Catholics From France

"Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre is one of the most important guardians of Catholic Tradition who distinguished themselves in the 20th century. He is a champion of the deposit of faith of the Holy Roman Church, a faithful guardian of the Holy Mass, of the sanctifying integrity of the priesthood, of the Petrine primacy, and of the stable and firm Creed. In the collective imagination, his name is often linked to the figure of a “rebellious” bishop who was disobedient to the Church. Since the 1970s, just uttering his name seemed to evoke who knows what negativity, who knows what divisions... Much of the press and journalists portrayed him as a “schismatic,” someone who wanted to create his own Church... In reality, he was an uncomfortable figure because he spoke with courageous clarity at a time of great confusion in the Church and in the world."

"Boutroux [...] believes he is criticising science, but instead he criticises a puppet of formal logic, as if the logical power of thought were exhausted in the principle of identity, A is A; but conversely, he establishes a dogmatism worse than the scientific one (because it is philosophical) by considering all reality as a posteriori of experience. (Guido De Ruggiero, La filosofia contemporanea, Editori Laterza, Bari, 19648, part II, Ch. IV, p. 192)"

"Interviewer: You have a certain tendency to see ‘conspiracies’ everywhere. Five days before being suspended a divinis, in a letter to Paul VI, you denounced ‘a secret agreement between high-ranking ecclesiastical dignitaries and Freemasons, established before the Council. Mgr. Lefebvre: But all the American newspapers wrote that, before the Council, Cardinal Bea, founder of the Vatican Secretariat for Ecumenism, had met with the leaders of the most influential Jewish-Masonic lodge at the Astoria Hotel in New York and asked them what they expected from the Council. And they replied: ‘A declaration on religious freedom’."

"Now there is the tyranny of authority, because there are no more rules. One can no longer refer to the past. [...] We are dealing with people who have a different philosophy from ours, a different way of seeing things, influenced by all the modern and subjectivist philosophers. For them, there is no fixed truth, there are no dogmas. Everything is evolution. This is a completely Masonic conception. It is truly the destruction of the faith."

"Yes, we forget this, but that is what Islam is all about. For Muslims, there is only Islam and everyone must submit to it, either by becoming a Muslim or by being a slave to Islam. One or the other. That is how they proceeded, enslaving all those who did not want to submit. Let us remember the religious orders: the Trinitarians and the Order of Our Lady of Mercy, which were founded to rescue Christians held captive as slaves by Muslims. They raided the coasts of France, Spain and the entire Mediterranean, kidnapping Christians and taking them home as slaves. This is still in their minds."

"I was a member of the preparatory commissions appointed by Pope John XXIII, and together with the other members—distinguished cardinals and good theologians—we prepared the preliminary outlines that were to serve as a basis for the scholars of the assembly. The preparation of these outlines, which were to be approved and promulgated as authoritative documents of the Church's teaching, required time, reflection, and consultation of ecclesiastical sources and documents. All this had to be taken into account. But then, in the first session of the Council, a group of bishops and cardinals, using modern techniques of pressure, managed to remove the exhaustive work that had been done. Thus, being subject to time constraints and internal regulations, new discussion outlines had to be prepared in other commissions set up in a completely arbitrary manner. Imagine the difficulties this entailed and bear in mind the decisive activity of certain cardinals and bishops, those who were called “coming from the banks of the Rhine,” gathered in the Idoc group, all imbued with modernism and liberalism and who, in addition, could count on a well-financed superstructure of offices, press, distribution, etc."

"I spent fifteen years in Dakar with three million Muslims, one hundred thousand Catholics and four hundred thousand animists, and if during those fifteen years we were able to convert ten Muslims, that was the maximum. I mean truly convert them, make them switch from Islam to Catholicism. I'm not saying that there wasn't some Catholic influence thanks to our schools, where we had up to 10-15% Muslims. I didn't want any more than that, otherwise they would have imposed Islam in our schools. Once they are strong, they impose themselves, take the lead and try to convert others. When they are weak, they listen and keep quiet. The young people who went to our schools were certainly influenced, and it is very possible that some of them wanted to be baptised. But it is very difficult for a young man to convert to Catholicism because he is driven out of his family and knows that he even risks being poisoned. [...] Only university students manage to convert because they are independent. They know that their future is secure; they no longer need their families and will leave for Europe, where they can convert. But converting someone who is part of their family is practically impossible. By inspiring the Islamic religion, the devil has truly prevented the conversion of millions of people."

"Voting socialist is voting against God. The socialist programme, he said, is terrifying for the souls of children. Economically, it will probably be a disaster, but what is worse is the control it will have over people's minds. Money is nothing compared to souls, and sin will spread everywhere. [...]"

"Socrates' condemnation of ancient physics has its root cause in the ideas inherent in his own nation. Greece could not fully identify with the speculations on the principles of things to which the physiologists had gone. Without doubt, the power of reasoning, the ingenious subtlety, and the marvellous sense of harmony employed by these profound investigators were its heritage; but the immediate application of these spiritual qualities to material objects so foreign to man was contrary to the genius of an essentially political race, especially fond of fine words and fine deeds. (Ch. II, p. 22)"

"This cannot be accepted! And the more things become clear, the more we must realize that this program was developed in Masonic lodges, that all these errors were developed in Masonic lodges. It is becoming increasingly clear that there is indeed a Masonic lodge in the Vatican. And now when we go to meet a secretary of a Vatican congregation, or a cardinal sitting on a seat where there used to be holy cardinals who had the Faith and defended the Christian faith, who were men of the Church... now we find ourselves in front of a Freemason. So, is it the same thing? They demand the same obedience. Before, obedience to the Faith was required, to take the anti-modernist oath. A profession of faith was required. Now, what faith do those people ask us to profess? It is no longer the same. They say: Obedience, obedience! Yes, but obedience to the Church. Obedience to what the Church has always commanded! Yes, obedience to the faith of the Church. But obedience to Freemasonry, no. That's it, that's for sure! (at min. 4:45:6:15)"

"[...] the history of philosophy deals with the doctrines conceived by philosophers, not philosophy in general in its entirety, nor the psychological evolution of each thinker in particular; therefore, its essential task, to which all others are subordinate, consists in penetrating and understanding doctrines, explaining them as well as possible, as the author himself would do, and presenting them in accordance with the spirit and, to a certain extent, the style of their author. (Ch. I, pp. 7-8)"

"Interviewer: You often say that more than a question of liturgy, today it is a question of faith that opposes us to the current Rome. Mgr. Lefebvre: Of course, the question of liturgy and the sacraments is very important, but it is not the most important. The most important question is that of faith. For us, it is settled. We have the faith of always, that of the Council of Trent, of the Catechism of Saint Pius X, of all the Councils and of all the Popes before Vatican II."

"What value can an excommunication decided by the current liberal government of the Church have? For more than a century, conservative popes have condemned and excommunicated the Lamennais, the Buonaiuti, the Loisy, because they were liberals and modernists. Today, it is they who hold power in the Church, and they want to excommunicate traditionalists, that is, true Catholics."

"Who can say what events the future holds for us? Perhaps a world conflict will break out and the situation will change radically. [...] Those who provoke the schism are those who change the Faith. I am certain that I belong to the Catholic Church of all times, the eternal Church."

"The meeting in Assisi is a very serious matter. And if the Pope, whose function is to confirm the Faith, no longer fulfills his duty, what is to be done? The situation has reached the highest degree of gravity. I see no similar precedents in the history of the Church."

"Latin is also important for maintaining the unity of the Church, because when people travel, and people travel more and more abroad nowadays, it is important for them to find the same echo that they heard from a priest at home, whether in the United States, South America, Europe, or anywhere else in the world. They are at home in any (Catholic) church. It is their Catholic Mass that is being celebrated. They have always heard the Latin words since childhood, their parents before them, and their grandparents before them."

"Tens of thousands of them were massacred when De Gaulle handed Algeria over to the representatives of the FLN. The latter, of course, could not stand the Harkis who had fought alongside French troops to liberate French Algeria from terrorism and revolutionary rule. Those who were unable to flee to France on boats were tortured, massacred, buried alive and burned alive. What an abominable crime those who took such responsibility will have on their conscience! These were people who had devoted themselves, ready to die to defend French Algeria, just as some of them had come to fight in France in 1939-40, then during the Liberation when they landed in Italy, Corsica and Provence, and later against communism in Indochina. They were abandoned to the mercy of a cruel enemy who subjected them to the most abominable torments. It was a terrible tragedy. Many of their children remained in France; only the adults were sent back. Father Avril, who was a priest in French Algeria, took in more than a hundred of them. He educated them, raised them and took good care of them. The children of these Harkis found themselves in the hands of a priest who took care of their education and who, very gently, tried to convert them—without forcing them, of course—but through persuasion. Seeing the dedication of this priest and those who helped him, they eventually came to understand the beauty of the Catholic religion, and most of them ended up converting. This did not sit well with several bishops, who sent letters of disapproval to Father Avril: leave the Muslims alone; do not convert them! But who are these bishops?"

"This is what Tradition means to them, the famous living tradition, the only reason for our condemnation. Today they no longer try to prove that what they say is in accordance with what Pius IX wrote, with what the Council of Trent promulgated. All this is over, outdated, as Cardinal Ratzinger says."

"Father Maurice Avril, who is in Salérans, was persecuted by the bishops and had all kinds of trouble because after the Algerian War, he took care of the Harkis who were lucky enough to escape and take refuge in France. The Harkis had fought to defend French Algeria and wrest it from revolutionary control."

"Scientific laws, says Boutroux, result from the collaboration of the spirit and things; they are the product of the activity of the spirit applied to a foreign matter; and they represent the effort that the spirit makes to establish a coincidence between things and itself. But what coincidence is this, where it is not known with what thought must coincide? He rightly says that the highest forms of reality cannot be resolved into the lowest; but then he resolves into the lowest... precisely thought, that is, the very thought that alone can make us understand progress from below to above. Consequently, progress is clouded in the void of contingency, and all forms of reality become things in themselves, which thought can do nothing but shadow in its concepts, trying in vain to adapt to them. (Guido De Ruggiero, La filosofia contemporanea, Editori Laterza, Bari, 19648, Part II, Ch. IV, p. 191)"

"Then one can and must believe that the Church is occupied, occupied by this counter-Church that we know well, that the Popes knew perfectly well and that the Popes have condemned over the centuries, from now back to four centuries ago. The Church has never ceased to condemn this counter-Church that was born and developed with Protestantism, and which is at the root of all modern errors, which has destroyed all philosophy, which has led us to all the errors we know and which the popes have condemned: liberalism, socialism, communism, modernism, Zionism... we are dying from it! We are dying from it! The Popes have done everything to condemn this, and now those who sit on the seats of their predecessors who condemned these things are in agreement with this liberalism, with this ecumenism. (at minutes 4:00-4:40)"

"(About Pinochet) I am not saying that his regime is perfect, but at least we find Christian principles as the fundamental program of his political orientation. He is a man of justice and order and favors the presence of the Catholic Church, even if the Chilean bishops—what a paradox!—are not at all grateful to him. [...] When Pinochet recently escaped an assassination attempt, [...] people shouted, “Thank you, Holy Virgin, for protecting the general's life."

"Poor health, which worsened with the passing of the years, forced him from his youth to withdraw into himself, to seek in his own spirit the best source of joy. Few penetrated his moral intimacy. But just seeing him like that, tall, pale, thin, emaciated, it was easy to guess what a rich inner life was enclosed in that frail body, and how the world of the spirit must have been the only real world for him."

"He used to say that a philosophical system is a living thought; and, in truth, he not only taught his philosophy, but lived it, felt it, spread it and defended it in books and with words, in Europe and America, regardless of hardship, with all the ardour of a missionary."

"It would seem that the victories of the Egyptian monarchs were far from decisive, and that Ethiopia always retained enough liberty to openly aspire to independence."

"Urbs Syon aurea, patria lactea, cive decora Omne cor obruis, omnibus obstruis et cor et ora Nescio, nescio, quae jubilatio, lux tibi quali Quam sociala gaudia, gloria quam specialis."

"Hic breve vivitur, hic breve plangitur, hic breve fletur: Non breve vivere, non breve plangere retribuetur."

"We have to give account only to God. The contribution of the Catholic Church in Ghana cannot be reduced in numbers, because we deal with persons, persons with wonderful dignity regardless of their origins, tribes and religion. A human person is the noblest being on earth. We believe that he is coming and going to God, for that reason we want to serve God through him in the best way."

"Catholic scholars justly regard Biblical introduction as a theological science. They are indeed fully aware of the possibility of viewing it in a different light, of identifying it with a literary history of the various books which make up the Bible. They distinctly know that this is actually done by many writers outside of the Church, who are satisfied with applying to the Holy Scriptures the general principles of historical criticism."

"Variations are naturally to be expected in four distinct, and in many ways independent, accounts of Christ's words and deeds, so that their presence, instead of going against, rather makes for the substantial value of the Evangelical narratives."

"He was to me, for more than a quarter of a century, a most affectionate, devoted, and faithful friend, and a wise and able counsellor."

"I have trusted very much and been sometimes deceived; but I know that had I trusted less I would have been still oftener deceived."

"His lectures bore the impress of his deep Catholic belief."

"Exercise is as essential to the health of the soul as it is to that of the body. A condition of habitual quiescence and stagnation were fatal to the health of both."

"What are the legends of the Celtiberian money? Are they the names of places, of chiefs, or of divinities? This question cannot be decided a priori and we are liable, like the ape in the fable, to take the Piraeus for a man's name. Are they a series of initials, or of abbreviated words? All these surmises suggest themselves before we engage in deciphering a legend in an unknown alphabet and language."

"Beauty is a kind of supplement to being, a radiance that is added to being."

"Beauty is a splendour that must detach itself from those who possess it without them noticing and without returning to them."

"The most enviable situation is not to be the subject of beauty and to know oneself to be beautiful, but to be the object of beauty and such that only the other enjoys what emanates from us."

"What is the charm of a person? It is difficult to say, because charm is indefinable. It is a certain presence of the person beyond their limits, like the radiance of certain pure faces."

"Love always envelops us: it is we, with our attitude towards it, who transform it into fire or light."

"In the spiritual life, to grow means to simplify and simplify oneself, to become closer to uncreated and ineffable simplicity."

"I have always made it a rule to speak in a timeless manner, true today, tomorrow and always."

"Ordinary people have more confidence in those who have suddenly arrived at that state and are naturally honest than in those who have had to make a painful and painful effort to get there."

"Generals do not fight with the fear of the troops, they prefer to keep them busy."

"For Teresa, the way of Mary is a way of faith, without ecstasy, without miracles, even without words."

"The real way to resist temptation is to turn away and walk away."

"I believe in God because of encounters. All explanations are useless; I believe in encounters."

"In Giovanna, purity was more than a virtue. It was her mark, her reason for existing and her implicit glory, her resemblance to the mother of Christ. Being a country girl, accustomed to seeing life in all its gestures, she probably had very accurate knowledge of purity in the physical sense. In the countryside, ignorance is never what the 19th-century bourgeoisie falsely calls innocence. And when, at the age of thirteen, Joan gave her virginity to God during the angel's first visit, she knew clearly what it meant. (p. 30)"

"Joan is not a theologian; in fact, she cannot tell A from B. However, listening to her answers during her trial, we sense in her a theological intelligence, a ready ability to resolve cases brought before her conscience, which, if developed, would have made her equal to the greatest minds. (p. 9)"

"Joan puts God's will above her virginity. She says that she “has offered her virginity as a vow for as long as God pleases”. This concern for the hierarchy of values, this idea of “God first”, is always evident in her. Joan is a virgin because God inspired her to be so; she is not a virgin of her own free will or choice. (pp. 34-35)"