Number CCLXXVII (277)   3 November 2012

AND NOW ?

Last week’s news of the expulsion of one of the four bishops of the Society of St Pius X brought in a large number of e-mails of support and encouragement. To every one of you, many thanks. Such a serious division amongst the Society’s bishops is a great shame, but God has his reasons for allowing it to happen, and it is obvious that a number of you understand that the Faith comes before unity. Not division, but loss of Faith is the ultimate evil (I Cor.XI, 19; I Jn.II, 19). As to how the titanic war between the friends and enemies of that Faith will develop, I myself can see at this moment only the broad lines. Let me resort to three favourite quotations of Archbishop Lefebvre, which I think still apply today.

Firstly, “We must follow Providence, and not try to lead it.” If it is true that “Charity hopes all things” (I Cor. XIII, 7), then the Society may be given a little time yet to right itself before it is written off as one more Traditional group gone over to the enemy. That is why I said last week that SSPX priests might lie low for the moment to watch how things develop, while the laity might continue to attend Society Masses, but both must watch out (Mt. XXVI, 41) for contradictions in doctrine, for slackening in morals. The temptation will be to prefer comfort and routine over hardship and upheaval, as did thousands of priests and millions of layfolk after Vatican II, so that they ended up by losing the Faith. We are entitled to wait for Providence to show us which way is the way forward. We are not entitled to lose the Faith.

Secondly, “Time respects nothing done without it.” In other words, it takes time to build something solid. We may be in a hurry. God is not. The Archbishop took his time to build the Society. Vatican II concluded its devilry in 1965. Only 11 years later did the first large batch of priests come out of the Archbishop’s first seminary. Patience. He had not rushed.

Thirdly, “Good is not noisy and noise is not good.” The public domain today is thoroughly poisoned. To try to reach a large audience of modern men is to lay oneself wide open to the risk of the tail wagging the dog, of the audience bending the message, and the messenger, to suit its own corruption. The archbishop rarely went after the media, but they were always after him, because his message was unbending, and that was proof that “Our faith is our victory over the world” (I Jn.V, 4), and not our making noise on the public scene.

In brief, I think that the situation of today’s Catholic Resistance calls for no hurried action, but for a thoughtful measuring of men and events until the will of God becomes more clear. I think -- I may be wrong -- that he wants a loose network of independent pockets of Resistance, gathered around the Mass, freely contacting one another, but with no structure of false obedience such as served to sink the mainstream Church in the 1960’s, and is now sinking the Society of St Pius X. If you agree, by all means make contributions to the St Marcel Initiative because they will certainly come in useful, maybe sooner than I think. For myself, as soon as my situation stabilizes in England, I am ready to put my bishop’s powers at the disposal of whoever can make wise use of them.

In the USA paper checks can be made out to St Marcel Initiative and mailed to St Marcel Initiative, P.O.Box 764, Carrollton, VA 23314, USA. Contributions by credit card or debit card or direct debit / bank wire may be made at www.stmarcelinitiative.com/. For paper check contributions from the U.K. and the Eurozone, details as to where they may be sent will be provided as soon as possible.

Kyrie eleison.

Great wisdom. I agree.It is the way forward. Let us support the Bishop in every way possible.

The onus is going to be on independent priests running their own independent parishes with the bishop overseeing them. This model can be used throughout the world. Meanwhile I am waiting to see what is going to happen to the UK district.

Quote from: Telesphorus

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Patience. He had not rushed.

In the 70s Bishop Williamson was a year or two older than the actor who played Han Solo.

Right now Bishop Williamson is older than Archbishop Lefebvre was through most of the 70s.  And it has been how many years since he was rector of Winona?

Men at that age can become gravely ill without warning.  While they may seem to be in perfect health, serious illness can come on quickly.

Unnecessary delays should be avoided when possible.

Bishop Williamson makes a good point about patience.

You make a good point about urgency.

Hmm.

I believe the suggestion of independente priests existing under the umbrella of Bp Williamson fulfills the requirement for patience and urgency at the same time.  Such an arranagement would allow Bp Williamson to select a suitable successor while being patient in an urgent manner.

Jake

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Patience. He had not rushed.

In the 70s Bishop Williamson was a year or two older than the actor who played Han Solo.

Right now Bishop Williamson is older than Archbishop Lefebvre was through most of the 70s.  And it has been how many years since he was rector of Winona?

Men at that age can become gravely ill without warning.  While they may seem to be in perfect health, serious illness can come on quickly.

Unnecessary delays should be avoided when possible.

I think the bishop understands all of this. If it were to happen it would be God's will and God will still rise His church out of the ashes with or without Bishop Williamson. To the laity (sheep) we know of our need of shepherds (Bishops) but Bishop Williamson looks to the Archbishop and his example and may very well wish to follow his footsteps. Didn't the Archbishop have cancer when he consecrated the 4 bishops?

That said it is a bit frustrating.

St Marcel Initiative.

Is this Saint the patron saint of Archbishop Lefebvre?



Saint Marcellus the Centurion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcellus_of_Tangier

St Marcel Initiative.

Is this Saint the patron saint of Archbishop Lefebvre?



Saint Marcellus the Centurion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcellus_of_Tangier

I can't answer your specific question, but I can offer FYI the fact that I have a
friend whose mother (RIP!) named him with the Archbishop himself in mind as his
patron 'saint' - and due to her heritage, I highly suspect she was not the only
person in the world doing so with the naming of her child.  I would fathom to
guess there are perhaps dozens or scores of people alive today who were named
after +Marcel Lefebvre.  One sign the Church is truly 'healed' will be when he is
officially canonized, and with Meet Traditional Pomp and Circuмstance, e.g. the
Te Deum, solemn and 'with all the stops pulled out' would be a necessity.

Quote

It comes from an attitude that is thoroughly convinced:
~ that +Fellay has done no wrong in his 'exclusion' of his brother bishop,
~ that +W has committed offenses (yet unable to specify the nature of his
    offense other than 'anti-Semitism' and vague 'disobedience' - for what?
    Not sure),
~ the 'division' in the SSPX is due entirely to +W's acts,
~ that "All philosophy makes the simple complicated."

It may come as some surprise to readers to know that among these false statements,
the one that stands out to me as being the root of the problem is the last one.

All these points have been refuted and even if there is a deal, it is a dirty deal. Getting rid of Bishop Williamson had to be done. Even Fr Steiner stated removing the obstacle facilitates the deal.  There is too much at stake so the Bishop must go. It's that simple. As Krah stated, you can't have respectability whilst extremists are in the ranks. The SSPX have regained credibility now that the Bishop is gone.

I'm wont to respond that you're missing a few words:

All these points have been objectively refuted on this forum, except the
last one, and even if there is a deal, it is a dirty deal.  Getting rid of Bishop
Williamson had to be done from the standpoint of the nefarious agenda of the
Menzingen-denizens. Even Fr Steiner stated removing the obstacle facilitates
the deal.  There is too much at stake so the Bishop must go.  It's that simple.  
As Krah stated, you can't have respectability whilst extremists are in the ranks.  
The SSPX have regained some credibility now that the Bishop is gone.  
They will regain most of the rest of their redeemable 'credibility' once Bishop
Tissier de Mallerais is also given 'boot' and the Swiss 'heave ho!'  And to the
extent that the respectability that they are unable to redeem is never recovered,
what's left of them will all the more rapidly become reduced to impotence.