Letter from the Rector
Who has Leprosy?
Dear Friends and Benefactors:
In a few days' time Archbishop Lefebvre, making his first appearance in the Eastern United States since last spring, will have been able to give in a much awaited conference his own account of the state of the Church, and the state of the Society of St. Pius X.
Hopefully, this time he will be understood, but it is astonishing how he is still misunderstood. If my mother catches leprosy, I am going to avoid getting too close, for fear of catching it myself, but I am not going to abandon her, for she is still my mother. Because I stay by her, some will say I love leprosy – not true, I keep at a distance. Yet just because I am careful how I approach her, others will say I do not love my mother – not true either, I refuse to abandon her.
The Catholic Church is Mother Church; leprosy in the Old Testament is a figure of heresy. By no fault of the Archbishop's, his Mother and ours has caught through the Second Vatican Council the terrible leprosy of modernism and liberalism, all over the Mystical Body. Because the Archbishop refuses to get anywhere near the Novus Ordo; Conciliar Catholics accuse him of breaking with the Pope and the Church – not true, he refuses to cut himself off from the Holy See. But then, precisely because he insists on maintaining contact with the authorities in Rome, others accuse him of being ready to compromise with the Novus Ordoor with modernism – totally false, as should be clear from a steady reading of all he has written and all he has said over the years, and as should be clear, once more, to all men of good will, from the enclosed transcript of an interview given by him in spring of this year, in France.
Yet here is an intelligent priest, not in the Society, currently proclaiming in monographs that the Archbishop has changed his position since 1976, and is compromising! Oh for the spirit of '76", is the cry of these disappointed "hard-liners" and not only in the U.S.A.! Dear Father, read the enclosed! Now, just as a well balanced man, if pushed hard from the left side, puts his weight on his right foot, but hard pushed from the right, shifts his weight to his left foot, so the Archbishop, harassed from '74 to '76 by the Conciliar Church on his left gave magnificent expression to the horror of its modernism, but then-when the anti-modernists a few years later risked breaking away right into schism, he emphasized firmly his attachment to the Papacy and the Rome of all time. You might then say, Father, he changes emphasis, according to the needs of the moment, but to say he has changed position is a falsehood. The weight may shift from one foot to the other, but neither foot, love of the Mass or love of the cope, has moved an inch. Read the Archbishop's texts.
All this, time has told since the spring, and will continue to tell. Meanwhile, at the Seminary, in the week after Christmas from December 26 to 31, will be held the five-day Ignatian Excercises for men which should need no recommendation – Inscription Form enclosed – sign on for eternity!
Also enclosed is the latest issue of the Seminary's own newspaper, "Verbum", and also available from the Seminary is the full official transcript from the Eastern District Court Reporter of the Second Hearing on the suit between the Society and Oyster Bay Cove, because some people have wanted to check the unofficial summary they received last month. Please just send us your name and address and ten dollars to cover costs.
The financial report I promised on the Seminary must wait, for lack of space. Suffice it to say, many have responded and some of you heroically, but we are still living from hand to mouth. We are not starving, but we are delaying as long as possible turning on the heating! St. Joseph, help!
May God bless you all, and Look after you, and watch over all your families!
Sincerely yours in Our Divine Lord,
Fr. Richard Williamson
Who has Leprosy?
Dear Friends and Benefactors:
In a few days' time Archbishop Lefebvre, making his first appearance in the Eastern United States since last spring, will have been able to give in a much awaited conference his own account of the state of the Church, and the state of the Society of St. Pius X.
Hopefully, this time he will be understood, but it is astonishing how he is still misunderstood. If my mother catches leprosy, I am going to avoid getting too close, for fear of catching it myself, but I am not going to abandon her, for she is still my mother. Because I stay by her, some will say I love leprosy – not true, I keep at a distance. Yet just because I am careful how I approach her, others will say I do not love my mother – not true either, I refuse to abandon her.
The Catholic Church is Mother Church; leprosy in the Old Testament is a figure of heresy. By no fault of the Archbishop's, his Mother and ours has caught through the Second Vatican Council the terrible leprosy of modernism and liberalism, all over the Mystical Body. Because the Archbishop refuses to get anywhere near the Novus Ordo; Conciliar Catholics accuse him of breaking with the Pope and the Church – not true, he refuses to cut himself off from the Holy See. But then, precisely because he insists on maintaining contact with the authorities in Rome, others accuse him of being ready to compromise with the Novus Ordoor with modernism – totally false, as should be clear from a steady reading of all he has written and all he has said over the years, and as should be clear, once more, to all men of good will, from the enclosed transcript of an interview given by him in spring of this year, in France.
Yet here is an intelligent priest, not in the Society, currently proclaiming in monographs that the Archbishop has changed his position since 1976, and is compromising! Oh for the spirit of '76", is the cry of these disappointed "hard-liners" and not only in the U.S.A.! Dear Father, read the enclosed! Now, just as a well balanced man, if pushed hard from the left side, puts his weight on his right foot, but hard pushed from the right, shifts his weight to his left foot, so the Archbishop, harassed from '74 to '76 by the Conciliar Church on his left gave magnificent expression to the horror of its modernism, but then-when the anti-modernists a few years later risked breaking away right into schism, he emphasized firmly his attachment to the Papacy and the Rome of all time. You might then say, Father, he changes emphasis, according to the needs of the moment, but to say he has changed position is a falsehood. The weight may shift from one foot to the other, but neither foot, love of the Mass or love of the cope, has moved an inch. Read the Archbishop's texts.
All this, time has told since the spring, and will continue to tell. Meanwhile, at the Seminary, in the week after Christmas from December 26 to 31, will be held the five-day Ignatian Excercises for men which should need no recommendation – Inscription Form enclosed – sign on for eternity!
Also enclosed is the latest issue of the Seminary's own newspaper, "Verbum", and also available from the Seminary is the full official transcript from the Eastern District Court Reporter of the Second Hearing on the suit between the Society and Oyster Bay Cove, because some people have wanted to check the unofficial summary they received last month. Please just send us your name and address and ten dollars to cover costs.
The financial report I promised on the Seminary must wait, for lack of space. Suffice it to say, many have responded and some of you heroically, but we are still living from hand to mouth. We are not starving, but we are delaying as long as possible turning on the heating! St. Joseph, help!
May God bless you all, and Look after you, and watch over all your families!
Sincerely yours in Our Divine Lord,
Fr. Richard Williamson
