Thursday, June 2, 2011
The Bishop and I
The recent publication of my article Quo Vadis, SSPX : Part I has given rise to some confusion and speculation as to how far Bishop Williamson shares, or is responsible for, the positions taken in that article and/or in others expressing various of my personal opinions. This is partly because he and I have been collaborating at True Restoration Press for the last five years. He has provided much (but not all) of the material published by that Press, for which I am solely responsible. It is thus understandable (though it was not intended) that the Bishop may have been implicated to a greater or lesser extent in my past expressions of personal opinion.


During all that time, however, neither the Bishop nor I have ever had the intention of implying – nor have we ever said – that we agreed with all of each other’s positions on various or any particular issues. What each of us thinks, on his own, is a separate matter from, and certainly of more interest than, any coincidental agreement or disagreement we might have on one or another issue. That said, none of our differences of opinion have ever prevented us from collaborating (I hope and believe fruitfully) as writer or speaker, on the one side, and publisher, on the other.


Thus, True Restoration Press will continue, at least until further notice, to carry the Bishop’s books, sermons and interviews. That these serve a useful purpose by their relating of the integral and eternal Catholic Faith to a highly problematic modern world seems to me unarguable. But my private and public opinions on Church and secular issues, past, present and future – including those expressed in the above-mentioned article – are separate matters, and they have never been nor are they endorsed by the Bishop, explicitly or otherwise.


So, to avoid in the future any improper appearance of endorsement (in either direction) or possibility of confusion, the Bishop’s weekly commentary, known as “Eleison Comments” by Dinoscopus, will be, as of July 1, underwritten not by True Restoration Press but by the website Durendal out of Canada.


The Bishop has seen and explicitly approved this clarification.
Posted by Stephen Heiner at 2:22 PM