Translation of the opening pages of this book (9-15), which clearly
demonstrate the Abbé de Nantes' unequivocal horror of schism
INTRODUCTION
On Monday 21 July 1969 – only fourteen days after he had been served an ultimatum
by Cardinal Seper, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
instructing him, under threat of excommunication, to retract and to submit himself
entirely, blindly, to the Pope and to the bishops of France – the Abbé de Nantes
received a visit from several priests who had come to ask him to exercise his priestly
ministry without bothering himself further about the hierarchy, just as they themselves
had resolved to do. They wanted to set up a faithful and unofficial Church in the midst of
the universal wreckage, and they intended to assume complete pastoral jurisdiction in an
extraordinary way, independently of official ecclesiastical authority, either local or
Roman.
Thus, in this month of July 1969, the Abbé de Nantes had to confront two great
temptations:
Firstly that of heresy, which he once again repulsed by refusing to come to terms with
the party of the Reform. On 16 July he countered the exorbitant demands of Cardinal Seper
with his Profession of Catholic Faith, which we quoted in its entirety in the previous
volume.
And then, several days later, that of schism, when he was forcefully urged to enter
into dissidence.
21 JULY 1969: THE ABBÉ DE NANTES IS URGED
TO ENTER INTO SCHISMATIC DISSIDENCE
On that Monday 21 July 1969, towards the end of the afternoon, several ecclesiastics
rang the doorbell at Maison Saint-Joseph without any prior notice. They were the Abbé
Philippe Rousseau and two Mexican priests, Fathers Saenz y Arriaga and Charles Marquette,
accompanied by a layman. The Abbé de Nantes welcomed them kindly. He at once ordered his
brothers to prepare a dinner for them as well as rooms for the night, while he received
them in his office. These priests immediately notified him that they would be joined
during the evening by several brother priests who had agreed to meet there that evening.
They said that one should even expect to see Mgr Marcel Lefebvre.
The aim of these integrist priests in approaching the only theologian refusing the Acts
if Vatican II and sanctioned with suspension a divinis since 1966, became very
clear after a few moments. These priests judged heretical the new Ordo Missae
promulgated by Paul VI on the 3rd April last and due to come into force in the
autumn. From that they concluded that Paul VI was no longer Pope on account of public and
formal heresy, and that the bishops had likewise fallen from their episcopal office.
"The official Church", they said, "has sunk into apostasy. We alone
remain. We must continue the Church, we must ensure her survival and her future."
The time had come to acknowledge the fall of all the clergy who followed the Pope. It
was therefore necessary to provide for the salvation of souls by availing oneself of the
freedom to exercise the priestly ministry without canonical jurisdiction. The two Mexicans
stated that they had met Cardinal Ottaviani at Rome and that he advised, even ordered,
them to ignore the rules, to take no account of any sanctions, and to distribute the
sacraments without concerning themselves further about the bishops or worrying about
receiving from them the ordinary powers of jurisdiction.
Given the turn that the conversation was taking, the Abbé de Nantes called for Brother
Bruno. It was essential for him to take part in a discussion of such importance. Brother
Bruno entered the office at the moment when the layman was saying: "Monsieur
l’abbé, my wife now has no one to confess to in Versailles; things are urgent."
It was by invoking the needs of souls and the distress of the faithful that these
integrists wished to persuade the Abbé de Nantes to distribute the sacraments without
being concerned about receiving the power to do from the hierarchy. The idea was that
priests who refused the new Ordo Missae should henceforth say the Mass, hear
confessions, baptise, and preside at marriages without asking leave of anyone and without
worrying about submission to the bishops nor about jurisdiction.
It was quite a spectacle! The Abbé de Nantes stated his disagreement. He countered
their arguments, wishing to make them listen to reason: "What good is it", he
asked the layman, "to confess to an ecclesiastic who does not have the necessary
powers? If a priest does not receive jurisdiction from the bishop, his absolutions are
invalid."
They passed on to dinner without having first sung Vespers. Brother Charles had waited
in vain in the chapel, and he was astonished that these gentlemen had no regard for the
life of the small community which they had disrupted without warning. In the refectory,
the monastic grace was said and then a brother began the reading.
Suddenly the doorbell rang. "Ah! It is Mgr Lefebvre." Alas no! It was only
the Abbé Coache and Father Guérard des Lauriers, a Dominican. Being short of space, two
places were made for them at the reader’s table, and our Father authorised
conversation, beginning with the ritual: "Benedicamus Domino!" Whilst
serving the soup himself, he congratulated the layman for the study on the New Mass
recently published by one of his close relatives and which had in fact been read in the
refectory during the preceding days. Then he said to Father Guérard:
– "Ah! dear Father, we also read your article. Although you did
not sign it, we recognised your style. However, it remains without a conclusion."
– "The conclusion speaks for itself", explained the
Dominican. "The New Mass is heretical and invalid."
– "Really", replied the Abbé de Nantes. "Suppose that
we accept your theological arguments, it would still be necessary to see how the Church
will receive this Ordo." And our Father added that a single theologian on his
own might not thus declare the new rite invalid, before even having observed and taken
note of the reaction of the hierarchical Church faced with this new Ordo.
– "I consider", replied Father Guérard des Lauriers,
"that the hierarchy, in the person of the Pope and the bishops, has foundered."
– "It is not sufficient, my Reverend Father, to say that the
hierarchy has foundered. Supposing that you are right, it will still be necessary to get
the rest of the Church to admit this."
– "It is self-evident", interrupted the other,
"self-evident!"
The position of Father Guérard was instant, unambiguous, definite. The hierarchy had
disappeared. No more Pope! No more bishops! Since they were heretics, they were
spiritually dead and therefore cut off ipso facto from the Church.
– "But", replied the Abbé de Nantes to him, "you have
neither the authority nor the competence to declare the Pope and the bishops to be formal
and complete heretics. Only the sovereign judgement of the Church can rule on heresy and
excommunicate the heresiarch. Admittedly, it may seem to you that the definition of the
Mass given by Paul VI in article 7 of the Institutio generalis is heretical. It
clearly appears to you to be contrary to the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Trent.
But, for the moment, that is only your opinion. Before declaring Paul VI deposed from the
sovereign pontificate on account of heresy, it is necessary to obtain a judgement from the
Church specifically concerning the heresy of the Pope."
– "Self-evident, self-evident!" repeated Father Guérard.
– "I can well understand", explained the Abbé de Nantes,
"that it is evident to you, even self-evident. But you are not infallible."
Then our Father, in a few sentences, gave his guests a lesson in philosophy about the
degrees of certitude. Everyone listened to him with the greatest attention. Their minds
were gripped. The Abbé de Nantes spoke in a masterly way on a subject in which he
excelled. Brother Charles remembers the very commonplace comparison that our Father made
to enlighten them. He wished to make them understand that when Father Guérard stated
something that seemed unmistakable to him, he might nevertheless be deceived:
"Suppose that you live at the top of a block of flats. Someone warns you that your
car is burning in the street. Looking out of the window, you notice that your car really
has caught fire. You are quite sure about it… and yet it is not your car! You
believed you recognised it, but you were wrong!" He then returned to the question of
Paul VI’s heresy: "You may reason, prove, and argue as much as you like in
formulating an accusation of heresy against Paul VI. But as long as the magisterium of the
Church has not passed dogmatic sentence, your thoughts represent no more than the opinion
of a theologian who could be wrong. Therefore, it is necessary to obtain a judgement. Even
if the Pope has fallen from office from the very fact of having promulgated a heretical
and invalid Mass, it is still necessary that the whole Church should recognise and
acknowledge this. If you are alone in proclaiming this, it does not count." The
conversation then turned to the thesis of Bellarmine on the question of a heretical Pope.
According to the Abbé de Nantes, the thesis of Cajetan was more penetrating, and he
concluded thus: "For Pope Paul VI to be deposed, a judgement by the Church would be
necessary."
The Abbé Coache had listened without saying a word. Suddenly he burst out laughing.
"Are you still harping on about that! To expect the official Church to pass a
judgement deposing the Pope is quite ridiculous. It could never happen! The whole Church
has foundered. How could she possibly give such a judgement?" It was evident that the
Abbé Coache no longer had any faith in the Church.
[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 displayed his faith in the
hierarchical Church, and his attitude towards the authorities was irreconcilable with
their schismatic theories.]
They got up from the table. The conversation continued in the hall. After a short
while, the Abbé Coache, who was leaning on a pile of papers, grumbled: "Are there no
chairs then in this house?" The Abbé de Nantes’ face changed colour. He
replied: "I would be happy for you to be seated, but you still have a long homeward
journey before you." He thus made it clear to everyone that, although his brothers
had prepared rooms for them, he was asking them to leave. Given their schismatic designs
and their outright condemnation of the whole hierarchical Church, they would not be
passing the night under the roof of Maison Saint-Joseph. "However", added our
Father, "you may have a seat if you are not, despite the late hour, in a hurry to
leave." They all took their seats in the large secretarial office in order to
continue the discussion. There was no doubt that they wanted at all costs to lead the
Abbé de Nantes into dissidence with them. It is true that in June the latter had
personally written to the Abbé Coache to warn him that he disagreed with his theories and
his plans. And then, in his confidential letter of 16 July, he had firmly warned his close
friends against the temptation and the danger of schism. Now, on 21 July, it was quite
evident that these priests wished to vanquish his opposition.
The categorical judgements of Father Saenz y Arriaga and the Abbé de Coache had to be
heard! The promulgation of the new Ordo Missae signified that the official Church
had apostatised and that the hierarchy had been abandoned by God. "I was truly
surprised by the virulent attack of Father Saenz against the papacy and against the
hierarchy", will recount his Mexican colleague, Father Marquette. "It was the
first time that I had heard Father Saenz speak in that way." (Letter to the Abbé de
Nantes, 21 August 1969)
– "The faithful priests", said the Abbé Coache, "have
been sent directly by Christ, who entrusts them with the fate of the flock, who are now
without pastors."
The Abbé de Nantes demonstrated to them that, objectively speaking, the hierarchy had
neither been abolished nor dissolved. "Paul VI, to all appearances, has always been
the Pope and has been recognised as such by the whole world, you alone excepted."
The theologian of the Catholic Counter-Reformation defended and vigorously expounded
the classical and certain thesis according to which "the Church subsists, visibly and
hierarchically, in the Pope, in the bishops united to him and in the priests sent by them,
in such a manner that our criticisms raised against their opinions or their decisions are
not sufficient by themselves to exempt us from their authority… We have no
jurisdiction unless it is delegated to us by our bishops; there is no other, whether it
comes from Heaven or from elsewhere."
The Abbé Coache claimed to have received directly from Jesus Christ the divine powers
of jurisdiction which his bishop had taken from him. (He had been suspended ab officio
by his bishop on 17 May 1969). Our Father replied: "Confessions and marriages carried
out without the ordinary powers of jurisdiction – and in the case of marriage,
without the personal delegation of the parish priest – are null and void. Those whom
you will have married will be taken for cohabitants by any ecclesiastical judge, from the
simple fact that that they will have been married by you. Consider the havoc that you are
going to cause in what remains of our Christian society!" The Abbé Coache had to
agree that, "on account of the social consequences", it would be necessary to
defer on marriages. But, as for baptism and confession, he maintained that he would
administer them without asking the bishops for the power to do so.
The Abbé Noël Barbara, who during this month of July was on a brief retreat at Maison
Saint-Joseph, had taken part in the discussion. He understood the force of our
Father’s arguments. Nevertheless, he did not dare to show his disapproval of the
Abbé Coache’s plans. So he proposed a compromise to the Abbé de Nantes:
– "We are going to suggest that each retain his own position.
These gentlemen will do what they wish to. Clearly, you refuse to subscribe to their
plans; but you will not publicly declare your disagreement. You must make this promise. We
should not fight each other, seeing that we are in doubt."
– "Ah! excuse me", said the Abbé de Nantes, "but I do
not have any doubt. It is not a matter of opinion, but of dogmatic truth and error. If the
Abbé Coache carries out his plans, he will create a schism." And he went on to
emphasise once more the incalculable consequences of such a schism, both for the salvation
of souls and for the unity of the Christian people: "I give you notice that, if you
do this, I will personally denounce your culpable schemes."
Then, despite the lateness of the hour, he dismissed them all except for the Abbé
Barbara. After their departure, the Father and the brothers took some herbal tea together
and talked a little. Finally the Abbé Barbara declared: "You are right, Monsieur
l’abbé. You are right." Alas! inconstant man, he will often change his mind
during the months to come and ultimately he will sink into schism.
During this year of 1969, the rebellion of the integrists against the liturgical
reforms marked the beginning of a new disastrous period in the crisis of the postconciliar
Church, a period which we are going to study in the present volume. From now on, those
sheep of the flock who had not been misled or swept away by the hurricane of the heresies
of Vatican II, will be solicited by bad shepherds who will attempt to lead them aside, as
far away as possible from the whirlwinds of the fearful tempest, into their schismatic
chapels.
And thus the visit of these priests to Maison Saint-Joseph and their dramatic
discussion with the Abbé de Nantes on this 21st July 1969, constituted the
event that heralded the difficult and trying combat that he would henceforth have to wage
on a new front: against the integrists. Nevertheless, his defence of Catholic unity will
not prevent him, in this decade of the 70s, from pursuing his main battle against the
Masdu and the new conciliar religion. |
