Editorial of the May 2012 issue of the monthly of the German District of the Society of Saint Pius X, Mitteilungsblatt, penned by the District Superior, and former SSPX Superior General, Father Franz Schmidberger:
Stuttgart, April 20, 2012
Dear friends and benefactors, dear faithful,
“We hold fast, with all our heart and with all our soul, to Catholic Rome, Guardian of the Catholic faith and of the traditions necessary to preserve this faith, to Eternal Rome, Mistress of wisdom and truth.”“We refuse, on the other hand, and have always refused to follow the Rome of neo-Modernist and neo-Protestant tendencies which were clearly evident in the Second Vatican Council and, after the Council, in all the reforms which issued from it.”
[Translation by "The Anonymous Translator"®.]In this statement of Abp. Lefebvre of his epochal declaration of 21 November 1974 are contained two inseparable fundamental principles: on one hand, the rejection of the spirit of the Council, of some of the declarations of the council and of some of the reforms that arose from the Council – and we have devoted ourselves with all our force to this task since the foundation of the Fraternity in 1970. On the other, unbreakable relations with Rome, insofar as it portrays eternal Rome. We cannot expect, however, that after the conciliar and post-conciliar collapse everything will be perfect again in the Church Militant within one day. The Church has in her bosom both saints and sinners. Amongst her human imperfections can even be counted errors, if they do not directly oppose the revealed truth. A Church Militant filled with saints only is the heresy of Jansenism, which has been condemned expressly by the Magisterium. Of course every Christian has the duty to fight sin and error, each according to his possibility and his position in the Church; however, we must always start with ourselves and align our lives with the principles of the Catholic faith.During and after the Council, the following slogan was issued time and time again: Ecclesia semper reformanda est – the Church is always being reformed. This statement is ambiguous and was shamefully abused by those who want to reform. It is only Catholic when we mean: the Church is always to be reformed in its members, the life of faith and morals must always be renewed, and even the discipline of the Church is sometimes to be adapted to new circumstances. But the structure of the church is God-given and cannot be altered nor “renewed” by man.Let us then not forget in the heat of our battle the first principle of Abp. Lefebvre: the Church was founded by Christ on Peter. To him he entrusted the keys of heaven, to him he gave the mandate to feed the sheep (Mt. 16, 18ff; Jn 21, 15ff). And the field of the Church may be filled with tares, so full that one can hardly see the wheat – the Church has the promise of eternal life; the Lord is with her all the days until the end of times (Mt. 28, 20). It is His Church, not ours. We do not have the right to dispose of her. We cannot see the Church in a too human, too political, or too diplomatic way. However much St. Athanasius, in the fourth century A.D., saved the faith in the divinity of Christ, however much he safeguarded the survival of the Church – he was but a tool of Divine Providence, with which the promise of the Church’s perpetual existence was to be accomplished. Had he flinched from this mission, God would have called upon another tool. And it is like this with Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society of Saint Pius X that he founded: the founder and his work have significantly contributed to upholding for the Church the true Holy Mass, the doubt-free sacraments, and the deposit of the faith during stormy times. And yet, the great confessor-bishop, the priests that he ordained, the bishops that he consecrated, they are but unprofitable servants (Lk 17, 10), who are in the service of Divine Providence and promise. How much grace, greatness and joy lay in this being allowed to serve! And yet, the tools do not possess the promise of eternal life, but the Church does, as the Mystical Body of the Lord. And this is why we hold fast, with all our heart, to eternal Rome, and why we want to be neither heretical, nor schismatic, but simply Catholic.If Rome now calls us back from the exile to which it expelled us in 1975 with the abrogation of the [canonical] approval [of the Society], and even more in 1988 with the decree of excommunication, then that is an act of justice and without doubt also an act of authentic pastoral care of Pope Benedict XVI. And for that we are grateful.With priestly benediction in the risen Lord and His most Holy Mother.Yours,Father Franz Schmidberger
