In an infamous letter (14th April 2012), Bishop Fellay along with the two other members of the SSPX General Council, lectured his three brother Bishops, like
naughty schoolboys, on their lack of supernatural spirit, their rigoristic insistence on doctrine. their loss of the spirit of the Church and their unrealistic attitude.
In December 2012, Bishop Fellay received a very similar letter from Archbishop Di Noia, Vice-President of the Commission "Ecclesia Dei", upbraiding him for his lack of supernatural depth and his over-insistence on the gravity of errors in Vatican II. He also suggests
a realistic path towards reconciliation which, seeing how their minds work already on the same wave-length, may find sympathetic ears...
Archbishop Di Noia's "private" letter, sent in December, has been sent to all the priests of the SSPX in January 2013. It has not been leaked but the following is a reliable summary translated from a French web-site:
http://www.riposte-catholique.fr/summorum-pontificuм-blog/informations/fsspx-pour-combien-de-temps-encore-le-statu-quo-une-intervention-de-mgr-di-noia#.UPmCpB26cy6
"Every priest of the Society of Saint Pius X has just received a long letter from Archbishop Di Noia, Vice-President of the Commission Ecclesia Dei. The Pope’s aide acknowledges that the disagreement remains unchanged between the Holy See and the SSPX:
- the Holy See considers it necessary to interpret the texts of the Council in the light of Tradition;
- the SSPX thinks that some of the teachings of Vatican II are erroneous.
The whole question, itself unchanged, is
how to make this disagreement bearable.
Using texts from St. Paul, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, Archbishop Di Noia proposes
a new approach, a spiritual one. He asks that both parties make separately
an examination of conscience on humility, gentleness, patience and charity. The SSPX believes that this must not exclude, given the doctrinal issues involved, the rigour of the confession of the Faith. All the more so, since the fragmentation of the faith, catechesis and sacramental practices are all grist to the SSPX mill. On the other hand, it is true to say that the continued deterioration of the situation of the Catholic faith is a pressing invitation to them
to leave their splendid isolation and join the official rescue bodies in the affected areas themselves.
The outline of the practical solution is left, perhaps deliberately, rather vague by Archbishop Di Noia. He recalls, in passing, that
Rome still expects a response from Bishop Fellay to the docuмent which was presented to him on June 14 2012. But also, he offers the SSPX a procedure that could be described as “transactional”:
On the one hand, the SSPX would rediscover the positive charisma of its early years at Freiburg and at Écône (it would seek to reform what should be reformed, firstly by the training of traditional priests and then by sending them out on mission to teach in conformity with their training).
On the other hand, the SSPX, still considering that certain passages of Vatican II teaching cannot be reconciled with the former teaching, could discuss the subject with the following reservations:
- Avoiding, as a matter of principle, the use of the
mass media;
- Not building itself into a
parallel magisterium;
- Always presenting objections in a
positive and constructive manner;
- Basing all of its analyses on theological grounds that are
both profound and broad-minded.
(…) Reference is made to the instruction Donum veritatis on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian (24 May 1990). This means, of course, reducing would be “objections” to Vatican II to simple “theological differences”, but allowing certain public differences…"
Topic: Archbishop Di Noia gives Bishop Fellay a taste of his own medecine (Read 4138 times)