Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => SSPX Resistance News => Topic started by: Plenus Venter on January 29, 2025, 06:47:01 PM
-
The Death of +Richard Williamson:
A Bitter Eulogy
By
Sean Johnson
(https://i.imgur.com/tTSh1RJ.png)
It is not widely known by the faithful that in the years preceding 1988, when +Lefebvre was still negotiating with modernist Rome for a bishop for Tradition, it was the name and dossier of Fr. Richard Williamson which was provided to Cardinal Ratzinger as his preferred choice for episcopal consecration. It was this man, and no other, whom +Lefebvre selected to perpetuate and safeguard the traditional Catholic priesthood (“and all that pertains to it!”), which his Society was created to do.
Rome understood that such a man could not be permitted episcopal consecration, because his candidacy represented a continuation of “Lefebvrism.” He could not be negotiated with. It needed someone else, who in time might be separated from the views of the Society’s founder, in order that the SSPX could be reoriented back toward conciliarism, and the traditionalist resistance eliminated. They found their man in the person of +Bernard Fellay (who in ascending to the superior generalship in 1994, at the prompting of Fr. Schmidberger, directly violated the Founder’s command that a bishop never become superior general, but justified anyway upon the pretext of needing a superior general with greater stature to deal with Rome).
In +Fellay, Rome found a man they could work with (as they stated): A man willing to depart from +Lefebvre’s post-1988 principle of action that there be no practical accord with modernist Rome before Rome returned to Tradition. In doing so, +Fellay would introduce division into the SSPX, and a quiet power struggle began between those on the side of +Fellay (who wanted a deal with modernist Rome), and those behind +Williamson and +Lefebvre (who refused any negotiations to subject their congregation to conciliar reeducation under modernist and hostile authority).
But +Fellay, being the superior general, held all the cards, and having began secret negotiations with Rome through the GREC (1997-2000), and agreeing with Cardinal Hoyos to “proceed by stages” toward canonical recognition, knew +Williamson had to go. Consequently, in 1999, +Fellay sought to remove +Williamson from the American seminary, but the latter refused, until 2003, when he consented to be transferred to Argentina. But this did not suffice, and in 2009 the famous h0Ɩ0cαųst interview was used as a pretext to remove +Williamson from active ministry, sequestering him in a Wimbledon attic for four years, while +Fellay maneuvered to vilify his name and reputation until 2012, when, having just revised the SSPX constitutions in preparation for reinsertion into the conciliar church at the General Chapter in July, he expelled +Lefebvre’s most trusted and loyal confidant in October, 2012.
The muzzled SSPX, now more or less approximating another indult community, a la the Fraternity of St. Peter, +Williamson would become the moral head of the Resistance movement (i.e.. all those SSPX and allied priests expelled or cut off for resisting the sellout to modernist Rome). Toward that end, he would provide ordinations, and beginning in 2015-2021, would eventually consecrate 7 bishops for the various Resistance camps (and conditionally consecrate yet another bishop refugee from the conciliar church).
But just as divisions emerged in the greater Church, and then within the SSPX, so too would they emerge within the Resistance movement, and the end result would be that by the time of the sad news of +Williamson’s hemorrhage and death, this great man would die much the same way as our Lord: Alone, largely abandoned, and spurned by his friends to whom he had given so much. It must be stated that he deserved far better treatment from his former SSPX confreres, who in the main, never came to his rescue. That said, there could be no greater sign of predestination than to die as Our Lord did, and at his judgment, +Williamson will be able to point to his coat of arms, and say that, in the main, he lived up to its words:
Fidelis Inveniatur: “Let him be found faithful.”
He was my friend, and I shall miss him greatly. God willing, I will see him again one day, in a place where there will be no sadness, and everlasting joy and peace.
Goodbye old friend.
-
So true and so beautiful. Thank you so much fir sharing this!
-
So true and so beautiful. Thank you so much fir sharing this!
Agree.
-
Agree.
Yes, a very fine and moving tribute.
Who are the seven bishops though? I can only name six.
-
Requiescat in pace, Bishop Williamson. :pray:
-
Sean's tribute, which he titled, A Bitter Eulogy, tells of divisions in the Resistance. division was evident, too, from a couple of +W's recent E.C.'s, in which +W mentioned that charity was needed to be practiced by the Resistance, though not exactly those words. Was his request heeded? We don't know.
Without having more information on the subject, I think it possible that the division in the Resistance has to do with sedevacantism. Since Sean became a sedevacantist, and he's talking about divisions, this seems most likely. But why would Sean say that +W was abandoned? Obviously, at his bedside in the hospital, there were many faithful present. Is Sean talking about Resistance bishops abandoning him? Or is he talking about the SSPX abandoning him? It isn't clear.
Now that Bishop Williamson has gone to eternal reward, will the Resistance finally split?
For those who think that I shouldn't bring this up so soon, well, Sean brought it up first, in his "Bitter Eulogy."
-
You 100% spot on. I thought the same thing - great minds think alike, right?:trollface:
But to be fair, when +Williamson started the Resistance, he himself laid out that it was a loose thing, with no real central control, so it is built on the principle of "pockets" of Resistance and individual Resistance chapels/groups. I would expect much less collaboration overall, but essentially nothing will really change.
Well, I hope that it won't change in the Resistance, but it seems to me (and I could be wrong) that the sedevacantist part of the Resistance was keeping relatively quiet out of respect for His Excellency.
Now that he is no longer with us, the Resistance sedevacantists will likely be more vocal, because, as you know, being vocal is what it's all about, right?
-
Pray do tell - who are these "Resistance sedevacantists" you are referring too?
Oh, you are new!
It started with the German Carmel of Brilon am Wald.
Then there were Frs Rioult and Pinaud in France.
Father, now Bishop Pierre Roy from French Canada.
Fr Arnold Trauner, who I think is Austrian, and now a member of the Mater Boni Consilii Institute in Italy.
There are others and a large number of lay folk.
We could also include Fr Jean Luc Lafitte in France.
Some priests from South America too if I recall...
-
Oh, you are new!
It started with the German Carmel of Brilon am Wald.
Then there were Frs Rioult and Pinaud in France.
Father, now Bishop Pierre Roy from French Canada.
Fr Arnold Trauner, who I think is Austrian, and now a member of the Mater Boni Consilii Institute in Italy.
There are others and a large number of lay folk.
We could also include Fr Jean Luc Lafitte in France.
Some priests from South America too if I recall...
Sorry Johannes, I see you are referring to Meg's comments implying that there are still some in the Resistance waiting to break away... I'm not aware of any such thing. But certainly many have gone down that path. Bishop Fellay was the best ever recruiter for sedevacantism.
-
Oh, you are new!
It started with the German Carmel of Brilon am Wald.
Then there were Frs Rioult and Pinaud in France.
Father, now Bishop Pierre Roy from French Canada.
Fr Arnold Trauner, who I think is Austrian, and now a member of the Mater Boni Consilii Institute in Italy.
There are others and a large number of lay folk.
We could also include Fr Jean Luc Lafitte in France.
Some priests from South America too if I recall...
We also have Fr. Ernesto Cardozo from Argentina, Fr. Leandro Neves from Brazil.
Bp. Rodrigo da Silva was a Resistance priest for six months or so. He now works with the Bp. Dolan (RIP) group.
-
We also have Fr. Ernesto Cardozo from Argentina, Fr. Leandro Neves from Brazil.
Bp. Rodrigo da Silva was a Resistance priest for six months or so. He now works with the Bp. Dolan (RIP) group.
Thanks GB. I didn't know Fr Cardozo had gone sede.
-
. But why would Sean say that +W was abandoned? Obviously, at his bedside in the hospital, there were many faithful present. Is Sean talking about Resistance bishops abandoning him? Or is he talking about the SSPX abandoning him? It isn't clear.
Pretty sure he was talking about the SSPX abandoning him. It seems to me the charitable thing to do would have been for the SSPX to at least send a priest to him, or something, anything - but they did nothing, zero. They abandoned him.
-
Sean couldn't agree more!! We will surely or sorely miss him.
On a lighter note though, I'll always remember a quip he said Cork ( Ireland) where he was ordaining a priest and my brother who's well known to both Bishop Williamson and Sean also was serving at Mass, when during the ceremony his trousers split and he told his lordship after about it, to which Bishop Williamson replies "Oh no, another split in the Resistance".
-
Sean couldn't agree more!! We will surely or sorely miss him.
On a lighter note though, I'll always remember a quip he said Cork ( Ireland) where he was ordaining a priest and my brother who's well known to both Bishop Williamson and Sean also was serving at Mass, when during the ceremony his trousers split and he told his lordship after about it, to which Bishop Williamson replies "Oh no, another split in the Resistance".
:laugh1::laugh1:
-
We also have Fr. Ernesto Cardozo from Argentina, Fr. Leandro Neves from Brazil.
Bp. Rodrigo da Silva was a Resistance priest for six months or so. He now works with the Bp. Dolan (RIP) group.
With the consecration of Bishop Roy, the Bishop Dolan group, no longer supports Bishop Rodrigo da Silva.
https://x.com/liturgicalife/status/1726207662596264014?t=r5RH6dxltjAGXvoND8K9zw
-
I had the honour of having him stay in my home a number of times during Covid.
More than anything else I remember his immense charity and humility, and always his words of encouragement.
"Omnis, qui credit in ipsum, non pereat, sed habeat vitam aeternam". - John 3:15: "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
:pray:
-
With the consecration of Bishop Roy, the Bishop Dolan group, no longer supports Bishop Rodrigo da Silva.
https://x.com/liturgicalife/status/1726207662596264014?t=r5RH6dxltjAGXvoND8K9zw
That's actually old news. Thank you.
I cannot keep up with the news of the Traditionalist chaos.
-
Who are the seven bishops though? I can only name six.
https://selsey.org/2025/01/30/bishop-richard-nelson-williamson-rip/
I don't know this organization, but this is a really good sympathetic summary of + Williamson's contribution to fight modernism, and preservation of our Catholic Faith...
Near the end, there is a short discussion about each of the bishops consecrated by H.E.
-
:incense: Hello, a certain person on CathInfo! Bp. W. did indeed conditionally consecrate Vigano.
-
Comments - +Viganò's Eulogy for +Williamson—and other responses (https://www.wmreview.org/p/williamson-reactions-vigano/comments)
From Sean:
It was “bitter,” because of the poor treatment he received from his former confreres, and the imposture they used to justify it. I now have a couple books to publish to make good on some promises to His Lordship, and with the help of Stephen Kokx, hopefully it won’t be too long. Also considering a YouTube channel featuring commentaries on His Lordship’s writings/positions (nothing longer than 10 minute episodes, as His Lordship believed that’s all the modern mind could muster; only the intellectual reads books anymore, but in my case, they’re more historical compilations for future research and commentary by any interested parties).
-
Comments - +Viganò's Eulogy for +Williamson—and other responses (https://www.wmreview.org/p/williamson-reactions-vigano/comments)
From Sean:
(nothing longer than 10 minute episodes, as His Lordship believed that’s all the modern mind could muster;
Interesting, since His Excellency has been known to go on for 45 minutes with sermons. He did insist upon seminarians keeping their to 10 minutes when they were practicing as deacons at STAS, but then went 45 himself.
But here's the thing. I've never in my life heard so captivating a speaker as Bishop Williamson, where you hang on his every word and lose any sense of time passing, where after 45 minutes you're disappointed that he's done. I've seen other priests go 30+ minutes, and by about 12-13 in, everyone's squirming in their pew, shifting their weight, and checking their watch. Not so with +Williamson. Only he could pull that off.
-
I've never in my life heard so captivating a speaker as Bishop Williamson, where you hang on his every word and lose any sense of time passing, where after 45 minutes you're disappointed that he's done. I've seen other priests go 30+ minutes, and by about 12-13 in, everyone's squirming in their pew, shifting their weight, and checking their watch. Not so with +Williamson. Only he could pull that off.
^^^THIS^^^ was always my experience as well.
In fact, I was disappointed whenever his sermon was less than 15 minutes or he failed to mention Jews, Communists, or Freemasons.
-
An updated version from Respice Stellam:
The Death of +Richard Williamson:
A Bitter Eulogy
By
Sean Johnson
It is not widely known by the faithful that in the years preceding 1988, when +Lefebvre was still negotiating with modernist Rome for a bishop for Tradition, it was the name and dossier of Fr. Richard Williamson which was provided to Cardinal Ratzinger as his preferred choice for episcopal consecration. It was this man, and no other, whom +Lefebvre selected to perpetuate and safeguard the traditional Catholic priesthood (“and all that pertains to it”), which his Society was created to do.
Rome understood that such a man could not be permitted episcopal consecration, because his candidacy represented a continuation of the intransigent preconciliar “Lefebvrism” they sought to eliminate. He could not be negotiated with. They needed someone else, who in time might be separated from the views of the Society’s founder, in order that the SSPX could be reoriented back toward conciliarism, and the traditionalist resistance eliminated. They found their man in the person of +Bernard Fellay (who in ascending to the superior generalship in 1994, at the prompting of Fr. Schmidberger, directly violated the Founder’s command that a bishop never become superior general, upon the pretext of needing a bishop for greater stature in dealing with Rome).
In +Fellay, Rome found a man they could work with (as Cardinal Hoyos stated): That is, a man willing to depart from +Lefebvre’s post-1988 principle of action that there be no practical accord with modernist Rome before Rome returned to Tradition. Therefore, +Fellay’s disobedience to the Archbishop would introduce division into the SSPX, and a quiet power struggle began between those on the side of +Fellay (who wanted a deal with modernist Rome), and those behind +Williamson and +Lefebvre (who refused any practical negotiations with same).
But +Fellay, being the superior general, held all the cards, and having began secret negotiations with Rome through the GREC (1997-2000), and a few years later agreeing with Cardinal Hoyos to “proceed by stages” toward canonical recognition, knew +Williamson had to go. Consequently, in 1999, +Fellay sought to remove +Williamson from the American seminary, but the latter refused, until 2003, when he consented to be transferred to Argentina. But this did not suffice, and in 2009 the famous h0Ɩ0cαųst interview was used as a pretext to remove +Williamson from active ministry, sequestering him in a Wimbledon attic for four years, while +Fellay maneuvered to vilify his name and reputation until 2012, when, having just revised the SSPX constitutions in preparation for reinsertion into the conciliar church at the General Chapter in July, he expelled +Lefebvre’s most trusted and loyal confidant in October.
The muzzled SSPX, now more or less approximating another indult community (a la the Fraternity of St. Peter), +Williamson would become the moral head of the Resistance movement (i.e., all those SSPX and allied priests expelled or cut off for resisting the sellout to modernist Rome). Toward that end, he would provide ordinations, and beginning in 2015-2021, would eventually consecrate 6 bishops for the various Resistance camps (and conditionally consecrate yet another bishop refugee from the conciliar church), thereby guaranteeing a future for Tradition as Archbishop Lefebvre did before him.
But just as divisions emerged in the greater Church after the council, and then within the SSPX, so too would they emerge within the Resistance movement, such that, just a few short years into this “remnant of a remnant,” many would abandon +Williamson, exclaiming as many disciples did to Our Lord, “This saying is hard, who can hear it,” and not understanding, marched off into obscurity, to the detriment of the recovery of the Church.
That said, faithful throughout the world may take some small consolation in knowing that His Lordship was surrounded by faithful, friends, and clergy in his last days, praying the Rosary around the clock, and according to some reports, gave evidence of being aware of their presence and prayers. For that, I am most thankful.
It must be stated that Bishop Williamson deserved far better treatment from his former SSPX confreres, who in the main, never came to his rescue, preferring to sit in cowardly silence for self-preservation, and watch +Lefebvre’s preferred bishop be jettisoned in favor of a gentler, modernized, and mainstream repackaged SSPX, which Rome would not object to, and gradually float imperceptibly into the conciliar pantheon.
+Richard Williamson’s death leaves in his wake an unfillable hole in the Church; there are none of equal stature to replace him. With time, we will miss him more and more, as it becomes apparent even to those who disagreed with him on various points, that we have lost a treasure, and all are the worse for it.
“No prophet is not accepted in his own country.” (Luke 4:24)
He was my friend, and I shall miss him greatly. But we have his Letters from the Rector. We have his Eleison Comments. We have decades of YouTube and online video conferences. In these teachings, His Lordship will live on even here on Earth, even as he enters into eternity.
He lived up to the motto on his coat of arms: Fidelis Inveniatur (“Let him be found faithful”) in an age where fidelity is increasingly rare and undervalued. But it gives me hope that, God willing, I will see him again one day, in a place where there will be no sadness, and everlasting joy and peace.
I will miss you, old friend.
-
https://selsey.org/2025/01/30/bishop-richard-nelson-williamson-rip/
I don't know this organization, but this is a really good sympathetic summary of + Williamson's contribution to fight modernism, and preservation of our Catholic Faith...
Near the end, there is a short discussion about each of the bishops consecrated by H.E.
Thank you, Twice Dyed. I see the updated version of Sean's tribute posted in the thread now does state 6.