Dear All,

Went to the talk given by Fr. Rostand this evening in Post Falls. I know a couple of you on this board were there and asked very good questions of course. God Bless you!

Also, fyi, as already suspected, Father Rostand stated openly that he personally (along with other SSPX priests and employees) monitors online discussion groups and makes notes of who people are. He readily identified a member on this group, where he goes to Mass and his name whom he had never met before. We all knew this Big Brother-like snooping was happening, but it was so disturbing and depressing to actually have this confirmed. I was hoping he could not be so petty, so lacking in...priestly character. I know so many of you look at this matter as a war in which Fr. Rostand and the other priests are the enemy. I don't believe this is bad or unCatholic. But, it has never been my personal attitude. I've never stopped forcing myself to have a loving respect for the pro-agreement priests. But to think this man of God, this Other Christ, my spiritual FATHER, is spending his time reading internet discussion groups to identify people as threats... These are such dark times.

I'm sure you will agree it was a very saddening experience. We've been so wrapped up in the overarching issue of the agreement being a violation of everything the SSPX has stood for that I personally overlooked the human aspect of this situation, which was well-illustrated in this talk and which really is the saddest part of this mess. In my opinion, Fr. Rostand simply does not LOVE the sheep and I do not think it is possible that any priest who supports this agreement truly could LOVE us. He simply does not truly CARE for souls. He is a priest, a very intelligent priest, a very doctrinally astute priest...but he does not have any real sense of being our FATHER. This may seem like an improvable statement, but this is what I observed.

The question was posed to him about whether, under an agreement, the SSPX would be bound to only enter those dioceses that gave permission. It was not so much his statement in the affirmative that was the most shocking thing. It was his complete lack of comprehension about why the questioners would consider this to be a crucial issue of concern that best depicted how Fr. Rostand sees us laypeople. He stated over and over: it is a matter of prudence, not of principle. He simply had no idea what the horror about that could stem from. He even went so far as to mock and make fun of the questioners, one in front of his child.

A shepherd who loved us, a priest who considered himself the Father of every person, could never minimize as a small matter of prudence the specter of a person dying in a hospital having no access to Extreme Unction and a priest's presence in the last moments because a bishop said: "No you may not operate in my diocese." A priest who loves us like I love my children could not consider it a triviality that people who cry out for the Holy Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ would be turned away by the SSPX because some pedophile bishop says "No". No man could act that way whose mission in life was to bring the True Faith in Our Lord Jesus Christ to all, letting nothing stand in the way of the salvation of souls.

It is one thing to betray the viewpoint of Archbishop Lefebvre or to fail to see the spiritual danger of regularizing. But to agree to withhold the saving light of the Catholic Faith from souls crying out for it because an evil pedophile bishop doesn't want it in his diocese and, moreover, to flippantly make fun of people who are abhorred by this...such a man is not capable of having any care for us.

It almost seems gratuitous to mention how flippantly he made light of and mocked anyone who said anything even indirectly questioning the agreement. These are people with serious and heartfelt fears for their souls! And you make fun of them? Who does that? What kind of person acts that way? Disagree with them, fine. But, subject them to ridicule and try to incite the parish to laugh at them? How can this man be a priest of Holy God? Why would such a callous, unloving man ever become a priest! These are your children, pouring out their spiritual concerns to you and you laugh at them? And then how he spoke about denying people who disagree Holy Communion! "Is Holy Communion going to be withheld from people who are concerned over this agreement and say so in the parish hall or on a discussion group?" To think that a priest would do that in the first place to someone simply over a political issue is bad enough. But how he spoke about it. That is the question I asked him and precisely for this reason: I wanted to see HOW he responded. I wanted to see what the thought of denying someone the Sacraments of Holy God MEANT to him. As I feared, he was sarcastic and demeaning. The way I phrased the question didn't even make clear what my viewpoint was but that didn't matter to him. He flippantly made light of me and the whole topic of Catholic people being denied the True Flesh of Our Lord, the Bread for our souls simply for opposing an agreement. He was very clear; if a person speaks out in any way against an agreement, they shouldn't act like they can then "act like an angel at the altar rail." Oh Dear Lord, why have you given us spiritual Parents like this!

This is the thought that is so sad. I'm not here to call them Modernists or to say they have no right to take the SSPX in whatever direction they choose. It is their Society, not ours. I'm not here to demean them or call them liars. I don't believe that is my place to say as a layperson. But, what I think is more important and what I think I have the right as a layperson to say is that these pro-agreement priests DON'T CARE ABOUT US. Who knows why or how they got this way, whether they were always this way, were raised to be callous by their parents. Doesn't matter. These FATHERS DON'T LOVE US. Kyrie Eleison!

 :sad: :cry:

Thank you for this report.

:sad: :cry:

Thank you for this report, Grant.

I'll second that.  

 :sad:

It almost seems gratuitous to mention how flippantly he made light of and mocked anyone who said anything even indirectly questioning the agreement.

These people mock those who believe in the teachings of Archbishop Lefebvre because they don't believe in those teachings themselves.

ABL ' simply passed on what he himself recieved '......

Amicus24 in the first post in this thread states: "Father Rostand stated openly that he personally (along with other SSPX priests and employees) monitors online discussion groups and makes notes of who people are."  No doubt, some have suspected this for some time so it is somewhat refreshing in a way if Fr. Rostand has actually stated this openly in public.  That, of course, does not necessarily mean that the monitoring is a good thing.

What transpires on these type of boards such as cathinfo.com can be good or bad.  I don't necessarily fault any SSPX clergy (or person acting at their behest) from monitoring such sites as this, just as I don't fault people from posting here.  God knows all and judges all.  I know full well that He see and judges with infinite perfection.

Some people waste their precious time on these boards, but for some the viewing and or posting can be a good thing not only for themselves, but for others as well.  Some people, on the other hand -- at least in the objective order -- commit sin and sometimes even mortal sin by what they post on these discussion boards.

Monitoring of the boards is not necessarily a sin.  The monitoring could be justified depending on the motivation and circuмstances.  In any event, God always knows whether such justification exists in any given set of circuмstances.  (As an aside, I recall that when the Legion of Decency existed to monitor and pass judgment on various movies certain people had to view the movies, some of which was of a pornographic nature.  Such viewing of the pornographic material would certainly have been a grave sin for many, but given the right circuмstances and individuals doing the viewing it could be and was justified.)

For the record, I am greatly distressed at much of the direction the SSPX has been taking in recent years under the direction of Bp. Fellay.  Aside from the most recent developments concerning Rome and the so called conditions for an agreement with Rome, I was very saddened and scandalized in observing what Bp. Williamson was subject to because of some remarks he made about a historical event over 60 years ago.

Let us pray for the SSPX and its leaders that they may see the true light of faith and have the courage to follow that light in whatever direction it leads.

Also, let us not be intimidated into not expressing our views on such boards as this as long as those views be in a spirit of humility, truth, and charity.  AMDG through Mary!

klasg4e (Know, Love, and Serve God 4 ever)

We are now subject to the East German Inquisition.