Sleepless Pope
Conciliar Rome’s radical misunderstanding of what the Catholic Traditional movement is all about, was illustrated once more in Paris last Wednesday when Cardinal Kasper, head of the Vatican department for relations with other Christian churches and with Jews, gave a press conference. From the Reuters report let me quote as faithfully as possible what the Cardinal thinks, summed up in five propositions, and then comment.
1) The doctrinal discussions presently taking place every two months between four theologians of Rome, and a bishop and three priests of the Society of St Pius X, are not proving easy. 2) The main problem is the concept of tradition. “Do we want a living tradition or a petrified tradition?” asked the Cardinal. 3) He said he is for this dialogue with the SSPX, but it has to be on Rome’s conditions and not on those of the SSPX. 4) If an agreement is to be reached, the SSPX will have to make concessions, and it will have to accept the Conciliar reforms. 5) Without an agreement the SSPX will have no official status, its priests will not be recognized as Catholic priests, nor will they be allowed to exercise their ministry.
(1) Of course it is not proving easy to reconcile 2+2=4 (Tradition and the SSPX) with 2+2=4 or
5 (Vatican II and Conciliar Rome). We are in the presence of two profoundly different
conceptions of arithmetic, of two just as profoundly different conceptions of Catholic Truth.
(2) 2+2=4 is truth, unchanging and unchangeable, therefore “traditional.” 2+2=4 or 5 is a brand
new arithmetic, as “living” as one likes, but utterly unreal, and so not traditional at all.
(3) If one is discussing true arithmetic, it will be on true arithmetic’s terms and not on the terms
of either party discussing, even if one of the parties takes its stand on those terms.
(4) Who wants, or needs, to arrive at an agreement that 2+2=4 or 5 (Vatican II)? Only
merchants of fantasy who no longer care for true arithmetic!
(5) If “official status,” “recognition as priests” and “being permitted to minister” all depend on
accepting that 2+2 can be 4 or 5, then all such “status,” “recognition” and “permission” are
being bought at the price of Truth. But if I sell off the Truth, how can I still have it to tell it?
And if I can no longer tell the Truth, what kind of a priest can I be, with what kind of a ministry?
Therefore in conclusion, it is not just on “tradition” but on the very nature of truth that these Romans and the SSPX part company. Changing truth, these Romans have lost the Truth, in fact they are, at least objectively speaking, murdering it, as Macbeth “doth murder sleep” (II,2). Indeed in the same Reuters article the Pope is quoted as having said that the SSPX problem “robs him of his sleep.” Holy Father, do believe that the Truth is far above the SSPX, which is no more than one of its tiny momentary defenders. Every one of us in the SSPX wishes you all kinds of well, especially to sleep well. It is not the SSPX, but murdered Truth, which is keeping you awake at night.
Kyrie eleison.
