AUTHORITY LIMPING

August 1, 2015
Number CDXX (420)
 
The Shepherd is struck, the sheep are all dispersed.
Authority is upside down, reversed.

Good souls regularly wish me to “step up to the plate” and assume a position of authority at the head of today’s “Resistance” movement. Let me propose, without imposing, the reasons for my serious reluctance to attempt any such thing.

Authority in the Church is “shot,” from the top downwards. The present Pope (I am no sedevacantist) is out of his Catholic mind, if ever he had one. But even if his election as Pope was invalid for one reason or another, it was convalidated by his virtually universal acceptance as Pope throughout the worldwide Church. In any case nobody else is Pope, or can be, and therefore he has the supreme authority in the Church. Now the Church was so designed by Our Lord as to be a monarchy, with all authority descending in it through the Pope from God. For by definition authority can only come from above. As Jefferson says in the United States’ Declaration of Independence, authority given from below can always be taken back from below. Authority from below is in fact a contradiction in terms. It is no real authority at all.

Therefore unless this Pope were to give me authority to lead the “Resistance,” which is obviously inconceivable, I will never have official Catholic authority to head up the resistants. Can I have supplied authority due to the emergency? In theory, yes, but supplied authority is relatively weak. It is supplied from above (by the Church) when for instance a penitent asks a priest in unusual circuмstances to hear his confession, i.e. when normally the priest would have no jurisdiction to do so. So supplied authority descends from the Church above, but it is triggered only by the demand from below. No demand, no supplied authority.

Take Archbishop Lefebvre’s own case. Firstly, it was very important to him that the Statutes of the original SSPX were officially approved by the diocesan bishop of Geneva, Lausanne and Fribourg. Secondly, for instance, if a priest of the SSPX wanted to quit the SSPX, to right or to left, the Archbishop had no power to stop him or to punish him except by having nothing more to do with him. And if that priest departed towards the Novus Ordo Church, he was often greeted, as one can imagine, with open arms. The SSPX under Bishop Fellay has more and more wanted to be normal and has pretended it is normal, but actually it is a weak structure insofar as it has never had any jurisdiction more than supplied (this is one reason why Bishop Fellay so wants to be re-integrated into the mainstream Church).

Now that was the Archbishop! And I am no Archbishop Lefebvre. Therefore a certain number of good souls can turn to me for guidance, as they do, but it is not in me to claim even a supplied jurisdiction, because of the enormous confusion reigning in the Church. At present I am more and more disinclined to impose even a true viewpoint on anybody, because souls are now so confused that the least imposition is liable to increase rather than decrease that confusion. “I WILL STRIKE THE SHEPHERD AND THE SHEEP WILL BE SCATTERED” (Zachary XIII, 7), quoted by Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane (Mt. XXVI, 31), and that is how it is going to be in the Church, more and more, until God in his mercy restores the Shepherd, which he will do only when mankind will appreciate a true Shepherd of God. Until then God’s gift of such a Shepherd would risk doing more harm than good. So in the meantime we must all take our just punishment: the universal confusion!

That is why I will give to anybody who asks me my reasons for acting as I do, but I will propose those reasons rather than impose them, and I will not usually object to people disagreeing with me.

Kyrie eleison.

By his own argument, I wonder what would be the point of consecrating a new bishop (as he has) in his mind?

This seems to me to be a very thoughtful communication from the Bp. Williamson. I'm not sure I understand it all, though. I'll have to read over a few more times.

He says that...."In the meantime we must take our just punishment: the universal confusion!"

Universal confusion is right!

One would need to read more than just this one EC to understand this one EC.  

H.E. doesn't explain his topic thoroughly here, for this is merely one installment of a very long series.  

For example, in the video linked on the other thread, +W repeats several times over the course of an hour's conference that he is taking a big risk to say something in public, that he had previously only mentioned in private to individuals who had come to him for spiritual guidance.  But now, as the worldwide state of "universal confusion" continues to increase, he apparently has found cause to bring this out into the open for all to see.  

Furthermore, he states that this current trend of aimlessness in the SHEEP, who wander without any shepherd (as prophesied by Our Lord some 2 millennia ago) is nothing other than a JUST PUNISHMENT from GOD for our sins, and modern man has committed many sins, to be sure.  

Furthermore, he responds to a question from one person in the audience, saying that the Collegial Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (God's only solution to this current crisis in the Church) by the Pope and all the true Bishops of the world will happen (otherwise, Our Lady would have spoken a lie, which is impossible!), but it will happen in God's time, not our time.  The reason for this is that we are being imposed with this PENANCE of confusion because:


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H.E. divulges in that conference that it is imperative that we all pray the Daily Rosary, and that we all practice the 5 First Saturday devotions, for the 5 reasons given by Sister Lucia as told to her by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.  He says that when God sees ENOUGH CATHOLICS doing this penitential spiritual exercise every month, THEN He will grant sufficient graces to the Pope and the Bishops to make the Collegial Consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  THEN Russia will convert and a period of peace will reign in the world.  But FIRST we Catholics must practice the 5 First Saturday devotions.  

It's up to us.

.

Bp. Fellay wants back into the mainstream because he knows the SSPX operation was always a messy business. And Bp. Williamson articulates a similar attitude of mind with not much difference between the two in respect of the current Roman entity. Accordingly, we must forget all their agitations about a new church and a new religion because they lack the courage to fight for the old ones. They take the easy way out by leaving it to providence (akin to washing their hands) and continuing to reap the material benefits of being bishops of a sort within the remnant. They serve us badly.      

By his own argument, I wonder what would be the point of consecrating a new bishop (as he has) in his mind?

As far as I know, the motivation (of even more bishops) is fear of war. If that happens, he would like bishops in all continents to take care of the faithful and ordain priests without having to crawl to +Fellay.

Quote from: J.Paul

Quote from: Wessex

Bp. Fellay wants back into the mainstream because he knows the SSPX operation was always a messy business. And Bp. Williamson articulates a similar attitude of mind with not much difference between the two in respect of the current Roman entity. Accordingly, we must forget all their agitations about a new church and a new religion because they lack the courage to fight for the old ones. They take the easy way out by leaving it to providence (akin to washing their hands) and continuing to reap the material benefits of being bishops of a sort within the remnant. They serve us badly.      

In one way or the other, that is objectively true.  For all of the decades of complaints about another religion and a counterfit false church, when the pushing and shoving begin, they always step back and will not stand up for those definitions, or draw the conclusions that they imply.

It was always rhetoric intended to seduce the laity, creating a following and then posturing as one of some importance from the old order. What were these original firebrands hoping to achieve by confronting the new order? An avalanche of support that never came? Dire warnings to clergy who were so anxious to reform? Alternative structures that would reflect the solidity of their convictions?

But two generations on we are now faced with backtracking operations because those who are still alive have mellowed somewhat and are limiting their losses by renegotiating their positions. They hope their followers will be too young to be concerned, enabling them to reinvent themselves. Thus, Bergoglio is pope; there is no other. So, deal with it because we have run out of answers!!!!  What more evidence do we need that the leaders of traditionalism are now featuring redundancy as their main platform. Maybe they want to close an unhappy chapter in the history of Western religion.  

A Novus Ordo priest acquaintance of mine, no friend of Tradition but observing the goings on from the sidelines, said this to me:
"They (Bp Fellay & Co.) have taken you for a ride!"

Quote from: Wessex

Quote from: J.Paul

Quote from: Wessex

Bp. Fellay wants back into the mainstream because he knows the SSPX operation was always a messy business. And Bp. Williamson articulates a similar attitude of mind with not much difference between the two in respect of the current Roman entity. Accordingly, we must forget all their agitations about a new church and a new religion because they lack the courage to fight for the old ones. They take the easy way out by leaving it to providence (akin to washing their hands) and continuing to reap the material benefits of being bishops of a sort within the remnant. They serve us badly.      

In one way or the other, that is objectively true.  For all of the decades of complaints about another religion and a counterfit false church, when the pushing and shoving begin, they always step back and will not stand up for those definitions, or draw the conclusions that they imply.

It was always rhetoric intended to seduce the laity, creating a following and then posturing as one of some importance from the old order. What were these original firebrands hoping to achieve by confronting the new order? An avalanche of support that never came? Dire warnings to clergy who were so anxious to reform? Alternative structures that would reflect the solidity of their convictions?

But two generations on we are now faced with backtracking operations because those who are still alive have mellowed somewhat and are limiting their losses by renegotiating their positions. They hope their followers will be too young to be concerned, enabling them to reinvent themselves. Thus, Bergoglio is pope; there is no other. So, deal with it because we have run out of answers!!!!  What more evidence do we need that the leaders of traditionalism are now featuring redundancy as their main platform. Maybe they want to close an unhappy chapter in the history of Western religion.  

A Novus Ordo priest acquaintance of mine, no friend of Tradition but observing the goings on from the sidelines, said this to me:
"They (Bp Fellay & Co.) have taken you for a ride!"

And you told him that no one's been more taken for a ride than the Novus Ordites, right?  

Wessex:

Bp. Fellay wants back into the mainstream because he knows the SSPX operation was always a messy business. And Bp. Williamson articulates a similar attitude of mind with not much difference between the two in respect of the current Roman entity. Accordingly, we must forget all their agitations about a new church and a new religion because they lack the courage to fight for the old ones. They take the easy way out by leaving it to providence (akin to washing their hands) and continuing to reap the material benefits of being bishops of a sort within the remnant. They serve us badly.

Wessex knows what Bp. Fellay wants.  How do we know that Wessex knows what +Fellay wants?  Well, he’s told us what +F wants. That’s how we know.  Not only that, Wessex knows that Bp. Williamson wants the same thing.  Both bishops share a “similar attitude of mind.”  Both these bishops want to reenter the "mainstream."  It’s all there.  Not a bit of hesitation or doubt about what either of these bishops wants.  Most other forum members agree.  Not a dissenting voice among them.  Three ‘thumbs up,’ in fact. The two bishops want to get away from the “messy business” of the sspx.  The sspx model never worked very well anyway.  It’s too hard to fight for the old religion and the old church.  These bishops “lack the courage” to fight for them.  They’re making their way back to new church, and may even meet up together there one day.  they've both had enough.
We have to believe that Wessex has been on the phone with Bp. W.; or that the latter has made it clear, maybe in an email, maybe face to face, maybe in some other form of communication, that he’s thrown in the towel.
Oh yeah.  It’s all over.  The bish is going back into the mainstream.  Not one forum member raises a question about it.  Wessex has said it, and they all believe it, apparently. :tinfoil: