Truly and fully Catholic

A guest-post by Côme de Prévigny

These past few days, several journalists, with intentions as diverse as they are contradictory, have put forward, based on a London letter, that the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X would refuse the doctrinal preamble proposed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on September 14. Considering that both parties had clearly indicated that no due date had been established and made clear that the text was modifiable and flexible, it seemed understandable that reservations could be entertained and that a time for reflection be assured. The journalists who were tempted by sensational declarations and deadlines jumped upon the most insignificant amount of information in order to create headlines, distort, and, in the end, to extrapolate. Far from being confirmed, the scoop was finally denied.

Within the work founded by Abp. Lefebvre, there is no superior who considers irregularity to be a glory or an honor. It is a situation that is tolerated, in which its members were placed from the day on which they were forbidden to keep the Traditional Mass and the catechism that goes along with it. Consequently, the refusal, as a matter of principle, of the betterment of the situation is not professed. The priests of Écône simply refuse to sign texts that would render the impression of giving a recognition to themes, such as religious liberty, that were recognized by experts of the Council as dissociated from Tradition.

There are prelates in Rome who would undoubtedly love to hear the Fraternity proclaim a definitive "no" to all these conversations, relations, discussions. They would wish to anathematize it forever and to see it lost in the hell of excommunicates - which they had, however, swore to keep empty! Faced with their motivations, the tenacious persistence of Benedict XVI, the same one that begot the Motu Proprio, despite episcopal rage, the one that suppressed the condemnations of the Fraternity, despite the violent campaign against him, should end with a sad confession: "I was mistaken...?" Should it be turned into that condemnation for which they are eager and which they expect? That would be ignoring a whole pontificate that began on December 22, 2005. While Bishops view as relative the most sacred dogmas, such as the Resurrection of the Lord, humiliate the Pope when he visits them, watch still as Protestants simulate sacraments in their presence, resist with all their strength the texts that the Pope proclaims motu proprio, those faithful before condemned to the graciousness of the juridical blunder that had been the prohibition of the eternal rite of the Latin Church would be relegated to the underclass simply because they professed the faith that goes with this liturgy, this same faith, firm and demanding, missionary and salvific, that Thérèse de Lisieux and Charles de Foucauld professed?

If the Fraternity, its priests, and its seminaries have lost the official canonical regularity, it was because, from 1975 onwards, Abp. Lefebvre continued celebrating the Tridentine rite. This rite being rehabilitated, it follows that its rescuers should also be. In a subtle manner, Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, even before the removal of the excommunications, had recognized, regarding these complete Christians: "the communion exists". Mgr. Pozzo confirmed it in September 2011, by affirming regarding the Fraternity: "I would say simply that those who are truly and fully Catholic can live fully and properly in the Catholic Church wherever the Catholic Church exists and develops." It was to Peter that the power of binding and loosing was granted by Our Lord.