MONTREAL, November 29, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — A group of young French-Canadian Catholic men are asking their bishops to teach the traditional faith and give the spiritual leadership they say is essential to combat the nihilistic culture that tempts many to despair.

That includes allowing access to the traditional Latin Mass.

Twenty-nine men between the ages of 18 to 44, including university students, a doctor and two lawyers, signed an open letter titled “We Ask for Faith: Open Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church in French Canada” (read full letter below in English).

A lay initiative, the letter was sent to 23 bishops of French-speaking dioceses across Canada, as well as the Assemblée des évêques du Québec, or Quebec bishops’ conference, in early November, says George Buscemi, president of Campagne Québec-Vie, the province’s largest pro-life group.

The letter is now on the Campagne Québec-Vie website and has been signed by 145 people, including some women, as well as Fr. Daniel Couture, Superior of the District of Canada for the Society of St. Pius X, and Fr. Jean-Real Bleau, longtime diocesan priest in Montreal.

It paints a bleak picture of the lives of French-Canadian men, who “live daily in a culture of death that robs them of the desire to live and the desire to transmit life.”

Caught in “the infernal materialistic cycle of ‘metro-work-sleep,’” many men today seek to escape the “chasm of nihilism” with drugs, alcohol, and pornography. They divorce, lose touch with their children, and die alone or choose euthanasia., the letter states.

Indeed, the most recent statistics from Quebec reveal 1,331 euthanasia deaths between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019, including three euthanasia deaths for hip fractures.

Quebec is also known for a high abortion rate and lowest birth rate in Canada.

But it was not always this way.

“We are French Canadians, our roots penetrate deeply in the New World, but also in Europe, even in the soil of France, the eldest daughter of the Church,” the letter says.

The signatories attest to a “certain bitterness” toward their predecessors, who did not guard the Catholic faith, nor pass it on.

“In this era of euphoric delirium and destructive madness that was the 60s, those who preceded us gave way to a wave of inspirations from the depths of Hell,” it reads. That included a secular government that passed laws allowing divorce, contraception, and “the greatest genocide in the history of humanity, abortion.”

The signatories ask the bishops to give them the “Catholic Faith in its entirety, without sweetener. We ask that our people have access to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in a dignified form that gives glory to God.”

Julien Bertrand, the 36-year-old principal author of the letter, says he wrote it “as a heartfelt cry for my French-Canadian brothers I see suffering from a Godless nihilistic life leading to suicide.”

“On one side they are persecuted by their own government, the mainstream media and the intelligentsia because they were born white males. On the other side, their family, the school, and Holy Mother Church didn’t transmit them their rich culture, their glorious History and the one and only true faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ,” Bertrand told LifeSiteNews in an email.

“They are rootless trees in the hurricane of post-modernity, radical feminism and massive foreign invasions,” he said. “I hope those who are in charge of God’s flock will hear the call of their loving sons and may they know that we pray for them.”

Buscemi signed the petition “as a shot in the dark. I expect no answer, but I hope for one. I can do no better,” he told LifeSiteNews.

“I honestly think the Church is going through a Passion, that it is hanging on the cross before our eyes. I see temporal and eternal salvation nowhere else, yet the Church is practically dead and buried … Only God can resurrect, but he asks us to ‘actively wait.’ I see this petition as such an instance of active anticipation. We call for the resurrection, and hope it comes, soon.”

One anonymous signer told LifeSiteNews he has “no illusion that the bishops will react positively. But I thought it was important to join the initiators of this letter and I could fully identify myself with the experience described in the letter. You discover the tradition, and you feel like you have been robbed.”

“And the French-Canadian identity is so tied to the Catholic Latin rite that it’s impossible to understand ourselves without looking into it,” he said, adding that he didn’t think “there will be any serious return to the Catholic faith in this land until the bishops propagate and encourage the traditional Latin Mass.”

“Men need the sight of a God they can fear and love. I can’t fear and love happy-clappy-silly song-feel good religion. If I am going to give my life and die for something, give me something real. Not sugar-coated.”

Another anonymous signatory said he signed “because I believe in a Church first led by its priests and bishops. These figures of the Faith walking among us should provide guidance, example and inspiration; they be at the front, clearing the path for laymen.”

A petition cannot reverse the Quiet Revolution, and “I have no illusions nor conservative nostalgia,” he wrote.

“What I believe is that times of crisis are particularly good times to be Saints, following Jesus Christ himself in the hardship, and a part of me hopes that such letter will give the necessary impetus for the strong and courageous priests and bishops to finally align themselves with our Saviour.”

The Vatican “is the spiritual and nerve center of the Western world. Ever since the Chair of Saint Peter was won over to the globalist cause, our civilization has been like a headless chicken,” pointed out another petitioner.

“The war waged against us is above all a spiritual war and will only be won with spiritual weapons. Without a strong Church, we are like an army without a general.”

“We need a fighting clergy more than ever … I believe that this letter was written as a local effort to that effect. I do not expect any answer from our bishops. Filial piety, however, commands us to humbly and kindly criticize our Clergy.”

So far, the petitioners have received two responses from the bishops, Buscemi said.

One was a pro forma letter, another paraphrased the Vatican II apostolic constitution Lumen Gentium no. 9, ‘The Church goes ahead, marching among the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God, announcing the cross and the power of the Lord until his coming.’”

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