Yesterday, 03:40 PM
“The truly Catholic press is altogether Catholic, that is to say, it defends Catholic doctrine in all its principles and applications; it opposes all false teaching (known as such) always and entirely, opposita per diametrum [diametrically opposed], as St Ignatius says in that golden book of his exercises. Arrayed with unceasing vigilance against error, it places itself on the frontier, always face-to-face with the enemy. It never bivouacs with the hostile forces, as the compromising press loves to do. Its opposition is definite and determined; it is not simply opposed to certain undeniable manoeuvres of the foe, letting others escape its vigilance, but watches, guards, and resists at every point.”
FROM THE DESK OF THE EDITOR:
Dear Reader,
The SSPX has a problem with bishops. We have pointed it out before, in these pages, but it came on fairly suddenly. Word reaches us that Bishop Alfonso de Galaretta is not well and effectively out-of action and with Tissier gone that leaves only Bishop Fellay. This time last year, the original four bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988 were still alive.
Now two of them are dead and one is unwell and unable to function. Two years ago, the SSPX had three bishops plus one conciliar bishop (Vitus Huonder, whom they had already begun to use to consecrate holy oils and do confirmations in their chapels). Now there is only Bishop Fellay on whom they can rely, it seems. Will he be consecrating new bishops for the SSPX? Don’t hold your breath. That would take courage, courage which neither he nor anyone else in today’s SSPX has. The more time passes, the more we ought to be able to appreciate just what Archbishop Lefebvre did for us: there is none alive today who even comes close to him in stature.
As it happens, the SSPX recently released another Fr. Paul Robinson and Andrew video on their YouTube channel. This time they are not pushing billions of years, nor why we all need to avoid conspiracy theories and get the latest vaccine. No, this time they are defending the validity of Novus Ordo holy orders and why the new SSPX views conditional ordination as hardly ever necessary.
Why they should wish to propagandise the faithful with this particular issue right now is anyone’s guess, but many are suspicious and with good cause. Is it that they are about to ask Rome for new bishops? Or is it just another symptom of their eagerness to avoid offending their newfound friends, the conciliar bishops? Just like the gradual disappearance of sermons and articles condemning the New Mass; just like their acceptance of Ecclesia Dei / Indult priests; just like their acceptance of the new Code of Canon Law, and much else besides. Perhaps it is both.
These pages have long waged war and will continue to wage war against the crazy, dangerous and un-Catholic idea that all that matters is validity, that valid sacraments are everything and that a priest’s teaching, his doctrine, his public profession of the Faith take a back seat just as long as his sacraments are valid. Clearly, validity is not all that matters, nor is it even the thing which matters most. But does that mean that it doesn’t matter at all? Of course not. Hence the reader will find in these pages an article dealing with the Fr. Robinson interview (p.10) and the question of Novus Ordo Holy Orders.
The other thing which these pages carry is a lengthy article (p.30) which deals with the question of conciliar canonisations, and Cardinal Newman in particular. The conciliar church are about to make him a “Doctor” of their Vatican II church, but is he even really a Saint? The evidence, it seems, is very heavily against it. It is quite a large topic to deal with and one that deserves being looked at properly, so I hope the reader will forgive if this time around, little space has been left for anything else, including the usual sermon by Archbishop Lefebvre. As always, however, he is never very far away in these pages and, I hope, his guidance can still be felt, even when we are not quoting from him directly. But hold on, why didn’t they just go to the ‘certainly valid’ Masses in the churches?
The SSPX pushing total acceptance of conciliar holy orders, and the conciliar church pushing Newman as a bogus “Doctor of the Church.” Those “current events” are given an airing in this issue, but other than their topicality, is there anything else connecting them? As different as those two things are, the answer is yes, and ironically (or perhaps not) it is that they both spring directly from Vatican II and both have done great harm to the Church. Like the new sacramental rites, the changes to the calendar which saw several genuine Saints being effectively “cancelled” were made by the Consilium appointed by Paul VI in the mid-60s: a vast bureaucracy with hundreds of “experts” and dozens of sub-committees, in which Fr. Annibale Bugnini reigned supreme and which ultimately gave us the New Mass. To borrow from the title of the John Vennari article (p.18), the result is “Doubt and Confusion” about who is a real priest or bishop, or for that matter who is a real Saint. As a result, millions have lost the Faith and it wasn’t even necessary, so it had to be motivated by something other than the common good, some undeclared nefarious end.
Nuala Sherwin RIP
Of your charity please pray for the repose of the soul of Nuala Sherwin. She was one of two old ladies who helped found the Resistance in Ireland, back in 2013. Shiela White was the other: she died at the start of 2019 - RIP. The two were firm friends but very different in temperament. Whereas Shiela was clearly the more outgoing, “larger than life” one might almost say, Nuala was far more reserved. Diminutive in stature, she was as devout as she was diligent and once convinced of a thing, followed it through with a tenacity and consistency rarely seen in our day. She was also one of the most generous souls whom I have ever met and never balked at a sacrifice, no matter how personally inconvenient it might be.
In June 2012 Bishop Fellay, accompanied by the District Superior of Great Britain and Ireland, visited SSPX in Dublin for confirmations and afterwards treated the faithful to his usual sleep-inducing “Our Relations With Rome” talk. One lone voice against his antics was raised. Not only was Nuala prepared to ask him awkward questions: when no satisfactory answer was forthcoming she refused to sit down and be silent. Faithful of the Resistance in Ireland today remember the sight and sound of a tiny old lady being physically manhandled out of the hall by two large men, still shouting at the top of her voice: “You’re betraying us, Bishop Fellay! You’re betraying Archbishop Lefebvre! You’re a traitor!” Incidentally, the District Superior who had her ejected, to his lasting shame, was one Fr. Paul Morgan.
Not surprisingly, she soon helped found of the first Resistance Mass centre in Ireland, at the Skylon Hotel, Dublin, where Fr. Pfeiffer and Fr. Hewko would offer Mass. After a couple of years, some new priests showed up unannounced at the Skylon Hotel and took things over, priests whom Fr. Pfeiffer and Fr. Hewko had not heard from and whom we now call the Fake Resistance. Nuala regarded them as interlopers. She was the first one in Ireland to declare that she would not go to their Masses if they would not publicly stand for the Faith and endorse the Resistance. Others would join her, but to begin with she was alone. Incidentally, one of those priests is now a Bishop and his name is Giacomo Ballini.
Unimposing, small, soft-spoken - it is hard to convey fully in writing the contrast between her external appearance and her indomitable spirit. She not only read this newsletter from cover to cover, she annotated it all over with her own hand-written notes to the point where it was almost unrecognisable. She once told me that her family had come over to Ireland from England during the Protestant Reformation and that there was good reason to believe that they were the same family as that of the English martyr St. Ralph Sherwin. God grant that we be able to follow the example she left us and grant to her eternal rest. Requiescat in Pace.
- The Editor
- Liberalism is a Sin, p.140
FROM THE DESK OF THE EDITOR:
Dear Reader,
The SSPX has a problem with bishops. We have pointed it out before, in these pages, but it came on fairly suddenly. Word reaches us that Bishop Alfonso de Galaretta is not well and effectively out-of action and with Tissier gone that leaves only Bishop Fellay. This time last year, the original four bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988 were still alive.
Now two of them are dead and one is unwell and unable to function. Two years ago, the SSPX had three bishops plus one conciliar bishop (Vitus Huonder, whom they had already begun to use to consecrate holy oils and do confirmations in their chapels). Now there is only Bishop Fellay on whom they can rely, it seems. Will he be consecrating new bishops for the SSPX? Don’t hold your breath. That would take courage, courage which neither he nor anyone else in today’s SSPX has. The more time passes, the more we ought to be able to appreciate just what Archbishop Lefebvre did for us: there is none alive today who even comes close to him in stature.
As it happens, the SSPX recently released another Fr. Paul Robinson and Andrew video on their YouTube channel. This time they are not pushing billions of years, nor why we all need to avoid conspiracy theories and get the latest vaccine. No, this time they are defending the validity of Novus Ordo holy orders and why the new SSPX views conditional ordination as hardly ever necessary.
Why they should wish to propagandise the faithful with this particular issue right now is anyone’s guess, but many are suspicious and with good cause. Is it that they are about to ask Rome for new bishops? Or is it just another symptom of their eagerness to avoid offending their newfound friends, the conciliar bishops? Just like the gradual disappearance of sermons and articles condemning the New Mass; just like their acceptance of Ecclesia Dei / Indult priests; just like their acceptance of the new Code of Canon Law, and much else besides. Perhaps it is both.
These pages have long waged war and will continue to wage war against the crazy, dangerous and un-Catholic idea that all that matters is validity, that valid sacraments are everything and that a priest’s teaching, his doctrine, his public profession of the Faith take a back seat just as long as his sacraments are valid. Clearly, validity is not all that matters, nor is it even the thing which matters most. But does that mean that it doesn’t matter at all? Of course not. Hence the reader will find in these pages an article dealing with the Fr. Robinson interview (p.10) and the question of Novus Ordo Holy Orders.
Quote:“How can a valid Mass displease God?
Even a sacrilegious Mass celebrated by an apostate priest to mock Christ can be valid. It is however evident that it offends God, and it would not be permitted to take part in it. In the same way, the Mass of a Greek Schismatic (valid and celebrated according a venerable rite) displeases God insofar as it is celebrated in opposition to Rome and to the unique Church of Christ.” (Catechism of the Crisis in the Church by Fr. Mattias Gaudron SSPX, Angelus Press)
“It must be understood immediately that we do not hold to the absurd idea that if the New Mass is valid, we are then free to assist at it. The Church has always forbidden the faithful to assist at the Masses of heretics and schismatics, even when they are valid. It is clear that no one can assist at sacrilegious Masses or at Masses which endanger our Faith.” (Archbishop Lefebvre, 08/11/1979)
The other thing which these pages carry is a lengthy article (p.30) which deals with the question of conciliar canonisations, and Cardinal Newman in particular. The conciliar church are about to make him a “Doctor” of their Vatican II church, but is he even really a Saint? The evidence, it seems, is very heavily against it. It is quite a large topic to deal with and one that deserves being looked at properly, so I hope the reader will forgive if this time around, little space has been left for anything else, including the usual sermon by Archbishop Lefebvre. As always, however, he is never very far away in these pages and, I hope, his guidance can still be felt, even when we are not quoting from him directly. But hold on, why didn’t they just go to the ‘certainly valid’ Masses in the churches?
The SSPX pushing total acceptance of conciliar holy orders, and the conciliar church pushing Newman as a bogus “Doctor of the Church.” Those “current events” are given an airing in this issue, but other than their topicality, is there anything else connecting them? As different as those two things are, the answer is yes, and ironically (or perhaps not) it is that they both spring directly from Vatican II and both have done great harm to the Church. Like the new sacramental rites, the changes to the calendar which saw several genuine Saints being effectively “cancelled” were made by the Consilium appointed by Paul VI in the mid-60s: a vast bureaucracy with hundreds of “experts” and dozens of sub-committees, in which Fr. Annibale Bugnini reigned supreme and which ultimately gave us the New Mass. To borrow from the title of the John Vennari article (p.18), the result is “Doubt and Confusion” about who is a real priest or bishop, or for that matter who is a real Saint. As a result, millions have lost the Faith and it wasn’t even necessary, so it had to be motivated by something other than the common good, some undeclared nefarious end.
Nuala Sherwin RIP
Of your charity please pray for the repose of the soul of Nuala Sherwin. She was one of two old ladies who helped found the Resistance in Ireland, back in 2013. Shiela White was the other: she died at the start of 2019 - RIP. The two were firm friends but very different in temperament. Whereas Shiela was clearly the more outgoing, “larger than life” one might almost say, Nuala was far more reserved. Diminutive in stature, she was as devout as she was diligent and once convinced of a thing, followed it through with a tenacity and consistency rarely seen in our day. She was also one of the most generous souls whom I have ever met and never balked at a sacrifice, no matter how personally inconvenient it might be.
In June 2012 Bishop Fellay, accompanied by the District Superior of Great Britain and Ireland, visited SSPX in Dublin for confirmations and afterwards treated the faithful to his usual sleep-inducing “Our Relations With Rome” talk. One lone voice against his antics was raised. Not only was Nuala prepared to ask him awkward questions: when no satisfactory answer was forthcoming she refused to sit down and be silent. Faithful of the Resistance in Ireland today remember the sight and sound of a tiny old lady being physically manhandled out of the hall by two large men, still shouting at the top of her voice: “You’re betraying us, Bishop Fellay! You’re betraying Archbishop Lefebvre! You’re a traitor!” Incidentally, the District Superior who had her ejected, to his lasting shame, was one Fr. Paul Morgan.
Not surprisingly, she soon helped found of the first Resistance Mass centre in Ireland, at the Skylon Hotel, Dublin, where Fr. Pfeiffer and Fr. Hewko would offer Mass. After a couple of years, some new priests showed up unannounced at the Skylon Hotel and took things over, priests whom Fr. Pfeiffer and Fr. Hewko had not heard from and whom we now call the Fake Resistance. Nuala regarded them as interlopers. She was the first one in Ireland to declare that she would not go to their Masses if they would not publicly stand for the Faith and endorse the Resistance. Others would join her, but to begin with she was alone. Incidentally, one of those priests is now a Bishop and his name is Giacomo Ballini.
Unimposing, small, soft-spoken - it is hard to convey fully in writing the contrast between her external appearance and her indomitable spirit. She not only read this newsletter from cover to cover, she annotated it all over with her own hand-written notes to the point where it was almost unrecognisable. She once told me that her family had come over to Ireland from England during the Protestant Reformation and that there was good reason to believe that they were the same family as that of the English martyr St. Ralph Sherwin. God grant that we be able to follow the example she left us and grant to her eternal rest. Requiescat in Pace.
- The Editor
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre