Sermon on the Occasion of Episcopal Consecrations
by
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
Écône, 30th June, 1988
Your Excellency, dear Bishop de Castro Mayer, my most dear friends, my dear brethren,
Behold, here we are gathered for a ceremony which is certainly historic. Let me, first of all, give you some information.
The first might surprise you a little, as it did me. Yesterday evening, a visitor came, sent from the Nunciature in Berne, with an envelope
containing an appeal from our Holy Father the Pope, who was putting at my, disposal a car which was supposed to take me to Rome yesterday evening, so that I would not be able to perform these
consecrations today. I was told neither for what reason, nor where I had to go! I leave you
to judge for yourselves the timeliness and wisdom of such a request.
I went to Rome for many, many days during the past year, even for weeks; the Holy Father did not invite me to come and see him. I would certainly have been glad to see hi if some agreement would have been finalized. So here you have the information. I give it
to you simply, as I myself came to know it, through the letter from the Nunciature.
Now, some indications concerning the ceremony and some relevant documents regarding
its significance.
The future bishops have already sworn in my hands the oath which you find in the little
booklet on the ceremony of consecration which some of you have. Thus, this oath has
already been pronounced, plus the Anti-Modernist Oath, as it was formerly prescribed for
the consecration of bishops, plus the Profession of Faith. They have already taken these
oaths and this profession in my hands after the retreat which took place at Sierre during
these last days. Do not, therefore, be surprised if the ceremony begins with th interrogations on the Faith, the Faith which the Church asks from those who are to be consecrated.
I also want to let you know that, after the ceremony, you will be able to ask the blessing of
the bishops and kiss their rings. It is not the custom in the Church to kiss the hands of a
bishop, as one kisses the hands of a newly-ordained priest, as you did yesterday. But the
faithful may ask for their blessing and kiss their ring.
Lastly, you have at your disposal at the bookstall some books and flyers which contain all
the elements necessary to help you better understand why this ceremony, which is apparently done against the will of Rome, is in no way a schism. We are not schismatics!
If an excommunication was pronounced against the bishops of China, who separated
themselves from Rome and put themselves under the Chinese government, one very easily
understands why Pope Pius XII excommunicated them. There is no question of us
separating ourselves from Rome, nor of putting ourselves under a foreign government,
nor of establishing a sort of parallel church as the Bishops of Palmar de Troya have done
in Spain.
They have even elected a pope, formed a college of cardinals... It is out of the
question for us to do such things. Far from us be this miserable thought to separate
ourselves from Rome!
On the contrary, it is in order to manifest our attachment to Rome that we are performing
this ceremony. It is in order to manifest our attachment to the Eternal Rome, to the Pope,
and to all those who have preceded these last Popes who, unfortunately since the Second
Vatican Council, have thought it their duty to adhere to grievous errors which are
demolishing the Church and the Catholic Priesthood.
Thus you will find among these flyers which are put at your disposal, an admirable study
done by Professor Georg May, President of the Seminary of Canon Law in the
University of Mayence in Germany, who marvellously explains why we are in a case of
necessity: necessity to come and help your souls, to help you!
Your applause a while ago
was, I think, not a purely temporal manifestation; it was rather a spiritual manifestation,
expressing your joy to have at last Catholic bishops and priests who are dedicated to the
salvation of your souls, to giving to your souls the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
through good doctrine, through the Sacraments, through the Faith, through the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass. You need this Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ to go to heaven.
ThisLife of Our Lord Jesus Christ is disappearing everywhere in the Conciliar Church. They
are following roads which are not Catholic roads: they simply lead to apostasy.
This is why we do this ceremony. Far be it from me to set myself up as pope! I am
simply a bishop of the Catholic Church who is continuing to transmit Catholic doctrine. I
think, and this will certainly not be too far off, that you will be able to engrave on my
tombstone these words of St. Paul: "tradidi quod et accepi - I have transmitted to you
what I have received," nothing else. I am just the postman bringing you a letter. I did not
write the letter, the message, this Word of God. God Himself wrote it; Our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself gave it to us.
As for us, we just handed it down, through these dear priests here present and through all those who have chosen to resist this wave of
apostasy in the Church, by keeping the Eternal Faith and giving it to the faithful. We are
just carriers of this Good News, of this Gospel which Our Lord Jesus Christ gave to us,
as well as of the means of sanctification: the Holy Mass, the true Holy Mass, the true
Sacraments which truly give the spiritual life.
It seems to me, my dear brethren, that I am hearing the voices of all these Popes - since
Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, Pius XII - telling us:
“Please, we beseech you, what are you going to do with our teachings, with our
predications, with the Catholic Faith? Are you going to abandon it? Are you going to let
it disappear from this earth? Please, please, continue to keep this treasure which we have
given you. Do not abandon the faithful, do not abandon the Church! Continue the
Church! Indeed, since the Council, what we condemned in the past the present Roman
authorities have embraced and are professing. How is it possible? We have condemned
them: Liberalism, Communism., Socialism, Modernism, Sillonism. All the errors which
we have condemned are now professed, adopted and supported by the authorities of the
Church.
Is it possible? Unless you do something to continue this Tradition of the Church
which we have given to you, all of it shall disappear. Souls shall be lost.”
Thus, we find ourselves in a case of necessity. We have done all we could, trying to help
Rome to understand that they had to come back to the attitudes of the holy Pius XII and
of all his predecessors. Bishop de Castro Mayer and myself have gone to Rome, we have
spoken, we have sent letters, several times to Rome.
We have tried by these talks, by all
these means, to succeed in making Rome understand that, since the Council and since
aggiornamento, this change which has occurred in the Church is not Catholic, is not in
conformity to the doctrine of all times. This ecumenism and all these errors, this
collegiality - all this is contrary to the Faith of the Church, and is in the process of
destroying the Church.
This is why we are convinced that, by the act of these consecrations today, we are
obeying the call of these Popes and as a consequence the call of God, since they
represent Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Church.
“And why, Archbishop, have you stopped these discussions which seemed to have had a
certain degree of success?” Well, precisely because, at the same time that I gave my
signature to the Protocol, the envoy of Cardinal Ratzinger gave me a note in which I was
asked to beg pardon for my errors. But if I am in error, if I teach error, it is clear that I
must be brought back to the truth in the minds of those who sent me this note to sign.
“That I might recognize my errors” means that, if you recognize your errors we will help
you to return to the truth. (What is this truth for them if not the truth of Vatican II, the
truth of the Conciliar Church?)
Consequently, it is clear that the only truth that exists
today for the Vatican is the conciliar truth, the spirit of the Council, the spirit of Assisi.
That is the truth of today. But we will have nothing to do with this for anything in the
world! .
That is why, taking into account the strong will of the present Roman authorities to
reduce Tradition to naught, to gather the world to the spirit of Vatican II and the spirit of
Assisi, we have preferred to withdraw ourselves and to say that we could not continue. It
was not possible. We would have evidently been under the authority of Cardinal
Ratzinger, President of the Roman Commission, which would have directed us; we were
putting ourselves into his hands, and consequently putting ourselves into the hands of
those who wish to draw us into the spirit of the Council and the spirit of Assisi. This was
simply not possible.
This is why I sent a letter to the Pope, saying to him very clearly: “We simply cannot
accept this spirit and proposals, despite all the desires which we have to be in full union
with you. Given this new spirit which now rules in Rome and which you wish to
communicate to us, we prefer to continue in Tradition; to keep Tradition while waiting
for Tradition to regain its place at Rome, while waiting for Tradition to reassume its
place in the Roman authorities, in their minds.”
This will last for as long as the Good
Lord has foreseen.
It is not for me to know when Tradition will regain its rights at Rome, but I think it is my
duty to provide the means of doing that which I shall call “Operation Survival,”
operation survival for Tradition. Today, this day, is Operation Survival.
If I had made this
deal with Rome, by continuing with the agreements we had signed, and by putting them
into practice, I would have performed “Operation Suicide.” There was no choice, we
must live! That is why today, by consecrating these bishops, I am convinced that I am
continuing to keep Tradition alive, that is to say, the Catholic Church.
You well know, my dear brethren, that there can be no priests without bishops. When God
calls me - no doubt this will be before long - from whom would these seminarians receive
the Sacrament of Orders? From conciliar bishops, who, due to their doubtful intentions,
confer doubtful sacraments? This is not possible. Who are the bishops who have truly kept
Tradition and the Sacraments as the Church has conferred them for twenty centuries until
Vatican II?
They are Bishop de Castro Mayer and myself. I cannot change that. That is
how it is. Hence, many seminarians have entrusted themselves to us, they sensed that here
was the continuity of the Church, the continuity of' Tradition. And they came to our
seminaries, despite all the difficulties that they have encountered, in order to receive a true
ordination to the Priesthood, to say the true Sacrifice of Calvary, the true Sacrifice of the
Mass, and to give you the true Sacraments, true doctrine, the true catechism. This is the
goal of these seminaries.
So I cannot, in good conscience, leave these seminarians orphaned. Neither can I leave
you orphans by dying without providing for the future. That is not possible. It would be
contrary to my duty.
This is why we have chosen, with the grace of God, priests from our Society who have
seemed to us to be the most apt, whilst being in circumstances and in functions which
permit them more easily to fulfil their episcopal ministry, to give Confirmation to your
children, and to be able to confer ordinations in our various seminaries.
Thus I believe
that, with the grace of God, we, Bishop de Castro Mayer and myself, by these
consecrations, will have given to Tradition the means to continue, given the means to
Catholics who desire to remain within the Church of their parents, their grandparents, of
their ancestors. They built churches with beautiful altars, often destroyed and replaced by
a table, thus manifesting the radical change which has come about since the Council
regarding the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which is the heart of the Church and the purpose
of the priesthood. Thus we wish to thank you for having come in such numbers to support
us in the accomplishment of this ceremony.
We turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary. You well know, my dear brethren, one must have
told you of Leo XIII's prophetic vision revealing that one day “the See of Peter would
become the seat of iniquity.” He said it in one of his exorcisms, called “The Exorcism of
Leo XIII.” Has it come about today? Is it tomorrow? I do not know. But in any case it has
been foretold. Iniquity may quite simply be error. Error is iniquity: to no longer profess
the Faith of all time, the Catholic Faith, is a grave error. If there ever was an iniquity, it is
this. And I really believe that there has never been a greater iniquity in the Church than
Assisi, which is contrary to the First Commandment of God and the First Article of the
Creed.
It is incredible that something like that could have ever taken place in the Church,
in the eyes of the whole Church - how humiliating! We have never undergone such a
humiliation! You will be able to find all of this in Fr. LeRoux's booklet which has been
especially published in order to give you information on the present situation in Rome.
It was not only the good Pope Leo XIII who said these things, but Our Lady prophesied
them as well. Just recently, the priest who takes care of the priory of Bogota, Colombia,
brought me a book concerning the apparition of Our Lady of “Buon Suceso,” - of “Good
Fortune,” to whom a large church in Quito, Ecuador, was dedicated. They were received
by a nun shortly after the Council of Trent, so you see, quite a few centuries ago. This
apparition is thoroughly recognized by Rome and the ecclesiastical authorities; a
magnificent church was built for the Blessed Virgin Mary wherein the faithful of Ecuador
venerate with great devotion a picture of Our Lady, whose face was made miraculously.
The artist was in the process of painting it when he found the face of the Holy Virgin
miraculously formed. And Our Lady prophesied for the twentieth century, saying
explicitly that during the nineteenth century and most of the twentieth century, errors
would become more and more widespread in Holy Church, placing the Church in a
catastrophic situation. Morals would become corrupt and the Faith would disappear. It
seems impossible not to see it happening today.
I excuse myself for continuing this account of the apparition but she speaks of a prelate
who will absolutely oppose this wave of apostasy and impiety - saving the priesthood by
forming good priests. I do not say that prophecy refers to me. You may draw your own
conclusions. I was stupefied when reading these lines but I cannot deny them, since they
are recorded and deposited in the archives of this apparition.
Where are these supposed claims/promises by Mary identifying one prelate who would save the Church?
Our Lady told Mother Mariana, the religious Conceptionist who received the revelations, that the souls who would remain faithful in those difficult times would need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence in God. Moments would come when everything would seem to be lost and paralyzed, but that would be the moment, she promised, of the “happy beginning of the complete restoration.” “My hour will arrive” she foretold, “when I, in an amazing manner, will overthrow proud Satan, crushing him under my feet, chaining him in the infernal abyss, leaving the Church and the land free of this cruel tyranny.”
https://www.traditioninaction.org/OLGS/A005olgs%20Questions.htm
Stolen Holiness; the new stolen valor
Of course, you well know the apparitions of Our Lady at La Salette, where she says that
Rome will lose the Faith, that there will be an “eclipse” at Rome; an eclipse, see what Our
Lady means by this.
And finally, closer to us, the secret of Fatima. Without a doubt, the Third Secret of Fatima
must have made an allusion to this darkness which has invaded Rome, this darkness
which has invaded the world since the Council. And surely it is because of this, without a
doubt, that John XXIII judged it better not to publish the Secret: it would have been
necessary to take measures, such steps as he possibly felt himself incapable of doing, e.g.,
completely changing the orientations which he was beginning to take in view of the
Council, and for the Council.
These are the facts upon which, I think, we can lean. We place ourselves in God's
providence. We are convinced that God knows what He is doing. Cardinal Gagnon visited
us twelve years after the suspension: after twelve years of being spoken of as outside of
the communion of Rome, as rebels and dissenters against the Pope, his visit took place.
He himself recognized that what we have been doing is just what is necessary for the
reconstruction of the Church. The Cardinal even assisted pontifically at the Mass which I
celebrated on December 8, 1987, for the renewal of the promises of our seminarians. I was
supposedly suspended and, yet, after twelve years, I was practically given a clean slate.
They said we have done well. Thus we did well to resist! I am convinced that we are in
the same circumstances today. We are performing an act which apparently... and
unfortunately the media will not assist us in the good sense. The headlines will, of course,
be "Schism," "Excommunication!" as much as they want to - and, yet, we are convinced
that all these accusations of which we are the object, all penalties of which we are the
object, are null, absolutely null and void, and of which we will take no account. just as I
took no account of the suspension, and ended up by being congratulated by the Church
and by progressive churchmen, so likewise in several years - I do not know how many,
only the Good Lord knows how many years it will take for Tradition to find its rights in
Rome - we will be embraced by the Roman authorities, who will thank us for having
maintained the Faith in our seminaries, in our families, in civil societies, in our countries,
and in our monasteries and our religious houses, for the greater glory of God and the
salvation of souls.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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