02-25-2024, 08:22 AM
From the above linked Issue #61:
“Nor can I leave you orphaned by dying without providing for the future. That’s not possible. It would be contrary to my duty. … Unfortunately the media are not on our side in this, because of course they’ll doubtless use headlines such as “Schism!”, “Excommunication!” to their heart’s content - and yet we are convinced that all these accusations and penalties levelled at us are absolutely null and void, which is why we will take absolutely no notice of them.”
Editorial
Dear Reader,
This issue was overdue six months ago. Once again, we plead better late than never. And before you ask, the website ought to be back up and running by now - the host was bought by a rival company, and to cut a long story short we have had to start from scratch. Again, it’s a nuisance but better than nothing at all. Should that be our motto? “The Best is the Enemy of the Good,” or as G K Chesterton puts it: “If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly!”
In this issue, among other things, we take another look at the phoney-baloney charge of excommunication and/or “schism” so often flung at Traditionalists who refuse to bow the knee to Novus Ordo Vatican II modernism. It is as old as the hills, but although the truth may be obvious to you, there are always newcomers and potential newcomers who could do with hearing it dealt with properly and who will be grateful if you can help them make sense of it all. And even we need to remind ourselves every once in a while. So, instead of the usual article from the pen of Archbishop Lefebvre himself, this time we have a defence of the late Archbishop from this dishonest but still ubiquitous charge. One might have thought that with all the rapprochement and entente cordiale between Menzingen and Rome these past twelve years, the talk of “schism” might have become a thing of the past, but that is not so. And such talk is not confined to modernist LGBT-friendly Novus Ordo parish priests, either.
There are Fraternity of St Peter priests in this country still going about telling people that the SSPX are “in schism” and that one mustn’t go near them for fear of becoming schismatic oneself. Incredible though it may sound, it is true. If the SSPX of Archbishop Lefebvre’s day didn’t deserve this label, the wimpy, modern, pusillanimous, navel-gazing (“Let’s talk about ourselves some more!”), vaccine-pushing, millions-of-years-old-earth promoting SSPX of our own day deserve it even less! The modernists approve their ordinations, officiate at their marriages, Pope Francis himself granted them ordinary jurisdiction for confessions… and the SSPX in turn has been awfully quiet. Where they used to condemn the local bishop for his modernism, they now prefer to invite him to tea and get him to lead the rosary in their schools, where they are not actually turning up to one of his parishes (see SSPX Watch, p.55).
To the battle-hardened Traditionalist of today, well aware of the modernist danger, this is going to seem obvious at a glance, but as mentioned we each need to be able to convince others, not least those who are new to all this. To many a well-meaning but naïve Novus Ordo Catholic, therefore, that will mean giving a bit of context.
“Schism” in the context of..?
The Modernists pretence of “excommunication” and “schism” was never anything more than a cynical ploy, as they themselves have shown time and again. They care nothing for Christ and His teaching, and even the superficial appearance of “obedience” to Rome is something they only care about in so far as it gives them the ability to try to gradually grind down Traditional Catholics and turn them modernist, bringing them by stages to the acceptance of the New Mass and the liberal, modernist teachings of Vatican II.
For proof of this, we need look no further than the lessons which can be learned from the various groups of priests and faithful who, having fought side-by-side with Archbishop Lefebvre, left the fight and made their “obedience” to the modernist hierarchy. In 2002, the Priestly Society of St John Vianney of Campos, Brazil, heirs to Archbishop Lefebvre’s great ally Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, did just this. Here is what one highly placed modernist in Rome had to say concerning the end of this made-up “schism”:
Far from being the delusional ramblings of one priest, these were prophetic words and very soon were proved right by events. Campos priests now say the New Mass as well as the Traditional Mass, and their leader, Bishop Rifan, successor of Bishop de Castro Mayer, concelebrates the Novus Ordo at meetings of the Brazilian bishops’ conference. The way modern Rome treated the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter is equally revealing. They were originally formed from a handful of SSPX priests who abandoned Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988 and begged Rome to be “allowed” to remain Traditional without all the scary talk of schism. Rome appeared to allow this (a divide-and-conquer tactic, as John Paul II makes clear in Ecclesia Dei Adflicta). Their permission to be a society of priests who use exclusively the Tridentine rite lasted little more than a decade, however. In 1999 Rome interfered to make them “bi-ritual” which is to say, that henceforth their priests would be able to say the New Mass and in particular would be able to concelebrate the New Mass with the local bishop and Novus Ordo clergy at the Maundy Thursday chrismal Mass. Priests and seminarians who had thought that they had been joining and exclusively Traditional Mass priestly Fraternity could hardly object to this bad faith move - after all, “obedience to Rome” was the main thing which distinguished them from the wicked, evil, schismatic SSPX.
And there are many more such examples. The Good Shepherd Institute, the Franciscans of the Immaculate, indeed not a single fraternity, society, religious order or parish which is “Traditional-with-permission” has remained unmolested by the modernist authorities or free from some underhand attempt to make them more novus-tolerant or modernism-friendly. You can have your Traditional Mass, but your sermons must be inoffensive, you can’t preach against Freemasons, Jews, Protestants or whoever. You can have your Traditional Mass, but you must give communion in the hand to whoever wants it. You can have your Traditional Mass but you need to tolerate modernist devotions such as the Luminous Mysteries, the Divine Mercy, and “Saint” Paul VI. You can have your Traditional Mass but the collection money has to go to the diocese and you can’t speak out against the LGBT outreach parish which the same diocese also runs. You can have your Traditional Mass, but only if you accept the doctrinal soundness of the New Mass, and never speak a word against it.
It is worth recalling that the “reformed rite” which Fr Cottier and co. want “schismatic” Lefebvrist priests to end up concelebrating, is a rite condemned unambiguously by the Church, both at the Council of Trent and again following the pseudo-synod of Pistoia more than two centuries later. The modernists who give their “permission” for you to have a little taste of Tradition are in reality playing a long game: they want you to end up as modernist and liberal as they are. They are the bad guys, the very ones about whom St Pius X and many others warned us. They are in schism from their own past and have been destroying the Church ever since they seized power. They act in bad faith and cannot be trusted.
Archbishop Lefebvre knew this and tried to warn everyone. His glory is that he was condemned by such men. He was not a martyr in the physical sense, he laid down everything but his life: his former friends and colleagues, his good name and all the credit he deserved for a lifetime of service in the missions. His crown in heaven is his excommunication, an excommunication which was phoney-baloney here on earth, but which, coming as it did from the destroyers of the Church, is now his glory in heaven. God send us another Archbishop
Lefebvre; we didn’t deserve him, but we need him now more than ever.
- The Editor
The Recusant
An unofficial SSPX newsletter, fighting a guerrilla war for the soul of Tradition!
An unofficial SSPX newsletter, fighting a guerrilla war for the soul of Tradition!
“Nor can I leave you orphaned by dying without providing for the future. That’s not possible. It would be contrary to my duty. … Unfortunately the media are not on our side in this, because of course they’ll doubtless use headlines such as “Schism!”, “Excommunication!” to their heart’s content - and yet we are convinced that all these accusations and penalties levelled at us are absolutely null and void, which is why we will take absolutely no notice of them.”
- Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Écône, 30th June, 1988
Editorial
Dear Reader,
This issue was overdue six months ago. Once again, we plead better late than never. And before you ask, the website ought to be back up and running by now - the host was bought by a rival company, and to cut a long story short we have had to start from scratch. Again, it’s a nuisance but better than nothing at all. Should that be our motto? “The Best is the Enemy of the Good,” or as G K Chesterton puts it: “If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly!”
In this issue, among other things, we take another look at the phoney-baloney charge of excommunication and/or “schism” so often flung at Traditionalists who refuse to bow the knee to Novus Ordo Vatican II modernism. It is as old as the hills, but although the truth may be obvious to you, there are always newcomers and potential newcomers who could do with hearing it dealt with properly and who will be grateful if you can help them make sense of it all. And even we need to remind ourselves every once in a while. So, instead of the usual article from the pen of Archbishop Lefebvre himself, this time we have a defence of the late Archbishop from this dishonest but still ubiquitous charge. One might have thought that with all the rapprochement and entente cordiale between Menzingen and Rome these past twelve years, the talk of “schism” might have become a thing of the past, but that is not so. And such talk is not confined to modernist LGBT-friendly Novus Ordo parish priests, either.
There are Fraternity of St Peter priests in this country still going about telling people that the SSPX are “in schism” and that one mustn’t go near them for fear of becoming schismatic oneself. Incredible though it may sound, it is true. If the SSPX of Archbishop Lefebvre’s day didn’t deserve this label, the wimpy, modern, pusillanimous, navel-gazing (“Let’s talk about ourselves some more!”), vaccine-pushing, millions-of-years-old-earth promoting SSPX of our own day deserve it even less! The modernists approve their ordinations, officiate at their marriages, Pope Francis himself granted them ordinary jurisdiction for confessions… and the SSPX in turn has been awfully quiet. Where they used to condemn the local bishop for his modernism, they now prefer to invite him to tea and get him to lead the rosary in their schools, where they are not actually turning up to one of his parishes (see SSPX Watch, p.55).
To the battle-hardened Traditionalist of today, well aware of the modernist danger, this is going to seem obvious at a glance, but as mentioned we each need to be able to convince others, not least those who are new to all this. To many a well-meaning but naïve Novus Ordo Catholic, therefore, that will mean giving a bit of context.
“Schism” in the context of..?
The Modernists pretence of “excommunication” and “schism” was never anything more than a cynical ploy, as they themselves have shown time and again. They care nothing for Christ and His teaching, and even the superficial appearance of “obedience” to Rome is something they only care about in so far as it gives them the ability to try to gradually grind down Traditional Catholics and turn them modernist, bringing them by stages to the acceptance of the New Mass and the liberal, modernist teachings of Vatican II.
For proof of this, we need look no further than the lessons which can be learned from the various groups of priests and faithful who, having fought side-by-side with Archbishop Lefebvre, left the fight and made their “obedience” to the modernist hierarchy. In 2002, the Priestly Society of St John Vianney of Campos, Brazil, heirs to Archbishop Lefebvre’s great ally Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, did just this. Here is what one highly placed modernist in Rome had to say concerning the end of this made-up “schism”:
Quote:“Little by little we must expect other steps: for example, that they also participate in concelebrations in the reformed rite. However, we must not be in a hurry. What is important is that in their hearts there no longer be rejection.”
- Fr Georges Cottier, Pope John Paul II’s personal theologian
Far from being the delusional ramblings of one priest, these were prophetic words and very soon were proved right by events. Campos priests now say the New Mass as well as the Traditional Mass, and their leader, Bishop Rifan, successor of Bishop de Castro Mayer, concelebrates the Novus Ordo at meetings of the Brazilian bishops’ conference. The way modern Rome treated the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter is equally revealing. They were originally formed from a handful of SSPX priests who abandoned Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988 and begged Rome to be “allowed” to remain Traditional without all the scary talk of schism. Rome appeared to allow this (a divide-and-conquer tactic, as John Paul II makes clear in Ecclesia Dei Adflicta). Their permission to be a society of priests who use exclusively the Tridentine rite lasted little more than a decade, however. In 1999 Rome interfered to make them “bi-ritual” which is to say, that henceforth their priests would be able to say the New Mass and in particular would be able to concelebrate the New Mass with the local bishop and Novus Ordo clergy at the Maundy Thursday chrismal Mass. Priests and seminarians who had thought that they had been joining and exclusively Traditional Mass priestly Fraternity could hardly object to this bad faith move - after all, “obedience to Rome” was the main thing which distinguished them from the wicked, evil, schismatic SSPX.
And there are many more such examples. The Good Shepherd Institute, the Franciscans of the Immaculate, indeed not a single fraternity, society, religious order or parish which is “Traditional-with-permission” has remained unmolested by the modernist authorities or free from some underhand attempt to make them more novus-tolerant or modernism-friendly. You can have your Traditional Mass, but your sermons must be inoffensive, you can’t preach against Freemasons, Jews, Protestants or whoever. You can have your Traditional Mass, but you must give communion in the hand to whoever wants it. You can have your Traditional Mass but you need to tolerate modernist devotions such as the Luminous Mysteries, the Divine Mercy, and “Saint” Paul VI. You can have your Traditional Mass but the collection money has to go to the diocese and you can’t speak out against the LGBT outreach parish which the same diocese also runs. You can have your Traditional Mass, but only if you accept the doctrinal soundness of the New Mass, and never speak a word against it.
It is worth recalling that the “reformed rite” which Fr Cottier and co. want “schismatic” Lefebvrist priests to end up concelebrating, is a rite condemned unambiguously by the Church, both at the Council of Trent and again following the pseudo-synod of Pistoia more than two centuries later. The modernists who give their “permission” for you to have a little taste of Tradition are in reality playing a long game: they want you to end up as modernist and liberal as they are. They are the bad guys, the very ones about whom St Pius X and many others warned us. They are in schism from their own past and have been destroying the Church ever since they seized power. They act in bad faith and cannot be trusted.
Archbishop Lefebvre knew this and tried to warn everyone. His glory is that he was condemned by such men. He was not a martyr in the physical sense, he laid down everything but his life: his former friends and colleagues, his good name and all the credit he deserved for a lifetime of service in the missions. His crown in heaven is his excommunication, an excommunication which was phoney-baloney here on earth, but which, coming as it did from the destroyers of the Church, is now his glory in heaven. God send us another Archbishop
Lefebvre; we didn’t deserve him, but we need him now more than ever.
- 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