Author Topic: From Bitter Criticism to Deadly Suspicion - Winona FB Letter Fr. le Roux (Read 5530 times)

Neil Obstat · « **on:** July 02, 2013, 05:35:11 PM »

.

Some rather telling language is to be found in this latest Letter
to Friends and Benefactors of the Seminary Under Transition:

"...
The present state of things, the daily misery, brings man closer to decadence. This pernicious, underhanded decay contaminates the air, runs in the streets, enters the homes, thwarts the best defenses, and laughs at the best efforts at containment. Imperceptibly, it seeps into our souls and insidiously obliges us to make a pact with it. Nothing seems to be able to stop it; it agitates our senses, penetrates our hearts and deteriorates our intelligences. It is a true pandemic. The sign of its victory is the present condition of the intelligence, no longer able to stand against our vaguest and most vulgar impulses. We are witnessing a rebellion against the intelligence and its rule: the emotions alone are acknowledged as valid. We assist, not only impotent, but too often consenting to the triumph of our animal nature over the spiritual.
...
"Our intelligence has become a barren field because of the supremacy of our feelings over any other consideration. This rulership of our emotions brings the soul under the tyrannical dominion of passions. Then we do not live any more as men led by their intelligence, but as animals seeking to satisfy their natural appetites. Our senses are no more at the service of the intelligence or subject to it; the faculties of the soul have become slaves of our disordered feelings. Everyone lets himself be dominated by pride, cunningly disguised under the mask of whatever emotion is present at the moment. Everyone then feels justified in any criticism he feels like making. All this in good conscience, because our reason is blinded by our feelings. This is a cowardly attitude, because it reveals a real and unconditional surrender on our part.

"We must come to recognize this poison, because it sterilizes all the work of sanctification and spreads a spirit of generalized suspicion where everyone can say whatever his bitterness inspires and carelessly destroy the reputations of others.
..."

The rector of the Winona Seminary seems to be going out of his way
here to describe his own condition and that of his following
in this current crisis imposed by the Menzingen-denizens from the top
down. It is good to pay attention to his description because it tells us
a lot about how the Accordistas feel about themselves, and they are
then looking for someone else to blame for their discontent, as all
liberals always do -- like the scorpion said in The Frog and the Scorpion,
"I couldn't help it. It's my nature."

Frances · « **Reply #1 on:** July 02, 2013, 09:04:41 PM »

Is Fr. le Roux trying to convince his readers that the world is rotten? Is he paranoid? Glorying in how bad things have become? Sounding an alarm? I'd like to see the rest of the letter.

For Greater Glory · « **Reply #2 on:** July 02, 2013, 11:00:48 PM »

To continue Father le Roux's newsletter:

" Let us point out the characteristics of these perpetual criticisms. The word or actions of our neighbor are interpreted according to how he makes us feel, his relationship to us, and our own standard of "truth."

Isn't it usual to disguise our calumnies with high and noble considerations? Who would suspect such a deceit when it is covered by the sublime garments of gravity? Let us be serious! We do not seek the truth and we employ great words, with a feigned tone and air of sadness, only to try to hide the inconsistency of our judgment and our own animosity. Who couldn't see, indeed, in this cowardly evasion, an obvious acknowledgment of our own misery?

Our intelligence, enslaved to pride by our ceaseless criticisms, is not capable any more of posing an act of right judgment on our neighbor. Our feelings, from now on rulers of our life, dictate our sentences. We do not have any more what Bergson so nicely called "the courtesy of the intelligence," this capacity of understanding that our neighbor is not a clone of ourselves and that his views are not in all points identical to ours. Thus, the critics joyfully fall upon members of their own families, upon the school teachers in the presence of the children, or upon consecrated souls, adding in this last case an insidious and disparaging mockery.

The deeper we descend into this hypocrisy, the more pleasure we take in spreading our venom. We come to enjoy striking anonymously when our victim has his back turned. When we stop striving to follow the light of our intellects, we will become lost in the gloomy haze of our own emotions - mistaking fireflies and sparks of anger for the light of truth. Dominated by our fickle and changing emotions, we become cowards who have lost the ability to be constant in the struggle for truth and the following of reality. Having lost reality and truth, we seek only to make ourselves right at all costs, driven by fear and inability to see the deep reason of things. "

I have to stop typing this. It's making me sick. There's so much wrong with this I wouldn't know where to begin. Does Fr. le Roux really believe these "great words" of his? :barf:

Frances · « **Reply #3 on:** July 02, 2013, 11:20:34 PM »

Sad to say, I've heard this kind of detraction and calumny coming from the mouths of parishioners at an SSPX chapel. I'll be down-thumbed for sure, but the truth is that I've heard terrible words about Bishop Williamson, Fr. Hewko, Fr. Pfeiffer, Fr. Chazal...AND about Bishop Fellay, Fr. Rostand, Fr. Pfluger, Fr. Themann...It seems too many believe in equal opportunity mockery. What is also wrong is that children hear it. I was always taught that it is a mortal sin to mock those in authority, even if they are wrong. Correct, yes. Rebuke, yes. Mock, no.

For Greater Glory · « **Reply #4 on:** July 02, 2013, 11:45:32 PM »

I agree that we should not mock anyone, but I interpret what Father is saying as don't criticize them for trying to go back to Rome.

Frances · « **Reply #5 on:** July 02, 2013, 11:57:50 PM »

I interpret it as, "Anyone who criticizes a deal with Rome is crazy, a person given over to depravity, ruled by his passions.". It seems Fr. le Roux is handing back

Neil Obstat · « **Reply #6 on:** July 03, 2013, 03:47:27 AM »

.

It seems to me the Menzingen-denizens are pulling out the stops to
deliver a treasure trove of long-kept vocabulary that they've been
waiting to use on someone that they hate.

Why is it the Accordistas don't see the vile face of this monster?

Do they just skip over the words they don't want to read?

Worse - can you imagine being married to someone who talks
like this? What Fr. le Roux is doing, as you point out, Frances,
is he is teaching lessons in how to use mockery with creativity
and variety.

Quote from: Frances

Sad to say, I've heard this kind of detraction and calumny coming from the mouths of parishioners at an SSPX chapel. I'll be down-thumbed for sure, but the truth is that I've heard terrible words about Bishop Williamson, Fr. Hewko, Fr. Pfeiffer, Fr. Chazal...AND about Bishop Fellay, Fr. Rostand, Fr. Pfluger, Fr. Themann...It seems too many believe in equal opportunity mockery. What is also wrong is that children hear it. I was always taught that it is a mortal sin to mock those in authority, even if they are wrong. Correct, yes. Rebuke, yes. Mock, no.

Whether or not he intends this, Fr. le Roux is giving lessons on how
to destroy your marriage, divide your family, sew hate and damnation
among your friends, and basically carve a big, fat place in hell for
yourself.

I suspect it's going to backfire. With an attitude like this, and the
stupidity of putting it into writing for all the world to see, even the
Most Foul and Seedy Menzingen-denizens would likely want to punish
Fr. le Roux by transferring him to Borneo or Madagascar after all this.

What a disgrace for the already-suffering image of the ExSPX! And
after all that cash they shelled out to get re-branded! Show me
where the re-branding program says to demonstrate gutter
hate mail in the Friends & Benefactors letter!!!

Telesphorus · « **Reply #7 on:** July 03, 2013, 06:23:03 AM »

If they stopped acting like a cult, refusing communion, causing laity to be ostracized, etc, and started acting with charity, then these comments of Father LeRoux could be given more weight.

As it stands, playing the "pride card" whenever someone reveals the truth about what's been going on is old hat.

bowler · « **Reply #8 on:** July 03, 2013, 09:13:42 AM »

People talk from their own experiences. This priest is speaking about his own failings. He sounds like he is not well in the mind.

How does he know that he is not as he describes others, or is he speaking about himself too?

John Grace · « **Reply #9 on:** July 03, 2013, 09:22:16 AM »

It was insinuated and never retracted that I support Eugenics. That is a very serious allegation.

John Grace · « **Reply #10 on:** July 03, 2013, 09:25:29 AM »

Quote from: Frances

Sad to say, I've heard this kind of detraction and calumny coming from the mouths of parishioners at an SSPX chapel. I'll be down-thumbed for sure, but the truth is that I've heard terrible words about Bishop Williamson, Fr. Hewko, Fr. Pfeiffer, Fr. Chazal...AND about Bishop Fellay, Fr. Rostand, Fr. Pfluger, Fr. Themann...It seems too many believe in equal opportunity mockery. What is also wrong is that children hear it. I was always taught that it is a mortal sin to mock those in authority, even if they are wrong. Correct, yes. Rebuke, yes. Mock, no.

You have obviously never read early Irish satire both in the Gaelic language and in English. It is quite cutting. The objective was to ridicule so the opponent could not reply and be totally humiliated.

Tiffany · « **Reply #11 on:** July 03, 2013, 09:42:16 AM »

I didn't read the whole thread but Frances is right we should not mock II Kings 2:23 -24 God killed children who mocked the prophet Elisha.
And he went up from thence to Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, little boys came out of the city and mocked him, saying: Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And looking back, he saw them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord: and there came forth two bears out of the forest, and tore of them two and forty boys.

Neil Obstat · « **Reply #12 on:** July 03, 2013, 10:37:10 AM »

.

For the record, I'm not making this up.

Fr. Yves le Roux has signed the new Letter to Friends and Benefactors
from the seminary of St. Thomas Aquinas in Winona, Minnesota, USA,
and at the top of the page it says in all caps:

FROM BITTER CRITICISM TO DEADLY SUSPICION.

I took the liberty to use lower case except for the first letters with
this title: "From Bitter Criticism to Deadly Suspicion." To me, the way
it is printed on the actual letter is frankly offensive, while to hold back
on the upper case is less offensive. That's just my opinion.

Columba · « **Reply #13 on:** July 03, 2013, 10:50:46 AM »

Quote from: Neil Obstat

Some rather telling language is to be found in this latest Letter
to Friends and Benefactors of the Seminary Under Transition:

"... The present state of things, the daily misery, brings man closer to decadence. This pernicious, underhanded decay contaminates the air, runs in the streets, enters the homes, thwarts the best defenses, and laughs at the best efforts at containment. Imperceptibly, it seeps into our souls and insidiously obliges us to make a pact with it. Nothing seems to be able to stop it; it agitates our senses, penetrates our hearts and deteriorates our intelligences. It is a true pandemic. The sign of its victory is the present condition of the intelligence, no longer able to stand against our vaguest and most vulgar impulses. We are witnessing a rebellion against the intelligence and its rule: the emotions alone are acknowledged as valid. We assist, not only impotent, but too often consenting to the triumph of our animal nature over the spiritual.

... "Our intelligence has become a barren field because of the supremacy of our feelings over any other consideration. This rulership of our emotions brings the soul under the tyrannical dominion of passions. Then we do not live any more as men led by their intelligence, but as animals seeking to satisfy their natural appetites. Our senses are no more at the service of the intelligence or subject to it; the faculties of the soul have become slaves of our disordered feelings. Everyone lets himself be dominated by pride, cunningly disguised under the mask of whatever emotion is present at the moment. Everyone then feels justified in any criticism he feels like making. All this in good conscience, because our reason is blinded by our feelings. This is a cowardly attitude, because it reveals a real and unconditional surrender on our part.

"We must come to recognize this poison, because it sterilizes all the work of sanctification and spreads a spirit of generalized suspicion where everyone can say whatever his bitterness inspires and carelessly destroy the reputations of others. ..."

The rector of the Winona Seminary seems to be going out of his way
here to describe his own condition and that of his following
in this current crisis imposed by the Menzingen-denizens from the top
down. It is good to pay attention to his description because it tells us
a lot about how the Accordistas feel about themselves, and they are
then looking for someone else to blame for their discontent, as all
liberals always do -- like the scorpion said in The Frog and the Scorpion,
"I couldn't help it. It's my nature."

+Roux seems rattled by the congealing of the Resistance. It must have penetrated the walls of the seminary. Some seminarians have been ordered to take leave of Winona for a year or two to attend a secular university.

The artistry and drama of his missive is highly impressive. +Roux missed his calling as a novelist. Projection has been a hallmark of the anti-Resistance since its beginning but this incidence of it takes the cake.

For Greater Glory · « **Reply #14 on:** July 03, 2013, 12:24:02 PM »

Columba,

Am I understanding you correctly? Are these seminarians being asked to leave because they won't follow the party line? If so, shameful and what is to be the future of the SSPX!