Incredible arrogance

[fpb]

I hope the Pope does not bother to receive any Lefebvrite representative until they have learned some manners, let alone common sense (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=4761). Even apart from the outrageous notion of making demands of the Successor of Peter; apart from the bathetic and egotistical use of the eschatological hope of "establishing all things in Christ" to describe the end of a very minor schism; given their claim to love and respect the See of Peter, who the Devil do they think they are, not only setting terms for their re-entry into the Church (which, in and of itself, is not unreasonable), but demanding that the Church "must move first"? Is that the way that the head of a small group with four bishops and a few hundred thousand members addresses the head of the greatest religious body in the world, with a billion baptized members, hundreds of millions of practicing adults, a presence in almost every country on Earth? These people have spent thirty years breaking off from the world, insulating themselves in thei right coccoons of imagined legitimacy, that even when they want to interact with the world outside, to deal with things as they are, they simply do not know how. They have forgotten, or never learned, the basics of diplomacy and good manners.

Comments

[patchworkmind.livejournal.com]

Interesting situation. I have only just now looked for information on the Society. Wow. Might they be regarded, in the modern vulgar, as "fundamentalist Catholics"? I ask because their views, as I have seen them reported, seem to hinge upon the notions that the Catholic Church has been essentially hijacked by dark forces, that Catholics since Vatican II have been willfully led astray, that popes since Vatican II have been heretics, and the like. It sounds quite familiar to me, since I live in the buckle of the Bible Belt here in the states, an area overrun by 'fundamentalists' (i.e. Southern Baptists, Pentacostals, etc.), and what I've seen reported of the Society reads very much like local opinions of, well, every other non-Southern Baptist church. (I am, of course, overgeneralising for the sake of some levity, but the fact remains that the sentiment *is* quite prevalent.)

Is what I have read, in its limited scope, on the right track? If not, please elucidate.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Well, pretty much so, yeah. The Lefebvrite movement also has a nasty kinship with the old Action Francaise semi-fascist, anti-Jewish, racist French right. Part of Lefebvre's original reason for separating himself from the Church was the appointment of African bishops and archbishops. You will not find this in their literature, of course.

[adeodatus.livejournal.com]

Part of Lefebvre's original reason for separating himself from the Church was the appointment of African bishops and archbishops. You will not find this in their literature, of course.

Yeah, those damn Africans again ... stinking St. Augustine!

[fpb.livejournal.com]

And foul-smelling St.Athanasius!

[gunderpants.livejournal.com]

Come on, we all know that Vatican 2 is where the real pope was replaced with a surgically-altered look-alike to bring the Church into dark times. I read it on Directives from God, it must be true!