Sermon Delivered the Night of the SSPX Vandalism/Protest against FSSP Apostolate

Sermon Delivered the Night of the SSPX Vandalism/Protest against FSSP Apostolate

Video of the San Pedro Chapel in Guadalajara, Mexico (Recorded Fall 2009)

Here is the much awaited sermon, translated from Spanish, which the SSPX faithful distracted by their loud protest.  Protest of what?  Go figure. They were told that the sermon was going to be on this subject, but they just wouldn't listen.  If you have any more questions, please send your email to the address on the sidebar and it will be forwarded to the FSSP priest in question.  The sermon, which is recorded in Spanish, was as follows.

Welcome to all who are attending the traditional Mass for the first time. In the pews you will find a missalette, which has the whole Mass in Latin and Spanish, but normally I recommend to those attending for the first time, that they do so rather as Our Lady participated at the foot of the Cross, in the silence of adoration, meditating on the crucifix and the symbolism of the ceremony, since the Mass is truly the real renovation upon the altar of the same infinite sacrifice present for all the ages. You can follow the example of the rest who already know this Mass as to when to stand and kneel. Holy Communion is only received on the tongue, and kneeling, for all who can kneel, here at the communion rail; and the priest, not the people, says amen, since the formula is not a profession of faith--Body of Christ--but rather a prayer in our rite which says, 'may the body of Our Lord Jesus Christ lead you to eternal life, Amen'. If there are non-Catholics present, we inform you that this is a Catholic Mass, and not an ecumenical celebration, and it is not permitted to those who are not members of the Church to receive Holy Communion, since the reception of Holy Communion is, in addition, a sign of that union which already exists in the Church founded by Jesus Christ. And I wish to tell you that we will be available after Mass to speak with you, with great pleasure, about our holy faith, and this ancient rite.

In fact, the traditional Mass in Latin, a Mass which has its origins in the apostolic tradition of Rome, and which was already codified in the time of St. Gregory the Great to the same [state as that in which] we celebrate it today, is a Mass which has served well for the unity of the Church throughout the world on account of the universality of a language which is common to the whole Western world, and at the same time consecrated, reserved for the most sacred ceremonies. For which reason, the second Vatican Council, commanded that the use of Latin be conserved in the Latin rites, following the command of Pope John XXIII, who said, in addition, that the Latin language "can be called truly Catholic."  It has been consecrated through constant use by the Apostolic See, the mother and teacher of all Churches, and must be esteemed "a treasure ... of incomparable worth."  It is a general passport to the proper understanding of the Christian writers of antiquity and the documents of the Church's teaching. It is also a most effective bond, binding the Church of today with that of the past and of the future in wonderful continuity.

And this is the Mass which is offered by our Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, our community, founded by John Paul II in 1988.  Cardinal Ratzinger himself, who has recently made Pope, was very much involved with the foundation of our Fraternity, and has declared that the traditional Mass has never been juridically abrogated. And he adds that "what earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too" and cannot be suddenly entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. And he adds that he made this declaration too so as to work out an internal reconciliation in the Church, with those who were mistreated and expelled for having followed this Missal, and who are very much wounded by irreverence in the liturgy. He says, "I have seen how arbitrary deformations of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the faith of the Church." Therefore, let us all participate in a spirit of great reverence before this divine mystery before which even the angels tremble.

We are in the middle of the week of prayer for the union of Christians. It is a devotion that began in 1899, when an Anglican minister, Lewis Thomas Wattson, converted to the Catholic faith. He had seen the division among Protestants, and noted that the Catholic Church has always remained the same in teaching the same truths throughout the ages. Very courageously, he attempted to preach in Anglican churches that they should return to the Catholic Church, but he was persecuted and they did not permit him to preach in this manner. He was received into the Catholic Church, and St. Pius X founded his community. He initiated the octave of prayer for the conversion of Protestants to the Catholic Church (today in fact we are praying for the Anglicans), and Pope Benedict XV extended this devotion to the Church Universal. The Octave is called the Octave of the Chair of St. Peter, since it begins on the 18th of January, the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, and ends on the 25th, the conversion of St. Paul.

It is very important to remember this title of the Octave, which tells us what is the aim of a true ecumenism, namely, union with and submission to the successor of St. Peter, the Vicar of Christ, the Pope. And the Church has many times infallibly condemned indifferentism or pan-christianity, which seeks the union of all Christians, as if a perfect unity did not already exist in the Catholic Church which Christ founded.

I would like therefore to preach to you tonight about these teachings of the Church many times forgotten, so that we might always practice an ecumenism in full accord with these teachings of the Church. The most famous encyclical on the theme of dangers of a false ecumenism is Mortalium Animos, written by His Holiness Pius XI, in which he notes the attempts of many Protestants at uniting themselves so as to overcome their divisions and give a better testimony to the world. But the Pope says that it is wrong to say that we are searching for a unity and accord of doctrine which we have lost, because Jesus Christ said that 'the Holy Ghost will teach you all truth', and that 'the gates of hell would not prevail against' the rock, of St. Peter, upon whom the Church is built. And it was the same Lord who said to His apostles that he who hears you hears Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me; and that He has prayed for Peter that his faith may not fail, that he might in turn confirm his brethren. And he concludes by saying that it would be blasphemous to say that the Church has lost the integral Catholic Faith. For which reason he says that we cannot approve of an ecumenical movement that is founded on the false opinion of those that thing that all religions are, with little difference, good and praiseworthy. Now we see how a Catholic ecumenism is very different from the pan-Christianity that arose from the Protestants.

Our “ecumenism” is received from the command of our Lord, who told us, 'Go unto all the world and preach the gospel, he who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe shall be condemned', confirming the faith with our charity, without which one cannot be saved either. Wherefore, our salvation depends on the faith, the faith integrally preserved and absolutely certain. Thus does the Church profess in the Athanasian Creed: "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled; without doubt he shall perish everlastingly"; which is a but a reiteration of what the Word of God says: "without the faith it is impossible to please God." And if one doubts the faith, and thinks that the word of God--revealed to man in its plentitude in Jesus Christ, confirmed and proved by thousands of prophecies and miracles, and guarded infallibly by the Church for 2000 years--is only a mere opinion, he no loner has the faith, and cannot please God, as the Bible says, because the faith, which is a gift of God, carries with itself absolute certitude. It was modernism, a heresy condemned more than a century ago, that said that the faith is a sentiment of our consciousness, a subjective opinion; and it is Freemasonry, and not Catholicism that says that all religions are equal and the important thing is to preserve the unity of mankind and not of doctrine; but it was Love Incarnate, who said, "Think ye that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division, the division that comes with the truth."  When we say “yes” absolutely to Christ and to his Church, it implies an absolute “no” to all that is contrary. When the saints said "I believe," they wrote it in their blood. The Cristeros did not cry out “long live the liberty to choose whatever religion you like,” but rather “long live Christ the King, long live the Virgin of Guadalupe.” Thus shouted the niño Cristero, of 14 years of age with much more faith than we have. They did not say, “well, I think so, but I am not sure.” And not for one moment did they tolerate a teaching contrary to the Catholic faith to be considered. And this is the spirit of Christ, the spirit of true love, which conserves and dies for the truth that makes us free.

We, therefore, must judge everything from the point of view of God. How would Christ feel, when it is said that the very gift of Himself in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, is not Him, but rather merely bread. Are we OK with those who deny Christ? Such tolerance is not a virtue, but rather a sin. It was Christ our God who proposes to us a salvation and love that is conditional--which depends absolutely on his divine will: "If you eat not the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life within you. And he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood shall have eternal life." And when we offer worship to God, neither can we choose the worship which we like, when He has said, "Do THIS in commemoration of me"--the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. For which reason, the Pope teaches us, repeating the words of Lactantius that, 

It is only the Catholic Church that retains the true worship. It is the fountain of truth, it is the household of the faith, it is the temple of God: If anyone does not enter it, or if anyone departs from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. Let no one deceive himself by continuous wranglings. Life and salvation are in the balance, which if not looked to carefully and diligently will be lost and destroyed.

And the Church has condemned, as well, consequently the following doctrines:

16. Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation. -- Encyclical "Qui pluribus," Nov. 9, 1846.

17. Good hope at least is to be entertained of the eternal salvation of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ. -- Encyclical "Quanto conficiamur," Aug. 10, 1863, etc.

He doesn't say that it is absolutely impossible, since Pius IX mentioned the possibility of salvation for those who are baptized, and go about in invincible ignorance, but he does say that there is no well founded hope, since if one is virtuous he is going to investigate the motives of his beliefs and see what Leo XIII said, “Since, then, the profession of one religion is necessary in the State, that religion must be professed which alone is true, and which can be recognized without difficulty,...because the marks of truth are, as it were, engraven upon it.”  The following phrase is also condemned:

18. Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church. -- Encyclical "Noscitis," Dec. 8, 1849.

Let us be sincere, therefore, dear faithful, with non-Catholics, practicing an evangelization based always on fidelity to Jesus Christ and his Church. It is a betrayal of fraternal charity, if one places in doubt the faith received from the Church of Christ, and says that he is OK with an error against its teachings. It was the same Apostle of Love, that said, "Love one another," who also said, notes the Pope, "If anyone comes to you and does not bear this doctrine, do not receive him in your house, and do not even greet him, if he places a danger to our faith."

May we be filled with the same charity, the charity which always rejoices in truth, the truth which saves us. And let us never, ever think that Jesus Christ has not conserved all of the truth for us: for the theologian as much as for the lady in the pew or for the child studying his catechism, since He promised us that "I am with you always even unto the consummation of the ages," always present in his Mystical Body, which is the Catholic Church. And if you have but one question that you can pose to one who is not counted amongst her members, ask him the following, the most fundamental question: What is the pillar and foundation of truth? And the Bible, which we have received from the Catholic Church, tells us, that it is "the Church of the living God."

After Mass we will offer a rosary of reparation for the times in which we have placed the love of man before the love of God; for when we have not loved our brother for the sake of God; and for when we have hid the truth that can save us.