ABOUT THE CHURCH AND THE VATICAN

Thanks to the Italian blog messainlatino which picked up this story from a Spanish blogger's site which provided the link to the Argentine newspaper where this interview was published Saturday:


The Lefebvrians - closer to the Pope:
Interview with Mons. Fellay
by Silvina Premat
Translated from

October 24, 2009


On Monday, five days after the news that Anglicans may return to the Roman Catholic Church as communities, the Lefebvrians will begin a dialog with Rome that may end similarly and which might have started earlier without the scandal provoked last January by Mons. Richard Williamson who denies the Holocaust.




Yesterday, Mons. Bernard Fellay, the successor to Mons. Marcel Lefebvre as the leader of the Catholics who constitute the one 'schism' of the 20th century, said that Williamson's statements were 'an unhappy episode' that was then exploited 'with the malicious intention' to attack the Pope and the Fraternity of St. Pius X (FSSPX).

Visiting Argentina, Fellay - one of the four bishops whose excommunication was lifted by Benedict XVI last January - gave an exclusive interview to La Nacion. In perfect Castilian Spanish, he denounced infighting at the Vatican and said that Williamson, who for five years headed the FSSPX seminary in La Reja, in Buenos Aires province, is 'in retirement' in London where he 'prays and studies'.


How much time do you figure the dialog with the Vatican will last?
It is difficult to say. In the Vatican, they talk about a year, at the least. That's pretty long.


And the result could be the definitive integration of the FSSPX with Rome?
One must distinguish between these doctrinal issues and what you call integration. They are two parallel matters. At any rate, even the Vatican says that this integration cannot take place until we settle these doctrinal points which are very important to us because there is so much confusion about them. To maintain Church unity, a clarification is necessary.


When you were in Salta [site of a Marian shrine in Argentina] recently, you said that some progressivist sectors of the Church are trying to hinder this rapprochement with the Holy See....
And so it is. An example is that the president of the German bishops' conference told a group of Parliament members recently that before the end of the year, we would be out of the Church. This shows very clearly a hostile attitude.

It complicates our problem that there is infighting in the Vatican. So, who would be our interlocutor? The progressivists or the conservatives? It is difficult to know, because this too is not clear. [Mons. Fellay, in this case, you are dealing with Benedict XVI's trusted men - no reason why you can't get that clear! The Pope alone is 'controlling' this process.]... The Church should maintain unity beyond this kind of division.


And where does the Pope stand in this?
He's caught in the middle. He would like to be Pope for everyone. It is difficult.


You have denounced that broadcasting Williamson's interview just when the lifting of your excommunication was announced, was manipulated by those Church sectors against you.
Yes. Even at the Vatican afterwards, there was a dossier that showed the very great possibility of an abusive instrumentalization of Williamson's interview. The very fact that an interview done in November 2008 was not broadcast until the end of January 2009 is strange in itself. Moreover, that interview was also used to keep us from using some churches in Sweden. It all goes to show it was done out of malice.


Who was behind this instrumentalization?
Certainly the progressivists, also the political left, and probably, the Masons. They used that episode to strike at us, but much more, at the Pope himself. This is what's tragic about the episode.

They see a Pope who is gradually trying to make corrections to certain [post Vatican II] reforms, and they do not like it. And so they use this episode as the hammer with which to strike at the Church.


You said then that Williamson's views were personal. What is his situation now now?
Williamson's views [on the Holocaust] are his own. The Holocaust was never a problem for the FSSPX. He's in retirement now in one of our priories in London where he prays and studios.