Verrua Savoia, December 27, 2019
“By your words you will be judged (Luke 19:22)”
Retractions. Retractions are not rare (Saint Augustine wrote a book of them) even in our own field: Father Barbara for example, for many years a leader of the “sedevacantism” hostile to the Thesis of Cassiciacum and of the episcopal consecration of Bishop Guérard des Lauriers, retracted his position and wrote a pamphlet to explain why it is necessary to adopt the Thesis of Cassiciacum rather than sedevacantism simpliciter. Now, according to some, the opposite would have happened: Bishop Guérard des Lauriers would have retracted the Thesis of Cassiciacum for…for no one knows what.
Louis-Hubert Remy, in fact, recently published on Catholicapedia (successor to the defunct “Virgo Maria”) a piece entitled:
“Un merveilleux cadeau de Noel 2019. La refutation de Mgr Guérard des Lauriers sur la Thèse de Cassiciacum” (A marvelous gift for Christmas 2019. Bishop Guérard des Lauriers’ retraction of the Thesis of Cassiciacum).
Mr. Remy admits of having always had “une vénération sans limites” (a boundless veneration) for Bishop Guérard des Lauriers, yet he allows himself to define the theological thesis defended for ten years by the Dominican theologian as “fou-thèse” (“foutaise” is an extremely vulgar term which, in order to avoid foul language, we will translate as “idiocy”).
According to Mr. Remy, Bishop Guérard des Lauriers “quelques mois avant sa mort (survenue le 27 fevrier 1988)” (some months before his death, which took place on February 27, 1988) would have admitted himself that his theological thesis was a “fou-thèse”, or, using words attributed to him “une thèse” that “contient des erreurs théologiques énormes” (contains enormous theological errors); and to demonstrate his unusual concept of “vénération sans limites” toward Bishop Guérard des Lauriers, he extensively spread about this document to demonstrate that for ten years Bishop Guérard des Lauriers spread a “fou-thèse” and enormous theological errors. A strange way to show – boundless – veneration for someone.
But there is no valid argument against the facts, Mr. Remy seems to object, and the facts appear to be in a signed letter from Bishop Guérard des Lauriers himself in which the Dominican theologian declares himself perfectly convinced of his error due to a study by Alfred Denoyelle. And in fact, although Mr. Remy says he learned of the existence of this letter from a book on Cardinal Rampolla by the pseudo-Henri Barbier (i.e. himself) published by Saint Remi editions, in reality the letter is found, as everyone knows, on the website of the same Alfred Denoyelle.
Since Louis-Hubert Remy nominally challenges us to respond to his vile writing, here is what we have to say about it:
Providing that Bishop M.L. Guérard des Lauriers had effectively retracted his theological thesis regarding the current situation of authority in the Church, the “Mater Boni Consilii” Institute has no reason to retract it in turn. Our Institute, which venerates truly and not hypocritically the figure of Bishop Guérard des Lauriers with filial affection, does not, however, adhere to the aforementioned thesis because it was supported by the said theologian, but simply because it is true, and no serious objection has so far been presented to oppose the said thesis.
Providing that the published letter is authentic (in fact we have not seen the original) the fact remains that the priests of the Institute, in particular Father Giuseppe Murro, and even for a week Father Ricossa, were at Bishop Guérard des Lauriers’ side, together with Miss Marie-Claude Mandon, during the entire period during which the said Bishop was hospitalized in the hospital of Cosne, from 10 January to 27 February 1988 (see the article by Father Murro, “Comment meurt un homme de Dieu”, Sodalitium no. 18, Italian ed. November-December 1988, French ed. Avril 1989), asking him numerous questions concerning his theological thesis, and the Dominican theologian, perfectly lucid despite his illness, always responded to them, confirming his thesis up to the end. They believe that Bishop Guérard’s love of the Truth, of which Louis-Hubert Remy himself speaks so much, would have forced him, if he had really changed his opinion, to warn first of all those priests who would have followed him in “enormous theological” errors.
And not only this. Louis-Hubert Remy himself admits, and paradoxically testifies against himself, that not only did Bishop Guérard des Lauriers never publicly retract his Thesis (something he certainly would have done if he had effectively changed his opinion) but that even among those of his friends who were uncomfortable with his thesis, he never did so.
“Nous ne sommes pas complètement surpris de cette rétractation, bien qu’ayant visité Mgr sur son lit d’hopital peu avant sa mort, il ne nous en ait pas parlé, ni à mes amis proches, ni dans son dernier sermon” (We are not completely surprised by this retraction, even if visiting him in the hospital prior to his death, he never spoke about it [the retraction], not even among his most intimate friends nor in his last sermon).
Out of thy mouth I judge thee…with what follows.
And not only this. We do not know for how long Bishop Guérard’s letter appeared on A. Denoyelle’s website, but we are not aware of anyone spreading the extraordinary news of this retraction while Bishop Guérard des Lauriers was still alive (thus being able to deny or confirm what is now attributed to him) and that only after more than 30 years after his death did Louis-Hubert Remy spread the “news” of the retraction throughout the traditionalist world.
Coming then to the text attributed to Bishop Guérard, some inconsistencies immediately catch the eye:
we are not told the name of the person to whom the letter was written;
it is not stated to which writing by A. Denoyelle the letter refers (LHR himself admits this);
it is therefore not clear what thesis Bishop Guérard is talking about;
and above all there is no date on which the letter was written (while Bishop Guérard never omitted the date).
It is well known that an undated will is legally void. In this case, an undated letter does not allow us to understand which study by Denoyelle we are talking about, and above all whether a retraction is even plausible. In fact, the no. 13 issue of Sodalitium (Italian edition) published an interview with the Bishop in May 1987 in which the Dominican very clearly reiterated all the principles of the Cassiciacum Thesis. On November 25, before the episcopal consecration of Bishop Munari, Bishop Guérard des Lauriers asked all those present to adhere to the Cassiciacum Thesis or to leave the church, since only said Thesis justified the consecration that would take place: all those present are witnesses to it. On December 16, 1987 he wrote a letter to “brother Pierre Marie” (Marc Winckler’s name as a Dominican tertiary) to recommend our Institute to him and ask him to translate Sodalitium into French: now, Sodalitium openly supported the Thesis (see “Mgr Guérard des Lauriers et l’Institut”, Sodalitium, n. 18). And so we ask: WHEN would Monsignor Guérard have retracted the Thesis, writing it to an unknown person while saying the opposite to everyone else?
We think that the “Christmas present” that Mr. Remy believes he has received is not only a poisoned gift for those to whom he sent it, but will ultimately also be a poisoned gift for himself.
In the meantime, since LHR seems to appreciate so much the one who managed to “convert” Bishop Guérard, we would like to point out to him, as our Christmas gift, some articles by Alfred Denoyelle, even if, perhaps, LHR won’t appreciate them:
Alfred Denoyelle: L’apparitionisme toujours au service du Gallicanisme?
Alfred Denoyelle: Les malades du merveilleux
Happy reading, Mr. LHR.
P.S.: Please clarify the slander of which you would have been the victim due to your denial of the Cassiciacum Thesis. Or are you ashamed of it?