Between the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the advent of Charlemagne, civil society (at least in Europe) was largely organized on a local basis.

And the heart of that local economy was the Monastery.

The Benedictine monastery.

Towns sprung up around the local monastery to provide peripheral services (e.g., farmer markets; blacksmiths; craftsmen; etc), and the monastery in turn provided education in the liberal arts.

The point is that many historians credit the Benedictines with providing the groundwork for what became Christendom, at the arrival of Charlemagne.

But my point is not historical; it is ecclesiastical and theological.

We are now in a society and Church in a state of dissolution.

And if we consider that thought within the context of appraising the current state of the Resistance, one ought to be struck by the fact that the largest contingent of Resistance clergy are Benedictine.

They were there in force for the rise, and they are there in greater force than anyone else at the eclipse of the Church.

All of us are familiar with Dom Tomas' monastery in Brazil.

There is also Fr. Arizaga beginning his new monastery in Mexico (already with land and 4-5 postulants, I am told).

There is a third Benedictine monastery somewhere else in South America (help me out; I can't come up with it right now).

The wavering Benedictines in Bellaigue, France seem to have been tamed by having ordinations refused, but surely they must be smoldering at the insult, and are liable to catch fire again).

Meanwhile, of 4 bishops and 600 priests, only 3 priests and 1 bishop had the sand of Archbishop Lefebve to denounce the compromises, contradictions, and scandal of Bishop Fellay's attempted sellout to Rome.

There are reports of 37 Resistance priests in France, but the reality is that there are only 3, and I don't even know if they do a Mass circuit.

In America there are only 2.

Asia has Fr. Chazal......Asia!

Africa is empty.

Oceania is empty.

But South America!

Yes, there is hope in South America (and Mexico).  And it centers around the Benedictine monasteries.

If there was a state of necessity before Bishop Fellay's Feb 2, 2012 announcement that he would be willing to take a merely practical deal with Rome, how much more today, when we who have held loyal have a total worldwide clergy of 3 priests (and an occasional Bishop) to run a Mass circuit???

And finally my point:

I think the time has come when necessity (and providence) have dictated that it is once again time for the Benedictines to save civilization, and either:

1) Split the 3 Benedictine monasteries to go found new Benedictine monasteries throughout the world (perhaps 3 priests and 2 religious per foundation)

or;

2) Break the cloister on grounds of charity and necessity, and bring the true religion to the world via Mass circuits.

Conversely:

3) Perhaps their sacrifices, prayers, and penances behind the cloister will kindle a renewal more efficaciously than marching out amongst the wolves?

Either way, I think they (along with a certain English bishop) are our only hope.

God protect them: We are lost without them.

Throughout Church history, to further His plan of salvation, God has called monks and nuns out of their cloisters to initiate or further a reform in the Church or within their own order. But that always has been the exception, not the norm.

We never can underestimate the hidden apostolic fruitfulness of the monastic life, and the fact that the Resistance has these Benedictines, and the Carmelites in Germany in its camp so soon after its inception is a grace beyond telling.

Similarly, God at times has called married men to leave wife and nets to follow Him in the apostolic life, or to retire to a monastery or desert.

Both these examples, the monk or nun leaving their cloister, and the married man leaving his family, clearly are rare exceptions, yet we can hardly deny that these are exceptional times.