Return and confirm thy brethren !

MOST Holy Father,

I have finished my task. Had I realised in advance its full extent – the implacable logic and the various interconnections among the elements of your system, which forms the most dangerous and subtle instrument of war to have ever been introduced into the Church for her ruin – I doubt whether I should have had the courage to undertake it.

I was enabled to carry my labour to its completion thanks, no doubt, to the grace of God – for many were the prayers that went up to Him for our intention – and the encouragement to continue the work which I received daily from friends both old and new, not to speak of the enrolments into our Roman Legion, which rose from 3,000 to 4,000 during the fortnight in which I was writing this Libellus Accusationis.

However, I feel impelled to protest once more, before God and before Your Holiness, that I am only a wretched and useless servant of the Church, who is filled with confusion at finding himself in the role of prosecutor of him who is the Father of all of us – a role I assumed only because so many others more worthy and more competent than myself were unwilling to do so.

The deficiencies of this Memorandum stem from my own unworthiness; its omissions and weaknesses are due to my personal inadequacy. There would have been a hundred times as many things to say, but I had to pick and choose amongst your words and deeds, and my choice may sometimes have been inept. To compile a complete dossier would have required greater strength and fuller knowledge than I possess. A mind better versed in the theological disciplines would have pinpointed more accurately the contradictions between the things we hold against you and the teaching and Tradition of the Church. Though certain worthy and competent individuals suggested that I should do so, I did not dare to make this work into a formal Syllabus of the errors in Dogma and Morals pertaining to the post-Conciliar decade. That remains yet to be done.

Moreover, I am not satisfied with the tone and the style of what I have written; my evil nature has allowed too much of my feelings and my indignation to appear in my expressions. Yes indeed, so far as my style and my language – the vagaries of my pen – are concerned, I am certainly worthy of blame. Of this I am keenly aware.

I have to think of Uzzah, of whom the Book of Samuel tells us that he “ put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold of it: because the oxen kicked and made it lean aside. And the indignation of the Lord was enkindled against Uzzah: and he struck him for his rashness. And he died there before the ark of God. ” (2 Sam 6.6-7) Have not I, too, reason to fear, I who have laid my hand on the Ark of the Church in an effort to prevent it capsizing, and in the process of doing so have stood up against the Captain who is steering it into the abyss !

But whatever the imperfections of my work, however painfully purified I may have to be by God on their account, or whatever reproaches they may earn me from my brethren, I do not repent of having undertaken the task itself. For I am ready to be anathematised for the sake of my Brother in the Faith, Pope Paul VI – I would give my life, my all, for his betterment and conversion, for on him depend the temporal fate and the everlasting salvation of thousands of millions of human beings redeemed by the Blood of Christ, and my brothers...

No, I have no regrets. Many of those who are wise according to the world have quoted to me the phrase that enables them to justify their own inaction, their obedience all your orders, their unconditional submission to all your ideas: “ I would rather be wrong with the Pope than right against him. ” And indeed, I have found it painful to the point of anguish to “ be right against the Pope ”. Is there a greater tragedy for a Catholic, a greater Calvary for a priest brought up to admire Rome and venerate the Sovereign pontiff, than to find himself – and not in mere matters of secondary importance – no longer for the Pope but against him ?

But it was that other antithesis which prevailed in my mind – that between being right and being wrong. How could one consciously and deliberately choose to “ be wrong ” – and still less to rejoice in it – even out of loyalty to the Pope – when that would mean renouncing Truth, which is of God, in favour of Error, which is of Satan ! In rejecting your innovations and denouncing them as attempts to change the divine teaching of the Church, I found myself, on the contrary, more and more firmly in the grip of Truth, and in the joy of this I forgot the pain I suffered through having to be against Your Holiness. For “ to be right ” is something good and holy !

Oh, what harm has been wrought among priests by these facile maxims which have less substance than appears on the surface. Used with an ironic overtone by those very rebels and innovators who are only too ready to believe themselves right against the Pope – and against the Church, and against God Himself – they serve to keep the entire Church, no longer concerned about being right or wrong, in a state of submission to a Pope who is himself a rebel and an innovator !

Most Holy Father,

Filled with the contemplation of divine Truth, I felt mysteriously sustained even while I was preparing this shattering list of your errors and acts of scandal, and imbibed a deep joy from being thus united in faith to the divine Mystery. And I feel impelled to ask you to accept this expression of my compassion and the exhortation which I make so bold as to address to you, prostrate at your feet, to have pity on Holy Mother Church and to remember to pay God the honour due to Him.

MOST HOLY FATHER, HAVE PITY ON YOUR OWN SOUL !

During these days and nights when I have, as it were, been dwelling within your own mind – making an index of your thoughts, analysing your feelings and your aims, recording your decisions – I could not but become conscious of the terrible havoc wrought within your own self by all this new and heretical teaching. I have seen you standing alone, confronting all your Predecessors and – notwithstanding the applause of the world in a semblance of unanimity – cut off from the Church herself, from all the Saints and the multitudes of faithful who peopled our great Catholic past.

I have been obliged to measure the depth and breadth and height of this Great Design which within your own soul is confronting the Faith of the Church. I compared it, instinctively, with that of your Predecessor, St. Pius X: “ The Triumph of God over individuals, as over society as a whole, can consist of nothing else than the return of those who have gone astray to God through Christ and to Christ through His Church: this is Our Programme. ” (Communium Rerum, April 21, 1909) Yours is, on the contrary, to carry the Catholic Church into a more vast and indiscriminate New Christianity based on Faith in Man, and the Cult of Man-who-makes-himself-god, which in its turn is to make way for that Tower of Babel which is being built by the World today.

I have been filled with horror to see what deterioration has taken place within your own self, asking myself what is the evil influence which has you in its power and fearing for the eternal salvation of your soul. Yes, Most Holy Father, I who am a miserable sinner among sinners, dare to tell you that I suffer greatly on your behalf at the thought of God's Judgement – so close, so inexorable – and I must entreat you to have pity on your own soul.

When I address you thus, it is in the confidence of being heard. For have you not yourself, on various occasions, in discourses other than those with which I have been concerned here, allowed us to see the anguish you feel at your own inadequacy and unworthiness ? And I cannot forget that strange admission which you made to the pilgrims at your Wednesday audience on 12th April 1967:

“ We find a strange thing taking place within Ourselves: in Our desire to comfort you, We find Ourselves beginning to share, in a certain sense, the feeling of your danger, from which We would wish to protect you. And, conscious of our inadequacy, We think of the weakness of Simon, son of John, who was called upon to become Peter by the Will of Christ… Doubt…fear...the temptation to adapt one's faith to the modern mentality…unreflecting enthusiasm... ” Yes, we can often discern in your words an element of distress which cannot but incite us to redouble our prayers for Your Holiness – and to appeal to you to break free from that sinister influence which holds you bound, to turn back to Our Lord Jesus Christ and to “ confirm thy brethren ”.

You spoke, on Ash Wednesday last, about the final destiny of man – “ Life everlasting or eternal damnation ”, and you added immediately, with reference to this second terrifying prospect: “ And this makes us shudder ”. Those were your words. Indeed, the very thought is enough to make all those shudder who will not do the Will of God. For it is a terrifying thought – terrifying for heretics, for schismatics, for those who commit scandal. How could I, after having noted your guilt on all three counts, refrain from adding, from the bottom of my heart: Most Holy Father, have pity on your own eternal destiny !

MOST HOLY FATHER, HAVE PITY ON THE CHURCH !

The Church, entrusted to your care and for which you will one day be called upon to account, is drifting to her ruin as a result of your continuous innovation and “ reformation ”, which is disrupting and wearing her out. You are aware of this, for you described the sad state of affairs in dramatic terms on December 7, 1968. Only you did not realise – though it was the third anniversary of your proclamation of the Cult of Man – that such disaster was the inevitable result of your own error.

“ The Church finds herself in an hour of disquiet, of self-criticism, one could almost say of auto-demolition. It is like an inward upheaval, complex and full of anguish, such as no-one would have expected after the Council. (On this point you are mistaken, and are misleading your audience, for we did expect this and we were saying and writing so much to this effect, that the Church authorities, acting with your approval, applied the most ignominious sanctions in order to silence us.) We had expected to see, rather, an expansion and flourishing of the ideas ripened in the great sessions of the Council. This aspect exists also, certainly, but...it is the sad aspect which is the more prominent. It is as though the Church were working for her own ruin. ”

By June 29, 1972 your view of what was taking place in the Church had become blacker still, and alarmed even those still ignorant of the sorry sight presented by the Church undergoing her “ reformation ”: “ Through some crack the fumes of Satan have entered the temple of God: doubt, uncertainty, questionings, dissatisfaction, confrontation, have come to the fore. We no longer trust in the Church, but in the first profane prophet who comes to speak to us from any newspaper or any gathering, to ask him if he has the formula for the true life. Doubt entered into our consciousness through that very window which ought to be open to the light...

This state of uncertainty reigns within the Church herself. We should have expected the dawn following the Council to be a day of sunshine for the Church. But in place of the sun, we have had clouds and storms, darkness, searching, uncertainty. We preach ecumenism but in fact we are drifting farther and farther apart from each other. We are doing our best to create new chasms instead of filling them in.

But what has happened ? We will confide to you Our thought: that an adverse power has intervened – the Devil – that mysterious being to whom St. Peter alludes in his Epistle. And how many times does Christ not speak to us in the Gospel about this enemy of men ! This supernatural thing has appeared in the world precisely in order to ruin and dry up the fruits of the Ecumenical Council and to prevent the Church breaking into hymns of joy at having rediscovered her consciousness of herself. ”

So the Devil is the enemy of the Council ? Is he not rather on the same side, and come to assert his leadership of it ? In any case, the fact remains that the situation is a terrible one. So what are you going to do to save God's own Church from the clutches of Satan, the destructive reality of whom you have just acknowledged ?

You do, admittedly, show some desire to help, to confirm your brethren in the Faith: “ We wish, therefore, today more than ever, that we were able to exercise the function which God entrusted to Peter: to confirm thy brethren in the Faith. We should like to give you that charism of certainty which God has bestowed upon him who represents Him on this earth, whatever his personal unworthiness. ” (From the same discourse, June 29, 1972) Nevertheless, in comparison with the power of Satan, and with the extent of the present ills, your half-hearted inclination to do something about it seems to us very paltry indeed !

And therefore we make so bold as to exhort you to think of the Church: Even if you are indifferent to your personal salvation, can you not show some concern for that of the great mass of mankind, and become a courageous ruler of your people for their own sake ?

Some remarks you made on a certain occasion suggested that you would be glad to retire. Though I did not attach particular importance to these, others have been very impressed: “ It is the Lord who created the Church, and not We. It is neither easy nor pleasant to have certain responsibilities. But Jesus said: thou shalt be an Apostle. Upon you I will found my Church... It would be good to be able to lay aside such a responsibility. But I do not wish to do so. And I would ask you to show at least your understanding and affection for those who have to shoulder the hierarchical functions in the Church – for those, that is, who have charge of the ministry. ” (Osservatore Romano, May 30, 1972)

Yes, we understand the heavy weight of his charge – “ the weight of the Keys of Peter ” and “ the crown of thorns ” suffered by the Pope in the shape of those numerous desertions and the other sad happenings in the Church, which have become the bread of bitterness for him as for us. But there comes to mind the motto of St. Pius X, so noble and encouraging: “ Do your duty and all will be well. ” Was it not you, Most Holy Father, who set the barque of Peter free to drift in the tempest ? You did that not only willingly, but with a passionate joy – and now you weep about the consequences. Weep, rather, for the Church !

Even worse, in this desperate situation, you let go the rudder and leave to God alone the care of saving the Church, which has been set upon this disastrous course by none but yourself. You were saying, already on December 7, 1968: “ There are those who would expect of the Pope dramatic gestures, decisive and energetic interventions. The Pope considers that he has to follow no course other than that of placing his trust in Jesus Christ, who loves His Church more than anyone else. It will be He who will calm the tempest. How many times has Jesus not said: ‘ Have confidence in God, and believe in Me. ’ ! The Pope shall be the first to follow this commandment of the Lord and to abandon himself without disquiet and undue distress to the mysterious action of the invisible but very definite help which Jesus has assured for His Church. ”

This reasoning is false. Three years before, when the question had been how to reform, modify, change, and generally turn everything upside down, it was you who did it, it was you who were at the helm and made sure that it was your plans that won the day. It was you who prepared all the conditions necessary for this tempest now racking the Church. And now you think you can sit back with your arms folded, leaving go of the rudder which God had placed within your hands and which you had manipulated so effectively in order to steer us into the present disaster ? You think you can leave it to Jesus to save you through a miracle ?

“ Heaven will help those who help themselves ”. Look rather to the example of Saint Paul, who led those around him to safety, promising that the lives of all should be saved, on condition that they would do all that lay within their power. (Acts 27)

Then, on June 21, 1972, you again expressed this false view according to which you could disown all responsibility and lay it upon others – on Satan for the evil which you had done, and on Christ for leading us to that safety which we need to attain:

“ In certain of Our personal notes, We find the following relevant remark: ‘ Perhaps the Lord has called me to this service not because I have a particular aptitude or because I should govern the Church and save it from its present difficulties, but because I should suffer something for the Church. It is clear that He, and no one else, guides and saves it. ’ We are now confiding this Our thought to you, not in order to make a public – and therefore boastful – act of humility, but so that you too may enjoy that peace of mind which We feel at the thought that it is not Our weak and inexpert hand which is at the tiller of the barque of Peter, but the invisible, strong, and loving hand of the Lord Jesus. ”

Your words are hypocritical and pernicious, because the Lord never did call you to endanger the Church through your Reformation and you would not now have the problem of saving her if only you had ruled her in accordance with the just and saintly tradition of your Predecessors. But to let go the rudder now and abandon the barque to the fury of the waves is to tempt God – to call for a miracle when one's duty lies rather in humbly admitting one's mistake and – together with all others on board – doing whatever lies within one's power to save the ship. It was you, Most Holy Father, and not Christ , who desired and conducted this criminal Reformation. Therefore it should be your duty, not that of the Lord, to carry through a corresponding Catholic Counter-Reformation, or – if you will not or cannot do this – to give up your place to another. But on no account should you continue to fill a place of honour if you refuse to carry out the duties that go with it, nor go on expecting from your people an obedience and a trust of which you are not worthy.

MOST HOLY FATHER, THINK OF THE HONOUR DUE TO GOD

To Our Father in Heaven – whose reflection – we might almost say – whose lieutenant on earth you are, entrusted in place of His well-beloved Son with teaching, grazing, ruling His flock… To God, who has bestowed on you the light and energy of His Holy Spirit, making you the Head of that Mystical Body of which He is the Soul... to God who has overwhelmed you with His graces because you are His chosen instrument for the sanctification of mankind...

You are the living link in that immortal chain of the succession of Roman Pontiffs without which we should lack all that is worth having. As you are in that position, we plead with you to think of the glory of our Heavenly Father and give up struggling against the things which appertain to His design, which is worth thousands and thousands of times more than your silly daydreams !

Hallowed by His Name – may it be glorified through your ministry ! Cease, then, to offer your praise and glory to Man – to Man who seeks to make himself God – and to flatter him in the things created through his pride, the insignificance of which you must surely realise from your lofty vantage point. Think of the thousands of millions of human beings who still await, helpless in the darkness and the shadows of death, the revelation of the Divine Name. Try to feel joy at the thought of God's Great Design to bring all men to the knowledge of His Holiness and Glory. Oh what a wonderful vision of our Faith to see the whole of mankind from pole to pole joining as one man in the first petition of the Pater Noster: Sanctificetur Nomen tuum.

We implore you to cease to preach us the cult of Man and exhort us instead to hallow the Name of Our Father in Heaven !

May His Kingdom come – helped by your indefatigable zeal. For what are the United Nations, UNESCO, and the rest of these international organisations compared with His Kingdom, with His Church, “ the only international body which has lasted", in the words of Charles Maurras, that political thinker whom you do not care for, but who spoke well when he said that ? You flog yourself building sand castles when the same energy put into the ordered and peaceful service of the Church would have brought her great increase in numbers and influence, today, when men's expectations, as well as their misery, are so great. What can a Roman like yourself find so fascinating about Manhattan ? For is not Rome herself the City of cities, the source from which radiates both divine grace and human civilisation ? How is it that you have so much more admiration for the pagan crowds in Bombay than for the Catholics in Portugal singing the unforgettable Fatima Hymn: Ave, Ave, Ave Maria ? Is not Our Lady, Virgin and Mother, and Queen of Christendom the instrument through which men can attain holiness ?

Oh, how I pray that your eyes may at long last be opened to the vision of the glory of the Church through the ages and that, forgetting your aversion to it, throwing aside your pre-prepared discourses, you may be led to exclaim: “ How beautiful are thy tabernacles, O Jacob, and thy tents, O Israel ! ” (Nb. 24.5) May that “ happy vision of peace ” – of mankind united from East to West, in accordance with the prophecies of Isaiah, in the One True Church, inspire you with the courage needed to undertake the heroic task of preparing the new Counter-Reformation. If you could but drop your fanciful Utopias in which God has no place, and devote yourself instead to that Church which is in existence here and now – Christ's Church and yours – and pray: Adveniat Regnum tuum.

His Will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. For the past ten years it is men's will that has been done, encouraged by your own Declaration of Religious Liberty, and the results are there for all to see. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity – the Great Principles of 1789 – have replaced the Laws of God, and you can see what sort of place the earth has become as a result. The price paid to make the Charter of the Rights of Man into the law of the world has been far too high in terms of pain and sweat, tears and bloodshed. Cease then to extol the Law of Satan and return in all humility to the faithful observance of the Commandments of God and of the Church.

God, who is slow in anger and rich in mercy, will speedily drive back into the depths of Siberia and Mongolia the Communist hordes who are to form the blind instruments of His wrath. And, in response to your prayers, He will once again dispense His abundant grace to the peoples, so that they will turn away from the false humanism which prevails today and from the idolatrous cult which mankind renders to itself. God will forgive and God will help, provided that Rome returns to the observance of her Laws, both of the Natural Law and the Revealed Law of Moses and the Gospels. We pray you to assume the role of the Legislator and Judge who rejoices in upholding the Honour of God and takes every care to defend His Rights and make His Will prevail throughout the earth. To those who seek the Kingdom of God and His Justice, the rest will be added.

Return again to Fatima, Most Holy Father, and there, joining your voice to that of the vast crowd praying as one, say with them: Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in coelo et in terra. And when you decide to yield to Mary's requests, you will be granted the miraculous gift of Peace !

At any rate, and regardless of what we do, the future belongs to God Our Father. And the future belongs to Jesus Christ, Son of God and our Saviour, and not to any other king or messiah or lord of this world. For already, “ the prince of this world has been cast out ”. (John 12.31) The future belongs to God's own Church, which is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. No MASDU of Satan shall prevail against her.

For my part, I feel happy and confident in spite of my personal insignificance, at having completed this task which needed to be done. I have said before, and repeat now: may God punish me if I am wrong and have deceived those who follow me; may He strike me with violent death if I have served falsehood and not truth. There are certain exceptional moments in the course of history when the fog lies so heavy that – in the absence of infallible human judges – he who has enough faith is compelled to make a direct appeal to God's judgement, as in past days, through an ordeal.

But for your part, Most Holy Father, now that you have been handed this booklet containing the charges against you, you have forfeited your rightful place in the Church – and in relation to Christ Himself – until such time as you make use of your Infallibility to declare where the truth lies and where the error, in this state of division and scandal which is ravaging the Church. It gives me pain to be the bearer of this summons calling upon you to do your duty, but it is a divine as well as a human summons. It is charity that has guided me and given me the necessary courage. For unless and until you make up your mind to undo the heresy, the schism and the scandal of these past ten years – or even fifty in your personal case – of which you have now been publicly accused before your own Tribunal, you will have no rest, either in this world or in the next.

We ask you, finally, Most Holy Father, to grant us, as a sign of the bond of Catholic charity, that we nay recite, together with you, three Pater Nosters and three Aves for your intentions, for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff as these have always been defined and as I find them in the Manual of Prayer of Ars published in 1844: “ Let us pray for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff, for the propagation of the Faith, for the exaltation of Holy Mother Church, for the destruction of heresies and for peace between Christian Princes. ” For these are really and truly our intentions and surely they must also be yours.

Pater Noster... Ave Maria...

We entreat Your Holiness, in accordance with the just and lawful power of your Sovereign priesthood, to pray that the light and grace of God may descend upon us, and to bless the devoted members of the League of the Catholic Counter-Reformation – including the least worthy among them.

Your most humble servant and son,

Georges de Nantes

Completed on the days of the twenty-fifth anniversary of my ordination and my first Holy Mass,
March 27 and 28, 1973, at Maison Saint-Joseph, Saint Parres-lès-Vaudes, France.