Bp. Williamson: Two New Bishops may be Consecrated for SSPX this Year!!!

[bigbadtrad]

Gerard it doesn't matter about this issue in comparison to your struggles, just have the best life you can with your family in troubling times. I'm sorry for your loss my friend.

[matt]

I can't find any official statement from the SSPX on these consecrations and why would it be on the 28th April? Surely it would make sense to do them on the 29th June in Econe. The ordinations to priesthood this year are on Friday 28th June, so why not keep the tent up for a extra day for the feast of Sts. Peter & Paul on Saturday 29th? Seems to me that the only reason for the 28th April would be to keep the event low key.

[matt]

You can say and think what you will about Bishop Williamson but he was the cause of the break in the SSPX. How ever you cut it that is a fact. Something went very wrong in this mans life and caused him to try and bring down the SSPX. Another fact is that his reasons have been shown to be wrong and wrong headed.

I don't know how any person reading this man objectively would not come to the same conclusion. The problem is that most Americans let their heart rule their head; it amazes me how Americans are still so infatuated with Bp. Williamson, it simply doesn't occur in England. It's a bit like how Americans go overboard with St. Patrick's day, it doesn't occur in Ireland.

[Sempronius]

Matt, do you know where I can find information for the ordinations this summer in Econe?

[Gerard]

You can say and think what you will about Bishop Williamson but he was the cause of the break in the SSPX. How ever you cut it that is a fact. Something went very wrong in this mans life and caused him to try and bring down the SSPX. Another fact is that his reasons have been shown to be wrong and wrong headed.

I don't know how any person reading this man objectively would not come to the same conclusion. The problem is that most Americans let their heart rule their head; it amazes me how Americans are still so infatuated with Bp. Williamson, it simply doesn't occur in England. It's a bit like how Americans go overboard with St. Patrick's day, it doesn't occur in Ireland.

Neither of the above statements is objectively true.   Williamson's views on the holocaust and other issues were known for decades. Everyone knew them and people were free to agree or disagree with them.    Bishop Fellay did a number of verifiable actions that caused the uproar in the SSPX.  GREC being the most egregious.  The replacing of virtually all of the American priests with foreigners and sending the Williamson-trained priests to far off distant lands where they could be least effective was another.  The kowtowing to Rome all during the pontificate of Benedict XVI, the ambiguous language coming out about Vatican II.  The constant push/pull of "negotiations" with Rome in which Fellay would endlessly send out trial balloons.

Bishop Fellay was definitely gunning for Williamson for a number of years as was already discussed on this thread. 

The painting of the idea that there is an "infatuation" with Williamson and not a strong contingent of people that simply agree with him on many common sense issues is simply an attempt to obfuscate the truth. 

And trying to make St. Patrick's Day as an analogous example of Americans going overboard is a stretch.   Trying to contrast that with Europeans is also silly.  Americans don't have "Black Eye Friday" or riots in the stands at major (or minor) sporting events.  In a tit for tat, the "behavioral excesses" of Europe show they are far further down the road of degradation of society than the U.S. is currently (though with the immigration debacle things are picking up speed.) 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6522455/Black-Eye-Friday-erupts-Britain-drunken-antics-hand.html

[Xavier]

I'm not American, what I liked Bp. Williamson for was regularly encouraging his listeners and readers to say 15 decades daily if possible. I don't know for sure how accurate some of the things said about Bp. Williamson are, I'll have to investigate that further to say for sure. But I agree with BBT that the purpose of a sermon must be to help make saints of those who are listening. That's what the Saints teach us. I think His Excellency Bp. Fellay does a very good job at that, and I totally disagree with Bp. Fellay's critics and those who call H.E. names.

Here's an article from One Peter Five on a sermon Bishop Fellay gave on the occasion of some children receiving Sacrament of Confirmation: https://damselofthefaith.wordpress.com/2016/11/26/an-example-of-bishop-fellays-saintliness/

"Bishop Fellay is such a saintly bishop and priest. Despite the pain of a broken foot, he keeps up his good cheer and is a saintly example of joyful suffering to all of the Faithful.  Read this story of a true shepherd of souls:

http://www.onepeterfive.com/bishop-bernard-fellays-authentic-catholic-witness/

On 4 November, 2016 – the day of the opening ceremony of the new seminary of the Society of St. Pius X in Dillwyn, Virginia – three little children were blessed to be confirmed by His Excellency Bishop Bernard Fellay. Everything surrounding this little ceremony – with some twenty priests, seminarians and different family members gathered around – turned an otherwise small event into something very big and holy. Each individual who was present there will no doubt count it as one of the great blessings of his life.

As with so many such blessings, it started with a cross. The confirmations were to start in the evening, at 6:30 pm, after the long opening ceremony for the seminary. The small group of families, sponsors, and seminarians was gathered around in the provisional chapel of the seminary (which shall one day be replaced by a larger, more beautiful church adjacent to the seminary) when suddenly a seminarian walked up the aisle, stood in front of the faithful, and told them that Bishop Fellay just had had an accident, and that he had injured his foot. Some medical experts were just then examining him, the seminarian said. We were to wait another thirty minutes in order to be further instructed. As it turned out, we waited an hour or so, not knowing whether the ceremony would take place at all.

It was around eight o'clock in the evening that the seminarian came one last time (after several updates) into the chapel. Since the bishop could not walk, we were invited upstairs to the private chambers of His Excellency so that he could help the Little Ones become Christian Soldiers. When all had gathered in a modest little room, Bishop Fellay came in to greet us. Nobody who was in that room is likely to forget what happened next: Bishop Fellay came in, with his as yet untreated foot – which turned out to have been seriously broken – on crutches, and with a big smile on his face! After first apologizing for the "inconvenience" (!) his injury had caused, Fellay then suddenly said, with an even bigger smile: "This is a very good sign! It is a very good sign, because it shows that the devil is very angry that these little children receive the Sacrament of Confirmation!"

The faithful present were astonished. How was it that this holy man smiled through the pain of a broken foot and yet rejoiced over obstacles put into his way? (One lady present said later that she had once had a broken foot; she confessed that she was not able to sleep all night because of how much it hurt.) And how was it that he ignored his suffering and did not allow such obstacles to hinder him from performing what might have otherwise be seen as only a small ceremony for just three children?

It was not much later that we were given a little more insight into Bishop Fellay's deeply rooted conviction and principles. As soon as he was able to perform the ceremony – he had to be seated carefully – his eyes lit up even more. He completely focused his attention on the little children, looking only into their eyes – and quite intensely so – in order to explain to them the greatness of the Sacrament of Confirmation. His eyes were radiant and glowing when he explained to the children with words they could understand what they were about to receive. The warmth of his gaze toward the little ones was touching, as were his smile and tone of voice. It was quite a witness to us adults, seeing how a man of his stature paid no heed whatsoever to the adults around him, and how he gave his best to prepare the hearts of the little ones for the sacrament, and in a language that they might understand. Bishop Fellay had no prepared remarks, yet he cheerfully and with great concentration spoke for about twenty minutes or so, in what was for him a foreign language, and all without any sign of rushing or impatience. He was fully present for the children, acting as a supreme pastor for their souls.

Thankfully, I was able to record most of what His Excellency said. I received permission to make use of the transcript I have produced of those remarks in order to spread to as many Catholics as possible the radiant depiction of this channel of grace and a glimpse of the abundant graces we received that night in a bare room, in the twilight.  The words speak for themselves and will bring us all back to the foundations of our beloved Faith. Here now the transcript which I have produced to the best of my ability:"

(...For the rest, please see the 1P5 link)

[Elizabeth]

 The seminarians are being formed by very pure and holy clergy.  We will always treasure the memory of that special day of the Inauguration of STAS, everybody will.   His Excellency Fellay is a true friend of the Holy Angels, IMO.

[Prayerful]

I'm sure this has been read already by some, but it's not in the thread, and I think it, Eleison Comment Number DCXI (611) rounds it the thread off. Bp Williamson can make eloquent and well formed points, even where somehow might reject his argument, but while that piece might be seen as that, and makes credible points, it overall is just unfair towards Bp Fellay. The Bp may have made this or that mistake when Superior General, but the evidence that Mgsr Fellay was somehow working to subvert Catholic tradition is unjust and unsupported by actual evidence.

Bishop Huonder

Dear Bishop H, we cannot serve two masters –

Church compromises generate disasters.

It was widely known that Bishop Huonder (BpH) of the official diocese of Chur, Switzerland, when he is due to retire in April at the age of 77, was due to take up official residence for his autumn years in a boys' school of the Society of St Pius X in Wangs, Switzerland. There was even a rumour circulating, from a close collaborator with two previous Superior Generals of the SSPX, that this same Conciliar bishop would be the principal consecrator of two Society priests to give, with Pope Francis' full approval, two new bishops to the SSPX, perhaps after Easter. A date so soon for an event so significant is certainly impossible now, but its logic was inexorable, given the Newsociety's 20-year old policy of blending with the Newchurch.

The same logic was behind BpH's settling for his retirement in the Society's school for boys in Wangs. Even as official bishop for one of the largest Newchurch dioceses in Switzerland, he is reported to have made several visits already to the school, and to have made himself popular with the Newsociety priests and boys living there. But he would not be cutting all contact with the Newchurch in Rome. On the contrary, his present diocesan spokesman announced in January that the bishop's retiring to Wangs in April "is tied to a mission being entrusted to him by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to maintain contact with the SSPX." Clearly BpH, reputed to be a personal friend of Pope Francis, was planning to act as a link between Newchurch and Newsociety, in the hope of bringing them closer together.

Nor was the hope necessarily dishonest. Many a Newchurchman cannot see (or will not see) the gulf that separates the Catholic religion of God from the Conciliar religion of man. On both sides there exists the wish to pretend that there is no such gulf. On the one hand Catholics find it hard to bear being outside the structure of the Church's visible Authority, while on the other hand followers of Vatican II need re-assurance that they have not broken with the true Church's unchanging Tradition. It may be to BpH's credit that he wanted to settle in a more Catholic environment than the official diocese where he probably has no alternative to giving Communion to young women badly dressed, and no alternative to taking back remarks entirely justified against homosexuality. But "A fact is stronger than the Lord Mayor," says the English proverb.

The fact is that Vatican II was the greatest break with Catholic Tradition in all Church history. Take for instance the Newmass, which is to the Council as practice is to theory. Would BpH have been asked never to say it in the school? Could he have accepted never to say it? And even if so, could he possibly have admitted that the theory and practice of his priesthood and episcopacy have been immersed in the Conciliar sell-out of God's true Church to the godless modern world? Could he have shed overnight the convictions of all his tens of years of immersion in the Conciliar Church? Ordained priest in 1971 and consecrated bishop in 2007 with the rites of the revolutionary Paul VI, could he have admitted that to eliminate all doubt as to the Newrites' validity, he needs to be conditionally re-ordained and re-consecrated? Or would the Newsociety have required neither? That seems most likely, given its recent practice, but how would the Swiss Traditionalists have responded to that? To all appearances Bishop Vitus Huonder may be an honest and well-meaning man, but his honesty is Conciliar, which means that he is loyal to a thoroughly dishonest corruption of the Catholic Faith and Church.

Alas, all over the world Society Traditionalists are being accustomed to the replacing of Archbishop Lefebvre's Society by the Newsociety. Bishop Fellay wanted to establish the SSPX within the walls of official Rome for it to act as a Trojan horse to convert Conciliar Rome. But was not BpH, even granting him all the good will in the world, being placed to act as a Trojan horse within the walls of the Society? One may hope that the school in Wangs would have enabled him to see the gulf between Tradition and the Council, but that is a fond hope. Alice was in Wonderland. The Newsociety wanted to be in Huonderland.

Kyrie eleison.