ROME-SSPX: June 7 Update - Bishop Fellay Speaks on the relationship with Rome

Bishop Bernard Fellay has given an interview with DICI on the recent negotiations, statements from Rome via the CDF and other current issues related to the Holy Father's efforts to reconcile the Society canonically within the Church.

DICI: Are you concerned about the delay in the response from Rome, which could enable those who are against a canonical recognition to alienate some priests and faithful from the Society of Saint Pius X?

Bishop Fellay: Everything is in God’s hands.  I place my trust in the Good Lord and in His Divine Providence;  He knows how to manage everything, even delays, for the good of those who love Him.

DICI: Was the pope’s decision adjourned, as some magazines have said?  Did the Holy See tell you to expect a delay?

Bishop Fellay: No, I have had no information about any calendar whatsoever.  There are even some who say that the pope will deal with this matter at Castel Gandolfo in July.

A canonical solution before a doctrinal solution?

DICI: Most of those who are opposed to the Society’s acceptance of a possible canonical recognition allege that the doctrinal discussions could have led to this acceptance only if they had concluded with a doctrinal solution, in other words, a “conversion” by Rome.  Has your position on this point changed?

Bishop Fellay: It must be acknowledged that these discussions have allowed us to present clearly the various problems that we experience with regard to Vatican II.  What has changed is the fact that Rome no longer makes total acceptance of Vatican II a prerequisite for the canonical solution.  Today, in Rome, some people regard a different understanding of the Council as something that is not decisive for the future of the Church, since the Church is more than the Council.  Indeed, the Church cannot be reduced to the Council;  she is much larger.  Therefore we must strive to resolve more far-reaching problems.  This new awareness can help us to understanding what is really happening:  we are called to help bring to others the treasure of Tradition that we have been able to preserve....


DICI: The year 2012 is not 1988, the year of your episcopal consecration.  In 2009 the excommunications were lifted, in 2007 it was officially acknowledged that the Tridentine Mass had “never been abrogated”, but now some members of the Society lament the fact that the Church has not yet converted.  Is their a priorirefusal of a canonical recognition due to forty years of an exceptional situation, resulting in a certain inability to understand submission to authority?

Bishop Fellay: What is happening these days clearly shows some of our weaknesses with regard to the dangers that are created by the situation in which we find ourselves.  One of the great dangers is to end up inventing an idea of the Church that appears ideal, but is in fact not found in the real history of the Church.  Some claim that in order to work “safely” in the Church, she must first be cleansed of all error.  This is what they say when they declare that Rome must convert before any agreement, or that its errors must first be suppressed so that we can work.  But that is not the reality.  It is enough to look at the Church’s past:  often, and almost always, we see that there are widespread errors in the Church.  Now the reforming saints did not leave the Church in order to combat these errors.  Our Lord taught us that there would always be weeds until the end of time.  Not just the good crop, not only the wheat.

THE FULL INTERVIEW MAY BE READ HERE.