One might be tempted at first glance to believe the position of tradical, johnmcfarland, et al that undertaking a PR makeover of the Society is not a betrayal of the founder and a betrayal of the fight to maintain the traditional Catholic Faith. A little more thought, however, reveals that this is in itself a complete and total betrayal.

1. The project of presenting the Catholic Faith in a kindler, gentler manner with more positive spin -- hasn't that been tried before? Isn't that the essence of Vatican II. And isn't the very existence of the Society a rebuke and a refutation of that concept?

Because the reality is that Vatican II did not fail because they chose the wrong words with which to present a new, kinder, gentler, more positive version of the Catholic Faith. The reality is that it is impossible to say the same thing with different words. When you use different words, then you say something else. The Catholic Faith has a well-developed vocabulary the grew organically over 2,000 years. Either you say those words or else you say something else, something that is not Catholic.

The same with the SSPX. Either you use the words of Archbishop Lefebvre to denounce the errors of the Council and the New Mass and all the rest, or else you say something else, something that is not the message of the Society. There is no kinder, gentler, more positive way to say that the conciliar church is a total betrayal of Jesus Christ.

2. The Bible is filled with so many stories to this effect, that it is almost as if it were written simply to convey this lesson -- that there is no kinder, gentler, more positive way to present the message of God.

Think about Moses with the Israelites in the desert. Maybe if Moses had hired a PR firm then the Israelites would not have revolted and Moses wouldn't have had to slay thousands of them.

What about Isaiah? If only he had hired a PR agency to help him deliver his message to the king in a kinder, gentler, more positive way, then he wouldn't have had to hide in a cave when he thought that he was the only faithful follower of God left on Earth. Although God told him that there were actually 7,000 who had not bent the knee to Baal, still it's clear that his preaching was not going over like hotcakes, more like lead balloons. A PR agency could have done so much to help him dress up God's warnings in a more user-friendly fashion.

And then there's Jeremiah. If only he had hired a PR agency ahead of time he wouldn't have found himself down a well. His message was so not user friendly, so negative, so lacking in the new, fresh, hip, slick qualities that a PR agency could have helped him with, that his name is still synonymous almost 3,000 years later with downbeat, negative, unpopular messages.

Jesus himself summed up the whole story of the Old Testament when he told the Jєωs that they persecuted and murdered all the prophets of God. Everyone who is speaking for God will be hated by the world. Isn't that what we are told over and over again? Isn't that the test of whether or not you are authentic?

3. And then of course there is the most famous example in all the history of the world, Jesus Christ himself. I can just imagine Judas hiring a PR agency to advise him:

"That stuff about feeding the poor -- that's good -- our polling shows that message is a real winner. But that other stuff about whited sepulchres and broods of vipers -- you have to eliminate that. Our polling shows that message isn't being received real well. In fact, it's generating so much negative reaction that you're going to find yourself in real hot water soon if you don't cut it out.

"Healing the sick -- great! Stick with that! People love it."

"All that stuff about 'I and the Father are one' -- that just goes right over people's heads. But they get a real negative vibe. Better to tone it down. Stop talking about yourself and talk more about your audience and how great they are and how much you love them and how they're all going to go to heaven after first making a lot of money here on Earth. That's what are polling is telling us is the right message to get your 'apostolate' back on track."

4. And it's not just Jesus and the Bible which tells us that you cannot change your message without becoming a different organization. Any group which changes its message will become a totally different group.

Imagine, for example, the Communist Party hiring a PR agency who tells them that this message about the "dictatorship of the proletariat" is not being well received. "We recommend that you offer people better interest rates on their credit cards -- that's what they're looking for in an economic message." Even an anti-Christian group like the Communist Party would be smart enough to realize that whether or not offering lower interest rates on your credit cards is a more popular message than Marxism, they would cease to be the Communist Party once they changed their message based on PR polling.

5. Companies are in business to make money. That is their goal. If one business segment isn't working out very well, a PR agency can recommend a transformation into a different business that might make more money.

But the Catholic Church exists solely for the purpose of telling the Truth. Truth doesn't change. If the truth is unpopular, the Catholic Church will be unpopular. Because the truth is real and exists whether or not anyone wants to hear about it, then there is no way for that message to be made kinder and gentler and more positive. Either it is proclaimed or else it is avoided. One can be like Jonah and take a ship in the opposite direction to avoid telling people what God wants them to hear, or else you can be like Christ and make a whip of cords to drive the moneychangers out of the Temple.

But you cannot change the Truth and still claim to be the Catholic Church. That didn't work for the Conciliar Church which even this secular PR agency recognizes is a dying organization. And it won't work any better for the Society. Either they continue to proclaim the message that God wants people to hear by denouncing the works of Satan and all his pomps and all his empty promises which have deluded the members of the conciliar church for the past 50 years, or else they cease to be the organization that was founded by Archbishop Lefebvre to maintain the traditional Catholic Faith during this time of crisis.

That's a great treating of the issue by Maximillian.  Thanks.

But you cannot change the Truth and still claim to be the Catholic Church. That didn't work for the Conciliar Church which even this secular PR agency recognizes is a dying organization. And it won't work any better for the Society. Either they continue to proclaim the message that God wants people to hear by denouncing the works of Satan and all his pomps and all his empty promises which have deluded the members of the conciliar church for the past 50 years, or else they cease to be the organization that was founded by Archbishop Lefebvre to maintain the traditional Catholic Faith during this time of crisis.