Monday 14 October 2013

Bernard on Francis

H/T to The Jarrow Scriptorium for this item of news.

The head of the Society of St Piux X, Bishop Fellay, has given his views on Pope Francis.

To hear criticism of a pope and to even contemplate, criticising him oneself, is something of a novelty.

But, in the last few weeks, there has been a whirlwind of posts and articles on the subject.

Now, Bishop Fellay has added his own thoughts.

What follows is verbatim as it was received but I have no reason to doubt its integrity; if anything, I am surprised that it has taken Bishop Fellay so long to speak out.....

Bishop Fellay on Pope Francis - “What we have before us is a genuine Modernist!”

Extracts from an article by John Vennari
Catholic Family News
Bishop Bernard Fellay warned on October 12, “The situation of the Church is a real disaster, and the present Pope is making it 10,000 times worse.”
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He said this in an address at the Angelus Press Conference, the weekend of Oct 11-13 in Kansas City.

Bishop Fellay, Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X, gave an extensive lecture on Saturday afternoon that focused on the Third Secret of Fatima, and its apparent prediction of both a material chastisement and a great crisis in the Church.

This report will highlight some of the more dramatic aspects of the Bishop’s Saturday conference and his Sunday sermon.
Bishop Fellay quoted in detail Sister Lucy, those who have read the Third Secret, and those who have knowledge of the Secret. He noted Sister Lucia said that if we want to know the contents of the Third Secret, read chapters 8 through 13 of the Apocalpse.” (details of the Third Secret will be contained in the upcoming November edition of Catholic Family News)
Sister Lucia’s reference to Chapters 8 through 13 of the Apocalypse is particularly chilling, since the end of Chapter 13 speaks of the coming of Antichrist.
Bishop Fellay noted that Pope St. Pius X said at the beginning of his pontificate the ‘son of perdition’ may already be on the earth. He also noted the original prayer to Saint Michael of Pope Leo XIII mentions that Satan aims to establish his seat in Rome.
The bishop quoted Cardinal Luigi Ciapi, the Papal Theologian of all the Popes from Pius XII to John Paul II who said, “In the Third Secret we read among other things that the great apostasy in the Church begins at the top.”
He also spent a good bit of time on the famous and dramatic 1957 interview of Father Fuentes with Sister Lucia, in which she reiterated that “various nations will disappear from the face of the earth,” and that “the devil will do all in his power to overcome souls consecrated to God.”
Since the ministers of God are struck with this confusion and disorder, the faithful are left to fend for themselves for their own salvation. The help that should be provided by Churchmen is not there. This is “the greatest tragedy you can ever imagine for the Church.”
The times are very serious. We have to be serious about our salvation, “and to do this we are deprived of a very important element, which is the support of the [Church] authorities. What a tragedy.”
He spoke of Sister Lucia’s comforting words that God has given two last remedies for us: The Holy Rosary and Devotion to the Immaculate Heart.
Rome/SSPX

Bishop Fellay alluded to the SSPX/Vatican drama of 2012: “When we see what is happening now [under Pope Francis] we thank God, we thank God, we have been preserved from any kind of Agreement from last year. And we may say that one of the fruits of the [Rosary] Crusade we did is that we have been preserved from such a misfortune. Thank God. It is not that we don’t want to be Catholics, of course we want to be Catholics and we are Catholics, and we have a right to be recognized as Catholics. But we are not going to jeopardize our treasures for that. Of course not.”

He continued, “To imagine that some people continue to pretend we are decided [still] to get an Agreement with Rome. Poor people. I really challenge them to prove they mean. They pretend that I think something else from what I do. They are not in my head.”
As for the discussions with Rome: “Any kind of direction for recognition ended when they gave me the document to sign on June 13, 2012. That very day I told them, ‘this document I cannot accept.’ I told them from the start in September the previous year that we cannot accept this ‘hermeneutic of continuity’ because it is not true, it is not real. It is against the reality. So we do not accept it. The Council is not in continuity with Tradition. It’s not. So when Pope Benedict requested that we accept that the Second Vatican Council is an integral part of Tradition, we say, ‘sorry, that’s not the reality, so we’re not going to sign it. We’re not going to recognize that’.”
“The same for the Mass. The want us to recognize not only that the [New] Mass is valid provided it is celebrated correctly, etc., but that it is licit. I told them: we don’t use that word. It’s a bit messy, our faithful have enough [confusion] regarding the validity, so we tell them, ‘The New Mass is bad, it is evil’ and they understand that. Period!’” Of course the Roman authorities “were not very happy with that.”
He continues, “It has never been our intention to pretend either that the Council would be considered as good, or the New Mass would be ‘legitimate’”.
“The [April 15, 2012] text we presented to Rome was a very, shall we say, delicate text that was supposed to be understood correctly; it was supposed to be read with a big principle which was leading the whole thing. This big principle was no novelty in the Church: ‘The Holy Ghost has not been promised to Saint Peter and his Successor in such a way that through a new revelation the Pope would teach something new, but under his help, the pope would the Pope would saintly conserve and faithfully transmit the deposit of the Faith.’ It belongs to the definition of infallibility [from Vatican I]. That was the principle, the base of the whole document, which excludes from the start any kind of novelty.
“And so take any kind of sentences from the text without this principle is just to take sentences that have never been our thinking and our life. These phrases in themselves are ambiguous, so to take away the ambiguity we wanted to put [in] this principle [from Vatican I]. Unfortunately, maybe that was too subtle and that’s why we withdrew that text, because it was not clear enough as it was written.
“So it is very clear our principle is always the same to stay faithful! We have received a treasure. This treasure does not ‘belong’ to us. We have received this treasure and we have to hand it to the next generation. And what is requested from us is faithfulness, fidelity. We do not have the right to jeopardize these treasures. These are the treasures we have in our hands and we are not going to jeopardize them.
Pope Francis

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Bishop Fellay returned to Sister Lucia’s 1957 statement that the Rosary and Devotion to the Immaculate Heart are the two last remedies God has given to mankind.
He said there is “definitely a ‘material’ chastisement of the world in sight. There is something big in front of us. How? When? I have no idea. But if you put everything together, it is clear that God has had enough of the sins of man.”
He then spoke of those sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance, such as abortion, and the sins against nature, which was an illusion to the unnatural ‘re-definition’ of marriage and related sins. He also spoke of what appears to be a coming persecution of Christians.
“What do we do? Don’t panic, because panic is of no use at all. What you need to do is your job – your daily duty. That is the best way to prepare.”
He continued that we are in “very scary times” but we are not helpless. He noted the “the situation of the Church is a real disaster. And the present Pope is making it 10,000 times worse.”
“In the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI, I said, ‘the crisis in the Church will continue, but the Pope is trying to put on the brakes.’ It’s as if to say, the Church will continue to fall, but with a parachute. And with the beginning of this [Pope Francis] pontificate, I say, ‘he cuts the strings, and he put a [downward] rocket’.”
“If the present pope continues in the way he started, he is going to divide the Church. He’s exploding everything. So people will say: it is impossible that’s he’s the Pope, we refuse him. Others will say [and this is presently Bishop Fellay’s position]: “Wait, consider him as Pope, but don’t follow him. He’s provoking anger. Many people will be discouraged by what people in the Church do” and will be tempted to “throw it all away.”
But, he reminded, God is “much, much bigger than we are. God is able to have the Church continue” and even can work through these imperfect ministers. “But once again”, he repeats, “don’t follow them. Follow them when they say the truth, but when they tell you rubbish, you don’t” follow them on those points. “Any obedience to be true must be related to God. When I say I obey to a person” he should be a “a mirror of God.” But “when mirror tells me contrary of God, it is no longer a mirror, then I don’t follow him.”
Bishop Fellay noted that we cannot simply obey the present Popes without question, because then we would destroy ourselves, we would endanger our Faith.
Sunday Sermon

Bishop Fellay returned to these themes at his Sunday sermon at the Pontifical High Mass offered at St. Vincent de Paul’s Church in Kansas city.
He amplified a few points regarding Fatima, the Secret, the 2012 drama with Rome, and then spoke of some of the many grave problems with Pope Francis.
“From the start,” he said, “we have the impression that we have something wrong with this Pope. From the start, he wanted to distinguish himself to be different from anybody else.”
A small example of this is Francis’ insistence on wearing black shoes instead of the red papal shoes, but this is minor compared to greater issues. We must look, said the bishop, at what is his vision of the Church, his vision of the council, and what is his plan.
It was around the time of World Youth Day, late July of this year, that Francis began an avalanche of talks, interviews, phone calls, etc. “We may not have the entire picture at this point, we have enough to be scared to death.”
As is typical of the Modernist, as Pius X warned in Pascendi, the Modernist will sometimes speak in a heretical fashion, and then speak in an orthodox manner. Bishop Fellay gave the example of one of these contradictions:
He spoke of interview in early October that Pope Francis conducted with the atheist journalist Eugenio Scalfari in Rome’s La Repubblica wherein Francis appears to promote a dangerous relativism:
Scalfari: “Your Holiness, is there is a single vision of the Good? And who decides what it is?”

Pope Francis: “Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is Good.”
Scalfari: “Your Holiness, you wrote that in your letter to me. The conscience is autonomous, you said, and everyone must obey his conscience. I think that's one of the most courageous steps taken by a Pope.”

Pope Francis: “And I repeat it here. Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place."
With a good deal of emotion, Bishop Fellay said of the Pope’s response: “That’s really not Catholic! Because whatever I think has absolutely no value if it does not fit with reality. We have a conscience, but it will only lead us to Heaven if our conscience is a mirror of God.” The conscience must be formed according to God’s law. “So to pretend that anyone can full his own idea is just rubbish,” said Fellay, “It has nothing to do with Catholic teaching. It is absolute relativism.”
About a week after this, however, Pope Francis spoke of the necessity of fighting the devil, the final battle with the devil, that nobody can fight the devil half way, and that we must fight relativism. Francis said the opposite what he said to La Repubblica. “There is the contraction with him”.
Francis: A Man of the Council

Next: what is the vision of Pope Francis on Vatican II? This is found in his much-publicized recent, lengthy interview with the Jesuits, published in various publications throughout the world, and in the Jesuit’s America magazine in the United States
Bishop Fellay says that Pope Francis “takes it for granted that the Council was bright success. What was the main theme of the Council?” To re-read the Faith in light of modern culture. You could say, “to incarnate the Gospel in the modern world.” Francis “is very happy with this…” and believes “The Council brought forth many good fruits. The first example he gives is liturgy – the reformed liturgy. That is the beautiful fruit of the Council. That’s what he says. And he’s very happy with it.”
Francis tells us “this re-reading of the Gospel within the modern culture is irreversible, so we will not go back. We are in front of a major fight.”
Of the Old Mass, Francis speaks of “Vetus Ordo” (Old Order). Francis believes that Pope Benedict probably helped restore the Old Mass as a prudential act for those who still hold to it. “But don’t expect Francis to come back to the Old Mass. Maybe he will ‘indulge’ it [let us celebrate it unmolested]. God knows.”
But Francis “sees there is a problem with this Old Mass. Because there are people who ideologize this Mass. Guess to whom he is aiming? I don’t need to say much. So what is going to happen with us? What I see: there is quite an obsession in him about those people who look to the past. Listen to the Pope’s words:
Pope Francis: “What is worrying, though, is the risk of the ideologization of the Vetus Ordo, its exploitation. … If the Christian is a restorationist, a legalist, if he wants everything clear and safe, then he will find nothing. Tradition and memory of the past must help us to have the courage to open up new areas to God. Those who today always look for disciplinarian solutions, those who long for an exaggerated doctrinal ‘security,’ those who stubbornly try to recover a past that no longer exists­—they have a static and inward-directed view of things. In this way, faith becomes an ideology among other ideologies. I have a dogmatic certainty: God is in every person’s life.”
Bishop Fellay continues, “The impression we have in the present Pope is that he has a zeal for the ‘more or less’, for the ‘about’; and he wants at all cost to escape what is too clear and too certain. But the Faith is like that because God is like that. Well, that’s not what he thinks.”
Another troubling quote from Pope Francis:
“If a person says that he met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good. For me, this is an important key. If one has the answers to all the questions—that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt.”
Bishop Fellay exclaims in response: “What Gospel does he have? Which Bible does he have to say such things. It’s horrible. What has this to do with the Gospel? With the Catholic Faith. That’s pure Modernism, my dear brethen. We have in front of us a genuine Modernist.
"How much time will be needed for people in the Church to stand up ‘by no means!’ [will we accept this new teaching]. I hope and pray this will happen. But that means an enormous division in the Church.”
He speaks of the Pope Making a mess, and reminds us that this is what the Pope urged at world Youth Day: he urged the young people to “make a mess”. Bishop Fellay responds, ”Incredible. We have never heard of this [a Pope speaking like this]. But that’s what he wants.

Francis also tells us he is a greater admirer of the ultra liberal Jesuit Cardinal Martini (now deceased). Martini wrote a book calling for a total revolution in the Church. “And that is what Francis wants. And he told us the eight cardinal he chose to help him ‘reform’ the Church think like him.

We could go on and on.
The final example: Ecumenism.
' Bishop Fellay says, that Pope Francis claims that “very little has been done in this direction.” This is astounding, the bishop notes, because ecumenism has launched untold disaster to the Church, to Catholic nations. “Yet the present Pope says, “very little, almost nothing done in this direction.”
Bishop Fellay says as part of his summing up: “The mystery of the shadow on the Church has never been so great. We are in front of very hard times. Don’t have any illusions. And it is clear the only solution is to stick to what we have; to keep it, to not let it go by any means.
“Pope St. Pius X said that it was the essence of any Catholic to stick to the past. The present Pope says exactly the contrary: forget about the past; throw yourself into the uncertainty of the future
“Definitely we need the Immaculate Heart of Mary. What are experiencing is the Secret of Fatima. We know what we have to do: pray, pray, pray, and penance, penance, penance. To pray to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the means given to us precisely in these hard times; and to pray the Rosary.
“Be certain,” says Bishop Fellay, “The next [Rosary] Crusade is not far off. Go to the Rosary. Pray it every day. We live in very dangerous time for the Faith, and we need this Heavenly protection.”
- More on this topic will be will be contained in the upcoming November edition of Catholic Family News

26 comments:

  1. I am drawn towards the sspx with each passing day.philip Johnson.

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    1. The last time I attended mass was around 1960, but, recently, after a close friend passed away I attended his funeral at a SSPX church. I was very moved by the mass and by the reverence of the packed church. The reverence was for my friend, for the mass, and for our Lord.

      A few weeks later I decided to attend a mass in a non-SSPX church and I came away from it thinking, "What the... ??" The mass was almost unrecognizable.

      Another Catholic church in my area now offers a dancing priest during mass, complete with choreography, accompanying dancers, and loud music.

      I am being pulled back to being a Catholic, and I am blessed to have a SSPX church right in my neighborhood.

      John

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    2. John, I am sure I am not the only one who would like to hear more about your reaction to the "new" Mass having never seen it. I often wonder if my relatives who died around 1960 would even recognize what passes for the Church today as actually being the Catholic Church they had known.

      Anon777

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  2. M. fellay como siempre le falta cinco para un peso, (es una frase aquí en Argentina) es que se quedó corto en su apresiación sobre Bergoglio, como será que él cree que quien se hace llamar Francisco es un Papa católico, cuando en realidad está haciendo el trabajo de terminar con lo poco que puede quedar de católico, es un termineitor el II, pero el malo , el líquido, porque ha liquidado la verdadera religión poniendo una nueva y falsa haciendo de precursor del Anticristo. Si a alguién le caé mal lo lamento, pero no debemos esconder la realidad de lo que pasa, no se puede esconder la verdad. Bendito sea Él Señor

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  3. "Genuine" Modernists have occupied the highest levels of the Church for as long as i've been around. I'm 47. I pray every day for the extirpation of modernism in the Church and a restoration of an authentic sensus catholicus.

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    1. I also add to my daily Rosary intention that "modernism be eradicated from your Son's Church."

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  4. Real leadership from a bishop, at last. Thanks be to God.

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  5. The love of God and the love of our holy Church and ultimately 'saving souls' is in the heart of our dear Bishop. May he be blessed with courage, May he persevere, for he is not alone..........All of Heaven, together with the faithful in four corners of the earth, are praying asking God and His Mother for tender loving care.........offering All for the Glory of God, for the Glory of the Holy Catholic Church!

    It is truly the work of the Holy Ghost and God's Holy Will, to REJOYCE...........it is 'the hour' of working in God's devastated Vineyard, awakening from lethargy those who are asleep, those who are lukewarm, those who are ignorant. It's a time to hear the sound of the ringing bells from Catholic Churches, time for good harvest, time to gather the good fruits, time to pull out some weeds, time in the making of new saints, even martyrs, time to rebuild God's Holy Church and Restore All in Christ!

    May our Risen Lord and our Beloved Mother Mary, bless All Soldiers of Christ!

    Viva Cristo Rey!

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  6. What frightening times, when our Pope needs his every other public statement explained. He is not a stupid man, so is it arrogance?
    Almighty God have mercy on Your Church.

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  7. Thank you, Bishop Fellay!!

    These truly are frightening times and it just gets even more frightening. We must pray for Holy Mother Church. We must pray that the Modernists are rooted out of Her once and for all. The Church has been undergoing Her Passion for so long. Surely, it shouldn't be long before we see Her Resurrection?

    God bless.

    ~Hannah

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  8. People need to hear the constant unchanging universal truths from their bishops not relativistic uncertainties that lead to paralysis and hopelessness. Lord, have mercy.

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  9. Bishop Fellay speaks with the words of a prophet....the ring and resonance of true is unmistakable. Here is a man with TRUE humility.

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  10. Stop panicking everyone! The Holy Spirit is in charge; 'My Immaculate Heart will triumph' etc etc. We don't need to get rid of the Modernists, we need to wake them up, we need to help them to come to a full understanding of Revelation, we need to help them to grow up. Keep working at it guys! Remember to stay as wise as a serpent and as gentle as a dove, and keep those home fires burning. The Modernists will eventually trip up on their own contradictions and come limping home, because there is no other solution; we know that.

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  11. The Bishop has many great points. However, to leave the Church and then look back at Her and shake an accusing fist is nonsense. I believe Our Blessed Lord was pretty clear when he said the gates of hell would not prevail. There are great issues and serious problems in the Church. Anyone who chooses to turn their back on The Church and say "it's all lost, it's full of bad people" chooses to abandon Our Blessed Lord because He Is His Church. Remember, in His own Words, He came for the sick!!
    Pray and do penance just like The Baptist cried out in the wilderness, that is our only hope, not any particular bishop.

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  12. Just as Luther used the defects of the Catholic Church of his time to justify his arrogant rebellion, the SSPX is EXACTLY the same with their "holier than thou" BLIND ARROGANCE. Especially their leaders will have to face the same question as Adam "What have you done!?" on the day of their judgment for leading astray the little ones.

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  13. Yes! Thank you Bishop Fellay! What a relief to hear a Bishop say these things. Anyone who has read Pascendi Dominici Gregis will see that what the he is saying is the stark truth. We have a Modernist Pope...and this is a frightening thing..the Papacy is being attacked by the devil as Father Rodriguez said, He also said we musr pray a lot for the Holy Father and remain in a state of grace ....

    Bob, the Bishop is not turning his back on the Church - I didn't read that anywhere.... on the contrary....

    Barbara

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  14. I no longer attend the SSPX, but the only "blind arrogance" I have seen is in a Church that seems hell bent on fixing what was never broken for the past almost sixty years. The only "blind arrogance" I have seen is in men pushing their pet ideologies on the rest of the Catholics in the pew and thinking that now finally the Church has got it all right. The only "blind arrogance" I have seen is in thinking that the fruits of the Second Vatican Council has been "enormous" instead of admitting that it has all been a colossal failure and has damaged the Church beyond anything a human being can do to fix it.
    You want "blind arrogance"? THAT'S blind arrogance!!

    Anon777

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  15. “The situation of the Church is a real disaster, and the present Pope is making it 10,000 times worse.”

    Absolutely, yes!

    Thank you, Bishop Fellay.

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  16. Oh, really?

    It's blind arrogance that I want to practice my Faith the way it's always been practiced?

    It's blind arrogance that I want to worship as we've always worshiped?

    It's blind arrogance to just be Catholic?

    It's blind arrogance?

    This must be some sort of joke.

    ~Hannah

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  17. Please - no more anonymous comments. Thank you.

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  18. Now including Fellay,many blog posts and even more comments. anyone who limits lio to mess has lost me on their other arguments.
    In Rio Pope Francis spoke perfectly clearly in the world's 2nd international language. You could disagree with what he DID say, I don't see why i should cheer attacks on a straw man.

    That is one thing we've lost with vernacular use in the church , the general caution before being sure we had understood everything perfectly.

    Incidentally, Luther WAS absolutely right about the wording of the sale of indulgences- in German.

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  19. I love that man. God continue to bless Bishop Fellay.

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  20. On October 17, 2013, in his homily on the Gospel, the Holy Father gave an idea of what he thinks about at least some of his critics. It is certainly a call to a sincere examination of conscience for them. To the rest of us, it explains how to understand where is coming from in his pastoral approach. In his talk, the Pope explained: Christians who do not pray "abandon the faith and transform it into a casuistry , moralistic ideology, without Jesus … ideologies do not call to us" “But how does a "Christian start behaving like this … His Faith fades, so to speak, it is distilled and becomes ideology. And ideologies cannot convoke. Jesus cannot be found in Ideologies: his tenderness, love, meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always … when a Christian becomes a disciple of ideology, he loses faith and is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he becomes a disciple of this attitude of thought … Knowledge of Jesus is transformed into a ideological and even moralistic knowledge, because they closed the door with a lot of requirements." "Faith becomes ideology and ideologies scare, ideologies chase people away, far away, they distance people and they distance the Church from people. This is a serious illness, this Christian ideology. It is a disease, but it is not new, eh? Even the Apostle John, in his first letter, spoke of this. Christians who lose their faith and prefer ideologies … their attitude: they become rigid moralists, ethicists, but without kindness. This could be the question to ask. Why does a Christian become this way, what happens in the heart of the Christian, that of a priest, bishop, of a pope, who becomes so? Just one thing: that Christian does not pray.” "The key that opens the door to faith is prayer." "When a Christian does not pray … his witness is a proud witness." Whoever does not pray is "is proud, is sure of himself. He is not humble. He seeks his own advancement." However, "when a Christian prays, he never leaves the faith, his dialogue with Jesus … pray to speak with Him, don't just say prayers to say them, because these scholars of the law said many prayers" to be seen to pray. Instead, Jesus says, "When you pray, go into your room and pray to the Father in secret, heart to heart." "It’s one thing to pray, and another thing to say prayers." "These do not pray, they abandon the faith and become disciples of a moralistic, casuistry ideology, without Jesus. It seems clear from the conclusion of this talk (as reported by Asianews) that this is the Pope’s answer to recent criticism of some of his remarks: “And when a prophet or a good Christian scolds them they do the same thing they did with Jesus: ' When he left there, the scribes and Pharisees began to treat him in a hostile manner - these people who follow ideologies are hostile - and made him talk about many subjects, laying traps- they are insidious - to surprise him with the words out of his own mouth . They are not transparent. Eh, poor things, they are people soiled by pride. Let us ask for the Lord's grace, first: to not stop praying, to not lose faith, to stay humble . And so we will not become closed in on ourselves, closing the path to the Lord. "

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