Listen from 37:50 to 45:00
Thanks to MarcelJude for posting this interview with Bishop Williamson on a recent thread. Because of the length of the video, I am sure there would be many who did not hear the Bishop address this very important question. I thought this topic of sufficient importance to justify re-posting this video.
Bishop Williamson's comments on NOM attendance at the conference in June 2015 raised eyebrows throughout the Resistance, and no doubt triggered a snigger or two within the ranks of the SSPX. I admit that if I had been in the 'Fellay camp' at the time, I would have felt a certain amount of renewed self-justification and contempt for the 'so-called Resistance'.
Every Resistance priest that I know said at the time 'Bishop Williamson is wrong'. It precipitated the split in the Resistance with Fathers Pfeiffer and Hewko launching at outrageous attack, which betrayed a lack of respect and good will, being joined by Greg Taylor of The Recusant. Fr Chazal told us that he saw BW soon after the event and the Bishop asked him if he should apologise. Father told us that he told the Bishop "No, it's not for the General to humiliate himself, leave the damage control to the foot soldiers". I was very disappointed when I heard that, because I think that a clarification at the time could have easily resolved the issue and reassured many priests and faithful.
The important points that I take from this interview are:
1. There has been no change in principle.
2. This is primarily a pastoral question, not a dogmatic one.
3. It is absolutely untrue to make the statement that "Bishop Williamson encourages attendance at the NOM". Rather, he would give permission in private, under very exceptional circuмstances (certainty of valid priest and sacrament, a reverent priest who has the Faith, a reverent Mass), to particular individuals (isolated from the true Mass, feel a great need to be strengthened by the Holy Eucharist, for whom it would not be a danger to their faith...)
4. BW admits that what he said in public should have been said in private, as he says the Archbishop did on at least two such occasions that he can recall.
5. BW says he would give this advice even more today, than ABL did, as the situation in the Church is so much worse.
For me, it is this last point which he makes that I still find altogether unsatisfactory, for two reasons: If the Church is in so much more chaos today than it was in the 70s and 80s, as he says, then isn't it almost impossible today to be certain of the ordination of any given priest? The doubt over the validity of the Holy Orders has been compounded by the multiplication of doubtful consecrations and ordinations over a period of fifty years. And then there is the issue of finding a true Mass. I would have thought that it was much harder to find one in those early years after the Council. Today, I would have thought, the Latin Mass is more widespread than it was then. I am sure that if these points were made to the Bishop, we would receive fully Catholic answers that do not pose any threat to the Faith or the Resistance. And this is where Fr Pfeiffer and Fr Hewko erred... but now we know, there was another agenda...
Topic: Bishop Williamson Admits Mistake re Public Comments on NOM Attendance in 2015 (Read 9243 times)