by Shawn Tribe
Further to the news
of the actual decree which lifts the excommunications that had been
imposed
upon the four SSPX bishops these past 20+ years, the SSPX news site DICI has made available the formal
response of
Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X to
these
events.
We begin with the letter
to their faithful.
Letter of the Superior General of the
Priestly Society of Saint Pius X
Dear
faithful,
As I
announce in the attached press release [NLM:
see below], “the excommunication of the bishops consecrated
by
His Grace Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, on June 30, 1988, which had been
declared
by the Congregation for Bishops in a decree dated July 1, 1988, and
which we
had always contested, has been withdrawn by another decree mandated by
Benedict
XVI and issued by the same Congregation on January 21, 2009.” It was
the
prayer intention I had entrusted to you in
Thanks to
this gesture, Catholics attached to Tradition throughout the world will
no
longer be unjustly stigmatized and condemned for having kept the Faith
of their
fathers. Catholic Tradition is no longer excommunicated. Though it
never was in
itself, it was often excommunicated and cruelly so in day to day
events. It is
just as the Tridentine Mass had never been abrogated in itself, as the
Holy
Father has happily recalled in the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of
July 7,
2007.
The decree
of January 21 quotes the letter dated December 15, 2008 to Cardinal
Castrillon
Hoyos in which I expressed our attachment “to the Church of Our Lord
Jesus-Christ which is the Catholic Church,” re-affirming there our
acceptation of its two thousand year old teaching and our faith in the
Primacy
of Peter. I reminded him that we were suffering much from the present
situation
of the Church in which this teaching and this primacy were being held
to scorn.
And I added: “We are ready to write the Creed with our own blood, to
sign
the anti-modernist oath, the profession of faith of Pius IV, we accept
and make
our own all the councils up to the Second
Consequently,
we wish to begin these “talks” -- which the decree acknowledges to
be “necessary -- about the doctrinal issues which are opposed to the
Magisterium of all time. We cannot help noticing the unprecedented
crisis which
is shaking the Church today: crisis of vocations, crisis of religious
practice,
of catechism, of the reception of the sacraments… Before us, Paul VI
went
so far as to say that “from some fissure the smoke of Satan had entered
the Church”, and he spoke of the “self-destruction of the
Church”. John Paul II did not hesitate to say that Catholicism in
Europe
was, as it were, in a state of “silent apostasy.” Shortly before
his election to the Throne of Peter, Benedict XVI compared the Church
to a
“boat taking in water on every side.” Thus, during these
discussions with the Roman authorities we want to examine the deep
causes of
the present situation, and by bringing the appropriate remedy, achieve
a lasting
restoration of the Church
Dear
faithful, the Church is in the hands of her Mother, the Most Blessed
Virgin
Mary. In Her we place our confidence. We have asked from her the
freedom of the
Mass of all time everywhere and for all. We have asked from her the
withdrawal
of the decree of excommunications. In our prayers, we now ask from her
the
necessary doctrinal clarifications which confused souls so much need
Menzingen,
January 24, 2009
+Bernard
Fellay
Here
is the Press release
mentioned by Bishop Bernard Fellay:
The
excommunication of the bishops consecrated by His Grace Archbishop
Marcel
Lefebvre, on June 30, 1988, which had been declared by the Congregation
for
Bishops in a decree dated July 1, 1988, and which we had always
contested, has
been withdrawn by another decree mandated by Benedict XVI and issued by
the
same Congregation on January 21, 2009.
We express
our filial gratitude to the Holy Father for this gesture which, beyond
the
Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, will benefit the whole Church. Our
Society
wishes to be always more able to help the pope to remedy the
unprecedented
crisis which presently shakes the Catholic world, and which Pope John
Paul II
had designated as a state of “silent apostasy.”
Besides our
gratitude towards the Holy Father and towards all those who helped him
to make
this courageous act, we are pleased that the decree of January 21
considers as
necessary “talks” with the Holy See, talks which will enable the
Priestly Society of Saint Pius X to explain the fundamental doctrinal
reasons
which it believes to be at the origin of the present difficulties of
the
Church.
In this new
atmosphere, we have the firm hope to obtain soon the recognition of the
rights
of Catholic Tradition
Menzingen,
January 24, 2009
+Bernard
Fellay