Archbishop Viganò to Traditional Catholics: Stay and Fight

By David Martin 

Catholic Family News (CFN) recently reported that His Grace Carlo Maria Viganò sent a letter to CFN in reply to weighty questions that their contributor Stephen Kokx respectfully posed in his article, “Questions for Viganò: His Excellency is Right about Vatican II, But What Does He Think Catholics Should Do Now?” 

In his reply, Archbishop Viganò made it clear that Catholics must separate themselves from the conciliar revolution of Vatican II. "No admixture is possible with those who propose adulterated doctrines of the conciliar ideological manifesto," he said, adding that "being living members of the Church of Christ does not imply adherence to the conciliar team." 

Viganò demonstrates true pastoral care in saying this since opposing Vatican II enhances our ecclesial union while dignifying the Council diminishes it. According to Viganò, traditional Catholics must remain in the Church while modernists must leave. 

                                            

“It is not the traditional faithful – that is, true Catholics, in the words of Saint Pius X – that must abandon the Church in which they have the full right to remain and from which it would be unfortunate to separate; but rather the Modernists who usurp the Catholic name.”

On that note, Viganò warns against using the modernist infestation of the Church as an excuse to leave the Church. “Let us not give in to the temptation to abandon – albeit with justified indignation – the Catholic Church, on the pretext that it has been invaded by heretics and fornicators: it is they who must be expelled from the sacred enclosure, in a work of purification and penance." 

While Vigano’s warning comes as a rebuke to Sedevacantists who leave the Church under the pretext of orthodoxy, it also serves as a mild admonition for loyal traditionalists who abandon their parishes because of the present-day crisis in the Church. It behooves tradition-minded Catholics to hone-in on this point because leaving the parish-church framework over the modern changes is what has strengthened the modernist plan to take over the Church. We indeed must not judge the Church because it’s been “invaded by heretics” but must expel the wrong doers “from the sacred enclosure.”  

Stay and Fight 

However, this will never be done if we leave our parish churches and attend Mass at independent "side chapels." To win the battle we must remain in the arena. Hopping the ropes is not allowed nor does it edify the church. (1 Thess. 5:11) We must ‘let our light shine before men.’ (Mt. 5:16)  

The problem with many traditionalists is not their orthodoxy but the unorthodox way they advance it through independent “side-chapel” worship, since this undermines their own aspirations for the restoration of the Church. If our duty as Catholics is to restore the Traditional Mass and confront the clergy about their efforts to secularize the Church, how shall this be done if we flee? 

This only abets the Masonic plan to drive the good Catholics from the Church. Like Christ, we must go in there and expel the wrong-doers and work to restore tradition from within, the reason being it is God's House. The Novus Ordo Mass is valid, despite its many defects, and Viganò would be the first to tell us that.   

Foolish Arguments 

The argument that we must avoid the occasion of sin. i.e. our parish church, holds no water since the Church also teaches that we may never avoid "the necessary occasion of sin." Christ today is being profaned in His Own House by His Own priests so we do Him no service by leaving him hanging there.  

The argument that we 'contribute to the sacrilege' by staying in our parishes likewise holds no water since we are not there to join the jeering crowd but to defend Christ. Who in their right mind would say that St. John and the Blessed Virgin ‘contributed to the sacrilege’ by remaining at the foot of the cross? Their example sets the stage for all latter-day disciples. St. Athanasius and all the great defenders of the Faith have followed this example. 

Viganò Praises the SSPX 

The foregoing is said in compliment to traditionalists, especially those of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), since their faith and example of tradition are needed in the Church. Viganò in his letter praised the SSPX, saying they “deserve recognition for not having allowed the flame of Tradition to be extinguished," and said he considers Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the founder of the Society, to be “an exemplary confessor of the Faith.” 

The argument that the SSPX does not have “full communion” with Rome is unfounded. If one is baptized Catholic, holds to sacred tradition, and acknowledges the validity of the Papacy and Church in 2020 – which SSPX members do – then they have full communion with Rome, regardless of what Curial bureaucrats might say. It is Francis and his errant “Council of Nine” that need to ‘get back to Rome.’  

While tradition-minded Catholics are often accused of disobedience to ‘legitimate Church authority,’ it is today’s modernist clergy that are disobedient to God. Archbishop Viganò reminds us that “obedience cannot be perverted into stolid servility,” adding that “if it is the duty of the laity to obey their Pastors, it is even a more grave duty of the Pastors to obey God, usque ad effusionem sanguinis.”