Three passages from Msgr. Fellay's latest Letter to Friends and Benefactors (Letter 77):
...here below the Church bears the name “militant”, for she must always fight. The end assigned to her by Our Lord, which consists in saving souls, cannot be obtained without battle, a battle essentially spiritual, but very real, that suffers here and there more or less marked temporary relapses. Our Lord Jesus Christ fought a definitive battle with the devil to tear from him those poor souls that come into the world in his power, with the stain of original sin. This battle is the battle of all times; to forget it would be to condemn ourselves to be unable seriously to understand anything of the great history of men. As for us, we bear daily the stigmata of this combat, and it is an occasion of great gladness. The spiritual authors have always considered trials as a good sign and even a mark of predilection. Since today men do everything to forget and even deny these fundamental truths of the spiritual combat, we are happy to contribute our little part by keeping alive in our own flesh such a truth.
Not that we do not hope for peace, which will come with time, at the good pleasure of Divine Providence, whom we by no means wish to press.
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That is why Archbishop Lefebvre’s path is still of the present moment. What he said thirty, forty years ago is still perfectly pertinent today. This demands of us a great gratitude to God for having given us – and to the whole Church – such a bishop. There is no doubt that, if in the Church his precious indications were followed, the whole Mystical Body would be better off and would soon come out of this crisis. But seeing what is going on in the Church, even if here and there appear gleams of hope, we must admit that, over all, the ship is pursuing the course begun at Vatican II – course a little slower, certainly, with Benedict XVI, but now hardly more than a free-fall broken by a parachute.
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“To restore all things in Christ” cannot be an option among others; it is really and truly a necessity that comes from the nature of things, from their state of created beings. It matters little that modern society proves deaf to such a discourse! Let it pursue its dreams, the awakening will only be all the more painful! But more than ever the Church has something to say to the world. And it will always be the same thing.
The events of these past years show a certain movement towards a return, up until now still very slight, but quite real all the same. No doubt the Society of St. Pius X can offer an important contribution. But it is still quite difficult to predict anything more concrete in its relations with Rome
