Monday 15 October 2012

Has Bishop Fellay expelled Richard Williamson from the SSPX?

Internet reports carry information that the expulsion of Richard Williamson from the SSPX is imminent. A french website, "Avec I'mmaculee" carries a report that Bishop Fellay sent the unhappy bishops a letter informing him that if he does not cease internet publishing etc. he will be expelled from the Society. 

If this report is true, it comes as no surprise. Williamson, in his most recent blog entries continues down a neo-protestant path that barely masks a bizarre from of crypto-sedevacantism. His increasingly open attacks on Bishop Fellay show that the tragic man has moved from no longer being a canonically dissident Catholic, but to a man who is aggressively embarking on a path of protestant revolt. In a sense, this was inevitable. Any group that breaks with Rome, sooner or later comes to no good. The SSPX harbored sedevacantists in their seminaries in the 70s and it led to not only a split, but to the sedevacantist virus remaining in various degrees in the SSPX. Witness Bishop Tissier de Mallarias' strange statement that Archbishop Lefebvre was the living embodiment of the Magisterium. Where does that leave the Pope? Where does that leave the Church? 

Bishop Fellay is now realizing more and more that without Peter nothing good can come from the SSPX. Sooner or later the SSPX will be sifted like wheat by satan. Indeed, the very true words by Fr. Niklaus Pflueger (quoted below) can also apply to the SSPX as a whole. 

From DICI




Kirchliche Umschau: One question remains. Why is it that Bishop Fellay seems to have done nothing against the smear campaign mounted against him these last few months over the Internet?
Father Niklaus Pfluger: Patience, kindness, and generosity appear to many as weaknesses, but this is not so. Faced with repeated attacks and harassment over the Internet, we do not abandon our values and our principles. We deal with plotting and intrigues according to the laws of the Church. This may seem like procrastination which can be annoying to some, but it can’t be done any other way if we don’t want to betray our own ideals. I would like to make this clear: let no one imagine that he can criticize authority with impunity.
Kirchliche Umschau: What does this mean specifically?
Father Niklaus Pfluger: Bishop Williamson has been given fair warning. This is a sad moment in the history of our Society. If he continues his Internet campaign against the Society and its Superior General, then his expulsion from the Society cannot be avoided. Besides his false ideas, he has plotted under cover. The veritable tragedy is the fact that for years he has not accepted the authority of the Superior General, but has assigned to himself a God-given mission. Before the General Chapter, he rallied priests and faithful to rebellion. For a Catholic bishop, this is very serious.

1 comment:

Young Canadian RC Male said...

Then let us pray for Fellay that he will truly realize this and put his pride aside to reunite with Rome and that he takes with him the innocent adherents to the Society with him. Also, may God be divine judge and enact justice to separate the wheat from the chaff. Really those who partake in the society who have fallen away from the true Catholic Church need the greatest help.