The Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, has learnt by the press of Bishop Richard Williamson’s decision, just ten days before his trial, to dismiss the lawyer charged with his defense, in favor of a lawyer who is openly affiliated to the so-called neo-Nazi movement in Germany, and to other such groups.Source
Bishop Fellay has given Bishop Williamson a formal order to go back on this decision and to not allow himself to become an instrument of political theses that are completely foreign to his mission as a Catholic bishop serving the Society of Saint Pius X.
Disobedience to this order would result in Bishop Williamson being expelled from the Society of Saint Pius X.
Menzingen, november 20 of 2010.
Fr. Christian Thouvenot, general Secretary
As alluded to in the above statement, it is widely reported that Williamson has sacked his attorney and hired one with well established connections to the extreme right (neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers). I have long suspected that Williamson was a closet sedevacantist and would eventually bolt the SSPX. Perhaps I will yet be proved wrong. But the evidence thus far suggests otherwise.
A quick reminder... this post is NOT an invitation to debate the historical accuracy of the Holocaust which is an established fact that is not open for discussion on this blog. Any comments even hinting at that will be deleted and the poster banned without further warning.
Lest we be too hard on Msgr. Williamson, we too have some extremists in the Orthodox church, such as the pamyat faction in Russia. This group served as an embarrassment to the Russian Church when one or two Bishops had some dealings with them. God spare us from the wiles of the Evil One, who is from the beginning the Liar.
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ReplyDeleteMe thinks you are correct about Bishop Williamson having Sedevacantist ambitions. I don't know how many followers he has in the U.K. but I am sure he has a number here in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI was once interested in the SSPX movement and subscribed to their publication "THE ANGELUS". I cancelled after 2 issues because of not only the anti-Jewish, anti-Israel rants being passed as 'Catholic theology' but it's blatant racism as well. If this was the face of 'true Roman Catholicism' I wanted no part. I have enough problems with Orthodox wackos. Thank GOD there aren't that many and don't have the press that the Catholic ones do.
I'd expect to see Bishop Williamson declare himself as the 'true' representative of what Archbishop Lefevbre wanted the SSPX to be or maybe he will just go off and declare himself the true Pope.
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ReplyDeleteI do not believe Williamson is even a closet sedevacantist.
ReplyDeleteWilliamson was a prime mover in getting the 'Naughty Nine' expelled from the SSPX in 1983 turning sedevacantism into a major issue when the prime objection of the Nine was the imposition of the 1962 liturgical books back in 1983.
I keep seeing that word, sedevacantist. What does it mean?
ReplyDeleteA sedevacantist is someone who believes the Papacy is vacant. The words sedes vacante mean "the seat being vacant."
ReplyDeleteIn a nutshell, sedevacantist Catholics believe that Pope John XIII and his successors departed from the Catholic Faith for a number of reasons, and that the Pope lost his office by teaching heresy.
There are many sedevacantist groups, some more reactionary than others.
Ingemar
ReplyDeleteIt is Latin for "the chair is empty." It is used to refer to those nominal Catholics who believe that there has been no Pope since at least the reign of John XXIII because of what the perceive has the heresies of modernism and Vatican II.
In ICXC
John
Can't one favor Tradition/Orthodoxy in the Latin expression without being a holocaust denier and conspiracy theorist? I'm with Matthew the Curmudgeon, we have enough problems with own.
ReplyDeleteTechnically all Orthodox are sedevacantists since we believe there hasn't been an Orthodox Pope of Rome since 1054.