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JMJ
Archbishop Lefebvre was not the only one who foresaw the crisis that the would erupt from the principles underpinning the high-jacked Second Vatican Council.
He was the one who stayed out front and centre of the conflict ... and did something that would have lasting effect on the whole Catholic Church - SSPX.
P^3
Courtesy of Remnant Newspaper
Editor's Intro: Last year, The Remnant Newspaper
celebrated its 50th anniversary in the Catholic press apostolate. This
means that ever since 1967—just two years after the close of the Second
Vatican Council and two years before the promulgation of Pope Paul’s
New Mass—The Remnant has been going to press every two weeks,
chronicling both the history of the Modernist revolution in the Catholic
Church as well as the grassroots Catholic counterrevolution that
followed, i.e., the traditional Catholic movement.
It
can be said without exaggeration, then, that The Remnant is the
newspaper of record for the post-conciliar Traditional Catholic
counterrevolution in the English-speaking world.In point of fact, when the founding editor of The Remnant died in 2002, the late, great Michael Davies wrote this in the pages of The Remnant:
Every traditional Catholic owes a debt of gratitude to Walter Matt, not least for the fact that it is due to him more than any other individual, with the possible exception of Hamish Fraser, that we have a traditionalist movement in the English-speaking world.”I’m thrilled, therefore, to announce an important Remnant project which we intend to finish by October of 2018: The launch of the complete Remnant Archive at RemnantNewspaper.com. This is a significant undertaking, but I believe we owe it to history and to the Catholic Cause to make our archive available in a searchable online format.
(Remnant readers wishing to help defray the considerable costs of launching this invaluable historical database can send tax-deductible donations to The Remnant Foundation, PO Box 1117, Forest Lake, MN 55025, or online HERE
Once complete, younger readers will not have to consult the now-hazy memories of the elderly to gain firsthand accounts on what happened after Vatican II. They can go straight to the horse’s mouth, so to speak, and see how the pioneers of this movement (including regular Catholics who vented their frustration week after week in the old “Remnant Speaks” column) responded to the New Mass, Communion in the hand, altar girls, the post-conciliar popes, the new orientation of the Church, the rise of Catholic divorce (aka the annulment industry), Communism, the Cold War, Vietnam, etc.— everything that was going on during the early days of the Council’s aftermath and all the way down to the present.
(Pictured: Founding Editor, The Remant; Walter Matt, World War II)And, of course, the “great one”—Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre himself, whose letters and addresses frequently appeared as Remnant exclusives in the early days of the Revolution. In fact, I’m happy to tease the launch of the upcoming Remnant Archive Online with the following transcript of a sermon delivered in Rome by Archbishop Lefebvre back 1976.
This is vintage Lefebvre and, at a moment when there’s too much revisionist history being written about what motivated this extraordinary man to do what he did, we’re happy to help set the record straight. Lefebvre did what he did in resistance to the Modernist revolution in the Church. He did what he did for the salvation of souls. He did what he did for the good of the Church. He was not motivated by some misplaced desire to be regarded as “legitimate” in the eyes of the modern Vatican.
Yes, he believed he’d been dealt an injustice by the Vatican, to be sure—but not by mistake, not as the result of some oversight or lack of due consideration. He came to represent the face of public opposition to what the post-conciliarists in Rome were doing to Holy Mother Church, and when he was challenged for the public stand he took, he did indeed plead for the right to bring his case to the Roman authorities at the time. But this was only because he wanted the world to see that proper authority had abandoned Tradition, and that his “crime” was merely to keep the Faith of our fathers exactly as it had been handed down to him. He knew they had no rebuttal, and so he challenged them, again and again, to tell him and the world how they could justify their brash novelty in the face of his principled defense of Tradition.
In other words, he could have stopped the Vatican’s “unjust treatment” anytime he wished by simply closing his mouth, laying down his pen and complying—exactly as they were demanding he do at the time. But he refused. He continued to speak out against the Modernists and their precious Council, and for that he suffered every retaliatory indignity and insult at their hands. In the end, he even sacrificed the canonical standing of his own Society in order to make a public stand for Christ Himself during the most pernicious revolution in the history of the Catholic Church.
The historical record clearly shows that for Archbishop Lefebvre, the sacred obligation to oppose Modernists in Rome trumps any care or concern for canonical legitimacy. He could have so easily maintained canonical legitimacy if that was what motived him. It was not.
By the way, our next archival address by Archbishop Lefebvre dates to 1973 and is even more outspoken, again putting the lie to the claim that Lefebvre only began publicly speaking out in the mid to late 1980s, when he was very old and maybe entering his dotage. Not so! We have a whole archive of his sermons, public addresses and even the blow-by-blow bi-weekly commentary on his situation penned by the late, great Michael Davies, The Remnant’s lead columnist for 30 years.
Look for more to come and watch for the big announcement this fall that at long last the traditional Catholic paper of record will make its archive available and searchable online.
And now, Archbishop Lefebvre in his own words. MJM
The One True Religion
By Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
The Remnant, March 6, 1976, Vol. 9, No. 5
My Dear Brethren:
If there is one day on which the Church’s liturgy affirms our faith, that day is the Feast of the Blessed Trinity. This morning, in the breviary which the priest formerly had to recite, he had to add to the psalms of Prime the creed of St. Athanasius. This is the creed which affirms clearly, serenely, but perfectly, what we are bound to believe concerning the Blessed Trinity, and also concerning the divinity and the humanity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Indeed, all our faith is summed up in our belief in the Most Holy Trinity and in Our Lord Jesus Christ, God made Man. The whole of our Creed, which we shall sing in a few moments, is focused, as it were, on the very person of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He it is who is our God, He our Savior; it is through Him that we shall enter heaven. He is the door of the sheep-fold, He is the way, the Truth, the Life. There is no other name on earth by which we may be saved—the Gospels tell us all this.
Therefore, when our Faith is being attacked from all sides, we must hold steadfastly and firmly to it. We must never accept that there can be any compromise in the affirmation of our Faith. Herein, I think, lies the drama through which we have lived for the last ten, perhaps fifteen years. This drama, this tragic situation we are going through, lies in seeking that our Faith is no longer affirmed with certainty: that through a false ecumenism we have, as it were, reached the point of putting all religions on the same footing, of granting what is called “equal rights” to all religions. This is a tragedy, because it is all entirely contrary to the truth of the church.
We believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ is our God, our Savior, our Redeemer; we believe that the Catholic church alone has the Truth, thus we draw the proper conclusions, by respecting in our personal lives the religion which Our Lord Jesus Christ founded. For, if other religions are quite prepared to admit that there can be other beliefs and other religious groups, we cannot do so. Why do other religions admit this? Because these religions are religions which have been founded by men and not by God. Our holy and beloved Religion has been founded by God Himself, by Our Lord Jesus Christ.
He it is who has given us the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, He who died upon the cross. Already on the day of the Last Supper He wished, in a certain manner, to enact in advance what was to take place on the Cross, commanding us to do likewise continually to the end of time, thus making priests of those to whom He gave the power to consecrate the Eucharist. He did this by His own Will, His Will as God, because Jesus Christ is God.
He has, thus, given us the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which we love so much, which is our life, our hope, and our salvation. This Sacrifice of Calvary cannot be transformed, the Sacrifice of the Last Supper cannot be transformed—for there was a Sacrifice at the Last Supper—we cannot transform this Sacrifice into a simple commemorative meal, a simple relapse at which a memory is recalled, this is not possible. To do such a thing would be to destroy the whole of our Religion, to destroy the most precious thing which Our Lord has given us here on earth, the immaculate and divine treasure which He put into the hands of His Church, which He made a priestly Church.
The Church is essentially priestly because she offers the redemptive Sacrifice which Our Lord made on Calvary, and which she renews upon our altars. For a true Catholic, one who is truly faithful to Our Lord Jesus Christ, anything which touches what He Himself established moves him to the very depths of his heart, for he loves it as the apple of his eye.
So, if it comes, in any way, to the point of destroying from within what Our Lord Jesus Christ gave to us as the source of life, as the source of grace, then we suffer, we suffer dreadfully, and we demand absolutely that this spring, this fountain of life, this fountain of eternal Life, this fountain of Grace be preserved for us whole and entire.
And if such is true of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, it is also true of the Sacraments. It is not possible to make any considerable changes in the Sacraments without destroying them, without running the risk of rendering them invalid, and consequently without running the risk of drying up the grace, the supernatural and eternal life which they bring to us.
It is again Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself who established the Sacraments; it is not for us, we are not the masters of the Sacraments… even the Sovereign Pontiff cannot change them. Without doubt he can make changes in the rites, in what is accidental in any Sacrament; but no Sovereign Pontiff can change the essence of a Sacrament, for that was established by Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself who took such care in the founding of our holy Religion, Who left us directions as to what we must do, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. What more could we ask? What other religion can lay claim to possess such a thing? And why? Because the only true religion is that of the Catholic Church.
This is a matter of fundamental importance, fundamental for our behavior, fundamental for our religion, and fundamental also for the way we should behave towards those people who do not believe in our holy Religion. This is extremely important, because it is precisely towards those who do not believe, those who do not have our Faith, that we must have immense charity, the TRUE charity.
We must not receive them by telling them that their religion is as good as ours—that is a lie, that is selfishness, that is not true charity. If we consider what profound riches have been given to us in this religion of ours, then we should have to desire to make it known to others, and to share these riches and not say to them: “But you already have all you need! There is no point in your joining us, your religion is as good as ours.”
See how this matter is one of paramount importance, for it is precisely such false ecumenism which makes the adherents of all the other religions believe that they have certain means of salvation. Now this is false. Only the Catholic religion, and only the Mystical Body of Christ possess the means of salvation. We cannot be saved without Jesus, and we cannot be saved without grace. “He who does not believe”, said Our Lord, “will be condemned.”
We must believe in Our Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved. “He who believes shall be saved”; “he who obeys My commandments shall have eternal life”; “he who eats My flesh and drinks My blood shall have eternal life.” Here is what Our Lord taught us.
Therefore, we should have tremendous desire, a really tremendous desire, to communicate our Faith to others. And this is exactly what made the missionary spirit of the church. If the strength—the certainty—of our faith is weakened, then the missionary spirit of the Church also diminishes, since it is no longer necessary to cross the seas, to cross the oceans, to go and preach the Gospel, for what is the good of it? Let us leave each man to his own religion, if that religion is going to save him.
Therefore, we must hold fast to our Faith, we must adhere strictly to its affirmation, and we must not accept this false ecumenism which makes all regions into sister-religions of Christianity, for they are nothing of the kind.
It is precisely this false ecumenism which had too much influence at the Council, and too much influence after the Council. False ecumenism is the reason why the seminaries are empty.” Archbishop Lefebvre, The Remnant, March 6, 1976.
This, I think, is what is very important to state nowadays, because it is precisely this false ecumenism which had too much influence at the Council, and too much influence after the Council. False ecumenism is the reason why the seminaries are empty. Why is this so? Why are there no more vocations for the missionary orders? Precisely because young men no longer feel the need to make the Truth known to the whole world. They no longer feel the need to give themselves completely to Our Lord Jesus Christ, simply because Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only Truth, the only Way, the only Life.
What attracts the young to preach the Gospel is that they know they have the Truth. If vocations are withering away, it is due to this false ecumenism. How we suffer at the thought that, in certain countries, people speak of “Eucharistic hospitality”, of “intercommunion”; as if one could give the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ to those who do not believe in the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, consequently to those who do not adore the Holy Eucharist, because they do not believe in It? Without sacrilege, without blasphemy, the Body and Blood of Our Savior cannot be given to a person who denies His Real Presence in the Eucharist. On this point, therefore, we must have a firm and solid faith, a faith which does not compromise. This is entirely in keeping with the tradition of the Church.
Thus, the martyrs believed who lie buried everywhere in this basilica, and in all the churches of Rome, who suffered here in this forum of Augustus, who lived among pagans for three centuries and were persecuted as soon as they were known to be Christians. They were thrown into prison...our thoughts turn to the Mamertine prison, so close to us here, where Peter and Paul were put in chains because of their faith. And shall we be afraid to affirm our faith? We would not in that case be the true descendants of the martyrs, the true descendants of those Christians who shed their blood for Our Lord Jesus Christ in affirmation of their faith in Him. They, too, could indeed have said: “But, since all religions are of equal value, if I burn a little incense before an idol, what does that matter, my life will be saved.” But they preferred to die, they preferred to be thrown to the beasts in the coliseum, quite close to us here. So many, many martyrs were thrown to the beasts, rather than offer incense to pagan gods!
So, may our presence here in Rome be an occasion for us to strengthen our faith, to have, if necessary, the souls of martyrs, the souls of witnesses (for a martyr is a witness), the souls of witnesses of Our Lord Jesus Christ, witnesses of the Church.
Here is what I wish you, my most dear brethren, and in this we must be unflinching, whatever happens. We must never agree to diminish our faith; and if by misfortune it were to happen that those who ought to defend our faith came to tell us to lessen or diminish it, then we must say: “NO.”
St. Paul put this very well: “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.” Well that, I think, sums up clearly what I wanted to say to you, so that when you return to your homes you may have the courage, the strength, despite difficulties, despite trials, to remain true to your Faith, come what may, to uphold it for yourselves, your children and future generations, the Faith which Our Lord Jesus Christ gave to us; so that the pathway to heaven may still have many pilgrims, that it may still be crowded with people on their journey upwards, that it may not be a deserted by-way, while on the other hand, the road leading to hell is filled with those who did not believe in Our Lord Jesus Christ, or who rejected Him. We must think on these things, because it is what Our Lord told us: “If we do not believe, we shall be condemned.”
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