21 July 1982
Your Eminence,
You were
able in the conversation which you accorded me yesterday to note
my deep disappointment on receiving your second letter dated 23
June last.
Indeed,
it is clearly apparent from it that the Cardinals who you consulted
wished to harshen your first answer in a spirit of defense of
the Second Vatican Council and the liturgical reforms which have
followed it.
As I had
the occasion to say to you yesterday, we are in an impasse from
which we must find some way out.
So as to
judge calmly and justly our attitude towards the Second Vatican
Council, the post conciliar reforms and especially the liturgical
reforms, it is absolutely necessary to reply to two vital preliminary
questions.
The first is this:
Is the Church
in a normal situation today? Is there nothing to note with concern
in matters of Faith and morals in the Church's institutions, in
seminaries, in religious orders, the Liturgy, ecumenism, etc.?
The second
is this:
Have the
Second Vatican Council and the post conciliar reform given none
but good fruits? Could these be described?
The answers
to these two questions will show whether we are right or wrong.
You yourself
have recognized the seriousness of the situation in which the
Church finds itself today, replying to the first question in the
way in which all those who have retained their common sense and
a sense of what constitutes the Catholic Faith would reply.
As to the
second question, Our Lord gave the answer in the Gospel: "A
good tree does not give bad fruit, and a bad tree does not give
good fruit. A tree is known by its fruit."
The passing
years confirm with constantly increasing evidence that the Council
and the reforms are producing ever more bitter fruit.
There was no need to be a prophet to realize this from the Council
onwards, and this is why I published, even during the Council,
in 1964, an article entitled "To Remain a Catholic, Must
One Become a Protestant?"1
Our attitude
must be judged in the light of these sad findings, which are accelerating
the self destruction of the Church, denounced by Pope Paul VI.
This easily explains:
1. The necessity
of judging the Second Vatican Council in the light of Tradition
and the unchanging
Magisterium
of the Church, so as to correct the texts that are either incompatible
with Tradition or equivocal.
No polemics
are involved, rather defense of the Truth and of the Catholic
Faith clearly expressed in pontifical documents.
2. The liturgical
reforms having been conceived to an ecumenical end (see L'Osservatore
Romano of 19 March 1965, an article by Bugnini) they are
dangerous for the faith of Catholics, who are becoming unable,
little by little, to draw a distinction between Catholics and
heretics, and the Catholic faithful in public to the moral law,
and the public sinner.
If this
Reform is scandalous for the Catholic Faith, what must be the
attitude of every good Catholic towards this Reform? Moral theology
and Canon Law answer this question in the way in which I have
answered it in Le coup de Maitre de Satan, p. 44.
We do not
doubt that many priests say the Novus Ordo Missae in
a devout fashion. This does not, however, compensate for the grave
structural defects of the Novus Ordo Missae, pointed
out in particular by Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci in the Breve
esame critieo.
3. As to
the contravention of Canon Law mentioned in your letter: given
the desperate position of many souls, every pastor is bound to
go to their aid, according to the fundamental principles of Canon
Law itself.
As to the
canonical penalties, they were imposed illegally and without trial,
and by men who wished to condemn all those opposed to the self
destruction of the Church, by those who wished to turn the Council
away from its true goal and who gave a disastrous ecumenical direction
to the reforms.
Now everything
would be simple if we thought only of the Kingdom of Our Lord
Jesus Christ and the salvation of souls. However, everything has
been perverted by false ecumenism, which has become the rule of
churchmen's conduct. So Tradition is presented as an obstacle
which must be swept away. The history of the Church begins with
Vatican II.
For so long
as this spirit continues to reign in the Curia over the majority
of Cardinals, it is unlikely that a solution can be found. Will
it be necessary to wait for the complete ruin of the Catholic
Church in most so called Catholic countries for the voice of Wisdom
to be heard in a return to healthy Tradition?
You have
given me some hope by announcing a projected document concerning
the free use of the old rite of the Mass. The conditions to which
you have alluded, however, make me fear that the result of this
decree may be disappointing and only increase confusion.
I dearly
wish that this decree should be a way to a solution for the Society
and its supporters. The contrary would be very sad.
It is now
almost four years since I met the Holy Father.Would not a further
meeting be profitable in arriving at a happy solution?
I remain
at your disposition and am grateful to you for your brotherly
welcome. Please accept, Your Eminence, my sentiments of respect
and devotion in Christo et Maria.
+Marcel
Lefebvre
Attached are some documents which will be informative, in particular
the beautiful Profession of Faith of the priests of Campos.2
1.
See A Bishop Speaks, (English edition), pp. T3 84.
2.
This Profession of Faith is included as Appendix II.