The New Code of Canon Law Dear Friends and Benefactors,
The promulgation of the new Code of Canon Law at the end of November last was a grave event in the history of the Catholic Church, another milestone along the path of her present-day disintegration and destruction.
As we move into these times of which Our Lady said at La Salette that Rome would lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist, so Catholics must be on their guard with regard to what comes from Rome. Sure enough, the revolutionary spirit presently overturning the Church has penetrated into the new Code, is even its guiding inspiration. Here is the Church's supreme legislator speaking in the Introduction to the Code: "Hence the fundamental novelty which ..... is to be met with in the Second Vatican Council, and especially in its teaching on the Church, also makes the novelty of the new Code".
So grave is this "fundamental novelty" that in his Long Island speech of November 5 (already circulated), Archbishop Lefebvre went so far as to say that after the Second Vatican Council and the Liturgical Reform, this new Code constitutes a third major obstacle between Rome and Catholic Tradition. Lest some nonetheless insist on misunderstanding the Archbishop's position, we enclose this month the text of an interim judgment of his upon the New Code, from a personal letter written last October.
Notice, the Archbishop in no way says the Pope is not Pope, or has no authority to make a new Code, nor does he say that nothing in the Code is to be heeded. Disciplinary regulations can positively need up-dating, for instance on the consulting of superiors, transformed since the last Code in 1917 by the spread of the telephone. His Grace concludes however, that overall, this Code's promulgation is "a monstrous and scandalous thing".
It is another sign of our times in which people have ever more to confuse them. Just recently I was sent a copy of a book on our apocalyptic age referring much to Scripture, but written by a Protestant, and so it is a dangerous mixture of interesting information and sheer nonsense, for instance on the Rapture in 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians. Catholics should be very wary of this kind of book. Let them keep to sound doctrine and proven authors, for instance the excellent Fr. Denis Fahey. More recently appeared, Fr. Vincent Miceli's "The Antichrist" is also highly to be recommended, published by the Christopher Publishing House, West Hanover, Massachusetts 02339, and reading in depth from a thoroughly Catholic stand-point our apocalyptic ills. This book has helped to get Fr. Miceli into much of the right kind of trouble!
Good news of the Society from Europe is that in January Archbishop Lefebvre blessed an old seventeenth century Church in Marseilles, France, disused for many years but re-opened by the Society, while Fr. Schmidberger blessed the Society's first Church in Holland, bought from Protestants. Today, on the Feast of the Presentation, the Carmelite Sisters under the Society's wing opened their third Carmel near Essen in Germany. They will undoubtedly draw many vocations to pray and make sacrifices for us all.
Closer to home, also today, seven Americans, one Canadian and one Rhodesian received the cassock here at the Seminary, making nine young men proclaiming merely by their dress death to the world and victory to Jesus Christ. Remember that on Sunday morning, May 13, also here at the Seminary in Ridgefield, Connecticut, the Archbishop will, God willing, give Major Orders to ten seminarians, including the priesthood to Daniel Ahern, John Hogan, Denis McMahon and Tom Mroczka. Pray for these brave young men. Note also the dates of the next Spiritual Exercises for men from 17 upwards, at the Seminary: Monday thru Saturday, April 23 to 28. A week lost, an eternity gained! Registration forms will follow next month. There will also be exercises in the summer.
Other news? – The law-suit against Oyster Bay Cove is at the stage of depositions, and looking hopeful. The Seminary's building program is perforce in hibernation. The Seminary's finances are slowly but steadily more secure, thanks, and those are grand thanks, to your generosity! May God Himself reward you!
He is doing His work – let us do ours!
Sincerely yours in Our Divine Lord,
Fr. Richard Williamson
The promulgation of the new Code of Canon Law at the end of November last was a grave event in the history of the Catholic Church, another milestone along the path of her present-day disintegration and destruction.
As we move into these times of which Our Lady said at La Salette that Rome would lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist, so Catholics must be on their guard with regard to what comes from Rome. Sure enough, the revolutionary spirit presently overturning the Church has penetrated into the new Code, is even its guiding inspiration. Here is the Church's supreme legislator speaking in the Introduction to the Code: "Hence the fundamental novelty which ..... is to be met with in the Second Vatican Council, and especially in its teaching on the Church, also makes the novelty of the new Code".
So grave is this "fundamental novelty" that in his Long Island speech of November 5 (already circulated), Archbishop Lefebvre went so far as to say that after the Second Vatican Council and the Liturgical Reform, this new Code constitutes a third major obstacle between Rome and Catholic Tradition. Lest some nonetheless insist on misunderstanding the Archbishop's position, we enclose this month the text of an interim judgment of his upon the New Code, from a personal letter written last October.
Notice, the Archbishop in no way says the Pope is not Pope, or has no authority to make a new Code, nor does he say that nothing in the Code is to be heeded. Disciplinary regulations can positively need up-dating, for instance on the consulting of superiors, transformed since the last Code in 1917 by the spread of the telephone. His Grace concludes however, that overall, this Code's promulgation is "a monstrous and scandalous thing".
It is another sign of our times in which people have ever more to confuse them. Just recently I was sent a copy of a book on our apocalyptic age referring much to Scripture, but written by a Protestant, and so it is a dangerous mixture of interesting information and sheer nonsense, for instance on the Rapture in 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians. Catholics should be very wary of this kind of book. Let them keep to sound doctrine and proven authors, for instance the excellent Fr. Denis Fahey. More recently appeared, Fr. Vincent Miceli's "The Antichrist" is also highly to be recommended, published by the Christopher Publishing House, West Hanover, Massachusetts 02339, and reading in depth from a thoroughly Catholic stand-point our apocalyptic ills. This book has helped to get Fr. Miceli into much of the right kind of trouble!
Good news of the Society from Europe is that in January Archbishop Lefebvre blessed an old seventeenth century Church in Marseilles, France, disused for many years but re-opened by the Society, while Fr. Schmidberger blessed the Society's first Church in Holland, bought from Protestants. Today, on the Feast of the Presentation, the Carmelite Sisters under the Society's wing opened their third Carmel near Essen in Germany. They will undoubtedly draw many vocations to pray and make sacrifices for us all.
Closer to home, also today, seven Americans, one Canadian and one Rhodesian received the cassock here at the Seminary, making nine young men proclaiming merely by their dress death to the world and victory to Jesus Christ. Remember that on Sunday morning, May 13, also here at the Seminary in Ridgefield, Connecticut, the Archbishop will, God willing, give Major Orders to ten seminarians, including the priesthood to Daniel Ahern, John Hogan, Denis McMahon and Tom Mroczka. Pray for these brave young men. Note also the dates of the next Spiritual Exercises for men from 17 upwards, at the Seminary: Monday thru Saturday, April 23 to 28. A week lost, an eternity gained! Registration forms will follow next month. There will also be exercises in the summer.
Other news? – The law-suit against Oyster Bay Cove is at the stage of depositions, and looking hopeful. The Seminary's building program is perforce in hibernation. The Seminary's finances are slowly but steadily more secure, thanks, and those are grand thanks, to your generosity! May God Himself reward you!
He is doing His work – let us do ours!
Sincerely yours in Our Divine Lord,
Fr. Richard Williamson
