Two Clear-Sighted Articles on Archbishop Lefebvre and the SSPX Controversy

Editor's Comment: What confusing times we live in, eh! As someone once said to me, "We are all doing our lousy best." While I would modify that to say, "People of good will are doing their lousy best," I think it is a true statement as we travel through this "valley of tears." Let's face it, we're in chaos!

Jesus promised peace on earth to "people of good will." That doesn't mean there will be no argument or strife. He also said he came to divide, even to divide families. 

But in all the chaos and confusion, He gives the "peace that passes understanding" to those who love Him and do their "lousy best" to "serve according to His purpose." 

I wish the internecine warfare would stop, but I have no power to change anyone except myself. So I'm determined to keep my peace of heart by not reacting to accusations of schism or whatever and by treating with respect those with whom I disagree whom I presume to be people of good will and even enemies of God whose actions further the kingdom of Satan. I cannot, however, treat evil actions with respect, and truth demands that they be called out and condemned!

Each of us has the vocation to "know, love, and serve God." I judge my own actions whenever I go to confession. I judge the actions of others to conclude whether they are liars or truth tellers. I cannot know the state of anyone's soul (unlike some of the raging screamers on social media), but I can certainly see the warning signs that indicate communion with evil. 

I offer these two articles today about Archbishop Lefebvre and the SSPX controversy. I challenge those who condemn the SSPX (as I did for years), to do the research. Who is passing on the faith in all its integrity? Who is undermining the faith with novelties and even approving of sins that cry to heaven for vengeance? 

Lefebvre and What Comes Next by Joseph Bevan

If one steps back in time, a cursory glance at the life of Archbishop Lefebvre will prove informative because it shows that we have been here before. The Archbishop’s treatment by the Vatican in the 1970s and 1980s demonstrates conclusively that there was (and there still is) a state of war between the pre-conciliar and post-conciliar Church.

It seems that Rome and SSPX both see the New Mass as representing a new religion (as strongly implied by Cardinal Roche very recently). This new religion, in the eyes of Rome, is desirable to such an extent that they want to suppress the old religion. As Pope Francis has said, the New Mass is the ‘Lex Orandi’ of the new religion. He freely admits to this and the SSPX agrees with this analysis. The difference being that the SSPX promotes the old religion. It is really two sides of the same coin, isn’t it?

Reading many of the statements of Pope Francis one gets the doctrines of the new religion: that the Catholic Church exists merely as a force for good in this world. Indeed, in much of his prolific output, the supernatural – by which I mean death, judgement, Heaven and Hell – barely get a mention.

I hasten to add that if the Church returned to its divine mandate to save souls then the world would become a much better place. But the abandonment of the Old Mass, which I will now refer to as the True Mass, has resulted in the drying up of supernatural grace, leaving a pitiful scrapyard of destroyed institutions, record absenteeism from church and clerical vice. Knowledge of the Faith is at an all-time low to such a degree that even bishops and priests commit basic errors. The enfeeblement of the Catholic Church has also led to the corruption of the world at large, evidenced by record abortions, wholesale immorality and pointless conflicts. Now that God’s law is ignored, the human race is governed by emotion alone and this leads to the denial of independent truth. Every man is now his own god.  [Read the rest...]

Marcel Lefebvre and the Passion of the Church by Kennedy Hall

Much ink has been spilled on the topic of the Society of Saint Pius X and Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, and I imagine much more will be written as history continues.

Are they schismatic? Was Lefebvre a renegade? Was he a rebel? Was Pope John Paul II correct to do what he did? And so on. No matter how many arguments are made, no matter how many documents are promulgated, and no matter how many debates are won and lost, there are those who see the truth about the SSPX and those who don’t.

When the topic of “communion” is brought up, the detractors of Marcel Lefebvre’s army of priests become gnostic mathematicians, opining about varying degrees of communion, as if belonging to Christ’s Bride was a matter of degree or percentage point....

So why don’t some people see the evident truth that the SSPX are simply Catholic?

In fairness, we live in a strange time, an abnormal era. A time when trying to live like your Catholic ancestors means being out of step with the mainstream in the Church. It is an unprecedented time, and it is therefore understandable that unprecedented realities would arise.

That being said, there is a reason, a very strong reason, I believe, that explains the hatred towards the SSPX. [Read the rest....]

And if you really want to understand the motivation of Archbishop Lefebvre, watch the documentary, free on YouTube, on the life of this holy man whose entire life was committed to passing on faithfully what he had received, the holy Catholic faith in all its beauty and integrity. We would do well to have the same commitment.