Dear
Traditional Catholic (
It
should be very revealing, as well as understandably quite shocking, for many
traditional Catholics to realize that they have been deceived and misled
regarding the true facts of the Thuc issue by certain
highly-placed anti-Thuc agitators.
In
your letter of July 7, you tell of your own experience and you express the
conviction that none of the questioning of the legitimate status of Thuc-line bishops and priests would ever have happened if
the whole dispute had not been created by anti-Thuc
agitators among the clergy, who then spread their false story among their
parishioners by way of their anti-Thuc writings and
actions.
Appropriately
enough, you conclude your comments by saying that the priests who stirred up
all the controversy about the Thuc consecrations of
bishops “really shot themselves in the foot.”
If any
of the anti-Thuc bishops would realize how much they
have discredited themselves by misinforming and misleading their unsuspecting
followers!
There
is no sound reason why the anti-Thuc controversy
should continue. The Thuc issue ceased to be
objectively controversial when all the facts became known and understood and
then accepted by those of good will.
The
first fact that we need to recognize and understand clearly in regard to the Thuc issue is the power of consecrating bishops, as
well as of ordaining priests, which Archbishop Thuc
possessed as a Catholic bishop, a power which he never lost, nor could lose,
neither on account of signing the questionable Vatican II documents, nor for at
first consecrating unworthy men as bishops. No bishop can lose his power of
consecrating bishops for any kind of reason, such as, for example, losing the
faith or joining the freemasons or other anti-Catholic subversives.
This
should be no surprise for properly instructed traditional Catholics who learned
probably already in their catechism days, that a man ordained as a Catholic
priest becomes a priest forever. The pertinent Scriptural passage about the eternal
priesthood that true Catholic should have no trouble remembering is the
well-known; “Thou art a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech” (Psalm 109,5).
In
dealing with the Catholic priesthood, we are dealing with something divinely
established, not with something established by man. The everlasting
power given to priests is given to them by God, not by man. The
indelible mark, or character, of the priesthood, received at ordination,
belongs to the Catholic priest by the will of God, not by the will of man, and
it belongs to the priest forever. Just as the indelible mark received at
Baptism belongs to the Baptized Catholic forever.
We are speaking here of matters clearly pertaining to the Catholic Faith and which cannot be doubted, nor questioned, nor denied without the risk of incurring the guilt of heresy.
When a
priest becomes a bishop, he retains the indelible mark of the priesthood as
well as the powers that go with the priesthood. But, as a bishop, he now has
additional powers, the powers that go with the fullness of the priesthood. With
these additional powers, he can no consecrate bishops and ordain priests, as
well as confer the Sacrament of Confirmation.
Those
traditional Catholics who have at their disposal some reliable traditional
Catholic religion book, or maybe an advanced Catholic catechism, or even a
reliable theology book, would do well to turn to the pages that deal with the
sacrament of Holy orders and re-educate themselves as to the nature and powers
of the Catholic priesthood.
Just
to take one example of a good traditional advanced catechism, we can recommend Deharbe’s Catechism, first published in
German long ago by Father Joseph Deharbe, S. J., and
then translated into English early in the 20th Century.
The
fortunate thing about the English edition of Deharbe’s
Catechism is that it was reissued in 1998 by Omne-Christian
Book Club of America (P/O/
On page 303 of the 1998 edition of Deharbe’s Catechism, the question is asked: “Can a Priest be deprived of his ordination?” The correct answer given is this: “No, he can as little be deprived of Ordination as of Baptism, because it imprints an indelible character upon the soul.”
And
then Father Deharbe continues: “A Priest therefore,
or a Bishop, cannot be deprived of the powers which he received in his
Ordination or Consecration, to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of
Jesus Christ, and to offer up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to administer
Confirmation, Extreme Unction, and Holy Orders.”
Knowing
the everlasting nature and power of the Priesthood, no genuine Catholic of good
will could honestly persist in holding that Archbishop Thuc’s
Consecrations of Bishops were doubtful, or even outright invalid. Because the
power of the fullness of the Priesthood is everlasting, there can be no
argument, no questioning, no controversy about the undoubted validity of the Thuc consecrations of Bishops.
You
would think that the anti-Thuc militants saw that
they had no other choice but to go silent and stop their anti-Thuc campaign. Yet, believe it or not, they did not stop
trying to discredit Archbishop Thuc and the Thuc-line Bishops and Priests. Being the “geniuses” that
they are, they had a dream. The dreamt that they could finish off the Aarchbishop by spreading around the made-up story that he
was feeble-minded and therefore incapable of using his power of Consecrating
Bishops validly.
But
that didn’t work. Thinking Catholics could at once object that neither Bishop Guerard des Lauriers, nor Bishop Carmona, nor Bishop Zamora complained that Archbishop Thuc was feeble-minded when he consecrated them. They saw
that the Archbishop what the Pontifical Ritual required as to matter and form
and intention. When the Consecration ceremonies were completed, these three men
knew that they were validly consecrated Catholic Bishops. So in due time they
proceeded to do what Catholic Bishops are empowered to do. That is, they
consecrated other Bishops, and it was from them that the American line of Thuc Bishops developed.
Where
were the anti-Thuc dreamers when Archbishop Thuc was consecrating Bishops Guerard
and Carmona and Zzamor?
They were in faraway anti-Thuc dreamland. That’s
where they were.
While
anti-Thuc agitators are unable honestly to deny the
validity of the Thuc consecrations of Bishops, they
imagine they have a legitimate argument against the Archbishop when they
declare that his consecrations were unlawful, or illicit, since he had no papal
mandate or permit to consecrate Bishops.
But
the anti-Thucs made a big mistake, in regard to the
supposed unlawfulness of the Thuc consecrations, in
failing to stress the fact that Archbishop Thuc did
not do his consecrations before the Vatican II disaster, when things were still
in proper order at the
What
the anti-Thuc need to realize is that when a human
law, or decree, like the papal mandate for the consecration of Bishops, can
no longer be enforced and the one who would normally issue the papal
mandate has himself deserted the True Faith, the Divine Law nevertheless
still remains in force and always will remain in force.
The
Divine Law about which we are speaking
is the law that demands that the work of saving souls must by all means
continue, despite the Vatican II apostasy. For that, Bishops and Priests
are needed to make available the means of grace for the faithful. That is the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments, which are the principal means of
grace, must be made available to the faithful, while at the same time the True
Catholic Faith must by all means be taught whole and entire, and kept alive
among the faithful.
As the
anti-Thucs can plainly see, it was becase of the Vatican II apostasy from the True Catholic
Faith that Archbishop Thuc saw that he could not go
by the human law demanding a papal mandate for consecrating Bishops. But
he could, and he did, obey the Divine Law demanding the continued work
of saving souls. He was fully justified before God in obeying His Law, and he
had he necessary jurisdiction to do so
by virtue of Divine Law.
Traditional
Bishops and Priests who have proceeded from Archbishop Thuc
are likewise fully justified before God in preserving the True Faith among
traditional Catholics, and providing for them the necessary means of grace. The
traditional “emergency jurisdiction” long granted by the Church in cases of
urgent need is based upon the Divine Law that demands that the necessary
care of souls continue.
A
much-needed article, dealing with the issue of traditional priests conferring
the Sacraments legitimately in these confused times, has recently been issued
by Father Anthony Cekada (
For
all anti-Thuc agitators who have kept stirring up the
storm of controversy over the Thuc consecrations, and
against the Thuc Bishops and Priests, the message has
long been loud and clear: “Peace! Be still!”
Pax et Bonum!
Father
Martin Stepanich, O.F.M., S.T.D.