The followers of Position C are convinced that they cannot depart from the unalterable evangelical principles or abandon their steadfast submission to the legitimate Hierarchy of the Church; which, given the existing circumstances of the Church, places them in an extremely unstable and quite delicate balance. On the one hand, the followers of Position A will always single them out as miserable traitors sold to the System; on the other hand, their great effort to maintain their fidelity to the true Faith will never be acknowledged by those who adhere to Position B, who will unceasingly accuse the former of being rebellious and ultra traditional, notwithstanding their constant and heroic obedience.

            Those who subscribe to Position C know well that they have been doomed a priori to be ignored by the Church, which will never confer upon them any kind of responsibilities or prebend. Not that they have ever wanted them, perhaps because they think that the authentic and merited conferral of ranks and distribution of rewards will not take place until He Who shall give each one according to his works comes again (Rev. 22, 12).

            Despised and abandoned by all as they are, the followers of Position C feel that their own madness, which they regard as divine, leads them to consider their situation as a crest of glory, even as a guarantee of their participation in the existence of Our Lord. Because they know that they are destined, as I have said before, to be scorned and to remain in total anonymity, they hope in all certitude to find in that scorn and anonymity a veritable foretaste of the happiness of Heaven; after all, they are convinced that the well-known saying will always be true: One can apply to men what is said about nations: happy are those which have no history behind them.

            Curiously enough, however, there is a rather peculiar and unique Fourth Position: that of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church (?) which is entirely submissive to the Chinese Communist State and completely separated from communion with Rome. In this sense, as one can easily notice, this Position participates simultaneously in both above-mentioned Positions A and B. Nevertheless, as strange as it may seem, this church enjoys the understanding and kindness of high-ranking Vatican Officials – in contrast to what happens with the underground Catholic Church in that same country, which has not received comparable gestures of understanding and encouragement from the Vatican, in spite of having remained faithful to Rome in the face of the persecutions she has undergone at the hands of the Communist Authorities. Similarly, while a whole hoard of anathemas has been emptied upon the unfortunate supporters of the late Archbishop Lefebvre, it has not been so, by any measure, with the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church. As for the reasons that may have justified such difference in treatment, they remain, so far, unknown to the common faithful.