Why does this matter? Not only because His Holiness, Benedict XVI, is the "pope of unity," who has done more to bring Anglicans and others (including marginalized and alienated traditional Catholics) into the fold than most people realize, but because it matters -- as he well understands -- that unity must be founded upon truth.
- "Vatican, SSPX close to agreement?" (World Catholic News, September 13, 2011):
According to Le Figaro, the proposed agreement would state that the issues raised by the SSPX are not fundamental doctrines of the Church, and it is possible to question them without challenging the authority of Church teaching.
Liberal Catholics will be unhappy with a regularization of the SSPX, Guenois concedes. But liberals will find it difficult to object to the proposed agreement, since they regularly claim to be loyal Catholics while raising questions about certain aspects of Church teaching. - "Tornielli: A two-page document in 'Judgement day' for SSPX and the Vatican" (Rorate Caeli, September 13, 2011):
Vatican Insider has learned that the Lefebvrian superior will be handed a two-page document, containing the Church’s appraisal of the doctrinal discussions held in recent months between the Vatican and the Fraternity, approved by the Pope.
... The Holy See considers the acceptance of the document as an essential condition for full communion, which would also provide for a legal settlement for the Fraternity founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, probably through the constitution of a similar ordinariate to the one expected for the Anglicans. - "For the record: 'The innovation comes from the Roman side'" (Rorate Caeli, September 13, 2011):
The great novelty [i.e., initiative] comes from the Roman side. Le Figaro has learned that the Holy See could, for the first time, admit that these aspects fought by the "Integrists" are not considered as "essential" to the Catholic faith to the point of keeping outside the Church those who do not admit them. And that what has been foundational to the Catholic faith for twenty centuries is the sole [aspect] considered fundamental for communion with the Holy See, and not the interpretation from the last Council to this day.
Great autonomy of action
Another consequence: the Holy See, after it is verified tomorrow that Bishop Fellay and his faithful share the essence of the Catholic faith - which remains a demand and a sine qua non condition for Rome -, would propose to them a juridical solution so that the Fraternity of Saint Pius X is from this point forward considered a Catholic entity and not foreign to the ecclesial body anymore. - Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, "SSPX leaders to receive document from the Holy See on 14 September" (WDTPRS, September 13, 2011):
People of good will can attain unity even when they disagree on matters which are by no means clear.
The history of the Church’s great Councils underscores this fact.
How many times have I written that the so-called “Feeneyites” were able to be in union with the Church but without having to abjure their position about extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. The theological problems the SSPX has with the Second Vatican Council or the Holy See or anything else, don’t necessarily need to be the absolute obstruction to unity.
Questions of the role of the Church in the modern world or religious liberty are really hard. There is room for debate and disagreement. It is possible for people of good will to disagree about whether or not the fruits of Vatican II were all wonderful. There is a precedent for closer union even when we consider the theological concerns some SSPXers might be harboring.
Slowly but sure the climate has been changing. Hopefully we have come to a point where hearts can also be moved to open. And there must be a willingness on the part of the SSPX to submit to the Holy Father’s authority… which he is exercising in very good will in their regard. - "A final thought for September 14, 2011" (Rorate Caeli, September 13, 2011): From the daily thoughts of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre posted at the front page of the website of the French District of the Society of Saint Pius X:
"If Rome wishes to give us a true autonomy, the one we have now, but with submission, we would want it. We have always hoped for it: to be subjected to the Holy Father; no possibility of despising the authority of the Holy Father".
- Christopher Ferrara, "Removing the Vatican II Impediment" (The Remnant, September 2, 2011):
Rorate Caeli has reported that on May 28, 2011 Father Daniel Couture, the Society’s District Superior of Asia (whom I had the privilege of assisting during a pilgrimage in Japan), was delegated by Bishop Fellay to accept the vows of Mother Mary Micaela, who has transferred from the Congregation of the Dominican Sisters of New Zealand, a Novus Ordo congregation, to the Dominican Sisters of Wanganui, established by Bishop Fellay. The report notes that Mother Mary “had special permission from the Congregation for Religious and Secular Institutes in Rome to do this.”
Obviously, the approval of this transfer implicitly recognizes the ministry of Bishop Fellay in establishing the Dominican Sisters of Wanganui, the ministry of Father Couture in receiving the vows of the Novus Ordo nun who transferred into that order, and the canonical mission of the Society at large in delegating one of its priests, through one of its bishops, to admit a nun into an order with which the Society is affiliated and whose superior is Bishop Fellay.
... Is the “Vatican II impediment” [the idea that Vatican II -- a "pastoral council" -- represents a doctrinal litmus test that the SSPX supposedly cannot pass] about to be removed? Will it join the nonsense about the banning of the traditional Mass in the dustbin of Vatican II mythology? Will the Vatican finally admit that the Council changed nothing, and required nothing from Catholics, concerning what they must believe and practice in order to be in “full communion” with the Church?
... So much nonsense has been dispelled during this pontificate. The neo-Catholic polemic on the "schism" of traditionalists is now in tatters. When the Society is finally "regularized" de jure -- and it is already regularized de facto, who's kidding whom? -- what will be left of the neo-Catholic position? Exactly nothing. And when exactly nothing is left of neo-Catholicism, when its claim to be the moral and theological high ground is finally extinguished, then the restoration of the Church can proceed everywhere. Let us hope the date of extinction is on or about September 14, 2011.
Tornielli has this line...
ReplyDelete"In short, the Lefebvrians ... cannot beat around the bush any longer."
You have to be wearing severely inverted lenses to see them as the players that have been doing that for 40+ years!
But praying today.
When the SSPX is regularised that will signal the real new Springtime of the Catholic Church.
ReplyDeleteThere are, roughly, 550 real priests celebrating the real mass and the real sacraments and they anchor their traditional theology in the system of the real angelic doctor.
While I pray for God's will and the good of the Church, and I hope this includes a canonical structure for the SSPX to operate within the Church, I am also curious about the content of the Preamble and worry about the SSPX being effectively "neutralized" by appropriation into the "Conciliar" Church.
ReplyDeleteJM,
ReplyDeleteI had to chuckle at that too. Tornielli assuming the presumptive moral high ground against these insubordinate troublemakers.
On the other hand, there's this:
ReplyDelete“We must be on guard against minimizing these [Traditionalist] movements. Without a doubt, they represent a sectarian zealotry that is the antithesis of Catholicity. We cannot resist them too firmly.” ―Joseph Ratzinger, Principles of Catholic Theology (Ignatius Press, 1987), pp. 389-90
What do you make of them apples?
What I make of those remarks [Ratzinger's] is the perverse thought world that dominated the Church during Vatican II and afterwards, which took Catholic tradition as it had existed up to that point and summarily overthrew it. It was a coup d'etat. And as late as 1987, Ratzinger was on board with this.
ReplyDeleteIf one wants to discuss "sectarian zealotry," one might adduce those zealots who zealously wrecked churches, tampered with the Holy Mass, reduced Catholicism to something palatable to the secular West, and, in short, gave away the store to appease various interest groups (Protestants, Western intellectual groups, etc.).
You prolly remember me writing to you a short while ago vis a vis the Jews and The SSPX. I wrote then that Our Holy Father would be under intense pressure from the Jews not to regularise the SSPX and along comes ol' Abe to apply publicly the pressure I am sure has already been applied privately because the Jews hate the SSPX for they embody Tradition
ReplyDeleteVatican-Jewish Relations
ADL Urges Vatican To Ensure Anti-Jewish Sect Accepts Teachings Of Vatican II Before They Are Welcomed Back
New York, NY, September 16, 2011 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) urges the Vatican to ensure that a breakaway Catholic sect which teaches anti-Judaism will be required to accept the church's official positive teachings about Jews and Judaism before they are fully accepted back into the Roman Catholic Church.
The Vatican announced earlier this week that in order for The Society of St. Pius X to gain full reconciliation with the church, SSPX must accept some core church teachings, but they have not been made public.
It was unclear from news reports and Vatican statements whether the landmark reforms of the Second Vatican Council and subsequent Vatican teachings - which reversed nearly 2,000 years of church-based anti-Semitism, repudiated the deicide charge against Jews, and called for positive and respectful interfaith relations - were included among these latest requirements.
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor, issued the following statement:
We are confident that Pope Benedict XVI will continue to require the Society of St. Pius X, which espouses anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish beliefs, to publicly accept the church's positive teachings about Jews and Judaism since the 1965 Second Vatican Council, before fully accepting them back into the Roman Catholic Church.
It would be unthinkable to allow a Catholic breakaway sect that includes a Holocaust-denying bishop, Richard Williamson, to be reintegrated into the church while still being allowed to promote anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism - which they have been doing for years in their teachings and on their Web site.
We trust Pope Benedict's promise that he made to us during our meeting in 2007 that he would stand with us against all forms of anti-Semitism.
Jews turning-up the pressure.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4126380,00.html
With friends like these...
I don't see that the Jewish pressure on Benedict should come as any surprise. In fact, it's not even that exceptional: the "spirit of vatican 2" modernist bishops and theologians are hardly any less hostile to the normalization of the Vatican's relations with traditionalist groups. For that matter, most of the neo-conservative crowd with close and otherwise supportive relationships to the Vatican are hardly any less poorly disposed to support the Pope's initiative on this point.
ReplyDeleteWith friends like any of these ...