In February of this year Fr. Franz Schmidberger, rector of the SSPX seminary in Zaitzkofen, Germany, wrote a short essay expressing his reasons, from a personal point of view, for members of the Society to accept a normalization of relations with Church authorities. Here we present an English translation of the document “Thoughts about the Church and the Place of the Society of Saint Pius X in it”.Read more >>
Under normal circumstances this is a document we would not have published, because NLM has learned that Fr. Schmidberger wrote it as a private communication. He sent it to the SSPX Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, and to a small circle of colleagues, including fellow professors at the seminary. He did not authorize anyone to release it on the internet, let alone to claim incorrectly that he had sent it to all members of the Society; but in recent days both of these have taken place without his consent.
Now that erroneous translations of the text and untrue stories about the document are doing a disservice to innocent readers, Fr. Schmidberger has approved the publication of this authorized translation in English, in order to clear away the errors.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
For the record: Fr. Schmidberger Letter urging SSPX acceptance of regularization
Richard Chonak, "The moment has come to normalize the situation of the Society" (New Liturgical Movement, April 28, 2016) via Rorate:
ReplyDeleteI rather hope they stay irregularized.
Folded into a Church that also tolerates Hans Kung, the gay Jesuits of _______________ (fill in the name of any metropolitan city), and the clerics of Germany, the SSPX will become just another of the potpourri of voices that our popes now suggest coalesce into some sort of Catholic rainbow coalition of diversity to the glory of God.
I prefer the SSPX remain a n obvious and clear sign of contradiction.
It would be utter folly for the SSPX to allow itself to be regularized during the reign of one of the most irregular popes in church history. You don't have to be Machiavelli to sense the trap into which Pope Helterskelter I wishes to entice them. Fellay should slap Schmidburger upside his head.
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