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Archbishop
Lefebvre's
& SSPX's superiors' letter
to Pope John Paul
II |
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This letter was
composed in June 1988 by the various superiors of the SSPX summarizing the
causes of the failure of the discussions from 1987 to 1988 on the
part of the liberal Roman authorities, as well as the fact that
the papal mandate for consecrating a bishop had already been
implicitly given. |
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June 2, 1988
Most Holy Father,
The conversations and meetings with Cardinal
Ratzinger and his collaborators, although they took place in an
atmosphere of courtesy and charity, persuaded us that the moment
for a frank and efficacious collaboration between us has not yet
arrived.
For indeed, if the ordinary Christian is
authorized to ask the competent Church authorities to preserve for
him the Faith of his Baptism, how much more true is that for
priests, religious, and nuns?
It is to keep the Faith of our Baptism intact
that we have had to resist the spirit of Vatican II and the
reforms inspired by it.
The false ecumenism which is at the origin of
all the Council's innovations in the liturgy, in the new
relationship between the Church and the world, in the conception
of the Church itself, is leading the Church to its ruin and
Catholics to apostasy.
Being radically opposed to this destruction of
our Faith and determined to remain within the traditional doctrine
and discipline of the Church, especially as far as the formation
of priests and the religious life is concerned, we find ourselves
in the absolute necessity of having ecclesiastical authorities who
embrace our concerns and will help us to protect ourselves against
the spirit of Vatican II and the spirit of Assisi.
That is why we are asking for several bishops
chosen from within Catholic Tradition, and for a majority of the
members on the projected Roman Commission for Tradition, in order
to protect ourselves against all compromise.
Given the refusal to consider our requests, and
it being evident that the purpose of this reconciliation is not at
all the same in the eyes of the Holy See as it is in our eyes, we
believe it preferable to wait for times more propitious for the
return of Rome to Tradition. That is why we shall give ourselves
the means to carry on the work which Providence has entrusted to
us, being assured by His Eminence Cardinal Ratzinger's letter of
May 30th that the episcopal consecration is not contrary to the
will of the Holy See, since it was granted for August 15th.
We shall continue to pray for modern Rome,
infested with Modernism, to become once more Catholic Rome and to
rediscover its two-thousand-year-old tradition. Then the problem
of our reconciliation will have no further reason to exist and the
Church will experience a new youth.
Be so good, Most Holy Father, as to accept the
expression of my most respectful and filially devoted sentiments
in Jesus and Mary.
+ Marcel Lefebvre |
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