The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

"Forty years long was I offended with that generation..."

March 14, 2006

"Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart.
And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest." Psalm 94:10 & 11

For centuries, almost every day the Church has placed on the lips of her clergy at the office of Matins the above verse. It refers historically to the meanderings of the Jews in the desert after their initial freeing from the captivity in Egypt under Moses. What if these words were actually prophetic ? What if instead there would come an erring generation that for 40 years offended God ? What if it referred to the 40 years since the close of the Second Vatican Council when it might be truly said "these men have not known my ways"? Will now the vengeance ("so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.") be visited upon us ?

The debate in the Society begins all over again. Fellay's on-again, off-again tango with Rome has re-commenced. In an inteview with Il Tempo just days ago he replied as follows to a journalist's question:

Il Tempo: Is it true that, inside your Fraternity, bishop Richard Williamson does not wish to accept reconciliation with Rome?

Bishop Fellay: I would not say that. I would say that regarding this case Williamson is more pessimistic and I am more optimistic.

This is Fellay's first admission that both Bishops don't see eye to eye with a deal with Rome. How could they ? Bishop Williamson just gave an interview of his own last week in French and followed it up with another monthly column (again in French) in which he elaborated on the interview. The theme of both the interview and the column (Thoughts for March) both center around the expression of Our Lady at Fatima: "In Portugal the dogma of the Faith will always be preserved". The implication is that elsewhere it might well be lost.

In an unfortunate translation error we read in the interview:

Bp. Richard Williamson : Catholics are in great confusion because the dogma of the faith has been lost.

In fact the Bishop did not use the past tense but rather the present tense:

"Catholics are in great confusion because the dogma of the faith is being lost."

This changes the meaning entirely - there is still hope (however, slight) that Rome will re-convert according to Bishop W's mindset.

To the question:

What may Catholics faithful to the Tradition hope for this pontificate ?

Bishop Williamson answered:

Unless there is one great miracle from God to give back to the men of the Church of the council their own sense of the dogma of the faith, it does not seem that there is much, humanly speaking, to hope of this pontificate

Regular readers will know I have been generally upbeat about this pontificate and highly supportive of what I perceive to be Benedict's XVI's attempts to help Traditionalists out with a presumed Apostolic Administration. I was quite happy to read Father Paul Aulagnier's blog where he critiqued Bishop Williamson's "Thoughts for March" in which he suggested that Bishop Williamson was out of touch with Rome and that Williamson ought to compare some recent pronouncements of the Pope with Williamson's own. Aulagnier's contention was that both Benedict XVI and Williamson were saying the same thing - the Council needs to be seen in the "light of Tradition". "There is a big mess in the Church which needs to be fixed" etc. etc.

Aulagnier actually announced that he had telephoned Bishop Williamson in Argentina and urged him to take a fresh new look at what the Pope has been saying, but to no avail. Why this intransigence ? I couldn't understand it. Then the apocalyptic nature of both the interview and the column... This interchange in the interview for example:

Some faithful seem tired of the fight for Tradition. What do you tell them?

Bp. Richard Williamson: Courage! Meditate, meditate, meditate on the last ends! What does it profit a man to gain the whole Rome yet let his faith be undermined?

I was completely baffled - what was I to make of it all ? Then, on Sunday and Monday, I received my answers in a blinding flash ! You see I have been doing some much needed "homework" for a completely different reason.

A few weeks ago I was the victim of a "Chinese telephone" (American version of Chinese Whispers in the rest of the English-speaking world - a rare concession on my part that I actually explain an Americanism for non-Americans and me being English after all !) - a parishioner, told a parishioner who told another parishioner who told yet another parishioner who finally told me, that the 3 Days of Darkness would begin on March 25 and that this was foretold by Our Lady in Garabandal, Spain in the 1960s. Anybody who knows me well, knows I do not, in general, favor apparitions and Garabandal was no exception. However, in order to discount this silliness, I set about reading a book written by a priest called Our Lady Comes to Garabandal. Fr Joseph Pelletier had written other works on Fatima, for example, (The Sun Danced at Fatima) and his work is well-researched and methodical. I sat down and began reading his work on Garabandal, highly skeptical, but trying to maintain an open mind.

I should also mention that a Trad priest friend of mine (and a regular reader of this column) had heard that the Great Miracle of Garabandal was supposed to happen April 13 (Holy Thursday) after which a great chastisement is foretold.

Although Garabandal was an ongoing series of apparitions happening right at the time of the Council beginning in 1961 (before the Council opened) and concluding in 1965 (just before it closed) there are only two public messages of enduring interest:

Our Lady's Message of October 18, 1961
We must make many sacrifices, perform much penance, and visit the Blessed Sacrament frequently. But first, we must lead good lives. If we do not, a chastisement will befall us. The cup is already filling up, and if we do not change, a very great chastisement will come upon us.

Our Lady's Message of June 18, 1965
As my message of October 18 has not been complied with and has not been made known to the world, I am advising you that this is the last one. Before, the cup was filling up. Now it is flowing over. Many cardinals, many bishops and many priests are on the road to perdition and are taking many souls with them. Less and less importance is being given to the Eucharist. You should turn the wrath of God away from yourselves by your efforts. If you ask for his forgiveness with sincere hearts, He will pardon you. I, your mother, through the intercession of Saint Michael the Archangel, ask you to amend your lives. You are now receiving the last warnings. I love you very much and do not want your condemnation. Pray to us with sincerity and we will grant your requests. You should make more sacrifices. Think about the passion of Jesus.

The second message is of capital importance for understanding the crisis that hit the Church in the wake of Vatican II. Don't get me wrong, I am not using these messages as though I think they are authentic, I am just pointing out that these were the words attributed to Our Lady in the 1960s and they happen to coincide (in my view) with the events of the last 40 years. "40" is a key to this whole column.

Back in February 1998 Bishop Richard Williamson wrote these words:

Of course when churchmen seriously misbehave, it can be difficult still to believe that the Church is divine. But let us remember Our Lord Himself. Which of us, had he been present at the original Way of the Cross, would have had no difficulty believing that this mocked, exhausted, bleeding man was God? So it is understandable if Catholics, watching the neo-modernists in Rome today make such a mockery of Catholic faith and morals, can hardly believe the popes are true popes. However, just as the disfigurement of the Man of Sorrows in His Passion did not prove He was not God, so all the present distortion of the Church does not necessarily prove the popes are not popes.

Does this mean that no amount of misbehavior in Rome could ever prove it? No. One day, maybe soon, the See of Rome could become vacant. There have been several false popes, or anti-popes, in Church history. Again, for our own times, or times not far off, Our Lady warned us at La Salette that Rome will become the Seat of the Anti-Christ. It is quite possible that with the death of John Paul II (which may not be far off) there will be a vacant See of Rome or an anti-Pope for a while. So sedevacantism may then become true, at which point it may no longer produce the bitter fruits associated with it in recent years.

When I read these words I was truly confused. For more than a year, earlier in the 1990s, he and I debated on and off this very question. Why, in 1998, did he suddenly concede the possibility of no more Popes after John Paul II ? The mystery remained until this past Sunday, then, in reading Pelletier's book on Garabandal, this short passage:

"The very last prophecy of any consequence that comes to us through Garabandal concerns the Papacy. It is quite startling. Conchita described it during the interrogatory of September 14, 1965, in these terms:

The Blessed Virgin said in 1962 that there will be only two more popes after Paul VI. But this does not mean that the world will come to an end - La Virgen ha dicho el 62 que solo quedarian dos papas mas, despues de Paulo VI. Pero no quiere decir que el mundo se acabara."

On August 10, 1971, Conchita verified that Our Lady had indeed made this statement concerning "only two more popes after Paul VI."

Our Lady Comes to Garabandal Fr Joseph Pelletier Assumption Publications, 1979 p 164

Our Lady of Garabandal
a "Sedevacantist" ?

You see Williamson has been openly referencing Fatima and La Salette, but he steers clear of mentioning Garabandal by name. He steers clear of it, not because he doesn't believe in it - he does and most fervently so - but most other Trads do not. So, in order not to lose street credibility with his following, he quotes the message without referencing the source. More than once in the seminary he distributed literature on Garabandal to we seminarians.

Could it be I finally understand why Bishop Williamson is increasingly "pessimistic" about Rome (as Fellay said) or "apocalyptic" (as I would have it) and crucially ...might he be right ? It has been forty years since the close of the Council and in this fortieth year is God about to lower the boom ? Well according to the grapevine the great miracle is scheduled for April 13 and any time after that... the chastisement.

Now we see why Bp. W. keeps telling us: "The times are very bad..."