Editorial of the May-June issue of Fideliter, the bimonthly magazine of the District of France of the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX), penned by the District Superior, Fr. Régis de Cacqueray (Source: La Porte Latine):
Illusions still very much aliveBenedict XVI, in his homily of April 5, 2012, for the Chrism Mass, recalled that the words of the teaching Church are an aid for the correct transmission of the message of the faith in the present time. Our first reflex, when reading this exhortation, is to rejoice with his interest in correct and profound teaching. Nonetheless, the Pope immediately describes the matter that is to be transmitted by the teaching Church. Alas, it does not exactly mean the same thing!"The texts of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church are essential tools which serve as an authentic guide to what the Church believes on the basis of God’s word. And of course this also includes the whole wealth of documents given to us by Pope John Paul II, still far from being fully explored."It is evidently clear that the references to "the words of the teaching Church" mentioned by Benedict XVI remain solely and always those of the Second Vatican Council, of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and of the documents of John Paul II. Does the Pope still not see then the calamitous consequences of the new religion that has been established in the Church for half a century? Had not Cardinal Ratzinger expressed his strong concern for the sad state to which the barque of Peter had been reduced? Why then speak again and again in favor of these recent texts that have been the cause of misfortune for Catholics?
It is true that our hope was - it still remains - that the Pope, at a certain moment, be forced to move from the effects up to the cause, that is to say, from the post-conciliar catastrophe up to the Second Vatican Council. Yet, in this sermon of the Chrism Mass, one comes to question his real view of the current landscape of the Church. Does he see it as it truly is, devastated by heresies and by an always more shameless victory of the spirit of the world? We are allowed to doubt this because he also says, "Anyone who considers the history of the post-conciliar era can recognize the process of true renewal, which often took unexpected forms in living movements and made almost tangible the inexhaustible vitality of holy Church, the presence and effectiveness of the Holy Spirit."We do not know, in fairness, what are these living movements that the Pope perceives in the post-conciliar era. As for us, we instead perceive the extinction, and the scheduled death, due to the lack of vocations, of prestigious congregations and religious institutes. We witness the disappearance of whole parishes and dioceses. Populations have become pagan once again, children are no longer baptized. And the strongly publicized large gatherings, in the line of the WYD or of the charismatic gatherings, should not lead to delusion! Even if they were held in penance and with fervor - and that is not the case - they are incapable of replacing the patient work of christianization of populations that took place under the parish priests of old.It must be said. Pope Benedict XVI is stuck in deep and grave illusions. The first one is to believe that these movements, whose unexpected forms are in reality those of a steeply degenerate Christianity, are living. The second one is to still believe, and obstinately, that the teachings of the Council and of the post-conciliar Magisterium may serve as lights during the night in which spirits have fallen, when instead they make it increasingly darker.As for us, we must continue to nourish ourselves with the pure faith and, in consequence, to flee, as if from the plague, from the novelties introduced by Vatican II and by the Popes who followed the Council. It is faith that is our great treasure, and we must stand against everything that might decrease or jeopardize it.Father Régis de Cacqueray†, Superior of the District of France
