Letter to Friends and Benefactors
20 Years of the SSPX
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
November 1 – this is the day on which 20 years ago the International Priestly Society of St. Pius X officially came into being, because it was on All Saints Day, 1970, that Bishop Charriere of the Swiss diocese of Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg gave his canonical approval to the erection within his diocese of the Society as an institute of the Catholic Church.
What an extraordinary 20 years! About a one-hundredth part of the time elapsed since our Redemption by Our Lord Jesus Christ. Nearly 100 years ago his enemies were bragging: "We have long past taken care to discredit the priesthood of the goyim, and thereby to ruin their mission on earth, which in these days might still be a great hindrance to us. Day by day its influence on the peoples of the world is falling lower. Freedom of conscience has been declared everywhere, so that now only years divide us from the moment of the complete wrecking of that Christian religion... We shall set clericalism and clericals into such narrow frames as to make their influence move in retrogressive proportion to its former progress."
No doubt, by God's mercy, the great Pope from 1903 to 1914, St. Pius X, and the Popes who followed in the line he had traced out, Pius XI and Pius XII, slowed down the time-table of Our Lord's enemies, but there is equally no doubt that by God's justice, with the Second Vatican Council running from 1962 to 1965, these enemies took another giant step forward towards their goal, Satan's goal, the destruction of the Catholic Church.
Some Catholics reveled in the sea-change wrought within the Church by that Council – the new religion was "up to date", Other Catholics slowly grew used to it – after all, the new religion was rather easier than the old one. Others were uneasy with the new religion and remained uneasy, but they clung to the familiar surroundings of the Catholic institutions they had known, and which Our Lord's enemies had been cunning enough to leave standing at least as shells, it was merely the substance that had been emptied out.
These Catholics were – and are – like dock-workers in a sea-side port which once was busy but now by a shift of the sea's currents is being left high and dry, miles inland. Busily they continue to operate the familiar cranes, and they run in and out of the warehouses they have known all their lives, but there is less and less water, there are fewer and fewer ships –the Faith is all the time ebbing away. But with these poor souls, operating yesterday's structures comes before locating where the Faith is to be found today. Here they are described by a friend of ours:
"One thing I have done this summer (1990) is to look critically at all the Catholic magazines and organizational statements that have come my way. They are all bankrupt, and they are all bankrupt for the same reason: they cannot see, or they refuse to see, the life-and-death struggle going on in the Church between the champions of Vatican II and the Traditionalists".
For of course from 1965 onwards, there was another group of Catholics who, as they saw the Faith ebbing out of subsidiary Church structures, instead of quitting the Faith, quit those structures, then made for the sea, and began re-building as best they could, but at any rate by the edge of the living waters of the Traditional Faith. There was no lack of sea, and no lack of sea-side, yet there was – and is – a heap of abuse and mistreatment from the dock-workers who insisted on remaining stranded inland.
Such is the story of the Society of St. Pius X, founded within the Church five years after the Council, "dissolved" by churchmen five years later, yet still very much alive and active after another fifteen years, making twenty years of life so far. Happy Birthday, dear Society!
Immensely dear to a remnant of souls, for which it has been the only sustenance of their faith, hope and charity. Dear also to many other souls presently trapped inland, but who long for the living waters, and who watch from afar – not all is lost as long as the Society holds aloft the integral banner of Christ the King.
Yes, but can the Society survive for another 20 years? Answer, God knows. Humanly no, no more than it could have survived so far with merely human resources; but if God wills, yes, and if God does not so will, certainly He will raise someone or something to take its place, because the souls who wish not to abandon Him cannot be abandoned by Him. For that to happen, the Good Shepherd would have to cease being the Good Shepherd – impossible. So let us thank God for the immense graces that have come to us through 20 years of the Society, and let me also on behalf of you all express our on-going thanks to the Society's Founder, Archbishop Lefebvre, 85 years old at the end of this month, November 29. Happy Birthday, your Grace!
Enclosed is the latest letter from the Society's Superior General, Fr. Franz Schmidberger. He gives reasons for thinking that the Traditionalists gathered around the Society are the faithful remnant foreseen by Pope Paul VI.
Also enclosed is the latest "Verbum" on the theme of going forward, not back, to the land. Thereby hangs a tale which another Letter may tell. Meanwhile seminarians have some substitute for television in the Seminary farm barnyard across the way! They have yet to be seen moving mounds of manure, but that may come. There was a philosophy professor who used to maintain that the best antidote for modernistic mind-rot was to have both feet well planted in some such agricultural amenity. I knew him well.
Another enclosure is an advertisement for "Crusade", the Catholic children's magazine coming out of St. Mary's, Kansas. A year's subscription is surely excellent value for the children. As for St. Mary's, we have heard that a handsome episcopal crozier has arrived there, but we cannot confirm that it was wrapped in purple and addressed personally to "El Generalissimo".
Christmas is coming. At the Seminary's main altar a Novena of Masses will start on Christmas night for the intentions of all our friends and benefactors. If you have friends or loved ones to whom you would like to make the gift of having their intentions especially included in the Novena, order from us a number of Christmas cards for you to send to them, which we have had printed by the Angelus for that purpose, and then return to us the donation envelope with their names. These will be on the altar through the Christmas season.
And do not forget the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, accessible here or in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The complete programme for the rest of this year and for next year is also enclosed. The next Retreat here is for men, from December 26 to 31 as usual.
With all good wishes and blessings,
Most sincerely yours in Christ,
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
November 1 – this is the day on which 20 years ago the International Priestly Society of St. Pius X officially came into being, because it was on All Saints Day, 1970, that Bishop Charriere of the Swiss diocese of Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg gave his canonical approval to the erection within his diocese of the Society as an institute of the Catholic Church.
What an extraordinary 20 years! About a one-hundredth part of the time elapsed since our Redemption by Our Lord Jesus Christ. Nearly 100 years ago his enemies were bragging: "We have long past taken care to discredit the priesthood of the goyim, and thereby to ruin their mission on earth, which in these days might still be a great hindrance to us. Day by day its influence on the peoples of the world is falling lower. Freedom of conscience has been declared everywhere, so that now only years divide us from the moment of the complete wrecking of that Christian religion... We shall set clericalism and clericals into such narrow frames as to make their influence move in retrogressive proportion to its former progress."
No doubt, by God's mercy, the great Pope from 1903 to 1914, St. Pius X, and the Popes who followed in the line he had traced out, Pius XI and Pius XII, slowed down the time-table of Our Lord's enemies, but there is equally no doubt that by God's justice, with the Second Vatican Council running from 1962 to 1965, these enemies took another giant step forward towards their goal, Satan's goal, the destruction of the Catholic Church.
Some Catholics reveled in the sea-change wrought within the Church by that Council – the new religion was "up to date", Other Catholics slowly grew used to it – after all, the new religion was rather easier than the old one. Others were uneasy with the new religion and remained uneasy, but they clung to the familiar surroundings of the Catholic institutions they had known, and which Our Lord's enemies had been cunning enough to leave standing at least as shells, it was merely the substance that had been emptied out.
These Catholics were – and are – like dock-workers in a sea-side port which once was busy but now by a shift of the sea's currents is being left high and dry, miles inland. Busily they continue to operate the familiar cranes, and they run in and out of the warehouses they have known all their lives, but there is less and less water, there are fewer and fewer ships –the Faith is all the time ebbing away. But with these poor souls, operating yesterday's structures comes before locating where the Faith is to be found today. Here they are described by a friend of ours:
"One thing I have done this summer (1990) is to look critically at all the Catholic magazines and organizational statements that have come my way. They are all bankrupt, and they are all bankrupt for the same reason: they cannot see, or they refuse to see, the life-and-death struggle going on in the Church between the champions of Vatican II and the Traditionalists".
For of course from 1965 onwards, there was another group of Catholics who, as they saw the Faith ebbing out of subsidiary Church structures, instead of quitting the Faith, quit those structures, then made for the sea, and began re-building as best they could, but at any rate by the edge of the living waters of the Traditional Faith. There was no lack of sea, and no lack of sea-side, yet there was – and is – a heap of abuse and mistreatment from the dock-workers who insisted on remaining stranded inland.
Such is the story of the Society of St. Pius X, founded within the Church five years after the Council, "dissolved" by churchmen five years later, yet still very much alive and active after another fifteen years, making twenty years of life so far. Happy Birthday, dear Society!
Immensely dear to a remnant of souls, for which it has been the only sustenance of their faith, hope and charity. Dear also to many other souls presently trapped inland, but who long for the living waters, and who watch from afar – not all is lost as long as the Society holds aloft the integral banner of Christ the King.
Yes, but can the Society survive for another 20 years? Answer, God knows. Humanly no, no more than it could have survived so far with merely human resources; but if God wills, yes, and if God does not so will, certainly He will raise someone or something to take its place, because the souls who wish not to abandon Him cannot be abandoned by Him. For that to happen, the Good Shepherd would have to cease being the Good Shepherd – impossible. So let us thank God for the immense graces that have come to us through 20 years of the Society, and let me also on behalf of you all express our on-going thanks to the Society's Founder, Archbishop Lefebvre, 85 years old at the end of this month, November 29. Happy Birthday, your Grace!
Enclosed is the latest letter from the Society's Superior General, Fr. Franz Schmidberger. He gives reasons for thinking that the Traditionalists gathered around the Society are the faithful remnant foreseen by Pope Paul VI.
Also enclosed is the latest "Verbum" on the theme of going forward, not back, to the land. Thereby hangs a tale which another Letter may tell. Meanwhile seminarians have some substitute for television in the Seminary farm barnyard across the way! They have yet to be seen moving mounds of manure, but that may come. There was a philosophy professor who used to maintain that the best antidote for modernistic mind-rot was to have both feet well planted in some such agricultural amenity. I knew him well.
Another enclosure is an advertisement for "Crusade", the Catholic children's magazine coming out of St. Mary's, Kansas. A year's subscription is surely excellent value for the children. As for St. Mary's, we have heard that a handsome episcopal crozier has arrived there, but we cannot confirm that it was wrapped in purple and addressed personally to "El Generalissimo".
Christmas is coming. At the Seminary's main altar a Novena of Masses will start on Christmas night for the intentions of all our friends and benefactors. If you have friends or loved ones to whom you would like to make the gift of having their intentions especially included in the Novena, order from us a number of Christmas cards for you to send to them, which we have had printed by the Angelus for that purpose, and then return to us the donation envelope with their names. These will be on the altar through the Christmas season.
And do not forget the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, accessible here or in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The complete programme for the rest of this year and for next year is also enclosed. The next Retreat here is for men, from December 26 to 31 as usual.
With all good wishes and blessings,
Most sincerely yours in Christ,
