May 1998
TREACHERY ON HIGH
THE EDITOR
There's nothing like getting it straight from the horse's mouth. In the April and May 1996 editions of Inside the Vatican, one of the few surviving Council Fathers wrote and spoke about the depth, extent and nature of the Catholic crisis, which he has watched evolve from the years when he worked alongside Annibale Bugnini until the present time.
Abbot Boniface Luykx, O. Praem., an 81 year old Eastern rite monk, is head of a monastery in California. He was a peritus at the Council and a consultor to the Consilium (of which he remained a member until 1981) as it prepared the reform of the Mass. He stated that the revolt which has steered the Church "into a direction foreign to both the letter and the true intent of Vatican II" was first led by the disobedience of the postconciliar commissions, which he observed first hand, and then by "open rebellion against Rome's leadership." It quickly escalated to "a strong, clerical aggression against the whole of Christianity's transcendent revelation." He went on:
"This rebellion is so long and strong because the rebel theologians have been organising a kind of anti-Church, penetrating and seeking to rule local parishes while the bishops keep standing off, displaying a painful lack of leadership. Thus it has become far more than a movement pro or con Vatican II; it is now pro or con the whole set-up of Bible, Tradition and Church. The opposition touches no longer the fringe but the very heart of the Kingdom of God and all its joints and extensions, especially as personified in the person of the Pope and his immediate assistants, stewards of God's Kingdom on earth."
In this veritable 'Scots Edition' of Christian Order, building on last month's examination of what we might call the Winning-phenomenon, the two lengthy and revealing essays which follow are made-to-measure for the Abbott's assessment. In particular, they present and explain the acquiescence of bishops in betraying the fort and inviting the enemy to advance from "the fringe" to "the very heart" of the Church; some co-operating lamely, others with gusto and a smiley face, but all with a look of incomprehension that anyone should think their complicity remotely treacherous. Indeed, a modern bishop will point to anyone and anything except himself to explain his disappearing diocese. Blind to his own negligence and its effect on the alarming lapsation and secularisation of his flock, he views talk of treason as offensive and ludicrous. Yet Abbot Boniface begs to differ. He told the Editor of Inside the Vatican:
"There are hopeful signs, like the magazines which have arisen, like yours, to fight against this radical assault on the Church. So, in my view, we are now moving slowly toward victory through the work of laymen, and that seems to be God's will. Because many Church leaders have betrayed their obligation… There is really no leadership coming from the bishops. We lack spiritual leadership, which the bishops really should give. So the Evil One, who is attacking the Church at all times, is powerful, and drawing away many to ruin, but then there is no leadership for the good ones."
This issue, then, is largely given over to that "work of laymen" so valued by Fr. Crane - exposing the gravediggers of the Church, the overseers and perpetrators of Modernism, without fear or favour. "Show 'em both barrels!" Father would often say. Now in his twilight years, Abbott Boniface, too, understands the futility of mincing words. He goes frankly and fearlessly straight to the heart of the matter. So do the following articles.
There is simply no other way to confront the prevalent fury of the present onslaught; the "open rebellion against Rome" and the aggressive refashioning of God and His Church in man's image. No other way to address such seismic contradictions as that of pro-life prelates so aware of physical death yet so blind to spiritual death [Luke 12 4:6], to which they contribute in countless ways without a care in the world. No other way to treat the cheap professions of orthodoxy and loyalty to the Holy Father which gush from the mouths of Shepherds who simultaneously tolerate, protect or promote the rebels. Nothing left but to lay bare the rot - "because," as the Council Father says with monastic simplicity, "many Church leaders have betrayed their obligation."
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The articles referred to in this editorial are now available in the booklet:
Great Defenders… or Great Pretenders?
The True Face of Thomas Cardinal Winning and the Scottish Hierarchy.
(Details in "NOTICES" link)