Archbishop Lefebvre and the Vatican - 1988 3 July Extracts From the Letter of Mother Anne Marie Simoulin to Msgr. Jacques Despierre, Bishop of Carcassonne, France

I thank you for your letter of June 24....On my own, I read it with great attention and read it publicly to all the sisters of our congregation. But one letter, though it purports to be well-meaning, cannot blot out at once 25 years of silence, contempt, and condemnation on the part of our bishops.

We are not leaving the Church, Monseigneur, I mean the Catholic Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ; we are just set apart by those who have left it years ago, because they departed from the communion of the Church.

We acknowledge the Pope as legitimate...and we pray daily for him and for our bishops. You ask us “to renew our confidence in him.” What confidence can we have in a Pope who:...

1. has dealings with Communist heads of state, and shakes their hands instead of denouncing them, reminding all that “Communism is intrinsically evil.”...
2. presides over Lutheran ceremonies, and who, at Munich, just a few days ago, publicly asked for forgiveness from the Protestants for their being excluded from the Church.
3. received the red mark on the forehead from a Hindu priestess in India.
4. in Africa, had a priestess/sorcerer spread ashes or dust over his head, during a witchcraft service, or a fetishistic cult.
5. organizes, sometimes presides over, and always encourages scandalous ecumenical congresses such as Assisi, Kyoto, Rome...¹¹³
6. opens his heart and door to everyone except faithful Catholics.

I could go on with this list of public scandalous actions of the present Pope. I abridge it voluntarily because these examples suffice. Only those who work to safeguard and defend the Catholic Faith, who live a blameless life, are condemned, rejected, publicly declared schismatic and excommunicated. This is derision, Monseigneur, and it puts great shame on the visage of the Church.

We were surprised yesterday to read in the newspaper, Midi-libre of July 1, 1988, under the photograph of Archbishop Lefebvre that “Lutherans and Calvinists did not create a schism, properly speaking.” What, then, did they do?

But we—who neither tear apart the Faith nor the charity of holy Church—are schismatic! Who is mocked, and who is mocking whom?

And behold, you push the irony, after the condemnation of Archbishop Lefebvre which was so much hoped for by the French episcopate, to grant us the same “just requests of the traditionalists” according to the very words and actions of falsely benevolent Cardinal Decourtray and Cardinal Lustiger.

Now, for which reason have we been rejected, condemned, treated as black sheep for the past 20 years by Rome and by our bishops, if not for our fidelity to these “just requests.” If we had not resisted, would they ever offer us these requests now?

May those conservative Catholics who rejoice at the promises of more Indult Masses after Ecclesia Dei meditate upon these words. The Vatican, through the intermediary of our bishops, is trying to work out, not a reconciliation, but recuperation. Well, Monseigneur, we shall not be “recuperated,” [because we are not ill], but just faithful!

His Excellency Archbishop Lefebvre is almost the only prelate who courageously stood up against the “auto-destruction of the Church.” All his brothers in the episcopate have cowardly abandoned him. We have been with him for a long time, with admiration and veneration, in the same fidelity and in the same fight for the honor of God and His Church. Today, we share his trials, since, though the penalty imposed by Rome is of no value, it hits us in the heart, because it comes from those who ought to be our shepherds and who became our torturers. However, our soul is in deep peace because we are sure to do the will of God, and desirous to obey and please God rather than men. We shall continue to pray for all those who have the duty to lead the flock towards the true pastures and who are leading it astray in poisonous prairies.

It is not the first time, and perhaps not the last time, that Rome condemns innocence. We are sure that our determination is pleasing to God; we shall hold to it, asking Him to protect us from bitterness and hatred against those who treat us so unjustly.

The glory of the Church is in the fidelity and resistance of Archbishop Lefebvre. May the Churchmen realize it before it is too late. We pray for this intention and, as you exhort us, we pray St. Dominic, our blessed Father, to slay the heretics.

Deign to receive, Monseigneur, our most profound and religious respect.

Mother Anne Marie Simoulin
Superior of the Dominican Sisters
Fanjeaux, France

113. Full documentation of the foregoing scandals is in, Peter, Lovest Thou Me? available from Angelus Press.