February 1987 - Superior General's Letter # 32

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

Gospel prophecies concerning last times being realized

The Gospel prophecies concerning the last times, given by the mouth of the Incarnate Truth and by His Apostles, are being realized more fully with every passing day. We are seeing:

• the false prophets they warned us of, "who work great signs and miracles so as to deceive, if it were possible, even the elect";
• "charity turning cold," falsehood and impiety obtaining worldwide sway, anarchy spreading, minds being blinded and hearts hardened;
• a general apostasy from the revealed faith in one God in Three Persons and in Him whom He has sent, Jesus Christ;
• the propagation of a new religion of pure humanism—of love, tolerance, peace and progress—while those who hold to traditional doctrine are persecuted;
• the appearing of the precursors of Antichrist, until the time when he will come himself "to take his seat in God's sanctuary, and to show himself as if he were God."

With this in mind, read the following passages, placing them in the context of the whole Gospel: Matt. 24; Jn 16, 1-4; II Thess 2, 3-12; I Thess 5, 3; II Tim 3, 1-5; 4, 3-5; I Jn 2, 18-25; 4,1-6; Apoc.12.

Religious Liberty secularizes the whole of society

Were not the principal lines of this development sanctioned by the Second Vatican Council? The Decree on Religious Liberty secularizes the whole of society. If, in fact, the State and society have a duty to tolerate every error, why then should individuals still direct themselves by the Cross of Christ, and bear its weight? This Decree is like the banishing of a God hitherto present on this earth in the lives of individuals and of nations. With the decree on Ecumenism, the dogma "no salvation outside the Church" has been abandoned in its essential content. The question of truth, and of faith, is henceforth subordinated to values such as mutual understanding, dialogue, balance and peace. It is only a short step further to religious relativism, for if the Holy Ghost "has deigned to accept other religious confessions as means of salvation," then Christ has not founded one sole Church and our Creed is null.

A world super-church succeeds the collapse of the supernatural order

The Decree on Non-Christian Religions gives them a positive place in the mystery of salvation, at least implicitly in view of the context and general orientation. The whole supernatural order must then necessarily collapse, and the plan of founding a world super-church, one religion for all humanity, succeeds naturally. The Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich saw this diabolical activity in her visions more than 150 one years ago: "They have built a church, large, strange and extraordinary, in which all the Protestants, the Catholics and all the sects are to find themselves together with the same rights, and they are to form a real communion of the unholy, and become one flock and one shepherd." So a new Tower of Babel is on the way to being built, worse than the first.

A harmful optimism about the future is encouraged

Lastly, the Decree on the Church in the Modern World encourages an optimism about the future and about salvation that is thoroughly harmful. An earthly paradise seems attainable, and the words of Our Savior "straight is the way and narrow is the gate," the idea of the world as the enemy of God, with the need for Christians to be protected against corruption, all seem to belong definitely to the past.

For good reason Cardinal Ratzinger has described this document as an anti-syllabus; and this means that it is a document diametrically opposed to the traditional teaching of the Popes and to the witness of the martyrs, confessors and doctors of the Church.

Christ is God, and God cannot change

Dear friends and benefactors, the battle in which we are now engaged is the culmination of at least two centuries of antagonism, within the Church herself, between those faithful to her, and the liberals. And meanwhile the prophecies of Our Lady of Fatima are being realized to the letter before our eyes. So if in these confused times they tell us, "Here is the Christ," don't go off to look at this new humanist religion. And let us not give our loyalty either to dubious seers and messages, but rather unite together around our altars. And when they cry, "He is there," don't believe them, but seek Him in the Church's unchangeable doctrine, in the sacraments as they were received by our parents, in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, and also in the Rosary. "Christ yesterday, today and forever"—these are words to keep repeating to ourselves. Christ is God, and God cannot change; He is neither liberal, nor modernist, nor ecumenical, nor pentecostalist, but Catholic.

True Christian charity means leading those in error to Christ

And because the Bible was written and the Church founded in order that we may believe in the divinity of Christ and so have eternal life, and because it is impossible to please God without faith, we are not daunted by any labor for the sake of putting into effect, to the degree of our feeble strength, Our Lord's missionary command: "Go ye into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mk. 16, 15-16). True Christian charity, in fact, means inducing those who are in error and in false religions to leave the bad way they are in, so as to lead them to Him Who is alone the Way, the Truth and the Life and apart from whom "no man cometh to the Father" (Jn. 14, 6).

More seminaries opening and planned

It is only for the sake of the Faith and the supernatural life that we opened, on October 5, 1986, the International Seminary of The Holy Cure of Ars, at Flavigny. And it is for the Faith and the divine life in souls that we mean to open, in the autumn, St. Joseph's Seminary at Libreville (Gabon), and Holy Cross Seminary in Australia, as well as preparing St. Thomas the Apostle's Seminary in southern India.

Testimony of a return to the true Faith

Here is a testimony recently received in a letter from a young officer addressed to Archbishop Lefebvre:

"What happens to many of the faithful happened to me. Doubts set in regarding the basic truths; luke warmness and indifference came over me little by little. Satan was successfully employing his usual art to gain my poor soul.

"For me and my wife to be able to come back, it needed my meeting with ......, his friendship and his advice about reading, and also two visits to Ecône to the ordinations for the diaconate and for the priesthood.

"It also needed a poor old parish priest, tired and weakened physically, and lost in a tiny village, but still faithful to the Mass of his ordination, for this wonderful life of grace to come and live in us again.

"Again following my friend's advice, I went this summer on a retreat at the priory. I experienced there a real conversion. That day, the devil suffered his worst defeat in me; thanks, of course, to the infinite mercy of Our Lord, but also thanks to the fidelity of your priests—fidelity to His love for men, and above all to His teaching, His Gospel; in a word, fidelity to their priesthood. In fact, I discovered there all your work, Monseigneur. It was very clear to me that the holy will of Our Lord was seen unfailingly in you and in your wonderful work.

"So it is as a true son that I come to kneel at your feet and express my own and my wife's deep gratitude, and our unbounded devotion."

God alone knows how much effort, prayer and sacrifice all this expansion has cost, and how much of our vitality is expended in this warfare against the powers of darkness, and how much share you, dear friends, have in this work of redemption. The promised reward is great: it is God Himself.

"Brethren, be sober and watch: because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist ye, strong in faith." These are the words that the Church addresses to her children daily, in the evening Office.

Consecration  of the world, Russia and the SSPX to Our Lady

In order to obtain all these great graces through the intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we intend to assemble at the feet of Our Lady of Fatima on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart, and there renew with filial devotion the consecration of the world, and especially of Russia, as well as the consecration of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X.

Father Franz Schmidberger,

Superior General

Rickenbach,

On the Feast of St. Mathias, Apostle

24 February 1987