Rector's letters

Fashion is a tyrant whose power goes well beyond our choice of dress. The "ready-to-wear" is no more than the visible expression of the distressing uniformity of the "ready-to-think," the common mental categories of most of our contemporaries. But even the innumerable extravagances of fashions should not deceive us, because behind these apparently diverse manifestations hides the sole dominance of sensual pleasure.

Someone walks by with such a ridiculous gait that at each short step its whole body seems to be dislocated. Who or what could it be? Alas, this singular specimen is not found in the farmyard, but amidst human beings, due to a particular fashion of dressing up in long and tight skirts. As such attire makes it impossible to walk normally, one or more long slits are required, thus not only increasing the absurdity of the fashion, but also stressing its licentious side, demeaning the wearer and making her no more than a cause of scandal.

The people crowding the road to Jerusalem and rendering homage to Our Lord riding on an ass's colt did not grasp the real meaning of their gesture. They dreamed of secular kingship and dominion, imprisoned as they were by their narrow conception of an earthly Messiah. They could not understand that this triumphal entrance was the overture of the drama of the Passion, when Christ was to establish His kingship by dying upon the Cross. The views of men are too often limited by their trivial human perspectives. They reduce the highest realities to their sad level, and stagnate in their misery by diminishing the scope of supernatural mysteries. They thus become incapable of grasping the true measure of the Redemptive Incarnation and of accepting it and subjecting their lives to it in order to receive the graces of salvation.

Skepticism is no more a success, and today the biting irony of the skeptic does not find an attentive audience, as it did in the past. The present times are hard and reality imposes itself, with its retinue of trials. Thus, many now think that we rush towards a chastisement of unparalleled proportions, the logical result of a slow process of decomposition. We will not waste our time considering the attitude of the skeptic, as it is obvious that his mockery is no more than the avowal of his personal anxiety. However, this does not mean that we join the ranks of those who predict a chastisement for tomorrow. We do not reject its possibility, but we do refuse to project it into the future: it is already here.

Bishop Bernard Fellay gave a press conference in Rome, on the feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple. On this occasion, he made public the SSPX letter to the Cardinals of the Roman Church, which itself accompanied a SSPX document entitled “From Ecumenism to Silent Apostasy.” This document is a theological study of the 25-year pontificate of John Paul II. The Pope has paid tribute to the impact that the Second Vatican Council had in his life by making ecumenism the leading theme of his pontificate. The title of this study clearly manifests the fruits of this disastrous “new evangelization.” You will find this document in your chapels. We join to this Letter two other documents: Bishop Fellay’s latest Letter to Friends and Benefactors, which is a summary of the above mentioned study, and the interview that our Superior General granted to the information agency DICI, in which he points out the spirit in which this public statement was made.

In our carefree childhood we built wonderful houses of cards, but we felt sad and helpless when they collapsed. Years have passed, our childhood is gone and our adult vocation weighs upon our shoulders with heavy responsibilities. We have left behind the joys and sorrows of our childhood and have received in exchange the charge of our children’s souls. Yet, it seems that our childhood is not totally over, as sometimes we see the castles we build in the air collapse with the first breeze that comes along. It is not rare to have resounding failures regarding our children and see our young left miserably stranded, at the mercy of their passions. Is this shipwreck of our young inevitable? Should we remain untroubled and plead in our defense the harshness of the present times or the weakness of their souls?

The glorious hymn of the angelic choirs, bursting into the silence of the Christmas night, illuminates men with the amazing news of Our Lord’s birth: “Unto you a child is born, a Savior is given to you, come all and worship Him.” And in the souls eager to serve God peace is established. Divine benevolence inclines towards our misery, and God, thwarting all human calculation, espouses our vile condition. In taking upon Himself our misery, He offers us the treasure of His divinity in a royal exchange!

The environment in which man is immersed exerts a predominant influence and has a hold over him which, exceeding the simple sphere of his behavior, reaches his very self. Who does not know, for instance, that climates give each country its specific character and shape its inhabitants’ temperament? Beyond climatic variations, we must consider the influences of the spiritual order, whose impact is all the more remarkable since it is imperceptible. Yet our soul receives from it a deep and often indelible mark. Thus, family strongly marks the child, and his adult reactions will tomorrow bear the trace of this first impression.

The timeless beauty of Rome, the Eternal City, enables the soul to contemplate the harmony of eternal truth. The Conciliar revolution, however, has tainted her greatness and she bears the scars. The modernist villainy, as a thousand-faced hydra, reigns in the bosom of this sacred shrine. Cardinal Kasper embodies one of these faces. A German, he is frequently mentioned as candidate to the papal throne, a key figure of modernism and head of the Congregation for the Unity of Christians, he has made himself the champion of ecumenism. Accustomed for a long time to distilling the poison of errors that smack of heresy, he has used his Cardinal’s hat to acquire an additional aura. Thus, self-assured by his Roman responsibilities, he disseminates with authority and total impunity the worst, most insane errors, putting souls into the road to their eternal damnation.

The helm has broken down and the ship, left to itself, is drifting as waves and currents dictate. As a frail raft lost in the middle of the sea, it is but a wisp of straw at the ocean’s mercy. Like the drunken wandering of a boat adrift, man today staggers along, haggard and swept away by dark currents which use his passions in order to subject him to their dominion. Where does this deadly drunkenness come from, which leads man to the edge of the abyss without his being aware of it?