In very early 2009, an American gentleman, appalled by Bp Fellay's manipulation of the Holy Rosary to get the SSPX into Newrome, started his own Rosary Crusade to oust Bp Fellay. He appealed to Bishop Williamson for a leadership role. The Bishop's reply is published below. It shows that what Fr Schmidberger says is not true.
Mon, 16/2/09
To Everyone,
The requested letter from Bishop Williamson is below. I did request and obtain his permission to send it to everyone:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"No, no, a thousand times no", in the words of the old song. Given the power in today's world of certain people, the game must be played to a certain extent according to their rules. I blame no colleague or Superior for trying to salvage a viable future for the SSPX as a whole from the wreckage caused by a few ill-chosen words on Swedish TV. I am not saying those words were or are untrue. I am only saying that I cannot go along with any repudiation of the present SSPX leadership.
I might go along with it if they were to try to cut a bad deal with Rome, but here and now I absolutely do not believe that to be the case. If it became the case, I think you could trust me to say so, because the Faith would be at stake, and it does look as though I am liable to say what I think. Trust me then when I say that I do not think the SSPX is heading for betrayal.
Be patient. Pray the Rosary to avoid confusion in a situation in which the Devil is playing almost how he likes with countless hearts and minds.
I send you my blessing, and to all your friends, but not for the idea of setting me up to head a new organisation. No way.
Pray the Rosary. God bless you. +Richard Williamson.
This is worth a close read. H.E. answers the query, but does not really say what
one might think he is saying. His answer is in regards to him not accepting the
proposal to lead a 'new organization,' or, what Menzingen calls a 'rebellion.' But
think -- what was in the mind of the questioner? He wanted to enjoin other
Catholics in a Rosary Crusade (at a time when +Fellay had been doing just that,
ostensibly for another reason but he had not been forthright in his disclosure of
what his 'true intention' had been) with the overt intention for +Fellay to leave
his office ("to oust +Fellay"). But wait -- isn't that precisely what +W has now
suggested to +F in his "Open Letter ... on an Exclusion," dated October 19th?
+Fellay's own voluntarily resignation would be the answer to +W's prayer, it
would seem, even while +W here refused to openly promote a Rosary Crusade
for that same intention.
My point here is, that +W is not forbidding the layman to organize such a Crusade.
He is not even advising against it. He offers no words of discouragement, to
dissuade any laymen from embarking on such a Rosary Crusade. All he is
saying is that he does not want to take the leadership role in such a thing. Why
not? He doesn't explain that. But let me do another one of my WAGs here. I
take a lot of pride in WAGs. Maybe that's a fault, but give this one a chance
before you make a snap judgment.
It is
my own hypothesis that +W does not want to lead a Rosary Crusade for the
express purpose of having +Fellay voluntarily resign from SG for two, or rather,
make that three reasons. And those reasons are as follows:
1). +W does not find any incentive in conducting a 'battle of Rosary intentions'
across the fence at a brother bishop, that is, H.E. refuses to make Our Lady's
Garland into the medium of a feud. And,
2). H.E. does not desire to detract from the original intentions of +F's Crusade,
which were quite good, as they originally were made manifest, that is, he would
like to preserve that erstwhile intention and perhaps even increase it.
But after all that, it absolutely does not mean that he in any way opposes any
number of laymen voluntarily coordinating a Rosary Crusade for this ouster
intention. In fact, if +W could find a way for
+Fellay himself to pray the Rosary
with the intention that +F become inspired to resign from the SG office, he would
jump on that in a heartbeat. Oh, and there is one more item:
3). +W does not want to be the new SG, for he is faithful to ABL's precept, that a
bishop should not hold that post, to avoid the
appearance of a parallel
Church, that is, he wants to have no part in using the Most Holy Rosary as some
kind of propaganda instrument to further his own agenda.
Now, this is by example. +W would never stoop to such a thing. He would never
ask the faithful to pray the Rosary for a particular set of intentions while he
SECRETLY desires to later on claim that some pre-arranged turn of events is
then an "answer to our prayers!" (Did you hear a bell ringing?) For anyone who
would stoop so LOW should most definitely not hold any kind of office of
superiority in the Church, or even in a fraternal society like this one in question.
No, I propose in this hypothesis, that +W would be quite pleased with his flock
if they were to take it upon their own initiative, without slothfully waiting for him
to take the reins up and drive the parade forward (as Fr. Chazal claims the
French are wont to do -- especially the French priests!), but instead to rise up,
EXURGE! and begin this Crusade on our own!
Therefore, it is my heartfelt conviction that we should do just that.
Far be it from me to presume any leadership role, for I do not have such a
position. But I hereby request that Matthew make the announcement. This is
his forum.
Furthermore, I most sincerely suggest that we include not only prayer of the
Most Holy Rosary, during this month of the Rosary (before it's gone!), but that
we also engage ourselves, as best we can, to FAST and PRAY because, when
His disciples asked Him, "Why could not we cast him out? Jesus said to them,
Because of your unbelief. For, amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain
of mustard-seed, you shall say to this mountain: remove from hence hither, and
it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible to you. But this kind is not cast
out but by prayer and fasting" (Mt. xvii. 18-20).
I think His Lordship should know we can apply the Gospel............... :geezer:
Topic: Statement of Fr. Schmidberger SSPX (Read 5197 times)