Dear Sons and Daughters in Christ,
I know that some of you believe I have changed. Some fear that I have crossed over to “the other side.” Some wonder whether, after years of speaking plainly and courageously about the crisis in the Church, defending the traditional Roman liturgy, questioning what was done in the name of the Second Vatican Council, and speaking openly about Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, I am now retreating from those convictions. Some of you may even feel betrayed. So before I say anything else, I want to say this plainly: I have not moved.
The words Christ spoke to St. Francis at San Damiano – “Go and repair my house, which, as you see, is falling into ruin” – have weighed heavily upon my heart.
I have not forgotten what happened to the Church. I have not forgotten what happened to the sacred liturgy, to Catholic catechesis, to religious life, to priestly formation, or to the transmission of the Faith. I have not forgotten the altars that were removed, the sanctuaries that were stripped, the Latin that disappeared, the sacred traditions that were discarded, or the generations of Catholics who were taught to regard much of their own inheritance as something from which the Church needed to be liberated.
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I have not ceased to defend the traditional Roman liturgy. I have not ceased to believe that much was unnecessarily abandoned and must be restored. I have not ceased to believe that Sacred Scripture must be read within Sacred Tradition and according to the perennial Faith of the Church. I have not ceased to believe that no pope, council, bishop, priest, theologian, or generation possesses the authority to create a new Catholic Faith.
And I have not ceased to believe that serious questions remain concerning the Second Vatican Council and the enormous upheaval that followed it.
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