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Dear Maximilian,

If he was expelled for plotting to create a new order, and the SSPX was unaware of homosexual relations on his part prior to his expulsion, then on what basis did Bishop Fellay make his accusations? For accusations made after the fact of his expulsion? Frankly, if I were the individual to whom Bishop Fellay communicated these things, I would discount them heavily.

It is a natural human tendency to demonize those whom we have decided were once our friends but are now our enemies. When an individual's picture of someone grows increasingly darker after the rupture of the relationship, others need to be careful in accepting uncritically all that is purported by the individual. Even if Bishop Timlin were to ascribe goodwill to an excommunicant, he should still have dealt with any accusations of this nature very gingerly, with great caution.

Certainly, the SSPX did. For ten years or more. It took ten years for the SSPX to figure out the priest was not a good fellow.

If the SSPX did not know that he was an active homosexual at the time of departure, then for ten years, he ably fooled the SSPX! What good judgment is represented there? If they were unaware of his perverted lusts, he deceived the SSPX for ten years while living in their midst!

If, on the other hand, the SSPX had some knowledge of his homosexual acts before expelling him, then at the least, it should have been made clear that that was a reason for expulsion, at the time of expulsion.

But the question arises, then, what did the SSPX know, and when did they know it? Even you are unclear as to the actual facts of the situation.

"An official letter from one bishop to another"

Well, this is as true as it goes, but this phrase truncates the truth. The letter sent was not between two Catholic bishops in communion with the Catholic Church, but between a Catholic bishop in communion with the Catholic Church and an excommunicated, renegade bishop without any jurisdiction whatsoever leading up an organizaiton that has been declared in schism by the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church.

Whether you regard the SSPX as being in or out of the Catholic Church, the pope does not, and it is very unlikely that Bishop Timlin disagrees with the Holy Father. Thus, from Bishop Timlin's perspective, he is not receiving a communication from a brother bishop of the Catholic Church. He is receiving accusations that are "coming over the transom" from the head of an organization with a checkered history, that has been declared out of communion with the Catholic Church. He is receiving accusations from someone who has beeen marked, by name, as excommunicated by the Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Catholic Church.

Furthermore, he is receiving this accusation against someone who eventually turned against the excommunicant's organization.

Just as the SSPX took over ten years to come to a negative conclusion about this person's fitness to be a priest, it took the Catholic Church some time, as well (although somewhat less than 10 years).

I'm not sure that either the SSPX organization or the Catholic Church covered themselves in glory in this case, but one certainly can't condemn the actions of the Catholic Church while upholding the prudence and good judgment of the SSPX organization.

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