1975-2015, Fr. Calmel, o.p., in memoriam, in spem
May 3, 2015 was the official opening day for the diocesan process for the beatification of Dom Helder Camara, the zealous propagandist for the Theology of the Liberation, nicknamed “the Red Bishop” during his lifetime.
On hearing this sad news, it is good to reread Reverend Fr. Calmel, O.P., who wrote in 1970, in his Brève Apologie pour l’Eglise de toujours (Brief Apology for the Church of All Time): “Were the distress of the Church a hundred times more heartbreaking, a hundred times more cruel, it would still be the Lord who is forever Master and King. It is to Him that all power has been given, it is before Him that every knee shall bend, in heaven, on earth and in hell, even in this sort of hell – painless for the moment – that is the modernist sect. Its noxiousness cannot spread beyond the limits the Lord imposes, and the Lord grants it a certain power to darken, distort and scandalize in a thousand ways, only for the good of the elect and to increase the splendor of the grace of His Church. So we must not fear, but rather persevere with confidence in the Church of all time.” (p.14)
More than ever, the work of Rev. Fr. Calmel, “son of the Church in a time of trial”, proves most up-to-date. And we can only thank the Teaching Dominicans of Saint-Pré for making the effort to reedit his unavailable books for the 40th anniversary of his death. We can thank them most effectively by helping them with a donation to the order of the Amis des Dominicaines de Saint-Pré – 3100 route de Roquebrussanne – 83170 La Celle (Brignoles). It isn’t just a material gift, it is an intellectual and spiritual investment.
Fr. Alain Lorans
On the same topic :
Blessed Dom Helder Camara ?
