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1369, and our 50 American pilgrims will venerate the Angelic Doctor’s remains.
The Remnant pilgrimages are Catholic immersion programs designed to reintroduce pilgrims to Catholic history, culture and spirituality. As in years past, the pilgrimage will be guided by outstanding historians, writers, apologists, and priests. Having already signed up Father Gregory Pendergraft, FSSP, as chaplain, Dr. John Rao as resident historian and James Bogle as guide and quintessential Catholic storyteller, there are a few other Catholic leaders we are courting in the hopes of providing another uniquely Catholic and anti-revisionist historical pilgrimage.
Remnant Tours also strives to provide comfortable lodging, good food and drink and various entertainments that aid our pilgrims in seeing, breathing, and living Christendom as much as possible in a Christophobic day and age—always with the Traditional Latin Mass at the heart of everything.
The cost of this event, including airfare, will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $3000, and we are currently accepting non-refundable $400 down payments.
The Pilgrimage to Chartres is not for the faint of heart. Walking 70 miles over the course of 3 days is not easy, even for the young and fit. But our friends at Notre-Dame de Chretiente do a superb job in providing transportation (for the walking wounded) in the afternoons, plenty of medical and first aid assistance, along with the organizational measures required to safely usher 10,000 Catholics from Notre-Dame in Paris to Notre-Dame in Chartres.
The late, great Michael Davies, with whom I had the pleasure of walking to Chartres many times, used to describe the Chartres Pilgrimage as the "most important annual event in the Catholic Church today." I wholeheartedly agree, of course, which is why it has been my honor to lead the U.S. chapter for over twenty years. For more information or to reserve your place, send inquiries (or down payments) to: The Remnant Tours PO Box 1117, Forest Lake, MN 55025 The Lefebvre Documentary
Last night my older children and I sat down to watch the new documentary on Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre being promoted by our friends at Angelus Press. We were happy to discover that the AP promotional blurb is spot on: "For the first time ever, the life of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre is available in a feature-length documentary film.
This professional documentary examines the entirety of the Archbishop’s life: From his childhood in France to his seminary days in Rome, and from Rome to the missions, all the way through his role as Apostolic Delegate, Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, the Conciliar period, and finally, his great work of Catholic Tradition: the Society of St. Pius X. Drawing heavily on new interviews conducted with his family, friends, priests who worked with him in Africa, as well as many who knew him, this telling of Archbishop Lefebvre’s life is like no other."
This is no exaggeration. Having lived through the last years of the Archbishop’s storied career, the second half of the documentary was not unlike a brilliantly-produced home movie. It brought it all back—the early days of the troubles, what Archbishop Lefebvre had famously called the "French Revolution of the Catholic Church", Vatican II and its unholy aftermath, the introduction of the New Mass, the wild days of aggiornamento and, of course, the men who risked everything in a heroic attempt to keep the Church Catholic. With video and audio of many of the Archbishop’s addresses, I was reminded anew of just how holy, prophetic, fearless, humble, charitable and quintessentially Catholic the man was. As he spoke and I listened, hazily remembering the kind face as it had looked down on me long ago when I’d received the Sacrament of Confirmation from the Archbishop’s hand, it struck me how jaded I’ve become—the result of battle fatigue, no doubt, and yet something the great Archbishop seemed to keep at bay.
The famous smile, the soft-spoken, gentle way, the insistence that all is in God’s hands. No posing, no theatrics, no self-promotion. Just Catholic.
The documentary transports the viewer back to Africa and the staggering accomplishments of a truly great missionary priest, whose work continues to bear fruit in the lives of African Catholics (many of whom are interviewed in the film) to this day. The viewer can’t help but be struck by the fact that the man had already become one of the most extraordinary churchmen of his day, long before most of us had ever heard of him. He is famous for what he did in the last years of his life, but long before that it is no wonder Pius XII made him Apostolic Delegate for West Africa, causing him to emerge as the premier bishop of the Dark Continent; nor is it any wonder that he was named Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers. This was a man on fire for the faith, a missionary extraordinaire, who by all accounts was filled with palpable zeal for the salvation of souls, the rights of Christ the King, and the defense of the Catholic Church.
The documentary offers many interviews of Novus Ordo priests who to this day recall the great man who had dedicated his entire life to building Christendom in Africa one soul, one church, one seminary, one religious house, and one diocese one at time. He quite literally transformed the Church in Africa.
It should surprise no one, then, given his background that a few years later, the bishop who had stood fearless before the roaring lions of paganism in Africa would stand equally fearless before the traitors, liberals and revolutionaries who'd infiltrated the Catholic Church.
Because he refused to swap the old Faith for their new ideas, his brothers in the episcopate (with a few notable and courageous exceptions) plotted against him, hissing phony anathemas and finally expelling him from the Church he’d served more loyally than any of them. His crime? A refusal to go along with the spirit of the age.
"I have never changed. I have preached and done what the Church has always taught. I have never changed what the Church said in the Council of Trent and at the First Vatican Council. So who has changed? It is the enemy, as Pope St.
Pius X said, the enemy who is working within the Church because he wants the Church to be finished with her tradition." (Archbishop Lefebvre, Homily, Venice, April 7, 1980) …It was late, and it was a school night.
My 15-year-old son, Walter, transfixed by the man whose life was unfolding in vivid color and dramatic black-andwhite on the screen before him, observed through the darkness of the family living room that which millions had somehow overlooked in the wild frenzy of revolution at the time: "Dad," he said, "I don’t get it. He was right…and he was obviously a saint. Why didn’t anybody realize that?"
Indeed! It doesn’t matter where you stand vis-à-vis the Society of St. Pius X and its irregular canonical standing.
If you want to know what happened to your Church, if you want your children to know what happened—watch this documentary. It is not a work of SSPX propaganda, if you will. It is a straightforward video record of what happened, and as such can be shown to anyone, anywhere, who is interested in knowing more about what the Church used to look like, what a missionary really is, and how Vatican II changed everything.
And on a personal note, let me say this: It is no exaggeration to say that this documentary made me want to become a better Catholic. His life (and this film) is just that inspiring. I am proud to offer The Remnant’s unconditional and full endorsement of perhaps the most important Catholic documentary ever produced. For more information please visit www.lefebvrethemovie.org The Michael Voris/Mark Shea Debate
On October 8, 2013 it was my pleasure to moderate a debate between Church Militant TV host, Michael Voris, and Catholic apologist and author, Mark Shea. The debate was hosted by the Argument of the Month (AOTM)—the highly successful men’s club based here in St. Paul and headed up by my friend and ally, Kent Wuchterl.
The event attracted a record crowd of some 600 Catholic men, due to the rather unique format, two able Catholic spokesmen, famous for opposing each other’s tactics, and a controversial resolution on the crisis in the Church.
Remnant TV cameras were on hand in order to produce some promotional video clips of the event. Those clips are featured in the first episode of Season Two of The Remnant Underground, as well as an in-depth and candid discussion with Mr. Wuchterl about the debate and its fallout. The program is available online at http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=aCcGJ3Tr2oU Hats off to Mr. Voris and Mr. Shea for a spirited debate on an issue impacting us all. Who won? It depends on your point of view and your understanding of the crisis in the Church. Although I tried to maintain some objectivity as moderator, I found myself in Mr.
Voris’ corner, of course, since I share his belief that the present crisis in the Church is unprecedented. In that sense, I would have to say that he emerged as the stronger contender. Mr. Shea, on the other hand, who is not a traditionalist, was nevertheless a worthy adversary and a good sport, and I'm confident that the debate resulted in 600 men thinking more deeply about their faith, the universal apostasy in the Church and their duty as Catholic men. In that sense, this was a major success for everyone involved, regardless of who won on points.
I encourage our readers to visit the AOTM website and to support this worthy initiative in prayer and in spirit (www.AOTMclub.com ). Catholics are waking up, perhaps not in great numbers yet, and the AOTM is proof positive that all is not lost. Deo Gratias! v