By a Benedictine Monk

The 1970s were a turbulent time for the Catholic Church. The application of the Liturgical changes of the Church were brutally implemented with the so-called spirit of the Council. We witnessed the destruction of the main altars of the churches, being replaced with what was known as the 1970 butcher block table. We saw the church being gutted of the communion rail, statues of the saints, and the crucifix above the main altar being replaced with a bare cross and a white veil representing the resurrected Christ as opposed to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. The tabernacle was hidden in some obscure part of the church. The sacred Gregorian chant was replaced at best with “Kumbaya, My Lord” or at worst with the “clown” Masses or the “rock-n-roll” Masses. The most devastating change was the sacred rite of the Mass itself, which was disfigured to the point of being essentially unrecognizable. The Churchmen of the times became man-centered. They no longer preached sermons concerning God and souls but denounced social injustice of the lower working classes.

The victims of all of these changes were the priests themselves and the flocks they cared for. Some estimates speak of 120,000 priests abandoning their priesthood. Only God knows the damage caused to the souls of the faithful during these terrible times. These poor priests fell victim to the illusion that man and the world had more to offer than God. It was in these same years that the USA legally accepted the murder of the unborn child.

Such was the sad state of affairs of the Church in the 1970s. These examples are well known, but there are many others that remain hidden in the consciences of the victims. It was as if robbers had stripped us of our Church and left us half dead on the side of the road of life. Most of these families, confused by their shepherds, simply left the Church in search of a meaning to life. Many disillusioned souls turned to the hippie communes where they tried to satisfy their thirst for the supernatural with hallucinogenic drugs and sensual pleasure that they called “free love.”

These wounds inflicted upon the entire society make us think of the parable of the Good Shepherd. Before Our Lord explains this parable, He says: “Blessed are the eyes that see the things that you see.” He then explains that the greatest law is the love of God and the second is the love of neighbor as self. The lawyer, trying to trap Our Lord in His words, asks: “Who is my neighbor?” At this occasion, Our Lord presents the parable of the Good Shepherd.

A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Jerusalem symbolizes the city of heavenly peace and Jericho the city of worldly vanity. In the 1970s we went down as a group from the traditional Catholic life to the vanity of a drug-infested, decadent society. We fell into the hands of robbers that stripped us of the sacrifice of the traditional Mass and the formation of true priests. They beat our souls with a heretical catechism leaving us morally half dead on the side of the road of life. The man-centered Novus Ordo priest and the group counselor offering sensitivity training instead of doctrine passed by, but they could not help our wounded souls. These were dark times for the Mystical Body of Christ. There seemed to be no hope while we were awaiting what seemed a certain death for our souls.

For those of you that did not live through the 1970s, try to imagine yourself spiritually lying half dead on the side of the road awaiting death, unable to help yourself. Those that should have helped you passed you by. Try to look through the eyes of that half dead soul when you finally see someone stopping to help you. Imagine your joy when you encounter this unknown face that looks upon you with compassion. Joy, hope and gratitude return to this wounded body. The only desire of this kind man is to help you without expecting anything in return.

For those of us that were in the midst of that terrible storm, I think that we can truthfully say that we experienced joy, hope and gratitude return to our wounded souls when Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre came to America. He did not need us, he only offered to help our struggling souls because no other bishop in the USA would come to our aid. He was really like the Good Shepherd. The wine that he poured into our wounds can be compared to the holy sacrifice of the Mass that once more was offered in our makeshift chapels. The soothing oil that he poured upon us was the unction of the priesthood given to our country with the seminary that he founded on our soil. He took us to the inn by strengthening our faith in Holy Mother the Church. He confided our souls to the innkeeper which can be compared to the young priests of the Society of St. Pius X. The two coins given to the innkeeper for our care were the formation he gave them in true Catholic doctrine and traditional morality.

In all reality, the only Good Shepherd is Our Lord, but He works through the ministers of the Church. In the 1970s the minister of the Good Shepherd of the wounded Catholics of America was H.E. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. He discovered our country to be beaten, wounded and half dead. His love of God and neighbor pushed him to come to our aid. We saw with our eyes his charity in action. “Blessed are the eyes that see the things that you see.”