By H.E. Bishop Thomas Aquinas, O.S.B.
What would Bishop de Castro Mayer say about the current situation of Tradition? What would he say about the desire or willingness to come to an agreement that we saw during the years of Bishop Fellay's government? He would certainly have disapproved of such temerity, to put it mildly.
Bishop de Castro Mayer had a doctorate in philosophy and theology from the Gregorian University in Rome. He knew what he was talking about when he criticised the errors of Vatican II. "The Second Vatican Council", he wrote, " becomes an anti-Church."1 That's a strong statement. Any diminution of this truth undermines the fight for Tradition. At Vatican II, the enemies of the Church raised their heads. They are the ones who believe they have won, and it's true, in part. They are now in control of the Church. They persecute those who oppose them. They persecuted Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop de Castro Mayer. They have done everything to destroy their works. They succeeded with Campos and they certainly hope to succeed with the whole Tradition, but they will not succeed. There will always be a Catholic, a priest, a bishop who will guard the deposit of faith.
If we ask Bishop de Castro Mayer the essence of this apostasy that is eating away at the Church, what does he answer? He answers that the essence of this apostasy is in Vatican II.
"We would say that the best way to abandon the Church of Christ, the Roman Catholic Church, is to accept without reservation what the Second Vatican Council taught and proposed. It is the anti-Church." 2
One day, Rome will return to Tradition and neo-modernist and neo-Protestant Rome will be thrown out. Let us pray for that. Let us work for it, always keeping before our eyes the teaching of Tradition, that of Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop de Castro Mayer. They are the heroes of this Tradition and, certainly, the martyrs of Tradition, the witnesses who gave everything in defence of the Church's teaching. Let us keep their teaching alive.
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1 and 2 : O pensamento de Dom Antônio de Castro Mayer, pages 17 and 18, Editora Permanência.