REMNANT COMMENT: This story broke on several websites that cited it as proof the SSPX no longer believes there is a state of emergency in the Church.
Menzingen, Switzerland, but he does complain of the “wish” coming from somewhere, presumably on high, that the words “Conciliar Church” should always be replaced by the words “official Church.”
“Conciliar Church” expresses something automatically bad, while “official Church” expresses something good or bad, depending upon which of its two meanings it is being given. Therefore to replace “Conciliar Church” by “official church” is to replace clarity by confusion, and it also stops Catholics from referring to the evil of Vatican II.
Bishop Schneider, Lefebvre Had "Prophetic Mission"
The more the doctrinal, moral and liturgical confusion grows in the Church, the more one will understand “the prophetic mission” of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (+1991) according to Bishop Athanasius Schneider. Archbishop Lefebvre founded the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) which engages in preserving Catholic Doctrine and Liturgy.
Talking to Edward Pentin (January 11), Schneider calls the last decades “an extraordinary dark time of a generalized crisis of the Church”.
[Katholisches] The Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X (FSSPX) includes 635 priests, 215 seminarians and 40 pre-seminarians, 117 religious brothers and 79 oblates. The priests live in 165 priories in 32 countries and have 772 centers in 72 countries around the world.
A total of 14 districts and four autonomous houses are subordinate to the General House. Six priestly seminaries are run by the Society.
195 Sisters belong to the sister branch. 17 sisters are among the missionaries in Kenya, founded by Bishop Fellay in 2011. Four Carmel monasteries are connected to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X.
Thus when Fr PR, examining secondly how far one can collaborate with a modernist, answers that one can do so insofar it is for the good of the Church, he constantly abstracts from today’s reality. Thus:—
* The Church is indefectible – Sure, but Conciliar churchmen are defecting all the time.
* The Society is serving the Church, not churchmen – Sure, but it has to go through false churchmen.
* A Catholic prelature could not be refused – Sure, but not if it is managed by false churchmen.
* The Pope need only stick to its terms – Sure, but what protects a piece of paper from such managers?
* The Pope’s authority is from God – Sure, but not in order to destroy the Church (II Cor. XIII, 10).
* The Society was right to accept jurisdiction for confessions and marriages – Fr. PR, are you so sure? What if that was just the cheese on a mousetrap?
* Such a practical question as this last question on our situation right now “is not in the power of this article to judge,” replies Fr. PR, but the very possibility that it might not be a trap proves for him that accepting or not Rome’s canonical recognition “should not be judged only on the basis of one’s unity with the Pope’s faith.” And so he concludes that “canonical recognition should be accepted if it is for the good of the Church and rejected if it is not, regardless of the Pope’s faith.”
But, Father, ask yourself – this Pope’s “faith” being what it is, would or would not a canonical recognition bring the Society under mainstream, i.e., modernist, Superiors? Yes, or no? In real life, do you really think that this Pope would grant a prelature which would not bring the Society under Rome’s control? In other words, under the control of people who no longer believe in objective truth? There is much beauty in Catholic principles, but they have to be applied in a real, often all too real, world.
http://sodalitium-pianum.com/maximum-tension-among-sspx-priests/
The change of attitude of the General House
As we have said, this strong tension stems from a change of attitude of the highest authorities of the SSPX in the face of the crisis that the Church is going through. We are witnessing a triple repositioning:
- Relativisation of the harmfulness of the Second Vatican Council
- Silence on the errors and scandals of the Conciliar Church
- Relativization of the state of necessity
The distance traveled by the authorities of the SSPX in a few years becomes obvious if we listen to the preaching given by Bishop Fellay on 4 August 2009 at St Nicolas du Chardonnet:
Therefore, my dear brothers, do not be surprised if the Society remains practically unmoved when the invitations of Rome come to a new reconciliation after the publication of such a motu proprio. It will take time. It is a whole state of mind in the Church that must be changed and even more than a state of mind, these are principles. It is necessary that authority in the Church recognize those deadly principles which have paralyzed the Church for forty years. Until this is done, it is very difficult to think of a practical agreement. And why ? Because when these principles govern the life of the Church, as soon as there is the slightest difference, it will be settled in the name and by these evil principles. This means that a practical agreement in these circumstances is lost in advance. It is to question all the fight we are celebrating today, it would be a total contradiction with what we have been saying so far. This is not what we want, obviously we want a normal state of things. But it does not depend on us. If we are in this situation it is not because we wanted it. Again, it is out of necessity. And this necessity continues.
It must be noted that the bad principles so denounced by Bishop Fellay in 2009 have not changed in Rome, and that their application is becoming worse and worse under Pope Francis. But it is also true that if Rome has not changed, Menzingen has made its own revolution. But not by all of it’s priests, hence the present tensions.
In this turmoil that the SSPX is going through, the decisive moment will undoubtedly belong to the general chapter of this religious society, prescribed by statute for July 2018. It will first of all decide on this triple repositioning of the authorities of the SSPX to validate it or to nullify it. This will result in the perpetuation or the implosion of the SSPX.
https://psalm129.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/fsspx-news/
The articles on the FSSPX News website are not “news” reports but instead dutiful copy and paste jobs performed by pro-“regularization” priests and SSPX lay employees, with almost all the articles parroted from the French-based La Croix.
The naiveté of those involved in the operation manifests itself in two ways. 1) The stories selected for publication and 2) How current events are “reported” on.
A review of the site indicates whoever operates FSSPX News is a) unfamiliar with the fault lines between “conservative” Catholicism and Traditionalism b) unfamiliar with how Abp. Lefebvre understood the crisis in the Church and c) unfamiliar with or afraid to speak the truth about current events.
There are simply too many absurd news reports to draw your attention to. (One story tried to claim that a Masonic-esque message from Pope Francis to French leader Emmanuel Macron was an instance of the Pope preaching the Catholic faith.) One has to wonder if Rome isn’t asking the SSPX to kindly share Vatican-approved stories (read here and here) with their readers as a sort of goodwill gesture.
Either way, those who select the news for the site seem to be driven by several goals and tactics:
- To make it seem as though Tradition is growing (this is often done by quoting “conservative” Bishops and Cardinals on issues like Amoris Laetitia, abortion, and the like). This gives the appearance that the Society has many allies in the conciliar Church and that a deal with Rome would only help turn the tide.
- Criticize the Pope and Modernist Rome but only by quoting extensively non-SSPX priests and Bishops instead of providing statements directly by SSPX leadership (an indirect, subtle method the SSPX uses in order to make the claim that the Society “hasn’t changed”).
- Praise the positive things conciliar Bishops and priests do (i.e. take a stand against sodomy laws, euthanasia, etc., read here) while remaining silent on their scandalous statements regarding inter-religious dialogue, ecumenism, synodality, etc.
What this strange brew of liberalism and Tradition results in is a defanged, confused Society that, to use a sports analogy, is playing not to lose instead of playing to win. Put another way, FSSPX/News is more concerned with how its reporting makes them appear to non-SSPX’ers than with reporting the truth. They want to be seen as calm and rational. Of course, this mistaken approach is to be expected. As the ever-prudent Bp. Fellay once said, now is not the time to make a lot of noise.
Exposing the Novus Ordo: Select Quotes From Abp. Lefebvre
Exposing the Novus Ordo: Select Quotes From Abp. Lefebvre
Friends, you cant follow FreeMasonry and call yourself Catholic. Pope Paul 6th said Vatican II equated with the "cult of man". That is Masonry not Catholicism...
- “I refuse to contribute to the destruction of the Church, because now, they are destroying the Church. I refuse to go to my death, and before Jesus Christ the Judge, and hear that ‘you destroyed the Church.’ I refuse. I refuse to give a contribution to the destruction of the Church.”
- “Some say the Council was good and has good, but only the reform is bad. But that is not true! Why? Because when Rome gave the reform, they always say the reforms they do, they do in the name of the Council. In the name of the Council! It is evident that all reform came from the Council, and if the reform is bad, it is impossible that the Council is good and all reforms are bad. Because that is the authentic interpretation of the Council by Rome!”
- “…The Holy See and the nuncios, they are against the Catholic State in the name of the Council! In the name of the Declaration of Religious Freedom! The first time I heard this, I was in Colombia. I read in the paper, when I was in Colombia, that there is a change in the constitution of the Republic of Colombia. They changed the first article, which said that only the Catholic religion is recognized by the Republic of Colombia. The Secretary of the Episocpal conference said, ‘In the name of the declaration of religious freedom, we ask the President of Colombia to remove his supreme act (of removing the Catholic religion as supreme) for his Consitution.’ And within two years, he says, ‘We ask, in the name of the Holy See to the President of Colombia, to change his article in the declaration of the Constitution.’ …I don’t accept the Council! Because you are destroying the Catholic State in the name of the Council! It is sure! It is evident!”
- “This Council gives the same rights to error as to Truth! That is impossible.”
- “This new faith, it is a new religion. It is a protestant religion. That is a fact! How is it possible that the Pope gives the authorization to this change? How is it possible that the Pope can sign this constitution [on liturgical change]? It is a deep mystery.”
- “If I take the position of the Council, I am betraying my Mother Church.”
“It is because, in fact, we feel and are convinced that in the last fifteen years something has happened in the Church, something has happened in the Church which has introduced into the highest summits of the Church, and into those who ought to defend our faith, a poison, a virus, which makes them adore the golden calf of this age, adore, in some sense, the errors of this age. To adopt the world, they wish to adopt also the errors of the world; by opening on to the world, they wish also to open themselves to the errors of the world, those errors which say, for example, that all religions are of equal worth. We cannot accept that, those errors which say that the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ is now an impossibility and should no longer be sought. We do not accept that.” Apologia Pro Marcel Lefebvre, Part One, by Michael Davies p. 221 4 July 1976
