SSPX - A perfectly liberal Pope

[DrBombay]

"Perfectly liberal?"  Does this mean Papa is infallible in his liberalism?

[neel]

I saw nothing wrong with His Eminence's statement. And I'm by no means an "SSPX'er."

[Longinus]

I saw nothing wrong with His Eminence's statement. And I'm by no means an "SSPX'er."

Ditto.  His Excellency is merely stating verifiable fact.  I am glad to see that Bishop Fellay is firmly in touch with reality, despite what the website Traditio has had to say about him.

I am grateful to Pope Benedict for the motu proprio that acknowledges that priests of the Roman Rite may say the TLM, but this is no proof that he is a traditionalist.  There is much more than traditional Catholicism than a mere approval of the Mass.

[Portrait of a Smiling Janus FaceBernie Fellay, Superior General of the SSPX, at It AgainHe Disses a Traditional Pope to Bite the Hand that Kept His Native Country FreeIn Addition to Being One Addled Bloke, Fellay Is an Uncatholic Ingrate]

Here's the Traditio take on it;

SSPX's Superior General Calls Benedict-Ratzinger a "Perfectly Liberal Pope"
Why Then Does Fellay Pander to Him and Newrome?

From: The Fathers

Portrait of a Smiling Janus Face
Bernie Fellay, Superior General of the SSPX, at It Again
He Disses a Traditional Pope to Bite the Hand that Kept His Native Country Free
In Addition to Being One Addled Bloke, Fellay Is an Uncatholic Ingrate

The Society of St. Pius X's Superior General, Bernie Fellay, has once again displayed his Janus face. On the one hand, he has decreed that all SSPX priest-presbyters should sing Te Deums to Benedict-Ratzinger for his Great "Motu" Mess Hoax. But on June 1, 2008, at a "homily" at Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet in Paris, he took a slam at both Benedict-Ratzinger and at the United States, many of whose soldiers died to protect his home country from devastation by the Nazis:

And now, we have a perfectly liberal pope, my very dear brothers. As he goes to this country [the United States], which is founded upon Masonic principles, that is, of a revolution, of a rebellion against God.

Apparently, Fellay failed his course in Church history. It was a traditional pope, Leo XIII (1878-1903), who in his Encyclical Letter Longinque oceani of January 6, 1985, highly praised the American Republic and its wise founders. Leo XIII wrote: "Thanks are due to the equity of the laws which obtain in America and to the customs of the well-ordered Republic. For the Church amongst you, unopposed by the Constitution and government of your nation, fettered by no hostile legislation, protected against violence by the common laws and the impartiality of the tribunals, is free to live and act without hindrance."

Pope Leo had a particularly high regard for the Father of the American Republic, referring to him as Washingtonius Magnus, the Great Washington. Washington himself acknowledged the crucial role played by Catholics in the founding of the American Republic. He lamented anti-Catholicism, contributed to the construction of a Catholic Church in Baltimore, and petitioned government support for Catholic missionaries among the Indians. Reports from members of his household indicate that he attended Catholic Mass on occasion and died a convert to the Catholic Faith on his deathbed.

Good Catholics, not only is Fellay one addled bloke; he is an unCatholic ingrate as well.

[littleway]

I have a lot of sympathy and even love for the sspx, but I in no way support them, because they are built on sandy ground, for all their talk about some disembodied Tradition being the true Rock. Bishop Fellay is the one I trust and admire the most, in a shallow, groundless way - he seems a very holy man, just from meeting him, if impressions are any indication of anything, which of course they aren't. But the poor man is stuck between the Rock and a hard place, to use a phrase that's become a cliche about the sspx. The "hard place" is quite simply the more extreme, knee-jerk, usually Bishop Williamson adoring anti-Rome element of the sspx. That element are a thorn in the side of both Rome and the sspx. I certainly don't equate Bishop Fellay with sedevacantism at all, but his summation of "what a mystery" or whatever, concerning the Pope, reminds me of (here I duck for cover) some of Archbishop LeFebvre's ambiguous remarks that could be regarded in any number of ways by everyone from sedes to those sspx folk who genuinely wanted a reconciliation with Rome. Having said that, maybe it was just an honest statement of his confusion/ bewilderment about a Pope who definitely keeps his cards close to his chest, rather than playing "52-pick-up" as JP2 did!

[Longinus]

Bob, thanks for the Traditio take on it.  I stopped reading Traditio a while back.  To them, there is no such thing as good news.  I am not Mr. Sunshine, but after all, the Gospel is supposed to be "the Good News" and Traditio never found a story that they couldn't turn into a total calamity. 

Littleway: I appreciate your sympathy for the SSPX and your point of view.  However, I don't think that SSPX was built upon some "disembodied Tradition".  Tradition is available to all, there is no hidden "Tradition" and while Rome ultimately will have the final word, all rational beings can study the situation and determine who has reinvented tradition.

I think that modern-day Rome's imposition of the NO scheme was surely built on "sandy ground."  Never in the Church's history prior to Vatican II was a whole new Rite composed by committee.  To please protestants who broke with Tradition centuries earlier no less!!!  That the NO Mass and sacraments adhere to tradition, I believe, is untenable.  It is as Cardinals Ottoviani and Bacci said in their Criticism of the NO - "a striking departure" from the teachings of the Council of Trent.

[finegan]

"The 'hard place' is quite simply the more extreme, knee-jerk, usually Bishop Williamson adoring anti-Rome element of the sspx."

And you're not "knee-jerk" in your predictable reactions to any utterance of the SSPX?

[Longinus]

"The 'hard place' is quite simply the more extreme, knee-jerk, usually Bishop Williamson adoring anti-Rome element of the sspx."

And you're not "knee-jerk" in your predictable reactions to any utterance of the SSPX?

?

Are you talking to me?

Not sure what to say, except there is much that is good about predictability.  The religion founded by God Himself should generally be predictable, since God changeth not.  Agreed?

Edit:  Pardon me if I misunderstood.

[PeterII]

"The 'hard place' is quite simply the more extreme, knee-jerk, usually Bishop Williamson adoring anti-Rome element of the sspx."

And you're not "knee-jerk" in your predictable reactions to any utterance of the SSPX?

?

Are you talking to me?

Not sure what to say, except there is much that is good about predictability.  The religion founded by God Himself should generally be predictable, since God changeth not.  Agreed?

Edit:  Pardon me if I misunderstood.

Finegan was quoting littleway's thoughts, which were little in substance and a lot on speculation. 

[littleway]

Yes, I totally agree it was just speculative - just a personal point of view on a forum. That's partly what forums are for.