By Cardinal Robert Sarah.
«You are the Christ, the Son of the living God» (Mt 16, 16). With these words, Peter, questioned by the Master about the faith he has in Him, expresses in synthesis the heritage that the Church, through apostolic succession, has guarded, deepened, and transmitted for two thousand years: Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, that is, the only Savior. «These words so clear from Pope Leo XIV on Peter’s faith, the day after his election, still resonate in my soul». The Holy Father thus summarizes the mystery of the faith that the bishops, successors of the apostles, must never cease to proclaim. Now, where can we find Jesus Christ, the only Redeemer? Saint Augustine answers us clearly: «Where the Church is, there is Christ». That is why our concern for the salvation of souls translates into our commitment to lead them to the only source that is Christ, who gives Himself in His Church. Only the Church is the ordinary way of salvation; it is, therefore, the only place where faith is transmitted in its entirety. It is the only place where the life of grace is given to us fully through the sacraments. In the Church there is a center, a mandatory point of reference: the Church of Rome, governed by the Successor of Peter, the Pope. «And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it» (Mt 16, 18).
To abandon Peter’s boat is to surrender to the waves of the storm
I want to express my deep concern and profound sadness upon learning of the announcement by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, founded by Msgr. Lefebvre, to proceed with episcopal ordinations without pontifical mandate.
We are told that this decision, which would disobey the law of the Church, is motivated by the supreme law of the salvation of souls: suprema lex, salus animarum. But salvation is Christ, and He gives Himself only in the Church. How can one claim to lead souls to salvation by other paths different from those He Himself has indicated to us? Is wanting the salvation of souls to tear the mystical Body of Christ in perhaps an irreversible way? How many souls are at risk of being lost because of this new rupture?
We are told that this act seeks to defend Tradition and the faith. I know how much the deposit of faith is sometimes despised today by those very ones who have the mission to defend it. I know that some forget that only the uninterrupted chain of the life of the Church, of the proclamation of the faith and of the celebration of the sacraments, which we call Tradition, gives us the guarantee that what we believe is the original message of Christ transmitted by the apostles. But I also know, and I firmly believe, that at the heart of the Catholic faith is our mission to follow Christ, who became obedient unto death. Can we really dispense with following Christ in His humility to the Cross? Is it not betraying Tradition to take refuge in human means to maintain our works, even if they are good?
Our supernatural faith in the indefectibility of the Church can lead us to say with Christ: «My soul is sorrowful unto death» (Mt 26, 38), upon seeing the cowardice of Christians and even of prelates who renounce teaching the deposit of faith and prefer their personal opinions on matters of doctrine and morals. But faith can never lead us to renounce obedience to the Church. Saint Catherine of Siena, who did not hesitate to admonish cardinals and even the Pope, exclaimed: «Always obey the pastor of the Church, for he is the guide that Christ has established to lead souls to Him». The good of souls can never pass through deliberate disobedience, because the good of souls is a supernatural reality. Let us not reduce salvation to a worldly game of media pressure.
Who will give us the certainty of being truly in contact with the source of salvation? Who will guarantee us that we have not taken our opinion for the truth? Who will preserve us from subjectivism? Who will guarantee us that we remain irrigated by the only Tradition that comes to us from Christ? Who will assure us that we are not getting ahead of Providence and that we follow it by letting ourselves be guided by its indications? To these anguishing questions there is only one answer, given by Christ to the apostles: «He who hears you hears me. To those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; to those you retain, they are retained» (Lk 10, 16; Jn 20, 23). How to assume the responsibility of straying from this only certainty?
We are told that it is done out of fidelity to the previous Magisterium, but who can guarantee it if not the Successor of Peter himself? Here there is a matter of faith. «Whoever disobeys the Pope, representative of Christ on earth, will not participate in the blood of the Son of God», said Saint Catherine of Siena as well. It is not a matter of worldly fidelity to a man and his personal ideas. It is not a matter of a cult of the Pope’s personality. It is not a matter of obeying the Pope when he expresses his own ideas or personal opinions. It is a matter of obeying the Pope when he says, like Jesus: «My doctrine is not mine, but His who sent me» (Jn 7, 16).
It is a matter of a supernatural gaze on canonical obedience, which guarantees our bond with Christ Himself. It is the only guarantee that our struggle for the faith, Catholic morals, and liturgical Tradition does not deviate toward ideology. Christ has given us no other sure sign. To abandon Peter’s boat and organize oneself autonomously and in a closed circle is to surrender to the waves of the storm.
I know well that often, even within the Church, there are wolves disguised as lambs. Did not Christ Himself warn us of this? But the best protection against error remains our canonical bond with the Successor of Peter. «It is Christ Himself who wants us to remain in unity and that, even wounded by the scandals of bad shepherds, we do not abandon the Church», Saint Augustine tells us. How can we remain insensitive to Jesus’ prayer full of anguish: «Father, that they may be one as we are one» (Jn 17, 22)? How can we continue to tear His Body under the pretext of saving souls? Is it not He, Jesus, who saves? Are we and our structures the ones who save souls? Is it not through our unity that the world will believe and be saved? This unity is first and foremost that of the Catholic faith; it is also that of charity; and it is, finally, that of obedience.
I would like to recall that Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina was unjustly condemned during his life by men of the Church. When God had granted him a special grace to help the souls of sinners, he was forbidden to hear confessions for twelve years. What did he do? Did he disobey in the name of the salvation of souls? Did he rebel in the name of fidelity to God? No; he kept silent. He entered into crucifying obedience, certain that his humility would be more fruitful than his rebellion. He wrote: «The good God has made me understand that obedience is the only thing that pleases Him; it is for me the only means to hope for salvation and to sing victory».
We can affirm that the best means to defend the faith, Tradition, and authentic liturgy will always be to follow obedient Christ. Christ will never command us to break the unity of the Church.
Originally published in French in Le Journal Du Dimanche