Bump.
In the interest of me not having to repeat all of the reasons why nobody should be surprised at Bishop Fellay's actions (notably in his letter), I encourage anybody who is interested to read this thread if they are surprised at the letter, find it to be "out of character," or are in any other way optimistic about any deal in the works between Fellay and the Vatican. We should not pretend that the nature of any such deal cannot be known. Moral theology teaches us that we can determine many things about a person's motives through analysis of their works and their public words. For instance, the Ratzinger of today has participated in public blasphemy by speaking highly of JPII's Assisi abominations, wherein the true religion was publicly presented as being one amongst many other valid ways to go to God. He likewise has not abjured any of his past erroneous and heretical comments, such as his denial of the Resurrection of Our Lord in a union of soul and glorified body, his denial of the sacrifice on the Cross, and so forth. This is public sin for which there has been no repentance. Thus, we know enough to know that he cannot be trusted and we can come to other conclusions as our intellect and upright hearts concerned for the Faith and the unity of the Mystical Body of Christ lead us. Likewise, we can infer with confidence certain things about Bishop Fellay given that he overlooks these salient facts about Ratzinger, as well as his associations with Maximilian Krah, Sarto Group, Zionism, and so forth. The fideistic and pietistic calls for hiding our heads in the sand until we see a formal docuмent of agreement are just that; let us instead have hearts to help those faithful who, like myself, are concerned about where they are going to find the sacraments for themselves and their families in the near future.