The interview with +Fellay is interesting since it contains several items
that have been quoted since this publication, but I had not seen the
entire interview in context. I think this is helpful to see, as it puts a
frame around the details, so to speak. It helps to keep the loose ends
tied up, as they say............


Interview with Bishop Bernard Fellay on the occasion of the
General Chapter (July 16, 2012)

Doctrinal mutism is not the answer to the “silent apostasy”

DICI : How did the General
Chapter go? How was the mood of
the meeting?

Bishop Fellay : It took place in
a rather hot atmosphere, since
July is a particularly hot month
in the Valais! But in a very busy
schedule, where the members of
the Chapter were able to freely
exchange ideas, as it befits such a
working meeting.

DICI : Were you able to discuss
the relations with Rome? Were
there any forbidden questions? The
dissensions manifested within the
SSPX these last months, have they
calmed down?

Bishop Fellay : That makes for
quite a few questions! Regarding
Rome, we went to the very heart
of the issues, and all the capitularies
were able to study the complete
file. Nothing was left aside
and there were no taboos among
us. It was my duty to exhibit
with detail all the docuмentation
exchanged with the Vatican,
something which was rendered
difficult by the obnoxious climate
of recent months. This made it
possible for us to conduct direct
discussions which have cleared
out the doubts and dissipated any
misunderstandings, resulting in
peace and unity of hearts, which
of course is something to rejoice
about.

DICI : How do you foresee the relations
with Rome after this Chapter?

Bishop Fellay : All ambiguity has
now been resolved among us. Very
soon we will convey to Rome the
position of the Chapter, which
has been the occasion to specify
our road map insisting upon the
conservation of our identity, the
only efficacious means to help
the Church to restore Christendom.
As I told you recently, “if
we want to make fruitful the treasure
of Tradition for the benefit
of souls, we must both speak and
act” (cf. interview of 8 June 2012,
DICI #256). We cannot keep
silent when facing the rampant
loss of faith, the staggering fall
of the number of vocations, and
the decrease of religious practice.
We cannot refrain from speaking
when confronted with the “silent
apostasy” and its causes. Doctrinal
mutism is not the answer to
this “silent apostasy” which even
John Paul II denounced already
in 2003.

Our approach is inspired not
only by the doctrinal firmness of
Archbishop Lefebvre but also by
his pastoral charity. The Church
has always considered that the
best testimony to the truth is to
be found in the early Christians’
unity built in prayer and charity.
They had “but one heart and
one soul,” as we read in the Acts
of the Apostles (cf. Acts 4, 32).
Such a common ideal is also our
watchword, Cor Unum being
the name of the internal bulletin
of the SSPX. Hence we distance
ourselves resolutely from all those
who have tried to take advantage
of the situation in order to drive
a wedge turning Society members
against each other. Such a spirit
does not come from God.

DICI : What are your thoughts
on the appointment of Archbishop
Mueller as Prefect of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith?

Bishop Fellay : It is nobody’s secret
that the former bishop of
Regensburg, where our seminary
of Zaitzkofen is located, does not
like us. After the courageous action
of Benedict XVI on our behalf,
in 2009, he refused to cooperate
and treated us like as if we
were lepers! He is the one who
stated that our seminary should
be closed and that our students
should go to the seminaries of
their dioceses of origin, adding
bluntly that “the four bishops of
the SSPX should resign”! (cf. interview
with Zeit Online, 8 May 2009).

For us what is more important and
more alarming is his leading role
at the head of the Congregation
for the Faith, which must defend
the Faith with the proper mission
of fighting doctrinal errors and
heresy. Numerous writings of Bishop
Mueller on the real transubstantiation
of bread and wine into
the Body and Blood of Christ,
on the dogma of Our Lady’s virginity,
on the need of conversion
of non-Catholics to the Catholic
Church... are questionable, to say
the least! There is no doubt that
these texts would have been in the
past the object of an intervention
of the Holy Office, which now
is the very Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith presided by
him.

DICI : How do you see the future
of the SSPX? In the midst of its fight
for the Church’s Tradition, will the
SSPX keep to the same knife’s edge?

Bishop Fellay : More than ever
we must maintain the knife’s edge
traced by our venerated founder.
It is not easy to keep, yet absolutely
vital for the Church and the
treasure of its Tradition. We are
Catholic, we recognise the pope
and the bishops, but above all else
we must keep intact the Faith,
source of God’s grace. Therefore
we must avoid all that may endanger
the Faith, without trying
to become a replacement for the
Church, Catholic, Apostolic, and
Roman. Far from us the idea of
establishing a parallel Church, of
exercising a parallel magisterium!

This was well explained by Archbishop
Lefebvre more than thirty
years ago: he did not wish to hand
down anything else but what he
himself had received from the
Church of two millennia. This
is what we want also, following
his lead, so that we may effectively
help “to restore all things
in Christ.” It is not us who will
break with Rome, the Eternal
Rome, mistress of wisdom and
truth. Nevertheless, it would be
unrealistic to deny that there is a
modernist and liberal influence in
the Church since the Second Vatican
Council and its subsequent
reforms. In a word, we maintain
the faith in the primacy of the
Roman Pontiff and in the Church
founded upon Peter, but we refuse
all which contributes to the
“self-demolition of the Church”
acknowledged by Paul VI himself
since 1968. May Our Lady,
Mother of the Church, hasten the
day of its authentic restoration!
(Sources : FSSPX/GH – DICI
no.258 dated July 20, 2012)



[Found on the last 2 pages of the Newsletter]:


ABOUT THOSE RUMORS .............................

[photo of priest kneeling in front of altar with lots of space around him]

This photograph taken on July 9, 2012, in the chapel of the Seminary
in Ecône shows one of the members of the General Chapter swearing
on the Gospel book to observe the secrecy required by Canon Law,
according to the constant practice of the Church.

All the alleged revelations concerning the contents of the declaration
of the General Chapter of the Society of Saint Pius X that can be read
here or there on the Internet are the sole responsibility of their publicity-
hungry authors. The communiqué of the General House dated
July 14, 2012, clearly announces that this declaration will be delivered
first to Rome before being made public. That is the normal order, and
no exceptions will be made to satisfy the need for self-proclaimed sensational
leaks.

Good does not make a lot of noise. Conversely, evil does not hesitate
to circulate unfounded reports and anonymous rumors so as to divide,
oppose, and cause trouble. We recognize it by its fruits.




DOcuмENT

Society of St. Pius X General Chapter Statement

As announced in the press communiqué
of the Society of St. Pius X's
General House on July 14, 2012, the
members of the General Chapter sent
a common statement to Rome. It has
been published today. ["today" being July 20th, 2012]

During the interview published at
DICI on July 16, Bishop Bernard
Fellay stated that this docuмent was
"the occasion to specify the (SSPX's)
road map insisting upon the conservation
of the Society's identity, the
only efficacious means to help the
Church to restore Christendom".
"For," he said, "doctrinal mutism is
not the answer to this “silent apostasy”,
which even John Paul II denounced
already in 2003."

At the conclusion of the General
Chapter of the Society of St.
Pius X, gathered together at the
tomb of its venerated founder,
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, and
united with its Superior General,
the participants, bishops, superiors,
and most senior members of
the Society elevate to Heaven our
heartfelt thanksgiving, grateful for
the 42 years of marvelous Divine
protection over our work, amidst a
Church in crisis and a world which
distances itself farther from God
and His law with each passing day.

We wish to express our gratitude
to each and every member of our
Society: priests, brothers, sisters,
third order members; to the religious
communities close to us and
also to our dear faithful, for their
constant dedication and for their
DICI No.258 • 9 July 20 2012
fervent prayers on the occasion
of this Chapter, marked by frank
exchanges of views and by a very
fruitful common work. Every sacrifice
and pain accepted with generosity
has contributed to overcome
the difficulties which the Society
has encountered in recent times.
We have recovered our profound
unity in its essential mission: to
preserve and defend the Catholic
Faith, to form good priests, and
to strive towards the restoration
of Christendom. We have determined
and approved the necessary
conditions for an eventual canonical
normalization. We have decided
that, in that case, an extraordinary
Chapter with deliberative vote will
be convened beforehand.

We must never forget that the
sanctification of souls always starts
within ourselves. It is the fruit of a
faith which becomes vivifying and
operating by the work of charity,
according to the words of St. Paul:
“For we can do nothing against the
truth: but for the truth” (cf. II Cor.,
XIII, 8), and “as Christ also loved
the church and delivered himself
up for it... that it should be holy
and without blemish” (cf. Eph. V,
25 s.).

The Chapter believes that the
paramount duty of the Society, in
the service which it intends to offer
to the Church, is to continue, with
God’s help, to profess the Catholic
Faith in all its purity and integrity,
with a determination matching the
intensity of the constant attacks to
which this very Faith is subjected
nowadays.

For this reason it seems opportune
that we reaffirm our faith in
the Roman Catholic Church, the
unique Church founded by Our
Lord Jesus Christ, outside of which
there is no salvation nor possibility
to find the means leading to salvation;
our faith in its monarchical
constitution, desired by Our Lord
Himself, by which the supreme
power of government over the universal
Church belongs only to the
Pope, Vicar of Christ on earth; our
faith in the universal Kingship of
Our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of
both the natural and the supernatural
orders, to Whom every man
and every society must submit.

The Society continues to uphold
the declarations and the teachings
of the constant Magisterium of the
Church in regard to all the novelties
of the Second Vatican Council
which remain tainted with errors,
and also in regard to the reforms issued
from it. We find our sure guide
in this uninterrupted Magisterium
which, by its teaching authority,
transmits the revealed Deposit of
Faith in perfect harmony with the
truths that the entire Church has
professed, always and everywhere.

The Society finds its guide as well
in the constant Tradition of the
Church, which transmits and will
transmit until the end of times the
teachings required to preserve the
Faith and the salvation of souls,
while waiting for the day when an
open and serious debate will be
possible which may allow the return
to Tradition of the ecclesiastical
authorities.

We wish to unite ourselves to the
other Christians persecuted in
different countries of the world who
are now suffering for the Catholic
Faith, some even to the extent of
martyrdom. Their blood, shed in
union with the Victim of our altars,
is the pledge for a true renewal of
the Church in capite et membris,
according to the old saying sanguis
martyrum semen christianorum.

“Finally, we turn our eyes to the
Blessed Virgin Mary, who is also
jealous of the privileges of her Divine
Son, jealous of His glory, of His
Kingdom on earth as in Heaven.
How often has she intervened for the
defense, even the armed defense, of
Christendom against the enemies of
the Kingdom of Our Lord! We entreat
her to intervene today to chase the enemies
out from inside the Church who
are trying to destroy it more radically
than its enemies from outside. May
she deign to keep in the integrity of
the Faith, in the love of the Church,
in devotion to the Successor of Peter,
all the members of the Society of St.
Pius X and all the priests and faithful
who labor alongside the Society, in
order that she may both keep us from
schism and preserve us from heresy.

“May St. Michael the Archangel inspire
us with his zeal for the glory of
God and with his strength to fight the
devil.

“May St. Pius X share with us a part
of his wisdom, of his learning, of his
sanctity, to discern the true from the
false and the good from the evil in
these times of confusion and lies.”

(Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre; Albano,
October 19, 1983).

Given at Ecône, on the 14th of July
of the Year of the Lord 2012.

Quote

Good does not make a lot of noise.

Uh-huh.  We are to take this stony face silence as "good" - rather it's like the creeping of a serpent.

If some alarmed people fear the serpent where he is not, this doesn't make the serpent good or the alarmed people bad!

The first time I read that I thought it said "God does not make a lot of noise." My
mistake. But then I missed the point of that, until I read your post, Tele. And
then you not only set sights on that sentence, you drew it out very nicely using
logic and common sense. I want you to know I appreciate this! There is a lot
of value in that last sentence of yours, "If some alarmed people fear the serpent
where he is not, this doesn't make the serpent good or the alarmed
people bad." For viewed in that light, the absurdity of the first proposition
is now quite simple to see. Much obliged.


Also, in reading the Statement, I am happy to see the language
used in the following paragraph:

The Society continues to uphold
the declarations and the teachings
of the constant Magisterium of the
Church in regard to all the novelties
of the Second Vatican Council
which remain tainted with errors,
and also in regard to the reforms issued
from it. We find our sure guide
in this uninterrupted Magisterium
which, by its teaching authority,
transmits the revealed Deposit of
Faith in perfect harmony with the
truths that the entire Church has
professed, always and everywhere.


"...the revealed Deposit of Faith in perfect harmony with the truths that the
entire Church has professed, always and everywhere," is consoling and actually
rather gratifying to see in print. Perhaps some day soon, we may see such
language coming out of Rome again, at long last? One can hope ...........


[How about "with the same meaning and same interpretation?"]