Links
Official announcement at the Vatican website (Italian)
English translation provided by Rorate Caeli
Press release issued by the SSPX superior general, Bishop Fellay
Bishop Fellay's Letter to the Faithful
Some reactions are beginning to come in. Cardinal Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, in an interview this morning with Radio Notre Dame expressed some cautionary remarks but said:
I am delighted. This is an opportunity, a door open to allow Christians to find the fullness of communion with the Church. As long as they want or they accept it. It is a gesture of mercy and a gesture of openness to strengthen the unity of the Church.The Chairman of the German Conference of Bishops has issued a statement in which he says that the Pope has offered his outstretched hand and that he hopes that they take it.
Not everyone is happy, of course: I am not thinking of the sandalistas or the secularists but of many good and sound Catholics who are concerned at the tendencies shown by some within the SSPX and given voice especially by Bishop Williamson. Damian Thompson has written a good piece this morning which summarises those concerns. (See: Pope Benedict is taking a huge risk in lifting the SSPX excommunications). I agree that he is taking a huge risk and that "Joseph Ratzinger has already factored the hostile reaction into the equation."
As I indicated yesterday, I am delighted by this news. I have met some very good people from the SSPX and it is a great joy to know that the principal obstruction to their full jurisdictional normality in the Church has now been removed. It is a typically "Benedictine" move to have the announcement made during the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity and I trust Pope Benedict's judgement that this will "promote unity in the charity of the universal Church." Nevertheless, Damian is right to say that "This is the biggest risk that Pope Benedict has taken in his pontificate so far."
In his letter to the faithful, Bishop Fellay attributed today's good news to the one million, seven hundred and three thousand rosaries that have been said to obtain the intercession of Our Lady. We must pray for the Holy Father - offer up rosaries, Masses, penances, and almsgiving that his courageous "gift of peace" will bear abundant fruit.
19 comments:
Does this mean we can attend SSPX Masses?
Dominie
You're right; I'll pray. Bishop Fellay's statement does not sound like he intends to give any ground. Yet I'm glad the Pope did what he did; it seems he's leaving nothing untried in the quest for unity, and now it's up to the SSPX. At first I was not in favor of this move, but I concluded that Benedict XVI knows a heck of a lot more about the situation than I do, so I'll trust his judgment. :)
Dear Father
Amen. Peter has spoken!
Thank you for this good, balanced appraisal of the situation and we affirm that we shall pray for the Holy Father as he steps out in faith and charity.
It is indeed a blessed day.
Bishop Williams has said some very disturbing things and we must all prepare to take flack over this now from the media/the world and to do all we can to make sure that it is clear to those who ask or challenge us that Catholics do not approve of anti-semitism.
God Bless
Alan and Angeline
Good gracious. Well, it was not totally unexpected, was it ? In fact, Fr. Tim predicted there would be some movement in 2008. But, all the same, good gracious !
Lifting the excommunications is one thing. The canonical regularisation of the Society of St. Pius X is another, and will be a good deal more complicated, I think.
The Pope has done a very courageous thing, but it seems to me that Bishop Fellay, the superior-general of SSPX, will have to be very courageous in the future.
Of course, the whole thing should never have been left to fester for twenty years, allowing positions to harden. There is some very hard work ahead.
God bless the Pope !
This is great news, yes. It is unifying and bears the hall-mark of the Holy Spirit. Pope Benedict's Mission to renew The Church marches on. May he live to be 100.
Surely Father this is good news. Uncomplicated sheer good news! Let us all rejoice at it. I see it as a positive example of the infinite and unstinting mercy of our God - exercised by his Vicar on earth BXVI.
God bless our Pope!
Non nobis Domine non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam. (Ps. 113 Vulgata)
And lets say Te Deum.
…
…Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni: quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.
Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari.
Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine, et benedic hereditati tuae.
Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum.
Per singulos dies benedicimus te.
Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi.
Dignare, Domine, die isto sine peccato nos custodire.
Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri.
Fiat misericordia tua, Domine, super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te.
In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum.
The Holy Father has proven himself to be a brave, wise and caring pastor. I hope that the Bishop Williamson "affair" won't cause too many problems for constructive dialogue, which I hope will be to the benefit of both SSPX and those within the Church who pray for its renewal.
On Pope Benedict from the song 'Young at heart'
'And if you should survive
To a hundred and five...'
DV
Ad multos annos!
I disagree that this move was the most risky of Pope Benedict's. I would say the nomination of Archbishop Levada as the head of the CDF as a lot more risky.
Benedict XVI always regretted the way relations broke down in the 1980's. Lefebvre should have been allowed by the Vatican to consecrate a successor and we might not have had Williamson anyway. So much for the new pastoral "sensitivity" engendered by Vatican II.
I pray to our Lord that this generous act may be accepted as such, and we together can give glory to God. I thank the Lord for his servant Pope Benedict.
It is simply not a heretical proposition or a schismatic act to deny the Holocaust. It is purely an historical error.
And one of this country’s leading scholars of Judaism – Professor Robert Hayward, Professor of Hebrew at Durham – is a very active Lefebvrist.
One thing that really alarms me about the whole EF movement in the Church is that it seems to be so keen on reconcilliation with the SSPX without any terms attached. We have to ask why they were excommunicated in the first place - they disobeyed in a major and very public way the Supreme Authority of the Church on Earth - the Holy Father. Nothing has changed since then, they make the same claims now about Vatican II, religious freedom etc as they did when they split, yet those in the Church attached to the EF seem eager to bring them back and just put these things to one side.
Are those attached to the EF keen to see excommunications of bishops who 'ordain' women on boats lifted? They haven't changed their views on the Church's doctrine.
So - three mediocrities and a jackass are made Catholic bishops. And this is NEWS in the post-conciliar Church?
Listening to Richard Williamson on youtube I am struck by how English he is but circa 1970s as people like him existed throughout the British establishment back then. What is bizarre is that the collapse of the Soviet Empire has led to an intellectual collapse of the right as the left morphed into other areas: environment, sexual politics and aggressive secularism. The old right have been left marooned without an enemy.
Williamson simply ignores this paradigm shift and carries on as if nothing has happened. This can make very uncomfortable viewing but similar discomfort can be experienced by listening to or reading Enoch Powell, Richard Ingrams, the Waughs or Malcolm Muggeridge to name but a few.
Let the inert English establishment take note: if they want their country back, they are going to have to make some tough choices and decisions. It's a challenge that the present conservative party and mediocrities such as Peter Hitchens continue to duck.
Williamson made his choice nearly 40 years ago.
Dominie - yes, you can and always could attend SSPX Masses. This has been affirmed by responses from the Pontifical Commission of Ecclesia Dei. For example:
http://unavoce.org/articles/2003/perl-011803.htm
although, as they stress, you have to do this for the right reasons, but that is fairly obvious anyway.
May God bless our Holy Father for this move, righting a great injustice.
Reply to Sadie Vacantist:
No, no ,no; Willimason is NOT in the tradition of Waugh, Powell, Ingrams etc. They were High Tories; Willimson is in the tradition of Mosley, or rather more the rabid anti-semitic tradition of A.K. Chesterton, Arnold Leese, William Joyce etc. You are right about how the left have morphed. They now run the educational establishment and social services. however, I see williamson's allies in the anti Israel demos in London. He has more in common with the Socialist Workers Party than he does with English Catholic Toryism!
More reasons why he (Benedict) is the Pope and I am not.
Deo Gratias, brick by brick
I'd like to know that too. I'd assume now it is ok to attend SSPX masses.
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