Sermon of H.L. Bp. Fellay December 8th 2011 "We want only one thing: to attack the real problem in the present crisis."

[Alan]

"We want only one thing: to attack the real problem in the present crisis."

My dear seminarians,

my dearest brethren,

We celebrate today the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Some people, curiously Enough, Perhaps Because of the word "design" (Which THEY connect with What we say in the Angelus, "And she Conceived by the Holy Spirit"), That this feast think about The virginal motherhood of the Blessed Virgin: Mary Conceived the Child Jesus while Remaining a virgin. That Is not What It Is about. When we speak about the Immaculate Conception, we mean the spotless design of the Most Blessed Virgin. The Blessed Virgin Conceived and WAS cam Into the world without sin, Preserved from the stain of original sin. This law IS Imposed on all the Children of Adam and Eve, we all Have the inheritance of original sin.

Adam and Eve sinned, and THEY COMMITTED That first sin as the head of the Whole Human Race. That in sin, one Might Say, They pawned The Whole human race, all Their descendants. So it Is That All the Sons and Daughters of Eve and Adam come Into the world with this terrible inheritance: Owed a debt to God. And More than a debt, Because They Are Deprived of what can Bring about Their happiness: grace. Lack of Grace Is this not a neutral state, it IS a state of Hostility Toward God. A state of Imprisonment, of slavery in the hands of the devil - the consequence of sin That Which is Called first original sin. One human creature WAS Preserved from it, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Immaculate Conception, the extraordinary privilege of the Holy Mother of God

This absolutely extraordinary privilege IS PRECISELY What today's feast celebrates. She Does not Have That inheritance. Why? In expectation of the Merits of Her Son. Her Son is Our Lord, the Savior. And God willed That His Son - the Son of God - Should Come Into The World Who from a mother from the very Beginning of Her existence WAS Preserved from sin, from opposition to God. Immaculate! Even In Her immaculate conception. And Immaculate Conception Will this preserve this immaculate character DURING Her Whole Life. THROUGHOUT Her Life, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary Would never sin, Would never offend the Good Lord. A truly extraordinary privilege! Let us salute Truly, let us hail the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, our Mother, for Such a beautiful, Such A magnificent privilege!

To Say That She Was Spared Preserved or May Give Us A Somewhat negative idea. Purpose When We say about a tablecloth, for example, that 'It Is spotless, we are Not Saying Something negative. If a tablecloth IS spotless, immaculate if It Is, It Is quite beautiful. And When We Say That the Blessed Virgin WAS Preserved from sin, Does not this mean That She Is In a neutral state in relationship to God. She Is in a state of grace, and Not Just Any grace. Pius IX, in order to ESTABLISH this dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Would it based on the words of the angel's greeting That We Heard in the Gospel: "Full of Grace," "Hail Mary, full of grace". The angel calls Mary "full of grace" (Luke 1:28). This is the title That Gives Her ET. A fullness of grace, a sanctifying grace, Is A participation in the life of God. You see, at the Beginning of human history, this natural state, as Opposed to the supernatural state, DID not exist. The Good Lord, from the Beginning, Man Destined to much more Than What man can do. He HIM Destined to Become a child of God. He HIM Destined for Heaven. We say and when to Heaven, this means: Participating In His Own happiness, in His beatitude. When He Creates man, He wants HIM to Become a sharer in His Own nature, in His divine life. In this natural state, we have Consider human nature, It Was Created, purpose neutral state has, In Other Words, a state of pure nature, does not exist. Either you are or you are with God Against God. It is terrible, so order it is. And Even the Children Who Die Without Baptism, Who Have Personally never sinned, Who Do not Have Responsibility That Will Always Remains nevertheless Deprived of the Beatific Vision, Deprived of life That of God, that 'life with God. THEY Will Be Called in a limbo state, a state Where One Is Deprived of PRECISELY That happiness of God. THEY Will Have still a kind of happiness That We May call natural or human, That Is all purpose. It Is not the hell of Punishment That Is reserved for Those Who Have sinned Personally, It Is not the goal happiness That the Good Lord wants us to Give. And so, Once Again, When We hail the Immaculate Conception, we salute the marvel, The most beautiful of all creatures, the one MOST Who Was Favored by the Good Lord.

Saint Thomas Would not hesitate to tell us That She Is The One Who has Reached the limits, if we put it this way May, of God's infinitude, of God's perfection. She Received The Most graces, The Most Blessings from God in all respects. Malthus in calling Her the Immaculate Conception, we mean That She Is Something extraordinary, Extremely beautiful, perfect. She Is, To That Extent Sami, enriched with all the Virtues, all the gifts, Favored Truly, with a view to the Savior and the salvation to Therefor of Mankind. This is God's triumph. It Is a victory, an extraordinary victory for us Who see so many, Many evils around us, So Many, Many drawings, So Many, Many errors, rebellions, arrogance and insolence Against God. Some go so far as Even to Doubt God, This Is The famous objection: "There Is So Much Evil, if a Good God Existed, Would All These evils not exist," and so on. Well, then! In the Immaculate Conception the Good Lord Gives us the sign That He is God and That He Is Above All These miseries infinitely That You Can See in creation.

This is More Than Just the announcement, then this is the victory of God Already over sin, over-the-devil - a complete victory That Will Be with Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Commitments in the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X

Archbishop Lefebvre wanted the members of the Society to renew Their Commitment on this feast day of holiness, and He wanted to Those Who Desire to enter it do so on Such A Beautiful Day by making Their Commitment to the Society. On this day, Under Such splendid patronage, Under Her protection, the seminarians enter the Society.

This is important day year for you, dear seminarians, and so do not take it Lightly. The questions we ask you today That and That You Give the answers to questions are very serious thesis, very demanding work. And Just Because These Are not vows, Just Because canonically thesis Commitments are one step lower, like a solemn promise made in the presence of God - Not That Far From the definition of a vow, a step lower order canonically - That Does not Mean That Things You Should Take Lightly. The Renunciation That Are Mentioned in the formulation of Commitment are Renunciation That corresponds to the Evangelical Counsels. Although Archbishop Lefebvre Did not want the members of the Society to take vows Directly, then this is the only Because of Circumstances in Which We Live, the Circumstances in Which IS Carried out our Apostolate, Where It Is Often not materially possible, to keep the vows as one should. For example you must ask Under obedience permission, if you order are all alone in your mission, you must make a decision, and you cannot Refer it to your superior; That Goes Against the vow of obedience per se, at least Against the letter of [the law of] obedience. As for poverty: you must decide to make a purchase Quickly, with the aim vows it Would Be Necessary to ask permission. Therefor It Was Because Of Practical Circumstances That very thesis Bishop Did not want the members of the Society to take vows. Purpose That Does not Mean That Archbishop Lefebvre wanted gold Would Have wanted to exempt us from the spirit of the vows. More PRECISELY, the Requirements of Renunciation, this Requirements of a total gift of self to the Good Lord and the Most Blessed Virgin - this consecration to the Blessed Virgin That Is Found in Your Commitment - is very precious Something That commits you very Clearly, you take one year obligation to Pursue perfection. And so do not exempt obligations Yourselves from thesis by Saying, "We are not Religious, seminarians we are secular." It Would Be an insult to the Society to Say That. That Is not What the Society Expectations of ITS members. When you look at the Virtues - Indeed, my lord Decided to describe SEVERAL members in the Virtues of Statutes - You May Be Struck by the loftiness aussi of These Requirements. The first Virtue IS charity, charity Toward God, Bishop tells us, Toward the Most Holy Trinity, Which is PRECISELY Such A Virtue That It Naturally Gives rise to all the spells of detachment That we find in the vows, in the Evangelical Counsels. Naturally, detachment from the world, or Poverty, the detachment That we find in chastity, detachment from one's Own Will in obedience.

It Seems to Me That today is this feast of the Immaculate Conception, in looking at the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, We Have The Most Beautiful model of this practice of the Virtues.

The spiritual battle of the Society of St. Pius X

When we salute the Blessed Virgin and Her Virtue, we do not think of it Immediately, the Church aims Reminds us That It Is not only a very beautiful perfection, aim at the Same Time Also a victory. And to say to say victory aussi fight, struggle. If the Society wants to tend Toward That sanctity, it must struggle. Its members must struggle. Against Themselves, to be sure, THEY must aim aussi struggle against the world, and thats about Whole Sums up our project. Here we discover Something quite mysterious: the era we are living in Which. By a great mystery, God HAS Allowed the spirit of the world to try to enter Into the Church. And one must not only fight Against external enemies, aim aussi Against a non-Catholic spirit That Has Come Back Into the Church. That we plainly see with all the recent changes, the introduction of this spirit Happened at the time of the Second Vatican Council. This is year inexpressible tragedy. This IS a great evil mystery. Paul VI spoke about the "smoke of Satan". It Is as though the devil HAD set foot in the sanctuary. And we find this chilling reality. It Is Radically The Opposite of What the Church is. In the Creed we sing That She Is holy, and We Believe That She Is holy. And Then Some prelates, bishops, cardinals, popes Even turn around and invites the faithful to Do What the Church HAS Always forbidden, with severe prohibitions, with the Threat of Sanctions That Could Even extend to excommunication. That Is Why Archbishop Lefebvre Said, "I can not." And you Yourselves: if you are here, it is for the Same reason: No, you cannot, Because Those Things offend God.

This is a great mystery at the Same Time Because we see These Things That Have and to say "no" to 'em, we must continue Also to say that good Lord HAS Promised the Church: "The gates of hell Will not Prevail Against it" (Mt 16:18). On the one hand It Is Necessary to Insist That It Is The Church of Christ, the Church That God Founded, and on the Other hand we see plenty of Elements That Are not the Church, That Are The Contrary purpose of the Church are inside the Church. Consider year exact image That Can Help Us Understand this: It Is like a sickness That Is Introduced Into a Body. This sickness Is Like A foreign body, foreign body IS this purpose inside. How do the cells react in Themselves When They find the presence of Foreign Bodies thesis? Obviously, They try to Defend Themselves! And then, What is Worse, the organs in control tell us, "You must not Defend Yourselves. You Have to swallow everything, accept everything. "And for forty years-fifty years-we soon Have Been in That state. Because so far we have not seen Any great change.

Proposals by the recent Rome

All You Have Heard That There Was A Proposal from Rome, A Proposal That Said, "We are ready to Recognize you [canonically]." The problem Is That There Is Always a condition. This condition May Have Varied a bit icts in formulation, goal Basically it Is Always the Same. This condition is: you must accept the Council. Could one sum up the current situation by Saying "Yes, You Can Criticize the Council, is one goal condition: It Is Necessary to accept it first." Which leaves us Saying, "What can we Afterwards Criticize?"

I think That This Is An honest summary of the present situation. And It Is not Difficult to describe for you our response.

Obviously, the formulas are more and more interesting, closer and closer to What we say. WE HAVE ARRIVED by now at a point That Clearly shows the depth of the problem. Proposal in That famous This Is What They tell us: "You commit to acknowledging Yourselves That with regard to points from the Council That cause difficulties, the only way to Understand Is To Understand Those points Themes in light of the continuous, perpetual Tradition, in Preceding light of the Magisterium. "The light of Tradition Is The Only Way by Which One Can Understand the dubious points. Even THEY go further: "Any proposal and dubious Any interpretation of the texts That Was Opposed To That perpetual Magisterium, that 'Continual Magisterium of the Church Must Be Rejected." That Is What We Have Always said. There Is a Purpose tiny little incidental That clause adds, "as the New Catechism says." Now the New Catechism passed The Council.

In Other Words, The Principle Regarding We Can only agree. As for the application, It Is Completely the opposite. THEY claim That They Are Applying the Principle by Saying: That Was everything done at the Council Is Faithful to Tradition, IS consist with tradition, whether it be gold ecumenism Religious Liberty. That shows you the seriousness of the problem. There Is a problem somewhere. It Is not possible, Otherwise. The problem IS based on the understanding of some words. And These Words are of course "Tradition" and "Magisterium." Their way of understanding thesis Word is subjective. Certainly There are boxes in Which One Can understand "tradition" in the sense of "transmit" the act of Transmitting Is A transmission. But The usual way of understanding this word HAS ITS bearing on content. What is Transmitted? What is Transmitted from generation to generation? The classical definition of Tradition is "That Which HAS Always Been Believed by all, everywhere and at all times" (Commonitorium by St. Vincent of Lerins). Here the phrase "That which" Designates the object. Purpose Nowadays, It Is as though we Went from the object to the subject, so as to Consider Who Transmits only the one.

That Is Why THEY talk to you about "living tradition" Because The One Who Transmits, When He Transmits, is alive. Now life moves, exchange it. The priests and changing ... Therefor exchange tradition, But It Remains tradition. It Is The Same tradition, one goal That exchange. The Church HAS taken this sense aussi Into consideration, in order Altogether year secondary way. That Is not What She Is Talking About When She talks about Tradition; What we call the deposit of the faith, the set of Truths That the Good Lord HAS Entrusted to the Church so That She Might it passed from generation to generation, so That souls Might Be saved. This content Is What she means clustering. And This Is The Reason Why, with the definition of infallibility at the First Vatican Council, the Church teaches the Holy Ghost That HAS Effectively Been Promised to St. Peter and His Successors to, Therefore to the priests. He Was Not Promised goal in Such A Way That Might teach the priests Something New by a new revelation. He Was Promised That so, with the help of the Holy Ghost, St. Peter and the popes Might holily preserve and faithfully passed on That Which Does not change, the deposit Revealed.

Where is the real problem in the Church?

That Is Where we are. That Is What we are Trying to do, Since There Is in Fact a gesture made by Rome Toward us, we must Recognize it, a surprising gesture After discussions doctrinal thesis in Which We Determined That We Were not in agreement. In effect it IS a situation similar to That of Two Personalities Who Meet, Discuss and Something happens at the conclusion That They Do not agree. What do you do then? Rome tells us: "You accept nevertheless" And we reply: "It Is not possible." And so what we decided to do, answering Beside That It Is not possible, Is To Tell Them: Would not you like to look at Things a bit Differently? Would not you like to Try to understand That the Society IS NOT The One That IS a problem. There Is Indeed a problem in the Church, Purpose It Is not the Society, we are not a problem Because We Are Saying That There Is a problem. Then we ask 'em to deal with the real problem. We are ready, we only want one thing and it IS PRECISELY to attack the real problem.

You Understand That humanly speaking very well There Is No Great Hope that THEY Will Agree to change Such a position. Maybe the Disappointments That the Church HAS Experienced Will move 'em? The Fact That Currently the disaster, the sterility is more Clearly evident: There are no more vocations. It IS frightening. I saw, A Few moments ago, the statistics for the Sisters of Charity, the nuns Who Used To Be everywhere in France: between thirty and forty years of age I still think That There Are Three left in all of France. Between the ages of 40 and 50, Likewise three. The Majority, In Other Words Almost 200, Between 70 and 80 are gold Between 80 and 90. Some of Them Are More Than 100 years old, and more Numerous Than They Are Those Who are 20, 30, 40 or 50 years old. If you take the ones from 20 to 50 years of age, one more Than You Have the group of Those Who are 100 years old or more: 9 as Opposed to 8. Those nuns Who Used to do lots of charitable works all in all the Rural Areas! And it is over. That Is One Among Thousands example. Take the Priest. Take instances from whatever area you want: It Is a Church That Is dying, disappearing. Nevertheless That Ought to make people Reflect. We think, we hope That Some Are Beginning to Reflect. People do get the feeling That That Is just not enough. Of course, Grace Is needed. It Is Necessary to pray.

Pray! Pray That the Good Lord Will Deliver Truly the Church, the Blessed Virgin That Will Do Something. She Is The One Who Promised Her Immaculate Heart That Would triumph at the end to get the Church out of this disaster. For us Who are Involved in this great battle for the Church, it Is An Honor To Be Able extraordinary to Be members of this Society today. And so let us ask the Most Blessed Virgin Mary That we Might Be Worthy members of this Society. Let us live faithfully According To STI statutes. Follow the rules seminary, As It Is Expected of you, with all your heart, while practicing the great charity That the Statutes of the Society require of us. Let us request it from the Most Blessed Virgin Mary That so really, Every Day, Might we please God, That we Might sanctify Ourselves and thereby Might Be Able to win souls for the Good Lord, souls Those That Are Entrusted to us, for the Greater Glory of God, for the honor of the Most Blessed Virgin and That of the Church. Amen.

In order to preserve the distinctive character of this sermon, the spoken style has-been kept. (Source: SSPX / Ecône Transcription and Subheadings by DICI, December 14, 2011)

Sermon in French

link

[Dawn Marie]

Source Rorate Caeli

Excommunicating Gherardini?

A guest-post by Côme de Prévigny

Bishop Bernard Fellay, the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX), said it in his sermon of December 8: the Roman proposals are at each time more interesting, but in their formulations there remains a point with a bitter taste, that demands before everything else the concession that Vatican II is consistent with the Tradition of the Church.

Following the declarations of His Swiss Excellency, pressure mounts, minds are enkindled. Now that the familiar sirens wave anew the red flag of definitive schism, that vaticanist Tornielli lets himself be taken by feeling - by imagining what Abp. Lefebvre would do in similar circumstances (by saying he thinks he would "say yes"), the Roman demands seem to receive, at the very heart of the Eternal City, a serious blow. For 25 years, the Holy See has not budged on the famous conciliar texts, and, at the very moment in which the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X delivers his note to the Vatican, one of the best students, among the most faithful and most learned, rises up to say that the demands of the master do not hold up.

Monsignor Gherardini is the dean of the theologians of the Lateran University, one of the most venerable Roman institutions. For half a century, he has formed hundreds of bishops and priests by attempting to present them Vatican II in continuity with the teaching of the Church. At the end of a long and serious career, he makes this terrible con...: the tireless attempt does not work. Speaking of the Council, he describes its continuity with Tradition as "problematic": "not because it did not declare such a continuity, but because, especially in those key points where it was necessary for this continuity to be evident, the declaration has remained unproven."

In other words, the theologian says that all displays attempting to make Vatican II the continuation of the teaching of the Church are to his eyes nothing but weakly convincing arguments.

At the moment in which one of the most distinguished living theologians declares serious doubts on the merits of the conciliar texts, at the moment in which he asks for a "critical examination" of these texts, how can the Holy See demand that their prior recognition be an indispensable condition for the regularization of the Society? How can the hope of thousands of faithful around the world be played with by making them believe that the ball is on Écône's side? The competent congregation has every ability to recognize, at the end of thorough doctrinal discussions, the perfect catholicity of the Society and to grant it the regularization that every work that is done faithfully with its zeal for souls deserves. While Sacred Liturgy and even the most elementary truths (the Ressurrection of Christ, the Real Presence, the salvific universality of Jesus Christ) are disregarded by a good number of bishops who need not sign any condition to be named and kept in place, would such recognition really prove to be a high-stakes bet?

If affirming that the texts of the Council are disconnected from Tradition makes the Society worthy of being considered outside the Church, is it to be thought that Monsignor Gherardini deserves excommunication for having dared to publicly affirm that which others will never have the boldness of saying?

[Dawn Marie]

Yes dear Bishop Fellay, but what you want (and we want) is not the same thing as what they want:(

God help us.