ELEISON COMMENTS DCCCXXVII (May 20, 2023) : CONSECRATIONS STRUGGLE – I
When it comes to the Catholic Church, nothing is more normal, in a manner of speaking, than fights over
the choice of future bishops, because on the Church hangs the future of mankind, and on the bishops
hangs the future of the Church, for two main reasons. Firstly, the bishops are the Church’s administrative
pivot, through their dioceses, between the Pope and his worldwide flock. The Pope is Viceroy Of Christ
the King, but each diocesan bishop is – or should be – Prince in his own right over his own part of that
flock. And secondly, the Cardinals will normally be appointed from among the bishops, and the Pope will
be elected from among the Cardinals, so that the large majority of Church leaders will have come from
among the bishops. Humanly speaking, which way the bishops go, normally the Church will go.
So it is perfectly normal that in 1988, under the official rule of churchmen wholly in the grip of the deadly
heresy of modernism, Archbishop Lefebvre saw that he had to consecrate bishops of his own even
without Rome’s approval, because his Society of St Pius X would not be able to survive with only the
bishops that the modernist Newchurch would provide. In the SSPX’s General Chapter of 2012, it was
equally normal that the death of their faithful Founder and another 24 years of coexistence with the ever
more deadly modernists in Rome should have blunted the SSPX’s awareness of the danger of Rome. In
2023 it is equally normal that the Newsociety is struggling to find, with the sly Romans, candidates for
the bishopric that they can both agree on. Given original sin, the Romans will normally win the struggle.
On the surface, such a struggle rages back and forth in the details, reported here, reported there, with more
or less reliability. For instance, it seems now that there never was any question of the Society “seeing
more clearly” in the way suggested by these “Comments” two weeks ago, it was merely twisting and
turning on the hook of its own making – if I insist on respecting villains, I am going to be a victim of
villainy. I cannot sup with the Devil without a long spoon. On the other hand it does seem that Rome is
offering the bishopric to a former Bursar General of the SSPX, but who fell out with the Superior General
some years ago, and then took refuge with his friend in Rome, Pope Bergoglio himself. After all, how
could the SSPX complain about such a personal friend of the Pope being placed at their disposal ? In
truth, the SSPX has got itself into a boxing match with these modernists where it does not belong.
Between 1988 and 1991 when he died, was not the Archbishop’s last great lesson for the priests of his
beloved Society to have nothing more to do with the modernists until these return to the Faith ?
However, it is not the surface details that make the struggle underneath. That struggle is what matters,
and there is nothing merely rumoured or uncertain about it. The Good Lord created our universe for
human souls as a trampoline on which to bounce for the brief duration of our earthly lives until we
bounce to Heaven, with or without a spell in Purgatory according to how we have freely chosen to spend
these lives. But He wanted to give us only a truly first-class Heaven, and that meant necessarily allowing
for us some first-class adversaries on the way to Heaven, notably the world, the flesh and the Devil. Their
moral evil, whenever it would be a question of evil, He could never Himself cause directly, but He would
need to allow it. Therefore He created multitudes of angels, even knowing that Satan and his followers
would fall away from Him, even knowing that they would tempt, to fall with them, the majority of the
men He would create afterwards. And His Justice created the Hell needed to punish angels and men thus
falling.
Hence the real struggle over the choice of Catholic bishops is fought between God wishing to populate
Heaven, and the Devil seeking to populate Hell. And the real fighters on the side of God in this cosmic
struggle are less those who resort to tanks or rockets or submarines, than those who resort to supernatural
prayer and sacrifice, for instance with a 50-bullet pocket machine-gun which truly stops the Devil dead.
May God bless every one of you, specially those using it three times a day. You will have a handsome
reward.
Kyrie eleison
If only souls could see the real fight !
Then they would turn to God, and not take fright.