The Pope revokes the sentence of excommunication upon the Lefebvrists

[fpb]

I am horrified. Of all the unwelcome, untimely, ill-conceived, unnecessary, insulting and disastrous measures Pope Benedict could have taken, this is the worst. On the very week that the most anti-Catholic and pro-abortion President has taken office in Washington DC, the Pope seems to indicate that open flirtations with Le Pen and Pinochet, notorious sympathies for Petain, open Jew-bashing of the vilest sort, are no obstacle to reconciliation with Rome. Thos of us who try to fight on a principled opposition to abortion and murder in all its forms have now had a ton of banana oil poured under our feet; any opponent of Catholic teaching will be able to raise the ugly spectre of Marcel "Marechal a nous!" Lefebvre, and the horrible living presence of Richard Williamson, whose moral and intellectual sins go even beyond his obscene denial of the Holocaust and belief in the Protocols. And what about Catholic leadership among Christians? For the last few decades, the mere force of events had driven many Christian bodies closer together, to discover that they shared so much of morality and belief, and against that dictatorship of relativism against which the Pope himself spoke such memorable words. And now, for the sake of a few hundred thousand obstinate, wilful and often bizarre schismatics, who never did anything on their own to earn or even encourage reunion, and who positively insulted the last two Popes, all this common ground, all this real and verifiable growth together, is endangered; because most Christians will see the Lefebvrists for what they are. Just because Richard Williamson is such an ugly caricature of the worst sort of traditionalists, real conservatives, let alone middle and liberals, will want nothing to do with him. How many Protestants and Anglicans in search of a decent Christian centre away from the various heresies and schisms of their own confessions will have seen this as confirmation that everything they had been told about Rome was in fact true? I am willing to bet that the conversion of adults will slow down considerably. And what about the Church itself? This act has been taken as much on the Pope's own decision as the famous Motu Proprio that sought to reinstate the Latin Mass. If the one can be described as reactionary, ill-advised, insensitive to Jew-bashing and admiration for tyrants, then so can the other. Far from strengthening the conservative side of the Church, the Pope has just delivered them a vial of poison. And at the same time, he has done nothing to please liberals, many of whom will read this to mean that one hard-right soul is more important to the Pope than one left-wing one, and either leave or reinforce even further their "inner schismatic" position. I will not leave the Church - I know how many like Williamson there are already; but many others may. There is absolutely no upside to this decision; every aspect of it is completely mistaken.

God help the Church. Mother of Victory, pray for us.

Comments

[solitary-summer.livejournal.com]

Apologies to fpb for jumping in like this, but this is the kind of apologetic, downplaying argument that I'm hearing after every election when once again something like 25 - 30% have voted for the extreme(ish) right, and I'm sick of it. Even if they only vote for those parties out of dissatisfaction and protest, even if they don't personally share every belief, with their vote they still support what those parties stand for. 'Because' or 'despite', in the end it doesn't make a lot of difference, and IMO 'despite' is bad enough. If those priests and Mass-goers don't want to be associated with people who are cheered on Nazi websites maybe they should have spoken up and distanced themselves from that kind of ideology. Did they?

[fpb.livejournal.com]

You are welcome to jump in at any place you like, and I am honoured to find that you are lurking on my LJ. And I mean the word "honoured". However, if you had followed the thread down to exhaustion, you would have noticed that I make the same point. It was not well received.

Do you want to know what I find tragic about this? You and you, filialucis and solitary_summer, are two of the most remarkable women in my f-list. You are both ridiculously talented. filialucis is an amazing polymath who sometimes addresses me in Latin for fun, speaks four or five languages, plays the guitar and is intelligent on almost any subject under the sun. solitary_summer is a photographer of genius, and I never use the word "genius" unless I absolutely have to. She has, in the last few years, produced enough memorable images for me to find it ridiculous that she should publish them in her own little LJ rather than in great exhibitions advertised on national newspapers and visited by tens of thousands of intelligent visitors. You live in the same country, speak the same language, and are both highly civilized people. You ought to be friends. Instead of which, thanks to the curse of the party spirit - which leads one of you to insist that there must, there just must, be something about a group that has some features of Catholic traditionalism, and that they cannot be condemned en bloc - your first encounter is a baring of teeth; not only dreadfully sad in itself, but completely unsuited to the kind of persons I know you both to be. What a stupid waste.

[solitary-summer.livejournal.com]

*blush* I actually did notice you made that point, but I still couldn't shut up. Sorry!

And, thank you. Maybe some day I'll have as much faith in myself as you have in talent....

[fpb.livejournal.com]

As for your talent, I judge as I see. As an artist of sorts, I do have a bit of an educated eye and I think I can tell quality, let alone brilliance, when it bites me on the leg.

As for your intervention, there is nothing to apologize for - especially since you were supporting my view. However, my problem was that filialucis has already reacted - and reacted badly - to a variant of that particular argument; I doubt whether this will do anything to change her mind. And I feel sad, both about her anger at me, and the fact that two such persons as you two should have met on such unworthy terms - unworthy of you both.

[mentalguy.livejournal.com]

I think the biggest issue remains that long as the SSPX leadership are so vocally what they are, the association of those priests and Mass-goers with the the SSPX involves a high risk of giving scandal (no matter how well-intentioned -- charitably speaking -- those priests and laypeople might actually be).