July 2002

I would like first of all to take the opportunity of thanking those of you who united yourselves to the Consecration of the U.S. District to the Immaculate Heart of Mary last month, by reciting the prayer of consecration. We are confident that this joint prayer of consecration will continue to obtain many graces for the Society’s work of restoring all things in Christ through the Catholic priesthood. I would also like to announce to you that my second mandate as District Superior will be coming to its end this coming August 15. My successor will be Father John Fullerton, from upstate New York, who has been for six years the Prior at Saint Joseph’s in Armada, the center of the Society’s work in Michigan. His strong and supernatural leadership has brought about a doubling in the size of the parish at Saint Joseph’s, and the foundation of an excellent boys’ high school. I am certain that the same cause will produce the same effects, and that his direction will be a great boon to the Society’s work nationwide. I have no doubt but that you will give him the same support and encouragement as you have given me.

A CRISIS WITHOUT PRECEDENT

The draft for this week’s meeting of the U.S. Bishops in Dallas started with these words: "Our beloved church is experiencing a crisis without precedent in our times. From the depths of our hearts, we express great sorrow and profound regret for what the Catholic people have had to endure." Truer words have never been uttered, but they go far beyond the outward symptom, the legal problems that presently besiege and preoccupy the US hierarchy. What the bishops stand responsible for, and what they are not sorry for; the cause of the crisis, that the Catholic people have had to endure at their hands, is the robbery of their Catholic heritage, key as it is to the supernatural order of grace.

The modernists have stolen from the faithful their prayers and devotions, their altar and statues, the centrality of the Real Presence and the sacredness of the Catholic Church, the richness of the traditional Mass and sacraments, the fullness of Catholic dogma and spirituality, the perfect consecration of priestly and religious life, their respect for authority and their love of obedience. Worse yet, they have stolen from Catholics the very sense of what it is to be Catholic, their identity as members of the one true Church, outside of which there is no salvation. For there can be no doubt that the practice of ecumenism, and the propagation of the freedom of all religions does just that, leading thereby to the abandonment of the Faith. This error of Vatican II is not just a side issue, a theological technicality. It is the whole sense of our Faith and the purpose of our Catholic lives that is at stake, that is destroyed by dialogue at all costs.

NATURALISM

One word could be used to describe "what the Catholic people have had to endure": Naturalism. This error was defined by Pope Leo XIII as the foundation and basis of Freemasonry, and of its vicious attack against the Church.

Now the fundamental doctrine of the Naturalists, which they sufficiently make known by their very name, is that human nature and human reason ought in all things to be mistress and guide. Laying this down, they care little for duties to God, or pervert them by erroneous and vague opinions. (Humanum Genus, §12)

This is precisely what the modernists have done, by abandoning all the sacred ecclesiastical traditions that express so perfectly our total dependence upon divine grace, and our total incapacity to know, love and serve God by ourselves. Stripping the Church of its sacredness, they have left man alone, forced to depend upon his own mind and efforts, helpless to do anything but promote social justice, pluralism and mutual understanding. As Leo XIII points out, the logical consequence of this naturalism is the denial of original sin, of the weakness of our fallen human nature, of the need for prayer and penance, and, paradoxically, ultimately the denial of the natural order itself. The present unspeakable scourge of sins against nature demonstrates just how far this freemasonic naturalism has progressed within the very structure of the Church.

Let us be entirely convinced that all our ecclesiastical traditions, all the practices that preserve the Faith and the supernatural order of grace, are indispensable for the defending of the Faith. This does not just include the traditional Mass and the daily Rosary, but also pilgrimages, retreats, schools, catechism, thomistic philosophy and theology, Catholic art, music, history & literature, the lives of the saints, our daily spiritual reading and meditations etc. Nothing is irrelevant, and those who deny any of these wholesome practices fall under the order of excommunication made by the second Council of Nicea in 787 for those who dare to spurn according to wretched heretics the ecclesiastical traditions and to invent anything novel, or to reject anything from those things which have been consecrated by the Church…or to invent perversely and cunningly for the overthrow of any one of the legitimate traditions of the Catholic Church (Dz 304).

PRACTICAL NATURALISM

Neither let us think that it is easy to avoid the plague of naturalism that is so endemic in the world in which we live. We can easily look at the world and modern church around us, and convince ourselves that we are doing well, for after all we are keeping the Faith, and we do go to Sunday Mass and the sacraments. Be wary, lest such a worldly perspective, lead to a practical indifference to the crisis in the Church, and ultimately to practical naturalism. The comparison that we ought to make is entirely different, as Saint Pius X pointed out in his letter on the Sillon movement:

When we consider the forces, knowledge and supernatural virtues which were necessary to establish the Christian City, and the sufferings of millions of martyrs, and the light given by the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and of the self-sacrifice of all the heroes of charity, and a powerful hierarchy ordained in heaven, and the streams of divine Grace —the whole having been built up, bound together, and impregnated by the life and spirit of Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, the Word made man —when we think, I say, of all this, it is frightening to behold new apostles eagerly attempting to do better by a common interchange of vague idealism and civic virtues (Our Apostolic Mandate, §38).

This is the Catholic and wholly supernatural perspective that we so often lack.

VOCATIONS

There is no doubt in my mind that we as traditional Catholics, our chapels and our families as a whole, lack such a vision based upon supernatural reality, and that this lack of vision is the reason why we have so few vocations. Far too often in our families, Faith is for Sunday Mass, for our daily prayers or to resolve difficult moral decisions. It is not the basis of all our thoughts, desires and hopes, of our friendship and our joys, of all our endeavors and all our goals. Our children do not learn to live the mystery of the Cross, of self-sacrifice. Looking for self-indulgence, seeking for fun, pampered to think that they can live a life without humiliation, discipline and suffering, they have no attraction for the religious or priestly life, for the supernatural is not the focus, but a side chapel in their lives.

In our own families also, this naturalism, refusing to take into account the reality of original sin, eventually leads to the overturning of the natural order itself. Infidelity, broken marriages, rebellious teenagers, refusal to work, alcohol and drug abuse, weak husbands that refuse to take responsibility, overbearing wives that refuse to be submissive are but some of the symptoms of the destruction of the natural order. Vocations are impossible in such families, for grace builds on nature. The mystery of the Cross must heal our wounded nature before the generosity of vocations can flower forth.

Alas, even many naturally stable families in our chapels remain void of the supernatural spirit of Faith. They may do good exterior things, and they may even place their children in our schools. However, the naturalism of the world will suffocate the supernatural spirit for as long as they have not thrown out their televisions, rock music, video games and immodest clothes, to mention the most obvious worldly distractions. A practical naturalism, preventing daily prayer and sacrifice from penetrating the depths of the heart, is without a doubt suffocating the spirit of sacrifice and stifling many potential vocations in our traditional families. How can such children, immersed in their own feelings, endeavors, activities, successes and human respect, hear these words of Our Divine Savior: "If any man come to Me, and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple" (Lk 14:26)?

It is consequently thinking, living, acting as if we were sufficient to ourselves, and not entirely dependent upon God’s grace, that is the obstacle to our sanctification, and to serious vocations. Completely different was the supernatural perspective of Archbishop Lefebvre:

The radiance of priestly grace is the radiance of the Cross. The priest is at the heart of the renovation merited by Our Lord. His influence is the determining factor on souls and for society. A priest enlightened by Faith and filled with the virtues and gifts of the spirit of Jesus can convert numerous souls to Jesus Christ, raise up vocations, and transform a pagan society into a Christian society. (Spiritual Journey, pp. 45-46).

If many more of our young men were truly convinced of this, our Seminaries would be full, and great indeed would be the work of Tradition.

HOW TO PROMOTE VOCATIONS

By our prayers, words and example may we draw many souls to this sublime ideal of the Catholic Priesthood, and to its essential act, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. If we think about it, we will acknowledge that there is something that we can all do to promote vocations to the Priesthood and to the religious life, and that we will do this in proportion to our conviction of their necessity for the supernatural life of Holy Mother Church. I encourage the 700 of you who have been faithful to your promises in the Prayer Crusade for Priests, and encourage the rest of you to consider joining. Here is one way to guarantee the supernatural in your daily life, by praying every day prayers for priests, and one decade of the Rosary, and by making a holy hour on First Thursdays for priests. Information can be requested from the District Office. May God grant us the Faith, strength and courage to persevere in this struggle.

Fr. Peter R. Scott

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