http://www.sacrificium.org/article/branding-and-crusade-10-dec-2013
I recommend printing this out and giving it to Catholics who might be "on the fence." They would appreciate seeing this. Be sure to include the website address:
http://www.sacrificium.org/article/branding-and-crusade-10-dec-2013However, I would caution against giving it to those who are die-hard Fellayites because they will only think you're trying to make "war" with them. I know a few who think this kind of thing is 'insulting' -- that is, as information that clarifies the truth of our current crisis, this insults their abiding desire to ignore the truth.
God bless
the great Fr. Patrick Girouard for his dependably solid outlook.
This is very refreshing for me to read. I hope it is for you, too.
Page contents:
Branding and Crusade (10 Dec 2013)
Editorial
By Rev. Fr. P. Girouard, Old SSPX Dear readers,
The latest “Letter to Friends and Benefactors” from Bishop Fellay (#81), dated December 6th and published December 9th, is a new proof that the branding of the Society of St. Pius X has truly transformed this institution to the point where we can rightly call her the “Neo-SSPX”.
Indeed, even if Bishop Fellay laments, and rightly so, the moral and doctrinal decline that afflict the New Church and the modern world in general, he carefully avoids putting the finger on the real wounds and their causes. We will give you a few examples below. All parts in italics are taken from this letter #81.
“It seems to me necessary to mention once more the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the election of his successor, Pope Francis.” What Bishop Fellay should have added here, is that this resignation is a great scandal! Indeed, instead of donning a normal cassock and going into a monastery, like St. Celestine V did, Benedict XVI keeps his name, his white cassock, and remains in the Vatican! At the inauguration of the new statue of St. Michael the Archangel, we were thus able to see two Popes sitting side by side! In practice, this revolution transforms the Pope in a mere CEO of a multinational called the “Catholic Church”. Benedict’s successors will be tempted, and will maybe feel obliged, to follow suit. Benedict XVI has ended his pontificate with another innovation, with a new “dirty trick” against Catholic Tradition! But Bishop Fellay doesn’t seem to notice, and remains silent!
“From the first days of his pontificate, the Supreme Pontiff from Argentina has appeared to be very different from anything that we have seen until now.” This is not what Bishop Fellay was saying two months after the Pope’s election, when his only commentary was that Francis was a man of “deep Faith”! And everybody will agree that Pope Francis is much worse than
“different”, he is a walking catastrophe! So, Bishop Fellay, why not say so? Are we not “between ourselves”, among friends and benefactors? Unless some of your friends and benefactors belong to the Novus Ordo Church?
“The recent Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium illustrates the difficulty of categorizing an unconventional person who does not hesitate to formulate vehement and repeated critiques of the contemporary world and the modern Church. He points out many real problems; yet one might wonder about the effectiveness of the methods being extolled and doubt that they can be implemented. It is not easy to care for a dying patient, and some treatments that are even more revolutionary than the ones already applied for that purpose could very well finish him off!” Once again the branding is playing its part! Instead of condemning firmly and clearly the errors and deficiencies of this Apostolic Exhortation, Bishop Fellay is happy with saying that
“one might wonder about the effectiveness of the methods being extolled and doubt that they can be implemented.” His comparison with a dying man who risks to be finished off is nice, but it doesn’t have the impact of a vigorous and thundering condemnation! And instead of saying we face the
“difficulty of categorizing” Pope Francis, as he is so much an
“unconventional person”, why not say that this Pope is a new Attila, who will leave behind him only the ruins of the last few things that are still standing in the official Church?
“At first glance one could not say that the recent months of the new pontificate have improved this situation.” Instead of this euphemism of the first order, we would have liked a condemnation: the washing of the feet of a Muslim woman on Maundy Thursday; of the World Youth Day in Brazil; of the Bishops dancing the Rock and Roll; of the beach ball on St. Mary Major’s Altar; of the praises given to Cardinals Kasper and Martini; of the red clown nose; of the ecuмenical Day for Peace in Syria; of the letter to the atheistic writer; of the countless kisses to children and women; and so forth and so on.
“Although we continue to hope that an authentic taking of control inspired by God will come one day, the reality of the spiritual sufferings of the Church Militant remains nonetheless.” Yes, and one should not forget the sufferings of those who see the Neo-SSPX lose more and more of its mordancy, and who refuse to accept the official opening of a door to an eventual recognition by Modernist Rome, at the 2012 General Chapter. Considering this new positioning, which remains official to this day, we might be allowed to think that the
“authentic taking of control” mentioned above refers to Bishop Fellay’s wish to transform the New Church “from the inside” through a canonical recognition!
“This will only be aggravated, both by the decrease in the number of priests that is weighing heavily upon Europe and other regions, and also by the formation being given in the seminaries. The change of pope has in no way modified this disastrous situation, and the reaffirmation of the unfortunate direction of the Second Vatican Council makes us fear that, since the same causes produce the same effects, the worldwide situation of the Catholic Church will remain tragic, and that it is not about to improve. The canonizations of two popes closely connected with the Council and its implementation are not going to fix it.” Oh! Come on, come on, Your Excellency! I thought you had previously said that you accepted 95% of the Council; and that Vatican II was enlightening some “hidden” elements of the Revelation; and that Religious Liberty in the Council had a very, very, limited sense; and that what we thought had been errors of the Council were only the common subsequent interpretation of it; and that we should not transform the errors of the Council into super-heresies! Are you today, by any chance, contradicting yourself? Of course not, since you only speak against the
“unfortunate direction of the Second Vatican Council”, and not of its errors and heresies! Your letter has all the ingredients to reassure the Pope (and his eventual successor) about your willingness to “cooperate”.
“The development of our Society that we see being accomplished before our eyes is a cause for joy and thanksgiving, and concrete proof that fidelity to the traditional faith and discipline always procures the blessed fruits of grace.” Bishop Fellay doesn’t fail to mention the Neo-SSPX has 253 seminarians (including 43 new ones), and that the new seminary in Virginia is progressing, and that the Society has more than a hundred schools all over the world, and that we don’t have enough priests to meet the needs of the faithful worldwide. Finally he exclaims:
“Oh Lord, give us priests!” I would simply tell him that before praying the Lord for more priests, he should stop expelling the ones he already has!
Finally, Bishop Fellay announces to the whole world that he is launching a new Rosary Crusade, the Fourth Crusade! It is normal he should do so from time to time, as he is a General!
“In this dramatic context, it seems to us essential to launch a new crusade in the same spirit as the preceding ones, keeping in view the requests and the promises of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as they were expressed at Fatima, but insisting more this time on its universal character. We have to put our whole heart, our whole soul into this new crusade: not just being content with the daily recitation of the Rosary, but carefully carrying out Our Lady’s second request, which is penance. Prayer and penance. Penance, understood certainly as the acceptance of certain forms of self-denial, but especially as the very faithful performance of our duties of state.” Here we are! We knew it was coming! But we didn’t wait for it with joy and enthusiasm, but rather with a sense of foreboding, in light of all the evils that followed in the wake of the previous three: the 2007 Motu Proprio which officially relegates the true Mass to the second rank; the 2009 Suspension of the canonical effects, for the four surviving Bishops, of the 1988 Decree of Excommunication; the September 2011 Roman Proposal for a canonical recognition and Personal Prelature, and the negotiations that followed up to June 2012, and especially the disastrous July 2012 General Chapter! So, when Bishop Fellay tells us the new crusade will be done
“in the same spirit as the preceding ones”, we are entitled to ask ourselves, with anguish, what will happen to us when it will be over?
Then, after having quoted at length some texts of Archbishop Lefebvre about a crusade for transforming the world by the spirit of sacrifice that comes from the Sacrifice of the Altar, Bishop Fellay gives us some details about his new crusade:
“We encourage you therefore to adopt a permanent spirit of crusade, although, because of human considerations, we will officially begin this new Rosary crusade on January 1, 2014, and conclude it on the Feast of Pentecost (June 8, 2014) for the purpose of collecting a spiritual bouquet of five million Rosaries in reparation for the outrages committed against the honor of Our Lady, against her Heart as a Virgin and Mother of God.” So we have gone from a lofty objective of, what? 25 million Rosaries at the 3rd Crusade, to a mere five million this time? What is going on here? Did Bishop Fellay, by any chance, realize that, since the branding of the Society, it has lost some support? Does he fear not to be able to get more than five millions? Is he, maybe, aware that many of the faithful who can’t, for major reasons, leave the chapels and school of the Neo-Society, remain nevertheless faithful to Archbishop Lefebvre’s work, and that they will not anymore follow him in his new endeavors, even if those look pious? And does he include, among the outrages committed against the Immaculate Heart, all the instances when he declared that the gestures of Modernist Rome, in July 2007 and January 2009, were gifts from the Blessed Virgin Mary in answer to the first two Crusades?
My dear readers, as you can see, the situation in the Neo-SSPX, far from getting better, in continually degrading, as it continues to apply the strategy of conciliation and softness resulting from its branding! It is only towards the members, clergy and lay, of the true Society that such strategy is not applied! Therefore, hold on! The battle is going on!
God bless you!
Fr. Patrick Girouard
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