According to James Bogle, Francis has fully regularized the SSPX & Bp. Fellay is a member of the Roman Rota

At the end look for the shout-out Bogle 

gives Opus Judei and Josemaria Escriba.

Related:

• Has Bernard Fellay signed an agreement with Rome? It certainly seems like the FSSPX & the Vatican have at the very least an 'understanding' with each other.

• Vatican confirms Fellay is a first-instance judge appointed by them

• Bp. Fellay, “we are Catholics and the modern church recognizes us as Catholics.”

Bp. Williamson says that Bp. Vitus Huonder will consecrate two bishops for the SSPX

“It’s hearsay at the moment but it's pretty darn certain...”

(Speaks about it from the 7 minutes 5 seconds mark to the 10 minutes 55 seconds mark.)

The big day will be the Sunday after Easter.

Bp. Fellay, “we are Catholics and the modern church recognizes us as Catholics.”

“Our situation is now as follows: first, and I can give you statements from Rome that say very clearly that the Society is not schismatic. So we are Catholics and the modern church recognizes us as Catholics. But they say there is something irregular because you do not have canonical status. And they do not want to give us this canonical status before we say that the new Mass is good and the council is good. And we're not going to say it, so we're stuck here. At the same time, you have heard that the Pope gave us the power to confess everyone. Everyone can come with us, not only our faithful, everybody, and the priest has the power to give confession. This is true also for the Last Rights, that is for the Extreme Unction, and recently we have also, in a curious way, the power for marriages. It is even more than that. Just to show you that even if there are certain things which are not yet complete, on the other side many things that are already written down, where Rome is accepting us as Catholics. I give you some examples. For example, if a priest is doing very, very bad, so he needs to be punished. And so the superior, which was myself, I contact Rome and say I'm sorry one of our priests did a big thing and several time Rome did appoint myself as the judge of the case. So I think tribunal know in the name of Rome on one or several of our priests even one times they appointed me as the tribunal of second instance what is Rome made the judgement, the priest appealed against this decision from Rome, and Rome didn't recognize that they made a mistake, and they asked me to be the second judge for that case. How can this be if we are not Catholics? You see? Here we have examples in real life which shows that they consider us as Catholics. Though they say that everything is not yet finished. It is true, we all recognize that. We all say who made the first mistake?”

— conference with Bp. Fellay, St. Joseph Priory, Davao City, Mindanao, Philippines, (3 September 2018).

Break out the champagne, the modernists recognize the FSSPX as one of their own!

So much for not collaborating with Modernist Rome...

Bp. Fellay discusses the FSSPX’s desire to become a ‘personal prelature’ and their future goals

 Bp. Fellay wants the Society to become a ‘personal preature’

In a recent interview with Regina Einig for Die Tagespost, „Wir sind ein Störfaktor in der Kirche“ Bp. Fellay tackled the Society’s relationship with modernist Rome, “goodness is there, benevolence. For years, we have been working with Rome to rebuild trust. And we have made great progress despite all the reactions.... The main points - religious freedom, ecumenism, new mass - are all open questions. This is incredible progress. Until now it has been said: You must obey. Meanwhile, curia workers tell us: we should open a seminary in Rome, a university for the defense of tradition.”  Regina Einig then asked ‘What would a reasonable solution be?’ to which Fellay replied, “A personal prelature.”  Bp. Fellay then explained why the talks with modernist Rome have stalled, “Last year, Archbishop Pozzo told us that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Congregation approved the text we were to sign. We should agree with a personal prelature. One and a half months later, Cardinal Müller decided to revise the text and demand a clearer acceptance of the Council [Vatican II] and the legitimacy of the Holy Mass [Novus Ordo Missae]. First of all, we opened discussion channels, then they blocked them. What do you really want from us? This is where the devil works. It is a spiritual fight.”  Lastly, responded when asked, ‘Do you personally trust Francis?’, “We have a very good relationship. If we let him know that we are in Rome, this door is open. He is always helping us on a smaller scale. For example, he told us, "I have problems when I do something good for you. I help Protestants and Anglicans - why can not I help the Catholics? " Some want to prevent the agreement. We are a disruptive factor in the church. The Pope stands in between.”  Bp. Fellay’s interview with
Regina Einig ends with the bishop showing her a handwritten letter from Francis to Bp. Fellay in French with the address “Cher frere, cher fils” (Dear brother, dear son).

Anonymous members of the Roman Curia want a seminary like this in Rome.

• BONUS • 

 [...]

 [...]

source: Archdiocese For The Military Services USA, Seven Catholic Priests Gather to Discern Possible "Vocation Within a Vocation" as U.S. Military Chaplains

The interdenominational Pentagon Memorial Chapel where the SSPX will concelebrate Mass.

At this point what’s the difference between the SSPX and the Indult?

**** UPDATE 1 JULY 2018 ****

A well written post exploring the implications of a priest of the FSSPX joining the US military chaplaincy including: whom would be his bishop; what rite would he celebrate; and what this says about the leadership of the SSPX; can be read at the link below.

• Tradidi, SSPX Deathwish

What’s going on at the FSSPX?

(click images to enlarge)

A Novus Ordo diocesan priest oversees the exchange of vows 

while the SSPX priest stands to the side and watches.

“Thus, we find ourselves in a case of necessity.... This is why we are convinced that, by the act of these consecrations today, we are obeying... the call of God.” — Abp. Marcel Lefebvre in sermon given at  the episcopal consecrations of June 30, 1988.

Quoted in Archbishop Lefebvre and the Vatican, 2nd ed., Fr. Francois Laisney, (Kansas City: Angelus Press, 1999), pp. 118-19.

Last month on February 10, 2018, a couple from the FSSPX community of St. Raphael’s in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada were wed by a Novus Ordo priest, Fr. Kelly Wilson.  This wedding didn’t take place at St. Raphael’s, instead it happened in Fr. Wilson’s diocesan church of St. Augustine of Canterbury in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.  After the exchange of vows, Fr. Richard Vachon, who had witnessed all this go down, proceeded to offer a nuptial mass (Tridentine Mass — 1962) in the Novus Ordo St. Augustine’s.  According to the Remnant Newspaper,

“The couple preferred the church of St. Augustine for the ceremony, and Fr. Vachon reportedly indicated to them that since it is the couple who are the ministers of the sacrament of marriage, it doesn’t matter which priest officiated.”  

This leads to all sorts of questions.  First off, is Fr. Kelly Wilson a valid priest?  If so, is the Novus Ordo Missae valid?  If so, since communion is given in the hand and particles of the host fall on the ground, did not — the bride, groom, bridesmaids, groomsmen, priests, and guests — all those present walk on Christ?

What if the bride and groom tire of each other and decide to get an annulment?  Will they go to the diocese where annulments are given out for fogging a mirror?  Or will they go to the SSPX which claims a right they do not have under a “state of necessity” to grant annulments?

The answer to all these questions is dependent on whom in the SSPX you ask them to and how well the talks with Modernist Rome are going at the moment.  Sometimes they say, ‘yes, it’s doubtful’ other times, ‘no, it’s valid’.  None of this should be surprising as the FSSPX runs hot and cold.  Perhaps, Bp. Bernard Fellay can clarify as to what SSPX’s policy is regarding marriage and their agreement with Modernist Rome?

“[It’s] not a trap, not a bad, hidden trick”

(From 1 minute 12 seconds to 16 minutes 40 seconds; Bp. Fellay speaks on marriage and the Vatican granting them the privilege to perform weddings provided they meet certain conditions; Letter can be read by clicking here.)

St. Raphael’s Priory of the SSPX in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada was so proud of the Novus Ordoized - Extraordinary Form wedding that they published a photo of the married couple standing beside the Novus Ordo presider and SSPX priest (see below) in their bulletin of March 2018.

If the SSPX is now going to have their priests witness marriages in Novus Ordo churches that have a Novus Ordo presider as the main witness, then have their priest offer up the ‘Extraordinary Form’ for the couple in the same Novus Ordo church, what’s the point and where is the “state of necessity”?

Is the Society bringing the Faith back to Modernist Rome and its Novus Ordo Missae or is the Society becoming that which it so strongly protested for years?

It’s interesting times to be living in.

Hey if the Vatican can have two popes, why not have two priests for a wedding?


***** UPDATED 4 APRIL 2018 *****

The above mentioned groom writes an open letter concerning his wedding and the SSPX—Canada posts it on their official website.

Ottawa, ON

March 26th 2018

A clarification on my wedding

Greetings.

I, Nicolas Lessard, got married to Monica Green on the 10th of February 2018, in the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Augustine of Canterbury in Brandon, Manitoba. Both my wife and I are faithful of the Society of Saint Pius X. The host priest, Father Kelly received our vows, and Father Vachon, of the SSPX celebrated our wedding mass. Following the wedding, there has been a lot of buzz about the circumstances of the wedding in the context of the relationship between Rome and the Society. This letter intends to address this “controversy”.

The first point I would like to make is that the controversy started off with the SSPX's Winnipeg bulletin showing a picture of my wife and me, Father Vachon of the SSPX, who prepared our marriage, and Father Kelly. The bulletin didn’t give many details and the articles that spawned from it implied or assumed many things that were false. Normally, someone who doesn’t know all the aspects of an issue should give the benefit of the doubt, in all Christian charity. The fact that some bloggers did not do so indicates to me that they are spinning a story to drive an ideological narrative, which is disingenuous and dishonest.

The second point addresses the location of the marriage. The location was not imposed on us by the diocese or the SSPX but was freely chosen by Monica (from SK) and myself (from QC). The SSPX priests here do not have the necessary civil license to perform marriages in Saskatchewan (SK) since they do not reside there, which complicated the location selection. We found this church, which presented all the qualities we were looking for which many churches, including both the SSPX churches in Welwyn (SK) and Winnipeg (MB), lacked. These include seating capacity, whether the church was heated (we’re in Canada here!), distance to the reception hall, cost, transports, and the dignity of the church. This last point is worth mentioning since all attendees noticed the sheer beauty of St. Augustine of Canterbury. There was an appreciation for the beautiful harmony of the Traditional liturgy, the Gregorian singing and the church’s well preserved gothic interior. 

The third point regards the laws of the Church. Monica and I consider ourselves not just faithful of the SSPX, but faithful Roman Catholics. In spite of the cancerous crisis going on in the Church, she stays the One True Church of God, and thus the errors of her representatives do not negate the obligation to follow legitimate requests. Neither of us were willing to weaken our marriage bonds by operating outside proper regulations.

We would have had Father Vachon receive our marriage vows if it had been up to us. But since, we were in a church of the diocese, we followed the directives given to the Society by Rome concerning the Society’s marriages. We understand that the Society has followed this same procedure for many individual cases long before these directives were published anyway; actual SSPX parishioners will know that. 

I hope this letter answers most of the questions that were raised from this one picture and label in a parish bulletin. Although it is unfortunate that our marriage was used by some online to promote baseless speculation, my wife and I will take this occasion to ask those who read this to pray for us and for the SSPX! 

Nicolas Lessard

‘Open Letter Lessard—Green SSPX Wedding’, A clarification on my wedding, SSPX—Canada, (26 March 2018)

Francis is asked a question and answers with a lie

This is a sequel to our previous post, Francis caught fibbing? Nope, telling an outright lie!.  For nearly a year, the team of Elise Lucet, in partnership with Mediapart, investigated pedophiles in the Novus Ordo church, the special produced, “accused 25 Catholic bishops of protecting 32 accused clerical sex abusers in France over the past half century and often transferring them to other parishes or even other countries when they were singled out for sexual abuse of minors.”  Among the bishops accused five of them are still in office:

• Cardinal Archbishop Philippe Barbarin of Lyon's;

• Archbishop Jean-Luc Bouilleret of Besançon;

• Bishop Marc Aillet of Bayonne;

• Bishop Yves Le Saux of Le Mans; and

• Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the Society of St. Pius X.

One of the priests investigated by the team was Fr. Julio César Grassi.  This priest was involved in a long drawn out set of notorious trials which included threats, intimidation, beatings, etc... against the victims and witnesses.  Elise Lucet attended a general audience and asked Francis, “Your Holiness, in the Grassi case, did you try to influence the Argentine justice?”  He replied, “Not at all.”  This was a bald faced lie.  The interaction can be seen below in the television program produced for Cash Investigation — Pédophilie dans l'Eglise : le poids du silence (Pedophilia in the Church: the weight of silence).

Elise Lucet: “Your Holiness, in the Grassi case, did you try to influence the Argentine justice?” (2x)

Francis: “Not at all.”

Elise Lucet: “No?”

Elise Lucet: “Because they have commissioned a counter-investigation (review of the trial) then?”

Francis: (gestures a no, says something inaudible)

Francis: “Not at all.”

Elise Lucet: “Not at all?”

(Question & Answer from 1 hr 49 min 18 sec to 1 hr 49 min 48 sec.)

***** UPDATE 12 SEPTEMBER 2018 *****

CASH Investigation has sold the English language rights of ‘Pedophilie dans l'Eglise: Le poids du silence’ to Amazon where it can be watched under the title of ‘Sex Abuse in The Church: Code of Silence’.  To view the original show embedded above on openload click here.

***** END OF UPDATE *****

Glance below at the four volumes that Jorge Mario Bergoglio contracted to be produced proving that the allegations against Fr. Julio César Grassi were false. This is what Francis means when he says, “Not at all.” 

Covers of the four volumes of Estudios sobre el “caso Grassi”.

The volumes of Estudios sobre el “caso Grassi” stacked upon each other.

Screenshot from one the volumes explaining who commissioned their publication in 2010.

English translation of the text: “This volume contains the critical analysis of the facts referred to by the last whistleblower (LG) that integrated the cause of the “Grassi case”, with an aditional Epilogue that refers to the three cases (HOJ, OA, LG). This concludes these studies on the “Grassi case”, and thus the work entrusted in 2010 by the Argentine Episcopal Conference, in particular by its then president, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, today, Pope Francis.”

Just who does he think he is kidding?  Commissioning a four-volume book defense which not only states that Fr. Julio César Grassi is innocent but also disparages the victims isn’t influencing?  This is another peak at the gigantic pedophilia mafia within the Church that exists with the complicity of the highest spheres of Catholicism — of which Francis is a key member.  One has to wonder, knowing that Francis routinely lies when it comes to matters of pedophilia and homosexuality among his presiders, if everything which comes out of his mouth is a lie.

Francis does have a “zero tolerance policy” ...for the truth!

Julio César Grassi is still a priest even though he cannot exercise publicly any ecclesiastical function.  He is currently in prison serving 15 years for sexual abuse of minors plus 2 additional years for fraud and embezzlement of money concerning the Fundación Felices Los Niños (Happy Children Foundation) which he headed.  We wonder is there a connection between Julio César Grassi and Francis’ former student & good friend Yayo Grassi?



Related:

• Francis caught fibbing? Nope, telling an outright lie!

• Francis demonstrates his cognitive dissonance by writing a preface to a book on child sex abuse committed by clergy

the hits keep on coming — “Filial Correction” accuses Francis of propagating heresy

Francis takes another blow!

Francis the ‘tango club bouncer’

Francis ‘the humble’ can’t help it.  Everybody is out to get him or so he perceives.  The first hit was his anger with Sandro Magister publishing 13 cardinals objections to the Synod, next up was the Anti-Francis Dossier making the rounds through the Vatican, followed by 45 scholars condemning Amoris Laetitia as heretical, then the big hit - Francis’ boiling over with rage at the public release of the five dubia, afterwards were the anti-Francis pasquino and the Fake L’Osservatore Romano, and subsequently the 25-page “Filial Correction” titled Correctio Filialis De Haeresibus Propagatis (“Filial Correction on Account of the Propagation of Heresies”) signed by 62 scholars.

This “Filial Correction” was given to Francis on 11 August 2017 but has only become public now since Francis, as is his modus operandi, ignored it.

This “Filial Correction” accuses Francis of spreading heresy in Amoris Laetita seven times!  The introduction of press release for the “Filial Correction” says it all:

source: Correctio Filialis de haeresibus propagatis, Press Release on the ‘Filial Correction to Pope Francis’

Ouch!

A summary of the document can be read (click here) and the full English text of Correctio Filialis De Haeresibus Propagatis (click here).  One can peruse the 62 signatories (click here) which interestingly was signed by Opus Dei’s Dr. Gerard J. M. van den Aardweg, the European editor of the Empirical Journal of Same-Sex Sexual Behavior, and only one Bishop, Bernard Fellay the Superior General of the SSPX.  The list is a who’s who of those upset with Francis.  One more person of interest to readers is Fr. Robert Brucciani, the District superior of the SSPX in Great Britain, who was responsible for the disgusting Brook Sexual Behaviors Traffic Light Tool being part of the SSPX’s “St. Michael’s School Child Protection Policy, Procedure and Guidance”.  Noticeably absent are the signatures of Raymond Burke, a false conservative; Walter Brandmuller, who must still be considering a ‘fraternal correction’; and Athanasius Schneider, he must be busy with interreligious dialogue!

Now that the “Filial Correction” has been made public, how will Francis respond?

Things continue to become 

more and more 

interesting at the chaotic Vatican!

Pozzo says the ball is in the Society’s court

The key lies in properly understanding the Second Vatican Council as a continuity of Church teachings.

Personal prelature or bust!

Opus Dei’s Bp. Arrieta expresses support to the idea of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X becoming a personal prelature of Francis

Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta Ochoa de Chinchetru of Opus Dei and currently the Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts as well as Canonist of the Apostolic Penitentiary and former member of the disbanded Pontifical Commission for Reform of the Institute for Works of Religion (Vatican Bank) recently granted an interview, published in Revista Ecclesia Digital, where he discussed: the IOR (Vatican Bank); marriage annulments; banking laws; administration of charities and Vatican law; sex crimes committed by prelates; the SSPX’s personal prelature; and Francis relationship with the Curia.  The full interview can be read by (clicking here) but we at Call Me Jorge... are only concerned with his answer about the Society of St. Pius X.

A new prelature

Regarding whether the Church will soon approve of a new prelature, Monsignor Arrieta considers that,

“It is a very possible option for the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X (as shown) in the recent data. The problems of doctrinal nature have been given specific form and satisfied. The Superior General, Monsignor Bernard Fellay, in public displays, has expressed his desire for unity of the whole Catholic Church.”

source: Revista Ecclesia, Entrevista a monseñor Arrieta, quien clausuró las XXXVII Jornadas de actualidad canónica

Bp. Fellay confirms that the SSPX is very close to entering the insane asylum known as the Nervous disOrder where they will get their own wing!

Gee, joining modernist Rome sure sounds awfully good!

The fun begins at 13 minutes and 30 seconds!

Bp. Fellay’s sermon in Spanish and translated into Polish
by an unidentified priest in Poland on 3 March 2017.

Edited video with Polish translation removed, starting from

the 13 minutes and 36 seconds mark in the above video.

For a full transcript (in Spanish) of the nuttiness see Non Possumus, NUEVO SERMÓN ACUERDISTA DE MONS. FELLAY.

Highlights or lowlights:

• The Society is looking for a church in Rome because the one they have is too small.  They haven’t looked at Santa Maria Immacolata all'Esquilino and are interested instead in another building that’s already occupied.

• Modernist Rome wants to give the SSPX a super-prelature!  It’s better than the personal prelature Opus Dei has because they have to report to the Pope and cannot appoint bishops.  In fact it’s better than what the 1983 Code of Canon Law says about personal prelatures.  The super-prelature SSPX would report to a bishop nominated by them but selected by the Pope.  They will be able to appoint auxiliary bishops and will function around the world as a diocese but without actually possessing a diocese!  They’ll be able too incorporate religious congregations; Capuchins, Benedictines, Benedictines, Carmelites, etc...

• Modernist Rome will accept us as we are.

• The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) told the FSSPX, “You are not obliged to accept religious freedom, ecumenism, and the new Mass.  You can maintain your position, because these points of the council are not so important that whoever rejects them would not be Catholic.  You may not agree with the council and remain as Catholics.” This is a one hundred and eighty degree change as before they said, “You need to accept everything.”

• Modernist Rome has changed, it’s no longer filled with modernists.  It’s divided and some sort of civil war is going on.

• Cardinal Müller told Bp. Fellay the last time they met, “We — those of the Commission of the Faith (CDF) — we expect you to enter the Church — we are already of the Church — we are waiting for them to help us fight the modernists.”  The CDF is very upset with all the heresies which occur with regularity and are looking to the Society to help the CDF combat them.

• The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life still considers the SSPX schismatics.  

• The FSSPX has many allies not only in the church but also in modernist Rome who even though they publicly are silent, privately tell the bishops and priests of the Society to keep resisting.

• The great work of renewal in modernist Rome has begun.

• When Jorge Mario Bergoglio was selected to the office, Bp. Fellay was convinced that Francis would excommunicate him and the Society.  He is however is a contradiction and helped them previously in Argentina.  Cardinal Müller at the beginning of Francis’ reign presented him with the order for the Society’s excommunication but Francis said, “No, because they’re Catholic.” This is Divine Providence in action.  Next thing you know Francis grants the SSPX the power to hear confessions and then the Society can ordain priests without the permission of the bishop of the local diocese.

• Francis has read Abp. Lefebrve’s not once but twice!  He even told one of the Society’s priests that, “They were harsh with you.”

• The situation between the FSSPX and modernist Rome is difficult and complicated.  Francis causes chaos in the church and doesn’t clarify moral issues but he has been so good to the Society.  It’s a delicate situation but the SSPX must take advantage of it to the maximum, to spread the cause of tradition in the church for the future.

• Will the Society get the recognition they desire from modernist Rome?  Who knows?  Francis is full of surprises.  The Blessed Virgin Mary has led them this far, they must continue to pray.  After all the Hand of God has protected the SSPX so many times before.   Why should the FSSX now begin to think that he will let them fall this time?

Francis has plenty of rooms to spare and wants to share
them with you, regardless of your religious beliefs!



***** UPDATE 8 MARCH 2017 *****

• SSPX (USA), Bp. Fellay Discusses Prelature Rumors

***** UPDATE 10 MARCH 2017 *****

• English transcript of Bp. Fellay’s sermon on 3 March 2017 by Bonaventure on Sucipe Domine Bishop Fellay on regularization

the SSPX’s denial

Which way are they going?

From a very practical perspective, the Society of Saint Pius X has been trying for many years to acquire a chapel in Rome to replace the one that it owns, which is unfortunately too small. If this chapel, or rather this church, had adjoining buildings, it could provide lodgings for priests who are passing through. But there was never any discussion about relocating the General House.

For these doctrinal and practical reasons, there have been plans for a purchase in Rome, there are some now and there will be others, as long as a firm acquisition has not been finalized. On the other hand, to respond to the “revelations” in the press, there is no plan to purchase a building complex at Santa Maria Immacolata all’Esquilino, as Matteo Matzuzzi writes. Neither Bp. Fellay nor Bp. de Galarreta nor Fr. Nély stayed at the Casa Santa Marta; they were not even in Rome from January 17 to 20. Of course Fr. Nély must travel frequently in Italy, because he is serving as interim replacement of the District Superior, but from January 17 to 20 he was in Menzingen. Not having the gift of bilocation, and most importantly not being Econome General, he is not in charge of finalizing any plan to purchase property. As for the Superior General of the Sisters of the Society, she visited the community of nuns in Albano in February, where she took part in no real estate negotiations.

Moreover on February 27 the Vaticanist for La Stampa, Andrea Tornielli, who has information from the best Roman sources, wrote: “Various rumors have spread in recent days about the possibility that the Society may buy a building with an adjacent church, in order to transfer its headquarters to Rome, and they spoke about the complex of Santa Maria Immacolata all’Esquilino, not far from the Lateran.

“The complex is made up of a neo-Gothic church built in the early 20^th century for the Brothers of Charity and a building that has already been used in the past as an elementary and secondary school, which now belongs to a religious order. It was said that Francis and the Ecclesia Dei Commission facilitated the purchase. In fact, this was not the case: The Ecclesia Dei Commission was in no way involved, nor was the Vicariate of Rome.” Duly noted!

source: DICI, Society of Saint Pius X: Menzingen in Rome?

Related:  

• The SSPX tangos with modernist Rome

occult photo of the day

Bp. Bernard Fellay on the cover of Vida Nueva (New Life)

The Vida Nueva magazine is a partnership between priests and lay people which has been given pontifical backing. The magazine’s motto was drafted by its second editor, José Luis Martín Descalzo, “[We] were conciliar and traditional before the Council and afterwards we were traditional and conciliar. We need to renew the Church, but this renewal can only come by a true return to its evangelical roots.” Is it happenstance that an occult photo ended up on the cover of the magazine or are Vida Nueva’s editors freemasons? Either way, it is a ‘new life’ for Bp. Fellay.

Click here and scroll down to (The Vida Nueva 3.022 interviews, 4-10/2/2017 published 2 February 2017) in order to read the two interviews with Msgr. Pozzo and Bp. Fellay.

The SSPX tangos with modernist Rome

The FSSPX’s visit to the Vatican

17-20 January 2017

On the Day of Jewish-Christian Dialogue, Bp. Bernard Fellay went at the Vatican along with Bp. Alfonso Ruiz de Galarreta, Fr. Alain Nély, and the Mother Superior of SSPX sisters for more discussions with Ecclesia Dei and possibly Francis.  All parties except for the Mother Superior stayed at Francis’ residence, the Casa Santa Marta.  No word yet if the previously mentioned parties also discussed the Talmudic-Jewish roots of the noahide Novus Ordo.  While visiting Rome, Fr. Nély finalized the purchase a large house with a chapel for the Society.  He was assisted in this task by Abp. Guido Pozzo, the Secretary to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.  It is speculated that this house will be used as the headquarters of the FSSPX once they sign the agreement with modernist Rome and become a personal prelature of Francis.

Shorty thereafter this meeting, Bp. Fellay went on interview blitz, giving Francis a run for his money.  Below are the transcripts of three interviews he gave and one given by Msgr. Pozzo.  They are in order:

• Bp. Fellay’s interview with Radio Courtoisie — audio in French, transcription in English

• Bp. Fellay’s interview with TV Libertés — audio in French, transcription in English

• Msgr. Pozzo’s interview with Vida Nueva — transcription in Spanish

• Bp. Fellay’s interview with Vida Nueva — transcription in Spanish

The endless tango between modernist Rome and the SSPX continues...

Is this the future location of the personal prelature?

Santa Maria Immacolata all'Esquilino

The building attached to Santa Maria Immacolata all'Esquilino

*Call Me Jorge... Note:  Fr. Alain Lorans was a member of Groupe de Réflexion Entre Catholiques (GREC) (English translation, Group for Reflection Among Catholics) a group of laymen, Vatican officials, and priests of the Society which met discreetly over a period of twelve years from 1998 to 2010 in order to facilitate what they see as a “necessary reconciliation” of modernist Rome and the FSSPX.  Fr. Lorans was appointed to GREC by Bp. Fellay and kept him informed of the then ongoing discussions.


Click here to listen to / download Bp. Fellay’s Radio Courtoisie interview (in French).

Interview of Bp. Bernard Fellay, SSPX, by Fr. Alain

Lorans of Radio Courtoisie on 26 January 2017

Fr. Alain Lorans: Your Excellency, you have been the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X for over 20 years. Over this period of time, have you seen a change in the Church, in the Society, or in the world during your travels? You just returned from South America; where have your latest trips taken you?

Bishop Bernard Fellay: My latest trips? First I went to the United States for the blessing of the new seminary. I also participated in a congress on the other side of the United States, the west coast. And then in December we had ordinations in Argentina. While I was over there I stopped in Peru to see how things are coming in Lima; we have a chapel there, too. Those were my two most recent big trips last year.

Fr. Lorans: Have you noticed an evolution over the last 20 years and more?

Bishop Fellay: It takes time to tell if something is really moving. There has been a certain evolution, but it is very gradual. Extremely gradual, practically imperceptible. I think there have been some changes, but the heart of the struggle – we will probably come back to this – the heart of the struggle is still the same. There are new elements and the battle of ideas has not changed. What has changed is men, or to be more precise, a generation has come and gone. The fighters of the early days are in a better world now – not all of them, but most of them. The older ones – I might say my generation (I was just in my twenties, and I remember it well) – the older ones lived in a much more aggressive climate than today.

But there is a new aggressiveness coming, but this time it is not coming from the Church – the Church is in such decline, there is no new aggressiveness, just the same things over and over. But with the governments, there is a sort of global ideology setting in worldwide; it is very left-wing and it is taking over; it wants to take over. It is the same ideas as always, but it is becoming more aggressive.

Fr. Lorans: In France we have seen “marriage for all,” “homosexual marriage,” and the “Gender theory.” Have you seen that everywhere in the world?

Bishop Fellay: Yes, it is universal.

Fr. Lorans: And are all the Catholics close to tradition protesting and fighting against these ideologies?

Bishop Fellay: There are not enough traditional Catholics to make up a political group or movement. An ideological group, yes. And there are others, the conservatives, who are reacting more or less. It depends on the countries. We try to help them, too, and even to participate, but it is different from country to country. We are in the fight, but perhaps not always at the head of it. From our point of view, of course, we are, because we always have something to say, but we cannot look only at ourselves. If we look at the overall picture, we are but a very small number. As far as numbers go, we have no weight, whereas as far as ideas go, we do. As far as the battle of ideas goes, we represent something very solid, and I think that is why we are feared.

Fr. Lorans: By whom? Who fears us? Who is afraid of tradition?

Bishop Fellay: Oh, everyone! I think it is very widespread. Certainly not just what we used to call the progressivists, or the ecclesial groups that tried to wreak havoc in the Church with Vatican II. They are there, they are still there, and that battle is still waging. But there are also those who helped inspire these changes in the Church or tried to establish them in the Church. And they are still as aggressive as ever, if not more so. It is easy to see that Freemasonry is behind these modern ideas. Something new that didn’t exist 30, 50 years ago is the homosexual lobby. At the time, it wasn’t very well known, it was rare, and no one talked about those things because they weren’t very well known. And then suddenly they came in like a wave, and they are trying to make everyone believe they are the majority. I do not think they are, but they have what they need to impose these laws that destroy society, because they destroy the laws of all society, the natural law. If things continue in this way, the world will die of sterility.

Fr. Lorans: Because there will be no more children?

Bishop Fellay: There will be no more children. People seek personal pleasure and have lost any sense of the common good, of a good that is greater than man, and to which each man must contribute – and that is called the common good. Everyone benefits from it, but it supposes everyone’s collaboration. The minute the personal good comes first, it leads to the destruction of society, and that is what is happening under our very eyes in the most stupefying way. I don’t think it is anything new. It began 20 years ago. Or maybe some 40 years ago. I think that 1968 was the start, but this anti-natural current was not yet visible. It came later, I think it came before the year 2000, in the 80’s and 90’s with what we call the New Age. That is when these new destructive ideologies came in.

The heart of the fight is the same as ever: it is the fight of those who are against God, who reject any law that does not come from men alone – the “social contract.” And yet it does not take much to see that there are laws everywhere. Take the physical laws for example; they weren’t written in nature by men. The same with human nature. There are laws that have to be followed for the normal development of human nature. There is no doubt about it: if you do not wish to respect them, it is like any law, any manual, any instruction booklet. If you have a washing machine and you do not wish to follow the instructions, well, you ruin your machine. And here they are ruining the human machine, be it the individual, the person, or society.

We are really coming to exceptional times. A time of dissociety. A sort of dissolution of society, a loss of the common good, the disappearance of the idea that there is a goal, that every society has a goal. And we have also lost the idea of authority, the need for an authority to unite men’s wills in order to reach this goal. Hence the need to submit to authority, and the need for authority to remain objective and not arbitrary. When you see how governments are behaving today, it seems like so many absolutely fundamental values are forgotten in favor of the individual or of whoever wishes to establish his own personal power or to keep his power. And we see this as much in society as in the Church. Today in the Church – and this is new – we are also witnessing a time of dissolution in the Church. The loss of unity in the Church today is absolutely staggering.

Fr. Lorans: You speak of a society marked by sterility in the most concrete sense of the word: no more children, no more fecundity; it is a form of suicide. And you even say that the Church is affected, too? Is she, too, heading towards a suicide through infecundity? Especially since there are so few vocations?

Bishop Fellay: Yes, exactly. We can see that adopting modern ideas, the modern mindset that came in with the Council – these ideas were at least latent before, and the Council more or less incorporated them, and so in the end they really entered into the Church with and thanks to the Council – these ideas of the modern world, these modern ideas have the same results. It may be less visible, but the result is there: empty seminaries, empty churches, convents, and religious societies that are extinct or going extinct. There are so many. It is a phenomenon that is very present today and that is parallel to what is happening in society.  So far the Church seems to reject, more or less timidly, sometimes strongly, the attacks on the natural law. So there is still a struggle between the world and the Church. It still exists, so it is not exactly the same thing, but it is still a little bit of a parallel development. And we do not hesitate to say that when it comes down to it, the fruits, the evil fruits, come from the same spirit, the spirit of the world.

It is a spirit of independence from God, a spirit that wishes to free itself from the yoke of God’s law that is too harsh or too difficult. No more spirit of sacrifice: that is one of the marks of the modern Church. The Crucified Christ is taken off the crosses, they do not put Our Lord on the cross any more. They have taken Him down; they no longer want to see the Man of Sorrows. He has risen from the dead and Alleluia! But the world we live in remains a world of suffering, and oh, how we need to know that God Himself willed to share our sufferings, not only to lighten them, but to save us, to give these sufferings a redemptive value! But they have taken all that away and replaced it with a sort of new mysticism, the Paschal mystery. In reality, it is a mystification. It used to be very simple: there was Good Friday, when Our Lord died for us, for our Salvation, and then He rose from the dead because He is God. He is true man, He died. He is true God, He cannot die, and He rose again because He is God. Now they wish to forget death, they wish to forget that we have to go through death and mortification. They wish to forget it.

Fr. Lorans: They want to go straight to Easter Sunday and erase Good Friday?

Bishop Fellay: The interesting thing is that in the economy of salvation, the order we have to follow to obtain salvation and eternal life, we have to die. That is what they no longer want. They want to obtain life without dying.

Fr. Lorans: So they refuse “unless the seed die?”

Bishop Fellay: Exactly. That is exactly it. That is the problem with the modern Church.

Fr. Lorans: And so the seed remains alone and bears no fruit. It becomes sterile.

Bishop Fellay: Exactly. They no longer bear any fruit and they have become sterile. It is all there. As soon as a conservative bishop opens a seminary in which he upholds order and requires a little discipline, the seminary fills up. But so few bishops have understood that. The others do not want to hear it; they prefer to remain sterile. And I am convinced that they do not understand why it doesn’t work. But we understand very well why.

Fr. Lorans: You say they refuse sacrifice; there was much talk of the family at the last Synod. Is it the same thing with the post-synodal exhortation AmorisLaetitia: a refusal of discipline, authority, the teaching of Christ and a sense of sacrifice?

Bishop Fellay: I don’t think it is out of principle. It is somewhat of an unusual event. I’ll try to explain it. What I see in our pope today, Pope Francis, is a care for souls, but especially souls that are rejected, so souls that are lonely, that are set aside or despised or simply in difficulty. What he calls the “existential peripheries.” So is it really the famous lost sheep? Is Pope Francis leaving the flock of 99 other sheep, thinking he is where he should be, taking care of the lost sheep? Is that maybe what he is thinking? I say maybe, I am not trying to give a complete answer. Let’s just say that we can see in everything he says that his attention is universal, he does not look only at the Faith. He looks at the homeless, immigrants, and prisoners. And yes, these are people who have been left aside by others, but one does not need the Faith to see that. One does not need the Faith to see that these people suffer. And then you have divorcees. They, too, suffer. And you have us, we are rejected, too. And in the end, we are all sort of in the same category, the category of those rejected by the common body. And he wants to care for those souls. He wants to try to do something. The problem is that for many of these souls in difficulty, they are there because they have butted heads with a law in one way or another.

So we have a pope who has a problem with the law that hurts some of humanity, so to speak, and who tries to see if there is not some other way, - not to get rid of the law, I do not think that is his idea – but to see if there is some other path for them. I’m trying to understand what he does, but it is not easy.

Fr. Lorans: It is so difficult that four cardinals voiced their doubts, saying that Amoris Laetitia presents serious doctrinal problems.

Bishop Fellay: And they are right. But look at how the exhortation is written – and that is the problem today – it opens up gray areas! The pope says things are not all black and white, some are gray, but the law is made to state things clearly! And it necessarily establishes a black and white, a yes and no. We know that in everyday reality, there can be exceptions, at least in ecclesiastical law – there is an important distinction between the law of God and the law of the Church, for God foresees everything, He knows all the circumstances, He knows all the situations men could find themselves in when He establishes the law, and His law has no exceptions: the law of God, His commandments have no exceptions. But in human law, even Church law, in other words the laws made by the Church, man does not have this infinite wisdom of God, and the Church knows there are bound to be circumstances in which the law, if applied, would harm souls, and these are exceptions, and in this black and white situation, we can say it is gray. When it is a matter of ecclesiastical law, the Church is ready to make exceptions very easily and very broadly; it is admirable to see just how broadly. But again, the law of God has no exceptions.

Fr. Lorans: So does communion for the divorced and “remarried” depend on the law of God or the law of the Church?

Bishop Fellay: The law of God. Our Lord explicitly spoke of the precise case of separated spouses. St. Paul said so clearly, - and when we say St. Paul, we have to be careful; he is one of the instruments of God who transmits the Word of God, so it is not St. Paul as a man, but God speaking through St. Paul. It is Sacred Scripture. In the Gospel and the epistles, there is no doubt, it is God speaking. It is God speaking through St. Paul. This law is very clear, there is no gray area: he or she who is separated from his or her spouse and lives with another in a marital way commits adultery. Our Lord says so (see Matt. 19:9). He has broken faith, his word given to his spouse; he violates this promise with someone else. It is a sin, and because this union is on the level of society, it is a public sin. Even if there are not many people around, it is a public reality. So it is a sin that is more serious because of the bad example, the scandal for others. That is why God, but also the Church, takes very severe measures: a public sinner, for example, is not allowed to receive burial in the Church. The Church is very severe. As well she should be, because it is about protecting healthy souls.

In fact, the problem we have today is that a certain number of bishops and priests have for years and decades blessed these false unions themselves. The Vatican even had to intervene in France to forbid these rituals . . . that still continue[s]. That is what I was told in Rome. And for Rome to step in, it had to be pretty widespread. These are priests and bishops who have blessed people living in sin, and then you want to refuse them communion. It makes no sense! It is logical, but it is a logic in sin. And it is serious. Very serious.

The texts themselves are not going to be explicitly open to this perspective. In the text of Amoris Laetitia, it is not going to say explicitly: now we can give them communion. It is much cleverer than that. It opens the doors without stepping through them: others will step through them. That is what is so serious: where there was once a clear distinction between good and evil, it opens a gray area that does not exist. And then it says: within this gray area, each man is left to his own conscience or to who knows what. That is false! Simply false. So the cardinals who spoke out, we can say that they accomplished an extremely important work of public salvation. It is too bad they were so few, but I think that is part of human weakness. We know very well that there are many more, but the brave are not legion.

Fr. Lorans: Cardinal Burke said we might see a form of fraternal correction from the four cardinals towards the Holy Father, but very recently, Cardinal Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said that the Faith was not challenged in Amoris Laetitia and that [the dubia of the four cardinals] should not have been made public. What do you think?

Bishop Fellay: I think it is a perfect illustration of the problem we have today. We, the Society, with our objections to the Council. I think in a way it is the same problem. There are several levels. There is the level of the battle of ideas, and there is a second level, the level of those who spread these ideas, the people. And there is a back and forth movement between the two. You have people who see the problem but do not dare to say anything or to mention it for several reasons. Some distinctions are needed here: they do not dare to say anything because of the famous principle of the Holy Ghost’s assistance to the head of the Church. The Holy Ghost governs the Church through her head. The Holy Ghost cannot be mistaken, so it must be the same for the Vicar of Christ. Then, for lack of distinction and depth, perhaps out of superficiality or because it is easier, they begin to say, “Everything the Pope does is good.” Something he does cannot be bad. It must be good. Something he says cannot be false, it must be true. These are things we have been told about the Council. And even today, some reproach us, they tell us we cannot be against the Council. It’s not possible: it is a Council of the Church, there is the Holy Ghost, He is good, period, end of story! And we say that there are still problems. And they answer, “Yes, sure, some have misinterpreted the Council. But that is not the Council!” To which we answer, “Perhaps, but they understood it by going from the texts, and the texts were ambiguous!”

Those we speak with in Rome go so far as to admit, “Yes, it is true, some texts were ambiguous.” Even Benedict XVI in his famous speech to the Roman Curia before Christmas 2005 admitted: “Ambiguous texts were drawn up in order to obtain a greater majority, a greater consensus.” But they tell us that a Catholic has no right to read these texts in anything but a Catholic way. So he must eliminate all possible interpretations that go against what the Church has already taught, against the Faith. In theory, this is true, it is perfectly true, and it is exactly what we say. It is exactly the criterion Archbishop Lefebvre gave us on the Council: we accept everything in the Council that is faithful to Tradition. We accept everything that is doubtful or ambiguous insofar as it can be understood the way the Church has always taught it. And following the Archbishop’s example we say: there is a third category of documents that are not just ambiguous, but actually false. And since this category goes against what the Church has always taught – it is not our own little personal judgment; we are not Protestants; the Church had already spoken of these things and she even condemned many of the errors – we continue

That is our position. We say, “In theory, it is perfectly right to state that the only Catholic way to interpret the Council is in the light of Tradition.” But the problem is that once this principle is laid down, they tell us, “That is the way it is, so everyone is interpreting it in a Catholic way.” But we answer once again, "Open your eyes, look around you! That is not what is happening. In theory, it should be like that, but in reality there is a huge problem. The reality is different."

That is what we see with Amoris Laetitia. You have Cardinal Müller who says, “This text does not go against the Faith.”.In other words, it can be interpreted in a Catholic way. Not only we can, but we must interpret it in a Catholic way. Those who do not interpret in a Catholic way are wrong. He doesn’t say it as clearly as that because if he did, he would be pointing a finger at his leader. What he leaves unsaid is extremely important . . . and the four cardinals rightly pointed out this gaping flaw in the doctrine that had been clear until now, really very clear. For the door that has been opened to the divorced and remarried had no right to be opened. Simply no right. And that’s why Cardinal Müller says, “We have not gone through the door, we have not abandoned divine law.” Officially, this is true, except that a certain number of Bishops’ Conferences have already shown the way out.

Fr. Lorans: And in a laxist direction?

Bishop Fellay: Obviously. And others, thank God, the Polish bishops, in a Catholic direction. So what happens? That is the present, the real situation. Faith and morals for a Catholic are on the same level. The Church and the Pope are infallible on these matters, if he wishes to call upon his infallibility. The teaching of the Church has always been: communion cannot be given to someone who is in a state of sin. It is very simple. So someone who is living with a partner as if married, which is necessarily a state of sin, cannot be given communion.

The only gray area, and it really is not gray, is that if these persons no longer live as a married couple but only as brother and sister – and today there can be some very complicated situations with all the reconstructed families, the children of both spouses, etc. For the good to be safeguarded, the good of the children for example, sometimes we have to tolerate two people living together under the same roof. And we tell these people, “If you wish to go to heaven, there is only one way: you have to live without sin. You have to live as brother and sister.” So not in the same bed, not in the same room, it is complicated, difficult, but at least you will be living without sin. And discreetly and privately we will be able to give you communion. But we have to be certain you are living as brother and sister, you have to be honest. This is God, and God knows everything. You can trick men but not God. Receiving communion is an act that signifies one’s union with God, and that one is at peace with Him. We must first go to confession before receiving Our Lord. And if we are at peace with God, then we can receive communion. But how many of these people who live as divorced and “remarried” couples, how many of them live as brother and sister? Some do, but it certainly is not the majority.

And so, to start making laws for these situations, classing them as a generalized situation, is a way of turning things upside down. It’s as if on the road, what counted was not the cars that drive correctly but the cars that have accidents. No. Laws are made so that cars will drive properly, not so they will run into each other. All the laws are made to avoid running into each other. It would be turning things upside down. Turning the particular into a universal. There is an inversion, and in the battle of ideas, this is terribly serious.

Fr. Lorans: You said at the beginning that the battle of ideas is still the same as ever, and last year you declared after your meeting with Pope Francis that the doctrinal discussions would continue, that bishops would visit our seminaries and have discussions on things like religious freedom, ecumenism, and the New Mass. Are these discussions really continuing? And after what you just said, do you think these discussions are of any use?

Bishop Fellay: First question, are they still going on? The answer is yes; they are still going on. There had been a pause, but there needed to be, so we are going to start again, and continue the discussions. It is very interesting because we and Rome both want them. We want these discussions. Perhaps not exactly for the same reasons, but I think that in the end our reasons are similar. Why? Because for us it is very important, and we have said so from the start, when we said that we have a problem with some of the Council’s statements, not personally, but because they go against what the Church has said and done, against the teaching and practice of the Church. That is our problem. If you want to insist that the Church is infallible, you have to stick to the problem. If she is infallible, why could she suddenly contradict herself? So there are serious problems and they cannot simply be resolved by the authority argument. It is not enough to say that it is the authority speaking, so: Amen. Roma locuta causa finita. No. Obviously this authority – we admit it – can be infallible; it is an extraordinary privilege granted by God, but there is a condition! And that condition is for this teaching authority to be in keeping with a deposit, with all of the truths confided to her by God. And this authority’s mission is to transmit them. To holily preserve and faithfully transmit this deposit. So there is something absolutely objective that goes above and beyond this authority. It cannot arbitrarily decide what it likes and does not like about the deposit. No, it doesn’t work like that! That is the problem we present to Rome on these Council matters.

Fr. Lorans: In what you just said, we see your open opposition to Amoris Laetitia that troubles what used to be clear. In the same context, are the doctrinal discussions of any use?

Bishop Fellay: I would say yes, they are useful. Perhaps not immediately. But in the long run, ideas are what lead men. An error has tragic consequences in men’s lives, especially a doctrinal error. For a moral error, the consequence is more quickly seen. With a pure doctrinal error, it is more distant. If someone denies the Trinity, we see do not see the immediate practical consequence, or in what practical domain a moral fault will follow, but it will follow. It is impressive to see how closely it is all linked together. The Faith is like a sweater: every stitch has to be there. If you drop one stitch, the whole sweater comes unraveled. And there is nothing left in the end. So upholding the great principles in this confused situation we are living in, repeating them, even just repeating them, is already a very important work. We will not see immediate effects. But in the long run, it will gain strength, it will take over. But that means we have to keep fighting.

And so, in this sense, it seems capital to me that Rome agrees to discuss these things. Not only do they agree, they tell us: we need to discuss matters. And that, too, is something new ever since the last year and a half or two years. It is a position that is gaining strength: in these discussions, Rome does not try or no longer tries to force upon us the modern position on ecumenism, religious freedom, Nostra aetate, and even the liturgical reform. These four points have always been our great hobbyhorses, for the past 40-50 years, ever since the beginning. Well, now, all of a sudden, they are telling us, “Yes, we really need to discuss these matters.” First of all, they recognize that there have been errors, abuses, excesses; they do not go so far as to say that the conciliar text is wrong, but they do admit that something is wrong. They admit there are ambiguities that need to be eliminated. And Rome tells us explicitly, “These discussions are going to help us with that.” We are a little like a sort of catalyst to try to purify this magma of strange, false, mixed up, confused thoughts. And that is very positive.

But there is also another element that astonishes me and makes me very happy, and I would like to see – I hope someday it will show itself – yes, to see that what I am going to tell you now is really not just the thoughts of one or two people, but truly something that is taking over as the Church’s way of thinking. A short phrase sums up this novelty, a short phrase by Archbishop Pozzo who is our interlocutor in Rome, the secretary of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, and who tells us that these matters like ecumenism, religious freedom, and even the liturgical reform and Nostra aetate are not the “criteria of Catholicism.” What does “criteria of Catholicism” mean? It means elements to which one absolutely must adhere in order to be Catholic. In other words, if these points are not criteria of Catholicism, then you have the right to think and say otherwise, and doing so does not mean you are no longer Catholic. And Archbishop Pozzo said that publicly. It is very important.

In my opinion, we are now going to see a debate arise for a time because of us. Will it be public or no, behind closed doors? But it is actually already here. A debate with the “super-progressivists,” those Pope Benedict XVI accused of trying to hammer into the Church that these points are absolutely obligatory. It is the Church of today, their foundation for the Church of today. And suddenly someone says, “Well, you do not have to adhere to that in order to be Catholic.” It is clearly crucial; it is a great struggle. If you look at the battle of ideas, this is an extremely important point. And so you have voices making themselves heard all over the place, saying that it is unacceptable to let the Society in with such a policy. We’ll see.

Fr. Alain Lorans: Speaking of letting the Society in, of course we can’t help thinking of the canonical offers that have been made; there was talk of a prelature and recently Bishop Schneider said he had invited you to accept the canonical propositions soon and not to be too demanding, or in any case, not to wait for everything to be perfect. Where does all this stand? Did you really receive this invitation? And in that case, would a doctrinal union become a secondary issue? What exactly is the Society’s position?

Bishop Fellay: As far as Bishop Schneider goes, he did write to me, but a long time ago now; a long time, I mean, perhaps a year ago. So I do not have anything recent from him. In any case, recently, no, I have not received anything from him.

Other than that, the structure is not the problem. The structure, I think, is well established; there are still some points, shall we say, some finer points. The main idea is, really, it is adequate, it suits our needs. So for that, I am satisfied. Again, there are details that need improving and matters that still need to be discussed. The problem is not with this structure that they are offering us. If that was the only issue, we would say “yes” in a heartbeat. But it is not the problem.

The problem is, once again, this battle of ideas. Is a Church that for 40 years has imposed a way of thinking, this modernist way of thinking against which we fight, against which, or because of which we were even declared schismatic and everything else, outside of the Church; is this Church ready, yes or no, to let us continue on our path?

Archbishop Lefebvre used to speak of “letting us make the experiment of Tradition.” Are they going to let us, yes or no? Or are they waiting for us at a bend in the road, are they going to tell us tomorrow that we “have to fall into line?” To accept what we have been fighting against for forty years? That, we are not about to give up.

So it is all there, really; that is where the question lies. With these new, more open attitudes, when they tell us some things are not required criteria for being Catholic, there seems to be a path opening up. Now, is it just a door, or is it really a path? Is it a safe path? I mean, are we really going to be able to continue as we are? For us it is obvious that this is not the end.

Error remains error. So we remain today, just as before, just as convinced that there are errors that have been spread in the Church and that are killing the Church.

And of course, we understand that it takes time to purify and remove these errors, we understand. Men cannot be changed just like that; all sorts of bad habits have been acquired now; even just bringing back the holy liturgy. We understand very well that it cannot be done overnight. So if things take time, that is one thing, but is the intention even there? Is there any intention to leave this way of thinking that was imposed at the Council?

And we see, at least in the authorized voices, shall we say, the leading voices, that they are saying, “No, no. No, no, we shall continue along the same lines.” So we remain outlaws. Well, tolerated outlaws, and we might even say, in the most astonishing way, with Pope Francis we are more than tolerated, but we remain on the outskirts.

So are things going to stay as they are? Are things going to move ahead? Or tomorrow are we going to be swallowed up by this movement that, once again, is killing the Church? That is the question. And until we have a clear enough answer, we cannot move forward.

Fr. Lorans: At the beginning of our interview, you told us that things have changed imperceptibly. Among these changes, we might mention the attitudes of Cardinal Burke, Bishop Schneider, or the Polish bishops who are fighting against a laxist interpretation of Amoris Laetitia. But have you personally heard from bishops who tell you,

“Even though you are an ‘outlaw,’ ‘on the outskirts,’ what you are doing is important to us because we do not wish to contribute to the suicide of the Church either?”

Is this sort of comment a dream or a reality?

Bishop Fellay: We have some contacts, yes. And they are even increasing. Obviously, it is not the vast majority. But we do have some. And that is a very important element in this battle, but perhaps within Tradition we do not have a very clear perception of it, because it is discreet. People continue to see that things are not good, and that is about it. They have a very hard time seeing something else that really is real and that for me becomes clearer every day: that there is – at least in some – a desire for renewal, for a return to Tradition to be precise. And so a certain number of churchmen protest, not as loudly as us, not as publicly as us, but as strongly as us on the level of ideas, they protest against the novelties. It exists.

I recently met with a bishop who on his own, for he had never celebrated the Old Mass – he discovered it with Pope Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio, took an interest in it and studied it – on his own, he told me that with the New Mass, they had changed the “substance of the rite.” So all by himself, he came to this conclusion which is precisely our reproach to the New Mass. Well, there you have a bishop who comes to this conclusion, a bishop who is simply honest. Obviously, he draws conclusions and consequences for himself and for his diocese. And he is not the only one. I received a letter from another bishop telling me: “Hold strong!” on all these points: religious freedom, ecumenism, Nostra aetate, relations with other religions. When you say Nostra aetate it is not just the Jews, it is the Muslims, the Buddhists, and Hindus . . . all the non-Christian religions. It is much broader. And this bishop adds: “There are many of us in the hierarchy, many of us bishops think like you.” Obviously, they do not say so publicly, because they would be decapitated. But they think about it, they see the situation. And in fact, they count on us, they count on us as – it is a modern word, but let’s try to use it correctly – as a witness. To use a perhaps more traditional term, as a lighthouse, even if we do not wish put ourselves on a pedestal. They simply count on us to represent the light that was once the light of the Church. This light that has remained lit in our midst, they count on it. They say, “You take the blows, but we are with you. We support you.”

Fr. Lorans: Among these bishops who tell you: “Do not give in on ecumenism, on the liturgy, on religious freedom . . . ,” are there any French bishops?

Bishop Fellay: There are some, even if they are not quite as clear. But really, there are some! It is interesting to see. It is another universal phenomenon. There are some in every country, more or less, of course. There is a certain proportion – not very big – of bishops who are taking a second look at a good number of things today. Even if they are still in a system that holds them back and makes any reaction difficult since it immediately creates explosive situations that are difficult to control. There are many problems when it comes to knowing how to react, how to improve the situation. It is obvious that at a given time it will have to come from the top. And so long as the top does nothing, any reaction will be a source of conflict. We have known this for 50 years, but at a given time, God will make the supreme authority take the lead in this movement. Until then we have to hold strong. Of course, it is a question of prudence, so that our position may bear the most fruit. And that does not necessarily mean make the most noise. We have to understand that, too; it is very important.

Fr. Lorans: You say that we have to hold strong, and you asked the priests and faithful to have a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin during this year 2017. For the hundredth anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima, you launched a Rosary Crusade. Is this request for more fervent prayers a part of the battle whose outline you have drawn up for us in this interview?

Bishop Fellay: It most certainly is a part of this great battle. And there is an element that we must never forget: the Church is not human. She has a human part because she is made up of men, but essentially, in her essence, in her nature, she is supernatural. She has elements, even fundamental elements that surpass men, men’s capacities, men’s reflections and men’s means. For the good of the Church and for our own good as members of the Church, if we desire the good of the Church, we must necessarily use supernatural means. It is the only way to fight this battle properly. And this battle obliges us first of all to call upon God Himself and His saints. The Blessed Virgin Mary has shown us so clearly that these times belong to her by the explicit will of God. We must have recourse to her, we must listen to her, and put her requests into practice. She tells us, “Prayer and penance, pray the rosary every day.” It is more important than ever. If you ask me, what we are seeing today is Fatima at its fullest. There are things we have not been told, but in the end, we shall see the triumph of Mary. God knows how. The triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, by a papal act, an act of authority. We wonder how it is going to come about, but that is not our problem. We just have to beg for this triumph, to implore God: yes, that is our job!

source: SSPX, Bp. Fellay's Radio Interview

Interview of Bp. Bernard Fellay, SSPX, by Jean-Pierre Maugendre of TV Libertés on January 29, 2017

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Jean-Pierre Maugendre [JPM]: Thank you, your Excellency, for being with us today. Since 1994, you have been the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X [SSPX], founded by Archbishop [Marcel] Lefebvre in 1970 at Fribourg in Switzerland, where you come from. There are now 613 priests, 117 brothers, 80 oblate sisters and 215 seminarians in the Society. We know that every religious institution in the Church has a specific vocation tied to its founder’s charisms, like the Sons of Saint Francis’ poverty and the Dominicans’ missionary zeal. What is the Society’s own spirituality according to you?

Bishop Bernard Fellay [BF]: Well, the Society’s spirituality is not to have any. Or more precisely, it has one, but not its own, but rather it has appropriated the spirituality of the Church, which is much more universal. So, what is it? Well, it’s the salvation that comes to us through the Cross of Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ. So it comes down to the priesthood, because Our Lord saves us through His priesthood and by the priestly act that is the Cross, and therefore the Mass. So, that’s what the Society’s spirituality is, so we care for priests, instruct and sanctify them and then we hope that they’ll do their job.

JPM: So, a spirituality centred on the priesthood and the Holy Mass.

BF: Exactly.

JPM: The apostolic letter Misecordia et Misera issued last November 21 by Pope Francis reconfirmed that SSPX priests could validly and licitly give sacramental absolution. However, the post-synodal declaration Amoris Laetitia, which allows remarried divorcees the possibility to be admitted to Communion under certain conditions is certainly not something you’re satisfied with. How do you interpret these two a priori contradictory acts?

BF: I might be mistaken, but I think that they come from the same movement, which is the Holy Father’s solicitude for those who have been rejected.

JPM: The peripheries.

BF: Yes, the peripheries. Of course, we’re not exactly physically at the peripheries, we’re not rejected or in prison, but we’re still rejected by the current Church mentality. We’re marginalized in that sense. And I think, again I might be mistaken, that it comes from this desire to care for people who, I believe, the pope blames the Church for having forgotten or set aside.

JPM: Speaking of Amoris Laetitia, there’s a number of Cardinals, Burke, Brandmüller, Caffara and Meisner who have addressed what we call in technical terms dubia, which means that they have asked some questions seeking to clarify that text. This situation, where bishops publicly call out the Pope on one of his magisterial acts, hasn’t happened in the Church for a very long time. The liturgical reform in 1969 was also a departure from previous tradition. Two cardinals, Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci, intervened at the time and, after voicing their confusion to the Sovereign Pontiff, went back into the fold. It seems that, for the last 50 years, there hasn’t been any organized resistance by cardinals and bishops, for example against doctrinal deviations like those in newer catechisms. Do you think that times have changed?

BF: Yes, there’s certainly something changing. I think it’s because the situation has aggravated. Not so much at the level of principles, but these principles are now bearing their fruits or consequences. I don’t think we’ve witnessed the ultimate consequences yet, but it’s getting worse, much worse, to the point where some bishops and cardinals feel compelled to say “enough”. Not many say this publicly, but there are many more who do so privately. It’s still too early to tell if this movement will grow. I think we should hope, and I dare hope, without really being convinced, that things will develop in this way, because things are really bad. That we’re finally saying it is an opportunity to really reflect on what caused this and how we can truly remedy this.

JPM: During your talk at the Journées de la Tradition last October 8 at Port-Marly, you mentioned a growing amount of contacts between the SSPX and some priests and bishops. Despite this, we can’t really say, at least as far as France is concerned, that the bishops are very open to requests to celebrate the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite and applying the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. Since your travels have led you throughout the Catholic world, could you say if the French situation is specific?

BF: Honestly, I don’t think so. There’s certainly something, and of course, the French remain French…

JPM: What do you mean?

BF: They like to discuss very much, ask questions and debate. But, as far as the crisis in the Church is concerned, what’s happening is, I think, really generalized. And the overall reaction in the Church is honestly still minor, but it’s generalized and also there in France. There certainly haven’t been many bishops who have contacted us or told us “we’re with you”, but it’s happening, it’s slowly happening.

JPM: Regarding your relations with Rome, Pope Francis has offered a personal prelature to the SSPX. This canonical situation would make you totally independent from the bishops. Bishop [Athanasius] Schneider, who was here a few months ago and who visited your seminaries, urged you to accept this proposal even though, or perhaps because, he is aware that the situation in the Church is still not 100% satisfactory. Isn’t there a risk of creating a more or less autonomous church if this current situation of constant distance from Rome, from the Pope, the curia and the bishops continues? Are you waiting for a Pius XIII to appear on the Chair of Peter, which we all aspire to but which is just a possibility, before signing the proposal from Rome?

BF: I think it’s not necessary to wait until everything is solved in the Church and all the problems are resolved. Regardless, some conditions are necessary, and the essential condition for us is our survival. I have clearly told Rome that, like Abp. Lefebvre had already said in his time, there is a sine qua non condition, meaning that we will not move if this condition is not met. That condition is that we can stay as we are. This means keeping all the principles that have kept us alive and have maintained us as Catholics… Indeed, we have several serious criticisms to what has happened in the Church since the council, some, like the way ecumenism is conducted for example, what we call religious liberty, which is a fairly complex term that encompasses the question of relations between Church and State and also the liberty that we grant, or not, and to what extent we give everybody the liberty to practice his religion. The Church used to explain that in some circumstances we have to tolerate [the public expression of false religions], but we see that today, with the pluralistic situation we have, that we must tolerate a lot, but we tolerate… and when we tolerate, we tolerate evil. We cannot say it is a good thing. There’s a certain religion, I think we needn’t even mention which one, which when it proliferates, it does so through terror. That’s something which doesn’t sit right and we have to carefully discern all this. And, regarding these questions, I think we’re going in the right direction and Rome is now less heavy-handed. This is something relatively recent, but since the last two years now they’ve been telling us that some questions that have been stated, not only questions but also declarations, by the council are not criteria for Catholicity. In other words, we can disagree with these declarations and still be considered Catholic. And these are all questions that we are still debating. That’s the first thing.

The second thing is, is there a risk a schism, the establishment of a parallel church? We are fighting against this, and I’ve mentioned this to the pope himself, Pope Francis, and we both agree on this. There are already some concrete dispositions in place now which we can say make schism practically impossible. In our day-to-day life, we talk with Rome and show them our submission, we recognize their authority, not only at Mass by mentioning the Pope’s name and the local bishop in the Canon, but also, well, there’s the example of the Pope granting us the faculty to hear confessions and also legal acts, this is a bit complicated but if a priest were to commit criminal acts, we have contacts in Rome granting us, asking us to judge these cases, so we really have perfectly normal relations. It’s not just confession, there’s also a lot more… Last summer it was confirmed that the Superior General is truly free to ordain the Society’s candidates to the priesthood without asking the local ordinary. This text from Rome, which isn’t shouted from the rooftops, states that the Society’s ordinations are licit, that it is free to [ordain]. These various legal and canonical acts have already been done and I think that they prevent any possibility of schism. Of course, we must always be vigilant about this…

JPM: So, what’s still missing today?

BF: Well, the stamp of approval is missing, as well as an unambiguous promise to respect these guarantees.

JPM: And this stamp and guarantee can only be given by the Pope.

BF: Yes, that’s something the Pope must do.

JPM: To conclude this interview on a hopeful note, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima this year. Can you tell us how these events are relevant to the Church and the SSPX today?

BF: It’s not just about the Society, for the Society it’s more the consequences. We know that there is a secret of Fatima, a message and that this message of Fatima portends many difficult and terrible things. There’s a part of it that is known and another that isn’t really known, but anyway, in the end, the Blessed Virgin tells us that “my Immaculate Heart will triumph”, so Heaven’s victory is announced, the victory of the Immaculate Heart of Mary which will be joined with a consecration of Russia that will see it convert, so it will be Catholic again, will be reunified and reintegrated into the Catholic Church, and there will be a time of peace granted to the Church. We can conclude that the crisis we are now in will have ended. Now, we don’t know the details but of course, if we’re saying, and we’re not alone, there’s a crisis in the Church, we can certainly hope that when this triumphant moment comes, this will be past us. I don’t know how much longer this trouble will last, but we have the assurance that, in the end, there will be a triumph, so we’re helping it along by our prayers, we’re well aware that it depends on God, but still, our prayers…

JPM [interrupts]: You have launched a Rosary crusade to this end.

BF: Exactly, we’re asking our faithful and all those who are willing to recite the prayer that the Blessed Virgin has recommended to us, and ask her that what she demanded be accomplished, that this triumph may come, that the consecration be made according to her demands because there have already been a few, that have already had some effect. The main thing that we’re noticing, I can’t say too much on this, is that historical events, not only in the Church but in the world, are linked, for example, the main events of World War II are also tied with the Blessed Virgin, who said that peace among nations had been entrusted to her by God. There are interventions, let’s call it the government of God over men who are real. So, asking God in His mercy to exercise that governance in such a way that men stop wrecking everything and submit to His yoke, can only be a good thing.

source: NovusOrdoWire, SSPX Superior Bishop Fellay and the Vatican’s “Stamp of Approval” (now with full English Translation)

The Vida Nueva 3.022 interviews, 4-10/2/2017
published 2 February 2017

Interview with Msgr. Guido Pozzo, Secretary to the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, by Darío Menor for Vida Nueva, 2 February 2017

(click images to enlarge)

source: Vida Nueva, Guido Pozzo: “Un buen católico no puede rechazar el Concilio”

Interview with Bp. Bernard Fellay, SSPX,  by Miguel Ángel Malavia and José Beltrán for Vida Nueva, 2 February 2017

(click images to enlarge)

 

source: Bernard Fellay: “La condición es que Roma nos acepte tal y como somos”

And there you have it straight from Bp. Fellay’s mouth: 

• Francis recognizes the SSPX as Catholic, not schismatic;

• Francis is concerned about souls, especially the marginalized;

• Vatican II can be read through tradition (hermeneutics of continuity);

• the final Canonical issues are being sorted out; and

• a deep examination of the law is taking place with a soon to be drafted legal document for the constitution of a ‘personal prelature’ to be submitted to Francis for his approval.