OUR LADY OF FATIMA
CATHOLIC CHURCH
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OUR LADY OF FATIMA CATHOLIC CHURCH |
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Bishop
Fellay's Conference on His Secret Meeting in Rome...
... and the "HMS Williamson" runs aground.
December 20th, 2005
I was expecting that by now some enterprising fellow would have posted a summary of Bishop Fellay's audio conference posted on the official SSPX French website but as yet none has appeared. Now given that the sound file shows that it was 1 hour and 25 minutes I hope nobody expects me to provide a complete translation of the Bishop's text. Indeed such an undertaking in addition to being highly labor-intensive would also be superfluous. Much of the Bishop's musings could certainly be pared down to the bare bones.
Before proceeding to a summary of Fellay's text, what about Bishop Williamson's latest posting on Angelqueen ? Did anyone notice the odd curiosity about the timing of the posting ? It was December 7th the same day as Fellay was making his top secret visit to Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos. Could there be an any clearer sign of division between the Bishops in the SSPX ? Fellay scuttles off to Rome for a 5 hour (!) meeting with Castrillon where I am sure that the conversation was much more than about the pasta they had for lunch; meanwhile deep down south a stealth torpedo attack on the pride of the SSPX fleet comes out of the redoubtable HMS Williamson. Yet another irony of the choice of timing for this sneak refusal to do a deal with Rome (any deal) was the date: December 7 - Pearl Harbor Day in the USA. Yes on the anniversary of the sneak attack that began WWII for the United States, Bishop Williamson launched his own offensive against the deal-makers within his own ranks. Yet another parallel between the original Pearl Harbor attack and the more recent one by Bishop Williamson was the fact that the Japanese began their offensive using not only wave after wave of naval aerial bombardment but also using midget submarines to penetrate the anti-submarine nets at the mouth of the harbor.
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As deadly as the Japanese attack later proved to be, the submarine element of the battle was surprisingly ineffective. Some were detected and destroyed. Others (as in the image right) simply ran aground because of steering problems. The ineffectual nature of the Japanese submarine component in the Pearl Harbor attack in many ways resembled Bishop Williamson's latest efforts. The "HMS Williamson" simply ran aground. Unaccountably his newsletter from December was pulled from Angelqueen within a day or two of posting. This was most unfortunate since it had much of interest to commend itself to our consideration. There was only one memorable thought upon which I wanted to comment and that is probably at this distance (more than a week) now inaccurately remembered by myself. The Bishop expressed the thought that there are bishops and priests outside of the Society who quite rightly observe that as long as the SSPX stays out of a deal with Rome our own future is secure. |
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Quite probably this is true for a number of independent parishes but not in every case. At this Church for example, we never had any connection with the Society of St Pius X. We, like a good number of independent parishes were founded by the old ORCM and have preserved our integrity through thick and thin since our inception in 1975. It will be noted that at that date (1975) the SSPX in the US was itself only a fledgling group and that other laborers in the Lord's vineyard (retired priests who refused to say the Novus Ordo) had sprung up all over the world without any connection to the Society of St Pius X. Personally I think the issue of whether the SSPX keeps independents like me in business is debatable, in any case we shall both see when the Society makes a deal (in what will surely not be the too distant future)... which brings me to Bishop Fellay's text:
A note about the conference location first (because this is highly instructive). Listening to the audio the church bell twice strikes the hour. Since I spent 1988 - 89 teaching English in a French high school just outside Paris I instantly recognized the bell of the Society's Church of St Nicholas-du-Chardonnet in Paris. This was confirmed for me when I looked at the title of the audio file I had saved to my computer desktop. Why is this significant ? I would venture to suggest that this church is the largest community of the SSPX in France and certainly it is symbolic as being in the French Capital. Speaking there, is like speaking to all SSPX French followers. France is without doubt the largest district of the SSPX in the world. In addition the SSPX has had major problems in the French district the last two years with the expulsion of numerous high-ranking SSPX priests which we have mentioned before in this column - Fr Philippe Laguerie (who was parish priest of St Nicholas during my time) is a case in point. To address Frances's premier congregation (if I may coin such a term) is a major address to the entire SSPX. A summary of the text now follows:
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Fellay begins his conference with a classic negative (I mean this word in its strict theological sense) Trad definition of Faith – that is a denial of one dogma will close the doors of Heaven – and proceeds to give the positive definition: to be a true Catholic one must integrally accept all dogmas to be Catholic. Hence Fellay places himself (and a fortiori the SSPX) under the banner of integral Catholicism the whole must be accepted or "You ain't Catholic" - a position in which I wholeheartedly concur. He proceeds then to
delineate the attack on the Faith within Church – Modernism –
something which he insists is very much inside the Church. Modernism as a
theological system is based upon a new philosophy which is subjective in
orientation (truth is what I make it or believe it to be) For example, Faith
tells us about the transformation of the Real Presence in Mass. In the
face of this truth of Faith we submit our intelligence to the
Faith. This brings us to the notion of Infallibility; the fact that the Church cannot teach error. There are 4 conditions for infallibility – Conciliar Popes know this – and they go out of their way not to invoke it. There is one case in which infallibility was NOT invoked = Vatican II was not dogmatic but pastoral. |
For our part (SSPX) We
remain attached to the Faith and Traditions of Rome of all time…. – not an
abstraction = a reality which exists today.
Suddenly we hear things
unheard of… things condemned by the Church. Those condemned in the 1950s were
the innovators of 1960s: Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, John Courtney Murray, Karl
Rahner,
Most of the errors are
ambiguous not clear. “We will draw the consequences later…”
Fellay then quotes Archbishop Lefebvre: “We refuse and have always refused to follow Neo-Modernist and Neo-Protestant Rome which clearly manifested itself at Vatican II and in all the reforms that issued from it.” He continues quoting the Archbishop: “No authority no matter how high in the hierarchy it may be can constrain us to abandon the Faith”
And now we reach the heart
of the message: Fellay returns to the theme of the two Romes: " It is a
great mystery to distinguish between the two Romes – but a reality – it is
like an illness." He continues: :The Church cannot die even if the Cancer
is everywhere – we cannot abandon her." There you have it !!!! "We
cannot abandon her" that is: "We need to make a deal - be on the
inside - save the Church" How subtly he slipped it all in and we hardly
even noticed ! He presents the deal under the aspect of saving the Church
- a theme to which he will shortly return.
Fellay resumes: "The
Popes themselves have caused the illness. Paul VI refers to the
“self-demolition” of the Church and of the presence of “Satan in the Church” ! Every Catholic
has the duty to take measures to preserve the Faith.
Benedict XVI
For the first time we have
an open admission by Fellay that the Pope "laid it on the line" - he
reminded Fellay of the duty of obedience of the need to recognize the
power of the Pope and that the Society's claim to flout the law based the
use of a State of Necessity was entirely bogus – because as the Pope put
it "I am trying to resolve the problem". There is no state of
necessity if the Pope is trying to solve the crisis (Pope Benedict XVI's thesis
to Fellay - a thesis Fellay proceeds to reject in his conference by the way).
However, Fellay at least insists that
the present Pope recognizes there is a grave crisis in the Church
Speaking now to the
so-called sedevacantist solution Fellay says: "It would be easier to turn a
page on the Church of today, to draw a curtain and say they are all outside the
Church and that only ourselves remain – that is certainly not the reality."
Fellay points to Vatican I (an issue I have raised many times in this column)
The Times the
are a-changing (or are they
Has the arrival of a new Pope changed anything ? "Yes and no… What has changed ? On the part of men etc. Nothing. What has changed ? A spirit, a hope…. The conservatives have taken courage, the progressives are grinding their teach."
The tale of the Vanishing Decree
Fellay now
refers to his meeting with Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos on December 7th and begins
with the issue of the longed-for decree allowing the Tridentine Mass to every
priest again:
Mystery Reigns in Rome
Castrillon Hoyos –
something is in the pipeline but we don’t know what – the Pope is staying
quiet.
Apostolic Administrations may be the Answer
As for the Indult
communities even one year before this Pope Rome was seriously considering
concretizing the situation with several apostolic administrations.
Vatican II =
sticking point.
"A debate may now be possible about Vatican II." This was how Fellay plans to sell the deal - Rome is open to dialoging about Vatican II so "openness" should be enough for the SSPX faithful to swallowing a deal. Dialog ? Who is Fellay kidding ? Has he already forgotten what the Pope told him and he previously admitted ?
