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“Life of love, letters”

«Le Dernier Coup...» et l’héroïque pardon!

(Éditions Vie d'Amour, 462 pages)
[“The Final Blow...” and the Heroic Pardon!]

“An enlightened director, an eminent confessor, Father Veilleux enjoys no fame, but, in God’s eyes, he remains the priestly soul ‘par excellence’ the director towards whom religious will turn one day, studying the letters of direction which he has written to souls he has encountered along his way. His letters have been a balm to pain, have restored confidence, have rebuilt strength, have been an aid in discerning duty, have pointed out the light and revealed the heartening goodness of God.

“Through the power of his priesthood, Father Veilleux brings Christ to the soul and delivers the soul to Christ. He lets himself be taken over by the Lord in order to become a source of help and blessings for everyone. He understands and carries out his providential mission, and the good he does is vast and enduring. The striving to attain holiness on the part of those he directs is for him the highest form of gratitude. This, then, is the true priest, he who goes his way doing good without any noise” (Marie-Paule, Life of Love III, p. 369).

That, in 1969, was Marie-Paule’s opinion of him who had supported her so well during some particularly trying years (1957-1965). A sincere and genuine thought, but one that also voluntarily ignored the “terrible blow” Father Veilleux had dealt her four years earlier, thus showing us the heroic charity which has always sustained Marie-Paule.

In fact, in June 1965, prompted by a strange and totally incomprehensible attitude, Father Veilleux asked Marie-Paule and her family to leave Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts where she and her daughters had given of themselves unstintingly for almost two years in the service of the Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate, at Father Veilleux’s own insistent request. By imposing that Marie-Paule leave the premises immediately, he threw her and her loved ones into total confusion, both materially and spiritually, and those disconcerting circumstances put an end to Father Veilleux’s spiritual direction (cf. Life of Love II, chap. 88).

“IT WILL BE FATHER VEILLEUX WHO WILL DEAL YOU THE ULTIMATE BLOW...,” the Lord had predicted in 1958 (id., chap. 65). That is how those words were fulfilled.

After a long silence of three years, three months and three days – as Marie-Paule’s eldest son, André, noted –, Father Veilleux, passing through Quebec City in 1968, got in touch with the family again. He was warmly welcomed, without going back over this painful past. But never once would this Father subsequently explain his strange conduct, letting darkness hang over the Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts affair.

Thus, the “ULTIMATE BLOW” – never having been cleaned up in openness and truth – would be prolonged and, to this very day, would continue its devastation, even more so once the Army of Mary was founded.

That is what emerges from the ambiguous attitude, to say the least, to be found in Father Veilleux’s writings, his actions with the authorities and in religious communities, his calumniating comments, his anonymous and signed articles in newspapers, his interviews on radio and television, discrediting the Army of Mary and its Foundress. There you have the very many words, writings and actions taken which will be cited as being from a “reliable source” in order to strike at “a Woman”.

An attitude dictated by a fear of the authorities, even to the detriment of the Truth? And yet, in the last years of his life, Father Veilleux recognized the action of God in Marie-Paule’s life and in the Work the Immaculate entrusted to her: “Have a boundless trust. I would not be surprised if the renewal of the Church were to come from here,” he said to Marie-Paule during a visit to the Army of Mary Center in Quebec City. And a short time before his death, he acknowledged how beneficial his letters had been which Marie-Paule had published in 1984: “By an eternal design, the God of love permitted that the Spiritual Letters be published, and He chose Marie-Paule to do this, in the interests of the Army of Mary and for the good of my own relatives.”

If, for so many years, Father Veilleux’s writings, facts and recordings did so much harm to the Army of Mary and to Marie-Paule, now that they have been brought together in this book, they will serve as many testimonials or pieces of evidence that will contribute to proving the innocence of her who has never stopped loving.

Bringing all these elements together was an easy task, for everything had already been written in Life of Love or kept and filed away by Marie-Paule, like all the other letters from religious authorities, in spite of her intense activity and her frail health. All that had to be added was a few explanatory words between the letters or the facts in order to situate the reader within the context of the story. To make referencing easier, each document has been numbered.

In responding to the Lord’s “command” to publish this book, Marie-Paule has allowed the truth to be victorious again over human malice, dispelling the darkness still covering the Work and its Foundress.

And we can see rising on the horizon the promise Mary made at Fatima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!” (1917)

Sister Chantal Buyse
July 16, 2003

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