The desk of a Catholic blogger

The Go and Announce blog by Meadows 59 recently published a photograph of his desk.

OK, no big whoop (as they say) but I think that a blogger's desk is a reflection of his or her character.

It can give an interesting insight into that person....possibly.

Here is Meadow 59's picture:

Most importantly, to my mind, is the prominence of the Latin Mass mug.
The rest is pretty neat and tidy, much like his blog

So now for my desk......the words 'neat and tidy" do not immediately spring to mind but I like it.

On the right hand side is St Edward Bear, once used when skyping my grandchildren in Australia but now redundant since their return to Blighty.

Various photos of grandchildren and then - shock, horror! A skull!

It used to carry a sign with the message 'Tonight, maybe?' as per the German monastery that I once read about that has a painting of the Grim Reaper with the 'Tonight' message in the Refectory so that the monks may contemplate death whilst eating.
It appeals to my darker side.

Behind my computer screen is a statue of the Madonna and Child, possibly Anglican in origin.

On the Christ Child's right shoulder rests a holy card sent by a friend from the Holy Land (thank you Joanne).
And, either side are two of my favourite saints, Thomas More and John Fisher (Ora pro nobis).

To the right of the statue of Our Lady is my 'Extraordinary in Latin' clock reminding me that it is high time that the Latin Mass is returned to its rightful place and made available to every parish at a reasonable hour on Sundays and Holydays.

On the far left a book case with some, but not all of my collection of religious books.

A picture of Mrs Linen...(of course), my father's regimental badge (The Irish Guards), some Japanese bric a brac and a model boat given to me by my son when he departed for Oz some 10 or more years ago.

 I suppose that, by rights, I should now return it to him as I no longer need its magical properties to sail me to Melbourne.

But! I almost forgot...just peeping out from behind the skull is a framed paper.

It is an attestation of the consecration of a chalice written by none other than Bishop Fellay himself.

A future relic, maybe?

It is dated 6th January (Epiphany) 1990 and it reminds me of the dark days when a Tridentine Latin Mass could not be attended for love nor money between here and Bristol some 160 miles distant.

That is why we needed the chalice; we built a chapel in our old school house and a travelling priest used to come every month or so to catechise the children and hear our confessions and offer the Holy Mass.

Much to the rage of our bishop and to the delight of quite a few souls who found their way back to a deeper Faith as a result of having a Latin Mass in Pembrokeshire once more.

Possibly, one or two of you might also like to post a picture of your desk on your own blog?

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.”

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

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

"There's something wrong with the Church..."

A video clip featuring Bishop Fellay of the SSPX...what's not to like?

H/T to California Latin Mass

Yes, I do know that there are difficulties between Rome and Econe but, can you honestly say that +Bernard Fellay is a raging heretic or schismatic?

I have met this man.

He epitomises saintliness. I attended a Mass that he celebrated and I received the Blessed Sacrament from him.

He also, incidentally, consecrated a chalice for my family chapel.

I approached him before Mass with the request (at the time we had a small chapel in Pembrokeshire, where we said a 'dry' mass most Sundays and then had a real Mass whenever a priest came to stay).

Bishop Fellay was most suspicious, wary, I guess, of anything dodgy in the way of sedevacantism or the demonic.

He gave me a thorough interrogation; this was not going to be easy.

"Why are you having Mass in a private chapel?"

"Why do you not attend a normal Latin Mass?"

"Who is this priest who comes to say Mass for you?"

Eventually he said: "Come back and see me after Mass, I will give the matter some thought"

He walked off with my precious chalice in his hands.

And, when I went to the sacristy after Mass he told me that he was prepared to consecrate the chalice. Phew!

But first, he had to write out an attestation of consecration - in Latin - fluently and without thinking, as if it were his first language.

A fragment of Catholic history - Bishop Fellay's note of consecration
for a chalice

I am not, by choice an SSPX follower.
25 years ago they were the only option for a traditional Catholic family living hundreds of miles from the bright city lights.

The Society carries it's own agenda of problematical issues, foremost of which, is the puritanical attitude of some of their priests.

But, can you really fault them?

If you stood one SSPX priest alongside one of our OF only priests you might be shocked at the physical distinction, let alone the spiritual.

The Society priests bear the mark of the cross and it shows in their faces and in their demeanour and, who knows, before long we might all be beating a path to their door.

What, precisely, is a personal prelature?

It would appear (although, as far as I am aware, no official statement has yet been verified) that a personal prelature has been offered by Cardinal Levada to Bishop Fellay of the Society of St Pius X.

What does that actually mean?

 Opus Dei operates under a personal prelature and it appears to be a quasi autonomous arrangement whereby an order or group, with the approval of the Holy Father operates independently of a Diocese and reports direct to Rome. Obviously, within certain parameters set by the CDF.

This is how Wikipedia defines it:


Personal prelature is an institutional structure of the Roman Catholic Church which comprises a prelate, clergy and laity who undertake specific pastoral activities. Personal prelatures, similar to dioceses and military ordinariates, are under the governance of the Vatican's Congregation for Bishops. These three types of ecclesiastical structures are composed of lay people served by their own secular clergy and prelate. Unlike dioceses which cover territories, personal prelatures —like military ordinariates— take charge of persons as regards some objectives regardless of where they live.

Still not a crystal clear definition but at least a blueprint for how the SSPX might be brought back to full communion with Holy Mother Church.

The issue now is, will Bishop Fellay go for it?  Undoubtedly there will be some clauses that will cause him to reflect.

And the intransigent three, Bishops de Mallerais, Williamson and de Galarreta, what influence will they have on Bishop Fellay?

I believe that they will not unduly sway the good Superior General who will do what he believes is right, not what others may wish him to do.

Above all (literally) we have the Holy Spirit into whose power we entrust a positive outcome.

Never kiss on your first date.......old SSPX saying

I owe a great deal to the Society of St Pius X. They were, for many years, our only source of an EF Mass celebrated in a church. Their Bishops confirmed our four children when no traditional confirmations were available and, yes, they are valid confirmations.

So it is with great anticipation that I await the outcome of the planned meeting on September 14th (H/T The Jarrow Scriptorium) between Bishop Fellay and Vatican officials. It is, by my reckoning at least the third meeting that has been held under our present Pope's guidance and we all need to pray pretty damn hard for a good and fruitful outcome.



A handshake would do!



I am an optimist, never mind that glass half full rubbish, I have no concept of reality (according to Mrs Linen) and always, always believe that next week is going to be my turn in the National Lottery or that Bishop Burns is going to insist on every Menevia parish having at least one EF Mass every Sunday.

And so it is with brimming confidence that I await the signal on or soon after the 14th September......you see......apart from anything else, the date is significant.

It is the Feast of the Holy Cross AND......the anniversary of Summorum Pontificum. This day has not been selected at random, it is a very holy ploy on someone's part to invoke the Holy Spirit to bring the Church together again.

The Feast of the Holy Cross is a feast of exultation and triumph - if you do nothing else between now and the 14th September, say this prayer in the hope of a reconciliation.........and, maybe, a fraternal kiss!

We adore You, O Christ, and praise You,
Because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

A MASS TOO FAR!

Apologies for not responding to recent comments but I have spent the last four days rushing around London. Give me a little time and I will reply.

Some of you may recall my avowed intent to attend the SSPX Mass last Sunday at Wimbledon, it being the only one I could reach in time.
Well, my wife and myself rolled up at the due time but who should process onto the sanctuary but Bishop Richard Williamson himself. This threw us into a state of flux; was it legitimate to attend a Mass celebrated by this man? We both wrestled with the canonical implications and, finally, agreed to stay but not to receive Holy Communion,  purely on the ground that our frames of mind would not be appropriate for reception.
However, the time arrived for the sermon and the Bishop launched into a rather fragmented, wooden and unstructured rant that was, at times, most unChristian to the point of detraction. He veered from subject to subject, seldom stopping to conclude a train of thought. I began to appreciate how sinister this approach is because some of the points he made were sound and irrefutable but he would then go on to add a twist that, to us at any rate, was unnacceptable in the extreme.



Bishop Williamson - more Protestant than Catholic!

 He touched on the Royal wedding (as he called it "Wills and Kate getting married") he liked the pageantry but did not like the fact that they had been "shacked up together" for several years. Now the meaning of this may be true but it is not for me and certainly not for a Bishop to assume that they have been "living in sin". The use of slang words such as "shacked up" were peppered throughout the sermon which was proving to be long and boring. At times, as if he sensed that maybe he had sent the congregation off  into sleep mode he would suddenly shout out a few words very aggressively. This was not a pleasant experience and it was provident that there were no children present as his style of presentation and his prophetic utterances would have been frightening for them.
Finally, in his last twisted sentences he attacked the Holy Father. It was cleverly done, first he would praise or semi praise him and then he would deliver the kick below the belt "I don't know whether he has sinned against the Church or not, he is  a well intentioned man I am sure but the road to hell is paved with good intentions" was the gist of what he said.
That changed my mind totally as I then thought that there was no way that this man would included the Pope in his prayers during the consecration.
We left swiftly and silently, angry with him and ourselves because we had missed Sunday Mass.
As we left we were followed by a parishioner who pleaded with us to stay and stated that the Bishop's views were not liked and that the best thing to do was to pray for him and to go to Holy Communion.
We agreed to the former (with some difficulty) but not to the latter.

It left a nasty taste in our mouths that has still not gone away, especially so since, coming the previous day from the Guild of Catholic Bloggers' meeting where all had stated clearly the desire to remain 'loyal to the Magisterium', it was shattering to find a senior churchman who was so opposed to Pope Benedict XVI.

Three issues arose from this. Firstly, I was under the impression that Bishop Williamson was under orders not to celebrate Mass in public, something that Bishop Fellay might like to check up on.
Secondly, that is probably the last SSPX Mass I will attend. A pity but I cannot chance this happening again.
And, thirdly, because of my assumption that prayers for the Pope would have been omitted, I do not believe this Mass would have been valid.

Will the SSPX come to West Wales?

                                                                    

Despite discussions taking place (or, so I am led to believe), I am not certain that the SSPX would find a large enough congregation here in West Wales.
As far as I am concerned, they would be most welcome; I'm afraid that, under Bishop Burns, West Walians struggle to fulfil their Sunday duties with an EF Mass.
There is  a sizeable potential cohort in Aberystwyth, thanks to the University and the same applies to Swansea. But, in between, there's only a handful of the faithful and a few hundred thousand sheep (real sheep, not metaphorical ones).
This must typify the Society's problem really; how to function properly with limited priests and resources. Next Sunday we shall be in South London and the most convenient Mass is at the SSPX HQ in Wimbledon. We shall attend Mass there and wallow in the comfort of a church (chapel, really) that has no plastic posters, no pot plants, no tacky "He has risen" signs, just a simple ad orientum altar, cut flowers and statues - Catholic culture at its best.
But the priest there is likely to rush off immediately after Mass and drive some 100 miles to celebrate Mass elsewhere. So no pastoral care and no chance for spiritual advice, pity -  but that's how it is.


Another problem faced by the Society is their slide towards a more Calvinistic form of Catholicism. Separation from Rome over too many years has caused this bias which has taken place almost imperceptibly. That will not do. I do not want priests haranguing from the pulpit about the length of women's dresses when all present are perfectly modestly attired or grinding on about Catholics who attend EF Masses within the Church are in error, that's not on, but they are slipping into that mode.
And, finally, Bishop Fellay really needs to put and end to the shenanigans of Bishop Williamson; he should be expelled from the Society pdq. Why has he not already been shown the exit? I suspect that the reason is that among the members of the Society are a number of Sedevacantists who will vote with their feet and go with Bishop Richard down the road of extreme Protestantism. Bishop Fellay, currently in talks with Rome, needs as strong a hand as possible and cannot afford to lose 20% of his following. This man deserves our prayers. I have heard him preach and he is the most saintly man that I have met or listened to.


Some time ago the SSPX published their 62 reasons against the (then) Novus Ordo Mass. I do not go along with them in believing that all OF Masses are invalid but I do believe that many of them are not normally (in the UK at any rate) reverent or fitting vehicles for the worship of Almighty God and the celebration of the Supreme Sacrifice and Eucharist.
I cannot feature the 62 reasons due to copywright issues but they may be found here; I do appreciate that, to many they will be disturbing but they do illustrate that the Society of St Pius X has worked hard and logically to produce a very sound argument. I am not trying to sway readers one way or the other, merely to provide a little solid thinking behind what is normally dealt with in a fairly emotional and abrupt manner.

Meanwhile, Menevia languishes and we find ourselves not so much moving forward in 'brick by brick' mode, more like reversing backwards close to the position we were in in 1989.
Such is progress - but we do have prayer on our side!



Quote of the week - from Bishop Fellay!

"The traditional Mass has an absolutely extraordinary power of grace. You see it in the apostolic work, you see it especially in the priests who come back to it: it is truly the antidote to the crisis. It is really very powerful, at all levels. At the level of grace, at the level of faith…. I think that if the old Mass were allowed to be truly free, the Church could emerge rather quickly from this crisis, but it would still take several years!"

H/T to Ars Orandi

I once had the pleasure of meeting Bishop Fellay and attending a Mass celebrated by him. His sermon was  intensely spiritual and moving. I found him a most saintly man.

Bishop capitulates......an opportunity lost!

Following on from my post regarding the SSPX Bishop, Richard Williamson, it now appears (H/T http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/ ) as if he has agreed to Bishop Fellay's demand that he sack his newly appointed lawyer who has Neo Nazi links. This means that the expulsion order will no longer be enforced; I think most Catholics will be deeply disappointed, Bishop Williamson is the one man capable of wrecking the talks between Rome and Econe aimed at reconciling the SSPX back into the fold.

Prayers are needed for a positive outcome to talks

I have a great respect for the SSPX and, for many years, they provided my family with the main source of Masses, travelling, as we did, some 160 miles to our closest Mass centre. However, they have three big faults:-

1. The preoccupation of some SSPX priests regarding women's dress. The sermon at St Josephs and St Padarns  in London on a Sunday is frequently taken up with a 30 minute diatribe against women wearing trousers. Have they never been to Pakistan? I asked them once why they had this preoccupation, where was the theological sense in all this (provided that women dressed modestly, what is the problem?). I was told that women were required to dress as they dressed at the time of Christ. What about men then, I asked: they also wore long robes so why should they be excluded...no answer.

2. The lack of pastoral care offered by the Society. Their priests are always working at full stretch, taking the Mass around Great Britain and, as a result, the all important element of pastoral care just does not exist.

3. Bishop Williamson....long regarded by the media and the populace at large as a nutter.

I hope and pray that the talks have a successful outcome, Bishop Fellay is a very learned and saintly man but there are obstacles in both camps. Despite attending SSPX Masses (as is licit to do so) I have always felt that a prolonged separation from Rome would alter the nature of the Society until, at some stage, reconciliation would become impossible and the Society then become Protestant. Prayers are needed!