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As usual, the EC is food for thought. But this time, it's a whole lot more.
This is great stuff. And it's very timely.
We will look back at this in years to come and wonder why we didn't pay better attention
when there was still time..............
(I'm going to add some formatting to make it easier to see who's talking..
+W is in blue, his author is in black, and the IDEAS of the person his author refers to are in dark red.)
Number CCCXLVII (347) 8th March 2014
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FIFTIESISM OBSERVED
If there is, at least up till now, relatively little reaction from within the Society of St Pius X to its complete change of direction under Bishop Fellay, that is because of the desire to return to the Catholicism of the 1950’s. So observes a Catholic attending Mass at an SSPX Chapel in the English-speaking world. She wrote to me recently:--
+W has touched on this theme previously over the years, and he has raised the red flag of warning, planting the seed of awareness in the minds of his listeners. This, it seems to me, is another reason +F had it in for +W for so many years, perhaps since day one, but +F kept his differences concealed so he could first gain power before taking military action.
+W is quoting below (in black) a letter from a Catholic who has paid attention, and has learned the lesson, and now, +W would like to show us what good fruit looks like when it comes to maturity. He doesn't say so, but he is pleased with seeing his work bearing such good fruit after so many years of labor in the vineyard.
“Why is there no "Resistance" in our part of the world ? I think I've figured it out. You've mentioned many times that most of the original leaders of the Society of St Pius X never really understood Archbishop Lefebvre. Locally, I think that that applies to many of our original chapel founders here, who are the ones clinging to the Society and to its present leaders. How come? Why don't they take action, when what they fought so long and hard for is threatened with destruction from within?
It would be nice to know: what part of the world is it, of which she speaks? Can anyone take a guess? We have clues: "SSPX chapel in the English-speaking world." If she is from Southern California, I would be pleased to make her acquaintance!
This theme of "never really understanding ABL" is a chilling thought, really. It gives pause to ask: "Do I really understand him?" This reflects on MANY of the cccxlvi previous ECs.
I.e., There is a LOT more to say about this!
This touches close to home for me, because I see it happening all around me. I see founders who have labored long and hard to keep what was slipping away from them, and now, they simply refuse to think that there is some kind of danger. "But the SSPX are very good priests," they say, and do not want to see any of the Resistance writings. They don't want to know about the great Fr. Patrick Girouard and Sacrificium.org. They don't want to know about the excellent letters of fine, traditional priests like Fr. Fuchs or Fr. Trauner or Fr. Violette or Fr. Hewko or Fr. Cardozo. They turn a blind eye to the Open Letter to Fr. Themann, and refuse to think about any of the questions it raises.
They don't want to think about it.
“On Sunday, an elderly lady summed it up for me. As she and her husband see it, they strove valiantly through the 1970s into the early 80s, and the fruit of their labours is the chapel itself. The Mass with all the outward trappings, the property, the buildings, the pews, the statues, the vestments -- this is what is threatened by the mere existence of the Resistance! ..
She spells "labours" as a Brit, so maybe she's in Scotland! Because if she was anywhere near London, there IS a Resistance in THAT part of the world!
This is key. When there is a fire, and your house is about to burn down, do you say that the Fire Department threatens the existence of your home? When you have a heart attack, and you go to the hospital, do you say that the nurses and the doctors are the cause of your health problems? When your car makes a loud banging noise in the engine and a friend tells you it sounds like you have a CONNECTING ROD problem, and it can get really serious, like you're going to need a new engine, do you blame him for being "what threatens the reliability of your transportation?"
..They fought all those years to restore for themselves the Catholicism of their youth. For them, it's NOT a question of doctrine at all.
Actually, +W has already talked about this. It's called 'subjectivism' -- they think it's "not a question" of doctrine at all. (Remember Fr. Themann and his definition of truth, "Truth is not firstly a question of words but of the ideas for which the words stand?")
The woman is member of a Third Order, yet she believes doctrinal matters are for priests and bishops, not laity. For example, to study Papal encyclicals is meddling in affairs that God assigned to the hierarchy.
Ah, yes, "This is much too difficult for me! I'd like to return to my Bingo and Lawrence Welk re-runs."
So she's a member of a Third Order -- again, I'd love to know the name of the order. Any guesses? Franciscan? Dominican? Benedictine? SSPX??
I know a CMRI priest who told a group of Catholics in my presence that to understand Pascendi (by Pope St. Pius X), "you need to have a degree in theology." Well, if I ever hear anyone say that again in my presence, I'll tell them to their face that there are plenty of people WITH theology degrees who have no clue of what Pascendi means, and there are plenty of people WITHOUT any degree in theology who understand it quite well, so a degree in theology is neither here nor there, when it comes to understanding Modernism. What matters is God's grace, good will, and a little bit of ELBOW GREASE.
If encyclicals were meant only for the eyes of priests and the hierarchy, then why are they made public? Hmmmm???
“I asked if they see a need to understand their Faith, if individual souls do not answer to God for knowing their Faith?
Their response was sincere, I believe, but to me it was astonishing. They said, ‘No! The responsibility of the Catholic is to obey his superiors.’ And if the superiors are in error? ‘Obey anyway! To do otherwise is rebellion.’ It is for a Catholic ‘a sign of rebellion’ to even question his superiors ‘in matters that do not concern him,’ i.e. doctrine. If the superior is wrong, God will judge him – ‘You will never go wrong obeying the priest.’
So there you have it. The Resistants are rebels, disobedient, disrespectful. How dare they question the superior? How dare they presume to study doctrine, to ask questions of their superiors about it?
The Resistants are evil, not because they are doctrinally wrong, but because their words and actions threaten the Catholicism of the 1950’s.
Good words bear repeating:
The Resistants are EVIL, not because they are doctrinally wrong (for their doctrine is solid as a rock, but DOCTRINE IS NOT OUR CONCERN -- it's the concern of the clergy, and none of our beeswax!!) but because their words and actions threaten the Catholicism of the 1950's!!
“But blind obedience is ridiculous! What are we lambs to do when the Shepherd is struck and the sheep are scattered? Pretend all is well, and let ourselves be devoured by wolves in the name of obedience?
What can one say to such people?
They are wilfully ignorant in the belief that wilful ignorance is a virtue!
Uhhh.... bowler! Stubborn! We have a live one here!!
Where does such a mindset come from?
Is that a rhetorical question, or do you really want to know the answer?
Because I have the answer for you, and so does Stubborn, and so does bowler. Maybe you will believe THEM, if you won't believe me!!
What error crept into the Church to make Catholics switch off their minds? All I can say is that if the SSPX is left with flocks of lobotomised sheep, it will be easy for Rome to wipe out the last fortress of Tradition! The SSPX chapels need only to be handed over to the jurisdiction of the local bishop by formal agreement, or by de facto cooperation with Novus Ordo priests, which we have seen locally.”
Notice her evocation of the possibility of Rome absorbing the SSPX no longer by any clear-cut agreement, but by a gradual merger. It is a real danger. I wonder if that is not what SSPX HQ is being advised to do by its “new friends” in Rome.
Kyrie eleison
A lack of resistance to the liberal slide of the SSPX is partly explained by souls only wanting to return to the 1950’s.
www.dinoscopus.org
I don't think we need to wonder at all. The XSPX is being advised by its new friends in Rome, as well as the Re-branding company in Holland, and by GREC -- it's like Warsaw at the beginning of WWII, attacked by nαzιs from the north and the southwest, and by the Soviets from the east, all at the same time. The only difference is, the XSPX seems to be ENJOYING the attack.
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