April 1980 Dear Friends and Benefactors Today, at the novitiate of the
Sisters of the Society of St. Pius X in St. Michel-en-Brenne, eight
postulants took the habit and four novices made their profession.
Next year eleven novices will make profession. One would have to be
frankly prejudiced not to recognize the fervor and profound faith of
this community, as well as its radiant joy, so clearly the work of
the Holy Ghost. Here one is indeed far from Pentecostalism or the
charismatic movement, but simply in line with the great tradition of
the religious life in the Catholic Church. What is important in the Church
today, as yesterday, and tomorrow, is to live from faith, so as to
live from grace and thus prepare oneself for eternal life. St. John,
in his first epistle tells us, in today’s Mass, “He who
was born of God has vanquished the world, and the victory which has
vanquished the world is our faith. Who indeed has vanquished the
world if not he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” If the above is the resume and
substance of our faith, then we must honor Jesus as God in all our
Christian life, and thus, as the Church has always taught and
practised, we must refuse to make Jesus equivalent to the founders of
false religions, which would be blasphemous. We must refuse to
compromise with those who deny the divinity of Our Lord, or with any
false ecumenism. We must fight against atheism and laicism in order
to help Our Lord to reign over families and over society. We must
protect the worship of the Church, the Sacrifice of the Mass, and the
sacraments instituted by Our Lord, practicing them according to the
rites honored by twenty centuries of tradition. Thus we will properly
honor Our Lord, and thus be assured of receiving His grace. It is because the novelties which
have invaded the Church since the Council diminish the adoration and
the honor due to Our Lord, and implicitly throw doubt upon His
divinity, that we refuse them. These novelties do not come from the
Holy Ghost, nor from His Church, but from those who are imbued with
the spirit of Modernism, and with all the errors which convey this
spirit, condemned with so much courage and energy by St. Pius X. This
holy Pope said to the bishops of France with regard to the Sillon
movement: “The true friends of the people are neither
revolutionaries nor innovators, but the men of tradition.” If only the innovators of the
Council and those since it would understand this language which is,
after all, that of the Church since the time of St. Paul. One cannot hope for a real
renovation of the Church without a return to Tradition. The Church
cannot content herself with doubtful sacraments nor with ambiguous
teaching. Those who have introduced these doubts and this ambiguity
are not disciples of the Church. Whatever their intentions may have
been, they in fact worked against the Church. The disastrous results
of their industry exceed the worst examinings, and are not lessened
by the apparent exceptions of a few regions. When Luther introduced
the vernacular into the liturgy, the crowds rushed into the churches.
But later? It is consoling to note that in the
Catholic world, the sense of faith of the faithful rejects these
novelties and attaches itself to Tradition. It is from this that the
true renewal of the Church will come. And it is because these
novelties were introduced by a clergy infected with Modernism, that
the most urgent and necessary work in the Church is the formation of
a profoundly Catholic clergy. We give ourselves to this work with all
our heart, aided henceforth by our eighty young priests, and
encouraged by the presence of our two hundred and ten major
seminarians. The countries of South and Central America give us hope. The Church was saved from Arianism.
She will be saved as well from Modernism. Our Lord will triumph, even
when, humanly speaking, all seems lost. His ways are not our ways.
Would we have chosen the Cross to triumph over Satan, the world and
sin?
Letter
to Friends and Benefactors
Our forty houses throughout the world demonstrate that God
can bring much out of nothing. God wills to make use of us. He makes
use of you, as well, dear friends and benefactors. May God bless you
and keep you in His love and peace.
+ Marcel Lefebvre
St. Michel-en-Brenne
Low Sunday (13
April) 1980