Replies

That looks like Fr. Schmidberger to me, rather than Bishop Fellay. I had thought Fr. Schmidberger would not be attending the meeting, but if he did that's probably a good sign for reconciliation, as I have always understood him to be in favor of it.

The wording of the press release from Dr. Navarro-Valls was also interesting, as it sounded more positive than it might.

I think that ultimately that it is likely the SSPX will have to come back into regular status with Rome without Bp Williamson, who seems determined to continue in exile forever, much like the Russian Old Believers, who have been out of the Moscow Patriarchate fold for 300 or so years, or for that matter certain segments of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), who are resisting the reconciliation of ROCOR with Moscow that is now starting to take place. Interestingly enough, the canonical Orthodox now seem to be developing something of an admiration for the Old Believers' faith and fidelity, despite in some cases bloody persecutions. A very interesting literary treatment of this is in Solzhenitsyn's "August 1916."

Oremus--and hard.

I think that ultimately that it is likely the SSPX will have to come back into regular status with Rome without Bp Williamson, who seems determined to continue in exile forever

DING!

You win!

I think there are a lot of die hards, that wave the SSPX banner, but are actually sedes. Williamson is probably among them. I would like to see more Tridentine Rite Masses, and I think there would have been a quicker resolution of the problems of the SSPX if Fellay had plowed on without Williamson. I think not requiring a repudiation of previous errors can be ignored, if the SSPX leadership can assent to the way things are now. The issue of universal Indult has not been settled, but it soon may be.

I think you are right about Williamson, the more I read about him the less inclined I am to believe that he will ever reconcile.

Bishop Fellay on the other hand seems inclined towards this, based on his excellent interview in Latin Mass Magazine.

I do expect there to be a split within the SSPX if an accord in reached, what it will look like I don't know.

I wonder if Bishop Fellay woul

Oops, "November 1916".

Incidentally, I don't think that Bp Williamson is a sede. I have always had a sneaking liking for him, at least ever since he (conditionally) confirmed me in 1995 or so, when I was doing the SSPX thing. At that Mass he preached a stem-winding homily against ladies wearing shorts or pants, among other things, as I recall. I went home and told Her Honor, who was at the time (this was late May, I believe, and so already quite hot) decked out in shorts preparing to fly to New Orleans for court the next day. Her response was, as one might expect, one of her classics.