Faced with the danger of forgetting, faced with the lack of discernment, faced with the lack of training, younger generations run the risk of a fatal relativism. By Chrisian Lassale.
No, the doctrinal battle is not secondary and the “conciliar” church is not the Church !
The fight for faith cannot cease.
Circumstances change, generations succeed one another, but the principles remain. What justified the struggle of Tradition yesterday still justifies it today, as long as the root causes of the crisis have not disappeared.
Perhaps the greatest danger threatening the faithful of Tradition today is no longer open persecution.
It is more subtle: it is habit, weariness of doctrinal struggle and the temptation to believe that the differences which caused the crisis in the Church would now be secondary.
“ It is not we who wage this battle; it is faith that compels us to do so. ” This conviction guided Archbishop Lefebvre ’s entire life . It must remain the conviction of Catholics committed to Tradition.
But today, a new danger has emerged. It is no longer persecution, condemnation, or misunderstanding that most threatens Tradition. It is oblivion.
A generation grows up without having known the years of struggle. They see the traditional mass celebrated in different places; they meet priests who wear cassocks; they hear the same Gregorian chants. Little by little, they come to believe that the reasons for the resistance have disappeared .
If Archbishop Lefebvre founded the Society of Saint Pius X, it was not primarily to preserve a liturgy, but to keep intact the deposit of faith.
The traditional mass is inseparable from the Catholic doctrine of which it is the expression.
Separating liturgy from doctrinal struggle ultimately leads to losing both.
In his consecration sermon of 1988, he declared: ” It is for no other reason than to continue the Catholic Church that we perform these consecrations. “
His intention was not to found a parallel Church, but to preserve what he called “the eternal Rome”, guardian of the faith transmitted by the Apostles.
His expression ” conciliar ” church , often misunderstood, did not refer to a second Church distinct from the Catholic Church. As Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais explained , it referred to the set of doctrinal and pastoral orientations stemming from the Second Vatican Council—religious freedom, ecumenism, collegiality, a new relationship with the modern world—which Archbishop Lefebvre considered incompatible with the traditional magisterium.
The problem was therefore not primarily one of the rite, but one of the doctrine.
Therefore, how could we believe that the fight is over if these doctrinal questions remain?
However, it is precisely this doctrinal dimension that tends to disappear from the concerns of many young people today.
Their reasoning is as follows: “Since the traditional Mass is celebrated here as well as there, why distinguish between situations? Why still speak of a doctrinal crisis? Why bring up the errors denounced by Archbishop Lefebvre?”
The increase in celebrations of the Traditional Latin Mass is a blessing. But it does not, in itself, constitute the solution to the crisis. Liturgical peace is not enough when disagreements on principles persist.
It is painful to see some young people moving indiscriminately from one group to another, as if all positions were now equivalent.
Not because we should foster a partisan spirit, but because this indifference often reveals an ignorance of the doctrinal issues. When we no longer know why our ancestors suffered so much, we end up believing that they fought for secondary issues.
However, we do not accept suspensions, condemnations, public humiliations, or the sacrifice of an entire life for a mere matter of liturgical taste. We accept these trials because we are convinced that faith is at stake.
Young people must demand that their pastors educate them.
If younger generations no longer receive the doctrinal reasons for resistance from their elders, they will inevitably end up considering the struggle as outdated.
Tradition will then become an aesthetic preference, a culture, a sensibility, perhaps even a social milieu; it will cease to be that heroic fidelity to the truth which made priests and the faithful accept so many sacrifices for more than half a century.
We must therefore pass on to new generations something more than just a liturgical heritage. We must convey to them the profound reasons for the struggle. We must have them read Archbishop Lefebvre himself. We must make them familiar with the encyclicals of Gregory XVI, Pius IX, Leo XIII, Saint Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII, so that they may understand the continuity of Catholic doctrine and the gravity of the questions raised after the Council.
A tradition that no longer transmits principles becomes a custom.
A tradition that no longer conveys the reasons for its struggle becomes folklore.
A Tradition that no longer transmits doctrine inevitably ends up losing even its liturgy.
Providence has entrusted a responsibility to the priests and faithful of our generation.
We did not receive Tradition to admire it, but to pass it on.
And to pass on the Tradition is not only to preserve the rites of our fathers; it is to keep intact the faith of all time, so that the generations that follow us can say, in turn, with the same certainty, the same Credo as all the saints who preceded us.
We must love all Catholics. We must pray for the Pope, for the bishops, and for all priests. We must avoid hurtful words, rash judgments, and unnecessary controversies.
But we cannot forget that the true unity of the Church is founded on the unity of faith.
Yes, peace is a precious thing, but there is such a thing as false peace.
The prophet Jeremiah already denounced it when he wrote: “They say, ‘Peace! Peace!’ but there is no peace” (Jer VI, 14).
There is a peace that consists of no longer talking about doctrinal difficulties.
There is a peace that consists of considering as secondary the principles for which our ancestors suffered.
This peace is not the one that Our Lord promised to his Church.
The peace of Christ is always inseparable from the truth.
And that is why the fight of faith remains, today as yesterday, a duty of charity towards God, towards the Church and towards souls.