Bishop Williamson, 28 Feb 2007
Posted on 01/20/2010 10:16:09 AM PST by NYer
Bishop Richard Williamson, the ultra-traditionalist prelate whose denial of the extent of the Holocaust created an uproar in the Catholic Church and with Jews early last year, has said the discussions at the Vatican to rehabilitate his Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) are a “dialogue of the deaf.” Williamson, one of the four SSPX bishops whose bans of excommunication were lifted by Pope Benedict only days after his controversial views were aired on Swedish television, said the two sides had “absolutely irreconcilable” positions.
In a 15-minute interview posted on the French video-sharing website Dailymotion, Williamson discussed a number of issues with a man identified by the Paris Catholic daily La Croix as a minor French far-right politician named Pierre Panet. When asked about the negotiation under way at the Vatican to reintegrate the once-shunned SSPX into the Roman church, he said in fluent French:
“I think that will end up as a dialogue of the deaf. The two positions are absolutely irreconcilable. 2+2=4 and 2+2=5 are irreconcilable. Either those who say 2+2=4 renounce the truth and agree that 2+2=5 — that is, the SSPX abandons the truth, which God forbids us to do — or those who say 2+2=5 convert and return to the truth. Or the two meet halfway and say that 2+2=4-1/2. That’s wrong. Either the SSPX becomes a traitor or Rome converts or it’s a dialogue of the deaf.”
Williamson’s negationist views of the Holocaust caused such an uproar early last year that the head of the SSPX, Bishop Bernard Fellay, issued a gag order for him. It was so embarrassing for Benedict that he had to issue a letter to Catholic bishops around the world explaining his decision.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.reuters.com ...
Ping!
***the ultra-traditionalist prelate whose denial of the extent of the Holocaust created an uproar in the Catholic Church***
He a fan of Pius?
The members and followers of SSPX who have ceased to be Catholic will head off into the weeds ...
He will separate the wheat from the chaff.
It is all about pride, it is all about I’m so holy I do it right while every other Catholic does it wrong.
My SSPX friend doesn’t have a clue, her life is in shambles, her children have left the SSPX church, her husband barely speaks to her, her mother only does because she is her daughter, I speak to her because I love her...all because she is in love with religion but not necesarily God. She is in love with the trappings, with the thought that she is doing it right, like somehow saying things in Latin is magic.
If my family didn’t like me and my life was as messed up as her’s, the first thing I’d do is inventory myself. If my attitude towards religion was pushing everyone I knew further from God, I’d wonder what kind of religion I was peddling. She has no joy, just rules and regulations. She doesn’t revel in the gifts that God has given us and continues to give but only in her misery.
Okay, rant off.
Wow! I never realized how fluently he speaks French! Brilliant guy.
Pius XII, you mean? The man who was praised and honored by Jews all over the world when he died in 1958? The Pope whose record of saving Jews and undermining Hitler was well known to everyone—until the Commies unleashed vile, libelous charges against him in the 1960s? That Pius?
Yes, you do get a few of those. I’ve also seen folks with the same perverse dedication to liturgical and theological modernism.
Some folks appear to me to be uninterested in the truth.
AFAIK, all four of the illictly-consecrated SSPX bishops are loons. But Williamson is the looniest by far.
Maureen Dowd deserves special dishonorable mention, for implying that Benedict lifted Williamson’s excommunication BECAUSE Williamson denied the Holocaust.
I get the strong feeling from Williamson that he doesn’t want reconciliation with Rome, period. He’s basically as anti-Papal as any ardent Protestant.
You make an excellent and very astute statement. How tragic that this woman has been taken in by this group.
The Pope shouldn’t give these crackpots the time of day. Continuing to attempt to “dialogue” with them just gives them credibility they don’t deserve. Since they’re so sure the Pope is wrong about everything, they’re obviously not Roman Catholics and don’t want to be.
And look at Mel Gibson. He’s quite the poster child for what this cult can do to someone’s life.
Sounds like this guy is trying hard to sabotage reconciliation of SSPX with the Catholic Church and the Pope. He certainly doesn’t seem so big on Vatican I’s teaching on the role of the Pope as supreme governor of the Church.
How does that make him an ultra-traditionalist? If anything, he's a whack job. The Pope needs to excommunicate him again.
There it is, folks. The problem in a nutshell and confirmation that there will be no reconciliation of all four SSPX bishops and their followers.
That's about as clear a statement as one can make that SSPX is the true guardian of Catholicism and that the rest of the Church must "convert". Williamson equates the reintegration of the SSPX with treachery. Calling the talks a "dialogue of the deaf" is essentially the same as saying they are a waste of time. One can therefore conclude that the talks have gone ahead without his approval.
Williamsom was exiled from Minnesota to Argentina and was subsequently yanked from the seminary there to an indefinite sabbatical in London. I think it's fair to say that SSPX really don't know what to do with him. I have no doubt that there are saner minds within SSPX and hopefully these will help to steer the group towards reconciliation with the Pope but I'll bet my next pay check that Williamson will never be a part of such a reconciliation.
Talk about deaf. The man is deaf, dumb, blind and ignorant. Having dealt with him personally, I can tell you you honestly that it is all about him!
Grrr. If he really were deaf he wouldn’t be saying those things.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.