Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre - Vol. III - Letter to Friends and Benefactors, No. 22

18 February 1982

Dear Friends and Benefactors:

During the audience I was given by Pope John Paul II in November 1978, after a prolonged conversation at the end of which the Pope seemed willing enough to make the Liturgy a matter of option, Cardinal Seper, having been summoned by the Pope, realized that he was willing to take this step and immediately exclaimed: "But, Holy Father, they are making the Old Mass into a banner!" a remark which seemed to make a considerable impression on the Pope.

Leaving to one side the disparaging tone of Cardinal Seper's remark, we are, however, bound to agree that the Mass is indeed the banner of the Catholic Faith, because it makes open profession of all the fundamental dogmas of our Faith combined. In it are to be found all the treatises of Catholic theology.

And by this very fact, this "Mystery of our Faith" overwhelms all the errors of Protestantism, Islam, Judaism, Modernism, and materialistic, socialist and communist secularism. No error can withstand our holy Catholic Mass. The Mass is anti ecumenical, in the sense of ecumenism practiced since the Council: namely, the union of all religions in an amalgam of prayer without dogma, withoutmorality, without specific laws, and agreement based on a few ambiguous slogans like "the rights of man," "the dignity of man," "religious liberty."

On the contrary, the Novus Ordo is precisely the banner of this false ecumenism, representing the annihilation of the Catholic religion and the Catholic priesthood.

For the honor of Jesus Christ and for the honor of the Church, let us be faithful to the Catholic Mass, symbol of our Faith, banner of our holy religion.

To continue this Catholic Mass we need priests, and so we need Catholic, and not Modernist seminaries, where, as always in the Church, young clerics can direct their formation and apostolate entirely towards the altar of divine Sacrifice.

In order to have young men suitably prepared to enter our seminaries, we need Catholic schools where young people will learn to love the Liturgy, Latin and plainchants and where they will be formed in a manly and Christian fashion by sacrificing themselves for the love of Jesus Christ under the care and guidance of their heavenly Mother.

The organizing of schools is therefore indispensable, not only for vocations to the priesthood, but for all vocations, including Catholic marriage with all that it represents in the way of ideal and sacrifice in our corrupt society.

Some schools have already been established in France and in America. Nuns showed us the way and now we are trying to follow in their steps with Catholic education for boys. Thus work has already begun on a school at Fanjeaux in the village of Montreal. To bring this undertaking to fruition we are counting on the ever generous aid of our friends and benefactors in France.

Germany too is to open its first school for boys in October. We are in no doubt that our friends in Germany will come forward generously to help Catholic families who no longer know where to send their children.
The United States already has several foundations. The major seminary is having to expand in order to be able to accept the ever growing number of vocations. There, too, we are counting on the help of our benefactors.
The seminary at Buenos Aires should finish construction of its first wing by March, but there are four more to build...!

We do not know how to thank you, dear friends and benefactors. Your great reward is for you to be present at the ordinations. Come, then, on June 27 to the seminary of Zaitzkofen in Germany, and on June 29 to Ec6ne, as usual. There you will reap the reward of your prayers and generosity.

May Jesus, Mary and Joseph bless you and keep you in the Catholic Faith.

+ Marcel Lefebvre
18 February 1982
Rickenbach