1. Supplement to the Contre-Réforme catholique au XXe siècle no 31 [CRC 31, suppl.], April 1970, p. 6. 2. We recounted these events and presented the documents of the Abbé de Nantes' trial at the Holy Office in the previous volume : For the Church, volume II, In the eye of the cyclone. 3. The visit of these priests to Maison Saint-Joseph on 21 July 1969 has often been related by the Abbé de Nante as well as by Brothers Bruno and Charles, eyewitnesses of the events of that memorable evening. Cf. CRC no 34, July 1970, p. 2; no 41, February 1971, p. 12; no 59, August 1972, p. 14; no 83, August 1974, p. 2; no 304, August 1994, p. 35. 4. At no time during the evening did these integrist priests advert to the combat of the Counter-Reformation, a combat which their host had been waging since the opening of Vatican II, nor did they ask him any questions about his trial at the Holy Office. One can easily guess the reasons for their silence on such subjects. The canonical steps taken by the Abbé de Nantes to have his writings judged showed his faith in the hierarchical Church, and his attitude towards the authorities was irreconcilable with their schismatic theories. 5. Cf. For the Church, volume II, p. 362. 6. Letter to the Abbé de Nantes, 21 August 1969. 7. He had been suspended ab officio by his bishop on 17 May 1969. 8. Letters on The mystery of the Church and the Antichrist. Cf. For the Church, volume I, p. 111 ff. 9. CRC no 83, August 1974, p. 1. 10. Letter to my friends no 151, 1 September 1963. 11. CRC no 83, August 1974, p. 1. 12. Letter to my friends no 129, January 1963. 13. Letter no 137, Easter 1963. 14. Letter to my friends no 240, 6 January 1967, p. 5. 15. "This illness is not unto death, but is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it." 16. CRC no 21, June 1969, p. 12. 17. For the Church, vol. II. 18. CRC no 74, Nov 1973, p. 1. 19. The final documents of the trial, viz. Cardinal Seper's ultimatum on 7 July 1969, the Abbé de Nantes' reply, namely his "Profession of faith" of 16 July 1969, and the notification on 9 August by the the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, were quoted in full and commented on in the last chapter of the previous volume of For the Church, chap. 10. 20. CRC no 25, Oct 1969, p. 2. 21. Ibid. In December 1969, the circulation of the Catholic Counter-Reformation will reach 22,000 copies. 22. Ibid. 23. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had ignored the suspension imposed by Mgr Le Couëdic, the Bishop of Troyes, on the Abbé de Nantes on 25 August 1966. Cf. For the Church II, p. 356. 24. Letter of 24 August 1969. 25. Let us point out here that in the autumn of 1969 the Bishop of Troyes, Mgr Fauchet, had engaged in writing insidious commentaries about the Roman notification. The Abbé de Nantes therefore publicly promised to offer him five million francs (at the then rates) if he would state the "errors" of the "disqualified" concerning the Catholic faith; CRC no 27, December 1969, p. 2. During the long years of his episcopate – and he probably regretted it! – Mgr Fauchet will never receive this sum since he will continually prove himself incapable of stating even one of the Abbé de Nantes' so-called errors. 26. Letter to my friends no 150, 15 August 1963; cf. For the Church I, p. 357 ff. 27. Born on 14 August 1879 and died on 18 April 1970. 28. CRC no 34, July 1970, p. 2. 29. "At the point of death, there is no impediment [to the administration of the sacraments]." 30. Father Calmel was alluding to the campaign which the Abbé de Nantes, along with several other priests, had conducted against the new catechisms and to the increasing success of his conferences. 31. "The Church supplies in cases of extreme necessity." 32. Letter of Father Calmel to the Abbé de Nantes dated 24 August 1969. 33. In a previous volume (For the Church I, p. 9 ff), we have already quoted several passages from this text which we reproduce here in its entirety. 34. "To sum up", the Abbé de Nantes will write, "in order to supplement the deficiencies of a bishop or of a group of bishops, one must first be a bishop oneself (an absolute prerequisite) before one may act in a territory where the hierarchy has been completely destroyed or physically prevented from acting, and one must be convinced, at least morally, of doing everything in accordance with the Pope." CRC no 41, February 1971, p. 12. This last condition is essential, absolute. "The moral consent of the Sovereign Pontiff must be positively certain." CRC no 114, February 1977, p. 14; cf. infra, p. 443. 35. CRC no 25, October 1969, p. 12. |