The Archbishop Speaks: From Helsinki to Warsaw
From Helsinki To Warsaw
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
|
An article which appeared in Fideliter, January-February, 1982 Will the blow dealt by Moscow to the Vatican, with the Polish affair, be enough to destroy the hateful ostpolitik1 and to oblige a return to the only policy worthy of the Catholic Church, that of the Popes Pius XI and Pius XII? |
One can never accurately appraise the immense evil caused to the Church, to souls and to the Catholic nations by the spirit called "ecumenism" which has ruled and dominated in the Vatican since the last Council and in the name of Vatican Council II. This spirit of cowardice and of treason has repercussions in every field. However, it appears particularly in the fields of liturgy and politics, that is to say the relation of the Church with the state. The basic principles are the same:
To attract [to itself] the good will of: the protestants and of the separated brethren, to suppress in the Church all that could displease them, even at the cost of putting vital dogmatic truths under the barrel.2
To attract the good will of Moscow, avoid in all Church activities anything that could oppose or displease the Communist power.
According to the first principle, all that is proper to the Catholic Church in her liturgy will be destroyed. Catholics who wish to remain faithful to the Catholic Faith and to Catholic rites will be persecuted and treated as dissidents, despised and ridiculed as was done recently in a report from the Congregation of Rites on the results of Cardinal Knox's inquiry on the traditional Mass.
The same method will be followed persistently in the domain of diplomatic accords with Moscow.
Nothing will alter the process of destruction of the social and domestic reign of Our Lord—all to please Moscow. Among free countries—all those states officially Catholic have been asked not to continue as such, so as to put religious freedom into practice. It is a primary demand from Moscow.
Then all the heroes, all the martyrs of Communism, are forced to keep quiet, because such things displease Moscow. We are well acquainted with the names of Cardinals Mindszenty, Beran, Wyszynski, Slipyj. All made prisoners and considered by the "Vatican's new direction" to be bothersome and embarrassing. All had to be gagged.
The Ukranian drama continues before our eyes, after the enslavement of millions of Ukranian Catholics by the Orthodox Church of Moscow, completely subject to Communist power. This fact did not prevent the Vatican from entering into agreements with the heads of this church, which is more Communist than Christian. Father Floridi, in his magnificent work Moscow and the Vatican, says:
Pope Pius XII used language which the Apostles used for Christians in the catacombs. It is good to recall this in these days when the spirit of detente and ecumenism looks upon the modern martyrs of the Faith as fanatics, victims of political factions or prejudiced religious.
The drama of Poland, a Catholic country, is having pastors who do not put the questions of the Faith and the salvation of souls first, considering them worthy of any sacrifice, even life itself. What is most important to them is not to provoke a break with Moscow. Thus Moscow can reduce the Polish people to an even more total slavery without encountering any resistance.
On pages 368 and 369 of his book, Father Floridi clearly shows us how the Vatican has come to choose bishops and cardinals from among the "priests of peace," clergy who openly collaborate with the Communists. Father writes:
It is known that the Czechoslovakian bishops consecrated by Mgr. Casaroli are collaborators of the regime, as much as are the bishops who depend on the patriarchate. . . . of Moscow....Happy to have been able to give a bishop to each one of the Hungarian dioceses, Pope Paul VI paid homage to Janos Kadar, First Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party as "the principal promoter of the normalization of relations between the Holy See and Hungary." But the Pope made no mention of the high price paid to achieve this normalization: the installation of "priests of peace" in important positions in the Church....In fact, great was the shock to the Catholics when they heard the successor of Cardinal Mindszenty, Cardinal Laszlo Lekai, promise to intensify the dialogue between Catholics and Marxists.
It is very worthwhile to collect from the pen of an expert on communism such as Father Floridi, these reflections which condemn the ostpolitik of the Vatican in a definite manner. Commenting on a speech by Mgr. Casaroli, he writes:
Evidently Mgr. Casaroli no longer considers valid the assurance of Pius XI, according to which Communism is "intrinsically perverse," not only in its principles, but also in its practice....His [Casaroli's] way of thinking does not respect the spirit of the Gospel. Jesus Christ, who also wanted "peace," did not worry about what the authorities might have been able to say when He did good to men who were ill, sinners or pagans. He entrusted them to the care of spiritual pastors and not to mercenaries and men of this world. At first the Communists tried to destroy the Church by persecuting Her shepherds. Now they show themselves to be more astute and try to destroy Her by giving Her shepherds unworthy to guide Her.
For every observer of Soviet reality, the difficulty will always consist in accepting as truth, that which to every sensible person seems incredible and improbable: that under the Communist boot nothing changes or moves.
You don't have a dialogue with the devil, be he Communist or Mason! You exorcise him with prayers and fight against him without ceasing. "Watch and pray," the Scripture says. It was through a resistance kept up at every moment and through the use of all available means, that the first Christians triumphed over two and a half centuries of persecution. Trusting in the Cross of Our Lord, in its power of redemption, sure of the help of the Virgin Mary, terror of demons and Queen of Martyrs, faithful Catholics have overcome trials and were willing even to give their lives to preserve their Faith and that of their children.
The devil, who invented "rights of man," is only interested in them as a means to eliminate those of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He knows that the freedom to promote error and propagate vice is the freedom to disobey God. All freedom of truth and of good are opposed to his kingdom. Now, it is evident that Communism and Freemasonry are the work of Satan. The only enemy he fears is Our Lord and all those who are His heralds and disciples. For that reason, Satan doesn't fear those who put Our Lord's banner under the barrel: neo-Modernists, progressives, liberals. They are the devil's own collaborators and pave the way for him!
Let us reread the brave encyclical of Pope Pius XI, Divini Redemptoris, to convince ourselves of this truth. His conclusion is clear: "Be vigilant, venerable brethren, so that the faithful do not allow themselves to be deceived. Communism is intrinsically perverse and collaboration with it cannot be accepted in any area on the part of anyone who wishes to save Christian civilization."
It is astounding to find that this conclusion, which agrees with what has been said by the predecessors of Pope Pius XI, is openly denied by the ostpolitik of the Vatican. This breaking away from the teaching of the Church, added to the break from the teaching of the Church concerning religious freedom, and completed by the breaking away from the liturgical conception of relations with Our Lord, obliges us to affirm that the Vatican is occupied by modernists and by men of this world who believe they will find a more efficacious means for the salvation of the world in their cunning diplomatic ruses than in those means instituted by the Divine Founder of the Church.
Our duty is to reject this breaking away and these false orientations so that we may continue to draw nourishment from the living fountains of the Sacrifice and the Sacraments of Our Lord, so that we may be able to help all those who suffer persecutions, to encourage them to fight valiantly against Satan and his minions.
It is our duty to pray, asking Jesus and Mary that the Church be finally freed from the false shepherds and mercenaries who are occupying it.
+ Marcel Lefebvre
4 January 1982
1. Ostpolitik: the Vatican's present policy of conciliation to the Communist countries of the East.
2. Hiding the truth. "Neither do men light a candle and put it under a barrel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in heaven" (Matt. V:15, 16).
Current Issue
