by Br. Alexis Bugnolo

For more than 55 years pious and faithful men and women who are citizens of the United States have heard the call of God the Holy Spirit to follow the Lord Jesus in poverty, chastity and obedience, and preserve and promote this personal consecration and self-sacrifice in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ by founding communities of vowed religious characterized by the preservation of the Roman Rite as it existed before the Second Vatican Council.

Contrary to the propaganda of modernists, this desire is no novelty in the Church, for Saint Francis himself, when he was inspired by the Most High to found the Order of the Minors (the Franciscans, who today are called Conventuals, Observants and Capuchins) also petitioned the Lord Pope Honorius III to use exclusively the liturgical books of the ancient Roman Rite, as the liturgy proper to his new Order.

In fact, we would not have the traditional liturgical books of this Rite without Saint Francis, for his Order copied the lasts existing exemplars c. 1225 and propagated them in convenient one-book formats which are known today as the Missale Romanum and the Breviarum Romanum.

So it is a grave shock to me, as a traditional Franciscan Brother, to learn from my confidential source, that the Bishops of the United States have made a secret pact amongst themselves to never approve of any community of religious in the United States which receives the same inspiration as Saint Francis of Assisi. Even though the Saint’s inspiration was approved by more than 23 Roman Pontiffs and was the cause of the magnificent and still in-force Papal Bull, Missale Romanum, by the Dominican, Pope Saint Pius V.

Such a pact is nefarious, evil and schismatic.

It is nefarious because as secret agreement it required Bishops to either refuse permission to such foundations at the beginning of their existence or to hood wink the founds and members by stringing them along for years or decades only to finally deny such permission. In some cases, such as in the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, the Bishops were so dishonest as to use the pretense of future approbation as a way of getting control of the material possessions of these communities, only to seize them as property of the Diocese after inventing some reason to deny the permission years later.

How many vocations have been destroyed by such wicked behavior.

How many vocations have been dissuaded by such scandalous rule.

How many men and women driven into schism or into sects, because their Bishop was a ravaging wolf not a good shepherd, follower of Jesus Christ!

While no Bishop personally has ever admitted to me in public or private the existence of such a pact, from my personal experience of seeking such permission from Bishops in the USA over the last 30 years, and from my knowledge of the history of failure and persecution of so many communities in the USA, I can confirm the effects of such an agreement. — Prudence would have persuaded me that such a pact must exist, as it is the only rational explanation for such continuous uniform persecution by all the Bishops in all the Dioceses of the United States of America.

My experience in Europe also leads me to believe that such pacts exist there too.

Such a nefarious pact is finally schismatic, because it directly opposes the Authority of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul which was attached to the Papal Bull, Missale Romanum.

Finally, the existence of such a pact means that Catholic religious either have to forgo their vocation, travel overseas, or fall into the temptation of schism or breaking from the Church entirely.

Let us pray for a Holy Pope who one day will show compassion to such vocations, who want nothing other than to follow the lead of the Holy Ghost and in the foot steps of so many saints of the Roman Church.

And in the meantime, whatever your views about the Ancient Roman Rite, I would advise you to write your own Bishops and tell them, that so long as they participate in such wicked and deceitful practices, you will not give a penny to their appeals for money again. I would also suggest, that in your letter, you demand, as proof of good will, that they welcome and approve of such communities in your Diocese, and when it appears that they have, demand a copy of the juridical act whereby such permission is in fact and law permanently granted.

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