Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre: “Liberalism and Freemasonry”

From The Recusant, Issue 52

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre: “Liberalism and Freemasonry”
Extracts from Conferences in Madrid and Barcelona,
October 1986

Liberalism is a sin. Not only is liberalism a serious sin which affects the honour of Our Lord Jesus Christ, but it is a religion. We are dying of  liberalism and its consequences. We now see two centuries of liberalism being spread everywhere, in our schools, in our society. It is a poison which destroys the commandments of God, everything which makes the beauty and grandeur of Christian civilisation.

It is a good thing to identify, as Leo XIII does with Freemasonry in his encyclical Humanum Genus: “Tear away the mask of Freemasonry and let it be seen as it really is…” so that wecan avoid them and avoid their errors. I think that Liberalism is a fruit of Freemasonry and that it needs to be unmasked in such a way that we can grasp all the dangers.

Liberalism has its own goddess: it is “Liberty”. When the French Revolution took place, they adored the goddess Reason in Notre Dame Cathedral, in Paris, in other words liberty, liberty of Man, the same Liberty which has its own statue at the entrance to New York, which [today] we celebrate in a manner which would have been unbelievable not very long ago. Man is “free,” he has finally been liberated from every law, in particular the law of God.“Liberty” is the goddess of the religion of liberalism.

Liberalism has its own priesthood, in the person of the Freemasons, a priesthood which is secret, organised and extremely effective. There exist thousands and thousands of Freemasons. The exclusively Jewish sect B’nai B’rith, which has contacts in Rome and is frequently in contact with them and was present at the Assisi meeting, they alone have five hundred thousand members worldwide. The Grand Orient too has spread everywhere.

Liberalism has its own dogmas. These are the constitutions on the Rights of Man. These “rights” of liberalism - the Popes taught us - are the instruments invented by Freemasonry against God, to liberate man from God. Henceforth man is free to sin, to disobey God. Liberty of the press.  These are liberties written in the ‘rights of man’ which have been condemned by the Popes for a century and a half.

Liberalism has its own morality, which is quite simply immorality: no curbs on liberty. Forthe last twenty years they have successfully introduced into the legislation of almost every country all the principles which go against Catholic morality, such as abortion, free love -concubinage [i.e. cohabitation] is financially encouraged.

Liberalism has its own politics, namely that of democracy, democracy in the sense of numbers. It is the people - so called - who are in charge. But in fact what actually happens is that this is just a better way of enslaving the people, of dominating them, of dispossessing them in favour of an omnipotent state, of a totalitarian socialism which gradually ruins the right to private property and makes the citizen for the state for a third of the year. The citizens become in practice slaves of the totalitarian state. That’s the politics of liberalism, so-called“liberty.”

Liberalism has its own teaching, wanting it to be atheist, secular and the only thing for the whole nation. In France it is not the bishops who have  defended [true] liberty of education, but families. Had it not been for the two million people who came to Paris to help defeat the socialist education laws, there would be today in France only one form of education and private education would have disappeared.

Liberalism has its own economics, directed by a group of international financiers. To the extent that countries put into practice liberal morals, liberal education, liberal laws, even if they run up enormous debts, they are supported by the International Monetary Fund.On the other hand, when it comes to General Pinochet, a Catholic who wants to defend order in his country, they are trying by every means to bring him down and to ruin Chile. In the same way, every means is being employed to destabilise South Africa. The Vatican itself has not escaped: it was ruined by international finance. In the time of Cardinal Villot and - alas! - under the protection of John XXIII and thanks to his naivety, the Freemasons penetrated the Pontifical finances through the channel of Mgr. Marcinkus of Banco Ambrosio and the famous P2 lodge. They advised the transfer of Vatican assets to Canada. A banking institution was created with this money. But it was not long before it went bankrupt and the Vatican fortune disappeared. Cardinal Villot did not hide the fact: “We are bankrupt. We have lost everything. We have been forced to fire employees and cut wages.”The Vatican found itself financially on the brink of annihilation.

Obviously the Freemasons were pressing and international finance intervened. “Don't worry, we're here. If you need money, here is as much as you want. We will support you.” Even if the Vatican still notes publicly the very poor state of its finances, this support explains the pressure that can be put on Rome for the nomination of new bishops, for the appointment of this or that Cardinal and for imposing everything which the Pope does. It [the Vatican] is now in the service of Masonic liberalism. We have to tell it like it is.

The Superior General of the Franciscans, Fr. Franco Zerini assisted at this ceremony which he described as “ecological harmony of humanity.” Each of these religions ended by renouncing their dogmas, their doctrine, the claim that one man who lived two thousand years ago could be the Way, the Truth and the Life. Scandal! Blasphemy! They’re done with the “claim” that Our Lord Jesus Christ could be the Way, the Truth and the Life. That’s a thing of the past!

How can one not see a link between this “ceremony” - which was much more scandalous, to be sure - and yesterday’s meeting? Their goal is identical. The one and the other both constitute steps towards the super-religion desired by Free Masonry, carried out by the Vatican. It appears so awful that one cannot believe that such a “ceremony” was authorised by Rome. There is, unfortunately, a little fact which demonstrates that it is sadly all too true. Fr. Franco asked Rome for authorisation for a Hindu dancing girl to appear before the altar of St. Francis in the basilica. The Vatican hesitated for a moment, then gave permission. The dancing girl performed a hymn to the sun. A hymn to the sun, a pagan hymn, by a Hindu dancing girl…just think of St. Francis’ magnificent Canticle of the Sun, so beautiful, so elevated, so supernatural. It’s a veritable sacrilege!

[The Archbishop then talked about the role played by Cardinal Bea at the request of B’nai B’rith, and who received a gold medal from them in recognition of the insertion and approval he had obtained for Religious Liberty which they had demanded in the texts of the Council.]

Through Religious Liberty we’ve ended up with Ecumenism, and through that all the ‘reforms’ which have been carried out in the Church, the introduction of Collegiality to please the Protestants and the democratic spirit of our age. Everything came through this acceptance of Religious Liberty and the principles of the modern world. It’s clear, and if we don’t keep that in mind, we cannot understand what took place behind the scenes at the Council, nor what happens today behind the scenes in the Vatican. As Leo XIII said in Humanum Genus, the goal of Freemasonry is to destroy  all Christian institutions, everything which Christendom has given to society, the family, the school, Christian justice and Christian peace. All that has to be destroyed. That’s the devil’s goal: non serviam. I will not serve. I don’t want to obey the law of God. I want Liberty.

Our Lord came to earth to institute the true religion. There is only one religion. Those who have not converted to it will not be able to enter heaven. Our Lord said to His Apostles: “Go, teach all nations.” He didn’t say: leave the Buddhists alone, the Muslims, the pagans, leave them be. They each  have their own religion, no need to bother them. The missionaries went out, they were killed, they shed their blood, they became martyrs.

Now, after the Assisi meeting, how is anyone supposed to be a missionary? Why would one go to Africa? Why would one go to India? Why go to  China to convert them, when all religions alike are a way of salvation? Why worry people who are in another religion?Ecumenism is the end of the missions, the end of the missionary spirit. It’s extremely serious. The Church is essentially missionary. “euntes, ite, docentes - Go, teach!” This is a radical, dreadful change! It’s not surprising that there aren’t any missionary vocations any more, or that there aren’t any priestly vocations any more. Let us make our own the motto of Brittany: “Potius Mori Quam Foedari - To Die Rather Than Betray!”

We would prefer to die than to betray our vocation, to betray Our Lord Jesus Christ. For my part, I don’t have my own ideas, I have only the teaching of the Church. I have always told my seminarians: Don’t say ‘I’m a disciple of Archbishop Lefebvre.’ No! You’re a disciple of the Church, of Tradition, of twenty centuries of the Church. No, I’m not alone, for I have twenty centuries of the Church on my side. I am the echo of millions and billions of bishops and faithful and the centuries of the Church’s past, continuing the Church. The ones who abandon the Faith of the Church, they are the ones who are betraying the Church. Instead of destroying the Church, I have spent my life building up the Church.

[Editor’s Note - both the article on laportelatine.org and the original Fideliter article indicate that the second half of this talk is an extract from a conference given by Archbishop Lefebvre in Madrid in October 1986. And yet, disappointingly, both skip over and summarise his remarks concerning the involvement of B’nai B’rith in the Second Vatican Council, which must surely be one of the most interesting parts. My own digital library of Archbishop Lefebvre text and audio, large though it is, does not contain this particular talk and a thorough search of the internet yields only one interesting result: a translation of some incomplete extracts of an article from Issue 23 of ‘Tradición Católica,’ which I suspect may well have contained the whole talk. Since I am sure that the complete and unabridged text would be of great interest to a wider audience, and since we have a duty to posterity to preserve as much of the Archbishop's words as we can, any help in locating the original text in its entirety would be greatly appreciated. We promise to translate the Spanish as faithfully as possible! Please write to: recusantsspx@hotmail.co.uk God bless.]