The Recusant

An unofficial SSPX newsletter, fighting a guerilla war for the soul of Tradition!


Statement of Fr. Arnold Trauner, SSPX (Austria)



Reverend Fathers,
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Religion,
Dear Parents and Relatives,
Beloved Faithful in Christ:

Our Saviour invites us to leave all, to sever all ties, rather than to forsake his discipleship.
He is our Redeemer, for He has mediated for us the Divine Grace and has revealed to us all Truth.
Not of our own merit, but rather enlightened and strengthened by His Grace we have therefore counted the bonds of human respect as nothing, in order to remain true to the Church founded by Him, which alone has received the Divine promise of endurance to the end.

Growing up under the watchful eyes and attentive care of one of the few priests in Austria who resisted the flood of modernism and postconciliar innovations, I was granted the opportunity of leaving my homeland in 1988, in order to enter Sacred Heart Seminary in Zaitzkofen, Germany, to persevere there and to be ordained to the priesthood of Jesus Christ as a member of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X.

Now, 19 years later, I am once more following the call, this time to forsake my spiritual homeland, to move away, to give it up. This is happening for the sole reason that I must remain faithful to recognized truth and preserve the grace of my priesthood.

For that which used to be my spiritual homeland now lies in ruins. For a whole decade it has been busily destroying itself(1), in part openly, in part secretly. It has become ashamed of its origins(2), it has disowned its founder(3), it has betrayed its secret entrances to the enemy so that he can invade and occupy the fortress(4).

To recognize facts for what they are is the duty of every sensible person. I cannot pass over in silence what is obvious to all and has not escaped the attention of many tried and true fellow priests. He who keeps silence appears to be in agreement. For the priest this is not allowed, since he was warned at his ordination that he must preach and govern for the good of the faithful(5). He who by virtue of his Divine calling and his ordination stands above the laity cannot wish to make himself small, to duck his head and wait out the storm while the blows of the enemy destroy the souls of the faithful. To wait any longer would be a sin.

An improvement of the situation is not to be expected from the present leaders of the Society. Their most recent statements alone are all too numerous and clear(6). No one can tell me the Superior General has not signed anything, and therefore everything remains as it was: His proposal of a Doctrinal Declaration, dated April 15, 2012, is effectively the abandonment or at least the essential limitation of Archbishop Lefebvre’s reservations regarding the Second Vatican Council, the New Mass and Sacraments, and the New Code of Canon Law.

Therefore it is also senseless to wait for further events or signs. It makes no difference whether or when modernist Rome takes a further initiative to bring the Society under its present leadership under its control, because the SSPX is already so weakened in its basic principles that complete conformity and assimilation are only a question of time and nuances. Metaphorically speaking: Whether the enemy, once the secret entrances lie open to him, tears down the fortress, burns it out or takes it for his own use, is all the same. Alea iacta est. (The die is cast.)

May the eternal and immortal God, the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, receive, bless and strengthen my decision, through the intercession of Her whom all generations shall call blessed because of her indomitable faith!

Fr. Arnold Trauner,
June 25, 2013,
on the 19th anniversary of my ordination to the priesthood.



1.  “During the past ten years a new situation has opened up.” (Fr. N. Pfluger, lecture of May 1, 2012, for Actio Spes Unica)
2.  Symptomatic of this is the obstinate enforcement in Germany of the changing of the Society’s name in the public’s perception from “Priestly Society of St. Pius X” to “Pius-Brotherhood”, whereby the concepts: “priestly”, “Saint” and the patronage of the great anti-modernist and tenth Pope with the name Pius have been suppressed.
3.  In March of 2012, the modernistic postconciliar Rome baited the Society with a one-month ultimatum under threat of excommunication on grounds of schism. Instead of decisively rejecting Rome’s intention, the Superior General composed a compromise text, the Doctrinal Declaration of April 15, 2012, referring himself to a similar text of Msgr. Lefebvre from May, 1988. He neglected to mention, however, that Msgr. Lefebvre withdrew his own text and cancelled his signature under the “Protocol” of May 5, 1988.
4.  GREC: a Catholic discussion-group founded on initiative of the then Ambassador of France to Rome, Pérol, which since 1996/97 has been planning the march route of the “necessary reconciliation” of Catholic tradition with the postconciliar church, carrying it through with the agreement of the responsible superiors on both sides. Cf. Fr. Michel Lelong’s book revealing this project which was kept secret until 2012; see also the utterly debilitated and ineffectual preconditions set by the General Chapter of the SSPX in 2012 for possible future contacts with Rome.
5.  “oportet… praedicare, praeesse…” (Roman Pontifical)
6.  E.g. in an interview regarding the 25th anniversary of his Episcopal consecration (published June 7, 2013, sspx.org) the Superior General claimed that he sees no connection between Archbishop Lefebvre’s vision of saving the priesthood and the consecrations of June 30, 1988. He also made the curious assertion that the Episcopal consecrations were “vitally necessary but not essential” for the Society.
The first Assistant to the Superior General said in a sermon delivered in Vienna on June 16, 2013, that nobody can say what Archbishop Lefebvre would do today. – He may well be speaking for himself; but if Catholic truth does not change, and if Archbishop Lefebvre was a determined defender of this truth, then it is absolutely certain that the Archbishop would also reject a bad compromise with Rome or an agreement to keep silence in 2012 or 2013. After his experiences of 1987/88 he would surely not even consider such a possibility.