Truth for Fr. Celier – a different reality

Conversation with Father Grégoire Celier June 2012 (Several items were discussed)

1) Last week I read the book Benoît XVI et les Traditionalistes from cover to cover;
2) Today, 11th June 2012, I had a long conversation with Fr. Celier and several items as below were discussed:

1 – The GREC (Groupe de Réflexion Entre Catholiques)

Accusation on IA: “Fr. Celier is the driving force, with Fr. Lorans, of a group known as GREC (Groupe de Réflexion Entre Catholiques) that involves Ecclessia Dei communities and others in an attempt to further Benedict's "Hermeneutic of Continuity"."

"Fr. Celier was centrally involved in secret meetings at a monastery facilitating former SSPX priests to rally to Conciliar Rome and to form the Good Shepherd Institute. This ralliement involved Fr. Celier's close friends Fr. de Tanouran and Fr. Hery who are closely associated with the French pagan and occultist Nouvelle Droite, led by Alain de Benoist, a group that is well known for its promotion of neo-gnostic ideas and Freemasonic idols such as Rene Guenon.”


These accusations are totally false. Fr Celier told me that he only went to the GREC to give a talk on the FSSPX, but he is not a member. GREC has nothing to do with “Nouvelle Droite”! Someone confused GREC with GRECE (Nouvelle Droite)! Ups!

The GREC is not a formal organization. It is a forum where Catholics meet and discuss, there are approximately between 60 and 100 members, now quite elderly. They used to meet not more than five times a year. The GREC does not have any opinion as such, they have been silent and have not met for the last year waiting for the result of the negotiations with Rome and the SSPX.

Father Celier was called once to give a talk on the SSPX and does not see himself as belonging to the group as he defines it as only a forum for discussions. He had nothing to do with the founding of the group.

2 – Le dieu mortel: invitation à la philosophie, Grégoire Celier, Ed. Fideliter, 1994

Accusation on IA: “Fr. Celier's book of philosophy, le dieu mortel, was condemned by the Dominicans of Avrille for its promotion of Naturalism.”

The above book (Eng. title: “The mortal god, an invitation to philosophy”) written by Fr. Celier has been criticized by the Dominicans of Avrillé on the following grounds:

Can an introduction to philosophy be done without a specific reference to theology?

Yes, thinks Fr Celier, and he develops his point, basing his thinking on Thomist philosophy. Example: Aristotle in his philosophy did not refer to theology or Jesus-Christ.
The two subjects are independent and distinct from each other, but both do exist (philosophy and theology).

The Avrillé Dominicans do not agree and think that you cannot write an introduction to philosophy without a direct reference and link to theology. They accuse Fr Celier of naturalism.

Fr Celier does not agree. Naturalism would be to refuse theology altogether and only to believe in philosophy.

Fr Celier has written a more elaborated and in-depth response to the criticism of Avrillé, which is soon to be published on the site http://www.gregoirecelier.fr/.

3 – Prof. Borella and Fr Celier.

Accusation from IA :
“He [Fr. Celier] was responsible, with Fr. Lorans - head of DICI - for enabling a certain Professor Jean Borella to lecture young Catholics at the SSPX university in Paris. Professor Borella's ideas were condemned as gnostic heresies by Bishop Tissier de Mallerais in a book reviewing them written by Fr. Basilio Meramo (expelled from SSPX for publicly opposing the sell-out) called Les Heresies de la Gnose du Professeur Jean Borella. The book is available to read, in French, on the internet.”

Professor Borella (born in 1930) has never taught for the SSPX or any SSPX pupils or students. This means he was never in his life at the Institut Saint Pie X in Paris.

Prof. Borella has taught at the University (State University) of Nancy where he taught French literature and philosophy from 1962 to 1977. From then on he taught metaphysics, still at the University of Nancy. Nothing to do with the FSSPX.

Fr Celier NEVER agreed with Professor Jean Borella’s philosophy (in La Charitée Profanée), which was influenced by René Guénon and Gnostic ideas. The Guénon philosophy is not compatible with Catholic philosophy, so says Fr. Celier.

The accusation against Father Celier and Fr Lorans is a pure calumny.. Even worse, the heavily implied association with the book called Les Hérésies de la Gnose du Professeur Jean Borella (Heresies of the Gnosis of Prof. Jean Borella), written by the expelled Fr. Meramo, is mentioned purely to bring Fr. Celier and Lorans into the circle, even mentioning Bishop Tissier. The aforementioned book has NOTHING to do either with Fr. Celier or Fr. Lorans.

4 – The article posted on the US SSPX

http://www.sspx.org/archbishop_lefebvre/in...1_5-22-2012.htm

"The author, Fr. Gregoire Celier, is a priest of the Society of St. Pius X. Ordained in 1986, he is the author of many books and over 500 articles. This selection is adapted from a book written in 2007":

Father Celier stated that the article in question which has been adapted and posted on the US SSPX site is from 2008 and NOT, as was stated from “a book written in 2007” .

This error from the US SSPX site posting has resulted in and provoked a totally-out-of-proportion- slanderous-campaign against the person of Fr. Celier and his book Benoît XVI et les Traditionalistes, written in 2007, on several forum and sites.

Furthermore, it also appears that many people have criticized his book Benoît XVI et les Traditionalistes WITHOUT even having read one line from it . As the book is written in French, that audience has to be quite limited, but it appears that people from traditional Catholic blogs have availed themselves freely of slanderous quotations posted on forums whose sole purpose seems to be to defame and malign well-known Catholic personalities.

EVERY QUOTE concerning Benoît XVI et les Traditionalistes is out of context : I have read the book and checked myself.


Additional remark (outside the conversation)

5 – About the burial of François Brigneau

Accusation from IA:
“It is well known that Fr. Celier publicly associates with historical revisionists who counter the falsified history of certain events that allegedly happened during World War II. In April of this year Fr. Celier led prayers at the funeral service of an unbaptised revisionist who is recorded as stating that Jєωιѕн claims of a h0Ɩ0cαųst were "Six Million junior porters for the great Bank of Israel". Fr. Celier's involvement was publicly reported in an obituary for the French patriot, Francoise [François] Brigneau, in the right-wing newspaper Rivarol.”

Yes, he went to the burial of a well-known French polemist historian and revisionist he knew – François Brigneau who was a known and one of the last supporters of Maréchal Pétain. During the burial ceremony Fr. Celier asked the assembly of people to sing the Salve Regina. Other traditional priests were also present. Everybody sang the Salve Regina. Details can be obtained on the Internet:
http://spartiate.tonempire.net/t464-franco...u-adieucamarade.

Here is what François Brigneau, although not baptized, wrote:

« Avant de prendre congé »

« C'est vrai que le jour baisse.
J'aurais voulu partir comme un danseur de Pardon Breton…
Je m'en vais comme un laboureur harassé, qui entend
l'angélus du soir, pense à la maisonnée, au Bon Dieu, se retourne et se demande
si le grain lèvera jamais dans son sillon. »

"Before taking leave"

"It is true that the day is declining.
I would have liked to leave like a dancer of “Pardon Breton”*,
I am going like a worn out plowman, who hears
the evening Angelus, thinks of the household, of the Good Lord, turns round and asks himself
if the grain will ever rise in its furrow. "

*A Pardon is a typically Breton form of pilgrimage and one of the most traditional demonstrations of popular Catholicism in Brittany.

Last remark: We should also remember that Charles Maurras, the leader of the very well known Action Française, followed by all the traditionalist Catholic and royalist French people, was NOT a Catholic!”

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The prophet must speak the truth and must condemn the errors, and hugging heretics does not make them into saints. We must condemn the errors.

And now another modernist comes forth. His name is Father Celier. He is being brought forward in the English-speaking world for the first time. You can find him on the sspx.org website. Father Celier is the priest ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1986  -- SSPX priest. In 2007, he wrote a book, and in this book he talks about the union between the New Mass and the Old and that we could have some kind of hybrid Mass in which the new and the old could somehow mutually enrich each other. When he tried to sell this book in France, the French traditional Catholics about killed him. So he had to be put on the back burner until May of 2012.

Now Bishop Fellay has put him forward again. Only this time, Father Celier is teaching us the proper interpretation of the teaching of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

See, we all know that Archbishop Lefebvre said no to neo-modernist Rome. We know Archbishop Lefebvre said: Have nothing to do with the Novus Ordo heresy. We know that he stood firmly and unequivocally for the truth, against all odds. But you know what? Let's go back and look at it again, says Father Celier: Let us remember he was speaking in specific times, according to practical circuмstances that were prevalent at that time in 1975, in 1988. You know what that's called? The heresy of modernism.

What do the modernists teach? The modernists teach the Council of Trent was wonderful in 1545. Vatican Council I was wonderful in 1870. They were the right medicine for the Church at that time. But in the 1990s and in the 2000s, they no longer apply. Now we need a new doctrine, we need a new Council, we need a new way of looking at things. Modernists believe that truth changes with history just like evolution of species.

And so now, Father Celier, a priest of the Society of St. Pius X -- the saint that condemned modernism -- is going to use modernism in order to reinterpret Archbishop Lefebvre.

And now come the reeducation classes. In October of 2012, there's going to be a meeting in Kansas City in the U.S. headquarters of the United States District of the SSPX, and they are going to talk about the papacy. There's a big banner with a smiling Pope Benedict XVI. Saint Pius X's picture cannot be found. We're going to learn about papal authority; or we're going to "relearn."  We're going to learn about the danger of sedevacantism. We're going to learn about the importance of obedience, obedience, obedience... don't stand for the Faith over obedience.

As of May in 2012, many, many priests of the Society of St. Pius X are worried and are firmly against this agreement. But they're also afraid because of the iron fist of Menzingen that has already crushed some. I go to America next week. I come back in theory July the 6th. Will I survive the month? This may be the summer of the divorce. And they have tried to keep it a secret until the last moment.

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