Fr. Libietis: A Bishop Speaks from Beyond the Grave

[Stone]

THE SEEDS SPROUT

[Fr. Helmuts Libietis - Resistance Brochure #5 of 7]

With the death of John Paul II and the election of Cardinal Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, came a whole new fertile atmosphere for the ‘seeds of union’ to sprout. Compared to John Paul II, Benedict XVI ‘seemed’ much more conservative, but the chief thing he wanted to conserve was Vatican II and its implementation. However, many said that he regretted his past actions against the SSPX and wanted to put things right. With this backdrop, the moves towards a desired union gather pace. What used to be mere talk of an agreement with Rome, now leads to reciprocal actions to bring about that union.

The Pope would provide the heat and moisture, necessary for its growth, by allowing the Latin Mass to be said by any priest in the world (in 2007) and lifting the excommunications of the SSPX bishops (in 2009). These actions would favor dialogue. However, one important thing would be put to one side—the recommendations of Archbishop Lefebvre. For him, any dialogue would be a “dialogue of death” if it did not see Rome coming back to tradition. He warned that Rome would give concessions, at times great ones, but these would simply be maneuvers to string Tradition along. He stressed that any future talks must be on the level of doctrine, and not just a practical agreement (which would leave both Rome and SSPX still disagreeing and separated on matters of doctrine). The reign of Benedict XVI would see a watering-down or whittling-away of the Archbishop’s principles in favor of what would amount to, technically, a mere practical agreement. Little by little one travels far!... [...] The idea of a union is continually pushed forward, but the SSPX members and followers are made to feel safe and comfortable by the talk of resistance to such a union.

2005
“His Excellency Bishop Fellay... welcomes the accession of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to the Sovereign Pontificate. He sees there a gleam of hope that we may find a way out of the profound crisis which is shaking the Catholic Church. ” (SSPX Press Communiqué, April 19, 2005) Bishop Fellay requested an audience with the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI, which was granted on August 29, 2005.


2005
“We wanted to meet the Holy Father because we are Catholic and, like all Catholics, we are attached to Rome ... [and] to call the attention of the Sovereign Pontiff to the existence of the Tradition .... [that] Tradition is a solution, indeed the only solution ... Then Benedict XVI pointed out that there can be only one way of belonging to the Catholic Church: i.e., by having the spirit of Vatican II interpreted in the light of Tradition. This is a perspective that rather frightens us….Finally, we would have to have, thinks the Sovereign Pontiff, a suitable structure for the traditional rite and certain exterior practices —without, however, protecting us from the spirit of the Council that we would have to adopt.” (Bishop Fellay, DICI interview, September 17, 2005)

Archbishop Lefebvre laid down the principle that there would be no dialogue with Rome unless Rome returned to Tradition and accepted the great encyclicals of past popes, saying that any talks would otherwise be a waste of time and a “DIALOGUE OF DEATH.” That there was no change in Rome, should have been clear from this meeting with the Pope, but Bishop Fellay was prepared to flirt with the enemies of Tradition for a “reduced price”—and not the full price required by the Archbishop. The price is gradually lowered—little by little.


2005
“The audience [with the Pope] was an opportunity for the Society to manifest that it has always been attached—and always will be—to the Holy See. We broached the serious difficulties, already known, in a spirit of great love for the Church. We reached a consensus as to proceeding by stages in the resolution of problems.” (Bishop Fellay, August 29, 2005, Press Release from Albano, Rome)


2005
“What would be the point of an accord that would consist in letting oneself be sunk by the iceberg. ” (Bishop Fellay, September 2005, Letter to Friends & Benefactors, No. 68)


2005
Fr. Lorans : Could you tell us if, after meeting with the Holy Father, dialogue continues?

Bishop Fellay: “It is not completely at a standstill. There is simply a certain opening from Rome—something new, which began in the year 2000—which we must analyze very closely. The private audience itself shows a pope well disposed to listen to us, at least up to a certain point...I think this should lead to a discussion ...If there is a discussion, it will necessarily deal with points of the Council...I offered to Rome to draw up a list of the issues on which we disagree, which cause a doctrinal problem...Rome seems to be open to the idea of receiving that list. Presently, I do not think we can expect more than small steps. There is a certain opening...We see that with the accession of the new pope, Benedict XVI, there is like a shiver of hope.... We find this even in the Roman Curia, we have people sympathetic to us even up there. ” (Bishop Fellay, December 8, 2005, interview by Radio Courtoisie)


2006
“It is rather clear that Rome, the pope, would like to settle the affairs of the Society, if I may say so, and according to their plan it must be a quick settlement. On our part, we always insisted that before we can reach a practical settlement, they must eliminate the principles which...generate the crisis, and which...would destroy us if we were to accept them. Thus we can in no way accept. ” (Bishop Fellay, February 2, 2006, Flavigny)

2006
“I would rather say that this dialogue must be both doctrinal and practical, with facts to support the theological arguments ....The purpose of the doctrinal discussion is to obtain that Rome acknowledge [that Vatican II is responsible for the crisis in the Church]...Those who want to mind only the practical or canonical aspect, will see our doctrinal demands as a loss of time...Those who want to consider only the speculative aspect will find that our pastoral preliminary conditions are side-stepping the root issues, and will say that this dialogue is the beginning of a compromise with modernism. To desire an immediate canonical agreement at any cost would expose us to see an immediate resurgence of the problems opposing us to Rome, and the agreement would become null and void. The regularization of our canonical status must come last. ” (Bishop Fellay, April 1, 2006, DICI interview)

2006
“Following [Archbishop Lefebvre’s] footsteps in the fight for the Catholic Faith, the Society fully endorses his criticisms of the Second Vatican Council and its reforms, as he expressed them in his conferences and sermons, and in particular in his Declaration of November 21, 1974:
‘We adhere with all our heart and all our soul to Catholic Rome, guardian of the Catholic Faith and of the traditions necessary for the maintaining of that Faith, to eternal Rome, mistress of wisdom and of truth. On the contrary, we refuse, and we have always refused, to follow the Rome of neo-modernist and neo-Protestant tendencies, which showed itself clearly in the Second Vatican Council and in the reforms that issued from it.’
Contacts held with Rome over the last few years have enabled the Society to see how right and necessary were the two pre-conditions that it laid down [freeing the Tridentine Mass and lifting the excommunications]....If, upon these pre-conditions being fulfilled, the Society looks to a possible debate on doctrine, the purpose is that of making the voice of traditional teaching sound more clearly within the Church. Likewise, the contacts made from time to time with the authorities in Rome have no other purpose than to help them embrace once again that Tradition ... The purpose is not just to...arrive at some merely practical impossible agreement....When Tradition comes back into its own, then ‘reconciliation will no longer be a problem’” (Declaration of the SSPX General Chapter, July, 2006, after the reelection of Bishop Fellay as Superior General for another 12 years)

2006
Fr. Alain Lorans: “Your Excellency, concerning the declaration of the General Chapter, the chapter members were against a practical agreement, they said that such an agreement was chimeric, impossible for the present…”

Bishop Fellay: “It is impossible today. And why? Because it is not so much the agreement taken in itself which is impossible; since Rome is offering it to us. Or rather Rome declares itself ready to come to terms. What is impossible is not so much the agreement, but the situation in which we would find ourselves if we signed such an agreement. What would we be confronted by? Would the concrete circumstances brought about by the agreement be a livable situation for us? Obviously the answer is no... the situation in the Church was such today that a normal Catholic life, has been made concretely impossible. So it is impossible to speak about a practical agreement before this life is made possible again. And to make this life possible is not something we can do. It must be done by the pope....As long as these elements are not there, it is utterly suicidal to want to make a practical agreement. ” (Bishop Fellay,Villepreux, October 14, 2006)

Great fighting talk! But by 2012, and the end of the next General Chapter meeting, the above declaration and attitude will have slowly changed and weakened. The doctrinal talks will have failed, yet the SSPX will nevertheless seek a practical agreement after failing in their desire for a doctrinal agreement. And the so-called endorsement of Archbishop Lefebvre’s criticial sermons of the Modernist Church will have changed to a restriction on what sermons can be released for public consumption—the most critical ones censored. His severe criticism will have been replaced by a more gentle criticism, with softer language. The SSPX websites and publishing houses will have been ‘cleaned-up’ by the removal of articles and books offensive to Modernist Rome. Little by little one travels far! Reeling the fish in too forcefully makes the fish struggle and may snap the line! Make the fish tire with gentle tugs to and fro and it will eventually come with little struggle.



In July of 2007, the Pope removed the shackles from the Tridentine Mass and then, in 2009, he removed the shackles of the false excommunications from the SSPX bishops.

2007
“There is in Benedict XVI the clear desire to re-affirm the continuity of Vatican II...with the bi-millenial Tradition. This shows that what is at stake in the debate between Rome and the Society of St. Pius X is essentially doctrinal. The undeniable step forward made by the motu proprio in the liturgical domain must be followed—after the withdrawal of the decree of excommunication—by theological discussions. ” (Bishop Fellay, July 7, 2007, the day the Tridentine Mass was freed)


2008
“In 2007, the new Sovereign Pontiff Benedict XVI finally granted the first point we had requested, the traditional Mass for the priests all over the world. We are deeply grateful for this personal gesture from the pope ...This first step of Rome in our direction gave us to hope that a second would soon follow...” (Bishop Fellay, October, 2008, Letter to Friends & Benefactors, No, 73)


2009
On January 21, Rome lifted the excommunications. Bishop Fellay was asked in an interview: “What status do you hope for concerning the Society? A personal prelature under the pope?” Bishop Fellay replied: “We will consider this aspect after the discussions requested by Rome, which are intended to be a source of clarifications. Canonical stability first requires doctrinal clarity. ” (Bishop Fellay, January 25 , 2009, Apic Swiss News Agency)


The next flyer shows that Bishop Fellay as still ready to enter into a regularization even after the doctrinal agreement failed and with no return of Rome to Tradition. The 2012 General Chapter’s “Six Conditions” is the “FOR SALE” sign still firmly planted in the front lawn, even though he now insists there will be NO DEAL!