A Bold Show of Dissatisfaction in the SSPX Ranks

Traditionalist Issues

A Bold Show of Dissatisfaction
in the SSPX Ranks

Readers of the TIA website from Argentina and Chile sent us this interesting sermon delivered on February 2, 2009 by Fr. Basilio Méramo, a priest of the Society of Saint Pius X. Fr. Méramo, a Colombian, is Prior of Orizaba in Vera Cruz, Mexico, where he exercises his ministry. With an unusual evangelical frankness he depicts as "a betrayal" the compromise of his SSPX superiors with “the heresies and errors” of the Vatican II.

Among several other charges, he states: “This problem is happening with the General Superior (of SSPX) who is selling out the Society by allying himself with the Vatican, which did not step back in anything. Where does Benedict XVI go? He goes to the Synagogue, he goes to the United Nations, and now he goes to the Society (SSPX) – another concubine in the pantheon of false religions.”

Much more is said – and boldly said – by Fr. Méramo. You may read his sermon below and judge for yourself.

We are hearing of a growing dissatisfaction within the ranks of SSPX regarding the concessions its superiors are making in order to be accepted by the Vatican. It seems that this sermon of Fr. Basilio Méramo is just the whistle announcing that the water is boiling in the kettle. It is a question of time to know how much water is in this kettle.

If you have high speed internet, you may listen to the sermon of Fr. Méramo in Spanish by clicking here (around 30 minutes). A transcription of its main excerpts in Spanish, sent to us by our readers, was checked and translated to English by us for the perusal of our readers. Several words are not clearly audible in the Spanish original, so we used what seemed most probable. As is normal, the written text somewhat improves the spoken word.

The Editor – A.S. Guimarães

The Fourth Sunday After Epiphany

Fr. Basilio Méramo
Beloved Brethren in Our Lord Jesus Christ:

On this 4th Sunday after Epiphany, today’s Gospel tells us about the miracle Our Lord worked with His disciples in the boat that was close to shipwreck, of sinking. Our Lord was sleeping like a boy during the hecatomb without caring about the danger of sinking when the disciples, very frightened, awoke Him. And who among us would not be scared in the middle of a storm at sea?! The disciples woke Him and Our Lord – What an answer He gave them! – said: “Men of little faith!”

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Well, Our Lord was tremendous, and here we see again that He was tremendous (…) Twice before He had used the whip, expelling those merchants from the Temple who were selling the Church, selling their fatherland.

He, who was the peaceful and sweet, did that! Yes, because to be peaceful, meek and sweet is not to be a fool or even less a coward. It is democratic liberalism that produces politically correct men, who are useless and fearful to defend the truth, above all religious truth. (…)

You see how Our Lord is; not as some depict Him with rosy cheeks like a little nun, effeminate. Absolutely not! He was a virile man, and religion is virile. From this comes the virtue that is virile: there is no virtue without fortitude, either for a man or a woman. The whole supernatural order, the order of the grace and the spiritual life is virile. Anyone who thinks he can live like a parakeet, foolishly and timidly walking about (…) enters the path of fraud. This is not the supernatural virtue of the Catholic; it is an effeminate parody of virtue. (…)

There is a holy ire – there is not a holy arrogance or a holy laziness – but there is a holy ire. There is a just indignation, which is not the ire as a sin, when it is pure caprice. There is a holy indignation that rises upon seeing truth, the faith and common good, justice, law, the homeland, family and friendship being despised along with any other good thing you might add. These things raise indignation in well-born men and women. (…)

The Apostles were with Our Lord in the boat, the boat symbolizes the Church amid the stormy, dangerous and dark waters of this world, which is under the empire of Satan (…) and his cohorts. For this reason Our Lord said to His disciples: “Men of little faith!” Yes, He was right! How could the Apostles who had Our Lord with them be afraid, since they were with Christ in the boat of Christ? For if the Church belongs to Christ, even when He sleeps as Man He is awakened as God, eternally awakened. This is why Our Lord reproached them to their faces.

A Storm in the Church

This same reproach is valid for us, dear brethren. The one who has the knowledge and the wisdom to steer the boat of the Church is Christ. Even when to me she seems to be at the point of shipwreck, I must not fear, and even less to compromise with the enemy moved by fear. “Men of little faith!”

Benedict visiting a New York Synogogue in April of 2008

Benedict goes to New York Synagogue in April 2008

Our Lord does not want us to be men of little faith or cowards, for cowardice comes from a lack of virility, be it natural or supernatural. Lack of faith is typical of a coward. It is proper for virtue to grow in difficult times and not to diminish, become fearful or retreat. The brave soldier goes to war to win or die, not to retreat – this is betrayal.

This is also happing inside the Church: there are very few men who are truly men in the Church! Men were lacking at Vatican Council II. If only one cardinal had stood up and strongly indicted the heresies and errors of Vatican II, declaring them publicly to be such, he would have made the world tremble. But that man was not there. There are many people who see and know, but who dares to oppose the powers that be? Here is the difficulty: the lack of virility and faith. And because of this, things are happening, beloved brethren, in the Church and, unfortunately, also in Traditionalism, and unfortunately also in the Society.

This letter that I wrote (1) can cost me my skin (…) but I cannot accept that, instead of seeing things as they are, (…) a person would say that this [accord] was made thanks to the blessing of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. And if Bishop Fellay dares to say this, I summon him before God to be chastised by the Most Holy Virgin Mary for using her holy name in such a falsehood. If I am mistaken, I ask that chastisement to fall on me. I cannot be clearer. Bread is bread and wine is wine. Here there is one selling out the Church, selling out the Society, selling out me and you, but I won’t allow anyone to sell me out or to buy me. (…)

Benedict goes to the UN

This problem is taking place with the General Superior (of the Society of St. Pius X) (…) who is selling out the Society by allying himself with the Vatican, which has not stepped back in anything. Where does Benedict XVI go? He goes to the Synagogue, he goes to the United Nations, and now he goes to the Society (SSPX) – another concubine in the pantheon of false religions.

This is not admissible. This is a tactic of Rome. I want you to know, dear brethren, that Rome of the Roman Empire was able to dominate the world by means of religious compromises. This is why Rome had a pantheon with all the principal gods of the important peoples who were subjugated by it. Since religious alliances were established and Rome had the same gods of the enemies, then there were no mutual attacks. Rome accepted the same gods of the Greeks in order to dominate the Greeks; Rome adopted the same gods of this or that people in order to dominate them. This was its tactic to govern.

This same tactic continues today in that Rome, which St. Peter - the first Pope of the Church - called Babylon. He was not in the Middle East; he was in Rome and he called it Babylon because it was the Babylon of the religions. He didn’t spare words, because it had an altar to every god. All known religions had their representatives there. (…) A Pope quoted in the Breviary – whose name I don't remember at this moment – said that at the end [of history] Rome will again have, as in the beginning, all the religions. It will return to its ancient paganism, rejoicing in hosting all religions. It will return to its old religious prostitution.

Benedict prays int he Blue Mosque, Turkey

Benedict goes to pray in the Blue Mosque in Turkey

This is what we are witnessing today. And now they need Traditionalism to also be there with its rights – just like the Muslims or the Adventists have rights – but not the real rights of Tradition. (…)

This is why Benedict XVI went to the UN. What do you think he was doing there? He had nothing to do as a Catholic. So things go… So the kings and presidents of this world go. So goes religion riding the Beast. The woman in scarlet, the great harlot as the Apocalypse says. Don’t be scandalized at this because the Bible speaks very plain language and sometimes our effeminate ears are scandalized to hear the truth. But they are not scandalized to see all the pornography they see day and night on the Internet, TVs, movies, spectacles and fashions. They are not scandalized, yet they will warn you: “Be careful about the sermon of Fr. Basilio when he uses the expression great harlot.” This is the scandal of Pharisees.

So this woman goes about in her scarlet dress, like the prelates who wear purple and the cardinals wear red – the color of royalty, nobility. She rides the Beast fornicating with all the kings of the world. So religion goes.

And into this adulterous and apostate cohabitation, they want to incorporate the Society (SSPX) founded by Msgr. Lefebvre. But I, as a member of the Society – which will always be my family whether they expel me or not - I publicly, officially and until death oppose this cohabitation. And if one day I will cease to oppose this, it is because I will be dead. I would desire this for continuing to say what I am saying, for if this happens, there would be another saint-martyr. I nourish this desire because so I would go straight to Heaven, without stopping in Purgatory. God be praised [should this happen]!

But, I will not be fearful; they cannot make me afraid. Just as they – the followers of the Devil, of Satan – say that the process of ecumenism of Vatican II is irreversible, so I say in the name of the Church of Christ, the one and only true and persecuted Church, that I will not abandon the field. Even if they should triumph, it will be a temporary triumph. The true triumph belongs to Our Lord. When He will come for the second time with the splendor and majesty of His presence, with a single breath of His mouth He will destroy the Anti-Christ and the Pseudo-Prophet - one being religious and other secular – and also Satan. (…)

Pray but harbor no false hopes

Well, my beloved brethren, this is the situation. What should we do? To pray without ceasing, and leave the rest in the hands of God who knows what to do. Because the real hope is not in the accords of Bishop Fellay with Benedict XVI or in the accords with anyone else of this world. The hope is in Our Lord and only in him, who will come in glory and majesty. There is one Catholic who hopes in Our Lord and another who does not hope, just as one man sees death coming and prepares himself and another does not. Both end by dying. This is the apocalyptic fight.

But there is also a false hope to remedy a crisis that has no remedy because it reached such a degree of corruption that it cannot go further. No one patches an old cloth with new material, Our Lord said. This situation cannot be patched; but it can be purified. And it will be purified with a tremendous spiritual and material chastisement so that this atheist, impious and foolish world recognizes its evil, repents and returns to God, and many souls are saved.

Let us pray asking Our Most Holy Virgin to help us, to bless us, and not have her holy name used to mask the vilest and cruelest of betrayals. My beloved brethren, we must ask this from the bottom of our hearts.

This is not a personal problem. I don’t have to be here [in the SSPX] (…) because I am dying of hunger. But here inside the Society it is hard to bear so much stupidity of illiterate superiors, without wisdom and with just a varnish of theology. Sometimes one isn’t sure whether they became priests because they were incapable of marrying and having children whom they would have to raise with the sweat of their brows, or because they were looking for what little money one can have from the Church, or for power or some other thing.

If I have problems, they are not personal concerns; they are concerns for the Church. Then it is a problem of the Church; and so long as it is a problem of the Church, then it is yours and mine - with or without the existence of the Society. The problem is Rome, which for 40 years has not confirmed the faithful of the Church in the faith. It became the seat of the Anti-Christ, as predicted by Our Lady of La Salette. Darkness grows inside the Church, darkness and confusion – the confusion of good and evil – and this is typical of the Anti-Christ. It is he who inverts everything, who makes one believe that darkness is the light, that the lie is the truth. We live in this situation: everything rules but the truth.

St. Pius X said that when the Church would no longer maintain the empire of truth, then Our Lord would be ready to come. Today the empire of truth is gone – this is the great problem. This is the situation in which we live - whether we like it or not.

Let us ask the Most Holy Virgin to help us, because no matter what happens we know that the Church is indefectible, even if she is reduced to a small flock dispersed throughout the world. The triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will take place in unison with the triumph of Christ the King who will come in glory and majesty.

1. Fr. Basílio Méramo refers to his open letter to Bishop Bernard Fellay. The letter dated January 26, 2009 can be read in Spanish here and a summary in English here.

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Posted March 10, 2009

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  Fellay to Guimarães: Your Critique Is a Delirium

  Rifan, Quo Primum and the New Mass

  Bishop Fernando Rifan's Betrayal

  Infallibilty in the Ordinary Magisterium of the Church

  Reasons for Resistance and Disobedience

  Traditionalist Marriage with the Vatican

  Regarding the Agreement

  The Motu Proprio, after the Emotions

  The Missal Crisis of '62

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