A Message from the Superior

Dear Catholic Faithful:

My purpose in writing this message is to present you with a challenge: to become actively involved — as a religious or secular — in the greatest of wars in the history of Holy Mother Church and the world. Let me explain:

The Catholic Church is entrusted by God with the exclusive message of salvation. Although She can never fail in being the path of salvation, She can, by the failure of Her members — who hide their light under a bushel — be less effective in proclaiming the message of the Savior to all mankind. The “fire” that Jesus came on earth to kindle will never burn out, but it can unnecessarily smoulder, when He wishes it to be a conflagration. Such is the present state of things in the Church. This is because of the failure on the part of the Catholic faithful — clergy and laity — to bring the Gospel to a sinful world, to fulfill their God-assigned role as “the salt of the earth.” “But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?” (Matt. 5:13; Luke 14:34.) Since Her members have largely lost this holy “savour,” the Mystical Body suffers greatly.

This explains why the Church has appeared to grow weak in this twenty-first century. Indeed, since Vatican II, her salvific message appears to have been almost entirely forgotten.

The tragic truth is that the Church has been and is now losing ground to every evil force and false teaching. This is so overwhelmingly obvious that anyone with a modicum of common sense can observe it very locally. The statistics are available, but totally unnecessary. All the real Catholic need do is observe what is taught and practiced in the vast majority of parishes today — non-Catholic doctrine, and protestantized liturgy — much of it with the blessing of the Church hierarchy.

Under the destructive influence of the heresies condemned by Popes Gregory XVI (Indifferentism), Pius IX (Liberalism), Leo XIII (Americanism), and Saint Pius X (Modernism), the Church Militant has taken on the character of a “Church Dormant.” The apostolic zeal that was the mark of Catholicism in the Ages of Faith has been abandoned in favor of spiritual complacency. This loss of militancy and zeal on the part of individual Catholics, and this collapse of the hierarchy’s vigilance against heresy, is ultimately attributable to one thing: the denial by churchmen of her key Dogma of Faith — extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

Put simply, the One True Faith is not being sufficiently upheld “whole and undefiled,” as commanded in the Athanasian Creed. As a result, the world is sinking deeper and deeper into faithlessness. And into this growing faithless void has rushed all manner of error.
Where, then, is one to turn for direction? Consider, for instance, the vast number of Catholic newspapers and magazines published in the United States. Few of them present the fullness of that most powerful message which the enemies of the Church fear so much. In fact, most diocesan papers give ample space in every issue to clerical and lay columnists who do nothing but heap scorn on the beliefs and traditions of our Holy Faith. These papers concern themselves with mostly social and political issues (usually from the wrong side), and neglect the infinitely greater spiritual needs of souls.

Even the more conservative and traditionalist publishers of the Catholic press, we are sorry to say, leave much to be desired. Many of their publications can best be categorized as editorial wailing walls. They imprudently publicize every available bit of disheartening news that shows nothing but scandal and deterioration within the Church, and thus they lead the faithful more and more deeply into despair, while wasting their time, distracting them, and polluting their minds with unholy and impure thoughts.

The Church will never overcome her diabolical enemies, or the spread of these wicked errors that are leading souls into hell by the millions, until her powerful message of the One True Faith — “without which there is absolutely no salvation” — is loudly and confidently proclaimed “from the housetops” once again.

This has been a first priority goal of the Crusade of Saint Benedict Center from its very beginning. Since 1940, we of Saint Benedict Center have devoted our lives to studying and propagating the Holy Catholic Faith. Since 1950, we have continually traveled throughout all the United States, distributing doctrinal and devotional literature, and sowing the seeds of the Faith among many millions of Americans. We do this because, like Father Feeney, our determined ambition has always been what it was for Saint Patrick in Ireland, for Saint Augustine in England, and for Saint Boniface in Germany: We want to make America a Catholic nation!

How do we intend to do this? In general, by broadening the work and expanding the reach of our Crusade as outlined in this booklet. Saint Philip Neri said that with only ten pure hearts, he could convert the world. Surely, then, it is possible to convert just one country. And no one today could be more convinced of the possibility of accomplishing such a feat than ourselves, because we have met and talked to many millions of Americans. Good will does exist. We know from experience.

In recent years, God, in His ineffable Divine Providence, has graced us with a definite movement toward revitalization of our Third Order. New interest is being shown. New members are joining our ranks. We are observing — a few here, a few there — a return of Catholics to the militant spirit of the Ages of Faith. May God give it increase!

So, my dear reader, I present you with this challenge — the greatest challenge of our times!

We invite you and the thousands of other faithful Catholics, who can be found in every city and town of this nation, to become active members of the Crusade of Saint Benedict Center, in the First, Second, or Third Orders of our congregation. You will thus accept the challenge which our Lady of Fatima has so clearly placed before all of us, and, at the same time, share in the abundant blessings which come from pursuing so worthy a goal: “for the labourer is worthy of his hire.” (Luke 10:7)

For members of the Third Order, we require remarkably little to become a part of this rewarding Crusade. There are two essential things we call for: first, to become reservoirs of the Faith themselves by experiencing the joys of its inexhaustible treasures through study and prayer; then, reach out to their non-Catholic relatives, friends and neighbors and invite them to participate in the same joys. No Catholic can truly love his Faith, or effectively explain and defend it, unless he first understand it properly himself.

My dear friends, we have a nation to conquer for Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ the King, and for His Holy Queen Mother!

From the depth of my heart, I implore you to join us and march with us on this Crusade for our Holy Faith.

Sincerely,
In the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

Brother Francis, M.I.C.M.