AJNC has kindly posted above a machine translation of Father Meramo’s comments on Bishop Fellay’s response to the other three SSPX bishops. In places the translation reads very well, but in others it is rather obscure.
For my own better understanding I have presumed to edit it, to bring out what seems to be the intended meaning. Below, I post a copy of the result, for the benefit of anyone who may be interested. I hope that this serves a useful purpose until someone is able to produce an expert translation from the original.
This is, of course, an interpretation of the machine translation, and not the equivalent of a direct translation from Father Meramo’s own text. So, although I have done my best to grasp his meaning, I make no claim that it is an accurate representation of what he wished to say. Nevertheless, it is easier to read and to follow the line of Father Meramo’s thoughts.
I have not checked the quotations in it against any sources.
Explanation:
Words and phrases in braces {} are my interpolitions.
Words and phrases that are set between question marks are ones of which I am less certain as to the intended meaning.
A dash inside braces represents a minor omission.
Words and phrases that are underlined are those in which I have either changed the word order according to English usage, or I have substituted one or more words that seemed to make better sense (eg: “he” in place of “it”).
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ABOUT THE RESPONSE OF BISHOP FELLAY {TO}
THE OTHER THREE BISHOPS OF THE FRATERNITY
The unprecedented response of Bishop Fellay {to the} letter {of} his three brothers in the episcopate in which they expressed their disagreement {with} him, surprises by the stupidity of the charge, and betrays, {in} the author, an intellectual myopia preventing him from seeing beyond illusions.
In his letter, Bishop Fellay, in effect, assumes {the} power of truth itself, since this infallible guru attempts to impose himself at all cost{s}, as if invested in a divine mission for which, in his naïve ignorance, he cultivates the ambition to overthrow the {-} anti-Catholic revolution and the apostate adultery today {coming} from Rome.
Bishop Fellay, flattered by a corrupt Rome and wrapped up in the promise of a personal prelature, dares to emphasize its meaningless standard, by which it would confer a legal and canonical status in the religion of the Great Scarlet Prostitute -- {a} vision of whom was caught {by} the Apostle St. John the Evangelist when he saw her dressed in gold and purple (attributes of royal power and prestige) and straddling the beast from the sea -- or in antichristian craftiness.
He displayed a weak theological and intellectual background and a false mysticism, as demonstrated by the fact of having been dazzled and duped a few years ago by a Swiss prophetess {-} seeking to reform the spirituality of the Fraternity left by his founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. This complete illuminist found fertile ground in the weak sensitivity of Bishop Fellay, but it seems to have prevailed at the time, despite strong opposition from other members of the Fraternity, which, in any case, blindly and naively leaned towards the bishop because of the wonderful apparition.
He now claims to be the unique and special envoy able to resolve the current crisis, whose dimensions exceed the same apocalyptic and eschatological {terminus} that he ignores.
Bishop Fellay charges the other three bishops with two serious errors, according to this myopically-enlightened guru {-} believing himself to be invested with a mandate and authority over the whole of Tradition and driving it into bankruptcy as well as formal public {apostasy}.
According to him, these two errors would be: in face of the current crisis in the Church, the three bishops in question -- Mgrs Tissier de Mallerais, Williamson and de Galarreta -- sin by lack of both supernatural vision and realism. They lack supernatural vision, because they do not see in the present official Church, the visible Church which holds Benedict XVI to be a legitimate Pope, and because they do not realize {a} that Jesus Christ Himself can speak through the mouth of Joseph Ratzinger, {b} that the will of the latter is legitimate and -- also -- is kind to Tradition, and finally, {c} that our Lord Jesus Christ will give the means and the necessary graces.
According to him, the Pope always wanted to solve the problem, which is a {major} concern of his papacy, and {which} manifests itself immediately and irrevocably in his will. So they have a vision of the Church {that is} too human or too fatalistic. They do not see {the} assistance of grace and the Holy Spirit: they perceive only the dangers, cօռspιʀαcιҽs and difficulties. And as if that were not enough, they lack -- according to Bishop Fellay -- realism : on the one hand, they make {the} errors of Vatican II {into} super-heresies. This caricature of reality, leads to a hardening; leads to an absolute and real Schism {yet} on the other hand, not everyone in Rome is modernist, not everyone in Rome is rotten.
Not only {is} the outlook of Bishop Fellay naïve and unrealistic, but it is hyper-supernatural, as would {be} that of a visionary who did not know the theological principle {of the} supernatural and {the} natural that he is talking about: grace (supernatural) builds on nature, because it is about human nature and the angelic nature (intelligent and free). It is not able to act on a stone or an animal {which are} without reason or will.
Archbishop Lefebvre was the first to report clearly and categorically that the official (post-conciliar) Church is not necessarily identifiable with the visible Church of God. He writes, "Where is the visible Church? The visible Church is recognized by the signs that it has always given to {its} visibility: it is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. I ask: where are the true marks of the Church? Are they more in the official Church. (This is not the visible church: this is the official church) or here, in what we represent; {in} what we are? Clearly it is we who keep the unity of {the} faith, which has disappeared from the official Church." And he stresses that: "Of course, it can be objected: ‘Is it necessarily gone from the visible Church {...}?" It's not us, but the modernists who leave the Church. As for saying "gone from the visible Church,": {this} is to {be} mistaken in equating {the} official church and {the} visible Church." (No. 66 Fideliter November-December 1988).
This is what Bishop Fellay, Father Schmidberger and their unconditional supporters do {?not?} want to see or {to} hear, they are walled up in {the} blindness and {the} deafness of their error.
Bishop Fellay gives the most complete illusion, as is evidenced by the remarks made by Archbishop Lefebvre himself during an interview with Fideliter one year after the consecrations:
Fideliter -- Some say: "Yes, but the Archbishop should have accepted an agreement with Rome, because once the Fraternity has been recognized and the sanctions have been lifted, it could act more effectively within the Church, than outside, as it is today."
"Msgr Lefebvre -- These are easy things to say. Getting inside the church, what does that mean? And first, of what church do we speak? If this is the Conciliar church, should we, who have fought against it for twenty years because we want the Catholic Church, return to this Conciliar church calling it Catholic? This is a total illusion."
(Fideliter No. 70, July-August 1989).
These words of Archbishop Lefebvre clearly show that Bishop Fellay and his clique {-} are utopians. In fact, for them {to} persist in this business under a total illusion is a sign of mental retardation or connotes an attitude of {the} guru and {the mystic}, elated by what he believes is his divine mission of "Superman" of the Church and {of} Tradition, {who} is about to reverse the anti-Catholic Revolution. Only a dreamer or ?a lunatic? can {make} such a claim, while accusing those who seriously oppose him of lacking realism and supernatural spirit. Has anyone ever seen such illusions and such pride? What animates Bishop Fellay other than a form of religious paranoia? Bishop Fellay's supernatural spirit based on the fervent and dogmatic idea that Benedict XVI is certainly and absolutely Pope; that his will is legitimate; and {that} God can speak through his mouth.
However, this is {the} theological error of taking as a matter of faith {-} something that does not {exist}: it is here in the present theological dogmatism of the ignorant, which makes {-} an article of faith (or considered as such) {out of} that which does not {exist} in reality. Do not forget that {according to the Biblical} account God can also express {Himself} by the mouth of Balaam's mule, or make the stones speak.
St. Thomas Aquinas on the subject provides a very significant example when he talks about faith as an inherent divine certainty and he highlights the case of a wafer that the faithful worship, when it has not been consecrated, as might occur with a particular host. Answer: What is {of} faith, is that any valid host really and substantially consecrated contains the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ, but it is not of faith that this particular host (here and now) contains the divine presence, because there may have been a voluntary or involuntary {fault}, which has prevented the consecration, {but} there was no desire to expose the error to the faith in the Church of believers.
It would be the same with the Pope: every legitimate pontiff is really and truly {the} Pope, but it is not of faith that any pontiff in particular -- for example, Benedict XVI -- is indeed {the} Pope. It is precisely because his legitimacy is in question -- because, indeed, {of} his acts that contradict {the} faith of the Church -- {that} he may not actually and truly be {the} Pope, without drawing away the faithful from their faith in the Church. Remember the case of St. Vincent Ferrer, who {recognized as} the genuine and legitimate Pope, the antipope Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna, or Moonstone), and who was then wrong, but without sin against the faith, by considering as false, him who really was {the} Pope.
Bishop Fellay has fallen into the falsely-based dialectic {that it is} an a priori {requirement} of faith to believe that this pontiff -- John Paul II or Benedict XVI -- is the genuine and legitimate Pope, {so that} anyone, who does not agree with the above or doubts {it}, sins against the faith and {is} making a big mistake by not knowing exactly {how to} distinguish {between} what is {?the subject and the object?} of faith
If this were so, Archbishop Lefebvre (or all theologians, except Pighi the Dutch{man}) never would have considered the possibility of Sede Vacante. So it is obvious that this position can not be regarded as schismatic, heretic{al} or apostate. The same discussion that takes place on the ground about theological doctrinal differences confirms that this theory is entirely possible, but modernist and apostate Rome has very cleverly and subtly created a Machiavellian dialectic on this subject {so} that no one can question the legitimacy of the conciliar Popes, {and} whereby anyone who dares to do {so} is disqualified as {a} contemptible pariah; the question becomes {a} theological taboo then allowing Rome to continue -- unimpeded -- to pontificate in {its} error and violate the immaculate virginal faith.
At {his} conference in Econe {on} 15 April 1986, Archbishop Lefebvre returned to what he said in his Easter sermon stressing that: "Is the Pope always the Pope when he is a heretic? Frankly, I do not know! But you yourself can {ask the} question. I think in any sensible man, the question must be asked. I do not know {why} not. Now, it is urgent to talk about this? ... We can not talk {in public}, obviously ... We can talk amongst ourselves, privately, in our institutions, our private conversations between seminarians, priests between ... Is it necessary to speak to the faithful? Many say ‘No, do not tell the faithful, they will be scandalized. It will be terrible, it will go away ...’ Fine. I said {to} the priests, in Paris, when I met {them}, and then to yourself ({to whom} I'd already spoken), I told them: "I think, nevertheless, it is necessary to very carefully illuminate just the faithful. I'm not saying that we should do it and launch it brutally in the face of {the} faithful to scare them ... no, but I still think it is precisely a matter of {the} faith. It is necessary that the faithful do not lose {the} faith."
However, it was forbidden and repressed in many ways within the Fraternity: First by Father Schmidberger when he was Superior General, and now it is done by Bishop Fellay, and the faithful are kept in the dark. {To} discuss this theory was and is worse {than} contracting leprosy or AIDS: there is a taboo that cannot be violated by discrediting {the legitimacy of the Pope}. For nothing can shake the apostate Rome more than seeing {put} in doubt {or} publicly attacked the legitimacy or authority she brings to the Conciliar-Church, the ѕуηαgσgυє of Satan, thus fulfilling the prophecy of La Salette: "Rome will lose {the} faith and become the seat of the Antichrist" (?Apparition?)
Bishop Fellay is so unrealistic that it was he who accused the other three bishops of unreality because they perceive, in the errors of Vatican II, super-heresies, as if heresies were not enough in spite of their already {being} disastrous. Of course, why would he not say that, he said that he accepted 95% of Vatican II and that {he would} hasten to (the modernist) Rome if he is called?
All this fails to surprise, but as he himself admits, not receiving any support from {the} three other bishops, he put them away. At the same time, he pursued his purpose, so that the case is now in the public square, while {he} wanted to continue to keep {it} under wraps. Furthermore, he issued a statement in which he states that his brother bishops have sinned grievously, yet in fact grave and mortal sin, but rather {it is} he who is guilty and who remains there in sowing discord and destruction in the work of Archbishop Lefebvre, but this sleepy illuminated guru puts {on} his blinkers. He hides behind his authority {as} Superior General {which} he brandishes, trying to make believe that {he} only is suitable for deciding the fate of the Fraternity, as if he could do and undo everything at will.
His concept of authority is neither Catholic nor Thomistic and is pagan and proactive. He believes himself capable of exercising power in defiance of goodness and of truth. However, any authority is perverted and distorted (is delegitimized) if it is exercised against justice and truth and the service for which it was instituted.
This is Bishop Fellay who creates from scratch a vile and unacceptable dialectic between truth and authority, between faith and authority, while the best that remains to him to do would be to resign for having shown {himself} abusive and inept, incapable of governing his subordinates in the sense of {the} mission that was assigned to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, {by} Archbishop Lefebvre {and} conceived by him as a bastion of faith and Catholic tradition, and {for} the fight against the modernists who occupy Rome.
To believe {what} Bishop Fellay says now, {that} with Benedict XVI things {-} have changed, and {that} there seems to {be} a trend in favor of faith and tradition: "In itself, the solution of the proposed Personal Prelature is not a trap. {It} is evident first of all that the present situation in April 2012 is very different from that of 1988. {To} claim that nothing has changed is a historic mistake. The same problems are hurting the Church, {the} consequences are more serious and obvious {than} then, but at the same time we can see a change in attitude in the Church, aided by gestures and acts of Benedict XVI towards Tradition. This new movement {that} was born there at least a decade {ago}, will {be} strengthening."
(Bishop Fellay's response to the three Bishops of April 14, 2012).
This is absurd and illogical. This is from a blind {and} stubborn {individual} who takes us all for complacent fools and does not realize that he yields to the error that Monsignor Lefebvre had denounced, in his time, in a letter to Jean Madiran: "We cannot, without seriously failing in truth and charity, suggest, to those whose {words} we listen {to} or read, that the Pope is untouchable; that he is full of desires to return to Tradition; and {that} it's his entourage {that} is guilty ..." (Letter of 29 January 1986).
Bishop Fellay cannot deny the theological authority of his three brothers in the Episcopate, as bishops are the successors of the Apostles -- that is to say the guardians of the Doctrine of the Faith. And he should reflect {on the fact} that they have more weight than his sole opinion.
{May} God illuminate {him with} His divine grace so that he finds in himself the courage and {the} humility necessary to realize what he is about to do by destroying the only bastion of resistance that the Fraternity of St. Pius X, as an international institution, {poses} against the heresy of Rome {and} the apostate, heretical modernists, whom Archbishop Lefebvre treated {as} antichrists by writing in his letter of August 29, 1987 to the future bishops whom he would consecrate: "The Chair of Peter and {the} positions of authority in Rome are occupied by antichrists."
Father Basilio Méramo
Bogota, May 21, 20
Topic: FR MERAMO COMMENTS ON BP.FELLAYS LETTER TO THE 3 BISHOPS (Read 6160 times)