Eleison Comments

Inside Story – IV

Inside Story – IV on November 8, 2014

And so we come to the climax of the inside story of the outside events of the Rosary Crusades of the Society of St Pius X six years ago. Would Bishop Fellay choose Heaven’s solution to the crisis of Church and World, trusting in Our Lady’s promise at Fatima of Russia’s conversion and a “period of peace” if only Russia is consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart, or would he choose the human solution of talks with Rome to fabricate a synthesis of Tradition (2+2=4) with the Council (2+2=4 or 5)? We can be certain that this is not how the Devil presented the choice to the Bishop, especially when in June 2008 the Romans came back into play.

In that month the Vatican became aware of the possible Rosary Crusade for the Consecration of Russia through a letter which the same messenger of Our Lady had addressed to Pope Benedict XVI, invoking his blessing upon such an endeavor. The Vatican took the letter seriously. Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos ordered Bishop Fellay to return directly to Rome from Hawaii where His Excellency had gone to administer the sacrament of Confirmation. On June 4, Cardinal Castrillón with a group of several Roman prelates threatened Bishop Fellay that if he were to call for a Rosary Crusade for the Consecration of Russia, Rome would close the door to any future discussions, and Rome would revive the dormant “excommunications” which had for the time being been rendered inoperative. That was also when the Vatican tried to impose on Bishop Fellay the “Vatican Ultimatum,” or five conditions necessary for any discussions.

So under this Roman pressure, Bishop Fellay had still not decided in the early autumn of 2008 to do as Our Lady asked, despite her repeated requests, and in fact on October 5, 2008, despite her direct warnings, he chose to apply the Second Rosary Crusade, set to run from November 1 until Christmas, to the intention of the “excommunications” of 1988 being lifted. On the same day Our Lord displayed His anger to the messenger of Our Lady by a vision of Him bringing down His hand to destroy the SSPX, while he referred to them as “Pharisees and hypocrites,” and said, “I can no longer put up with them.” But in the very moment of Our Lord’s hand falling, the messenger saw the Blessed Virgin Mary interceding on the Society’s behalf, pleading for mercy and saying “Remember the weakness of men.” The messenger then saw Our Lord’s anger immediately give way to His mercy.

But the Bishop’s mind was now made up. Three weeks later on October 26, at the Pontifical Mass climaxing the Society’s pilgrimage to Lourdes for the 150th Jubilee of Our Lady’s apparitions at Lourdes, he went ahead with announcing that the second Rosary Crusade would be dedicated to the lifting of the “excommunications” of 1988. On December 16 he wrote in private to the Pope, as requested by Benedict XVI, the letter asking the Pope for the lifting of the excommunications of 1988. On January 24, 2009, these were partially lifted by Rome. Bishop Fellay directly attributed this to the intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and he must have exulted in this seeming triumph of his patient diplomacy.

Alas, any triumph was short-lived, because within days the enemies of Catholic Tradition fired off in their worldwide media a torpedo perfectly designed to blow out of the water the threatening reunion of the Catholic Pope with Catholic Tradition. When the six-minute film clip from November 1 of an SSPX Bishop casting serious doubt on the “holocaust” and “gas chambers” of World War II was made public, Benedict XVI had to run for cover from the deadly accusation of consorting with “anti-semites.” The SSPX-Rome agreement was blocked, for at least a few years. (To be concluded.)

Kyrie eleison.

Inside Story – III

Inside Story – III on November 1, 2014

To continue the story of Our Lady’s messages to the Superior General of the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) six years ago, some background is needed. Vatican II (1962–1965) wrenched the Catholic Church off course to reconcile it with the godless modern world. Archbishop Lefebvre (1905–1991) founded the SSPX in 1970 to help Catholics to stay on course, and for 21 years he kept it on course. But as soon as he died, mistakenly convinced (or self-deluded, God knows) that they were still following him, his younger successors in fact dreamt of a reconciliation with Conciliar Rome.

In 2000 the Conciliar leaders sat up and took notice of the SSPX when it made a highly successful Jubilee pilgrimage to the Basilicas of Rome. Public (as opposed to private) contacts were re-opened between the SSPX and the Romans, who now set about swallowing that SSPX which they had proved unable to spit out. “Let us talk,” they said. The SSPX leaders appeared to be wary: “You must prove your good will by liberating the Tridentine Mass and lifting the excommunications imposed on the SSPX bishops consecrated on June 30, 1988.” Little then happened, at least in public, because on both sides the idea of reconciliation needed to mature, but in 2006 Bishop Fellay, SSPX ringleader of the reconciliation, was re-elected Superior General. As we have seen, this was soon after Our Lady began to intervene with the messages of which we are telling the story.

In 2006 her desire for a Rosary Crusade for Russia’s Consecration was adopted by Bishop Fellay, but re-directed by him towards the first pre-condition for talks with Rome, the liberation of the Mass. In 2007 Benedict XVI partially satisfied the pre-conditon with his Motu Proprio. Rejoicing as though it were a complete satisfaction, Bishop Fellay moved on to the second pre-condition, the lifting of the excommunications, whereas Our Lady, immediately after the Motu Proprio, began a series of messages in August of 2007 insistently requesting that any second Rosary Crusade be dedicated to the Consecration of Russia. But Bishop Fellay would not commit himself because he knew that this Consecration did not appeal to the Romans. They wanted talks, and so did he, to reconcile the irreconcilable, Vatican II and Catholic Tradition. Now we can continue with the story.

In early 2008 Our Lady, observing how the Bishop was still hesitating, told him quite firmly through the messenger that he was “not to use the (second) Crusade for the intention of lifting the excommunications,” and that if he did, “it would be fatal for the Society of St Pius X.” She added that she would not bless any such effort, but would instead use the rosaries prayed by the faithful for other purposes. And on March 22, Holy Saturday, she said most specifically, “Tell Bishop Fellay that he cannot move any closer to Rome than he already is, however well-intentioned the Holy Father may be.” And she repeated, “Remember, however well-intentioned the Holy Father may be.”

Let the story again be interrupted to point out how pertinent this message was for the defence of the Faith, and how perfectly this inside story corresponds to the outside facts. At the head of the last worldwide bastion of the true Faith, Bishop Fellay is being tempted to put it back under the Conciliar Romans, terrible enemies of that Faith. Because he does not understand the modern world, he believes that the Conciliar Church is the Catholic Church and he trusts in the good intentions of its authorities (on the contrary Archbishop Lefebvre, after years of negotiations with the Roman authorities, described them – in private – as “a snake”). So if this inside story is true, and if Bishop Fellay makes the wrong decision, the SSPX is doomed. What happened? (To be continued.)

Kyrie eleison.

Inside Story – II

Inside Story – II on October 25, 2014

When the idea of a Rosary Crusade for the Consecration of Russia was first put to Bishop Fellay in June of 2006, he did not yet know that the idea was in fact a directive from Our Lady – the messenger had been too shy to tell him. So he did not knowingly go against Heaven’s will when on returning to Switzerland after his meeting with the messenger, he decided to take up the idea of a Crusade, but to apply it primarily to the liberation of the Tridentine Mass, leaving Russia’s Consecration among the secondary intentions. So, as Our Lady told her messenger, while she would bless the first Crusade as a sign that the messages were really from her, it would not be to confirm that the liberation of the Mass was what she really wanted. The true answer to the crisis of Church and world lay in Russia’s Consecration, as would soon be made very clear to the Bishop.

So, given the backing of Our Lady, the first Crusade was an unexpected success, both in the number of rosaries prayed by the people, and in Pope Benedict XVI’s fulfilment of Bishop Fellay’s long-standing wish by the declaration in his Motu Proprio of July 2007, that the Tridentine Mass had never been abrogated.

However, already in August of 2006, Our Lady had directed her messenger to send to Bishop Fellay a letter in which he was this time fully informed of all the details of her original request, including that it came from Heaven. To this letter the Bishop had responded positively, saying that he would use the boost from the first Crusade to launch the second, and that it would be best if he himself took the matter in hand. But one year later, soon after the Motu Proprio until the end of 2007, Our Lady directed the messenger to write to him, again and again, to remind him of her wish for a second Crusade that would be properly dedicated to the Consecration of Russia.

Still Bishop Fellay hesitated to commit himself, so in early 2008 Our Lady came back even more insistently with the same request for the Crusade to be dedicated to the Consecration. The problem was that Bishop Fellay had long been working on his own plan to solve the Church crisis by a reconciliation between the Society of St Pius X and Rome, and Our Lady’s request did not fit in with that plan. Therefore the more progress he seemed to be making with the Romans towards reconciliation, the more difficult it was becoming for him to keep his promise of doing what she asked, because he knew that what she asked would upset the Romans. Indeed . . .

It was at about this time that the messenger, being unaware of why the Bishop was continuing to stall over Our Lady’s request, asked her if the reason was that the Bishop was not sure that the request was indeed coming from Our Lady. “No,” came the simple answer, as Our Lady lowered her head and shook it gently from side to side, “that is not why.” Our Lady did not say what the real reason was, she only said that it was not because the Bishop did not believe that it was herself making the request.

We approach the climax of the drama. Drama it was. In early 2008 the Blessed Virgin’s message concerning the Consecration of Russia was becoming urgent, as she knew that the Bishop was seriously thinking of making use of the second Crusade for his own purposes. This time he wanted to use it to achieve the second of the pre-conditions for discussions with Rome – the lifting of the so-called excommunications of the four SSPX bishops in 1988.

Kyrie eleison.

(*Famous line from a poem by the Scot, Robbie Burns (1759–1796), meaning “go often wrong.”)

Inside Story – I

Inside Story – I on October 18, 2014

After 1917 it was made clear to the world by Our Lady of Fatima that the salvation of Church and world (“a period of peace”) depended upon two things: not only upon the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart by the Pope with all the bishops of the world, but also upon Catholics making reparation to her Heart by receiving Confession and Communion and by meditating for 15 minutes and praying a rosary on each first Saturday of the month. Therefore let no Catholic think that there is nothing they can do to help Church and world out of their present appalling crisis. Every single Catholic responding to her second request will help the Pope to respond to her first request.

But this response has not yet been sufficient. For instance in the 1930’s, Pope Pius XI was well aware of Our Lady’s first request, but he never performed the Consecration of Russia. Why not? According to Brother Michael of the Holy Trinity in the second of his excellent three volumes on The Whole Truth About Fatima, it was because Pius XI was engaged at that time in diplomatic contacts with the Russian authorities in Moscow, and he thought that his own diplomacy was a better way of dealing with Communists than Our Lady’s Consecration. He preferred the human to the divine way of dealing with the problem, and so of course the problem remained unsolved. The world plunged into World War II, and the Church was broken from within by Vatican II.

Now in the 2010’s a parallel story has been coming to light of Our Lady appealing through a messenger to Bishop Fellay for the Society of St Pius X to organize a Rosary Crusade to pray for the Consecration of Russia to take place. If this story is true (as I believe it is, and some other priests also believe), it is worth telling in a few issues of these Comments, not to discredit Bishop Fellay (whose preference for human means is as understandable as that of Pius XI – God is their judge), but in order to emphasize how urgent the Consecration of Russia remains, and especially the devout practice of the five first Saturdays, even nigh on 100 years later. But is the story true? In particular, how reliable is the messenger?

I myself have met with her several times, and I believe her story has every likelihood of being true, firstly because she is a serious adult person who gives every sign of telling the truth, but mainly because what she tells is an inside story that corresponds to, and explains, a large number of public facts and well-known events on the outside, so to speak. As to the messenger, readers are entitled to distrust my personal judgment, but as to the perfect correspondence between inside story and outside facts, readers can judge for themselves.

The story begins on Good Shepherd Sunday of 2004, when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to the messenger and gave her a message to be passed on to the Bishop of the Society of St Pius X. In it she asked for the SSPX to lead the faithful in a Rosary Crusade for the Consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart, that same Consecration that Heaven has been asking for since the 1920’s. The understanding in the 2000’s was that if this were done as she asked, it would at last obtain, through her, the graces to bring about the much needed Consecration.

In June of 2006 the messenger gave the message in person to Bishop Fellay. He discussed it with her, but did not yet know that it was in fact a directive from the Mother of God. And so on his way back to Switzerland he took a first important decision. As Americans say, “Stay tuned”!

Kyrie eleison.

Website Launch

Website Launch on October 11, 2014

On the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary a website has just been launched on the Internet which could be of serious interest to regular readers of these Eleison Comments. It will be found at www.stmarcelinitiative.com. It will present the latest issue and all back-issues of the Comments in English and Italian back to 2007, and the latest issue and back-issues for the last five years or so in French, German and Spanish. And for readers who prefer reading on paper to reading on an electronic screen, the website will offer various means of choosing back-issues and printing them together.

A second section of the website, “Books and Talks,” will make available recorded conferences and sermons of Bishop Williamson, copies on paper of the first two of the four volumes of his “Rector’s Letters” written in the USA between 1983 and 2003, and all extant literature seminars of Dr. White. Again, modern electronics will provide a variety of ways of reaching and downloading these recordings, but only a few are on video as well as on audio. Orders to purchase can also be made by telephone by dialling +1 844 SMI SHOP, i.e., 1 (844) 764–7467.

Catholics – and non-Catholics! – not yet familiar with the literature recordings of Dr. White should seize this opportunity to see how he uses the classics of world literature as a bridge to connect the Faith to the world around us. The gap between these two grows greater every day. Conciliar Catholics have tried to adapt yesterday’s Faith to today’s world and many have lost their Faith in the process. Traditional Catholics are liable to scorn both today’s world as irredeemably lost, and world literature as irredeemably “unspiritual,” and the Faith of many of them has become quite detached from reality in the process. Dr. White has both a strong faith and a firm grip on the real world around us today, and his mastery of world literature has enabled him to make sense of both for countless souls, old and young, who felt otherwise hopelessly schizophrenic. Strongly recommended.

A third section of the website concerns “Donations.” It will present a similar variety of electronic means of donating to help maintain an oasis of, one hopes, good sense amidst today’s wasteland of nonsense. It should allow benefactors to donate what they want, when they want, on the schedule they want, and with ease. To set up the website has actually been quite an expense on its own. We think it should prove well worth while, but it has been one more reason for us to appeal to your generosity. We thank you in advance.

A fourth section is entitled “Information.” It will tell a little about the St Marcel Initiative, about how the website operates, and about what Bishop Williamson has been doing and hopes to do. However, news of his future engagements must be released with a measure of caution, because he does not have only friends around the world.

The Internet has serious drawbacks and dangers, but there is no question that, by an astonishing variety of electronic means, truths can be found on it that can be found nowhere else. We gently hope that this new website will contribute to that fund of truth. A lot of work has gone into putting it together, and besides the contribution of the many workers, that of many benefactors has also been indispensable. We sincerely thank all concerned. May God repay each of them, each of yourselves.

Kyrie eleison.

Archbishop’s Sense – I

Archbishop’s Sense – I on October 4, 2014

In last month’s issue of The Recusant (www.The Recusant.com) is a translation into English of Archbishop Lefebvre’s last interview, published in French ( Fideliter #79) shortly before his death in March of 1991. He is always refreshing to read. He is clear, because he thinks from basic Catholic principles. He is transparent, because he has nothing to hide. He is unambiguous, because he is not trying to compromise Our Lord’s Church with Satan’s Vatican II. But notice how the interviewer’s questions indicate that the readership of Fideliter was naturally inclining to take the direction which the Society of St Pius X would begin to take a few years after the Archbishop’s death. Here is a selection of the questions and answers, somewhat abbreviated:—

Q: Why can you not make one last approach to Rome? We hear the Pope is “ready to receive you.” A: That is absolutely impossible, because the principles which now guide the Conciliar church are more and more openly contrary to Catholic doctrine. For instance Cardinal Ratzinger recently said that the Popes’ great anti-modernist documents of the 19 th and 20 th centuries rendered a great service in their day, but are now outdated. And John-Paul II is more ecumenical than ever (1990). “It is absolutely inconceivable that we can agree to work with such a hierarchy.”

Q; Has the situation in Rome deteriorated even since the negotiations of 1988?

A: Oh yes! “We will have to wait some time before considering the prospect of making an agreement. For my part I believe that God alone can save the situation, as humanly we see no possibility of Rome straightening things out.”

Q: But there are Traditionalists who have made an agreement with Rome while conceding nothing. A: That is false. They have given up their ability to oppose Rome. They must remain silent, given the favours they have been granted. Then they begin to slide ever so slowly, until they end up admitting the errors of Vatican II. “It’s a very dangerous situation.” Such concessions by Rome are meant only to get Traditionalists to break with the SSPX and submit to Rome.

Q: You say that such Traditionalists have “betrayed.” Isn’t that a bit harsh?

A: Not at all! For instance Dom Gérard made use of me, of the SSPX and its chapels and benefactors, and now they suddenly abandon us and join with the destroyers of the Faith. They have abandoned the fight for the Faith. They can no longer attack Rome. They have understood nothing of the doctrinal question. It is awful to think of the youngsters who joined them for the sake of Tradition and are now following them to Conciliar Rome.

Q: Is there a danger in remaining friends with Traditionalists who have gone over to Rome, and in attending their Masses?

A: Yes, because at Mass there is not only the Mass but there is also the sermon, the atmosphere, the surroundings, the conversations before and after Mass, and so on. All of these things make you little by little change your ideas. There is a climate of ambiguity. One is in an atmosphere submissive to the Vatican, subject ultimately to the Council, so one ends up by becoming ecumenical.

Q; John-Paul II is very popular. He wants to unite all Christians.

A: But in what unity? No longer in the Faith which a soul must accept, and which calls for conversion. The Church has been distorted, from being a hierarchical society into being a “communion.” Communion in what? Not in the Faith. No wonder one hears that Catholics are leaving the Faith in droves. (to be continued)

Kyrie eleison.