The recent papal decree, justly restoring the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X, caused a media frenzy which you cannot have failed to notice. Skillfully orchestrated, this heinous campaign spread quickly, even in the halls of some episcopates always ready to follow the chaotic promptings of the media. It seems, however, that the furor has somewhat calmed down. This lull gives us the opportunity to reconsider, with less agitation, certain aspects of the decree of last 21 January.
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
The recent papal decree, justly restoring the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X, caused a media frenzy which you cannot have failed to notice. Skillfully orchestrated, this heinous campaign spread quickly, even in the halls of some episcopates always ready to follow the chaotic promptings of the media. It seems, however, that the furor has somewhat calmed down. This lull gives us the opportunity to reconsider, with less agitation, certain aspects of the decree of last 21 January.
How can we not to thank, first of all, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary for this sudden and surprising decree? Her intervention cannot be doubted, as nothing led us to expect that such a document could be so quickly published. We are indebted, first of all, to Her and towards Her goes our gratitude.
The courage of the Holy Father is also remarkable and deserves our filial and grateful thanks. He could not have been unaware that the publication of this decree would expose him to bitter criticisms and venomous gibes. He was not spared these, thrown at him by the raging public drums of the press and by the regrettable voices that echo them. The Holy Father had not been, for a long time, the target of such hateful attacks. We honor his courage and express publicly our gratitude to him. May he remain so brave! The calming of the tempest is, undoubtedly, only temporary. .. The agitated waters will swell again.
The decree of January 21 opened a new stage of the combat for the Faith, a stage that will be as arduous as the preceding ones. The smoke of confusion, amplified by the Internet delirium and the lack of interior life, blinds souls and throws them into a great anxiety not conducive to the peace so necessary in these crucial times.
We will not repeat what has been said so many times - very often ad nauseam — about the lifting of the excommunications and all the malicious accusations that followed; be it the so-called "Williamson affair" or the so-called "defection" of the SSPX from this combat of giants, nothing has been missing in this concert of rantings! We simply challenge those who cry "Treason!" to give only one concrete, real proof of any defection or even of the hint of a backing away from our position. They will be quite unable to present such proof: the grandiloquent anathema is the only poor argument that they use and abuse. How can we not be doubtful regarding those who denounce the supposed revolutionary developments within the SSPX? Why would we give them the least credit, when only agitation and maybe the hope of receiving some sort of recognition are their only guides?
Regarding them, Christian charity does not allow us to continue. We will only stop to consider the surge of hatred poured, for several weeks, upon the Pope and upon our Society, because we will find in it subject matter for many lessons.
The attacks of which the Pope was the victim go initially well beyond the person of Benedict XVI and obviously aim at destroying the Papacy itself. This reality, sadly amplified by the regrettable spectacle of some Episcopal Conferences slavishly joining their voices to the concert of those who want to weaken the Pope and his holy function, constitutes the unsurprising first lesson.
It is interesting to note also that the SSPX found itself, in the same dash, under the heavy fire of the same guns. Four bishops, five hundred priests and some friendly religious communities distributed throughout the world thus managed to agitate religious, political and journalistic circles around the world. Let us acknowledge that there is motive to smile when we consider the obvious disproportion of the feverish reactions which we provoked! But the enemies of the Church, who crawl in abundance in all the aforesaid circles, know well that as long as there remains a handful of resolute souls who will refuse to abdicate and submit to their revolutionary dictates, they will not be able to claim victory because these souls, however poor and ill-provided with human means they might be, are to them a living and unbearable reproach of their shameful prevarication and felony.
Thus, several episcopates — and not of the smallest, since we find among the most virulent those of Germany, France and Switzerland - have given manifest proof of their hatred towards us, multiplying the insults and treating us publicly and without qualms as sub-human beings. Why so much hatred from men so accustomed to dissemble and yield? Why this sudden eruption which had been hidden up until now under condescending smiles? It is because they understood, on the evening of January 21, that victory flies away from them and that they will not be able to lead Peter's ship as they intended to. In their foolish pride perhaps they had forgotten that the Head of the Church is Christ and that He continues to guide her in spite of their poor human quibbles.
We do not claim that papal decree has completely restored the rights of Christ in His Church and that victory is now definitive. Far from it: this combat will last as long as this world. But now, how can we doubt, even for a moment, considering this strange and heinous episcopal panic, that the bishops are ready to do whatever is necessary to preserve "their" revolution, which they see now threatened and which they realize, or discover, to be quite vain?
This is why we invite you to set out again, with ardor and generosity, into this new crusade of rosaries and sacrifices in the honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which our General Superior has launched in this month of Mary.
Christ has given victory to thisNmost holy and beloved Heart - to its knights it has been promised. Let us learn from this Heart how to pray, how to sacrifice ourselves, and then God will give us the victory!
In Christo sacerdote et Maria,
Fr. Yves le Roux