It is followed by the response from Rev. Fr. Peter Scott, Superior of the US District of the Society of Saint Pius X.
"The clergy who staff St. John Fisher Church are followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who in 1988, broke with Pope John Paul II by consecrating bishops without the Pope's approval and, indeed, in direct opposition to him...
The fact that the clergy at St. John Fisher Church continue to perform the Tridentine Mass without any authorization or contact from the local bishop is evidence of their decision to remain outside full communion with the Catholic Church.
Why is this important? Every Eucharist must be offered in communion with the local bishop. This is an ancient tradition of the Church. It is rooted in the very nature of the Holy Eucharist...St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch in the early Second Century: 'Take care, then, to observe one Eucharist. For there is one Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup to unite us in His Blood, and one Altar, just as there is one Bishop in union with his presbyterate and deacons.'
Therefore, Catholics who are in communion with our Holy Father Pope John Paul II, the Bishop of Rome and successor of Peter, are not to attend Sunday Mass at St. John Fisher and are not to recieve sacraments administered thee. This is an unfortunate division in the Church of Christ that requires all of us to continue to work for unity and reconciliation.
I certainly have respect and understanding for those who have a firm attachment to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist in the Latin language. I, myself, offered this Mass, sometimes called the Tridentine Mass, every day for the first ten years of my priesthood...
It is very painful to me that some of our people, for whatever their reasons, seem to prefer attending worship services at St. John Fisher Church, where they externally manifest a lack of union with our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, with me the local Bishop, and with the Catholic community. May the good Lord, who prayed the night before He died that 'all may be one', bring them back to full unity with the Catholic Church."
As pastor of St. John Fisher Catholic Church on Tillman Road, Fort Wayne, I would like to take the oppurtunity of thanking you for the mention, in the Sunday bulletins last Sunday August 2, of our church and of the Tridentine Mass which is celebrated there.
However, there are several errors in your very confusing "clarification." I believe it is my duty to bring them to your attention, for the sake of truth, for the good of your flock and for the salvation of souls.
1) It is quite simply false to assert that "the clergy who staff St. John Fisher...broke with Pope John Paul II." While we refuse the liberal errors which have come out of Vatican II, we strongly support the Pope whenever he uses his Papal authority against dissidents. His name is mentioned at every one of our Masses.
It is true that Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated bishops without the Pope's formal approval, in order to ensure that there would always be traditional priests and traditional Masses. However, even if Archbishop Lefebvre had incurred an excommunication (which he did not, in virtue of the provisions of Canon 1324), how can the priests and the good faithful be punished for a "crime" they never committed? How can we be accused of breaking with the Holy Father on account of our attachment to Catholic Tradition? Catholic obedience is to help to maintain Apostolic Tradition, not to break it. The accusation that we "externally manifest a lack of union with our Holy Father" is quite simply not true. We externally represent the continuity with what the Catholic Church has always taught and done, and what the Popes have always taught and done, which is the very basis of union.
2) You declare that St. John Fisher's has no contact with the diocesan bishop, and that consequently we are not in full communion with the Catholic Church. How do you explain the fact that you never responded to my last letter, written on August 6, 1996, in which I objected to the attempted "consecration" of four Protestant "bishops" in Immaculate Conception Cathedral? How much time does contact with the diocese take? I am always willing to come and speak with you, write to you, or dialogue concerning the right that the faithful have to the traditional Mass and to the unadulterated, unchanging traditional Faith of the Roman Catholic Church, its Mass and its Sacraments.
No priest needs the authorization to celebrate the Mass of all time, for this right is guaranteed by the Bull of St. Pius V, Quo Primum. However, I invite you to grant your seal of approval to the celebration of the Mass at St. John Fisher, and I also request that you, as the diocesan Ordinary, grant the faculties of Ordinary Jurisdiction to the priests who minister there, that we might no longer be obliged to use the Church's provisions for supplied jurisdiction.
I would like to remind you that your name is mentioned in the Canon of every traditional Mass that is celebrated here, and that we remain in full communion with all those who profess the entirety of the Catholic Faith without compromise. I am confident that, as a true pastor, you will not refuse to grant your approval for such strong and convinced Catholics as are our faithful.
3) Your order to the faithful not to attend Mass at St. John Fisher's is a strange one indeed. Do you question the validity of the Mass and sacraments celebrated here? No. Do you question the fact that the Mass satisfies the Sunday obligation? No. Do you maintain that the Tridentine Mass that we celebrate is in some way bad or offensive to God? No. You simply state that we are not in full communion, whereas it is clear from our attachment to Catholic Faith, dogma, hierarchy, and Tradition that we are. The faithful consider this to be an entirely unreasonable order, and one which in no way binds them, for its only purpose is to stifle the traditional practice of the Faith.
4) You speak of communion as being essential to the Holy Eucharist. With all due respect, Your Excellency, this is a very incomplete and misleading statement. It is not just communion which "is rooted in the very nature of the Holy Eucharist" As a sacrifice, the Holy Eucharist is the unbloody renewal of the mystery of the Cross, and as a sacrament it is the Real Presence of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ under the appearances of bread and wine. You are very familiar with these definitions of the Council of Trent, which express the Catholic doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, around Whose worship and adoration the Communion of the Saints is centered, and which definitions have been removed from the modernist notion of Eucharist as simply a means of communion, rather like a meal.
This false notion is given in the very definition of the New Mass given in Paul VI's original Institutio Generalis of April 3, 1969, Article 7: "The Lord's supper or Mass is the sacred assembly or meeting of the People of God, met together with a priest presiding, to celebrate the memorial of the Lord." This Protestant notion of the Mass as a meal or community celebration is reason enough in itself to refuse the New Mass. The faithful of St. John Fisher have all seen its consequences throughout the diocese, and that is why they are obliged, in conscience, to refuse to attend the Masses that the diocesan priests provide for them.
It is in order to pray and live our Catholic Faith as we have a right to do, without the contamination of the condemned heresy of Modernism, that St. John Fisher's exists. In doing this we are in full communion with what the Catholic Church has always done in the past and will always do in the future. I am sure that you will agree that we have a strict right to do this. It is not those who are faithful to these doctrines who ought to be disciplined, but those who consider the Eucharist as a manifestation of communion, and who implicitly or explicitly deny the Real Presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament and that the Mass is a true sacrifice. It is these heresies, promoted by the post-conciliar liturgy, which are destroying the oneness of Faith in the Roman Catholic Church.
5) The "unfortunate division in the Church of Christ" of which you speak is not the work of those who are attached to Tradition, but a consequence of the revolution brought about by the Second Vatican Council. Plurality of ideas, breakdown of discipline, loss of vocations and failure of Catholics to keep the basic commandments of God and the Church are the consequence. The unity that we all desire, and which always characterized the Catholic Church before Vatican II, can only be a consequence of the teaching and professing of every article of the Catholic Faith without exception. I challenge you to find any fault and any offense against unity on our part, and to admit that the division is not of our making.
6) You claim to "have respect and understanding" for those of us who consider the Tridentine Mass as the lifeline to true spirituality and to living the Faith. I challenge you to show this by your actions. Promote the Tridentine Mass. Allow it in every parish. Give all the priests of the diocese the "authorization" (that they do not need) to celebrate it every day. Allow Tradition to return to a diocese which has become so secular, humanist and empty. Then we will believe that you are doing what you did for the first ten years of your priesthood, when you celebrated the traditional Latin Mass every day. Then we will believe that you love the Catholic Mass that you were ordained to celebrate and promote.
Please be assured of my prayers at the altar, that you may see fit to encourage and approve St. John Fisher's and all the other traditionally minded priests throughout the diocese.
Yours faithfully in Christ Our Lord, Sovereign High Priest,
SIGNED
Father Peter R. Scott
Taken with permission from:
The Angelus, October 1998
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