Note: This sermon first appeared on the Canada Fidèle web-site on 8 June, 2017.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Dear faithful, 

Here we are in the blessed time of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, a time to lift our thoughts to heaven and detach them from the earth.

You shall be my witnesses

Our Lord, before ascending to heaven, asked his Apostles to be his witnesses.

“And his companions asked him, Lord, dost thou mean to restore the dominion to Israel here and now? But he told them, It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. Enough for you, that the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will receive strength from him; you are to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and throughout Judaea, in Samaria, yes, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1: 6-8)

This witness to Our Lord has manifested itself in various ways from the beginning of the Church until today. It was first the Apostles who preached to the Jews and to the nations the Messias who died on a cross, a scandal for the Jews. Then it was their successors who evangelised the pagans by preaching to them the spirit of mortification, folly for the Gentiles. Then came the Church Fathers who fought against heresies, bearing witness to the Truth, which is Jesus Christ: “I am the Truth.” (John 14:6) Then the testimony of Jesus was given by preachers of all ages who shook off the softness and luke-warmness of Christians who constantly tried to reduce the demands of the Lord's doctrine. Since the Renaissance and the Revolution of 1789, the Church bears witness to Jesus Christ by opposing firm resistance to the precursors of the Antichrist who are trying to impose a new world order and a new universal religion; hence the Truth, Our Lord Jesus Christ, would be excluded.

In our time, still that of the precursors of the Antichrist, we have to be the witnesses of Our Lord, against the very authorities of the official Church, the conciliar sect, which passes itself off as the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, we are really in that time when, if it were possible, the very elect would be deceived. Because what is more deceptive than to present oneself as the successors of the Apostles of Jesus and to teach another gospel than that of Jesus, a counter-gospel?

There is an unfathomable mystery here, a mystery of iniquity. Having to resist those who seem to speak for Jesus Christ, but who actually speak more and more for the Antichrist and his coming system. To be excluded from "synagogues", as Jesus said in today's Gospel, to be excommunicated, considered non-Catholic… What to do?

A rampant temptation

The temptation has always crept in Tradition since the 1970s, to agree with the conciliar Church, the Church of Vatican II. Do you know the Society of St. Peter? They were the first to give in to this temptation. They were born even from this temptation. “We must be part of the official Church. We cannot be excluded from “synagogues”. We cannot allow official Church authorities to put us to death believing we are worshipping God." For what is this persecution that we are enduring at the hands of Church authorities if not a "killing" in the name of God? And they founded their Society, a Society entirely founded on a compromise between truth and error, between Christ and Belial.

Then we saw Campos in 2000. Archbishop de Castro Mayer, the only bishop to have supported Archbishop Lefebvre until the end in his fight, was the bishop of Campos, the only diocese to have resisted the revolution of Vatican II. Archbishop Lefebvre, when he founded Écône, was no longer a diocesan bishop. He was a retired bishop. Bishop de Castro Mayer was a diocesan bishop of Brazil. He stood up with his clergy, and they refused the Revolution. They bore witness to Jesus. Well, they too, in 2000, finally gave in to temptation and compromised the testimony of their faith.

And now we see this temptation in the Society of Archbishop Lefebvre. "We can no longer be excluded from 'synagogues', that is, from Catholic churches. We can no longer "be put to death" to worship God ", as Our Lord once again said in today's gospel.

What should we do, dear faithful? Well, we must be witnesses of Our Lord and accept like the Apostles to be excluded from "synagogues" and "to be put to death by those who believe they are worshiping God" by doing this. If we do a good job, if we bear this testimony to the end, it should lead us to martyrdom, which is the greatest testimony given to God. Martyrdom is a testimony. We may not all be martyrs individually, but the Church of Jesus, those who continue to bear witness to him, are moving towards martyrdom. Because when the papacy is restored, as Our Lord instituted it, the enemies of the Church will have come so close to achieving their goal that they will not be able to accept to see the resurrection of the Church.

Do not comprise the witness of our Faith

Do not compromise our faith. What should someone do today, in 2017, who does not want to compromise their faith? He must bear witness to Jesus and make it very clear that there is a problem with this Vatican Council II. That there is a serious doctrinal problem with what is called "religious freedom." What is this problem? It is simply the fact that error has no rights; sin has no right either. Before Vatican II, the Church taught that only the true religion, the Catholic religion, has rights. We are forced to tolerate error. You cannot physically force everyone to convert, it is not Jesus' will. But there is a real moral obligation for all men living on the globe of the earth to be converted, to accept the true religion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, his commandments and his doctrine, if they want to save themselves: “Go, teach all the nations, baptise them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teach them to keep whatever I have commanded you. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.” But since Vatican II, it has been said that the Holy Ghost works through all religions, that all religions are paths of salvation. Are we not dealing with the great harlot of the Apocalypse, dressed in crimson and scarlet, sitting on the seven blessed hills of Rome, who has prostituted herself with all nations, welcoming all false religions? Are we going to compromise the testimony of our faith and come to prostitute ourselves also with all the nations by participating in her works?

Anyone who wants to bear a true testimony to Jesus Christ today, in 2017, must say that there is a serious problem with modern ecumenism, this modern doctrine that all so-called “Christian” sects are part with the Catholic Church of the true Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ. One must clearly condemn the interreligious meetings, condemned by the Popes of the past: “In these conditions, it goes without saying that the Apostolic See cannot, in any way, participate in their congresses and that, in any way, Catholics cannot vote for or collaborate with such enterprises; if they did, they would be granting authority to a false Christian religion, wholly alien to the one Church of Christ. (…) Such undertakings cannot in any way be approved by Catholics, since they are based on the erroneous theory that religions are all more or less good and laudable, in the sense that all equally, although in different ways, manifest and signify the natural and innate feeling which draws us towards God and prompts us to recognise with respect his power. In truth, the proponents of this theory are completely mistaken, but furthermore, by perverting the notion of true religion they repudiate it, and they gradually fall into naturalism and atheism. The conclusion is clear: to stand in solidarity with the supporters and propagators of such doctrines is to depart completely from divinely revealed religion.” Pius IX, Mortalium Animos. Therefore, whoever participates in these interreligious meetings completely departs from the divinely revealed religion. What about whoever organises them?

Whoever wants to be the witness of Our Lord Jesus Christ, must be against the authorities of the Church of Vatican II, and say with the Church of always that the Mass is the bloodless renewal of the sacrifice of Calvary. One must totally reject the Vatican II Mass, a Mass which was made to please Protestants, which considerably diminishes the notion of a sacrifice offered for the remission of sins, for the benefit of a so-called "gathering of the people of God." Adulterous mass, Luther's mass, said Archbishop Lefebvre. Can we attend a Mass which was born in the secret lodges of Freemasonry, and which has sufficiently shown by its fruits that it is not of God?

Whoever wants to be the witness of Our Lord Jesus Christ must say clearly that there is a serious problem with modern "canonisations". Canonise John XXIII, who launched this disastrous Vatican Council II, and opened wide the doors of the citadel? Canonise John Paul II, the first to gather false religions in Assisi in 1986, a meeting during which Buddha was placed on the tabernacle of the altar of Assisi to replace Our Lord? Are we going to pray to “Saint” John Paul II alongside the saints of the past who smashed idols and raised the crucifix high to preach the one true God?

In 1990, just before his death which took place in 1991, Archbishop Lefebvre left his sons a book entitled Spiritual Itinerary, which he wanted to make his testament to his priests. In this work, Archbishop Lefebvre says very firmly: “It is therefore a strict duty for all priests and all faithful who wish to remain Catholic to separate themselves from this conciliar Church, as long as it does not find the tradition of the Magisterium of the Church and the Catholic faith. (Spiritual Itinerary, 1990, p. 29) This is what we must do: accept to continue to be excluded from the "synagogues" of Babylon and to be "put to death" by those who believe they are worshipping God in so doing.

God shall sustain us

Dear faithful, the Ascension is a great moment in the liturgical life of the Church. Our Lord promises us his support. He promised it to us in today's Introit by making us say, "Hear, O Lord, my voice, which cried out to thee, alleluia; my heart has said to thee: my eyes have sought thee; thy face, Lord, I will seek it; do not turn thy face away from me, alleluia, alleluia. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" Who shall we fear if God is with us?

Let us ask all the martyrs of past centuries, all those witnesses who have testified to the truth to put on the armour of the Faith and give us the grace to refuse any compromise so that with them we can, as says the book of Revelation, “follow the Lamb wherever he goes”.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.