Father Schmidberger in South Africa

Question: Besides the native tribes in the vast area that was to become South Africa, we know that very different elements of population poured in. To mention only Europeans, there are Dutch, Germans and English—most of these being Protestant. There are also French Huguenots and Portuguese Catholics. After three centuries of this melting-pot, one wonders just where that country stands in regard to the Church. In short, what led you to make this trip to a country which, at first glance, does not seem very Catholic?

Fr. Schmidberger: Simply to respond to a pressing appeal on the part of the faithful belonging to several groups that have remained faithful to the Tradition of the Church and to the Catholic Faith. There are several priests in South Africa who are staunchly maintaining Tradition and who wish to work with the Society. They want us to establish a priory and eventually a seminary. In any case, some promising beginnings have been made, and I was happily surprised to observe the vitality of these groups, and their generosity. They are managing nicely. It is very consoling to see a great number of young people in these groups. And there are many vocations in this area, who have been sent to Ecône or Ridgefield (USA). During my trip, I met several other young people who wish to follow the same path.

It is a great joy for me in the exercise of my ministry to observe everywhere I go in the world groups of traditionalists. In South Africa, Father Williamson has gone several times to preach retreats which have borne magnificent fruit and which have strengthened these groups.

Question: How do these groups differ among themselves?

Fr. Schmidberger: The most important concentration is naturally at Pretoria, the capital, and at Johannesburg, about 50 kilometers away. These are our centers where the faithful are the most numerous. South Africa is a huge country which can only be compared to the United States in its vast extent and great distances. The white population speak either English or Afrikaans, a kind of low German akin to Dutch.

Certainly the Catholics are not very numerous among the white population. They make up about ten per cent. But they are at the same time very friendly, very energetic and definitely wish to work with the Society.

Outside of Pretoria and Johannesburg, there is also a group in Durban on the Indian Ocean, another at Capetown in the far south, and a very small center at Port Elizabeth. There is also a parish under a very young and very good black priest who is standing by true Catholic doctrine and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. There is also a convent, with a German chaplain, who has remained on the path of Tradition.

A good many initiatives and projects could be realized. I visited a mission for blacks, under a white priest of English extraction. He is loved and supported by the blacks as if he were their own father. But all this has displeased Archbishop Hurley of Durban, who suspended him. To prevent the priest from pursuing his ministry in fidelity to Tradition, the archbishop wanted to replace him. This provoked a rather violent conflict between the bishop and the black faithful. Finally the father was declared suspended, but he remains in his parish and says, "I wish to be with all my faithful, in connection with the Society." I had the opportunity to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the mission church. It was a weekday and there were more than 300 faithful, who sang the Mass of the Angels in the most wonderful way. I had never heard anything quite so extraordinary—prayers, chants. I have by now visited a great many countries and attended many Masses, and this one was the one with perhaps the best singing. Quite extraordinary!

Question: Is the community predominantly black?

Fr. Schmidberger: Entirely black.

Question: Even among the faithful is there a barrier or separation between blacks and whites?

Fr. Schmidberger: They have the policy of apartheid. And I do not hesitate to say that I find this very reasonable. The blacks are most often very sympathetic, and if we try to look very coolly and objectively, they will need several generations of education to lead them to understand European life, or shall we say, the life of Western Christianity. They have a completely different concept of life and living and working. There is a vast difference and it would be impossible to arrive day after tomorrow at a peaceful living together.

Question: Would you say that harmful influences on all sides which led the Western powers to abandon their civilizing mission under the pretext that they had to "de-colonize" and "respect human freedom" have in fact brought about a betrayal of these countries?

Fr. Schmidberger: Definitely. Whatever the natural virtues of people in underdeveloped countries, we had assumed a responsibility on the natural level. We had an enormous work to do on the supernatural level. We had to bring the Faith, the Sacraments, the Church to them, and it is undeniable that we have betrayed that mission. The blacks who are intelligent and who see things clearly consider themselves happy. But the Catholic Conciliar and Protestant hierarchies tell them of needs which they absolutely do not feel. Clearly these hierarchies are more preoccupied with stirring up hatred against the whites and class struggle than with the welfare of their people. They want to kick the whites out! Well now, this expulsion of the whites, I saw the results of it in the former Rhodesia. I went to Zimbabwe, where the whites have been chased out. Some of them have gone to South Africa. It is terrible to observe how that country has been ruined in just a few years, as much from the aspect of civilization as economically or politically. The ancient tribal rivalries have sprung up again and horrible massacres are perpetrated with a brutality, fierceness and cruelty one can scarcely imagine.

Question: "Imperialism" and "colonialism" are words invented to give us a bad conscience, to distract us from our mission of civilizing, bringing social peace, protecting health, national security, nutrition, education, bringing the Gospel. The pressures which we experienced, some with relief, others with satisfaction, led us to free a country which did not long remain unoccupied. The French knew something about this, if only from Chad, where light French units face thousands of soldiers equipped with thousands of trucks, artillery, tanks and planes . . . and everyone knows where they come from.

Fr. Schmidberger: I hear the same thing everywhere I go: the Russians never give the means of livelihood; they give only arms, weapons, tanks, helicopters . . . but never food. Obviously, all this is motivated by hatred and class struggle. They wish to destroy our civilization and to suppress in man the image of God.

Question: And yet you came back from your trip with a feeling of satisfaction, because you found vibrant, faithful communities.

Fr. Schmidberger: Yes, it was a great satisfaction to observe that everywhere I go, there are pockets of resistance which remain on the path of Truth. Everywhere you see the faithful lining up on the side of the choice they have made: to maintain the Holy Sacrifice of the immemorial Mass. They want the same sacraments their ancestors received, the immemorial catechisms, the immemorial Bible and not these novelties which are leading us to ruin.

"We wish to work," they say, "for a spiritual renewal. We wish to work for the Church, to be servants of Peter, but not along the line of present-day errors. We cannot work for the destruction, but rather for the construction of Christianity, for the propagation and reinforcement of the Faith."

It is so encouraging and reassuring to observe this desire; it is for us priests a great consolation. If God permits, we should be able to set up, this year, a priory in South Africa. It would be a very good thing if a priest of the Society could be on the spot to coordinate all these desires, to help create harmony.

I am convinced that we would see a rapid development of new vocations among the whites and also among the blacks. We could save whole communities, and beginning from South Africa, extend our apostolate into neighboring countries, like Zimbabwe, where there are good communities. I have seen the priests. I have seen the faithful. There are vocations. Presently from Zimbabwe, there are three young men (white) in our seminaries. Then we could go on to get established in central Africa, in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal.

Question: Surely it is a manifestation of the will of God that these seeds are there, that the wheat grows in spite of everything . . .

Fr. Schmidberger: Yes, it is extraordinary, because it is evident that Africa is now calling us. And we are certainly going to respond to that call. Tomorrow perhaps Asia will call us . . . and we will respond. There are faithful groups in Tokyo under a priest who has remained firm in his faith. There are other communities in Asia. There are priests in the Indies.

I think the most important thing now is to observe whether the decadence of the great cities increases, and everything falls apart, and norms disappear—giving place to immorality, anarchy, terrorism—in a word, revolution. On the other hand, there is a renewal taking place, beginning with some individuals, some families, some pillars on which we can confidently depend. We must therefore begin the reconstruction with these. This is what the Jesuits did during the Protestant revolt. They rescued many people using this method. There is no other possibility.

There are in the United States Carmelite nuns who wish to join us. There are everywhere religious men and women—somewhat scattered, to be sure. But little by little we are making contact with them here and there, who see clearly that the only means of saving their souls is to return to the source of sanctification, of sanctity. To return to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to a life of prayer and offering oneself as victim in union with Our Lord on our altars.

Question: Have your duties as Superior of the Society led you to a sort of world vision for extending the Society, for organizing the Resistance in a way more striking than we could know only through reports, photos and books? Europe is our world, yet, although it was long the bulwark and source of missionaries of the Faith, it is really very small.

Fr. Schmidberger: We can now say we are established in all countries of Europe except Scandinavia, which is the only exception, since this year we are getting established in Holland and Portugal. We must, however, work to extend into other areas. Above all, we must fortify our positions in the United States, in Canada beginning this year, then in various countries of Europe— France, Italy, Austria, Germany, also England and Ireland.

Then, quite surprisingly, sometimes one gets the impression that there is a certain stagnation in a country or in a center. So we make inquiries. And then we discover a blossoming taking place quite unexpectedly. And one remembers that sometimes St. Paul found doors closed, and was rejected—everything was not exactly what he had counted on. At other times, he pushed on a door and it opened.

In the last analysis, it is the action of the grace of God, which is a free gift and cannot by systematized. We try always to pin down the grace of God in our own imagination, to put it under the control of our own will. This is a profound mistake. We must allow the grace of God to penetrate everywhere and to let it take the initiative and to bring to fruition the good of a given situation. I am sure that if we pursue our work as the Society has done until now, in five years we will be practically everywhere.

Question: To return to Europe—shaky, hesitant, burdened with the plague of Communism, amorality, and dechristianization. Are you not afraid that this Europe, which has been our springboard, is crumbling in its foundations, under the weight of the Communists?

Fr. Schmidberger: Certainly that is partly true; the situation in Europe is not the best, any more than that of the Church in general. But we must also consider the activity of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X as it has been established over the years. We have begun to reconstruct and the results of our efforts are now bearing fruit: schools, retreat houses, groups of faithful in many places on whom we can rely because they are not going to relax. They all want something solid and I am convinced that the torch which has thus been enkindled cannot be put out. This activity will continue and grow. We have relied more on quality than quantity and this is very important. It is not numbers that count. It is not masses of people that are going to convert the world, but God working in the soul of the individual.

Question: The times are difficult and tragic, and perhaps will get more so, without a sign of encouragement coming forth . . .

Fr. Schmidberger: Yes, that may well be, especially in view of the recent appointments in Rome. Those who are the authors of the destruction, those who are really enemies of the Church, they are, alas, the ones who are becoming more and more the chief powers in the Vatican. The Pope takes trips. He hurls himself into the "worldwide ministry," as he calls it, and he leaves to these people more and more the direction of things, the direction of the Church.

This is a terrible thing. It is therefore so much the more important to hold on to the Faith, to maintain our convictions, to continue our fight. This is not the moment to relax. The hour has come to bear witness to the Truth. It is not the time for silence, for diplomacy and pleasant manners. We must show ourselves.

I am fully in support of the decision of Archbishop Lefebvre to address his Open Letter to the Pope. I am extremely happy that two bishops have clearly said what must be said today to show the way things are going, the new orientations deriving from the "conciliar spirit" and leading to the ruin of nations, to the ruin of the Church, to the loss of souls, to the ruin of the priesthood. If we don't watch out, Protestantism, Freemasonry, Marxist Communism, and the revolution will come in, establish themselves and carry off the victory.

Even if they do not express themselves clearly everywhere, certain dignitaries of the Church have not been able not to reflect on the contents of the letter addressed to the Pope. Personally I think it was a move of incalculable magnitude, and it will have, as Archbishop Lefebvre wished, an impact on the history of the Church.

It was, furthermore, necessary for the reassurance of our faithful, so that they may know just where they are, to sustain them in their determination to remain defenders of the heritage of faith acquired from their fathers.

The sources of consolation which I have encountered are many. I will mention that this year, in our four seminaries of the Society, we will have twenty-eight ordinations, not counting those who come from Dom Gerard and Pere Lecareux [traditionalist monasteries in France] and others.

This will allow us to make new establishments, notably in Colombia. It is very important for the whole northern section of South America. We are also strengthening our apostolate in Mexico. And we are establishing, as I said above, priories in Holland, in Portugal and in South Africa. This is quite a lot! And in coming years we will no doubt exceed thirty [ordinations per year].

It may not be out of place to stress all the good accomplished as being clearly the will of God, at the moment when apostasy is everywhere making inroads in nations and spreading throughout Christianity. It must be admitted that there is not a single country that is still Christian, still Catholic. The whole world is apostatizing. People no longer want God, the Supreme Good, the Supreme Master, the King of Nations. Everywhere God is rejected in public life. This is desacralization. It is secularization. It is extremely serious, because there are too many pastors among these people who are ready to betray the Faith.

We must hold on to the fact that God cannot permit the destruction of His Church and that, in the circumstances in which we live, as depressing and discouraging as they are, we must remain strong in the Faith and thank Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, for having allowed Archbishop Lefebvre to found the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, solid rampart for the defense of the truth of the Catholic Faith.