Archbishop Lefebvre 1989: Conferences at Avrillé

[Stone]

A partial transcript into English of the above French conference, taken from here:


Talk A.  Morning Conference
Archbishop Lefebvre, Avrillé, Oct. 1989.

THE BEGINNING:

My dear friends, I wasn't expecting a public so numerous here, for this retreat, but I rejoice. I notice that your community is growing, so let's thank the Good God, and your confreres in the expansion of your dear Community. At the invitation, [he jokingly says]: not sure if we can call him 'prior'?, [chuckle from the audience] I accepted to give you some talks during this retreat of a few days. The fact that I started late and I will finish early...I should have been more generous but, for the reason that I am torn between demands here and there, and my schedule is very busy till the 19 November. Then after I will see - I will have time for prayer and reflection; also this will permit some writing, some means, trying to do good as best I can.

Therefore, during this retreat then, we must do the utmost good possible - confirm in your faith, confirm your vocation, confirm in your religious aspect - it is important. I want to discuss, in this instruction and perhaps the second one too, and expose the situation which we are in, because we are in this present history of the Church, we haven't chosen, but God has placed us in the here and now. We could have been living in the middle of the persecutions; or perhaps in an era when the Church was flourishing and at peace. For thirteen centuries, the Christian religion was really the Queen of this Christian Europe...we could have lived during those epochs. Oh! there were always many difficulties too, just as St. Dominic had some in his day, even if during his time it was considered an epoch of Christianity. Nevertheless, if we had trials in the course of the Church's history, combats, heresies, schisms, God has always raised up generous souls for those times, souls who make a constant effort to maintain, continue the Church that He founded, the Church which came forth from His Heart, wounded, truly, and so He will never abandon His Church.

We would not be wrong in saying these times in which we are living: 'the Church is in a grave situation'. Never the Church has experienced such trials that we presently have! I don't think so. Will it be the last one...the ultimate before the end of time?  I don't know at all - I am not a prophet. In any case, it is certain that we must be conscious about this crisis in which the Church finds itself, the gravity of the crisis, so as to take the proper means to combat, since God has wanted to resuscitate groups, as yours, who have decided not to allow themselves to be invaded - neither the intelligence nor the will, nor the heart, by the current idealisms: of heresy, of apostasy, by sensualism, by rationalism, by Liberalism, of these modern errors - by a particular grace of the Good God...which God has chosen...to be possessors of the truth to continue the work of the Holy Catholic Church.

So, it is difficult to do a very succinct summary of this crisis, starting from the Council evidently, but in fact, the error goes back much further. It can be traced back to the origin of all the heresies, and especially, not only the machinations of men, but of the ' Order of Satan ' also, evidently.  It is so clear that Satan labours without interruption, without respite, for the destruction of the Church.  In certain epochs, sinister...he acted differently when dealing with persons filled of the grace of Our Lord, filled of the Holy Spirit, but it looks as if, in special moments, God seemingly allows him to captivate - he invades the world in such ways that he has become the absolute master. Happening in our epoch, isn't it so? It certainly looks like God have given satan liberty to act; we said this of Leo XIII. Leo XIII had a revelation pertaining to a crisis, a fight when satan would buffet the Church. It is said that God gave satan a hundred years, to act as he desired.  We recognize that from Leo XIII's time till now, it is about one hundred years, and he has marvelously succeeded to settle his hand on the world,  it is admirable!, on Christianity, which is even more grave, even on the Church, actually, on the men of the Church not the Church itself.

You know the history of the Church sufficiently...I don't want to repeat indefinitely. For sure, talk after talk this year, has sufficiently shown what was the French Revolution, the time of the Revolution, how this Revolution was conceived, how it was realized, and eventually how it began the destruction of the Church by the destruction of the Faith. I think that there is an act that manifests the Revolution and that is especially the "Goddess Reason", which was, if we may so speak "adored" in Notre Dame of Paris! An incredible scandal! which shows the spirit of the ones who made the Revolution: to adore Reason! to adore Man! the intention: to put man in the place of God.  Place man instead of God - Put the rights of man instead of the rights of God. It is a radical revolt of man against God.

Just like the revolt of Satan against God, "Non serviam!", I will not serve!, well, this Revolution was nothing else than the application of this revolt of Satan...reason itself against the Faith! So, of course, they tried to massacre everything that supported the Faith in the past.

[TIME 9:34]
Beginning with the king; even if the king was not a perfect man, nevertheless he aided the Faith. The king was always  (a constant king ?), a Catholic king. Already, even at the moment when the king was anointed, the voices of those who objected were raised, demanding: 'Let's put an end, do away with the consecration (Footnote 1), that this consecration didn't signify anything, useless, regrettable for the chief of state himself...it's no good to consecrate the king; what's the use?...a ceremony, a ceremony so religious; the king need not be consecrated; we shouldn't make of the king a sort of god'.  Voices were raised to prevent [the leader Icseine? inaudible ]from performing the consecration....  [Icseine?] therefore decided on the contrary, (some wanted to make a scaled down ceremony at Notre Dame) and performed the consecration at Rheims and nowhere else. The King was consecrated, complete with all the ceremonies, with all the actions as the Church wanted.  Because he felt he was the lieutenant of Our Lord Jesus-Christ on earth, to propagate the Faith, and to defend it; a real mission that he had to keep forever. Of course this was very upsetting for the spirit of those who wanted to do away with the Reign of Jesus-Christ, to abolish the reign of a Christian king; therefore the first step they took was to make the king disappear. Then it was the attempt to have all the servants of Our Lord  disappear, as much as they could.

Then followed by the necessary step of replacing the Christian religion with new religion, a laïcité religion, a laicised religion - they replaced Christian feasts with profane feasts. There was a suffusion of this distinct spirit throughout all the nineteenth century; and the twentieth-century: laicism constantly making progress, progress, progress. At certain times, thanks to the pressure of faithful Catholics, of few men, such as Cardinal Pie stood up, who protested, struggled....faced with the resistance of the faithful population, the efforts of laïcisme diminished somewhat, but always the intention to return.

They succeeded at the beginning of this century, with the separation of Church and State and it must be noted that it was at that time when all the religious were chased from France. Not a trifling! It's enormous; when you consider the number of religious and nuns who found themselves in France at the beginning of this century. Actually, only four religious congregations were allowed: purely missionary congregations, like the Adem (?), the Holy Ghost Fathers were uniquely permitted only because they were missionary and the government worried that if these congregations would shrink, the influence of the Government in the Colonies would also diminish: so it was a purely political goal that allowed the four congregations...four congregations were maintained, but they were of the missionary kind. They realized that the missionaries wielded a great influence, what was taught, even politically, so they neither dared to oppress them, nor to chase them away.

All other Orders were chased away. A violent persecution, with an absolute and earnest will of laicising France more and more. And not only in France, but like this in all countries. Occupation of Cannes, occupation of Rome and so on...it was all of Europe, often aided by the Protestants, and by Freemasonary of course, succeeded, little by little, in laicising society in such a way that Our Lord has nothing to do, nothing! nothing to do with official society. I don't know if you can imagine... but, not so very long ago, one could see a crucifix in the tribunals -  they had kept the Christ in the tribunals, there was a crucifix in the tribunals.

In the army, there were chaplains everywhere....they still possessed a certain Christian influence, in various official services of the state; but after the separation of Church and State it was over; it ended. Rampant tearing down of the Christ. This just kept progressing, even if there were a few respites, because of reactions, for a short while a few reactions, and then because of the efforts of Satan, and his henchmen, remarkably organized, and with Freemasonry which was constantly developing, they eventually conquered all of the Christian world - totally, so that actually Satan reigns by the intermediary of socialism, a political system which is diabolical, purely diabolical. With this program of laïcisation they infiltrated everywhere. Some efforts were renewed, with Franco, Salazar, de Valera in Ireland and others; a few presidents of Republics who were men still profoundly Christian and who upheld Christianity: all this blew up! finished, completely finished!

After this came the Council. Until then the Church resisted. The Church encouraged all those who held fast to Our Lord's social reign. At the very least, one could rely on Rome, priests, and bishops to defend the Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus-Christ. No one could have possibly imagined that a time would come, where those who were charged with defending the Reign of Our Lord would turn against Him. This!...This is the utmost pinnacle of the triumph of Satan! The masterstroke of Satan is the achievement of using the clerics, and using Rome, to destroy the Reign of Our Lord. This is what we have nowadays...

[Time 18:15]
What did they begin, these enemies of the Church, by the revolution?.. MARTYRDOM.  Often there were  martyrs, and the martyrdom of women, women martyred by the revolution...religious martyrdom. There are some who died miserably in France. They were martyrs of the revolution. Then the religious were persecuted and chased. Priests and religious were hunted down and martyred. But now, this is finished! They [clerics] are now at the service of the enemies of the Church.  They shake hands with the enemies of the Church!  to destroy the Reign of Our Lord Jesus-Christ.

How could this possibly be done?  Well, by the invention of compromise. The Catholics began to compromise with the ideas of the Revolution. This work of Liberalism, under the pretext of Liberty, the liberty of man. Then we began to admit that, well..possibly, there might be some men who are against Our Lord, opposed to Our Lord, who were atheists. Opposed to Our Lord. Ah...well, they have the liberty, after all they have liberty...they have their consciences.

The real point is this: the day Catholics became this lax in principle and handed over the "carte blanche" to these enemies of the Church, it was already a considerable defeat for the world,. The combat has ceased against the enemies of the Church, against the enemies of Our Lord.    The popes have denounced it throughout the XIX century, denounced this Liberalism, which transformed in Socialism, in Sillonism,  in progressism, till it had penetrated to a greater extent. St Pius X had predicted, in his first encyclical, and said that no longer are there enemies outside the Church, but also enemies within. [Footnote 2]  And where are those enemies? In the seminaries! In the seminaries...(inaudible)  ...expressed tacitly that the enemy is in the seminaries. He implored the bishops: 'Chase all the modernist professors. All those who compromise with error: laïcisme, the anti-Christian errors...we must chase them, evidently, it 's easy to understand. How can professors who have no idea of the Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus-Christ, how can they teach priests to become militants, combatants for Our Lord?, for the Reign of Our Lord? How can they tell them when they say: 'I don't believe that anymore!'  It is not possible.

And because they haven't listened to the (encyclical ? inaudible), they will keep those professors who diffuse these errors inside the seminaries. Now we have priests who are completely Modernists. They have acquired the modern liberty, acquired the modern errors. Very gently, they are convinced that societies have nothing to do with religion. Nothing at all. The political society has nothing to do with it. Not to be occupied with religion. All religions must be allowed, so consequently, without distinctions, thereby an eventual loss of the faith in Our Lord Jesus-Christ. If all religions are on an equal status in society then Our Lord, Boudah, and mo hahamed, all that is the same thing.

It is an apostasy, apostasy! They no longer hold to this saying, which is absolutely certain, constantly professed by the Church: Extra Ecclesia nulla salus, outside the Church no salvation. No salvation outside the Church. If there is no salvation outside the Church, Christian societies must strive to provide salvation for their citizens! Ah!...it is normal. Nowadays: Oh!...no no no. we don't have anything to do with that. As if the society wasn't created by God. God created it just like He created the family, He created civil society, He created the Church...the three societies which must work towards the good of souls and for the salvation of souls! It's clear...it's clear.

Eventually we witnessed (that truth ?) was abandoned in the seminaries; we longer teach in the seminaries of the holiness of Our Lord; that the christian religion is one of many religions: the missionary spirit has vanished. This spirit, this spirit destroyed in the priest.  How is that possible?...to be a priest without being a missionary, is incomprehensible, incomprehensible, an enormous contradiction. Incredible isn't it?

What good could come from one of these priests who doesn't have faith in the oneness of the Catholic Church? The faith in the Church, sole means of salvation. What good could he do in your parish? (To demonstrate: at the battle front, how can a paraplegic fight?) So very slowly, very slowly, very slowly this spirit completely ruined the combat of the Church.

The invasion of this laïcité, everywhere, everywhere in the schools, by every powerful agency, by the media, by the cinema as soon as it was invented, the radio (...), all this has completed destroyed in the population this idea: that there is salvation only in Our Lord Jesus-Christ and in the Holy Church. Everything, everything completely laicised. Furthermore, the priests do not know a profound faith in their religion, it is evident that it was felt in their proper religion, it is evident, we now understand a sort of...destruction, the auto-destruction in the interior of the Church before even the Council, for sure.

The discouragement of the priests. I, I have seen it, I lived it. I experienced it as a bishop. I have seen it in my diocese, I saw these priests, particularly when I was at Puy(?). I felt it in the priests of France, a special interior discouragement. Some were happy, I can assure you, if we could have retaken having this conviction. In the missions, I hadn't quit the missions just because I was in France ,then in the small diocese of Tulle, it is a small diocese, it isn't a large diocese, with 220 priests; I tried to enkindled the missionary spirit,and they were happy. They would come back to life. Some had a very hard life; the laïcisation had so penetrated the spirit of the populations that

Busing away all these children to lay schools. Rooting up, killing the Catholic apostolate. Gone were the subsidies for Catholic schools, the number of religious shrinking...With each passing year fewer Catholic schools  Fewer Catholic hospitals for lack of religious personnel. Catholic schools sold, yes. The priests realized that the religious spirit was vanishing, in spite of their best efforts. A young priest who is still in the diocese, shedding tears. He told me: 'Monseigneur, you entrusted three parishes to me, three or four faithful, senior faithful on Sundays in every church of my parishes. When I arrive, a group eight or nine children for catechism, that's all! I am dying of boredom. I am dying(...).  I am forced to take my meals in a tiny restaurant in my parish because no one is helping in the kitchen.  I am completely isolated. I can't keep going like this! It is a veritable desolation, common in all the dioceses of France. Priests lose hope, because of this laicisation, everything, everything...

What must be done in these dioceses when a bishop arrives in a diocese like this?  Open SCHOOLS! These priest should become teachers, to possess the impressionable youth. To establish Youth Movements. Gather the youth to give them the faith...that's right. And what will happen to these youth? In the diocese of Nantes and elsewhere - eventually there would be a teacher / priest in every village.  Administrating priests! Teaching priests in the catholic schools. Imagine a priest would be a school. A priest, teaching in a primary school. Immediately vocations are born. If they busy themselves with children, vocations will eventually come. Later, they might try their vocations...vocations are revived. Seminaries start anew, that's it. And Catholic life takes root.

(...)When I was at Tulle, I learned very early on the importance of catholic schools.  My successor, Msgr (Pearl?), (...)when he returned to the missions, (but has now resigned), the first thing he did was to close this catholic school! They are crazy! They have lost the faith. They don't believe in grace any more. They don't believe! 'Oh! well, they might as well go to a public school, we give them some catechism...Chaplains? Can't bother with that stuff.' They no longer beleive in the virtue of the priest. They no longer believe in the virtue of grace. They don't have the faith.

For them, all that is a human institution. (...) Another thing he did...There was a congregation which was the unique congregation that would send priests to the missions, a diocesan congregation just like we had and that was still in many villages; the first thing he did was to suppress this congregation and to unite it to the Sisters of the (...) the only congregation that we had.(...) So there you see the work of bishops! How can the Church be as before? How can the Church be as before?  Impossible! How so? Because he was imbued... there were some lay folk. He definitely didn't want any schools that would appear to oppose the state run schools, to divide, to cause division in the population; to have peace, to have peace, 'why fight? Why? To initiate a combat? That combat is over. That combat is terminated'. So now the school is public, they will all public.'We can enter the public schools and do good as best we can. Voila!'

...They don't believe in the grace of Our Lord Jesus-Christ, and in the Holy Spirit.

There!...we have bishops like that. And the modernist cardinals at the Council. Inevitably, what happened happened. We had these bishops who were convinced, absolutely convinced of the necessity to liberalize everything. No combat, no combat; but the church is essentially combative. Our Lord led the combat, brought combat on earth. His cross brought a victory in the combat, in the first great combat against satan. And His apostles continued this combat and were all massacred, they were all killed because of their combat, because they proclaimed the divinity of our Lord, because they proclaimed the necessity to convert to Our Lord to be saved. It's clear!

...His cross brought a victory in the combat, in the first great combat against satan. And His apostles continued this combat and were all massacred, they were all killed because of their combat, because they proclaimed the divinity of our Lord, because they proclaimed the necessity to convert to Our Lord to be saved. It's clear!
TIME 34:05

Evidently the pagan religions they were addressing, the pagans practicing tenets of these religions, they were all massacred, they shed their blood - they didn't hesitate.  If they would have had preach pacifism, pacifism, pacifism, as we do nowadays, surely, there couldn't have been martyrs. Not possible.  We talk, we dialogue, your religion is as good as ours, and we adore the same god, then there are no difficulties. Do what you are doing, you will be saved like us. Ah! It's finished. there is no more combat. It is an open door for Satan with all the modern errors, the pagan errors. Finished. The work of the Church is terminated. The Church will disappear - she has no reason to exist.

She was a nuisance, but now, she doesn't want to be a nuisance. She doesn't want to annoy others. Our Lord was annoying, yes.  In the very least, very annoying...He came in our midst with His cross. 'His cross is a nuisance; we don't want it, don't want it,' immediately when they witnessed Our Lord Jesus-Christ hanging upon the cross.... Finally, the Church herself, from the Pope, to the bishops, to the priests.  Now the combat has evolved: peace, peace, peace, peace, dialogue. Dreadful, dreadful!  It is an apostasy.  They renounce what Our Lord had (...) the most intimate, since the Holy Virgin was a type of the most intimate, in Herself, that is, Her battle against Satan. The Holy Virgin was born of the enmity between God and Satan, She was born from this. She was born for this, to crush the head of Satan.

'AAAah! No! She won't crush the head of Satan, that's finished!' (...)The Virgin Mary is no longer, crucifix gone, no more Our Lord, no more combat...it is terminated. There is where we are at now my dear friends. We must understand the situation without which we will be unable to take the means to combat....otherwise we will be influenced by these compromises,  compromise, compromises  it's not worth it to be missionaries, not worth it to be Dominicans. The Dominicans are firstly combatants. St. Dominic was a combatant, and how! He didn't take up arms, the knights did that...with preaching; he never tired of proclaiming Our Lord  of heaven and earth. they promptly persecuted him. Voila! This is the situation in which we find ourselves. I want to explain to you how this operation was realized in and by the Council. How, presently we live under the sway of the Council, and therefore under this operation that was realized to deny the engagement of the priest, and to prevent him from fighting - preventing him from being a preacher of the Reign of Our Lord. Unimaginable! These are facts.

There has been a total change in the attitude in the episcopacy. Those who really wanted to effect change in the Council, and to do it in the sense that they intended in the Council...to make a revolution by means of the Council. A revolution which would totally rupture the true spirit of the Church, and the true spirit of Our Lord; the true missionary and apostolic spirit. Complete!! Radical!! And to apply this, absolutely to everyone. Everything that is done by Rome today, and the (offices) of Rome ...Everything is done with this goal. Whatever they do, whatever relations they might have, all the concessions they could do, all is accomplished with this idea to submit to the spirit of the Council, in such a way that whatever was revolutionary in the Council be put in practice in a perfect manner. Just as they wanted it, just as they prepared it, as they organized it, they organized all such services at Rome. It is like this...it is a fact.

Follows then 'what must I do to restore the Reign of Our Lord?' to talk about the Reign, really, But they object immediately: 'You have resuscitated this war of religion - you have resuscitated this war of religion.' Well, it must be known. Where do these wars of religion come from? They come from opposition to Our Lord! They desire to abandon the missionary spirit, because the so-called " our mission", this mission as it was made prior to Vatican II created religious wars, instigated a combat, a religious combat. Well surely. It was always like that in the Church. That is why there have been martyrs throughout the history of the Church. They made themselves martyrs, they were martyrs.  Because the opposed the lies of the world, the lies of Satan, of the horrors which lead to hell, and all these souls falling to hell, they wanted to save them. And wanting to save, they constantly opposed...they were massacred.

It a revolution, a revolution which was introduced in the Council -it is the spirit of revolution, but a revolution albeit with a religious character, in a certain way, because this is accomplished by men of the Church who want to break from the tradition of the Church. Try as they may to sugarcoat it, 'we continue tradition, we continue tradition, it is not true! They are not in continuity with tradition. So they presently want to inaugurate a new era, the Council has inaugurated a new era to which all must submit. Furthermore, this era has a name, a signifying name which we hear over and over again, is ecuмenism. The Council operated under the sign of ecuмenism, having necessarily for its foundation, both theoretical and theological, Religious Liberty. This is how it was done, with ecuмenism as the goal - to have relations, of a new kind, between all religions and the Church, and all the political ideologies, not only religions, but even political ideologies Another attitude of the Church: attitude of pacifism, an attitude of dialogue, an attitude of friendship, of understanding. It's over! Terminated. The ideal of the Church beginning with Our Lord, (...) completely annihilated, all finished, no longer the same.

Meanwhile we oppose the socialist, communist...The popes have always opposed this false ecuмenism. Just read the encyclical of Pius XI Mortalium Animos and note how the Pope is against this false ecuмenism. 'Oh! well. It is terminated, all what the popes have said, preceding Vatican II, it is over. Now we need a new style, a new style regarding the religions,' vis-a-vis the other religions, even if they are false, and of other ideologies. Not only the other religions mind you... Liberation Theology, relations with the communists, relations with the Freemasons - relations with THE sworn enemy of the Church, THE sworn enemy of Our Lord. Unreal!! Therefore ( Vat II says we cannot combat, we cannot combat.

Perhaps we can imagine what Pere Emmanuel thinks. Pere Emmanuel who lived a century...he sees this with a prophetic clarity. It's extraordinary. As soon as the ecclesiastical crisis dawned, as the Church found itself a century ago, because he felt the germs, from perceived it from the onset...it's marvelous. He made ecclesiastical ministry. (How did he die?) The priests had lost the Faith, and that is the most grave thing: the priests lose faith in their proper ministry, in their proper religion. It is the great ruin of the Church, not only a passing ruin, but a radical ruin, and from this the lack of religious vocations, the diminishing of the religious societies. It's normal, logical.

End of Part A, 2 of 2 Morning Conference

Footnote 1. Not sure if 'consecrate' is suitable or permitted.
Footnote 2. "For as We have said, they put their designs for her ruin into operation not from without but from within; hence, the danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church,..." Pascendi Dominici Gregis, Sept 8, 1907