This?

8 September 1978


Dear Friends and Benefactors,

Since the appearance of our last Letter notable events have occurred in the Church: the death of Paul VI and the election of John Paul I. These events, to be sure, are of no small importance to us, so great is our desire to see the Church liberated from the Modernists and progressives who occupy it. For nearly twenty years now we have been praying God to give His Church true Apostles animated by the Catholic Faith, that Faith which has furnished the Church with her Martyrs, Confessors, Doctors, Virgins and all the Saints who render her history illustrious and prove the fruitfulness of her doctrine, Sacrifice, and Sacraments.

We tremble at the thought that this infiltration of Modernism, of Naturalism, in the Church might continue. The consequences of this veritable cancer are the worst that the Church has had to undergo in her long history, namely: the corruption of the Catholic faith of numerous bishops and of a great number of priests, brothers, and nuns. These churchmen think like Protestants and Modernists: the recently published book Des Evêques disent la foi de l'Eglise catholique (Bishops expound the Faith of the Catholic Church) is yet another proof of this. The concepts of sanctifying grace, of original sin and its consequences, of mortal sin, of the expiatory and satisfactory nature of the Sacrifice of Our Lord continued on our altars, are wholly corrupted.

Here once more are all the errors of Liberalism, Americanism, Sillonism, and Modernism condemned by the Sovereign Pontiffs.1 Add to these the "Liberation Theology" which is a Marxist interpretation of the Gospel, tantamount to a sacrilegious outrage against Our Lord, and we can hardly be surprised if the patience of God shows signs of running out. Everything around us seems to be collapsing because He has been abandoned Who is the Foundation of all things, the Truth, the Way, and the Life: Our beloved Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Confronted with this situation, we are resolved to remain all the more faithful to Our Lord, to His Reign, His Cross, His Sacrifice, His Sacraments, and His Teaching faithfully handed down by the successors of Peter for nearly twenty centuries.

Let us ask Saint Pius X to guide the steps of John Paul I. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, as jealous of the integrity of the Faith as she is sensitive to all that betrays her Divine Son, come to the aid of His Church.

By the grace of God and the support of your prayers and generosity, the Society of Saint Pius X, priests, brothers, sisters, and auxiliaries, is expanding so rapidly that it is becoming difficult to supply you with news that is complete. We hope, then, that each District Superior, or the Superior of each independent priory, will furnish more detailed information for his own area.

On 29 June last, we ordained 18 priests, two of whom are attached to the Bédoin Monastery of Dom Gérard, while the remaining 16 are members of the Society. All will be taking up their ministry during this month of September. We would need, however, to ordain four times as many priest's in order to respond to all the requests which are coming to us from every continent and country. Everywhere the faithful feel abandoned or betrayed by the clergy. They can no longer find the Catholic Church, but only a Modernist worship and doctrine. Parents are filled with anxiety for their children.

Japan, India, Australia, South America, South Africa, without counting all the countries where we have already sent missionaries, are begging us to send them true priests. Likewise, vocations are emerging on all sides. Last year was notable for the number of vocations from Italy and South America. This year we have 65 new aspirants to the priesthood who will be entering our three seminaries. A fourth seminary will be opening in March 1979 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The German-speaking seminary has been transferred from Weissbad to Zaitzkofen in Germany (located between Munich and Regensburg). Weissbad will henceforth be used as a house of preparation for the major seminary. In Madrid in Spain and Brussels in Belgium centers have been opened where the Society will begin to exercise its ministry. Albano in Italy will be housing all the second-year students of Ecône who are spending the year in the vicinity of Rome in order to improve their Latin and acquire familiarity with the city at the heart of Catholicism.

The Society has acquired an important center in St. Marys, Kansas in the United States. This center, which includes a large sanctuary dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, may be used for pilgrimages, retreats, and perhaps later as a college.

Eleven new postulants have requested entry to the Brothers' Novitiate while the Sisters' Novitiate at St. Michel-en-Brenne has fifteen postulants and the Carmel in Quiévrain, Belgium twelve. If, in addition, all the new vocations of those Congregations which are maintaining their sane traditions are taken into account, one cannot but marvel at this true renewal of the Church, a renewal where verily the fruits of the Holy Ghost are shining forth, and not the aberrations of the Charismatics.

How can one avoid the conclusion: there where the faith of the Church is, there also is her sanctity, and there where the sanctity of the Church is, there is the Catholic Church. A Church which no longer brings forth good fruits, a Church which is sterile, is not the Catholic Church.

Certainly, we ourselves are of no great importance and the good that is done by us comes from Our Lord. But it is precisely for that reason that we are confident, for out of nothing Our Lord can make much. The whole history of the Church proves this. Our Lord does not require of us to succeed. That is His concern. What He does want from us, however, is our good will and that we be ready to accept whatever He sends us, the trials and crosses just as gladly as the blessings.

Should these few lines reach priests, brothers, and nuns who are striving to preserve the Faith, and by that very fact, the Tradition, and in particular the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, let them know that the Society is ready, as far as its means allow, to assist them spiritually, morally, and materially.

Dear Friends and Benefactors, how we wish to be at your service for your sanctification, for the education and spiritual support of your children. We especially hope to open schools for boys. The future of Christian families depends on this. We are very aware of your needs. That is why we already have schools in New York and Houston in the United States and are taking over the school of St. Michel at Châteauroux in France.

On the other hand, we are also counting on you and we trust that your prayers, sacrifices, and generosity towards us will continue as they have done up to now. May God through Mary and Joseph repay you with abundant blessings.

+ Marcel Lefebvre

Feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Virgin Mary

There is credibility attached to the following message:

The Padres would like for you to consider the SSPX of Archbishop Lefebvre,

compared to the [politically] correct, [diplomatically] Surrendered SSPX of today:

It would seem it is true that:

The Padres would like us to take note of the similarities (if any) and the
differences between the Society as its Founder intended, and what it has
become, as adduced by meet consideration of these two letters.

My first observation is that here, ABL addressed his friends and benefactors as
a servant of the servants of God, with the noblesse oblige of Catholic
Tradition, in the comportment of dignity and culture, of edification and gentle
guidance, as a shepherd leads his flock, "Feed my lambs ... Feed my lambs ...
Feed my sheep" (Jn xxi. 15.16.17).  The shepherd's flock is hungry and he
feeds them, and therefore we do not starve!

Letter to Friends and Benefactors (No. 15) October 1978

Dear Friends and Benefactors:

The first difference is how +Fellay addresses his 'audience', and recalling
the context, since he at one time (up to about 2 years ago) had continued
the practice of the Letter to Friends and Benefactors, but no more.   One
might then wonder:  are the same people no longer his friends?  Are they
no longer his benefactors?  Does he not want them to think of themselves as
his friends and benefactors?  Perhaps he does not want to be seen giving his
polite and loving guidance to his Faithful?  Does he no longer want to have
himself thought of the way ABL did?  What could be the motive?  

We are told that his highest objective is "unity."  How does this change, the
abandonment of the Letter's dissemination, constitute any approach to 'unity'?

Does the shepherd who does not feed his lambs encourage unity of the fold?
What happens when a shepherd does not feed the lambs?  Do they not go
off, elsewhere, seeking sustenance?  

These considerations shed a new light on +Fellay's expressed desire for
'unity' - as if he is bemoaning how his yearned-for 'unity' is not happening to
his satisfaction but for whatever reason, he is at a loss to know how to force
it to happen, other than by complaining when he is thus disappointed.

One most glaring curiosity is the hypocrisy of Menzingen when they scold their
members and Faithful for not identifying themselves, by not including a
signature or their name at least, on docuмents - but there is no name on
the following docuмent!!!



For the sake of reference, the linked post contains the second item, the so-called
Official communiqué, which I include here:



Official communiqué of the SSPX Monday, February 11, 2013

The Society of Saint Pius X has learned of the sudden announcement about the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, which will be effective on the evening of February 28, 2013.  Despite the doctrinal differences that were still evident on the occasion of the theological talks held between 2009 and 2011, the Society of Saint Pius X does not forget that the Holy Father had the courage to recall the fact that the Traditional Mass had never been abrogated, and to do away with the canonical sanctions that had been imposed on its bishops following their consecration in 1988.  It is not unaware of the opposition that these decisions have stirred up, obliging the pope to justify himself to the bishops of the whole world.  The Society expresses its gratitude to him for the strength and the constancy that he has shown toward it in such difficult circuмstances, and assures him of its prayers for the time that he wishes to devote from now on to recollection.

Following its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the Society of Saint Pius X reaffirms its attachment to eternal Rome, Mother and Instructress [Mater et Magistra] of Truth, and to the See of Peter.  It reiterates its desire to make its contribution, according to its abilities, to resolving the grave crisis that is shaking the Church.  It prays that, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the cardinals of the next conclave may elect the pope who, according to the will of God, will work for the restoration of all things in Christ (Eph 1:10).

Menzingen, February 11, 2013,

on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes