From the editorial written by the Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) for the District of the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Father Benoît Wailliez, published in the May-June edition of its French-language newsletter, Pour qu'il règne:
[Excerpt; source, en français: Tradinews]The crisis of the Church did not begin with Vatican II. It is evident that Scholastic philosophy and Roman theology were already under attack in the seminaries and noviciates and that the Holy Office had its hands full. (Not to mention the most fanciful liturgical experiments, taking place in abbeys and in youth camps.) Hence the encyclical Humani generis, of a vigilant and disturbed Pius XII, written 12 years before the Council and which soon became dead letter.And what was Abp. Lefebvre doing at that time? In the 1950s, he was the Pope's Apostolic Delegate for numerous areas in Africa and he also worked as Archbishop of Dakar. Under John XXIII, he was called back to Europe, but he was elected a member of the Council's preparatory commission. He took part in the Council (1962-1965), as Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, and he intervened many times to counter as best as he could the liberal orientations and the most harmful schemata of this revolutionary assembly. And, despite the ominous pontificate of Paul VI, Abp. Lefebvre continued to work within the Church, and was committed to having the Society of Saint Pius X canonically approved: it was a sign of catholicity which he held dear. He rejected the damaging changes (the new liturgy, the Neo-modernist teachings, apostate ecumenism, etc), and he continued in the official bosom of the church up until the moment of the illegal suppresion of the Fraternity and of the first canonical penalties (1975-1976).Someone like Bp. Nestor Adam [bishop of Sion, Switzerland, who granted the original permission for the Society's first Seminary within his diocese] left the Council during its proceedings, scandalized and discouraged with the "October Revolution" that the Pope either approved or allowed in some measure to take place.As a good "soldier of Christ", who knew that he would have to one day render account to God of his episcopate, Abp. Lefebvre kept on in "the good fight" of Christ. Was he chased like a bandit? He nonetheless "followed his course", perfectly aware that he was in the Church. He expected that one day Rome would grant him that canonical stature of which he had been unjustly deprived, but not to the detriment of the faith, or of its full and free proclamation.He who, amidst the complete conciliar debacle, had enjoyed for a decade the official blessing of the Church would have accepted, "without any bitterness", and without any compromise, a canonical recognition, even coming from an authority still strongly tainted by modern errors, but willing to correct the course of the great boat of the Church, "taking in water on every side"....Father Benoît WailliezSuperior for the District of the Benelux
