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Address to the
Holy Father, Pope John Paul II
Holy Father,
More than thirty years
ago, under your predecessor, Pope Paul VI, a major reform modified the
Latin rite of the Catholic Liturgy, especially the "Order of the Mass."
This reform immediately raised troubles and
controversies across the entire world. Some studies which were made,
notably the A
Brief Critical Study of the New Order of the Mass given to Pope Paul VI by Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci,
pointed out the troubling deficiencies and ambiguities affecting this
reform.
The Liturgy has certainly evolved over the course
of history, as is shown by the reforms made during the past century by
St. Pius X, Pius XII and John XXIII. But the post-conciliar liturgical
reform, by its extension and brutality, represents a disturbing
upheaval, as a radical rupture from the traditional Roman Liturgy. Above
all, this reform contains disconcerting elements, ambiguous and
dangerous for the Faith.
Before this spiritual danger, the true obedience
to the Seat of Peter, the true submission to the Church Mother and
Mistress obliges us, along with a great number of Catholics around the
world, to remain faithful no matter the cost to this venerable Liturgy
which the Roman Church has celebrated for centuries, the Liturgy which
you yourself have celebrated in the past. Such is the sacred heritage
which the founder of our Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X, Archbishop
Lefebvre, has entrusted to us:
It is clear, it is evident that
the entire drama between Econe and Rome is due to the problem of the
Mass. (…) We are convinced that the new rite of Mass expresses a new
faith, a faith which is not ours, a faith which is not the Catholic
Faith; (…) that this new rite is misleading and, if I may say,
supposes another conception of the Catholic Religion. (…) This is why
we are attached to this Tradition which is expressed in such an
admirable manner, and in a definitive manner, as Pope St. Pius V said so
well, in the Sacrifice of the Mass. (June 29, 1976)
After much reflection and prayer, we feel the duty
before God to address the Holy Father once again with regard to this
problem of the Liturgy. We have asked those pastors of souls who are
qualified in theological, Liturgical and Canonical matters, to compose a
synthesis of the certain difficulties, including the most important
ones, which the Liturgy of the post-Conciliar reform poses to the faith
of Catholics.
This work has sought to
go back to the doctrinal causes properly so called of the actual crisis,
bringing to light the principles which are at the origin of the
Liturgical reform and contrasting them with Catholic doctrine.
The reading of this document manifests clearly, we
believe, that the "theology of the paschal mystery," to
which the door was left open at the occasion of Vatican II, is the soul
of the liturgical reform. Because it minimizes the mystery of the
Redemption, because it considers the sacrament only in its relation with
the "mystery," and because the conception that it makes
of the "memorial" alters the sacrificial dimension of
the Mass, this "theology of the paschal mystery"
renders the post-Conciliar Liturgy dangerously distant from Catholic
doctrine, to which however the Christian conscience remains bound
forever.
Holy Father,
The Catholic Faith
imposes upon us a grave obligation not to remain silent about the
questions which assail our mind.
Are not the deficiencies
of this theology and of the liturgy which issues from it one of the
principal causes of the crisis affecting the Church for more than thirty
years? And does not such a situation demand the doctrinal and liturgical
clarifications on the part of the supreme Authority of the Church? Do
not the subjects, for whose good a law is made, have the right and duty,
if the law manifests itself harmful, with filial confidence to demand
from the legislator its modification or its abrogation?
Among the measures which
are the most urgent, does it not seem appropriate to make publicly known
that every priest possesses the faculty to use the integral and fruitful
Roman Missal revised by St. Pius V, a treasure so profoundly rooted in
the thousand-year Tradition of the Church, Mother and Mistress?
These doctrinal and
liturgical clarifications, joined with the universal renewal of the
traditional Roman Liturgy, would not fail to produce immense spiritual
fruits: the restoration of the true notion of the priesthood and of
sacrifice, and consequently, the renewal of priestly and religious
sanctity; the increase of fervor in the faithful; the strengthening of
the unity of the Church; the powerful momentum for the evangelization of
former Christian nations and of infidel nations.
We strongly beseech Your
Holiness, who alone has the power as Successor of Peter and Shepherd of
the universal Church, to strengthen his brethren in the Faith and to
sanction with his apostolic authority the indispensable clarifications
which are demanded by the present tragic situation in the Church.
However, such a necessary
restoration cannot be done in the Church without an extraordinary
recourse to the Holy Ghost, obtained by the intercession of the Blessed
Virgin Mary. It is, therefore, by prayer, especially by the holy
sacrifice of the Mass, that this long desired renewal will be
accomplished, and, for our part, it is to this, with the grace of God,
that we give ourselves and desire to give ourselves always more.
Deign, Your Holiness, to
accept our sentiments of filial respect in Jesus and Mary.
+Bernard Fellay
Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of
St. Pius X
Flavigny, France,
on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord, February 2, 2001 |
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