Have you heard about the drama going on right now with the SSPX? Amazing. Rumor has it that Pope Benedict may have already lifted the decree of ex-Communication on the Bishops of the SSPX incurred after their illicit consecration in 1988. This action, following the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, is a major step toward bringing the SSPX back into the fold. There is one person who is apparently determined to throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing. Richard Williamson, one of those on whom the ex-communication would be lifted, will do anything to stop it.
First the skinny on what is happening. Rorate Caeli has been reporting (and now corroborated by other sources)
All signs now seem to indicate that the removal, withdrawal, or annulment of the excommunications of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (+ 1991), Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer (+ 1991), and of the four Bishops consecrated by them for the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX) in Ecône, Switzerland, on June 30, 1988 is imminent. The Papal act on the matter has almost certainly been signed, and it will be made public shortly:
This follows upon a secret visit of Bishop Fellay to the Pope delivering a bouquet of a million or more rosaries. If this rumor turns out to be true it would be a great occasion of joy for almost everyone. Almost everyone.
It seems that every time that a possible rapprochement between the SSPX and the Holy See draws nearer, “Bishop” Richard Williamson does everything he can to disrupt and destroy that possibility. Back in June of last year when the Pope, through Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, asked the leaders of the SSPX to agree to certain pre-conditions Williamson did his best to create confusion and distrust. In a series of statements then he poked his finger in the eye of the Pope and offered that he would rejoice if the SSPX were declared in formal schism. At the time it seemed clear to some observers that Williamson does not want reconciliation and would break from the SSPX if need be.
It seems, if the rumors are true, that Bishop Fellay and the Pope did not allow his antics to antagonize them or disrupt their plans. In October, the Society launched the rosary crusade that resulted in the bouquet of a million rosaries.
As disgusting and un-Christian as Williamson rhetoric was in the past, it seems that is nothing compared to what he is doing now in a last ditch effort to derail reconciliation. This comes from Ruth Gledhill at the Times Online.
Bishop Richard Williamson is a hardline ultra-conservative bishop of the Society of St Pius X. He faces possible prosecution for Holocaust denial in Germany after an interview with a reporter from Stockholm TV in which he claimed that six million Jews did not die in the Holocaust, merely a few thousand, and that the gas chambers did not exist. CathCon has the translation of the Der Spiegel report. In an earlier story in the Catholic Herald, Bishop Williamson, former Anglican and a Cambridge graduate, was exposed as endorsing the forgery, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
The timing of these monstrous statements is not coincidental. Williamson has a vested interest in maintaining his schismatic status. Inside the Church he is an unhinged nobody. Outside, he is a somebody or so he thinks. He is desperate to maintain the status quo because he has nowhere else to go.
In recognition of all the Pope has done and is trying to do and in the name of all the good people in the society and those who are aligned with it, the SSPX should immediately censure or even expel Richard Williamson. He is a very troubled man in need of our prayers, but he should not be a Bishop or in any leadership position.
Please Bishop Fellay, if you and the society truly seek reconciliation, expel Richard Williamson.
January 22, 2009 at 11:03 pm
As to liberal media highlighting this event – it is reasonable to infer that they would intensely dislike the SSPX being reunified with the Church and would look to put impediments in its way.
Similarly, it is also reasonable to infer that they find Bp Williamson’s views repugnant and embarrassing and are bringing them to attention of the public and are reasonably questioning why the Church would be dealing with this sort of thing.
January 22, 2009 at 11:29 pm
I am a Swede and I saw and heard the imprudent statement of His Lordship on Swedish TV yesterday – it can be seen and heard on this link:
http://svtplay.se/v/1413831/webbextra_langre_intervju_med_williamson
It must be stated clearly, that this interview was done on All Saints Day 2008, and His Lordship did’nt have ANYTHING to do with the timing of the broadcast – that decision was taken solely by the SVT (and the devil).
May God protect Msgr Williamson and heal this wound.
(Personally I am also tired of the Holocauts-Industry, as Norman Finkelstein calls this geschäft)
Pax et bonum/ Adrian
January 23, 2009 at 12:59 am
First of all, he didn’t say “only a few thousand”, he said between 2 and 3 HUNDRED thousand died in the holocaust. That is not holocaust denial, merely very poor reporting. His big issue is whether or not they were killed in gas chambers. Watch the tape please.
Deusdonat – please explain your claim that the SSPX has done “so much harm and evil” to the Church; most Catholics have never even heard of them. I attend an FSSP chapel and am no expert, but I do know that the FSSP was created in answer to the SSPX. So, no SSPX, no FSSP. The traditional Mass was presented as an extreme rarity that must be approved by a bishop, which wasn’t true, and most of them said no anyway. Ask Pope Benedict. WHO caused harm and evil!?
January 23, 2009 at 1:47 am
Also, if it hasn’t been mentioned already, this interview was conducted in November, so the accusations that he was sabotaging the lifting of the excommunications are unfounded.
So two major false assumptions have been made here – that he denied the holocaust by saying that only a few thousand people died (he said 2-3 HUNDRED THOUSAND – not holocaust denial) – and that he was responsible for the timing of the release.
Call him a wacko if you will, but do it with your facts straight.
January 23, 2009 at 2:39 am
I have yet to watch the video, but I would like to give you few facts:
a) be very, very careful of what is being reported by “Der Spiegel”, that German magazine quoted in Ruth Gledhill’s piece. This magazine has always been leaning heavily left. Esp. the Catholic Church is being picked on every opportunity they get. They habitually distort facts, esp. as far as the Catholic Church is concerned. I know; I am from there.
b)It is very, very striking that the FSSP called on their website for a rosary crusade to lift he excommunication. Starting on Christ the King end of October during a pilgrimage to Lourdes they called on the faithful to pray the rosary to lift the ban. 1.7 million rosaries were counted….. now there are reports of an alledged lift of that ban.
c) Archbishop Lefebvre did sign all the Vatican II documents and then ended up criticizing them.
And finally here is what Fr. Franz Schmidberger, District Superior of the FSSPX Germany is saying: ”Our Lord Jesus Christ is in His human nature a Jew, His Holy Mother is a Jewess and all the Apostles are Jews. Therefore, no true Christian can be an Anti-Semite.
”We do not know the interview done by Bishop Williamson with Swedish television. As soon as we get it, we will submit it to scrutiny and get the advice of lawyers. It is clear that the only one responsible for the statements made by the Bishop, is the Bishop himself as well as that the statements do not reflect the views held by the Society of St. Pius X. In addition, Pope Pius XI in his encyclica ”Mit Brennender Sorge” warned about the godless Nazi regime and it’s crimes.
”…Our concern is the salvation of souls, quite contrary to what the article in Der Spiegel in an unjust and misleading manner is suggesting.”
Let us continue to pray for unity, true unity. There are so many attacks against our Mother Church that we can surely do with some serious, solid and true unity.
Blessings, Mum26
January 23, 2009 at 3:19 am
“this interview was conducted in November, so the accusations that he was sabotaging the lifting of the excommunications are unfounded.”
The first rumor of the decree lifting the excommunications was posted on RorateCaeli on November 3, 2008, based on a Spanish language blog post dated November 2, 2008.
It is inconceivable that Bp. Williamson was not aware of the impending move on the part of Rome to “lift” the “excommunications” when he granted this interview.
January 23, 2009 at 4:01 am
Call him a wacko if you will, but do it with your facts straight
Oh. sorry. he only underreported the deaths of Jews by 5.7 million, not 5.97 million. How careless of all of us.
WHACKO.
January 23, 2009 at 5:01 am
Sweden tv intervieuw
http://svtplay.se/v/1413831/webbextra_langre_intervju_med_williamson
Sweden’s news in English:
Church furor over ‘racist’ religious group
Published: 22 Jan 09 16:01 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/17096/20090122/
…
when they tell you
that I am
completely absolutely definitely
dead
don’t believe them,
don’t believe them,
don’t believe them.
Ariel Dorfman Testament
January 23, 2009 at 5:08 am
Son of Trypho – I am not comparing His Excellency (he is a Bishop after all) to Athanasius; I’m merely reminding neocons that just because a person or a group is excommunicated does not mean write them off before you get the whole story.
Deusdonat – The same Pope that dealt with the SSPX in the ’80’s also elevated His Eminence Mahoney to the cardinalate a few years later. I doubt that the SSPX could have done anything to prevent that.
I want to make it clear that I do not agree with all of the actions of the SSPX, but one should at least attempt to understand where they are coming from. I’ve been in the Church since last Easter, and in less than a year almost became Orthodox because of the things I’ve witnessed done in the name of Vatican II. The SSPX not only have to deal with hatred from progressives in the Church but from neocons as well. In the Diocese of Lincoln they are referred to as a “non-Catholic sect,” which is extremely harsh, since Ecclesia Dei has even said no formal schism exists between the SSPX and Rome.
And I know this has been said before, but just because Bishop Williamson has problems with tact and historical fact does not make him unfit to be a Bishop in the Catholic Church.
January 23, 2009 at 5:43 am
Viva la SSPX! 😉
January 23, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Son of Trypho:
You wrote:
And if you are Polish you should be especially aware of why the Holocaust is awarded greater significance than other genocides -the event itself is not measured by numbers but by the fact that it was an modern industrial process which is unparalleled in history in scope and scale.
I seriously dispute that claim. It wasn’t unparalleled in scope and scale. In fact, it was inferior in scope and scale to what was being done before WWII and during WWII in the Soviet Union. The only important differences are: a) soviets had different selection criteria for victims, b) killed by cold, hunger and exhaustion or bullets, not gas and c) didn’t have IBM tabulation machines to track their progress (though they were very good at keeping track of it nevertheless). Somehow denying this is not a crime anywhere. Why?
So the fact that Germans used gas to kill some of their victims (many were murdered with more traditional methods) doesn’t warrant any special protection to the history of these killings. And before jumping to conclusions: read what I’m writing, not what you think I’m implying. I’m just saying I don’t see any reason why one historical genocidal act should enjoy some special protection against people claiming it didn’t happen or happened differently over other genocidal acts, much bigger in scope and scale.
Also, assumptions that people who say German genocides during WW-II were smaller in scale or conducted with different methods are either neo-nazi or anti-semites have no logical basis, they are just this: assumptions. They might have had some validity in Germany itself just after the war, but not now, almost 70+ years after. However, all this borders very much with notion of Orwellian thought-crimes, that is things you are not allowed to think. I think free speech and freedom in general are worth allowing few nutjobs to say Stalin was a cool guy and great leader or Hitler didn’t kill Jews.
January 23, 2009 at 2:53 pm
By the way, I just listened to the interview. Guy is simply politically incorrect and not wise, but he sounds perfectly rational. And pick up one part of it – he wants to know the truth on the matter and carefully says that his statements are what he believes based on evidence and expert’s opinion. I respect the pursuit of truth against general wisdom or consensus. Journalist saying this is anti-semitism is completely irrational – there is nothing about Jews in those statements – it is just that he doesn’t think it was technologically possible to kill this many people in those chambers. How can saying this be criminal? Or anti-semitism? This is madness..
He is just not wise in saying anything like this in public, also because in his capacity as a bishop he should be concerned with salvation of souls, not whether Germany was ripped off by the Holocaust industry or not. This part is utterly stupid.
January 23, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Here is a link to a parody I did a couple of years ago of the traditionalist fringe.
January 23, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Meg – the SSPX as an organization have done harm and evil to the church in that ANY schism which presents itself at a legitimate alternative to the true church, confuses the faithful and leads Catholics away from the magesterium is a grave evil. Their leadership has been both cowardly and morally bankrupt for persisting in their willful and blatant disregard and taunting of church authority. What is the difference between illicitely consecrating a bishop and ilicitly ordaining a woman “priestess”? Two sides of the exact same coin: disregard for authority.
I am VERY aware of the origins of the FSSP AND the SSPX. The SSPX was founded under the VERY beet of intentions. Were it not for the sin of pride of its founder, it might have become a beacon and bastion for the traditional church. Instead, it went the way of the crussades, inquisition etc, letting greed, personal agrandizement and pride corrupt an ideal and brought (yet more) scandal to the church.
BWB – I am no fan of the predecessor of Pope Benedict (may God grant him 100 years!) I know he elevated the likes of Mahoney. Which is why the SSPX should have worked WITHIN, rather than from outside. Cowards the lot.
January 23, 2009 at 11:43 pm
Well, then, Deusdonat, it begs the question: Why does B16 want anything to do with them?
Aside from that, the level of hyperbole you use in your posts makes me reluctant to engage – words like "scoundrel" and "taunting" don't promise healthy debate. I think I'll pass. I will say this in all charity, you are very poorly informed on this subject and you would truly benefit from hearing both sides, not just the one you obviously support.
Additionally, your views on the Crusades and the Inquisition are not particularly Catholic. Please read this current piece on InsideCatholic for better information.
http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5275&Itemid=100
September 17, 2009 at 3:34 am
Alright, who let the trolls out?