So it's NO from the Lefebvrians?!?! Apart from Reuters, none of the other usual MSM outlets have so far dared to report on this- and even this report is paradoxically less assertive and categorical than Heneghan's earlier report based on a June 20 sermon by Mons. Fellay.
Breakaway Catholics challenge
papal ultimatum
By Tom Heneghan, Religion Editor
PARIS, June 27 (Reuters) - A breakaway traditionalist group has told the Vatican it cannot comply with a papal ultimatum on returning to the Roman Catholic Church because it skirts key issues of their dispute, a spokesman said on Friday.
Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the Society of Saint Pius X (SPPX) opposed to Church reforms introduced in the 1960s, said there must be an agreement on doctrinal differences before any accord could be possible, Rev. Alain Lorans said.
Fellay said last week the ultimatum, which demanded the SSPX accept Pope Benedict's authority and refrain from faulting him publicly, was unacceptable and aimed at silencing critics.
"He rejects the procedure he is being subject to," Lorans said by telephone from the SSPX seminary in Econe, Switzerland. "If we want a canonical accord that doesn't collapse in a few weeks, we must deal with the fundamental questions of doctrine."
In 1988, Rome excommunicated SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and four bishops -- including Fellay -- he ordained against Pope John Paul's orders. The SSPX has since lobbied for the bans to be lifted but refused the Vatican's conditions.
Keen to end the schism, Benedict last year restored the old Latin Mass, a key SSPX demand. But he insists the group must accept the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) before he can lift the excommunication decrees against them.
The ultimatum issued this month avoided mentioning the Council reforms, but its requirement to respect the Pope and the Church's doctrinal authority implied acceptance of them.
"In an ultimatum, which is an emergency procedure, these things should be explicit," Lorans said, adding that Fellay's letter to the Vatican on Thursday was confidential.
The letter was sent before the end of the month, as requested by the Vatican, but the spokesman added:
"You can say he's not responding (to the ultimatum), despite answering it."
The SSPX also had reservations about a requirement to fully accept the magisterium, or doctrinal authority of the Church.
Fellay "
accepts to respect the Pope and not take the place of the magisterium of the Church, except if there is something in the post-Council magisterium that is opposed to the magisterium of 2,000 years," Lorans said.
[But how can they reject Vatican-II which is part of the Magisterium and which does not contradict any of the Church's previous Magisterium? For instance, recognition of religious freedom wa always part of the Magisterium - Hinduism and Buddhism existed long before Christianity did - without precluding the Church's missionary duty in any way!]
The SSPX claims about a million followers worldwide, many of them in France. It has long lobbied the Vatican to withdraw the excommunications and allow it to return to the 1.1-billion strong Church, but also regularly criticized the Pope.
In a sermon last week, Fellay said the ultimatum aimed at silencing the SSPX. "Rome is telling us, okay, we are ready to lift the excommunications, but you cannot continue this way," Fellay said at an SSPX seminary in Winona, Minnesota.
"So we have no choice... we are continuing what we've done," he said. "They just say 'shut up' ... We are not going ... to shut up."
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Just like the extremists on the left, the Lefebvrians err in their arrogance and lack of charity - insisting that their views must prevail over the constituted Magisterium!
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Father Zuhlsdorf has an update with statements made by Mons. Fellay himself in a radio interview given today:
Bp. Fellay interview by Radio Svizzera:
didn’t totally reject the Conditions
By Father John Zuhsldorf
o{]:¬)
On Saturday 28 June 2008, twenty years to the day after his illicit episcopal consecration at Econe, Switzerland, which resulted in his excommunication and the split between the SSPX and the Catholic Church, Bp. Bernard Fellay, now Superior General of the SSPX has given an interview to Radio Svizzera, in Italian.
I captured the audio, lest it cycle off of that website and become too hard to dig up.
In the past few days some media outlets have picked up on something that Fellay said in his rambling sermon in Winona, MN, on 20 June, as well as hard line comments of two of the other excommunicated bishops, Williamson and Galaretta, and have made the assumption that the SSPX, Fellay in particular, have rejected the Five Conditions offered them by the Holy See as a preamble to continuing fruitful dialogue.
I think the usual media suspects are somewhat misreading the situation. For example, I parsed the report from AFP and from Reuters. The Reuters story is a good example of how some reporters have misread the situation.
When I parsed Bp. Fellay’s sermon in Winona in this PODCAzT I gave my opinion that Bp. Fellay, under tremendous pressure from the hard liners both in the SSPX and from the "benefactors" (read: money), takes a hard line in sermons and public addresses to keep spirits high.
Also, he is prone to ramble a bit in his preaching and, at a certain point, he works himself up and takes a swipe at the Pope and Curia. This is probably well received by some listeners.
Furthermore, Fellay is between a rock and a hard spot.
What he said at Winona, though it sounds very defiant and resolved, didn’t actually go so far as to violate explicitly any of the Conditions Rome offered and which Fellay and the SSPX haven’t still publicly renounced in an official way.
Then we learned yesterday that the Fellay and the SSPX decided they would write a letter to Rome to respond that they weren’t going to respond to the Conditions.
Effectively, I think what this means is that they won’t accept the premise that they are doing anything wrong (big surprise there!) but that they still want dialogue. In the future we will see if in action they change they style of speech about the Pope and their position on reunion in a more positive way.
That is to say, though they are afraid to cause a split in the SSPX were they to sign off on those conditions openly, perhaps they could skirt the issue by saying they wouldn’t accept the premise of the conditions but then begin to modify their style a bit anyway.
This is my speculation, now that it seems that we are not going to hear much more from them.
Now we have this Radio Svizzera interview. I do not have a transcript of the interview and won’t make one myself. But here are the essential points.
Bp. Bernard Fellay had an interview on the Radio Svizzera:
The interviewer put the first question in terms of the SSPX having rejecting the offer, that on Friday for an ordination, it was announced that the SSPX rejected the ultimatum. But Fellay corrected him saying that that is not quite accurate. Fellay said that it is perhaps false to say that "reject".
"Maybe it is false to say so directly that I reject, that I have made a complete refusal. That’s not true. Rather, I see in this ultimate something very vague and confused".
But isn’t this the last chance to reunite with Rome, during this favorable time with Pope Benedict XVI?
Fellay repeated that this ultimatum makes no sense (non ha senso) because they do, in fact, have a dialogue with Rome, even if it is slow (but) Rome wants to speed things up.
Fellay claims that they want to continue dialogue, SSPX wants to continue the dialogue. For Fellay dialogue might be "chilly" right now but it is not over.
The interviewer asked if Rome will lose patience, is the SSPX at risk, will be it more and more marginalized?
Fellay said that more more people are coming to the SSPX. They don’t want to break with the Church. They desire to be accepted into the Church and do good for the Church. They are defenders of tradition.
This interview is in Italian. Maybe someone will make a transcript.
The bottom line:
The leadership of the SSPX are afraid of an internal rupture more than anything else. They can’t explicitly reject the Conditions offered by the Holy See. Therefore they are trying to steer a middle course by rejecting a seconday premise of the conditions which was explicitly state (Don’t speak disrespectfully about the Pope and put on airs about their own "magisterium") without rejecting the true premise underlying them (Who is the Bishop of Rome and who are you without him?).
The code language to listen for in future comments by the leadership of the SSPX will be things like "the conditions don’t make sense – we do have dialogue even though it is slow – what’s the hurry".
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And New Catholic at
rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2008/06/fellay-i-have-already-written-respo...
has a translation of Mons. Fellay's actual statements:
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Fellay: "I have already written a response
and we will see how Rome will react"
The Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX), Bishop Bernard Fellay, granted today an interview to Gino Driussi, of RTSI (the Italian-language Swiss public radio), providing some very enlightening answers:
...
[17:45][Fellay:] Perhaps it is false to say, in such a way, directly, that I reject, that I propose a total rejection [of the conditions], that is not true. Rather, I see in this ultimatum a very vague, confused thing. But, in fact, I have already written a response and we will see how Rome will react.
...
[18:53] [Fellay:] For me, this ultimatum has no sense, because we have relations with Rome which go forward in a certain speed, which is truly slow. And it is true, on the other hand, that both the Cardinal [Castrillón Hoyos] and the Holy Father would wish for a rather accelerated speed. For me, the only meaning of this ultimatum is the expression of this desire of Rome to give it a little bit of haste. And for me it is not a reconsideration of all our relations.
[Interviewer:] "Then, you expect to continue in the dialogue, thus?"
[Fellay:] Yes, yes, it is possible that there will now be a time of more, of coolness, but, frankly, for me, it is not over, no.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/06/2008 17:34]