Exclusive Interview with Fr. Rostand SSPX USA District - the year in review

[Dawn Marie]

Exclusive Interview with Fr. Rostand
SSPX USA District - the year in review

Watch the trailer of the 4-part video interview that sspx.org will be publishing over the next few weeks:

[Dawn Marie]

PART 1

[Dawn Marie]

Interview transcript

Angelus Press: Father, you yourself participated in the General Chapter this past July and since we just spoke about the conditions, why is it that the fifth condition, the exemption from the local ordinary, was not made an essential condition? Why is it only preferable? Isn't there an immense danger and imprudence in possibly going under the local ordinary?

Fr. Rostand: Well, it is not among the sine qua non conditions because it's not directly a matter of Faith. It's a question of circumstances. Today, we're in circumstances where it would be impossible to operate under many bishops in many dioceses. But tomorrow, we do not know. That's why it's not among the sine qua non. It doesn't mean that it's not absolutely necessary today. Now, in these discussions with Rome, since the Archbishop [Marcel Lefebvre] we have always said that we want to remain as we are. It means that we want to be able to operate the way we always did, preach the same way we did, give the sacraments the same way we did. It's absolutely necessary today. It doesn't mean that we would not help when there is a possibility. I know that some bishops express their will to have the Society form their future priests. Well, this would definitely fit with our statutes; to help and form priests in the future. Now, once again, these are speculations. We are not in that situation today. We are just talking about what could be done if these conditions were met.

AP: Father, you also mentioned the maintenance of the 1962 Missal as one of the essential conditions of the Society's future. There are some reports that in the near future Rome may come out with an updated or hybrid version of the 1962 Missal. Would the Society ever consider adopting this?

Fr. Rostand: First of all, the reports of the hybrid Mass are uncertain and conflicting. It is difficult to base any position on theoretical or hypothetical things that may happen. Now, the General Chapter has made a clear statement of having the right to use the 1962 Missal and has always been in the mind of the Archbishop a prudential way of dealing with the disaster we find ourselves in today.

AP: Father, why only one bishop? Why not more?

Fr. Rostand: Simple. Because one bishop is absolutely necessary for the survival of the priesthood, and even for the defense of the Faith. Now, it doesn't mean that we would not insist on having more.

AP: In all of these conditions, one perhaps gets the impression that the Society is negotiating with Rome. What would you say to this argument?

Fr. Rostand: No, we are not negotiating. We are trying to see if there are conditions that would allow us to continue as we are.

AP: So why the push for regularization? Why not simply continue as you are?

Fr. Rostand: There is no insistence on regularization. There is no push for regularization. It is Rome who came to us. We are fine as we are. But, no, there is no push.

AP: Isn't it true that even the Archbishop at the end of his life was stronger on the question of relations with Rome?

Fr. Rostand: It is a good question because it is the argument used mostly by our opponents today. The Archbishop, during his whole life, even at the end, made clear that this fight was for the doctrine, really, to defend the Faith in our actual situations. But, at the same time, even during the last years of his life, he always mentioned that regularization was possible. So, I don’t think it’s fair and true to say that the Archbishop was absolutely opposed to regularization in the future. It was just a question of prudence.

AP: Why then has the Society spoken in the past of the conversion of Rome?

Fr. Rostand: I think it's a question of prudence. The General Chapter discussed for a long time on what do we mean by a conversion of Rome. Well, I think it means mostly that Tradition would be supported enough to continue its growth and to be able to continue to work.

Well, it is clear that the goal is the return of the authorities of the Church to the full Tradition. That’s our goal, has always been and is still today. Now, how do we get there is a question of prudence. How can we really help the authorities in Rome to get to that fullness of Tradition?

AP: Father, if that’s our goal then did we perhaps refuse the outstretched hand of the Holy Father this year?

Fr. Rostand: If the Society of St. Pius X is in its actual situation with the canonical difficulties that we know, it is because of this problem of Faith. Now every time that Rome has come with a proposal of canonical recognition, during the life of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, or in the last two years, the only obstacle was the problem of doctrine. It’s because we still, and will, refuse the novelties of Vatican II. But remember, that whatever we talk about, a possible canonical recognition in the future of the Society of St. Pius X, is based only on hypothetical things. Today, the facts are that Bishop Fellay was asked to accept Vatican II and the New Mass in order to be recognized, and we have refused, obviously. That’s where we stand. So, anything beyond that are speculations. And to base a position on possible future or speculation is not reasonable.

AP: Still, this past year seems to have created a certain turmoil in the Society. Do you think it’s fair to say that both among the priests and the lay faithful do you think it’s fair to say there is now a crisis in the Society?

Fr. Rostand: No, I don’t think so. I don’t think there is a crisis in the Society. We obviously went through a storm last year. And, like any storm, in a ship, it’s caused damage. But at the same time it creates unity, strength. And that’s what we say today. I think we can say today that the Society is more united and stronger in this situation.

AP: Father, we Americans would say that where there’s smoke there’s fire. Isn’t the fact that there are numerous websites dedicated to this crisis in denouncing the superiors of the Society, including yourself, prove that there is indeed a crisis?

Fr. Rostand: No, I don’t think so. I don’t think that the multiplication of websites where a few lay people and priests are attacking the Society makes a crisis within the Society. The reality is that among our faithful here in the United States, and I believe everywhere in the world, there is peace and trust in the superiors of the Society.

AP: Father, one of the most tragic things was the fact that certain priests, such as Fr. Chazal and Fr. Joseph Pfeiffer, have left the Society. What caused the situation and what could have been done to prevent it?

Fr. Rostand: Well, first it is always painful to lose some priests of the Society. What could have prevented it? I think that if they had kept the normal channel to bring their objections, their difficulties to their superiors and accepted to listen to some answers, I think that would have prevented a lot of damage. These priests have left the Society and unfortunately it is not the first time in the history of the Society. When I look at what they are saying today and what, for instance, the 9 priests that left in 1983 were saying at that time, I see a lot of similarities. At that time, the Archbishop was accused to having sold out the Society to Rome. At that time the Archbishop was accused of persecuting priests for their loyalty to Tradition. At that time the Archbishop was accused of threatening expulsion of some priests. At that time the Archbishop was accused of [a] shifting line, of being flip-flop in these positions. These are what you hear today about Bishop Fellay, and I think that they are basing their positions and their decisions on the same things.

[Dawn Marie]

Interview transcript

Angelus Press: Father, those of us who are laymen, who are not members of the Society and may not have the right insights as to how things work in a religious congregation, if a priests has concerns and questions, what should and do they do in those situations?

Fr. Rostand: Well, the normal way of dealing with difficulty with anything in a religious organization is to address them to their superior. Their prior first and then to their district superior and then possibly to the general superior of the congregation. And that’s true for their daily life as well as with difficulty with some positions and so on. And I think that’s what they should have done.

I think the problem is that Fr. Pfeiffer and Fr. Chazal, for instance, had lost already their trust in their superiors and that is why they could not go to them.

AP: To play devil’s advocate, they use the argument that what they’re doing is similar to what the Society did. The Society had to quote-un-quote disobey the hierarchical Church and they in turn at some point, and for the same reasons, had to disobey the Society. How is the situation different for them?

Fr. Rostand:You know, in 1983 the Archbishop gave a conference to the seminarians here in America to explain what are the motives of our position to Rome. And he clearly stated the only reason why we could oppose authorities, especially the Pope, is a matter of Faith; when the Faith is at stake.

Well, I would ask, what was asked of these priests, or of Bishop Williamson which was contrary to the Faith? Nothing. Were they asked to say the New Mass? No. Were they asked to accept religious liberty? No. They have not been asked anything that goes against the Faith. What they have been asked are acts of obedience - by going to their assignments or by stopping a blog. These are purely disciplinary matters. You can cover it up with some defense of the Faith, but the reality is that it’s a pure act of obedience.

AP: Obviously there is no way to discuss the last 6 months of the Society without mentioning the fact that Bishop Williamson is no longer a member. Is there anything that you can tell us to shed light on this situation?

Fr. Rostand: First of all, the expulsion of Bishop Williamson is one of the saddest moments in the history of the Society. It is the first time that we lose a bishop in this battle and we can only be affected by that event. Now I think that Bishop Fellay has been very patient with Bishop Williamson over the years. His one goal was to prevent that expulsion to come. He definitely asked Bishop Williamson to follow the rules of the Society, and, for instance, he asked him to stop his blog. Here, it is clear that no members of the Society are allowed to have a personal blog. It is in our rules. And, it was justice, it was normal.

It is precisely on this blog that Bishop Williamson has expressed his opposition to the General Superior of the Society. He has publicly asked also for his demission [dismissal] over [from] the Society. He has expressed on different occasions a position which is not any more in line with what the Society has always done, and what the Society has always said.

One example, for instance, is that when Bishop Williamson says now that it is nearly impossible to have seminaries and schools that nature is so corrupted that there is nothing that we can do. Well, this is an example, among others, where Bishop Williamson is going against the directives of the Archbishop, whose only goal was to form priests, create schools and rebuild a Christian world on which we can base restoration of all things in Christ.

AP: Father, you have spoken often of the trust we that should have in our superiors, and of the question of obedience. Is there not a danger of putting too much trust in Bishop Fellay in almost making him infallible?

Fr. Rostand: Well, any human organization is based on trust towards those who are in charge, it cannot work otherwise. We remember that in the ‘80s, especially when the 9 priests left the Society, it was exactly the same accusation, that we were putting too much trust and even infallibility to Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. And here I think I’ll just give a quote which I have here of Bishop Williamson who wrote in 1985 these words: “We who follow him are accused of crediting him with infallibility, and so on.” (He’s talking about the Archbishop) “Great heavens! The simplest proof of his fallibility is the trust he placed in those who so betrayed him.” I think today we repeat exactly the same words.

AP: In that case, Father, what advice do you have for those who look at the complicated situation we find ourselves in who don’t know what to do?

Fr. Rostand: The first advice is to base your thinking and even your positions, on facts, not on rumors. I know I’ve already said that in my previous interview but I think it is important. What are the facts? Rumors are going around and continue to be spread. It is interesting to see that, for instance, in the letter that Fr. Chazal wrote to me entitled, “Against ‘Against the Rumors’”, Fr. Chazal spread other rumors. He spoke about a priest, even naming him, who stopped diffusing some books against Vatican II. He spoke about a priest, naming him, who would be for a hybrid Mass. Well, I have checked the priests asking exactly what they had said or what happened. Well, all these are not true. They are rumors. You can’t base a position on rumors. Let’s go back to the facts.

AP: Father, what do you recommend to the faithful in these confusing times?

Fr. Rostand: I think there are 3 points I would like to recommend. First, discernment of spirits, then, feed your faith, then live the faith, and…

AP: Father, what do you mean by the discernment of spirits?

Fr. Rostand: The discernment of the spirits is to determine and to know what is influencing you in your life. St. Ignatius of Loyola gave us some rules guide us. The spirit of God, of course, but also the spirit of man... the spirit of Satan. The rules give us the means to be able to see where it comes from. One of the signs that St. Ignatius gives us to see, especially is under the influence of Satan is this anxiety, this discouragement of souls, this disquietness of the soul.

Where there are these signs, we know that Satan is trying to lead us somewhere that is obviously not good. We know that Satan can take the appearance an angel of light, trying, under the appearance of good, wants to lead us somewhere else. To lead us to distrust God Himself, to distrust the authorities on earth and so on. Well, read again and live by these rules of St. Ignatius. They are necessary today of guiding our life.

AP: Father, you also mentioned the necessity of feeding our Faith. Could you give us some details of what you meant there?

Fr. Rostand: Here, it’s a question of nourishing our souls, our faith. Faith is given to us as a gift of God but we must use human ways, human means to grow it in us, and these are mostly by readings. I would recommend to nourish your faith by reading spiritual books. But you need also to nourish your faith in our times... I recommend especially of course, the books of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Every Catholic should read Open Letter to Confused Catholics ...Should read, I Accuse the Council, to understand what we are fighting for, all the liberal errors that have infiltrated in the Church. They Have Uncrowned Him …and also, there is another book which is not as well known... where you find documents exchanged between the Vatican and the Archbishop… All these books are very important, and that’s what I mean by nourishing the Faith.

AP: And finally, your last recommendation was to live the Faith…

Fr. Rostand: The reason the Faith is given to us for the union with God, to be united with God. It must grow into the virtue of charity and all the virtues that come with it. So Faith must turn into the virtue of hope as well…

By Faith we receive the knowledge of God. The Faith is given to us so that we may know God, even as God knows himself. We know God in order to love him, and we must practice our faith by a life of virtues...natural virtues as well. And, to be able to live the Faith we need to use the means that God has given us, the Church has given us...sacraments, sanctifying Sunday...receiving the sacrament of penance which is so necessary for us to remain in the state of grace...to live the Faith to go on retreats are tremendous means of sanctifying, of strengthening our life...back with strong convictions, with true desire to ...and to love Him in our daily life.

Angelus Press: Father, moving on, I think it’s fair to say that most people don’t know what goes on at the District House, or what the priests at the District House do. Can you tell us anything about these?...

[Dawn Marie]

Part 4

We continue the video interview of Fr. Arnaud Rostand (USA District Superior) conducted by James Vogel (Angelus Press Editor) on December 19, 2012 at the Regina Coeli House in Platte City, Missouri.

Interview transcript

Angelus Press: Father, moving on, I think it’s fair to say that most people don’t know what goes on at the District House, or what the priests at the District House do. Can you tell us anything about these?

Fr. Rostand: The mission of a district superior is first to take care of the priests, to take care of their sanctification, of their spiritual welfare as well as the material welfare of them. And, to give direction to the apostolate so that the Society grows in the district where he works. So that’s I would say my job. Here, I have a team of priests who work around me and have different tasks, some of administration, legal aspects of things, accounting and so on. All these priests and lay people working at the District office are there to help the priests so that their apostolate works well.

AP: Father, could you tell us about some of the initiatives in the US District that is either new or that you would like to give more emphasis to?

Fr. Rostand: There are a few areas in which we have been working in the past few years. First, there is the work with the priests themselves. We have been multiplying the meetings; meetings with priors, meetings with the priests in general, and with the young priests. And it is very important to me to be able to work on that field. We have also developed our educational department with a team that is working on the curriculum helping the schools across the country.

We have also been working with Angelus Press, as you know, to develop quite a few projects. And there is a radio coming up soon on the internet. There is also the magazine on which we have been working for a new [whole] year. Now, coming up, there is also the annual conference in October and we will talk about Our Lady, make the link between our times and the apparition in Fatima and so on. And, sooner, there is also the documentary on Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

AP: Father, if I could ask about the documentary. I think a fair question is why a documentary now? What could possibly be new about the Archbishop that is not already known from his books?

Fr. Rostand: First, I think the Archbishop is not very well known. And, we want to make him more known. The documentary will be another media to diffuse the life and the work of the Archbishop. Another reason for making this documentary is that never before has the life of the Archbishop [been] offered in video and I think it is very important in our times. And, it was the occasion for us to put together interviews of different people who have known the Archbishop during his life and it was the time for us to gather all these interviews into a documentary.

AP: Father, are there any other tangible projects in the District that people should know about?

Fr. Rostand: Oh, there are a lot of projects in the District that’s for sure. The one that comes to my mind are building projects that we have. You know, obviously, about the new seminary in Virginia. It’s a very important project for the Society that will give us priests in the future. We know now that the actual seminary is too small, and we need more room. That’s why we are working on that new facility. …But, we have also projects of constructions, for instance in Phoenix. Phoenix has a project of building a church, and we hope to be able to start soon.

Obviously, we need some financial help there also. And, I think also of St. Mary’s, where we have a big project of a church which we would like to build. These will surely take some more time to raise all the funds that we need, but we are working on it.

What is clear is that Tradition is growing. The District is growing fast. I’ll give just a couple examples. In St. Mary’s, for instance, in 2012 we had over a hundred baptisms. The classrooms for our grades, especially the smaller grades, are so full that we are planning on doubling these grades next year. These are signs that really Tradition is alive. Everything is really growing and we have to respond to that.

We would also like to open another boarding school for boys. And, the Dominican sisters are also working on opening another girl’s school somewhere. All these are good signs definitely.

AP: Father, you mentioned earlier The Angelus magazine. Obviously, I am familiar with it myself. But, what is the importance of this journal to the District?

Fr. Rostand: The magazine is important for the formation of our faithful. That’s the goal of it. It’s to be able to bring now every other month, articles, giving them food for their spiritual life, for their formation at the doctrinal level, giving some news and so on about the Church, Tradition. It’s all about forming our faithful, helping them to understand the situation in the Church and helping them in their spiritual life. I see it really as something that every family should have with them to keep up with the work of the Society and to keep up also with their own formation.

AP: Father, in conclusion is there anything else that you would like to talk about that we haven’t discussed, or that you would like to emphasize?

Fr. Rostand: I will emphasize our attachment to the Roman Catholic Church. You know what has guided us in these past decades has always been the declaration of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1974, where we find not only the direction that the Archbishop gave us, but also the spirit of the Archbishop. We find there a true attachment to Rome, to Eternal Rome, which is so important especially in a time of crisis because we could lose it. At the same time, we refuse and have always refused the neo-modernist and neo-Protestant tendencies. And, we continue in that path. There you have, really, the spirit of the Society, the strength of the Society, and that’s the way we will continue to go.

Now, I think in this time of crisis where we find ourselves for so long, we must keep these two principles together: attachment to Rome, and refusal of these tendencies in the Church today. That’s why I think our duty is to pray; to pray for the pope, to pray for the bishops, to pray that the authorities of the Church come back to the fullness of Tradition. That’s our goal and it’s very important to be generous in our praying.

We must also pray of course for our superiors, for Bishop Fellay, and the faithful should daily pray for their priests, so they remain faithful to their mission of sanctifying souls around us. I entrust our work, our District, to Christ the King, Who is the Dogma and Devotion that we want to restore everywhere. I entrust the District also to Our Lady.

Once again, next year the conference will be on Our Lady, and on Fatima, because we know the role that Our Lady plays today in the restoration of all things in Christ and the role that She will play so that this crisis may end soon.

AP: Thank you very much, Father.

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