Fr. Schmidberger Condemns the Ralliement…in 1992 (With Brief Commentary)
SUPERIOR GENERAL’S LETTER TO FRIENDS AND BENEFACTORS
28th February, 1992 – Feast of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
To keep you abreast of our contacts with the authorities in Rome and to make our position clearly known, we would like to put before you the letter we wrote to His eminence Cardinal Oddi in January, a letter which so far received no reply.
Your Eminence,
Following the visit that you deigned to make to the Seminary of the Society of St. Pius X at Econe on 18th September last – a visit which touched us very much, for we saw in it a sign of your interest in our modest work and true encouragement – you expressed to me on 7th October, 1991, in Rome, the desire that, as Superior General of the Society, I write you a letter to prepare for an eventual normalization of relationships between the Society and the Roman authorities.
After reflecting at our General Council and consulting with colleagues, allow me to expose our thoughts to Your Eminence openly and frankly.
You are better aware than anyone that all the members of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X not only profess the Catholic Faith integrally and entirely, but also maintain an unfailing attachment to the Apostolic See.
As a consequence of this faithfulness to the Church, they understand themselves to be bound by the declarations of the Popes and Dogmatic Councils, and in particular by:
- The encyclical “Quanta Cura” of Pope Pius IX, which condemned religious liberty, and which is contradicted by the declaration “Dignitatis Humane” of Vatican Council II
- The “Syllabus” of the same Pope, which condemned the adulterous marriage between the Church and the world, which condemnation is especially well expressed in Proposition 80. Cardinal Ratzinger himself calls the decree “Gaudium et Spes” of Vatican Council II a Counter-Syllabus!
- The encyclical “Pascendi Dominici Gregis” of St. Pius X, which condemns Modernism and modernists, and the Anti-modernist oath of the same Pope, which was abolished by Pope Paul VII
- The encyclical “Mortalium Animos” of Pope Pius XI, which condemned the Pan-Christians and their syncretist ideology. It was this which was practiced at the meeting of Assisi, and at innumerable other meetings of the same kind, most recently at Malta, on 5th October in St. Peter’s Basilica at Rome, and on 7th December in the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls.
- The encyclical “Quas primas” of the same Pope, which proclaimed the universal Social Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ as opposed to the secularization of the Catholic states and secularism of society. These are now propagated as an application of Vatican II by the Roman authorities.
- The definition of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass by the Council of Trent. As Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci observed in the “Brief Critical Study of the Novus Ordo Missae” this new liturgy “departs in an impressive way both as a whole and in its details from the doctrine of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as it was defined at the twenty-second session of the Council of Trent.”
Since we clearly see, to our immense sorrow, that a break has taken place in the domain of doctrine, in the profession of the Faith, in the Liturgy, and in the Church authorities’ attitude towards the world with its errors and corruption, we do not see how any open and fruitful collaboration could be managed for the time being, unless we are willing to give up witnessing to the Truth in order to practice in its place a diplomacy concealing the opposition between the Church of all time and the conciliar Church. The example of the Society of St. Peter now being officially obliged by the “Ecclesia Dei” Commission to give Communion in the hand is not encouraging.
Let the Roman and Episcopal authorities once more confess the principles contained in the acts of the Magisterium mentioned above, and condemn the errors condemned by these documents, and then the apparent break will come to an end all on its own. When these authorities again become truly Catholic, they will be able to count on our filial devotion and our efforts to “restore all things in Christ.” Meanwhile the whole family of Tradition places its hope in Almighty God, who seems to be visibly blessing it.
Your Eminence, during a recent interview you spoke of the Third secret of Fatima, stating that it spoke of a grave crisis in the Church, following on a Council. For this crisis to cease we must absolutely reject the principles which caused it, and as quickly as possible. If not, another bastion which is everywhere under attack will soon fall: priestly celibacy.
We thank you with all our hearts for your understanding with respect to our work, and request that Our Lady of Fatima give you the grace to speak openly to the Holy Father concerning these problems, which can be ultimately summarized in these two phrases of the Prince of the Apostles: “Non est in alio aliquo salus” ( Acts IV, 12) and “Oportet illum regnare” (1 Cor.XV, 25).
Your Eminence, please accept the expression of our respect and devotion in Christo et Maria.
Father Franz Schmidberger
Commentary:
“Since we clearly see, to our immense sorrow, that a break has taken place in the domain of doctrine, in the profession of the Faith, in the Liturgy, and in the Church authorities’ attitude towards the world with its errors and corruption, we do not see how any open and fruitful collaboration could be managed for the time being, unless we are willing to give up witnessing to the Truth in order to practice in its place a diplomacy concealing the opposition between the Church of all time and the conciliar Church.”
Obviously, this position is no longer held by the same author in 2017, nor is it held in Menzingen or any of the various District offices of the Society throughout the world.
Consequently, the SSPX has lost much of the value we once ascribed to it.
The only advantage it holds today over the openly compromised and captured communities of Ecclesia Dei are a certainly valid episcopacy and priesthood.
But the “pilot light,” as Archbishop Lefebvre once called his Society, is flickering.
In 2017, the SSPX is certainly willing to “practice in its place a diplomacy concealing the opposition between the Church of all time and the conciliar Church.”
Was not the signing of the April 15, 2012 Doctrinal Declaration the indisputable evidence of such a “diplomacy” par excellance?
And what of all the other “diplomatic” acts to conceal the opposition between the conciliar and Catholic Churches:
- We accept 95% of Vatican II
- Religious liberty was very limited
- People do not know what the Council really taught
- Vatican II is part of Tradition
- Tradcumenical conferences with indultarian and diocesan clergy
- Praise for the Ecclesia Dei communities
- Institute of Christ the King priests sitting in choir, and by reciprocity, SSPX priests attending the first Mass of an Institute priest in France
No need to build the list any further; the attempt to conceal the difference between the two religions is blatant.
Our only response is to endorse the 1992 position of Fr. Schmidberger, whose response we make our own:
“Let the Roman and Episcopal authorities once more confess the principles contained in the acts of the Magisterium mentioned above, and condemn the errors condemned by these documents, and then the apparent break will come to an end all on its own. When these authorities again become truly Catholic, they will be able to count on our filial devotion and our efforts to “restore all things in Christ.”