Those who knew and loved Bishop Williamson will recall various ways in which he helped them draw closer to God and His truth. Although it would probably not make the list of top thousand ways in which he brought souls closer to God, it is worth recalling his January 1, 1997 letter to friends and benefactors of the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona — “Lyrics of Pink Floyd reveal youths' scream for help” — because its core message has become even more important over the past few decades.

The basic idea of Bishop Williamson’s letter is that the youth may be right in sympathizing with Pink Floyd’s call to run away from Western materialism, but we Catholics need to give them God’s truth to run towards. Because this task is even more urgent today, Bishop Williamson’s death presents an occasion for us to revisit his holy wisdom.

The Catholic religion is eminently reasonable, and truly is the only set of beliefs that explains how the world got into the current mess and what we must do to counteract the evil around us. If we can portray the Faith for what it really is, men with common sense and good will should find something they can run toward.

Bishop Williamson opened his letter with words that set the tone of authority, reality, and piety:

“One gets used to anything, but nevertheless the music of youngsters in modern Western society is the alarm-bell ringing off the wall. In case any readers are comfortably asleep, let them be rudely awoken by a few moments' study of a classic ‘Rock’ album, so that in this month of the Holy Family we can think of what Catholic parents should do."

Taking his role of shepherd seriously, Bishop Williamson wanted to explain to Catholic parents what they ought to learn from the popularity of rock music. After discussing how the words of the music matter even if listeners pay little attention to them, he identified the core issue:

“If Pink Floyd also achieved fame and wealth, then Western adults, if they care at all for their youth, must pay attention to the message. Surely the message is, precisely, that the adults do not care! ‘Rock music is one long, unheard, scream for help,’ readers of this letter were told last June.”

This message remains vital today because we could replace “Rock music” with any number of ways in which people today are “screaming for help.” We all see the corruption, hypocrisy, greed, and wickedness — and the youth who have not yet given up tend to “run away” or protest in some way. As Bishop Williamson explained, the running away from evil is not problematic in itself:

“The revolt against everybody and everything that is expressed by Pink Floyd is so against nature and so unhappy that one cannot believe such a mass of youngsters as make stars of Pink Floyd would choose it as a way of life if they had the choice. But the Western materialism inspiring this revolt was chosen for them, by generations and generations of adults that went before them, who, as they grew up, settled for the satisfactions of age-old pride and sensuality made increasingly available by that materialism. There is much more involved in Pink Floyd than just juvenile revolt. Thank Heaven the young are protesting! Their protest is a call from our common human nature which we are violating. Our way of life is rotten. There is a precious spark that is extinguished each time a youngster gives up protesting and joins in building The Wall, or, as Augustine would have said it, helps raise the city of Mammon against God.”

So the problem is not the instinct to “protest” the profound evils we see, but the fact that the youth run toward other evils rather than toward truth and goodness.

However, Satan and his minions have infiltrated the Church and managed to lead its ostensible authority figures to teach something else. In the decades after Vatican II, these wolves taught that 2+2=4, but also 5, and 7, etc. Today, with Francis, we learn that 2+2= anything in the world, other than 4.

Here we could expand Bishop Williamson’s argument to encompass one of the most pressing issues facing serious Catholics today. Thanks be to God, millions of people around the world are running away from the mindless woke and globalist agendas. But are they going to find God’s truth — Catholicism — which alone can satisfy them? As we know, the Church’s enemies have now convinced many Catholics and non-Catholics around the world that Francis’s church is the spiritual force behind the globalist movement. How, then, do we lead souls to the immutable Faith that is daily attacked by Rome?

Bishop Williamson answered that we must make God the center of our lives:

“Then what do Catholic parents and adults do? First and foremost, render unto God what is God's. Treating God as though He is of no importance is the heart and soul of the problem. Parents, adore God, love God, give the example of practising the one true religion of the one true God, with all your mind and with all your heart, in the home. Make the presence of God there as natural to souls as oxygen is to the bodies. Pray the family Rosary, with father kneeling in front, or doing whatever he needs to do to be seen leading his family towards God.”

Of course this will have a more immediate impact in our own family life than in wider circles, but we must begin with what we can actually control.

We should note as well that Bishop Williamson wrote that we must set the example by “practising the one true religion of the one true God.” The bulk of Bishop Williamson’s fight as a Catholic cleric was directed to protecting the one true religion against the assaults from those wolves masquerading as Catholic shepherds. If we seek to lead souls to the true Catholic Faith, it seems that we have to fight the errors that have plagued the Church since Vatican II.

Catholics of good will can of course disagree on whether Bishop Williamson always chose the best paths to defend the truth, but it is evident that he fought and sacrificed to promote God’s truth.

To use an analogy that Bishop Williamson frequently employed, men with common sense know that 2+2=4, and they will generally reject anything, or anyone, who tells them otherwise. The Catholic religion is eminently reasonable, and truly is the only set of beliefs that explains how the world got into the current mess and what we must do to counteract the evil around us. If we can portray the Faith for what it really is, men with common sense and good will should find something they can run toward.

However, Satan and his minions have infiltrated the Church and managed to lead its ostensible authority figures to teach something else. In the decades after Vatican II, these wolves taught that 2+2=4, but also 5, and 7, etc. Today, with Francis, we learn that 2+2= anything in the world, other than 4. This is the public face of the Church, which obviously cannot attract men with common sense.

For this reason, we must insist on unadulterated Catholic truth and oppose the errors that would undermine it. If, in the name of obedience or “being nice,” we appear to accept errors, such as false ecumenism, then we will set an example that truth does not really matter. And when we do that, then we send the message that there is really no reason to choose God’s truth over the countless counterfeits.

Catholics of good will can of course disagree on whether Bishop Williamson always chose the best paths to defend the truth, but it is evident that he fought and sacrificed to promote God’s truth. May God reward Bishop Williamson abundantly, and grant us the grace to fight for the unadulterated Catholic Faith as saints. Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us!

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