I have been working with Gentiloup to provide a translation of the article "
Pour la nécessaire réconciliation" that was posted on
Un évêque s’est levé ! this week.
I know a machine translation was posted as I was finishing mine, but I thought all of you might like to see the "authorized" translation anyway. The machines tend to become very confused about verb tenses and French pronouns and prepositions. They are notorious for ignoring negative statements and other such grammatical details.
To answer a previous question, NO the book is not available in English.
Anyway, here it is:
Review of “
Towards a Necessary Reconciliation” by Fr. Michel Lelong, promoted by GRECBy Gentiloup (posted November 14, 2012)
From the web site
Un évêque s’est levé !I just finished reading the book by Fr. Michel Lelong, entitled: Towards the Necessary Reconciliation [
Pour la nécessaire réconciliation (pub: December 2011)].
It is a small work of 159 pages, not exciting but quickly read. It is an exposé of GREC, “Groupe de Réflexion Entre Catholiques” [Catholic Think Tank].
This booklet summarizes the work accomplished by GREC, it is a sort of glowing report by the author who was present from the beginning of this organization. His goal is to open up the SSPX to reconciliation with conciliar Rome. Nevertheless, this little book unintentionally clarifies the downward slide of the head of the SSPX and why the ralliement [an apropos French word for the effort to rejoin with Rome] with conciliar Rome was able to corrupt the spirit at the heart of the SSPX.
This “think tank” was founded in 1997 with the goal of integrating the SSPX into modernist Rome and convincing it to accept the Second Vatican Council. The founders were Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Pérol and Fr. Michel Lelong, author of the book and fervent defender of inter-religious dialogue and the Council. Mr Pérol had been the Ambassador of France to Rome.
GREC’s goal is not ambiguous. It is clearly defined throughout this book by different protagonists as being “
Interpreting Vatican II in the light of Tradition,” according to the formula John-Paul II gave to Archbishop Lefebvre in 1978.
Fr. Michel Lelong is convinced of the benefits of the Council, especially of Nostra Aetate, and is a specialist in dialoguing with Muslims.
The Ambassador’s idea was to enter into dialogue with traditional Catholics of the SSPX in the same way that he had dialogued with other religions and from which, to his regret, the SSPX had been excluded.
Fr. Alain Lorans, one of the four founders of GREC, was the spokesman for the SSPX District of France. He immediately obtained permission from Bishop Fellay to participate in the dialogue “for a necessary reconciliation.” He has been very attentive in keeping Bishop Fellay up-to-date with the progress of this dialogue.
The 'Charter' of this group was defined by Mr. Pérol shortly before his death: it is “
to interpret Vatican II in light of Tradition,” which Benedict XVI himself calls the
hermeneutic of continuity, in opposition to
the hermeneutic of rupture, as Archbishop Lefebvre ruefully observed at the end of his long quest to reach a tentative agreement with this Conciliar Church. In the end, he could see that an agreement was impossible, hence the consecrations of the four bishops in 1988.
Commencing its activities with a small committee formed around Mrs. Pérol, Fr. Michel Lelong and
Fr. Emmanuel le Chalard, the Group “did not cease to give discreet and special support to GREC.”
Two other priests contributed decisively to the creation and life of our Catholic think tank. One of them who has since returned to God was the Dominican, Fr. Olivier de La Brosse, the other, Fr. Lorans of the SSPX. I [Fr. Lelong] got to know them in 1997 during a dinner to which we had been invited by Mrs. Pérol. On that day GREC was born. Page 24
Details: This meeting took place in Rome at Madame Pérol’s home.
•
Fr. Olivier de La Brosse, who died in 2009, was the spokesman for the Bishops' Conference of France.
• Fr. Lorans was the spokesman for the [SSPX] District of France.He had obtained permission from Bishop Fellay to dialogue for a necessary reconciliation with the group.
Thus we have the four founders of GREC:
• Mrs. Pérol
• Fr. Michel Lelong
• Fr. Lorans
• Fr. de la Brosse
In the months that followed, the protagonists remained quietly within their respective communities.Soon after, conferences would be organized, but without fanfare, for it was necessary that this should remain confidential.
Fr. Michel Lelong wrote, “When we meet in friendship, I often think of Gilbert Pérol who, while actively participating in Christian-Muslim dialogue, had the idea of this dialogue between Catholics.” Page 27
The apostolic nuncios supported this group, along with various other personalities of the conciliar church who regularly informed the Pope of the progress of the dialog.
The SSPX District Superior of France, Fr. Ribeton, joined the group and, a little later, so did the head of The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest.
To shorten this exposé,
you should know that the initiative of the lifting of the excommunications of the four bishops of the SSPX can be traced back to GREC who had already requested it as a part of the celebration of Jubilee year 2000! In any case Fr. Lelong claims it explicitly in this book and provides many quotations from exchanges of letters among the group, the Roman authorities, and the superior of the SSPX.
When Mgr Fellay tells us that the lifting of the excommunications is one of points of the Society’s roadmap, that is also false!They keep returning to the term “full communion.”
As far as I'm concerned, having been a priest for fifty years and having devoted my ministry to the relationship between the Church and the Muslims, I am deeply attached to the teachings of Vatican II and I am trying to raise awareness and understanding of those [teachings] among our fellow Catholics who follow Archbishop Lefebvre and his successors. (Fr. M. Lelong Page 42)
Thus, the message is clear—Bishop Fellay does not come to play as a naïve schoolboy pretending suddenly to discover in 2012, through a letter from the Pope, the expectation of SSPX recognition of Vatican II. This has been clear from the debut of the discussions with GREC!On January 6, 2004, Fr. de la Brosse sent a letter to Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos (Ecclesia Dei Commission) to give an account of the “Tradition and Modernity” colloquium organized by GREC on November 22, 2003, in Paris:
At our request, Bishop Philippe Breton was appointed by Bishop Ricard, President of CEF [French Bishops Conference], as the “affiliated bishop” of the group, to attend the meetings and provide the opening prayer, with Fr. Lorans of the SSPX presiding over the final prayer. . . .
Thus the very purpose of the colloquium seems to have been established: French Catholics of various and even opposite sensitivities have freely agreed to engage in a dialogue that does not prejudge a total reconciliation in any way—a field reserved to competent superiors—but this opens the possibility, when the times comes, that the dialogue caucus will find before them partners capable of understanding and mutual respect. . . .
The number of participants was 40 people, all of whom were invited individually by group members. . . .
Very great discretion was observed at the express request of Bishop Ricard, which corresponded to our intentions. No professional journalists were present in the room. No information or comments have been leaked during the following days, neither in the Catholic nor the secular press. (Page 45 - 46)
Thus, thanks to support from the Apostolic Nuncio and also to the efforts of Frs. La Brosse and Barthe, Cardinal Ratzinger, then prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, was kept informed of our activities. The election of Benedict XVI was welcomed . . . with great hope. . . . We know, indeed, how during the first months of his pontificate the new Pope met with Bishop Fellay and made statements and decisions that clearly manifested his desire to reestablish unity in the Church through a hermeneutic of continuity and not of rupture with regards to the teachings of Vatican II. (Pages 48-49)
and
Father Lelong and I propose to inform them of this development, of our work methods as well as the results as a whole to our concerned partners, that is to say, on a priority basis: the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy, then the Apostolic Nunciature, the Bishops Conference of France, and the superiors of the Fraternities of St. Pius X and St. Peter. I added some traditional religious communities who had said they were interested and may wish to become participants in some of GREC’s projects. (pp.47-48)
After the Motu Proprio of 2007, the organizers of GREC sent a new letter to the Pope, asking him again to lift the excommunications.From page 55 follows a history of GREC’s activities and of the key figures of different sides who are to be involved in this process.
Following the Pope’s meeting with Bishop Fellay in 2005, GREC expanded the SSPX side [NB] to include, among others: a very active, very involved Fr. Célier, Jacques-Régis du Cray, even earlier, Marie-Alix Doutrebente.
[Editor’s note: Not a few SSPX priests, (outside those cited, who themselves are very involved), have participated in GREC’s work, often as speakers. Some are cited in the book, others are not, whom I know by implication from elsewhere. I prefer to not reveal their names, since I do not accurately know their current position regarding the ralliement.]
It was then that the colloquia revealed the “
doctrinal and spiritual convergence” between the two parties.
On June 10, 2010, a GREC meeting was held with the purpose of declaring its support of the Pope following “a particularly unfair media campaign,” around “Fr. Matthew Rouge, Rector of St. Clotilde Basilica in Paris . . . and Fr. Lorans, in charge of SSPX communications.”
That evening, thanks to two speakers’ presentations and the discussion that followed, we sensed how much a reconciliation between all Catholics around Pope Benedict XVI was expected and hoped for, thanks to him.
GREC devoted its meetings to Vatican II, Archbishop Lefebvre, and the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificuм, with the participation of historians and theologians providing different points of view, so as to make its contribution during the 2010-2011 academic year.(Page 69)
At the time of this writing, one can hope that these meetings will lead to an agreement without delay. But the SSPX must understand that if it has much to offer to Rome, it also has much to receive from it. It must therefore stop rejecting Vatican II outright and accept the guiding principles in interpreting them as proposed by the Holy Father today. (Father Michel Lelong Page 85)
The stories of different GREC actors follow, including those (for the SSPX) of Fr. Lorans, Marie-Alix Doutrebente and Jacques-Régis du Cray.
A very important place is given to
Fr. Paul Aulagnier, who began when he was District Superior of France, before the foundation of GREC, to open a dialogue in 1992 with conciliarists (notably with Dom de Lesquen, Abbot of Notre Dame de Randol). He continued this role later after becoming a member of the IBP [Institute de bon pasteur/Good Shepherd Institute]. Still very active in support of the ralliement, he has already rejoined and has obtained a parish in the conciliar structure.
Beginning in 1992, as District Superior of the SSPX in France, I was happy to initiate new contacts with recognized ecclesiastical authorities.
One day, when passing by Randol . . . Abbot Dom de Lesquen was talking to a young man in the forecourt of the monastery. Knowing the role he had played with Dom Gérard during his rapprochement with Rome on July 10, 1988, I approached him and spoke with him . . . about the rapprochement with Rome, of a normalization of the SSPX with Rome . . . (Fr. Aulagnier Page 104)
To understand the process of
ralliement, it suffices to know the underground work of the group whose members admit to it.
Reminder: this book was published in December 2011It is very important to be familiar with this book so as to know what is important in the future not to do: no doctrinal discussions at any level so long as Rome has not converted.This was the point made by Archbishop Lefebvre and which has prevailed until the narrowly missed ralliement in June 2012:
“No practical agreement without a doctrinal agreement.”Inferiors do not form the superiors, and yet, after a practical agreement, the SSPX would find itself under the authority of a modernist pope and conciliar congregations.
The truth does not support the least compromise with error, and yet the process initiated by GREC is nothing other than a search for compromise.
In conclusion, here is what Fr. Hewko has to say:
Quote:
Fr. Ludovic Barrielle (so highly revered by the Archbishop) commented in 1982:
I am writing this to serve as a lesson for everyone. The day that the SSPX abandons the spirit and rules of its Founder, it will be lost. Furthermore, all our brothers who, in the future, allow themselves to judge and condemn the Founder and his principles, will show no hesitation in eventually taking away from the Society the traditional teaching of the Church and the Mass instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ.
[/b]
Quoted by Fr. Hewko in his
Open Letter to His Excellency Bishop Fellay, Society Priests, Religious and Faithful, dated November 8, 2012.
Topic: Towards a Necessary Reconciliation -- authorized translation (Read 4597 times)