Monday, January 30, 2017

Bishop Fellay Ready to Reconcile

[Rorate]From the interview granted by the Superior-General of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), Bishop Bernard Fellay, to the program "Terres de Mission" by TVLibertes, a conservative French network, as reported by Italian website Radio Spada:

Bishop Fellay confirmed in the program Terres de Mission of TVLibertes broadcast minutes ago: on the factual level, relations with the Vatican are already normal, and only the seal is missing on the agreement (video below):
"This agreement is possible, according to the Superior-general, in his view, without waiting for the situation in the Church to become completely satisfactory." [Source]

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

You mean 'capitulate'?

Anonymous said...

Timeo Danaos atque dona ferentes....

Nicolas Bellord said...

But Bishop Fellay made it clear that reconciliation was only possible if there was a promise not to interfere in the SSPX. Is there any likelihood that Pope Francis will agree to that?

Anonymous said...

Doesn't Bishop Fellay read any Catholic blogs? If he did PF's treatment of the Knights of Malta would send alarm bells ringing! What happened to them could easily occur within the SSPX, personal prelature or no.
G.

igen said...

I don't see any risk with regularization. Only the positive effect of easier influence on ordinary catholics. If anyone tries to interfere with SSPX after regularization, who can force them to accept that interference? They can always go back to their earlier positions. State of necessity still applies. Who can force them to act any different than they are acting today?

Really, what changes with regularization (except the perception in the eyes of average catholics)? SSPX is catholic now. According to their own admission, they recognize the pope and church authorities. They just don't feel obliged to follow them in matters contrary to faith. Why would that change after regularization? Why would regularization give the Pope and Vatican any more authority over SSPX than they already have now? Regularization only means Vatican saying "yes, SSPX is regular Catholic community"; it doesn't have to mean any change or any new submission on part of the SSPX.

Vox Cantoris said...

I think they are in a box. If they do not, Bergoglio will reinstate the excommunications and declare them formal schismatics. Even though we can say it is "unjust" and "without merit" the fact is, it will curtail their growth (a third Mass in Toronto has just been added on Sundays, a new Church an hour away...). The SSPX exists for the education of priests and the salvation of souls. Nothing can come before that.

I say, come in and fight along side the rest of us. As long as their property is protected and secure then they are untouchable.

David O'Neill said...

I agree totally with Anonymous; Bishop Fellay must be VERY careful in his dealings with the Pope who, as he demonstrated with the Knights of Malta, is prepared to tread underfoot any & all Orders etc

Sixupman said...

Not the time! Franciscus untrustworthy!

PaxTecum77 said...

I hope the agreement is signed quickly. This would be the best thing that happened to the Church since after Vatican ll. We need not fear Bergoglio interfering with the SSPX as the Society is strong in its conviction to remain faithful to Christ and His Catholic Church. They have never compromised the Faith nor have they ever allowed themselves to be trampled on. May Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre pray for us. Thank you Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Robbie said...

To quote the immortal words of Admiral Akbar, "It's a trap!"

The SSPX would be insane to accept any offer of reconciliation that comes from Jorge Bergoglio. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing. His goal is to crush and destroy traditionalism once and for all.

A story I read suggested Bergoglio might use a personal prelature as an enticement. The story went on to say Bergoglio would then confine the TLM simply to the SSPX and remove the TLM from regular parish priests.

This man is not to be trusted. I can't imagine Lefebvre would ever do business with a man like Bergoglio.

Anonymous said...

Bishop Fellay seems to possess a strange confidence. Certainly, if Fellay and the SSPX continue saying and doing what they have been saying and doing all this time, but now within a regularized status, then they will be the Paul to Bergoglio's Peter--and to any successor--correcting them to their faces boldly and publicly. I don't think they fear anything; their bishops have already survived excommunication. And SSPX libraries carry Albert Drexel's "Faith is Greater than Obedience" (one can look up the free pdf online). Moreover, the SSPX missionaries in non-Christian regions are real missionaries, actually preaching the Gospel and the morals of the Catholic Church, unlike the embarrassment that we call our missionaries today. Not to mention that their priests believe that their Masses are the true Masses. I wonder if it's Francis who fully realizes what he's getting into. If, after regularizing their status, he tries to touch them, there will be an outcry unlike anything we've seen yet, one that will shake the Church down to its roots. It may be that Fellay's real fear might be for the SSPX itself, that its next generation not drift too far away from ever reconciling again.

Anonymous said...

Did St. Athanasius put himself under the authority of Arius (the leader of the Arians) in order to combat Ariansism? No, he didn't. And yet Bishop Fellay trusts that the leader of the Modernist heretics will allow the SSPX to "remain as they are." It defies logic to believe such a foolhardy thing.

~M. Ray

Anonymous said...

Nothing will happen in the first year of agreement.Francis will not touch them and everything will be fine.
After the first year it will become very interesting.

Anonymous said...

"They just don't feel obliged to follow them in matters contrary to faith." Hmm. If one side says that Christ is not God, and the other that He is, they can still worship together. That's what one side does now anyhow. But that's an insult to God. A violation of the First Commandment. Heresy.

M. Prodigal said...

I think this step would bring more people comfortable in attending the SSPX chapels. I do not trust modernist corrupt Rome though...

Anthony said...

Two ironies surface here: a) the SSPX will be required to accept all of the Documents of Vatican II; b) if a personal prelature happens under Pope Francis, that will be in sharp contrast to the lack of anything like a outcome under emeritus Pope Benedict.
I imagine that a rather large group of SSPX priests will refuse to accept the new arrangements and drift off further into schism.

PaxTecum77 said...

I understand the fears of those who don't trust Bergoglio. But reading on the SSPX site, Bishop Fellay at this moment is instructing Rome on what they will accept and what they will not. If the Society's demands are not met and guaranteed then there will be no agreement yet. Bishop Fellay is following the example of the great Lefebvre, The Infallible Church's Way Or No Way! Let us Trust God.

southwillriseagain said...

What? Even Protestants believe that Christ is God! What "side" are you talking about, Moslems?

Anonymous said...

I was referring to the SSPX on one side, and the Vatican (Bergoglio, Ratzinger, etc.) and their followers on the other. The latter pray publicly with those who deny the divinity of Christ. Anonymous Two

Anonymous said...

Bishop Fellay tells the "pope" what he will & will not accept?