Fr. Libietis: A Bishop Speaks from Beyond the Grave

[Stone]

"THE OLD BISHOP FELLAY"

[Fr. Helmuts Libietis - Resistance Brochure #3 of 7]

Since the death of Archbishop Lefebvre in 1991, there has certainly been a slow, but sure, shift in the principles of the SSPX vis-à-vis Rome. As J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote, “Little by little one travels far!” Others may prefer the saying: “Make haste slowly!” Others perhaps like the phrase “Rome wasn’t built in a day!” The whole idea behind these words of wisdom is that some things take time to achieve. When the ancient Romans laid siege to a city in Gaul, they were informed by the Gauls that their city had enough supplies to last ten years! The Romans replied that they would then invade the city in the eleventh year! The devil, too, works the same way and advances by small degrees. He is in no rush and advances slowly and imperceptibly forwards, inch by inch, toward his goal The enemies of the Church do not lay battle plans for only a month, a year, or a decade, but for centuries. Slowly, but surely, they try achieve their goals. Vatican II’s gradual changes are a perfect example of that!

Most things grow slowly and imperceptibly. You can try to watch a child or a tree grow each hour or each day, but you will notice nothing. However, if you measure the child or tree every year or two, then you will clearly observe the difference in size. Some people may steal a large sum of money all at one time and the missing sum is noticed, others steal a little each week for many years and nobody notices. In religion, we see the gradual cancerous growths of Humanism, Liberalism and Modernism grow throughout the Church over many hundreds of years. It is 50 years since Vatican II, and that cancer is also still growing!

For over 40 years the SSPX has been fighting against Modernist Rome, the tactics vary, new soldiers enter the fight who, perhaps, do not have the ideals and experience of the pioneer of this resistance to Modernist Rome — Archbishop Lefebvre. So they grow tired of the fight, they no longer clearly see the reasons for the struggle, they even make friends among the enemies. All of this can gradually change the outlook of the combatants and lead to a false peace and weakening of principles. As the Archbishop once said, it is not the inferiors who make the superior, but the superior who makes the inferiors—or we could say: “Like father, like son!” So if the superior changes attitudes or abandons certain principles, then that will filter down to the inferiors. In these four flyers we shall look at some quotes of the Superior General of the SSPX, Bishop Fellay, taken from letters, conferences and sermons since his consecration as bishop, to see if there is a notable change in attitude and principles vis-à-vis Rome. This first flyer will show his early talks to be unambiguous and totally in line with Archbishop Lefebvre. But little by little we will see a weakening or change in principles. This mini-series of flyers can only give a sketch of this. A thorough reading and listening to Bishop Fellay’s sermons, conferences and interviews will paint a clearer picture. We don’t know the motives, we just report the facts.


1995
“The scandal against the Faith is becoming so usual that it no longer shocks anyone, while at the same time our enemies—let us call them by their true name—are inflicting terrible blows on Holy Mother Church.” (Bishop Fellay, April 1995, Letter to Friends & Benefactors, No. 4)


1996
“To that devilish undertaking begun by the Council, especially in the Documents on NonChristian Religions, The Church in the Modern World and Religious Liberty, and continued incessantly since the Council, we offer a flat refusal.” (Bishop Fellay, March 1996, Letter to Friends & Benefactors, No. 50)


1996
“Rome itself is pushing Catholics into schism! Do they still have the Faith?” (Bishop Fellay, October 1996, Letter to Friends & Benefactors, No. 51)


1996
“Archbishop Lefebvre had the heaviest task. The same fight continues, but the principles by which we live ... have been established by him.”
(Bishop Fellay, www.sspxasia.com/Documents/ Society_of_Saint_Pius_X/Expiry-date-2000.htm)


1997
“Here arises the grave problem of normalizing our relations with Rome! Into whose hands are we to entrust our future?...For it is a fact that the authorities in Rome are divided on our account, as we can prove by documents in our possession. So we can only continue on our present course of staying in private contact with Rome, while in public we protest out loud against the Church’s self-destruction, which is the poisoned fruit of the Liberalism, mortally infecting so many, many Church leaders.” (Bishop Fellay, March 1997, Letter to Friends & Benefactors, No. 52)


1997
“Now, what we blame the Council and post-Conciliar reforms for, it’s precisely that they undertake to change the nature of the Church…That is the reason why we cannot obey …. The Church is dying, torn apart by divisions hidden under the deceitful slogan of ‘We are in communion with the Pope!’”  (Bishop Fellay, November 1997, Letter to Friends & Benefactors, No. 53)


1999
“In face of the scandal of Assisi, being renewed this time in the Vatican, we cannot help protesting...for such an affront to...Almighty God. The First Commandment is again being violated, head on, only this time in full view of the Basilica of St. Peter! How many martyrs must be turning in their graves... Such acts of idolatry are an abomination in the full sense of the word, but the attempt is being made to give them by their repetition a sort of legitimacy. Daily exposure to scandal no longer shocks...and woe to anyone daring to state that it is the strict duty of all men to render the one true worship to the one true God. It baffles all understanding how the Vatican can give up fighting the age-old enemy, embrace brethren that it no longer wishes to call separated...The priests of St. Peter’s Fraternity are now bitterly learning how naively they put their trust in the churchmen who promised them the moon back in 1988, if only they would abandon the house of their father, Archbishop Lefebvre, and enter into a process of “reconciliation” … Despite their defection then, these priests are being blamed now for not integrating with their faithful into the “reality” of the Church....We cannot help thinking that Rome would have treated us the same way had Archbishop Lefebvre followed through with the May 5th Protocol of 1988. From conversations between leaders of St. Peter’s Fraternity and certain cardinals, it appears that Rome does not feel bound by the terms of that protocol on which St. Peter’s Fraternity was nevertheless founded! ”  (Bishop Fellay, October 1999, Letter to Friends & Benefactors, No. 57)
The above quote, condemning Rome’s sacrilegious prayer meeting with false religions at Assisi, was good and powerful, but by the time the third sacrilegious Assisi prayer meeting took place in 2011, Bishop Fellay said almost nothing, basically only a sentence or two, while reprimanding those who spoke out strongly. Things were getting worse, and he was saying less about it. Why? Because of the talks that were going on with Rome at that moment! So politics comes before Truth! That reminds us of those words of another superior general of Roman forces, the liberal Pontius Pilate, who said: “What is truth?” God is Truth. God never changes. Truth never changes! That is the truth!

2000 –YEAR OF CHANGE
[After 3 years of GREC Discussions, +Fellay Decides to go to Rome, in more ways than one! -X]

It is hard to put a finger on a date or an event that is the “watershed” or crucial turning-point in the attitude of the SSPX in relation to Modernist Rome. When a large ship starts to make its turn, it is not noticeable. Only after a while does one notice that the ship has veered slightly off-course. It is often hindsight that realizes what has happened. We can say that the year 2000 and the SSPX pilgrimage to Rome was fairly close to the start of the ship steering a new course. But, as in a musical piece, the transition from one melody to another has to incorporate BOTH melodies, which the transition intertwines. In the beginning the old melody dominates while the new melody is introduced only slightly, then, later, the new melody dominates while the old melody gradually fades away and is finally abandoned. So it is not surprising to hear both religious melodies, Tradition and Liberalism, gradually mingling together. We are currently listening to the sweet music of transition!


2000
Bishop Williamson quotes Bishop Fellay from the SSPX Superiors’ Meeting in Albano, after the 2000 Rome pilgrimage:

“Firmness pays off. It is Rome which is wrong. We have no reason to back down. We must continue as we have done. Has Rome changed? … So we must stand firmer, not less firm … We are at war! ... Their conversion is in Providence’s hands, not ours. Until then, let us pray for them, and give them a hard time! ... For the moment, we are lucky to be cut-off from Rome, which only wants us to compromise.” (Bishop Fellay, August 2000, taken from the Letter to Friends and Benefactors of Bishop Williamson, September 2000)

After the 2000 SSPX pilgrimage to Rome, attended by thousands of SSPX laity, Rome began its crafty flattery and seduction. Bishop Fellay, like a prudent virgin, was at first resistant, but the constant amorous advances of the seducer, who would not be putt-off by the protestations, would plant some seed within the object of his desires.


2001
“At the end of last summer’s pilgrimage to Rome, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos had a first direct contact with the Society’s Bishops .... On December 29, Cardinal Castrillon proposed to Bishop Fellay different elements that could serve towards a possible agreement between Rome and the Society. The Superior General expressed... his distrust, his apprehension. On December 30...[Bishop Fellay] saw the Pope. On January 13 there was a special meeting of the [SSPX] General Council and of the Society’s Bishops...at which were established the principles to guide us in the present situation... [Bishop Fellay] exposed the necessity of guarantees from Rome before going ahead in the details of eventual discussions or an agreement: that the Tridentine Mass be granted to all priests of the entire world; that the censures against the Bishops be declared null. The principles that are to guide us through this rather new situation are the following:

(1) Given that Rome has initiated this effort, it is normal that the Society take it with the seriousness that it deserves.

(2) Our distrust is extreme, keeping before our eyes on the one hand the very recent example of the Fraternity of St. Peter, and...the continuity in the post-conciliar direction.

(3) The Society has in no way the intention of modifying its principles and its general goal...

(4) If there were to be an agreement it could only be seen in the perspective of giving back to Tradition its rights of citizenship, even if the final triumph will only be obtained gradually. ” (Bishop Fellay, January 22, 2001, Statement to Members & Friends)


In 1995 Bishop Fellay says he will not change, but follow the principles established by Archbishop Lefebvre. The Archbishop laid down this principle after the consecrations of 1988:

“Why should we be going on our own? After all, why not join Rome, why not join the Pope? Yes, if Rome and the Pope were in linewith Tradition.” And again: “I received a few weeks ago, another telephone call from Cardinal Oddi: ‘Well, Excellency, is there no way to arrange things, no way?’ I replied, ‘You must change, come back to Tradition. It is not a question of the Liturgy, it is a question of the Faith’.”
(Address to Priests, September 6, 1990).

In the 1988 November-December Fideliter interview, the Archbishop was asked:

“In your last letter to the Holy Father (June 1988) you declared that you were waiting for a more propitious time for the return of Rome to Tradition. What do you think of a possible re-opening of the dialogue with Rome?”

Archbishop Lefebvre replies:

“We do not have the same outlook on a reconciliation. Cardinal Ratzinger sees it as bringing us back to Vatican II. We see it as a return of Rome to Tradition. We don’t agree; it is a dialogue of death ... supposing that Rome calls for a renewed dialogue, then, I will put conditions. I shall not accept being in the position where I was put during the dialogue. No more! I will place the discussion at the doctrinal level: ‘Do you agree with the great encyclicals of all the popes who preceded you? Do you agree with Quanta Cura of Pius IX, Immortale Dei and Libertas of Leo XIII, Pascendi Gregis of Pius X, Quas Primas of Pius XI, Humani Generis of Pius XII? Are you in full communion with these Popes ?... If you do not accept the doctrine of your predecessors, it is useless to talk! As long as you do not accept the correction of the Council ...no dialogue is possible. It is useless!’”

Though initially holding to Archbishop Lefebvre’s principles governing future dialogue with Rome, as shown by the above quotes, in the next three flyers we will see Bishop Fellay slowly alter the Archbishop’s stance to a much weaker and more dangerous stance in relation to Rome.

READ THE OTHER 3 FLYERs IN THIS 4-PART SERIES Together they explain the subtle & gradual shift in principles governing the SSPX’s relations with Rome after 2000