Dear Fr. Pfluger-
Notes purporting to have been taken by one of the attendees from your
recent conferences to the Brothers at Flavigny in December are being
translated and published on the internet in Spanish, English, and French
(and possibly other languages).
In justice to you, I would like to ask whether the English-language translation copied below [via The Recusant] substantially reflects your words at these conferences (note that, at the time of this email, the final conference has not yet been translated into English; I believe it is already translated into at least Spanish).
If not, could you offer corrections where required, in order that the
accuracy of your thoughts can be known?
In Caritas,
Sean Johnson
USA
[1-28-14]
Dear Mr. Johnson,
Thank you for your message.
This is a miserable and also common attack of the Resistance.
These notes doesn't reflect in no manner what I have said.
Forget it, it is a poster against Mgr. Fellay
God bless you
Do you understand German?
Fr. Niklaus Pfluger
[2-6-14]
Commentary:
1) I post this response in justice to Fr. Pfluger, since I was responsible for having originally Google translated the conferences into English from the Non Possumus website;
2) It was irresponsible of me to have posted a sloppy translation in such grave matters in the first place;
3) Even though The Recusant and Ancien Regime later supplied an accurate translation, I still ought to have verified the contents before re-publishing them;
4) The fact that Fr. Pfluger denies the content contained in the notes of the conferences forces that conclusion;
5) Foreseeably, it will be argued by some that Fr. Pfluger is lieing;
6) Leaving aside the rashness and gravity of making such a public allegation, it should be noted that only the brothers (and others in attendance, if any) are in a position to make that grave allegation;
7) And though these notes purport to be precisely such an account by an attending brother, the fact that the notes were published/divulged by him anonymously harms the credibility of them;
8) It will be countered that, "the brother had to publish them anonymously, otherwise he would be retaliated against."
9) My response to that is, "Man up:" If he was afraid of suffering the consequences of his posts, he ought not be making the information available.
10) I post in my own name, and am willing to endure the artillery drawn (from both sides, I might add), because the truth is worth telling, and worth suffering for, if it comes to that.
11) It is equally foreseeable that some persons, endowed with limited intellectual horsepower, will construe these words as defending Fr. Pfluger (just as they said I was defending Bishop Fellay when I noted his Doctrinal Declaration was not technically heretical), when in reality I am simply posting his response as an act of justice to him, and giving him the benefit of the doubt, as required by moral theology;
12) Admittedly, it would have been helpful had Fr. Pfluger offered some guidance as to where precisely his thoughts and words have been misrepresented;
13) But as his English is very limited, perhaps this is why he asked me if I understood German? And since I do not, perhaps this is why he did not offer a point by point rebuttal?
14) In any case, unless one of the Brothers wants to come forward to challenge the veracity of Fr. Pfluger's denial, there is nobody in a position to call into question the latter's honesty