District Superior's Letter: Nov 2010

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

On the 1st of November we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Society of St. Pius X. I give you here a summary of the most recent comments of our Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, on the situation today. You can find this entire interview on www.dici.org, the official news website of the Society. May this month especially be one of thanksgiving for so many graces received through the foundation of this new priestly branch of the Church, to restore all things in Christ our Lord and King! May our acts of thanksgiving to our beloved founder produce in our souls fruits of fidelity to the Faith and sanctity in our duty of state!

With my prayers and blessing in the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

Fr. Arnaud Rostand

“At a pivotal point”

“We are at a pivotal point for the future reconstruction.” Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X, expresses himself in these vigorous terms in an interview granted to Nouvelles de Chretiente [News about Christianity] (no. 125, Sept.—Oct. 2010) and posted online at www.dici.org.  In it he explains his statement made on www.laportelatine.org on October 7 concerning the spiritual needs of various countries which cannot be met for lack of a sufficient number of priests. But above all he gives his perspective on the net results of three years of (rather restrictive) implementation of the motu proprio on the traditional Mass: “There are two spirits embodied in the two Masses.  That is a fact!” And he alludes to current relations between the local bishops’ conferences and the Holy See: “We certainly are in those times that have been foretold, when there will be cardinal against cardinal, bishop against bishop.”

With regard to the conference given last July by Msgr. Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, on the hermeneutic of continuity, Bishop Fellay declares, “they are presenting a new Second Vatican Council to us, a council which in fact we never knew and which is distinct from the one that was presented during the past forty years.” He goes on to say, “If we discover such a great divergence in interpreting the conciliar documents, we will have to admit someday that the deficiencies in those documents are there for a reason.”

Concerning a solution to the crisis in the Church, the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X asserts, “The choice of personnel will be the determining factor. If the policy for nominating bishops finally changes, then we can hope.” By the same token he looks forward to “a thoroughgoing reform of teaching at the pontifical universities and of priestly formation in the seminaries”.

As for the role of the Society of St. Pius X, which is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year, Bishop Fellay confides, “When we ask priests who approach the Society what they expect from us, they tell us initially that they expect doctrine.” With respect to the young generation devoted to Tradition, he notes that “it is waiting, ready for the adventure of Tradition, sensing very well that what is being offered to it apart from Tradition is nothing but imitation goods.”