[NYer]

From Jeff Ostrowski.

* * * * *

I have always liked the final letter of Cardinal Ratzinger to Archbishop Marcel Lefevbre, begging him not to ordain bishops without the proper permission from Rome (doing such a thing is automatic excommunication).

For the love of Christ and of his Church the Holy Father paternally and firmly asks you to come to Rome today without proceeding to the episcopal ordinations on June 30 which you have announced. He prays to the holy Apostles Peter and Paul to inspire you not to betray the episcopate whose charge you have received, nor the oath you have taken to remain faithful to the Pope, the Successor of Peter. He asks God to save you from leading astray and scattering those whom Jesus Christ came to gather together in unity..

He entrusts you to the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.

I cannot help being moved when I read this letter, most of all when I consider Ratzinger's super-human patience with Lefebvre. Lefebvre had a tendency, in negotiations with Rome, to agree to something, and then renege the next day. He would make up his mind to reconcile himself with the Church, and then he would change his mind and stubbornly deny words spoken and promises made. A case in point is the document Dignitatis Humanae, to which Lefebvre signed his name during the second Vatican Council. Later on in his life, he said the document was heresy and denied ever signing it (I believe that some of his followers still hold that belief). Another example is the constituion of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter: it was drawn up to try and reconcile Lefebvre's schismatic group, and he had accepted the terms, but he later reneged. How frustrated Ratzinger must have been by the time he wrote the above letter (June 29, 1988), which was sent to Lefevbre by telegram!

Unfortunately, Lefevbre responded in his usual manner. He followed his own will, without regard for the Church, simply because he wanted to. He harmed the Church very much.

However, there is a silver lining to every cloud. It turns out that Lefebvre was reconciled with the Church during the very last hours of his life. I know a priest whose friend (also a priest) lifted the Lefebvre's excommunication while he was on his deathbed. I believe that he was thinking of Ratzinger's telegram above when he made this all-important decisions, renouncing his past scismatic actions as well as his heretical beliefs.

By an odd coincidence, I also know a priest who met the Cardinal that lifted Fr. Leonard Feeney's excommunication, as Fr. Feeney lay on his deathbed. Very few people know that this priest, who denied the Council of Trent's teachings about Baptism of desire, came back to the Church at the end of his life.

[Mershon]

I would be interested in getting a link or having access to the full context of Ostrowski's remarks if you have them.

[pascendi]

Extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

[pascendi]

"By an odd coincidence, I also know a priest who met the Cardinal that lifted Fr. Leonard Feeney's excommunication, as Fr. Feeney lay on his deathbed. Very few people know that this priest, who denied the Council of Trent's teachings about Baptism of desire, came back to the Church at the end of his life."

It's almost as if he thinks he knows what he's talking about here. That's pretty funny.

[pascendi]

"By an odd coincidence, I also know a priest who met the Cardinal that lifted Fr. Leonard Feeney's excommunication, as Fr. Feeney lay on his deathbed. Very few people know that this priest, who denied the Council of Trent's teachings about Baptism of desire, came back to the Church at the end of his life."

Father Feeney was "excommunicated" in 1972.

He died in 1978.

Jeff Ostrowski seems to think that Father Feeney was on his deathbed for 6 years. Typical NeoCatholic getting things all goofed up.

Another goof-up: Father Feeney's "excommunication" cited disobedience, not any point of heresy. It was lifted, 6 years before his death, via his recitation of the Nicene Creed, the Apostle's Creed, and the Athenasian Creed.

The first line of the Athenasian Creed is what I have been using for my tagline.

So much for Ostrowski's accuracy.

[Lilllabettt]

I remember the first time I read that telegram it pratically made me want to cry. Ratzinger doesn't like his job to begin with, and then he had to deal with that stuff. Can you imagine? All I've heard him say about it was that "His Excellency was a very difficult man." Ugh. I woulda torn my hair out.

[pro Athanasius]

He never left the Church and he was not asked to recant any of his possitions - where are you getting your ungrounded notions? All he had to do was say the Creed. The Church did not handle his case right in the 1950's.

On Ratzigner's super human patience? With what tradition??