THE FAITHFUL OF FRANCE ROSE! - LETTER TO THE COMMISSION ECCLESIA DEI ON MARRIAGES
We
are pleased to publish this letter which we invite you to sign, and
which concerns the fact that the marriages of Catholics are from now on
placed under the jurisdiction of the Council bishops.
As
faithful members of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X and the
struggle of its founder, Mons. Marcel Lefebvre [1], we declare the
following:
- We
wholeheartedly and wholeheartedly adhere to Catholic Rome, guardian of
the Catholic faith and the traditions necessary for the maintenance of
that faith; To eternal Rome, teacher of wisdom and truth.
-
On the contrary, we deny ourselves and we have always refused to follow
Rome with a neomodernist and neoprotestant tendency, which was clearly
manifested in the Second Vatican Council and, after the Council, in all
the reforms that arose from it.
This modernist Rome has not ceased to attack the very institution of marriage [2]. Vatican
II has invested the ends of marriage, whose first aim is no longer the
procreation and education of children but "the realization of the
spouses" [3]. Many "conciliar" bishops and priests nowadays tolerate and even advise practicing contraception.
Let us remember principally that, on August 15, 2015, by the Motu Proprio Mitis
Iudex Dominus Iesus [4] for the Latin Church and Mitis et Misericors
Jesu for the Eastern Churches, Pope Francis instituted a kind of
"Catholic divorce" in the Church [5]. Since then, any bishop can "annul" any marriage under various misleading pretexts. The
new cancellation procedure provides for a 30-day free express
examination by only a possibly secular judge appointed by the ordinary
of the place. The burden of proof is for the defense, which means concretely that at the beginning of the process marriage is presumed nil!
Let us also remember that Francis accepts that communion is given to divorced persons who have been remarried.
These
destroyers of marriage who claim, according to the words of Muller [6]
"contribute to reassure the conscience of the faithful," can not be the
judges of our unions.
That
is why we affirm our firm rejection that the priests of the SSPX
recourse to the bishops of the dioceses for our future marriages [7]. We want to safeguard our families for the salvation of our souls and those of our children. Monsignor Lefebvre preserved and left us as an inheritance the greatness and fidelity of the ancient Christian marriage. The
faithful are the first concerned with the new marriage legislation
proposed by Rome to the St. Pius X Fraternity. We formally oppose it.
THE FAITHFUL CAN SIGN THE LETTER TO HIM
_________________________________
2. http://www.medias-presse.info/a-lire-le-synode-sur-la-famille-la-revolution-du-pape-francois/38447/
***
The letter already has 166 faithful who sign it. Add your signature.
Among the comments of the faithful who sign are the following:
"The superior general has taken an iniquitous decision and an unusual brutality, aggravating the anguish of the faithful .... Our priests are transferred without ceasing. [...] Bishop Fellay must resign, otherwise the worst is yet to come. " Francois PLANTEY, France
"So that the Fraternity may remain faithful to Bishop Lefebvre! I support our unjustly sanctioned priests who have only proclaimed the Truth! " Charline VILLERT , France
"We can not collaborate with this conciliar church that works for de-Christianization, as Monsignor Lefebvre said" Nicole HUGON France
"It is incomprehensible that the priests should be punished for being simply faithful to the example of Monsignor Lefebvre" Emmanuel BROCARD France
"I strongly support the fact that the SSPX continues the fight of the faith and does not allow itself to be embraced by modernist Rome. I am against the prelature and an eventual ralliement. " Mathieu PETIOT France
IN DEFENSE OF THE 7 DECANS
Albert Laurent regularly collaborates in Fideliter, the magazine of the FSSPX in France. He communicates the following article to us.
Last
Sunday, May 7, seven dean priests from the district of France of the
Fraternity Saint Pius X took public position against the last Vatican
text on marriages celebrated in the Catholic Tradition. His statement read in the pulpit caused a great stir, especially in its immediate consequences. The
priests in question were effectively suspended from their duties as
deans and Fr. Patrick de la Rocque, considered to be the instigator of
this action, has been removed from his functions as "parish priest" of
St. Nicholas of Chardonnet. As we all know, this case is presented in a context of rapprochement between Rome and the Fraternity. How should it be analyzed?
Who is it about?
In the religious society founded by Monsignor Lefebvre, the priests' apostolate is organized from a priory. A dean is a prior of experience, referent within a region that is part of a wider group called district (or country). The District of France comprises ten deaneries. The statement has been signed by seven of ten deans. In
addition, all the traditional male religious communities present in
France (Benedictines of Bellaigue, Capuchins of Morgon and the
Fraternity of the Transfiguration) signed the document. Therefore, the statement is clothed with an undeniable moral authority. It would be imprudent to dismiss it simply, reducing the initiative to "some priests of the District of France" (" Regarding a letter of some priests to the faithful of the District of France ", May 11, 2017, published on the official news site of The General House of the SSPX). On
the other hand, these priests are recognized in France for their
seriousness, their pastoral zeal, their doctrinal and spiritual
solidity. They are unanimously recognized, respected and loved by the faithful.
Have these priests acted without saying anything to their superiors? It is the reproach formulated in the article quoted above: " some
priests read recklessly from the pulpit and spread a letter addressed
to the faithful, without the knowledge of the District Superior, calling
into question the direction of the Fraternity Saint Pius X. " This statement is manifestly false. For
weeks, these priests warned their superiors about the problems raised
by the Roman text on marriages and, more generally, about the dangers of
a ralliement of the Fraternity to Rome in the canonical form of a personal prelature. But faced with the inertia they found, the dean priests assumed their responsibility. Father
de la Rocque was to meet with the district superior of France on
Wednesday, May 3, to make him aware of the text of the declaration. He was finally received on Friday 5 May, therefore before the publication the following Sunday, as Father Bouchacourt just recognized in the newspaper Présent dated yesterday . On
the other hand, an attentive and loyal reading of the deans' text does
not allow the identification of words or expressions that call into
question the general authority of the Fraternity.
What is it about?
Let us now turn to the substance of the matter raised by the letter. Behind an apparent benevolence, the Roman text of March 27, 2017 presents in fact a concrete form of ralliement in a precise domain, that of marriage. Until
now, in the face of the impossibility of recourse to the official
parish priests because of modernism, the faithful of the Tradition were
married in extraordinary form, which is perfectly foreseen in the
canonical law of the Church. The Roman text places the diocesan bishop at the heart of the mechanism. The latter may delegate the priests of the Fraternity to receive the consents of the spouses, " where it is not possible or there are no priests of the Diocese who can receive the consent of the parties." But the type of impossibility is not precise and, above all, it is a simple faculty given to the bishop. He could not exercise this power and impose on the spouses the diocesan priest of his choice. You can see the difficult situations that can arise. What will happen if the bishop does not give his delegation? Will marriage be considered valid if the faithful of the Fraternity ignore it?
More
generally, accepting to submit our marriages to ordinary jurisdiction,
is to accept submitting to the ecclesiastical courts that judge these
matters. But
these courts have a misconception of marriage, leaving Vatican II,
which ensures the primacy of the second end (personal welfare of the
spouses) on the first (procreation and education of children). In
fact, these courts declare invalid marriages that are certainly valid,
which is aggravated by the recent simplified procedure of Pope Francis.
Another
lacuna of the text: the Roman text does not solve the validity of the
traditionalist marriages celebrated before these new dispositions. It is a great injustice that could have been repaired, but that persists.
In conclusion, the text of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, although having received in its broad lines the endorsement
of the General House of the SSPX ("so that these Roman provisions in
favor of marriages in Tradition can be received without doubt or
ambiguity By all the priests ... ") presents a logic of its own which is
that of ralliement to the council authorities and in this can not be accepted. For
behind this legal question of marriage is a question of substance: can
we deliberately put ourselves under a modernist authority without
endangering our soul?
With their courageous action, these priests, our priests, have denounced the Roman trap. In doing so, they have safeguarded the essence of the Tradition's combat. Honor and support to them.
Albert Laurent
