Open Letter to Confused Catholics

Rating:
Summary: Excellent for anyone wanting a clear answer
Review: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a needlessly controversial figure whose crime was an unflinching obedience to the Catholic faith, whole and entire, as it existed before the Vatican II revolution (which we were also told changed nothing important...thus making the marginalization and attacks on the saintly Archbishop hard to understand), will probably be one day hymned along with other defenders of orthodoxy in the face of massive apostasy, like St.Athanasius. In this book, Archbishop Lefebvre speaks (in simple terms that everyone can understand) calmly and clearly about the real problems troubling the modern Catholic world, and addresses their source. Without doubt, he establishes in easy to understand terms (as the book was intended to be read by laymen with no special theological training), a position for sincere "traditional" Catholics to take, in the face of massive apostasy. Definatly not for the complacent. It is no wonder why people either love, or hate, this great luminary of Catholic orthodoxy.

Rating:
Summary: The courage to remain catholic
Review: In this book, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre doesn't sustain any doctrine that hasn't been previously defended by doctors of the Church like Saint Thomas Aquinas or popes as Saint Pius V, Saint Pius X, the blessed Pius IX or the venerable Pius XII: he just reasserts the traditional catholic doctrine and teachings on faith, moral and social issues; he never innovates or dissents.

Obviously, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre wasn't a schimastic or an heretic, as many modernists - some of them even in the highest ranks of the Church - dared to label him in a unfair and infamous way. On the contrary, in a time of generalized apostasy, he just fulfilled his duties of Archbishop, refusing the changement of Catholicism in a religious syncretism, which maintaining an external catholic appearance, intends to cross and to conciliate it with heretic protestantism, masonic moral relativism and marxist political demagogy, in order to form a new (false) religion that catchs the so-called "spirit of Vatican II".

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre was undoubtedly a great figure of the Catholic Church in the second half of the 20th century: thanks to his almost unique efforts, orthodox Roman Catholic doctrine and pratice didn't vanished from our world, very especially, the beautiful tridentine mass.

This book should be read by every catholic concerned with his Church, in order to understand Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in his own words, full of plain common sense.

Rating:
Summary: The courage to remain catholic
Review: Lefebvre's 'Open Letter To Confused Catholics' is perhaps his most passionate tract, his most emphatic refusal. It's impossible to overturn the facts that Monseigneur Lefebvre lays bare. The Archbishop's diagnostic skills are nearly without peer in the modern Church. His historical bishop-making antidote is of course what got him into mortal trouble with Rome, although neither many of his public followers went swayed even by the excommunication, nor has his Society become troubled and shriveled. On the contrary, the Roman authorities continually come calling, even now, searching for a reconciliation. They come because their belly has grown hollow; that fact alone is a living echo of every word in this book. Apart from the incontestable expression of Catholic doctrine it encases, 'Open Letter' is refreshing again and again as Lefebvre's integrist beliefs clearly rebuke the often mindless motoric piety of American traditionalism, with its insipid Americanism ever odious and long ago condemned by Rome. Lefebvre's passionate defence is born of a European culture that by definition despised democracy, and it is what lends his effort here a particular, ravishing ecstasy, problematic as that may be in the post-Christian age. In the end, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre seems hardly to notice. It is there, in the heart of this man's ineluctable devotion, lies the virtue and vitality of this book. It's a challenging manifesto from a remarkable churchman.

Rating:
Summary: Even now..
Review: Lefebvre's 'Open Letter To Confused Catholics' is perhaps his most passionate tract, his most emphatic refusal. It's impossible to overturn the facts that Monseigneur Lefebvre lays bare. The Archbishop's diagnostic skills are nearly without peer in the modern Church. His historical bishop-making antidote is of course what got him into mortal trouble with Rome, although neither many of his public followers went swayed even by the excommunication, nor has his Society become troubled and shriveled. On the contrary, the Roman authorities continually come calling, even now, searching for a reconciliation. They come because their belly has grown hollow; that fact alone is a living echo of every word in this book. Apart from the incontestable expression of Catholic doctrine it encases, 'Open Letter' is refreshing again and again as Lefebvre's integrist beliefs clearly rebuke the often mindless motoric piety of American traditionalism, with its insipid Americanism ever odious and long ago condemned by Rome. Lefebvre's passionate defence is born of a European culture that by definition despised democracy, and it is what lends his effort here a particular, ravishing ecstasy, problematic as that may be in the post-Christian age. In the end, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre seems hardly to notice. It is there, in the heart of this man's ineluctable devotion, lies the virtue and vitality of this book. It's a challenging manifesto from a remarkable churchman.

Rating:
Summary: An Open Letter to Confused Catholics... Quite.
Review: This book is NOT, contrary to popular calumny, in any way the diatribe of sedevacantist or schismatic ramblings of an old man, left behind as the world moves on. That is what it is NOT.

What it is, however, is a well constructed, well thoughout and, at times, harrowing description of the Catholic Church's descent from its strength and glory in the years immediately preceding the Second Vatican Council, when it truly shone as the Mystical Body of Christ, to the stumbling, division-ridden and at times clownish institution it has become today under the influence of reckless Modernists, thoughtless Liberals and careless Humanist theologians.

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre - a prominent player in the later days of the SVC, when it had become apparent what the European clique of bishops were up to - was ideally placed lead the Catholic "crusade" against this self-destructive bent. A lauded and popular French missionary in Africa, with the most orthodox credentials and with every prospect of 'making' Cardinal; following the SVC, he set up the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X in order preserve the traditions of Christ's faithful in the Holy Church as they had always been taught.

For this effort he was rebuked, reviled, accused of heresy and schism, denounced as a dinosaur and, worst of all, of being pre-Vatican II, and finally, by a brilliant piece of liberal-Modernist footwork, declared "schismatic and excommunicated" by a curial official in 1988.

Thankfully, the Archbishop knew that, with the Mercy of Christ, and the help of His Immaculate Mother Mary, as well as the prayers of all true Catholic faithful around the world - of which there were literally hundreds of thousands publicly attending the Latin masses said by the priests of the SSPX at the time of the Archbishop's death, and of which there are more now, ten years on - with all these things, Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church would win through.

This is the essence of the "Open Letter" - the most easily approachable of this learned man's works, and an excellent start for ANYONE who wants to understand why this passionate defender of the faith forfeited the easy path of capitulation in the face of almost overwhelming odds.

In the great tradition of all true "apologias", the "Open Letter" is concise, succinct, and, actually, very well written. It suffers little in translation from French to English.

Go on - read and learn what you thought had been lost.