Dear Faithful,
Thank-you for Christmas cards and gifts
First let me begin the New Year by thanking all of you for your kind Christmas cards and wishes. Thank you also for your generosity with the Christmas envelopes and the many gifts we have received. Receive our best wishes for you for a happy and holy New Year 2002. God alone knows what it has in store for us. Let us leave it to Him to unfold it as He knows best.
Prayer meeting of Assisi and World Youth Day
This year marks a very important event in the life of our Society in Canada: indeed this year marks the 25th anniversary of the SSPX in our country. An event we must be grateful for. But I’m afraid this year will not only bring rejoicing. Indeed this year we have two events to which we do not look forward to, to say the least: the prayer meeting in Assisi and the youth of the world unfortunately converging on Toronto for World Youth Days this summer. “Woe unto us”! [1] For now let us consider only the prayer meeting at Assisi.
Thoughts of Pius XI
What should Catholics think about such undertakings? I will not give you my thoughts; you know them already. But what I think is not really what is important. What matters is what the Church teaches and here it is in the words of a true successor of Peter, Pius XI [2] :
“For since they hold it for certain that men destitute of all religious sense are very rarely to be found, they seem to have founded on that belief a hope that the nations, although they differ among themselves in certain religious matters, will without much difficulty come to agree as brethren in professing certain doctrines, which form as it were a common basis of the spiritual life. For which reason conventions, meetings and addresses are frequently arranged by these persons, at which a large number of listeners are present, and at which all without distinction are invited to join in the discussion, both infidels of every kind, and Christians, even those who have unhappily fallen away from Christ or who with obstinacy and pertinacity deny His divine nature and mission.
Certainly such attempts can nowise be approved by Catholics, founded as they are on that false opinion which considers all religions to be more or less good and praiseworthy, since they all in different ways manifest and signify that sense which is inborn in us all, and by which we are led to God and to the obedient acknowledgment of His rule. Not only are those who hold this opinion in error and deceived, but also in distorting the idea of true religion they reject it, and little by little, turn aside to naturalism and atheism, as it is called; from which it clearly follows that one who supports those who hold these theories and attempt to realize them is altogether abandoning the divinely revealed religion … it is clear that the Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part in their assemblies, nor is it anyway lawful for Catholics either to support or to work for such enterprises; for if they do so they will be giving countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ. Shall We suffer, what would indeed be iniquitous, the truth, and a truth divinely revealed, to be made a subject for compromise? For here there is question of defending revealed truth.”
Here is what Archbishop Lefebvre wrote from Ecône to a cardinal regarding the scandal of Assisi, August 27 1986:
“Your Eminence,
Confronted with the events taking place in the Church, that have John Paul II as their author, and faced with those he intends carrying out at Taizé and Assisi in October, I cannot refrain from addressing you and begging you, in the name of numerous priests and faithful, to save the honour of the Church never before humiliated to such an extent in the course of her history.
The speeches and actions of John Paul II in Togo, Morocco, in India, in the synagogue of Rome cause a righteous indignation to rise up in our hearts. What do the saints, the holy men and women of the Old and the New Testament think of this? What would the Holy Inquisition do if it still existed?
He who now sits on the Throne of Peter publicly mocks the first article of the Creed and the first commandment of the Decalogue. The scandal given to Catholic souls cannot be measured. The Church is shaken to her very foundations. If faith in the Church, the only ark of salvation disappears, then the Church Herself disappears.
Will John Paul II continue ruining the faith, publicly, and particularly in Assisi with the procession of the different religions in the city of St Francis and the distribution of these religions in the chapels of the basilica to perform their worship in favour of peace as conceived by the United Nations. This is what was announced by Cardinal Etchegaray who is in charge of the abominable congress of religions.
Is it conceivable that no authoritative voice will be heard in the Church to condemn these public sins? Where are the Machabees? Eminence, for the honour of the one true God, of Our Lord Jesus Christ, protest publicly, come to the help of bishops, priests and faithful who remain catholic.
Eminence, if I took the step of contacting you, it is because I do not doubt your sentiments in this regard. I am also addressing an appeal to the cardinals named below so that you may eventually work together.
May the Holy Ghost come to your aid Eminence, and please accept my fraternal and devoted sentiments in Christo et Maria.”
Such events are:
1) An insult to God: prayers addressed to false deities or animated by a false faith are acts of superstition; they do not honour God but offend Him. They are a sin against the first Commandment.
2) A denial of the necessity of universal redemption: There is but one mediator between God and men: Jesus Christ. No one goes to the Father but by him; there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved. He is also the Prince of Peace. For non-Christians He is unknown, a stumbling block, and a sign of contradiction. This prayer meeting gives to understand that there are two classes of men: those who promote peace through the reign of Christ the King and those who look for it outside of Him and even against Him!
3) An injustice and lack of charity towards infidels: Jesus Christ is not optional; outside the Church there is no salvation. The true faith and not “good faith” is necessary for salvation. St Thomas teaches that voluntary infidelity is a sin while involuntary infidelity is a chastisement. Infidels who don’t go to hell because of the sin of disbelief do so because of their other sins for which there is no forgiveness without the true faith. This is what infidels have the right to hear and what churchmen have an obligation to preach according to the divine commandment to teach all nations. The Church never prays with them but for them. To pray with them implies they do not need the true faith!
4) A danger and a scandal to Catholics: who must protect against the danger of losing their faith, and one of these dangers is unnecessary contact with non-believers because it leads to indifferentism. At Assisi Catholics and non-believers will not pray together but be together to pray (according to the Vatican play on words) thus giving Catholics to believe one religion is as good as another and a means to salvation.
5) A betrayal of the mission of the Church & St Peter: whose mission it is to teach all nation that there is only one God and one Saviour Jesus Christ, that there is only ONE divinely revealed religion, the Catholic faith, outside which there is no salvation. Judging by past experience this is not what will be taught at Assisi on January 24th. [3]
Prayer and penance necessary to repair these scandals
Much prayer and penance will be necessary to expiate these scandals, which are all the graver since they come from above! These scandals will not bring peace but rather more punishment. Pray the Rosary daily for peace and encourage others to do the same. Do penance!
One of the best antidotes against such abominations: the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius! I encourage you to sign up for them. Our priests will make them available to you in the different regions of our country. Contact your local priory for dates & places.
Thank you for your continued prayerful and financial support. Be assured of our daily prayers for you, your families and all your intentions. As usual the monthly Mass for all friends & benefactors will be offered on the last Sunday of the month.
With my blessing,
Father Jean Violette
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[1] Jeremias 6,4
[2] Pius XI, Mortalium animos, January 6 1928
[3] The following 5 points are a summary of an article appearing in DICI N0. 30 of November 23 2001, an SSPX news bulletin from France.