He will return with his immense heart, with his heart of fire, his poor man's soul
and his smile. He will return! And the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph!

FORTY YEARS AGO, THE COUNCIL

IV. THE CATHOLIC PRIESTHOOD

AN UNPRECEDENTED CRISIS

That evening at the “Permanence”, in order to explain the crisis in vocations and the progressive wasting away of the Catholic priesthood, our reporter quoted Mgr Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon and Primate of Gaul.

« What is yet significant for us is that the diocesan clergy, as well as the classical religious communities, have experienced terrible suffering that is still shrouded in a cloak of silence: close to ten thousand French priests left the priesthood between 1970 and 1990. A veritable hurricane blew, and now that things have calmed down [sic!], everyone is trying to understand what happened. This wound remains and leaves hanging something that no one dares speak of nor knows how to name. » (La Croix, Friday, 4 April 2003)

As for the Abbé de Nantes, he has dared and he has known how to name for forty years the true causes of this catastrophe. To date, he has not been heeded, but his witness remains as an accusation against the reform of Vatican II, which transformed our beautiful Catholic city into « a large city half in ruins », according to the prophetic vision of the Secret of Fatima.

« A dispute over the worship of God, a dispute over the institution of the Church, a dispute over the mysteries revealed [see our previous chapters], the ferment of this threefold dispute was mixed into the pastoral dough of Vatican II. The crisis of the clergy was the final outcome of the conciliar Reform » he wrote in 1972. (CCR n^o 25, p. 7) This is what we will briefly recall here.

THE VATICAN II TYPE OF PRIEST

Priests were the poor relations of the Council. The Council Fathers, concerned on the one hand with claiming for themselves the fullness of the Priesthood, as a supreme Order, inherited from the Apostles, and on the other hand with the promotion of the laity by exorbitantly ascribing responsibilities to them in virtue of a supposed “common priesthood”, made no provision for their priests until the day when it became obvious to them that the Reform that they longed for could not be accomplished without those who are referred to as the “infantry of the Church”. The Decree on Priestly Training let this be understood: « Animated by the spirit of Christ, this sacred synod is fully aware that the desired renewal of the whole Church depends to a great extent on the ministry of its priests... »

Two texts were then elaborated rather hastily and in a spirit of rejection of the past most detrimental to a sound and solid theology: the first one dealt with the “Ministry and the Life of Priests”, Presbyterorum Ordinis, the second one with their training in seminaries, Optatam totius. The image of the priest and the nature of his ministry had to be renovated so as to adapt it to the needs of modern times! The result, forty years later: he has entirely lost the sacred character that derives from his role in the worship of God.

The Council of Trent had made him into the man of the Mass and the Sacraments, the minister of worship sacrificing at the altar and forgiving sins in the confessional, the “person in charge” of the salvation of souls and the praise of God. The Church of the Counter-Reformation, triumphing over Protestant negations, presented itself as « the Church of the Eucharist », our Father explained.

But, apparently, priests could no longer bear seeing their ministry confined solely to the execution of the functions of worship. They felt more like pastors and apostles, “ministers of the Gospel” sent into the world, involved in it, for a more authentic service of their brothers. « The Decree on the Ministry and the Life of Priests tells us what the true object of pastoral activity is, Cardinal Marty was pleased to say, its orientation is essentially missionary. It has a twofold theocentric and anthropocentric dimension [!]; as a result, it requires being present among men. The decree tells us how the priest must nourish and unify his entire priestly life. » (Unam Sanctam, p. 11)

Priority is therefore given to “mission” over the Mass and the Sacraments; anteriority of the common priesthood of the faithful in relation to the “ministerial” priesthood of those responsible for worship. Primacy belongs to a life involved in the world so that the priest not be an “isolated man”, but living among men, his brothers, helping them to “consecrate” their secular and profane lives. And finally primacy belongs to the word over prayer and the pursuit of holiness; a spirituality entirely of action and “witnessing”: these are the new characteristics of the priest according to Vatican II.

The training of seminarians immediately felt the effects of this, favouring learning about ministry, with all that this presupposes, according to the terms of modern pedagogy and human formation, learning about responsibility, discerning the signs of the times… to the detriment of acquiring the sacred sciences, the discipline and traditional devotions of the priest « according to the Heart of God »

Seven years after the Council, the Abbé de Nantes’ diagnostic was overwhelming: « When priests will have distanced themselves in this way from what is divine and lost themselves in what is human, even what is human in the circle of bishops, they will realise that they have been “had”. But it will be too late […]. The priesthood was great, solid and prosperous, as long as it defined itself by its intimate relation to God in worship and in the apostolate relates to it. And I add: priests were happy. It deteriorated, weakened, diminished, starting from the day that it tried to be missionary above all, turned towards men so as to occupy them with the things of the earth and no longer with those of Heaven. This is the crime committed against the Priesthood. » (CCR n^o 25, p. 9)

WHAT IS THE WAY OUT?

Now the damage has been done: the priesthood is in ruins, in the midst of an entirely secularised society, we must not moan, but hope for a Council to restore the ancient discipline.

As for Mgr Barbarin, he easily makes the best of the present situation: « When I was a child, we prayed for vocations at home and at the end of every Mass. Now that they are lacking, we must continue to pray with the same simplicity of heart: “The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!” »

When the journalist of La Croix questioned him about his program, he replied:

« I do not have one. My first preoccupation is not to fill our seminary. What is essential comes before this: give prayer its place once again in our lives and in our homes, in every family, turn off the television, portable phones and Internet for a while in order to give back to the Word of God its royal place: “In the beginning was the Word.” Let us start reading the Gospel together and sharing it in order to prepare ourselves for Sunday’s Eucharist. This is my main preoccupation. One must not look for results, but begin by working on the foundations. Perhaps fruits will only be seen decades from now! »

Perhaps there is more to be done than to leave it, as would a good Protestant, to the power of the Word of God alone! It would be appropriate to rediscover the wise lessons of human order and supernatural holiness handed down to us by past centuries, in the times of the Counter-Reformation and the Catholic Renaissance. The Abbé de Nantes has worked for this simultaneously with his criticism of Vatican II

RESTORATION OF THE PRIESTLY HIERARCHY BY VATICAN III

« One possible means that would cost little would be the reactionary way of a pure and simple return to the theology of the Council of Trent. All that is essential would be saved and four centuries testify to its fruitfulness… A different way, a better one, would be to come to terms, in the very spirit of the Tridentine Tradition, with all genuine theological progress, and to conserve as well, the soundest part of the effort agreed to at Vatican II, unfortunately ruined by the general orientations and the demagogical excesses of this fatal Council. The experts point out four novelties in this theology. Some of them appear just and fruitful. Others are false and exorbitant. Their discernment by Vatican III will be of the greatest interest! » (CCR n^o 25, p. 10)

1. The “ministerial” priesthood as a product of the common priesthood: no! This constitutes a monstrous inversion, marked by the modern democratic spirit. The fullness of the priesthood, and therefore its source and model, is not to be found in the people, but in Jesus Christ, Sovereign Priest of the new and eternal Covenant. He transmits it to his Vicar on earth, the Pope, as well as to the bishops in communion with him, through the Apostolic succession. It is therefore at Rome that unity of the priesthood is accomplished according to the inscription written in gold letters on the band of the dome of Saint Peter’s: Inde oritur unitas sacerdotii. The priestly ministry is effective “ex opere operato”, theology says, by virtue of the power itself which has been conferred and whatever the value of the man who exercises it, while the value of the worship of the faithful depends on their state of grace and on the measure of their moral virtues that keep them united to Christ.

2. The ministry of the priest must be more missionary than centered on worship: once again, what a deplorable inversion, a cause of countless defections! It is in this manner that priests and seminarians were turned away from their primary vocation, which made them “men of God”, consecrated to His unique Service. Through their consecration, they continue the action of Christ Sovereign Priest, Who makes them mediators of His essential grace for the salvation of the entire Body. To be other Christs, as it were, for the souls who are entrusted to them, to give them Jesus and to give them to Jesus, what a magnificent vocation, capable of filling these “sons of God” with enthusiasm and to sustain unlimited sacrifice and devotion by them during their entire life!

3. The Council recalled and theologically justified the sacramentality of the episcopate, and the subordination of priests to their bishops, which is the necessary corollary. This is true, in each diocese, only the bishop is Father and possesses the fullness of the priesthood. But the bishops united in a College must not rebel against Rome, nor the laity against the priests! In the disorder that reigns in the Holy Church, in which each order has emancipated itself from the control of its legitimate superiors, Vatican III must re-establish a wise equilibrium.

4. Finally, the powers of the priest must not be limited to the celebration of the Eucharist and the distribution of the Sacraments, but must include also preaching and governing, very well! These are three services of the Mystical Body of Christ that it is advisable not to set into opposition, but to reconcile. However, Vatican III will recall that the Mass is the centre of all, preceded by the teaching of the faith and followed by the governing of souls: « Every priestly action must be viewed in relation to the essential one, which is the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the physical Body of Christ, the Source of life and holiness. »

A PRIEST, A CHURCH, A PARISH!

In concrete terms, the very forms of priestly life do not have to be invented, they have existed for centuries. If they appear dead today, they are ready to be reborn from the ruins of the Council.

« A bishop has only to announce, wrote the Abbé de Nantes in 1977, that he would give each new priest a church in a parish of which he would be the pastor with the promise that the priest would be left in peace to teach the catechism, distribute the Sacraments and govern the people according to the age-old custom and vocations would flourish. There would be no more searching for the priest’s identity, no more celibacy crisis, no problem of socialist commitment; candidates would pour in…

« It would seem that this is contrary to Vatican II; if this is so, then that is another solid and adequate reason for being against Vatican II. For this system was born of the Apostles and springs up in their footsteps, at Corinth, Laodicea, Antioch, Rome… At every time and place this system has always been the most efficacious way of implanting and conserving the Church. Sent by his bishop, the man of God arrives at a place, builds his cabin or his igloo, then right beside it the cabin or the igloo that will serve as a chapel, where he calls the pygmies or the Eskimos, his new parishioners for instruction and prayer… The Church thus finds herself implanted as soon as the parish is established. » (CCR n^o 103, p. 21)

When the Church will have come back to her ancient structures, and restored to her children Catholic pride, the joy and the taste for all that constitutes her own life, her rites, her hymns, her architecture, all the surroundings of her daily existence that make her live with fervour from the grace of the Lord intra muros, she will hasten to become missionary, extra muros, so as to « restore all things in Christ ». But it is necessary, first of all, for her to deny her cult of Man, together with her adulation of secular democracy, in order to become once again a Church of Christendom, whose cult is in continual exchange and symbiosis with family, educative, corporative and political life. Religious and the laity will then participate in the grace of priesthood, by means of subordinate, precise, useful and meritorious ministries.

V. THE FAITHFUL

THE DISPENSATION OF GRACE

In our holy religion “unchanged, unchangeable by reason of divine perfection”, everything holds together, in an admirable way. « She teaches us the Mystery of God in Christ the Saviour, in order to entice us, to bring us into it. The Church is the general Sacrament of salvation, she who gives us life and guides us to the Father. The growth and the fulfilment of this life is found in the Liturgy, which has become the sublime duty of Christians, worship and Sacraments. The mediator of this worship, the distributor of this life is the priest who is, in the image of the Father and of Christ, like the father and spouse of his people, the shepherd of the flock, the captain who ferries the faithful from the shores of this world to the other shore of eternal life.

« It is the member of the faithful who cross the river, legitimately saved through the Cross of Christ, saved in principle through Baptism, but who, however, has a long road to travel to live as saint in the presence of God and to be saved for good. It is a great labour, for he must pass from the world where he still lives, where he has his station and to which he still has ties – for he is not a “religious” – to God, through the assistance of the Sacraments, the teaching and directives that he receives from another person, the priest, delegated for this function in virtue of the Order he received. » (CCR n^o 26, p. 4)

From this relational mystery for dispensing grace, as a father does with his children, or a husband with his wife, is derived the principle of a sanctifying action, accessible to everyone and contributing to the building up of the Mystical Body of Christ. « The seed of life that the member of the faithful receives, he nourishes with his own substance and receives a hundredfold, if he undertakes this essential “Catholic action” which consists in the conversion of oneself through the practice of worship and the Sacraments, the pursuit of moral perfection and charity, the service of the Church. » Saint Pius X, one hundred years ago, set it out most clearly (Il fermo proposito, 20 June 1905).

SPECIALISED CATHOLIC ACTION

A radical change in perspectives took place for the first time during the years 1922-1929, with the creation of Specialised Catholic Action, to which Pope Pius XI gave the aim of conquering the masses living far from the Church.

To the traditional duties assigned to the faithful was added that of the apostolate, declared to be inherent in all genuine Christian life. This soon became the sole requirement. The monolithic organisation of the movement, created outside the traditional parish and diocesan associations, soon gave rise to odious distinctions between those who “were active” and those “who were not”. While its principle of democratic apostolate of the “Apostolate from within” supplanted that of the hierarchical, paternal and authoritarian apostolate, its exhortation to a “radiant profane life”, directed by the threefold principle “see, judge, act” broke with traditional spirituality.

But our Father observed: « The faithful never really entered into this movement, except through force of discipline, or worse, to escape one’s own condition and one’s own duty. Nor did the clergy ever find advantage in it for themselves, apart from the “Catholic Action chaplains”, who had become the privileged members of the regime. Highly rated, pampered, rewarded, they became the ruling core of the Church, driving far from power all the true elites of piety, science, zeal, torpedoing all works and associations of piety, teaching, charity, creating the system and the mentality of a different Christianity that was all words, democratic projects, presenting a cheap-rate Gospel, flattering man’s pride and adapting to his instincts. » (CRC n^o 26, p. 6)

While we were studying this history at the “Permanence” the (J.O.C) Jeunesse ouvrier catholique (Young Catholic Workers) was preparing its national meeting at Paris (cf. La Croix, 3 May 2003). We learn that « this darling of the episcopate » is completely running out of steam. It has suffered a sharp two-thirds drop in membership over the last thirty years, and of the ten thousand members that it has today, six thousand are not workers, but university or high school students. The period of Marxification was followed by that of Islamisation: three J.O.C. teams from the Belle-de-Mai district at Marseille are exclusively Muslim! « At first, the “c” of J.O.C., I thought it meant croyant (believer) » confided one of them to La Croix. Despite this collapse and this apostasy, the movement still benefits from five hundred chaplains and a budget of two million euros!

Yet, wise warnings were not lacking and were strengthened by the negative assessment of the progressivist Abbé Comblin, in his book: “The Failure of Catholic Action” (Louvain, 1961). However, Vatican II would continue down this new way and extended it to the entire Church.

THE LAY APOSTOLATE AT THE COUNCIL

Wedged between Lumen Gentium, which defines the new condition of the laity in the Church, and Gaudium et Spes, which exalts its tasks in the modern world, the decree “Apostolicam actuositatem”on the Apostolate of the Laity (AL) is, in the opinion of the experts of the collection Unam Sanctam, the most outdated of the conciliar Acts.

« The teaching of Vatican II, the Abbé de Nantes noted in 1972, is so new that the entire work of Pius XI relating to Catholic Action was declared out-of-date, useless. But seven years after the Council, everything has progressed to such an extent that Vatican II is already obsolete in turn! Really, what a circus… All the same, let us attempt to describe this train that dashes before our eyes at such speed and try to discover in what direction it is headed, towards an undoubtedly mysterious destination »

The first novelty deriving from the definition of the Church as a People of God, is that the laity must be considered as full-fledged members of the community in which they are all equal, and no longer as a member of the “faithful” submissive to a dominating hierarchy.

The laity derive the right and duty to the apostolate from their union with Christ the head; incorporated into Christ's Mystical Body through Baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit through Confirmation, they are assigned to the apostolate by the Lord Himself. They are consecrated for the royal priesthood and the holy people (cf.1 P 2.4-10) not only that they may offer spiritual sacrifices in everything they do but also that they may witness to Christ throughout the world. The sacraments, however, especially the most holy Eucharist, communicate and nourish that charity which is the soul of the entire apostolate. » (AL, n^o 3)

All of them prophets, priests, and kings! All active and responsible subjects! Responsible for whom, for what? For everyone and everything… There we are thrown into complete illuminism and direct democracy. « The keyword of this advancement of the laity is no longer “participation” but “cooperation” by the laity in the apostolate of the hierarchy, or better yet, in the mission of the Church. Being sent directly by God and guided by Him, they will claim to work with but not under their priests! » (CRC n^o 26, p. 7)

And the field of activity, or rather of apostolate, that is specific to them is the service of the world for its complete human success: « Christ's redemptive work, the Council said, while essentially concerned with the salvation of men, includes also the renewal of the whole temporal order. Hence the mission of the Church is not only to bring the message and grace of Christ to men but also to penetrate and perfect the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel. [And it is the CRC that they accuse of “temporalism”!]

In fulfilling this mission of the Church, the Christian laity exercise their apostolate both in the Church and in the world, in both the spiritual and the temporal orders. These orders, although distinct, are so connected in the singular plan of God that He Himself intends to raise up the whole world again in Christ and to make it a new creation, initially on earth and completely on the last day. » (AL, n^o 5)

This text can be interpreted in two ways. Conservatives will understand: « Evangelise, restore everything in Christ, and the rest, the progress of peoples will be given in addition » Progressivists, more faithful to the Council’s dynamic, will say: « Construct the world, make it a success, afterwards, you will offer it in homage to God » Number 7 proves them right:

« God's plan for the world is that men should work together to renew and constantly perfect the temporal order… The development and progress of all that forms the temporal order, not only aid in the attainment of man's ultimate goal but also possess their own intrinsic value. This value has been established in them by God. »

It is no longer a question of being faithful to the law of God in the world, but of being faithful to the law of the World in order to make it a success. This is indeed the progressivist messianism that the Abbé de Nantes denounced even before the Council, in its twofold guise of naturalising the supernatural and supernaturalising the natural.

« It is not surprising, then, that the Council was the signal of a frantic laicisation of the Church; the secularisation of the clergy, the decline of worship and works, even a crisis in Catholic Action, a single word sums it up: apostasy. The transposition of religion into a political humanism, the transfiguration of earthly works into Gospel salvation and Eucharistic worship mark the ultimate contamination of the Church by the Promethean pride of modern man. It brought no propaganda success, moreover, since man has no need of the Church to nourish his old dream of becoming God… But the negative consequences of this immanent apostasy are disastrous: religion is emptied of its own substance, priests are deprived of their dignity and their sacred powers, while the laity find themselves endowed with a royal liberty, a priestly dignity and a prophetic insight in order to carry out their political action as a sublime oblation to God. » (CRC n^o 26, p. 9)

Let us now turn away from this fatal self-satisfaction and come back to the humble and conquering sprit of the Catholic Action dear to St. Pius X, illustrated by so many figures of our sweet and holy France.

REHABILITATING THE HOLY WORKS OF THE FAITHFUL

Vatican III will reunite the Church by putting everyone back in his proper place, in the whole Christ who alone is Prophet, Priest and King. This will not be a “return to clericalism”, explained the Abbé de Nantes, « because the priestly and monastic work continues and develops in the religious and ecclesial works of the entire faithful people. The priestly hierarchy’s hold and the religious orders’ influence is not detrimental to the dignity and the activity of the faithful, on the contrary, they create them, nourish them, coordinate them and assure their immense fruitfulness. » (CRC n^o 26, p. 7)

In two exciting pages, our Father puts forward the program of a Catholic Action for the resurrection of the Church, whose key word is “participate”.

« To participate is, firstly, to get the most out of the rich blessings that the superior or the most perfect can pass on to the inferior or the less perfect. But it is equally and in the course of time, each according to his own condition and his personal energy, to take part in the perfect life and the action of those from whom he receives even the power of living and serving with them… Such is the exalting life and Christian perfection offered to the faithful, as much as they dare desire it. »

The “participation” of the faithful in the priesthood of the hierarchy, that is to say in the grace of its teaching, of its efforts of sanctification and of its spiritual government, will not come about in a democratic and libertarian manner, but each according to the exact degree of authority and power that he exercises over those who are entrusted to him.

« Thus, everyone, after having listened well to the preaching of the priests, will repeat it with his own authority to those for whom he is responsible: like the mother teaching catechism to her children. Everyone will sanctify himself through the Sacraments, but he must feel responsible for the religious life of his own, and is authorised to preside over domestic worship. All accept the Church’s discipline, but they all yearn to be the relays, the driving belts, everywhere their competence is exerted, the prince in his State through his laws, the industrialist in his factory through his justice, the mayor in his city through his solicitude, the worker in the management of the corporative patrimony and union action, etc. »

As for the “participation” of the faithful in the consecrated life of religious, it will have no other limit than each person’s spiritual perfection: « The perfect life and its influence does not depend in the least on social condition, but solely on charity, that is to say on one’s purity generosity and piety. It is in full liberty, open to everyone, that takes place this union of the faithful with the mystical life of the religious… How many laymen have rushed into it through the ages! Eager to know, love and serve God, they have risen very high and have raised up the multitude. Enamoured of God, sent by Him to the service of their brothers, they educated, instructed, cared for, assisted, and consoled their neighbour. »

These are the holy works that the Council of Catholic Reconciliation will restore. Priests will rediscover the heart of their faithful, and the faithful the heart of their pastors. Surprising spiritual exchanges of contemplation and circumincessant charity will take place between religious and holy souls living in the world. It will be good to be reconciled, life together will be delightful, action will be concerted, and there will exist the influence of the same joy in the same faith. « In this manner, the parish, the diocese, the papacy, will be re-established in all their dignity and their efficacy, stripped of all their incidental structures, of all the parasitic lay techno-bureaucracies. In this new-found ecclesiastical framework, renovated, under these authorities with a human and paternal face, the entire society with its many natural communities will be revivified by grace and Catholic truth. It will be Christendom once again. »

VI. CATHOLIC MISSIONS

Vatican II claimed that it was renovating the Missions and even opening a new missionary era, by promising marvels: « During the Council, in a living experience, the Church experienced herself as being missionary in a way that it had never done before », declared one of the experts, Fr. P. Schütte S.V.D., (Unam Sanctam 67, p. 11). In fact, the Council killed the missions and, what is worse, the missionary spirit itself.

To quote only one statistic: between 1965 and 1998, one hundred and ten missionaries left Paris’ Foreign Missions Seminary for the Far East, but more than half of them did not persevere in their vocation; while in the nineteenth century, for the same number of years (1853-1883), the Society registered nine hundred and nine mission departures. Today it has less than ten candidates and the average age of the missionaries is seventy-one years old…

In 1972, in his study on the Council, the Abbé de Nantes mentioned the example of the island of Formosa (Taïwan), one of their favourite areas of apostolate:

« One presently wonders in Formosa about the causes of the rapid decline that has been noted in the number of conversions to Catholicism. Although Catholics on the island only numbered 10,000 in 1948, they increased within twenty-five years to 310,000 spread over seven dioceses with 830 priests to serve them. But although their numerical increase was largely due to an average of 17,000 conversions per year, this average has dropped today to 3,000 or 4,000. Among the causes for this drop, the prevailing materialism due to increasing well-being is put forward, but also the refusal of young priests and nuns to pursue the traditional apostolate in the villages. Moreover, a certain theology based on respect for the religious values of Buddhism and Taoism and which questions the necessity of converting to Christianity in order to be saved leaves missionaries speechless. »

Based on the aim of Vatican II, the bishops have just introduced the practice of Chinese rites in the Catholic liturgy, which seems to prove the ravings of the Jesuit, Matteo Ricci “right”. Our Father then wrote with an irony mixed with indignation: « The Church was therefore wrong… in the days when she made conversions. She hardly converts anymore, now that she is right! »

Today it is moving to read in the latest issue of the Review of the Foreign Missions of Paris, the praise that an old missionary writes from his heart, for his confreres of bygone days, by way of protest against those who consider their methods to be « outmoded, archaic and unsuited »:

« The diocese of Hualien has just celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the evangelisation of this part of the island, which was entrusted to the Foreign Missionaries of Paris, fifty years ago, a region that was still at that time “terra incognita” or almost, inhabited principally by aboriginal tribes. »

After having recalled the difficulties that were encountered by these first missionaries in the face of so many different dialects, he added: « I will say nothing of the other very numerous difficulties of adaptation to the customs and the way of living in these aboriginal villages, lacking all the conveniences that make everyday life and missionary work a little easier, amenities with which we are sufficiently equipped today and to which we are so accustomed that we no longer pay any attention to them: no running water, no electricity, no telephone, etc. Therefore, our confreres, now deceased, had plenty of courage and difficulty in doing their job and they did good work; and if the diocese of Hualien exists and is what it is today, it is, notwithstanding, in some way thanks to them, all the same. It is, therefore, not inappropriate to remember them, and to help us in doing so, to have photos and portraits of them in our chapel. We are all indebted to them in the parishes where we are presently for what they did before our time. None of us can boast and therefore be proud of having begun the evangelisation of a single one of the parishes that we currently serve.

« We have inherited the toil of other workers, who arrived before us in the field of evangelisation. One ploughs, another sows, another reaps. The confreres who preceded us did their best with the possibilities at their disposal, and with the talents that each one of us receives and that vary, as St. Paul recalls (1 Co 12). No one, therefore, can claim to be the sole possessor of the unique and good way of announcing Jesus Christ, the goal and end of all evangelisation. » (Bulletin des Missions Étrangères de Paris n^o 378, May 2003, p. 152)

THE DECREE“AD GENTES”

The charter for what was to bring about in the Council a renewal of the Missions was the “Decree on the Mission Activity of the Church” (AM) beginning with the words « Ad gentes… » It was, in fact, the entire People of God, and each Christian in his own milieu of life, who was sent on mission to preach the Gospel to the “nations”, that is to say, to the pagans!

This beautiful theory concealed a perverse design that the experts, like Karl Rahner with his nebulous theory of anonymous Christians, attempted, by all possible means, to impose with the help of the Council. « Basically, our Father noted, the experts saw nothing in this schema on the Missions other than a new field of application for theories proclaimed elsewhere… It is a matter, as everywhere else, of hacking to pieces the living being in order to make it fit the abstract frame drawn by our technocrats. This could be achieved by “an effort of pastoral and theological reorganisation, a broadening of perspectives, to which a host of concrete suggestions are added”. Oh dear! Was there ever a better occasion to condemn colonialism, paternalism, sectarianism, proselytism? The accents of these declaimers reveal that, in them, the future of the Missions, the salvation of souls, the love of Christ, have totally given in to the desire to appear, in the eyes of the world, to be emancipated. Building the human city of peaceful coexistence and of pluralist dialogue, they have decided that the Missions would have to be integrated into it or disappear… Wedged between the new dogmas of religious liberty, ecumenism, dialogue, and the construction of peace, the schema on the Mission had no choice but to be adjusted, and this adjustment means the death of the missions. » (Letter to my Friends n^o 216, The Twilight of the Missions, 11 November 1965)

The missionary bishops of the Council reacted courageously, demanding with anguish, material and spiritual assistance from their peers for their missions, and to begin with, that the urgency and necessity of Missionary Action be recalled, which had been brought into question even in the conciliar aula. All the same, they obtained the reminder of the theological basis of the Mission: it is the Decree’s excellent n^o 7 (CCR n^o 27, p. 8).

However, right after n^o 7 and n^o 8, we are back to secular internationalism, the new aim of Catholic missions. It is a question of « revealing to men the authentic reality of their condition and their whole vocation, since Christ is the principle and the model of the renewed humanity, filled with fraternal love, sincerity and a spirit of peace that everyone craves… To tell the truth, the Gospel, in the history of mankind, even on the temporal level, was a leaven of liberty and progress, and continues to present itself as a leaven of fraternity, unity and peace. »

THE AGGIORNAMENTO OF MISSIONS

Until very recently, missions were the work of Christian countries of the West, which sent missionaries to far-off lands in order to establish the Church and convert pagans to it. Breaking with this religious paternalism combined with colonial prestige, the new evangelisation intends to start from a different principle: the sending into the world of “ministers of the Word”, free of all national and even ecclesiastical ties, the carriers of a “message” all the more credible, given that it would be presented in a climate of openness and dialogue.

The aim pursued now is not so much preaching in order to lead to “conversion” and the salvation of souls, as much as the reconciliation of a unified mankind, all become brothers. The new missionaries must be instruments of peace and communication among men, whereas, in former times, by preaching the Cross, Heaven, Hell and the need to change one’s life, they aroused hatred, divisions, persecutions…

In concrete terms, it was a question of freeing oneself of a rigid theological conception and of a weighty imperialist past, both of which were marred with presumption and racial pride. May the scandal of “collusion between mission and colonisation” be eliminated! According to Vatican II, the missionary must let himself be instructed by the values of the natives whom he has come to serve, helping them, if necessary, to rediscover their ancestral cultures, which are so many “seeds of the Word”. He must lose his western clothes and appearance and learn to “get along”, in strict collaboration with other religions. It was no longer a question of competing with Protestant missionaries, this division among Christians was a veritable scandal for pagans. In addition, he must extend this collaboration to non-Christians, for the defence of shared values: peace, development, democracy, human rights. And all this, so as to imitate Christ who divested Himself of all that He had, of all that He was, in order to live among men, as one of them, and to be a “sign” among them of God’s love.

It is with such principles, that missions were killed. « Obviously, the staggering collapse of Catholic missions followed. It has in the Council its adequate and proportioned cause. Of course, the difficulties dates from before; bad solutions were already advocated and implemented in many places. But the Council adopted all of them and promulgated them with the sovereign authority that it was and still is (quite wrongly) acknowledged to have.(CRC n^o 27)

« BOOK AND MISSION »

After this painful account of the causes for the disappearance of Catholic missions, we all desired a good rehabilitation of what they were in the past.

Last year, a CRC student presented her master’s dissertation on “The Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Colonisation of Western Canada”. This year, another student accepted to speak to us about the thesis that just earned her a diploma from the Écoles des Chartes: “The Book Apostolate of the Foreign Missions in the Far East in the XIX^th Century”. This scholarly work (which earned her a very good mark) shows that the missionaries had not waited until Vatican II to develop in an intelligent and well-adapted manner all the means propitious for a fruitful evangelisation!

Based on the voluminous correspondence of the missionaries (250 volumes!), she recounts the evolution of a disregarded aspect of their apostolate: books. Official history scorns this remarkable work, claiming that the missionaries of the XIX^th century merely introduced in the East totally inadequate Western techniques. It is nothing of the sort.

« In the tradition of Maunoir and Montfort, missionaries adopted the vernacular language as the vehicle of the faith. They had the choice between the written language, that of men of letters, and the spoken language, that of the people as a whole. Unlike the Jesuits, the priests of Foreign Missions generally adopted a simple language with the intention of making themselves understood by the common people. However, they did not totally do away with the style of men of letters, for they sought to adapt their style of language according to the intended public. »

By wanting to make faith and salvation accessible to the largest number of persons, they did a work of civilisation, contributing in numerous countries to the elaboration and the saving of indigenous languages. In order to publish their works, they created printing shops on the spot. This is how new techniques such as lithography and typography were introduced to the Far East. In 1885, the Nazareth General Printing Shop was founded at Hong Kong. It was a perfect example of its kind.

	The Immaculate Conception, “Lady, Patron and Protector” of missionaries in China (church of Beitang in Peking).

« Missionaries propagated among their Christians the same devotions as those practiced in France but gave them an oriental setting, for example, by developing local Marian pilgrimages and by establishing the cult of oriental martyrs. »

To illustrate this work of evangelisation, our young student of the École des chartes mentions the remarkable undertaking of translating into all the languages of the world, the Bull Ineffabilis defining the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The complete collection (110 volumes) was offered to Pius IX in 1877. This Catholic, Roman and Marian work brings out the modernity of the missionary activity of the nineteenth century as regards linguistics and printing, and prefigures the apostolate by the press of Saint Maximilian Kolbe.

When sending the Korean translation of the Bull, Mgr Daveluy, a future martyr, had the pleasure of writing: « Our Christians, moreover, raised in devotion to Mary, the Mother of God, patron of this mission, believed from the beginning in the mystery of her Immaculate Conception. Never had a word of doubt come to their ears, and in their simple, naïve faith, they felt happy to think that they had always believed what the Father of all the faithful proposed to them today explicitly. »

FAITH AND REALISM

After having rehabilitated these missionaries of former times, Vatican III will proclaim the ever-relevant need for Missions, « through a new doctrinal affirmation, more explicit than in the past. The affirmation of its pastoral dimension will be the same as well: evangelisation must be pursued based on its age-old effort, beginning with Christendom and in conjunction with its work of civilisation. Faith and realism go together, in opposition to the hesitations of Vatican II on faith and on so many of its temporal advantages, in favour of utopia… »

1. Outside the Church, no salvation. This maxim, which was the heroic motivation for a phalange of missionaries without count, will be brought back into honour. There is no salvation, eternal or temporal, personal or general, except through faith in Jesus Christ and by membership in his visible Church, even if there may exist between her and the pagan masses invisible bonds only awaiting to become effective.

2. Expanding Christendom. Jesus Christ instituted the Church and she, in turn, built Christendom. This is an historical fact, a “sign of the times”. Therefore, truly Christian and reasonable missions come from Christendom. Any other view is utopian.

« As long as the Church condemns Christendom, which is its own fruit, wrote our Father, she will not bear any fruit among the pagans. “Seek the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these other things will be given you as well.” (Mt 6.33) The Church must be able to say to the pagan peoples: see Christendom, see these peoples who have received the Gospel, and admire the benefits that they received from it! The Mission will never be able to base itself on anything other than the success of Christendom, and beginning with it, as its unique, necessary and incomparable starting point. Running counter to human pride, Vatican III will say to those from the West: you are only great through Christ and the Church who made you what you are. And it will say to the other peoples: your salvation passes through your submission to this admirable age-old Roman, Latin, European, Western Christendom, which has all the treasures of Heaven and earth in order to hand them on to you. »

Brother Thomas