EMAIL SENT TODAY (FEB. 14TH) BY FR. GIROUARD TO HIS PARISHIONERS.[/u]
Dear parishioners,
For the last few days, some news came out on Cathinfo about a meeting between Bishop Fellay and the Pope at the Vatican on January 17th. This morning I got some more details from the French website "Reconquista".
1-Bishop Fellay didn't stay at the house of the SSPX Italian District, located in Albano, at about 45 minutes from Rome. Instead, he stayed at the St. Martha house, where the Pope himself lives.
2-Bishop Fellay asked the Mother General of the SSPX Sisters to be present at the meeting. She went, but stayed at the Albano house and not at st. Martha.
3-Bishop Alfonso Galaretta was also present at the meeting with the Pope.
4-Fr. Alain Nély, General Assistant, was also there. And he also used his time in Rome to complete the purchasing process of a big house with chapel in Rome itself. It is believed that this would become the headquarers of the future SSPX Personal Prelature. The purchase was facilitated by the direct intervention of Abp. Guido Pozzo, head of the Ecclesia Dei Commission.
These events preceeded by only a few days the interviews Bishop Felllay gave in Paris on January 26 and 29th. In these interviews, Bishop Fellay basically repeated what he had said last August 24th in Australia: The SSPX and Rome both agree on what kind of structure would be acceptable to the SSPX if there was a "regularization". Only minor details need to be addressed. Rome is still modernist, but more and more bishops are reacting against the bad things, and they encourage the SSPX to continue the fight. Rome doesn't anymore ask the SSPX to accept Vatican II as part of Catholic dogma. The SSPX just wants to make sure Rome will allow it to "remain as it is". On January 29th, Bishop Fellay concluded the interview by saying that, in order for the agreement to go ahead, all that was needed was "un coup de tampon" (i.e. "to rubber-stamp it").
Of course, none of us are surprised at these developments. Indeed, they are only the logical conclusions to the 2012 General Chapter scrapping the 2006 resolution of "No practical agreement with Rome unless Rome converts."
Almost five years have passed since then. Five years during which Bishop Fellay expelled all SSPX members who were too vocal against his momentous policy shift. Five years during which he and his cronies have preached "the hot and the cold", in order to convince unhappy members that they would do a better job for the Society if they would "resist from the inside". (Which is basically what Bishop Fellay believes the SSPX as a whole should do towards Rome).
Now, after these five long years, it looks like the road is clear for the "rubber-stamping" ceremony. The only question is this: Will they do it in 2017 (100th anniversary of Fatima), or will they wait until 2018 (for the scheduled General Chapter, which will hold the election of the General Superior and his two Assistants)?
Time will tell.
Let us pray for the Society, so she could wake-up. And for ourselves, so we could remain faithful and strong.
God bless,
Fr. Girouard