Bishop Bernard Fellay

Edited transcription of a talk given by His Excellency, Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 10, 2004.

Let us review the current situation of the Society of Saint Pius X and its relations with Rome. Our status with Rome remains and will always be a very important question. When I refer to Rome, of course, I refer to the Holy Father Pope John Paul II and the hierarchy. Obviously, the Catholic Church is unthinkable without this hierarchy, without its head, the Pope, and so we are attached to it. We adhere to it an at the same time we protest energetically. Despite its adherence, the SSPX is considered a black sheep. All kinds of labels are our glory, like "excommunicated," "schismatic," etc.

The Wall Is Crumbling

We can see a certain development for the better. What I say we cannot take as a general law, that is, I cannot say that now everything is fine–that wouldn't be correct. But what we see is a certain lessening in the opposition which we are facing. Till about the year 2000, there was a huge wall. We were facing one thing, and that was a big, big "No" to Tradition. Since the year 2000 we see little by little certain things, certain bishops, certain persons in the hierarchy who are no longer so heavily against us. The wall is crumbling. I will not say that it means immediately that there is a big change in Rome towards Tradition, though certainly Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos has done some work in that direction (we will speak about that later on). But it is more a weakening of the modernists or the progressivist forces which we see, and this at various levels.

The Triple Bankruptcy

One level will be that, like the worm which has finished eating the apple and has nothing left to eat, they have demolished everything, they have changed everything. While they had something to eat, they had some strength; now that they have eaten everything, there is nothing left to demolish, so they start to show weakness. And this weakness is becoming more and more visible. We have seen this weakness and we have seen the disasters for years, but it is now much more apparent. Over the last year we have heard of Catholic dioceses going into bankruptcy [Portland, Oregon and Phoenix, Arizona–Ed]. This is something never heard of before. You would never have thought that a diocese would file for bankruptcy. Now, it's a reality, it has happened.

Joined to this physical or material bankruptcy, there is a bankruptcy at the level of persons. Dioceses are losing priests to old age, and there is nobody replacing them. Let me cite Ireland. It has always been known as one of those 200% Catholic countries where you had hundreds of priests every year. In the Diocese of Dublin, the entrants into the seminary last year were zero. When you see this even in the most thoroughly Catholic countries, it is not difficult to conclude there is something wrong somewhere.

I read through the Annuarium, the compendium of statistics in the Church. A few years ago, for Ireland, there were about 32,000 religious sisters. In the novitiate for all religious orders for all of Ireland, there were 152 novices. So these 152 are going to replace the 32,000 sisters?!... For the brothers, there were something like 10,000 religious brothers in Ireland, but today in all the novitiates for all religious orders in Ireland there are only four novices! That means the end.

Cardinal Ratzinger in 1985, if I remember correctly, was speaking about vocations in Canada. He said that since the Council the vocations had dropped by 98%, and what was remaining were late vocations. These are the figures, and that represents a much more serious bankruptcy than the financial one. In France, they have found a way to continue to say that each parish has a priest. How do they do that? Take the Archdiocese of Bourges, with 550 parishes; they only have 60 parish priests. So how do you do it? Very simple: you redraw the dioceses and you reduce it to 60 parishes so that every parish has a priest. Now, it does not change the number of bell towers and of churches, so they cheat themselves. They try to solve the problem, but it is absolutely not solving the problem. A diocese like the diocese of Bordeaux (the fourth or fifth largest city in France) presently has 43 diocesan priests, period. Another bishop, in Dijon, said to one of our priests, "Right now I still have 110 priests in my diocese; in four years, they will be reduced to 43 active priests." That is a reduction of almost two-thirds. It makes life impossible, of course, but these are the realities.

 

This weakening in strength is linked also to the new generation. The generation of the Council is dying, if I may say so. The youngest experts who participated in the Council are Cardinals Medina and Ratzinger, born in 1927. They were not even bishops at the time, but Cardinal Medina is retired and Cardinal Ratzinger is over 75. In three more years, they will all be out of governing positions in the Curia. The Council is their baby, so to speak. It is very difficult to attack the Council in front of somebody who made it; he will by all means try to defend it. But the new generation is in itself much more open, especially the younger priests. We see this very clearly.

It is very interesting to see the different age levels: the hardest set against Tradition are the priests in their sixties and seventies. The youngest, in their thirties and forties, are much more open. Why is this? They know what they have and they are not happy with it. Many of them see that something is failing, that there is something which is not there which should be there. Maybe they will not say it, but they are aware of it. Some look for something else and go in all possible directions for satisfaction, but some others are open to looking to the past to see how the Church was before; how did it work, how was the Mass before? So we have this tendency, which is not yet generalized–it is very small still, but it does exist.

Clerics Are Favoring Us

What we see there is a development, there is an increase. It started with priests; now we have some bishops. I don't say that these bishops are totally in our favor or do agree on everything, but the movement is increasing, and we do certainly have bishops who tell us, "Please stay as you are. The Church needs you; we need you as you are. Don't change." These bishops exist, and usually they are younger bishops. The one who offered this encouragement, for instance, was a young French bishop. Up until five years ago, there was no chance of finding a French bishop who would have the slightest thought in favor of Tradition. So that is a very interesting development.

Another French bishop said to one of our priests, "I am very happy that you visit my priests. Please continue. They need that." These are new happenings. Once again, when I say so, I don't forget that the great majority are still pointing bullets, canons, and every possible weapon against us, but I see these things happening.

Interestingly enough, even in Rome, we have the same phenomenon. I cannot say that we can include a cardinal. I am almost sure that one or the other will think that we are right, but to say it is absolutely out of the question. But I can tell you the following happening. A cardinal in Rome has said to us, "If you repeat what I am going to tell you, I shall be obliged to deny it." So, should I say it?!...He said, "The Pope  and myself are in your favor." Now, you are free to believe it or not, because having said it to you, he will deny it. But, there you have it.

We have an archbishop in Rome–well, now he is no longer in Rome, he has been kicked out–who says the Church is not going out of the crisis without going back to the Tridentine Mass. Another one, the Archbishop of Ravenna, said to his priests on the Feast of Corpus Christi: "If today we still consider the Mass a sacrifice, the Church owes that to Archbishop Lefebvre." These are words which, once again, some years ago, you would never have heard. We have heard that a bishop in the Veneto region of northern Italy has started a movement for all bishops to have at least one place in the diocese with the Tridentine Mass. This is a different idea than that of the Indult Mass; it is really the idea of reintroducing the Latin Mass.

 

A Dangerous Confusion

Of course, we are paying great attention to these things. There are many things happening in the Church and their nuances must be considered before making a judgment because they are going in all possible directions at the same time. The more involved things become, the more we enter into a confusing situation. You will have one bishop who will say something, and another who will say the contrary. You will have a cardinal who will say something, and another who will say the contrary. I'll give you a small example: the famous film of Mel Gibson, The Passion. You had bishops who stood up and said not to go, it's a bad film, and so on; and others who said to go, it's a very good film. In the United States, in France and in Germany, you had public, official statements from bishops which were in total contradiction. I admit that it's only about a film, but, nevertheless, it shows the opposition. Recall that the reasons given were not just opinions, but were based very clearly on doctrine. The film reminded us that there is a God and consequently, a Savior; then, that there was a passion by which the Savior paid the price of our salvation, and that this price had to be paid because of sin and sinners. The necessity of sacrifice to pay for sins is very present there, especially the link between this sacrifice and the Mass. All these ideas were presented. This film is very theological. The modernists understood that and that is why they attacked the film so strongly.

We are in a time of dissolution; everything is crumbling. This can cause a certain difficulty for us, in the sense of how we are going to react. We must be careful that our reaction fits the reality. If we automatically presume that everybody is against us, and take the bazooka and shoot at everybody, we may shoot friends, you see! We have to pay close attention and be realistic in our attitude, recognizing what is good and at the same time being careful not to think that everything is fine, because it is definitely not. On the other hand, you have those who say, "Look, Rome is opening its arms, Rome is saying, 'Come in; we'll give you an apostolic administration; we'll give you whatever you want,' so why are you so stand-offish?" I'll tell you why, which is one of the purposes of this conference. It is impressive.

The Lessons of Campos

I'll start with a crushing piece of recent news which illustrates so clearly what happens when you offer your finger...your hand...your arm to the present Rome. We have right in our faces a striking example of what happens to those who trust the present Rome. I speak of Campos.

When Campos was about to make the agreement with Rome, Bishop de Galarreta went to see Bishop Rangel and then I did, too. I told him, "Look at what they are doing to the Society of St. Peter." He replied, "Well, what Rome offers us is so big that we cannot help but trust them. Of course, it's a question of opinion; it's a matter of prudence. As the superior of the Society of Saint Pius X, you may have a different opinion, but that's the way we think." There was nothing more I could do. His thinking was that since Rome consented to grant them a bishop and their Tridentine life, Campos was being granted everything it wanted, so they wanted to sign an agreement.

Now, it is important to understand why Rome has suddenly come to the Society of Saint Pius X with a smile and friendly behavior. Not long ago, Rome was very much against us (and the majority in Rome still is). I think Rome's friendliness towards us is because of its ecumenical mentality. It is certainly not because Rome is now saying to us, "Of course, you are right; let's go." No, that is not the way Rome thinks about us. The idea they have is another one. The idea is an ecumenical one. It is the idea of pluricity, pluriformity.

Zoo-Cage Catholicism

To illustrate this ecclesiastical pluralism, I use the analogy of a zoo. Up until the time of the Second Vatican Council, there was only one species of member in the Catholic Church–genuine Catholics. If somebody did not want to be a Catholic, if someone wanted to teach something else than what the Church taught, he was excommunicated. However, if you read the theology books published since the Council, you can almost say and think anything you want and still be in good standing. At the Council itself there was a general will to broaden the limits–the borders–of the Church.

Cardinal Ratzinger has explained that the concept of the Church up until Pius XII was that it was the Mystical Body of Christ. He says that today, however, this concept does not fit with the reality. Why would he say this? Because for someone to either be a member of this Body or not be a member of this Body does not fit with reality as Cardinal Ratzinger perceives it. He and those who perceive the same reality as he does want to invent a gray zone. So, you may wonder, what is between a "member" and a "non-member"? Precisely to invent an answer to this question is why, after World War II, especially German theologians intensively researched the Holy Scriptures to find a new concept, and Cardinal Ratzinger said they found "the people of God." So that is why you find this label at the Council. "People of God" is a new concept which replaces the traditional concept of membership in the Church. It means broadening the borders, allowing more people in, or maybe even removing the walls so that you no longer know who is in or who is out. They destroy the borders, destroy what is clear: that is what they do.

Cardinal Ratzinger has repeated what Urs von Balthasar said: "The urgency of the moment is to raze the bastions of the Faith." A bastion is a fortress, a place of defense, so for Balthasar and Ratzinger, the "urgency of the moment" is to dismantle these protections, the defenses of the Faith. You see there this idea of broadening the Church, inviting other mentalities, other thinkers, I may even say other faiths, to come in and be members of the Church. This idea of broadening the Church's borders, of putting everybody in, allows Cardinal Kasper to say what he said in the Osservatore Romano: "The Orthodox, as they have all the means of salvation, do not need to convert." He says it black on white. You have others like Mother Teresa, who said that the important thing for a Buddhist is to be a good Buddhist. Okay, so be a good Buddhist, or a good Hindu, or a good Muslim, and everybody goes to heaven. Great. But if this is the new concept of the Church, then why not grant a little cage to the dinosaurs? If you already have all the birds and all kinds of animals, why not have a little place for the "fossils" which they think us to be? There is a condition, though: the dinosaurs have to stay in their cage. Imagine crocodiles or dinosaurs all over the zoo! Never! So the Tridentine Mass for everybody?–No! For the dinosaurs in their little cage?–Fine.

So when Rome comes to us with a big smile, that is their ulterior motive. That is, we grant you a place, but you must stay very quiet there and not move. So we come to them and we say, "Well, we are sorry, but there is no zoo." The Catholic Church is not a zoo. This comparison may show you how deep is the difference of vision. As long as things are at that level, it is just unthinkable that we should be able to reach a basic or fundamental agreement. It is impossible. And, once again, let us look at Campos.

The Conversion of Campos

Once again, let's look at Campos and the regression of Bishop Rifan, its head. Months before he was consecrated a bishop, Fr. Rifan participated in the local diocesan Corpus Christi procession. To traditional Catholics who opposed his participation, he replied, "If I do not go, I will jeopardize any agreement with Rome." Also, a few months before his consecration, he said in Rome to the Vicar General-who repeated it to Fr. Schmidberger, so we have it from a direct source: "I have no problem with celebrating the New Mass, but I don't do it because it would cause trouble to the faithful." So when Rome consecrated Fr. Rifan a bishop, they knew already that he had no objection to celebrating the New Mass. I think it is important to see that. These are the first steps. It shows you the direction.

The next step was the jubilee of the diocese of Campos. For that occasion, of course, the local bishop had a great ceremony, and Rome invited Bishop Rifan to go to that New Mass, to be there. And Bishop Rifan went. He did not participate in the sense of concelebrating the Mass, but he was there present vested in his ecclesiastical garb, with a surplice and so on. He was really there at this New Mass.

 

 

The next step was to be present at the Requiem Mass for the bishop who had evicted the priests of Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, Bishop Alberto Navarro. At that Requiem Mass, you had Bishop Rifan there and also the Nuncio. The Nuncio invited Bishop Rifan to go to Communion, and Bishop Rifan received Communion at this New Mass.

The next step was the Mass of thanksgiving of the new Cardinal of Sao Paolo. This time, Bishop Rifan was there again present at that New Mass. He was in the sanctuary; he was not in his surplice; nevertheless, at the time of consecration, with the other priests and bishops celebrating, he raised his hands and said the words of consecration. A seminarian saw him.

And now, the 8th of September this year, we have photos and even a video of the Mass concelebrated by Bishop Rifan on the occasion of the centennial of the coronation of Our Lady of the Aparecida, the patroness of Brazil. He is concelebrating the New Mass, a new Mass where you have really scandalous happenings: ladies giving Communion in the hand, a ceremony of crowning Our Lady conducted by a woman in the presence of all the cardinals and bishops attending, and so on. Trying to defend himself, Bishop Rifan has said, "But I did not say the words of consecration." That makes it even worse, because it means he is cheating [called dissimulation, or, faking a sacrament–Ed.].

That's the evolution: he has been a bishop two years and he is already concelebrating the New Mass. You see, that is the natural development which was announced from the start by the officials in Rome, Georges Cottier, now Cardinal Cottier [the Holy Father's personal theologian–Ed.] and Msgr. Perl, Secretary for the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. At the time of the Campos-Vatican Accord, Fr. Cottier said: "...Little by little we must expect other steps: for example, that they also participate in concelebrations in the reformed rite [the Novus Ordo Mass–Ed.]. However, we must not be in a hurry. What is important is that in their hearts there no longer be rejection. Communion found again in the Church has an internal dynamism of its own that will mature." He prophesied this natural, psychological dynamic and we can see in Bishop Rifan a real, natural, clear demonstration of this.

Msgr. Perl said the next bishop for the Priestly Union of St. John Baptist Mary Vianney will be bi-ritual, that he would celebrate the new and the old Mass, and that he will have as his job to bring the faithful and the Latin Mass priests back to the diocese and to the New Mass. Already, what Bishop Rifan is doing is exactly that. And I may say, had the Society entered into this same agreement, we would be more or less doing the same thing, and if not agreed on all the same points as Campos, at least there would be enormous division among us. Some would say to me, "We have to make an agreement. If you don't do it we are going to lose something." Others would say, "By all means, no." There would be enormous division and a tremendous loss. Why is this? Because Rome is not at all convinced of the necessity of Tradition, of the necessity of coming back to Tradition to get out of this unbelievable crisis in which we have been since the Council, because they do not want to go to the roots of this crisis. The roots were clearly legalized, put into law, at the time of the Council, and these modern errors are what are killing the Church.

In 1999, I spoke with Augustin Cardinal Mayer [the first Cardinal Prefect of the Ecclesia Dei Commission (1988-91)–Ed.]. I reminded him how authority is exercised in the Church. I cited the Pope, the bishops, the parish priests. I said, "Look. At each level which requires the personal exercise of authority, you now have a committee or several committees. You no longer have the one properly vested with authority saying, 'I have decided.' It is always, 'The committee has decided,' or, 'This or that pastoral or advisory board has decided.' It makes authority anonymous, and it especially paralyzes the exercise of authority." This exercise of authority is given to the Catholic Church by God. God wants things to be this way. There is only one Pope; in each diocese, there is only one bishop who is in charge by divine right, by the will of God. I told Cardinal Mayer, "The origin of this collegiality is in the Council." And he said, "You are perfectly right."

So I thought I had made my point. But then, a little bit later on, he spoke about the cause of the crisis in the Church and he said, "The cause of the crisis is that the Council is not applied"! Thirty years of reforms in the name of the Council, and you have a Cardinal who tells you that the Council has not been applied?! Oh, great! So, how should it be applied? It shows you that they don't want to rectify the crisis. For them, the Council is really holy, untouchable. When you ask why it is so, its advocates will not give you any answer; they will just repeat, "Don't touch it."

It is true that in the Catholic Church we have in the papacy an absolutely tremendous authority. It is the highest authority among the creatures in the world. The Pope has the supreme authority, not as a man, but because he is the Vicar of Christ. He is the visible representative of Christ our Lord. That is what makes this authority so enormous. And we know, according to the promise of our Lord, that what he binds on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what he looses on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. It is a tremendous power, and we link this to the character of infallibility.

 

Authentic Obedience

But here, too, many find an easy way out of the crisis: the Pope has spoken, so there is no need to reflect any more, just obey. When everything is normal, it is sufficient, and it is fine. But this does not change the reality of obedience.

Obedience is a virtue, a virtue which is exercised by a human being. When we refer to a human being we mean somebody who has reason and will. That means that this act shall be virtuous insofar as a human being makes use of his reason and will when he obeys. If we just switch them off when we obey, we are no better than a dog. You expect a dog to obey when you command it to stop or walk or bite or bark. You don't expect the dog to question your command. Even when we speak in the context of what is called "blind obedience" of the human being, it remains an act of virtue. If in order to obey, however, we have to demolish what is the highest faculty the good Lord has given us, that is, our reason, there is something wrong. Allow me to develop that.

Aristotle, who wasn't even a Christian, was able to give us a definition of virtue, that is, the thing through which we do good, and which makes the one who does it good. Virtue makes the one who has it good, and allows us to do good things. In fact, whenever we do something good, we do it out of virtue. But at the same time, whenever we do something bad, we never do it through a virtue. That is strictly impossible. We will never sin in an act of virtue. Impossible.

Let us apply this to the virtue of "obedience." Obedience is a moral virtue, and all the moral virtues are in fact a golden mean between two excesses. This is easy to understand with some other virtues, for example, that of justice. Justice means I have to give what is due to my neighbor. If I go to a shop and buy a loaf of bread, there is a price, the just price. If I give too much or too little, I am not just. There can be an excess on both sides. I will not have paid the just price if I give too much or too little. And this is true for all the moral virtues, including obedience.

When there is a defect in our obedience it is because we have not given enough obedience. We call this disobedience. But we rarely consider that there is a possibility of giving too much obedience. The phrase seems strange or odd, to speak of "too much obedience," but in fact, it does exist. A simple example: if somebody gives an order and you realize that if you follow the letter of the order you are doing something stupid–maybe you did not understand the order correctly–but nevertheless, realizing that it is stupid, you do it, well, I am sorry, but you are stupid. It is not obedience.

Let's say that Mom says to her daughter, "At 3 o'clock, go and feed the cow." Now she is just putting some milk on the stove, it is one minute to three, the milk is starting to boil. "Oh, it's 3. I have to go and take care of the cows." But the milk is going to boil over. "Ah, I have to obey." You see? Well, it is an example of an obedience which is not correct; it is too much obedience. Of course, you first take the pan off the burner in order to avoid the disaster with the milk before taking care of the cows. It is an example which shows that you can have circumstances in which a wrong understanding of obedience will get you into trouble.

 

 

Authority Is FROM God

It is easier to understand this when you look at God and the origin of obedience and law. We know and see that in any kind of organization, there is an authority, there is somebody commanding and giving orders. Not only that, but on certain levels, these orders can even be binding on our conscience. That means that if we refuse, we sin. That means that we offend not only this human authority, but we offend God. Why is that?–Because any authority which is exercised among human beings has been given by God. It is very important to understand that. It is the very principle of obedience. Why do we obey?-We obey because we see the authority and the commandment of that authority as coming from God. Persons having authority may have had it designated to them by human beings–George Bush has been elected by the Americans, but the authority that Bush has he has received from God. At the end of his life, he will stand in front of our Lord, and he will have to give an account of the way he has used this authority. The same holds for me, for the priests, for the fathers in their families, and so on at all levels. At all levels, any kind of authority is granted by God, and there you have the principle of obedience.

To obey God Himself is not too difficult; we recognize that God is wiser than we are, He is mightier than we, and we understand it is better not to object. But to submit ourselves to human beings whom we easily see as less wise, less perfect, and with many more defects than ourselves–a person commanding things which sometimes even seem to us not reasonable–that's difficult. What I have said is not in contradiction. Certain situations may appear to us less reasonable; nevertheless we still have to obey.

Obedience Is To God

So where is the point at which we must say no? It does happen. The point at which we say no is when this authority which has been granted by God to a human being is used against God. If God has given authority to human beings, it is so that through this authority these superiors will lead others to God. Every law and every force of the law is given to lead us to God, to glorify God, to do good.

That's the Ten Commandments. Why did God give us commandments? It was to help us in the good direction. What is this good direction? It is God Himself. It is to glorify Him, and any kind of order or law is true law in as much as it is a kind of echo or image of these laws from God. Amongst human beings it can happen, and it really does happen, that these persons invested with authority will, either by evil or most of the time by weakness, make a wrong use of this authority. They will make a wrong commandment. And at that time, this law, which should bring us back to God, instead harms us. It goes against the purpose of law. When this happens, we have to say no, because to say yes is no longer obedience; it goes against obedience, it goes against God, so we must say no.

It is like St. Peter in front of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was the highest religious authority, and when it said, "We forbid you to preach in the name of Jesus," St. Peter replied, "We have to obey God rather than man." That is a very basic principle in obedience. Usually, these types of things are rare and the normal behavior really is obedience. But it can happen that things are abnormal, and the situation in which we are now in the Church is such a situation. What is very interesting is that in the new Code of Canon Law (1983), the Church itself has emphasized this principle. It tells us that the highest law, the first law, is the salvation of souls. That means that the reason for the existence of the Church is to save souls. That is the aim, and all the laws in the Church are given to reach that purpose, to help souls to be saved.

Now, if you find in that organization a law against the salvation of souls or circumstances in which a law is being used against that purpose, of course you do not obey that law. It is no longer true obedience. In such a case, obedience would go against the purpose itself for which God has founded the Church. And then, of course, you say no. And when you say no, you are not disobedient; on the contrary, you are really obedient, because you look at the purpose and the will of God. You see that this is going against the will of God; I want to follow the will of God, so in that case I have to say no.

These are basics but they are very important. It is very important that you have the right understanding of obedience, because we are called "rebels" and other labels which you know by heart by now. It is just not true. It is like when Rome says to us, "Come back." We say, "We are sorry, but we can't." Why? Because we are already in; we have never been away, so where do you want us to come back from? We are already in.

Our Status In Rome

Where do we stand with Rome presently? On December 30, 2003, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos sent me a letter inviting us to accept a proposal Rome was offering us. The first problem with this proposal is there is nothing specific to which to agree. In April of last year, I met and spoke with Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos [current head of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei–Ed.], and he said, "I don't yet have a name for the thing that we want to propose to you." It is important, because sometimes they say, "Well, you have refused the offers from Rome." No, I have refused nothing, because nothing has been proposed. They say that it is something between an "apostolic administration" and a "personal prelature." They don't even know themselves.

I can say that they are not going to grant to us what they have granted to Campos. Why so?–Because they have already had so much trouble with Campos. At the start they promised the priests of Campos that their structure would extend to the whole of Brazil. But the Nuncio and several members of the permanent council of the bishops' conference went to Rome and protested, and so finally the territorial limit of this administration was shrunk to only the diocese of Campos. The Society, however, is too difficult to shrink because we are everywhere. The "dinosaurs" are everywhere! They will try to restrict us through other tricks, so to speak, and most probably they will pursue the idea that only "members" will have the right to the Latin Mass of the Society. For example, you have to be an Opus Dei member to enjoy what is reserved to the Opus Dei. So they may say, you must be an official, card-carrying member to get what is offered. But that makes a very exclusive club, and we don't want that.

A Letter to the Cardinal

I wrote a reply to Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos of which I give you the main thoughts. This answer was ready by about the middle of January, but at the same time another letter went to the Cardinal and all the cardinals of the world; it was the letter on Ecumenism.¹ I thought, "Well, he already has an answer with that one, so we'll wait a little with the other one." During the spring, we had a very interesting period, because the letter on ecumenism did not please them. Rome sent three experts to the press conference which I gave in Rome itself. They were mad, not because of the letter on ecumenism, but because the press conference was held 200 yards from the Vatican. In fact, I did not know it, but it was on the Via della Conciliazione facing Cardinal Walter Kasper's office.

Rome sent three experts on ecumenism to the press conference. One was a monsignor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sent by Cardinal Ratzinger; another one was sent by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos. After the conference, this prelate went to see Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos and said to him, "Your Eminence, I am sorry, but he did not speak any heresy." So two letters were written to reply to the letter on ecumenism, one theological and one personal. On the theological level, as they could not say anything, they just said something like, "Well, you have forgotten to mention this or that document." The personal letter to me is harsh but affectionate. Now, I know these things even though I've never received these letters because they have been shown to others so they would tell me they exist. When I got that message, I also sent a message to Rome, saying that I also have prepared a letter. We stood there for two or three months brandishing our letters, but nobody sent one! It was a very curious situation.

After that, in May 2004, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos gave an interview to the Latin Mass magazine [see The Angelus, August 2004, pp. 2-4–Ed.]. There he said a lot of interesting things, for example, one should not consider the people who want the old Mass as second-class citizens. The most interesting thing for me, however, is when he explained that the agreement with Campos had been made possible because of the two conditions it had fulfilled: an act of humility and an act of contrition. When I read that, I thought that now was a good occasion to send my letter.

Pillars First, Then a Bridge

In this letter, I start by saying that from the very beginning, I had indicated to Rome that the only way to reach an agreement would be to go through certain steps. Why so?–Because you do not construct the span of a bridge before building the piers. If you try to throw the bridge at the start, then everything collapses. So I told him, that if we have spoken of two preambulas, two things to be done first, it is because we want these pillars to be built before the bridge. Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos wants to build a bridge, to have an agreement. We say, fine, okay, great, but let's start at the start. So I repeat to him that the first thing is to allow the Latin Mass for everybody, and the second, to lift–not the excommunication because we don't recognize the excommunication–the decree of excommunication.

About Excommunications

Let me help you understand what "the excommunications" mean to the Society. First, I am absolutely certain that these excommunications have been a great blessing and protection of God. Yes, with these excommunications we have been protected. Why?–Because Rome has built a wall between them and us in such a way that all the bullets they may want to shoot at us go straight into the wall and do not hit us.

One day this past spring the following incident occurred between a visiting prelate and Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos. The Cardinal became very dramatic before the prelate, storming and pounding his fist on the table. The poor prelate was shaken for more than a week after; every day he called me, and by his voice you could hear that he was shaken by the tremendous show of anger from the Cardinal. What had the Cardinal said to this prelate? "If Bishop Fellay does not make contact with me in the next two weeks, I am going to excommunicate him." You see, you laugh–that was my reaction also!

Why have we laughed at this threat of excommunication?–Because of that wall. Once we have been excommunicated, well, excommunicate us a thousand times if you want, it will not change the situation. This has made things so that, firstly, they can no longer put any pressure on us. After the excommunication, what kind of pressure can they exert? None. They cannot push us any more. What kind of threat can they make against us? There is no threat any more. In that sense, it has been a protection, you see. This is not the purpose of an excommunication, true, but that it has protected us is a fact. Secondly, we can have nothing more to lose since the excommunications. This gives us a tremendous freedom. We can speak to their faces without fearing any retaliation from them. This is surprising, but it is the fact, I tell you.

Because of his compromise, Bishop Rifan has to say, "We have to do this. We have to go on procession with them because otherwise it will jeopardize the agreement.'" Well, we will never say that. I will never say, "I have to do this procession because it is going to jeopardize the excommunication!" It does not work, you see. Once again, that was a smile from Divine Providence.

So, you may say then, if that's the way things are, why do you ask for the decree of excommunication to be lifted? My answer is the following: We do it for two reasons. First, while I speak of this protection, there is now such an increasing weakness in Rome that the threat of Rome's power pushing us in the wrong direction is diminishing more and more–as long as we don't make an agreement with them. The negative side of the wall between us is that we are cut off on both sides, that is, we have less influence on others because of the excommunication. It is easy now for the modernists to say, "Well, these people are excommunicated, they are outside." So whatever we say, some will not listen. They say, "Well, you are excommunicated." Many people, good people who would like to come to us, do not dare because of this threat. This is true. Taking it away would take away this fear from these people. They would say, "So, you are really normal," and it would help in changing their mentality and our image. For the time being we are perceived to be the devil or even worse than the devil. This image has to be changed because whatever good we do for the time being is labeled as devilish, diabolical, even if we do it well. This change of mentality is necessary in order to advance to the next step.

The next step will be to spread Tradition throughout the Church. Many, many souls are eager to receive it, but they will not have it as long as this excommunication is there. I have written to the Cardinal proposing retraction of the excommunications as a first step. I give him examples. I say:

You have been capable of taking away the excommunication of the Orthodox, and this while the Orthodox did not change anything in their behavior towards Rome. We do recognize Rome; the Orthodox don't, and nevertheless Rome was capable of lifting the excommunication against them. We are not schismatics, but we are excommunicated; they are schismatics, and they are not!

In quoting Canon Law, it is said that we are excommunicated because we have been made bishops without the permission of Rome, of the Pope. We have answered that the same 1983 Code of Canon Law says that somebody may act lawfully out of a subjective necessity to consecrate bishops.

And you give us requirements; you want us to say that we recognize the New Mass and the Second Vatican Council. We are not going to sign that.

That is what we request from Rome, that Rome confirm us in the Faith, the Faith of all time, the Faith which cannot change. We have the strict right to request this from the Roman authorities, and we do not think that we will really progress towards an agreement as long as Rome has not shown a concrete will to dissipate the smoke that has invaded the temple of God, darkened the Faith, and paralyzed the supernatural life of the Church under cover of the Council and its subsequent reforms. There will be no agreement before then.

Speaking on ecumenical dialogue and starting a dialogue on dialogue presupposes that we know first what dialogue is at all. Dialogue is one of the most fundamental concepts of twentieth-century philosophy, and it is related to today's personalist way of thinking. It may be enough to mention the names of Martin Buber, Franz Rosenweig, Ferdinand Ebner, Emmanuel Levinas and others. The young Polish professor Karol Wojtyla, with his philosophy of love and responsibility, was influenced too by this kind of personalistic thinking.

This new trend emerging in the 20th century characterized by dialogical philosophy marked the end of western monological thinking, and implied self-transcendence of the person towards the other. The starting-point and the fundamental principle of dialogical philosophy is: "I cannot be without thou."

The other is not the limit of myself; the other is a part and an enrichment of my own existence. So dialogue is an indispensable step along the path toward human self-realization. The identity of the person can be only an open and dialogical identity.

Such dialogue is not only essential and necessary for individuals. Dialogue concerns also nations, cultures, religions. Every nation, culture, religion has its riches and its gifts, but also its limits and its dangers. The nation, culture, or religion becomes narrow and evolves into ideology when it closes itself and when it absolutizes itself.

Then the other nation, culture and religion becomes the enemy. The "clash of civilizations," as Huntington calls it, will ensue. Dialogue is the only way to avoid such a disastrous clash. Thus, especially today, dialogue among cultures, religions and churches is a presupposition for peace in the world. It is necessary to pass from antagonism and conflict to a situation where each party recognizes and respects the other as a partner and does not try to impose its own interests and values.

Since the Church, in Christ, is in the nature of sacrament–a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and the unity among all men-she here purposes, for the benifit of the faithful and of the whole world, to set forth, as clearly as possible,...her own nature and universal mission (Lumen Gentium, §1).