priesthood of the laity, etc...
• On Sunday, December 11, 1983, the Pope preached in a Protestant church of Rome after having more or less invited himself to do so.
• The Bishop of Sherbrooke, Quebec (Canada), has repeatedly invited Protestants into his cathedral for their false ordinations. He himself took part in one of these ceremonies and received “communion” from the hand of a newly-ordained female minister.
• On February 19, 1984, a new concordat was agreed upon between the Holy See and Italy: henceforth, applying the Council’s Declaration on Religious Liberty, Italy is no longer a Catholic State but a lay State; that is to say, an atheistic State; according to the same document, Rome is no longer the Holy City!
• On May 10, 1984, the Pope visited a Buddhist temple in Thailand; he took off his shoes and sat down at the feet of a Buddhist bonze, who himself was sitting in front of the altar on which there was a large statue of the Buddha.
• In their pastoral letter of September 16, 1984, the Swiss bishops came to the important conclusion that “the desire to receive together the same bread at the same table, that is to say, the desire that the Mass and the Supper be no longer separately celebrated, comes from God. However,” add the bishops, “careful thought must be given to the timing of the realization of this desire.” Moreover, they supported a law project to undertake the change of marriage law thereby destroying more or less marriage and the family. Well, thanks to their support, this new marriage law was accepted in Switzerland on September 22, 1985. Once more, the bishops are proving to be the grave diggers not only of the supernatural order but even of the natural order established by God.
• The French episcopate continues to impose the heretical catechism Pierres Vivantes (Living Stones) for religious instruction to the great detriment of children. “But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone be hanged about his neck and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Mt 18, 6).
• A joint statement by Cardinal Hoffner and Mr. Lohse, president of the German Evangelical Church Council, signed on January 1, 1985, grants to the partners in a mixed marriage the freedom to marry, to have their children baptized and to raise them in either church. Now the Canon Law of 1917, canon 2319, punishes each of these three crimes with a special excommunication.
• In his book The Ratzinger Report (1985), Cardinal Ratzinger claims that in extreme cases the other religions are “extraordinary” means of salvation. No, your Eminence: Jesus Christ and He alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; nobody comes to the Father but by Him!
• In a note on how to present Judaism in the catechism, published on June 24, 1985, Cardinal Willebrands claims that, like the Jews, we are waiting for the Messiah! And he refers to the Pope’s own words, who stated in front of the Jews on November 17, 1980 in Mainz, that the Old Testament is not yet abrogated.
• During the summer of 1985, the Vatican sent an official delegate to the laying of the foundation stone of a large new mosque in Rome.
• In August of 1985, the Holy Father proclaimed to young Muslims in Casablanca that we Christians adore the same God as they do — as though there is a Most Holy Trinity and an Incarnation of God in Islam! A few days later, he went with some animist priests and their escorts to the outskirts of Lohomay, to a cult in the “holy forest” where “the force of water” and the divinized souls of the ancestors are invoked. And at least two times at Kara and Togoville — at Kara just before celebrating Holy Mass! — he poured water and cast corn flour into a dried-out cucumber skin, a gesture professing a false religious belief.
• A Catholic-Evangelical Commission, set up to close the visit of the Pope to Germany in 1980, declared in its final report published on January 24, 1986, that there are no more divergences between the two confessions as far as justification, the Eucharist, the priesthood and the papacy are concerned. The attentive observer does not fail to notice that the unified ecumenical religion is being openly proclaimed here.
• And now on January 25, 1986, he called upon all religions to gather together in Assisi to pray for peace. According to the newspapers, the date of October 24, the anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, might be chosen. “What God are people going to pray to, who explicitly deny the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ? Truly the devil came up with that idea,” commented Archbishop Lefebvre.
• Lastly, in the course of his journey to India, the Pope spoke only of dialogue and mutual comprehension between religions in order that they promote together human brotherhood and social well-being.
• Do you think, my dear friends, that to lay out these things gives us joy? It fills us with grief to write them down, our sole concern being the welfare of Mother Church. Similarly, we are far from wishing to judge the Pope — we gladly leave this delicate task to a later judgment of the Church. We do not belong to those who hastily declare that the Papal See is vacant, but we let ourselves be led by the history of the Church. Pope Honorius was anathematized by the Sixth Ecumenical Council because of his false teachings, but no one has ever claimed that Honorius was not Pope. However, it is impossible for us to close our eyes in front of the facts.

And the secret instructions of the Carbonari [Italian Freemasons — Ed.], like their correspondence around the year 1820 are also facts! This is what we read:

• The work which we are going to undertake... may last several years, perhaps a century... what we must strive and wait for, like the Jews wait for the Messiah, is a Pope according to our needs.... With that, in order to smash the rock on which God built His Church... we have the little finger of Peter’s successor involved in the plot.... To be sure of a Pope of the kind we wish, we must first of all make him a generation worthy of the reign that we are dreaming of for him.... Get yourself the reputation of being a good Catholic.... This reputation will gain easy access for our doctrines amongst the young clergy.... In a few years the young clergy will in the normal course of things have taken over all functions... it will be called upon to choose the Pontiff... and this Pontiff, like most of his contemporaries, will necessarily be imbued with the humanitarian principles... that we are going to put into circulation.
• We must little by little, very gradually, arrive at the triumph of the revolutionary idea through a Pope.... This project has always seemed to me a superhuman calculation.

Moreover, we read in the Little Exorcism of Leo XIII, in its original version:

• Now most cunning enemies have filled with bitterness the Church, Bride of the Immaculate Lamb, have made her drink absinth, have laid their wicked hands upon everything beautiful within her. Where the seat of blessed Peter and the throne of Truth was established like a light for the nations, there they have set up the abominable throne of their wickedness, so that having once struck the pastor they might scatter the flock.

What are we to do, faced with this situation which from a human point of view is desperate? Pray, work and suffer with the Church.

Silence about essential truths

Twenty-five years later, have these words lost their power? One might have hoped, with the coming of Benedict XVI, for a rectification of the situation, since he himself recognized that Holy Mother Church was in a tragic situation. And in fact he laid down a few markers which certainly can foster a restoration, despite much hostility. We have very much in mind the benevolent acts that he performed on behalf of our priestly society, which we remember with gratitude. But the Assisi revival, even though it has been sweetened and modified, which seems to be his intention, will inevitably recall the first Assisi meeting, which was scandalous in so many respects; one of the most noteworthy was the lamentable, distressing spectacle of seeing the Vicar of Christ side by side with a colorful multitude of pagans invoking their false gods and their idols — the placing of a statue of Buddha on the tabernacle of St. Peter’s Church in Assisi remains the most shocking and horrible example. When one intends to celebrate the anniversary of such a meeting, by that very fact one rules out blaming the organizer. To an Evangelical Lutheran pastor who protested against this new Assisi, Benedict XVI wrote that he would do everything he could to avoid syncretism. But will somebody tell the participants from other religions that there is only one true religion that saves? Will anyone tell them that there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved except the name of Jesus, as St. Peter, the first pope, taught? (Cf. Acts 4:12.) These are dogmas of the faith, though!

If the organizers remain silent about such essential truths, they are deceiving the participants! If they hide from them the one thing necessary, unum necessarium, by causing them to believe that all is well this way, because the Holy Ghost makes use of other religions too as means of salvation — even if they are talking about extraordinary means, according to the new magisterium of the Second Vatican Council — then they are leading them into error by depriving them of the means with which to be saved.

As for the beatification of John Paul II, its immediate effect will be to consecrate his pontificate as a whole, all his undertakings, even the most scandalous, the ones described above and others, like kissing the Koran and the repeated ceremonies of repentance that make people think that the Church is responsible for the schisms that have caused countless Christian souls to be lost through separation from our Holy Mother the Church, and through adherence to error and heresy. Practically speaking, all this leads to indifferentism in everyday life, and the few efforts that Rome makes to correct somewhat a course that is so harmful to the Church produce only meager results: the Church herself is anemic.

They will tell us that we are exaggerating, that we are being melodramatic or that we are using tendentious rhetoric; however this dramatic assessment is found even on the lips of Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. But it appears like a shooting star in the firmament and is quickly forgotten, leaving totally indifferent the multitude that has no concern for look up to Heaven.

We ought to pray

What is to be done? For our part what can we do, my dear friends? “Prayer and penance” was the watchword given by our dear Heavenly Mother, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, both in Lourdes and in Fatima; these celestial instructions are still valid and even more so today than when they were pronounced. Many of you are wondering about the effect of our Rosary Crusade that ended last year. We forwarded the results of it along with our request to the Supreme Pontiff, who has not deigned to reply, not even with a letter acknowledging receipt. But that must not discourage us. Our prayer was sent up to Heaven, to Our Lady, such a kind and merciful Mother, and to the God of Mercies; therefore we do not have the right to doubt that our prayers will be answered, according to the infallible arrangements of Divine Providence. Let us trust in the good Lord. Nevertheless, the situation of the Church and of the world prompts us to ask you insistently not to stop this movement of prayer for the good of the Church and of the world, for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The intensity of the crisis, the multiplication of all sorts of misfortunes that strike or threaten humanity, demands on our part a corresponding attitude: “We ought always to pray and not to faint.” “Oportet semper orare et numquam deficere” (Luke 18:1).

New Rosary Crusade

Therefore it seems to us urgent and more than opportune, given the redoubled intensity of the evils that are swamping the Holy Church, to launch once more a Rosary Crusade, a campaign of prayer and penance. Starting on Easter of this year until Pentecost of 2012, we invite you to join all your efforts, all your strength, so as to make a new spiritual bouquet, a new garland of these roses that are so pleasing to Our Lady, to beg her to intercede on behalf of her children with her divine Son and the Almighty Father. Confusion is only increasing among souls; they are being handed over to the ravaging wolves even in the sheepfold. The trial is so difficult that even the elect would be lost if it were not shortened. The few reassuring developments of the past few years are not enough to allow us to say that things have really changed fundamentally. They give us great hopes for the future, but like the light that one perceives while still in the depths of the tunnel. And so with all our hearts let us ask our Heavenly Mother to intervene so that this terrible trial may be cut short, that the Modernist cape muffling the Church — at least since Vatican II — may be torn in two, and that the Authorities may perform their salvific duties for souls, that the Church may regain her spiritual splendor and beauty, that souls throughout the world may hear the Good News that converts, receive the Sacraments that save, and find the one sheepfold. Ah! How we would love to be able to use less dramatic language, but it would be a lie and culpable negligence on our part to soothe you by letting you hope that things will improve by themselves.

We are counting on your generosity to collect once more a bouquet of at least twelve million rosaries for the intention that the Church may be delivered from the evils that oppress her or threaten her in the near future, that Russia may be consecrated and that the Triumph of the Immaculata may come soon.

So that our prayers may be even more efficacious and each one may derive a greater benefit from them, we wish to conclude by recalling that when one recites the Rosary, the most important thing is not the number of Hail Mary’s, but rather the way in which one prays them. The risk of monotony or distraction can be fought effectively by praying the Rosary according to the instructions of Mary herself: while counting off the Rosary beads, it is a matter of meditating on the scenes from the life of Our Lord and of His Holy Mother and the mysteries that they present. The most important thing is this contact with the life of our Savior, which is established when one thinks lovingly about the events announced with each decade, the “mysteries” of the Rosary. The decades of Hail Mary’s become like background music accompanying and sustaining this powerful, gentle contact with God, with Our Lord and Our Lady. Sister Lucy of Fatima could say, following the popes, that God has willed to confer a very special power on this prayer, so that there is no problem that cannot be resolved by this magnificent devotion. We venture to insist on prayer within the family, which daily gives proof of its efficacy in protecting children and young people from the temptations and appalling dangers of the modern world, which protects family unity in the midst of so many perils that threaten it. Let us not allow ourselves to become discouraged by the apparent silence of Divine Providence after our last crusade. Is it not so that God loves it when we prove to Him, in important matters, that we know how to appreciate the true value of what we ask for and that we are ready to pay the price?

As we are about to enter into the Passion of Our Lord, Holy Week and the glorious Resurrection of our Savior, we ask Our Lady to deign to bless your generosity, to take you under her kindly protection and to answer your persevering prayers.

† Bernard Fellay

Passion Sunday, April 10, 2011

The sum total of events that the Society has encountered over the past 40 years is beyond all imagination. She has been punished because of her obedience to the faith and her fidelity to doctrine. Two points intimately linked should be underlined: The Kingship of Christ and the priesthood. There is a movement towards a return and the Society can offer an important contribution.

Dear friends and benefactors,

Fourty years ago, on November 1, 1970, Bishop François Charrière, bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg, signed the decree founding the Priestly Society of St. Pius X. At that time, who would have thought that we would have to make our way through these forty years as we have done? For the sum of the events that our society has encountered since this date is beyond all imagining. To begin with, the unjust suppression that would strike it five years later…

Too great a love for the Church

Cardinal Oddi resumed the reason for this situation by saying that Archbishop Lefebvre had acted out of too great a love for the Church! A rather surprising argument to explain an impressive series of condemnations. What is certain is that our society has known a destiny unique in the annals of the Church’s history.

The consecration of the four bishops certainly amplified the controversy in which the Society has been involved almost since the beginning of its foundation. And yet this controversy has never ceased to touch those who hold dear the conservation of the most precious principles of the Catholic Church. They glory in their title of faithful and are so attached to these essential elements that they have merited the label of “traditionalists”. They have a horror for contestations, subversion, revolution, and, in spite of this, ever since the beginning, they appear as rebels, contestants in open opposition to authority, an authority that they claim to want to recognize sincerely and yet which they oppose firmly.

Yes, these contradictions encountered throughout our little history bring us to repeat with a deeply moved amazement the words of St. Paul when he retraces the trials he himself underwent: “by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true, as unknown and yet known, as dying and behold we live, as chastised and not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as needy, yet enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all things.” (2 Corinthians 6:8-10)

Punished because of obedience

But we can go even further in these reflexions, especially when we see that we are punished precisely because of our obedience, particularly because of our attachment to the truths proclaimed by the Church of all times and because of our opposition to the errors condemned by her. This is what has won us so many curses from those who today have the authority in the Church. To the point where, even today, some consider or declare us to be schismatic. Although we wish only to spread the good news of Salvation, our actions and initiatives are considered dangerous by many; the least of our actions provokes reactions that are totally out of proportion. Would one take greater precautions to defend oneself against the devil himself?! Truly we bear in us the sign announced by the prophet Simeon to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lord’s sign of contradiction. Even if that involves much suffering in our hearts, much incomprehension, in spite of all, we rejoice at having a part in the sufferings of Our Lord and in the magnificent beatitude, the last one listed by St. Matthew: “Blessed art thou when they shall revile thee and persecute thee, and say all manner of evils against thee, for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for thy reward is great in heaven” (Matt. 5:11-12).

All these elements remind us that here below the Church bears the name “militant”, for she must always fight. The end assigned to her by Our Lord, which consists in saving souls, cannot be obtained without battle, a battle essentially spiritual, but very real, that suffers here and there more or less marked temporary relapses. Our Lord Jesus Christ fought a definitive battle with the devil to tear from him those poor souls that come into the world in his power, with the stain of original sin. This battle is the battle of all times; to forget it would be to condemn ourselves to be unable seriously to understand anything of the great history of men. As for us, we bear daily the stigmata of this combat, and it is an occasion of great gladness. The spiritual authors have always considered trials as a good sign and even a mark of predilection. Since today men do everything to forget and even deny these fundamental truths of the spiritual combat, we are happy to contribute our little part by keeping alive in our own flesh such a truth.

Not that we do not hope for peace, which will come with time, at the good pleasure of Divine Providence, whom we by no means wish to press.

Fidelity to the doctrine

In this, we follow closely in the path traced out for us by our venerated founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. A luminous path in the midst of the shadows of the most terrible trial that can come to a Catholic: that of finding himself in the situation of contradicting the Roman authorities and even the Vicar of Christ. These forty years are so full of lessons that show just how right Archbishop Lefebvre’s perception was. Of the Council, the causes of the crisis, the decadence of the priesthood, the weakening of the doctrine, the Church’s unprecedented friendliness towards the world and other religions, liberalism. But also of the remedies to be applied, that depend upon fidelity to the doctrine as well as to the plurisecular discipline of the Church. Indeed, we have no inventing to do! The means given by Our Lord to His Church are still as fruitful as ever and they always will be, for they come from God, Our Creator and Savior; the faith and grace surpass all circumstances of time and place, all contingencies, for they essentially surpass human nature, its capacities and its hopes. These means are properly supernatural.

That is why Archbishop Lefebvre’s path is still of the present moment. What he said thirty, forty years ago is still perfectly pertinent today. This demands of us a great gratitude to God for having given us – and to the whole Church – such a bishop. There is no doubt that, if in the Church his precious indications were followed, the whole Mystical Body would be better off and would soon come out of this crisis. But seeing what is going on in the Church, even if here and there appear gleams of hope, we must admit that, over all, the ship is pursuing the course begun at Vatican II – course a little slower, certainly, with Benedict XVI, but now hardly more than a free-fall broken by a parachute.

Social Kingship of Christ

Among the lessons that Archbishop Lefebvre has left us, we would like to underline two that he considered intimately linked.

The first is concerning the social kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in other words, the title and the rights of Our Lord Jesus Christ, true God, Creator of the entire universe, for whom and by whom all things were created (Col. 1), and true man. “All power has been given to me in heaven and on earth”: these words come to us directly from His divine lips. This royalty expresses well that, even if the first mission of Jesus Christ is the salvation of men, it in no way cancels out His other prerogatives, which He uses in the service of this first end. How much easier it is for souls to save themselves when the civil society, penetrated by principles that inspire Christian law, exercises over them this beneficent influence by laws in conformity with the natural and eternal law! One need not reflect much to realize all the benefits that the temporal society can and should give to the men that make it up and that God has created for a supernatural end. His Excellency resumed this question with the lapidary sentence: “it is because the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ is no longer at the center of the preoccupations and activities of those who are praepositi [leaders] to us, that they have lost the sense of God and of the priesthood.” Wishing to fall in line with the world, they have lost sight of the essential, God. The same goes for the one who was chosen by God to lead men to Him, the priest.

The Council and the cult of man

Paul VI said already at the end of the Council that more than any other, the Church has also the cult of Man. John Paul II spoke of the anthropocentrism of the Church. These few expressions show clearly the shift that has taken place since Vatican II: the Church’s new preoccupation is man. There where before, it was – and it always should be, for there can be no other end – the glory of God, inseparable from salvation. To serve God, to honor Him, to glorify Him, that was men’s reason for living, and therefore that of the Church! Following the trend of the world, it is as if we have forgotten God even in His Temple, substituting there the cult of man.

Let the authorities of the Church give God, Our Lord, back His place in the world and the restoration of the Church will follow as if by miracle! Of course, one must not confuse everything; Catholic doctrine has always recognized that the Church and civil society are two perfect, distinct societies, having each its proper end and means. But that eliminates God from neither the one nor the other.

The liberal and socialist world wants to free itself from the yoke of God, and there is nothing more fatal for the human creature. The present situation of the world, that has never gone so far as today in its aspirations to an independence from its Creator, spreads further every day the sorry results of its senseless designs. Everywhere there is instability, fear. Indeed, what do the rulers have in mind for the years to come? And the businessmen and economists?

If the time is not come for Christ to reign

“If the time is not come for Jesus Christ to reign, then the time is not come for governments to last” (Cardinal Pie). All things, and not only supernatural things, find in Him their consistency. A world without God is without sense. It becomes absurd. The common end of all creatures is and will always remain in God. Consequently, the best means of obtaining a true peace and prosperity in this world is to respect and submit to Him Who made it.

That is what the Church should remind today’s world of, and that is where the priest comes in, the priest whose mission Archbishop Lefebvre recalls to us. This is the second lesson, intimately related to the first.

The role of the priest

The fallen world, like fallen human nature, cannot find its perfection outside of Him Who was sent to it by the Father. Even if the mission of Our Lord is essentially supernatural – since it concerns the salvation of men, their redemption, their purification from sin by the satisfactory sacrifice of the Cross –, it addresses nonetheless men who are at the same time destined to this supernatural end and members of human and civil society. Thus, when they are sanctified, they necessarily bring the greatest good to human society. There is no place for opposition or contradiction in the plan of salvation; on the contrary, the greatest harmony is also the most desirable, each one remaining in its proper place and order.

Thus the priest, totally given to the perpetuation of the sacrifice of Our Lord the High Priest, will render to God the cult and the homage due to Him, and will at the same time bring to men the benefits of God. From all time the world has needed this mediation, and it has always been the work of the priest who, alter Christus, plays a central role in men’s future.

“To restore all things in Christ” cannot be an option among others; it is really and truly a necessity that comes from the nature of things, from their state of created beings. It matters little that modern society proves deaf to such a discourse! Let it pursue its dreams, the awakening will only be all the more painful! But more than ever the Church has something to say to the world. And it will always be the same thing.

The events of these past years show a certain movement towards a return, up until now still very slight, but quite real all the same. No doubt the Society of St. Pius X can offer an important contribution. But it is still quite difficult to predict anything more concrete in its relations with Rome.
Conclusion

Finally, we wish to continue our marial bent, to confirm the necessity of the consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and to pursue our prayer campaign. Let us besiege Our Lady’s throne of graces; by the multitude of roses of our rosaries let us offer her our homage, let us persist in our request and intensify our supplication: may her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart triumph! May she deign to hasten this blessed time!

We do not forget you, dear friends and benefactors, in our daily prayers and thanksgivings. May God reward you a hundredfold, especially in eternal graces, for your generosity, and may He bless you abundantly.

† Bernard Fellay

First Sunday of Advent, November 28, 2010

The pontificate of Benedict XVI shows on the one side a real movement towards Tradition and on the other side regrettable acts along the same line as Pope John Paul II. It is difficult to know what to expect in the upcoming years. After the second rosary crusade gathered nineteen million rosaries, we wish that the authorities will accomplish the famous consecration of Russia.

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

The Church’s situation increasingly resembles a sea that is agitated in all directions. We see waves and more waves, which seem to be about to capsize the bark of Peter and drag it into the endless abyss. Since the Second Vatican Council, it seems that a wave has been trying to carry off everything into the deep, leaving only a heap of ruins, a spiritual desert, that the popes themselves have called an apostasy. We do not want to describe this harsh reality again; we have already so often done, and all of you can see that it is so. Still, to us it seems useful to comment somewhat on the events of the past months; I want to speak about the surprisingly violent and particularly well-orchestrated blows that have been dealt to the Church and the Supreme Pontiff. Why such violent attacks?

Real movement of reform

To return to our metaphor, it seems that for some time now, more or less since the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, a new wave has appeared which is much more modest than the first, yet persistent enough that it is noticeable nevertheless. Contrary to all expectations, this wave seems to be going in the opposite direction compared to the first. The indications are sufficiently varied and numerous, that we can state that this new movement of reform or renewal is quite real. We can see this especially with the younger generations, who are plainly frustrated by the spiritual ineffectiveness of the Vatican II reforms. Considering the very harsh and bitter reproaches leveled by the progressives against Benedict XVI, it is certain that they see in the very person of the present pope one of the most vigorous causes of this incipient renewal. In fact, even if we find the pope’s initiatives rather timid, they run deep and are contrary to the agenda of the revolutionary, left-leaning world, both inside and outside of the Church, and this is true at several levels.

Moves toward Tradition

The resulting irritation of the progressives and of the world is sensed initially in questions concerning morality. Specifically, the Left and the liberals have been irritated despite the pope’s well-pondered words about the use of condoms in dealing with AIDS in Africa. As for the life of the Church, the restoration of the Mass of All Ages to its rightful place in 2007, and then two years later the rescinding of the degrading punishment aimed at disqualifying us, provoked the rage of liberals and progressives of all stripes. Moreover, the felicitous plan of a Year for Priests, restoring the priest to a place of honor, recalling his important and indispensable role in the salvation of souls, and proposing the holy Cure of Ars as a model, is not only an invitation to the Christian people to pray for their priests, but also a call to make use of the Sacrament of Penance, which had completely sunk into oblivion in broad sectors of the Church, and also to foster Eucharistic devotion, calling to mind in particular the importance of adoring Our Lord in the Sacred Host, a clear sign of the reality of the real and substantial presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The appointment of bishops who are distinctly more conservative, some of whom were already celebrating the Tridentine Mass before, is another positive development. We could cite also, as an undeniable example of the reality of this little wave of opposition, the Letter to the Catholics of Ireland inviting them to repentance, confession, and spiritual exercises and asking also for the adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist.

Regrettable acts along the line of John Paul II

Even though people in our circles rightly think that these [papal] efforts are still insufficient to stop the decay and the crisis of the Church — especially in view of certain acts along the regrettable line of his predecessor, such as the visits to the synagogue and the Protestant church — in Modernist circles however, the hour has come to report to their battle stations! The big wave is attacking the very little one with unexpected violence. It is not surprising that the meeting of these two ill-matched waves should cause a lot of backwash and turbulence and give rise to an extremely confused situation in which it is quite difficult to tell and predict which of the two will win the day. This, however, is something new that deserves to be commented. It is not a question of giving in to thoughtless enthusiasm or believing that the crisis is over. On the contrary, the aging forces that see their gains, which they thought were definitive, being called into question, will no doubt put up a large-scale battle to try to save this dream of modernity which is starting to fall apart. It is very important to remain in this regard, as realistic as possible about what is happening. Although we rejoice over all the good that is being done in the Church and the world, we nevertheless have no illusions about the seriousness of the present situation.

What should we expect to see in the coming years? Peace in the Church, or war? The victory of good and its long-awaited return, or a new tempest? Will the little wave manage to grow enough to prevail someday? The assurance that the promise of Our Lady of Fatima will be fulfilled — “in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph” — does not necessarily or directly resolve our question, because it is still quite possible that we will have to first pass through an even greater tribulation before the long-awaited triumph occurs….

Rosary Crusade of nineteen million rosaries

A terrific challenge is also intended by our rosary crusade. We would not want to diminish in the least, the joy over the announcement of the extraordinary result of our Rosary Crusade. We boldly asked you one year ago for twelve million rosaries so as to crown our dear Heavenly Mother, the Mother of God, as if with an equal number of stars, and to surround with a magnificent crown of praise that Mother, who to the enemies of God appears “terrible as an army set in battle array” (Cant. 6:3). You responded so generously that we can now bring to Rome a spiritual bouquet of more than nineteen million rosaries, not counting all those not directly affiliated with our priories and chapels who joined in our campaign.

Surely it is no accident that when Pius XII declared the dogma of the Assumption, he decided to change the Introit of the feast on August 15, to the passage from the Apocalypse that salutes the great sign that appeared in heaven. This excerpt from the Apocalypse ushers in the description of one of the most terrible wars that are set forth in that sacred book: the great dragon, who with his tail will sweep away a third of the stars, comes to wage battle with the great Woman (see Apoc. 12). Is this whole passage intended for our time? We can easily believe it, while avoiding a literal or overly specific application of those mysterious and prophetic descriptions. We have absolutely no doubt that all our prayers are important, and even of very great importance at this moment in history at which we find ourselves. However we think that we should warn you also and encourage you in these circumstances of the history of the Church.

Your great generosity shows, without the slightest doubt, your very real devotion and your love for our Holy Mother, the Roman Catholic Church, for the Successor of Saint Peter, and for the hierarchy, even though we have much to suffer from it. God is stronger than evil – good will be victorious, but perhaps not with all the pomp that you would like.

Accomplish the consecration of Russia

Now we must convince the authorities to accomplish the famous consecration of Russia that they say has already been made; we must recall the present relevance of what Our Lady of Fatima said, even though in the year 2000 there was manifestly an attempt to turn a new leaf and not to return to the subject again. It seems inevitable that the difficulties and obstacles will multiply so as to prevent the realization of what we are asking. That doesn’t matter; we count much more on God than on men, just as we expect from acts as simple as the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary surprising results for the Church and the world, results surpassing anything that we can imagine. It is foolishness in the sight of men, but it is really a reflection of what Saint Paul already preached to his age: what men regard as wise is foolishness in God’s sight, whereas God’s wisdom is considered absurd foolishness by the wise of this world (cf. I Cor. 1:20).

As we bring to the attention of the Holy Father your remarkable efforts, along with the reason for these prayers, thus hoping to contribute, in our way, to the good of the Church, we ask you to please continue those same efforts. According to the example that Our Lord Himself invites us to follow in his very moving exhortation to prayer: “Ask, and you shall receive,” let us ask, indeed insisting on much (cf. Matt. 7:7-11). Although we do not doubt that our prayers will be answered, our persistence and perseverance must be proportioned to the magnitude of what we are asking.

Let us remember also that the essential element of the Fatima message is not just the consecration of Russia, but above all devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. May all these prayers and sacrifices lead us to increase and deepen our special devotion to the Heart of the Mother of God. For, through it God wants to be moved.

As the month of May begins, the month of Mary, may we all find ourselves even more reliant on her maternal protection; this is our fondest wish. Thanking you for your truly great generosity, we ask Our Lady to deign to bless you with the Child Jesus.

† Bernard Fellay

Feast of Joseph the Worker, May 1, 2010