Posted on 07/18/2002 3:10:53 PM PDT by narses
Letter of Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos to Mgr. Fellay (English translation by Mr. Ken Jones, Una Voce St. Louis)
The Vatican, April 5, 2002
Dear Brother in the Lord:
Since the beginning of our fraternal contacts to find a way toward full communion, I believe that we have experienced the solicitude of our merciful Lord: truly he has not spared us His aide and His support, to gather together all the good things that unite us and overcome what still divides us.
I read at the time attentively, in prayer and not without suffering, your letter of last June 22. I have also studied certain documents concerning our conversations, written by members of the Fraternity of St. Pius X, published on the Internet and disseminated by other means of communication. I have also reread the letters of the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X, the interviews granted by Your Excellency and the letters that you have sent me.
Until today, for my part, I have never agreed to grant interviews on the subject, in order to maintain the privacy of the details of our dialogue: for me they have always had a provisional and discreet character, because of the great responsibility that I feel in conscience for this matter. It now seems to me opportune, for the love of truth, to clarify here several aspects of the development of this reconciliation, with the intention of imparting a new impetus, to be frank, to move beyond possible suspicions and misunderstandings that compromise the outcome that, I have no doubt, Your Excellency also desires.
The subject that we are considering will have, in fact, particularly important historical consequences, because it touches the unity, the truth and the holiness of the Church, and it is necessary therefore to treat it with charity but also with objectivity and truth. Our sole judge is Christ the Lord.
Permit me now to give a brief historical overview of our journey:
First of all, I must reiterate a historical truth, at the root of everything. My first initiative was not the result of a Pontifical mandate and was not the fruit of an agreement or project of some other person from the Apostolic See, contrary to what has been written and rumored, as if it was a matter of a definite strategy. As I have already had the occasion to say several times, the dialogue was completely my own personal initiative.
In the second week of August 2000, on returning from Colombia, I learned through the media that was available on the airplane, and only through it, that the Society of St. Pius X was participating in the Jubilee. On my own initiative, and without speaking to anyone about it, I decided to invite the four bishops of the Fraternity to a private dinner with me. The meeting with brother bishops would be a gesture of fraternal love, the occasion of a reciprocal exchange. I therefore had the joy of meeting Your Excellency, as well as Their Excellencies Tissier and Williamson. As you will recall, we did not discuss any subject thoroughly, even if, naturally, we did speak about the liturgical rites, and I was able to become familiar with several aspects of the current life of your Fraternity. I manifested publicly the good impression that the aforementioned Prelates made on me.
I subsequently gave an account of this meeting to the Holy Father, and I received from him words of encouragement. I expressed a desire to maintain contacts to explore the possibilities of this much hoped for unity. The Sovereign Pontiff asked me to continue, and he manifested his clear will to accommodate the Society of St. Pius X, by promoting the conditions necessary for this accommodation. Some time later I read, with a private satisfaction, the interview granted by Your Excellency to the magazine 30 Days. The journalist put these words on your lips: "If the Holy Father calls me I come, or rather I run." I had occasion to speak with the Holy Father about this interview, in which Your Excellency expressed freely and spontaneously his thought: the Holy Father indicated to me, one more time, his generous will to accommodate your Fraternity.
As a result, I contacted Cardinals Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State for His Holiness, Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Jorge Medina Estevez, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, as well as with His Excellency Mgr. Julian Herranz, President of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts. All manifested their satisfaction with a view to an eventual solution of the difficulties. I also consulted Cardinals Paul Augustin Mayer and Alfons Marie Stickler, who were of the same opinion. It is thus that we studied the fundamental theological problems, already present in 1988 when an accord with His Excellency Mgr. Lefebvre was prepared. It did not seem to us that there have been any new problems. Then we began studying several juridical forms that would make a reintegration possible; this appeared very much desirable. Throughout history, the desire for unity has always been a constant for the See of Peter.
To all it seemed appropriate, if Your Excellency agreed, that the undersigned could proceed to a new dialogue of a provisional character. It was not a matter of discussing theological problems in depth, but preparing the way for reconciliation.
I therefore invited Your Excellency by letter; you amiably accepted the invitation and the meeting took place on Dec. 29, 2000.
As Your Excellency knows well, we then studied the possibility of reconciliation and of the return to full communion, as a very concrete and special fruit of the Jubilee. We concluded with a dinner at my residence, attended also by the Rev. Michel Simoulin, in a very cordial and fraternal climate.
Informed of this new reunion, and despite the amount of work he had in the last days of the great Jubilee, the Holy Father received you with the Abbe Simoulin on Dec. 30, 2000 in his private chapel. After a few minutes of silent prayer, the Holy Father said the Our Father, followed by those present, then he wished them a Holy Christmas. He blessed them by offering several rosaries and encouraged them to continue the dialogue undertaken.
In the same Apostolic Palace and in the presence of the personal secretaries of the Holy Father, I read to Your Excellency a Protocol regarding the dialogue of the preceding day, which would be sent to the Sovereign Pontiff. You have expressed your agreement by specifying two points: 1) the prayer for the Pope in the Canon of the Mass was not your decision but was a prior provision of Mgr. Lefebvre; 2) reservation about Vatican II especially regarding religious liberty, since the rights of God over the public order could not be limited. The secretary took notes in order to make a report to the Holy Father.
For further clarity, permit me to transcribe here the aforesaid protocol:
More (27 pages more) at the link.
Just speaking for myself, I hope patent comes back at you with the Dies Irae :)Why bother? McDuell slams JPII as having done nothing for the faith in the last 25 years. I ask McDuell what he has done, and apparently his response is that the only thing he has done is type/sing Kumbayah. At least he is consistent(ly vacuous).
Doesn’t seem to me he could handle the Dies Irae, though I do have to admire your recommendation. It fits.
patent +AMDG
Here you go!
Dies irae, dies illaPersonally, I prefer Hector Berlioz' version, although some are partial to Mozart. :-)
solvet saeclum in favilla,
teste David cum Sibylla.Quantus tremor est futurus,
quando judex est venturus,
cuncta stricte discussurus.
I love his whole Requiem.
Reconcile with the SSPX first, then start splitting heads over here, using newly integrated SSPX priests as shock troops?That would be an insanely wonderful event. O Lord, if it is Thy will, please let this come to pass!
Yours in Christian Fraternity,
No they do not. They are in opposition to his authority. They usurp both Jurisdiction and Ministry and they are schismatic. No matter where they go, they are intruding on the Jurisdiction of legitimate Catholic Bishops and they exercise an unjust and illicit ministry.
One watches their actions and turns an deaf ear to their duplicitious pronouncemnets of accepting the Pope
People know when they're getting the Real Thing. Our Anglican Use parish packs 'em in at all four Sunday masses; even the weekday low mass and Thursday night Mass for the Church are well-attended. We have no altar girls, extraordinary ministers, hula dancers, puppets, masks, clay pots or banjo pickers. We do have a married priest, but he was married before he was Catholic, so he's 100% in obedience to Rome (and we have a certificate on the wall of the narthex signed by His Holiness John Paul II to prove it!). In obedience to the Pope and Magisterium, I honor the so-called Novus Ordo as the normative use of the Roman Rite, but I'm also thankful that there are alternatives; it doesnn't have to be a question of either the Tridentine mass or the Novus Ordo! The Anglican Use of the Roman Rite is a mass in the grand Tradition of Christian worship, and my hope is that it will serve as a mustard seed of liturgical orthodoxy.
If you get the chance, please visit an Anglican Use mass in your area. I promise a beautiful, orthodox, dignified, and above all Catholic worship experience.
Yours in Christian Fraternity,
My greatest weakness.
Thank you for the subsequent defense. This victory (the banning of the psychotic theotokos) goes hand in Hand (oops) with the other news I have to report this morning.
The meeting this morning, with the abuse victim, his mom, our bishop, the archabbot, and myself went very well.
The victim is no longer suicidal, and is receiving satisfactory treatment for his depression. We got everything we asked for, including coverage for his substance abuse counseling, help with his bills accrued during the time he was institutionalized for suicidal threats, their pledge to intercede on his behalf with the court regarding the victim's DUI charges, and the promise to pay for homosexual reparative therapy in the future if the victim chooses (even if he has to travel 4 hours to a doc in Philadelphia recommended to me by Fr. Harvey from Courage.)
This alone was a major victory. Our bishop's psychologist, David Brown, who screens our seminarians, has publicly stated that reparative therapy for homosexuals is bogus. For them to agree to it in this meeting is a major victory and another rebuke to Brown, psychologist mentioned in Michael Rose's book "Goodbye Good Men."
The offending priest has had all his faculties removed. He's not even allowed to say private mass. He has been removed from all interaction with the public.
The victim is returning to Church and the sacraments. (Years ago his mother gave him a Benedictine crucifix blessed by JPII. He had never worn it. After I met with him a week ago and he saw me wearing my 3 inch benedictine cross publicly, he got his out and started wearing it for the first time.)
He will start counseling for the homosexual abuse itself very soon with a friend of mine, a very orthodox Catholic counselor.
Thank you all again, for your charity and prayers for this man!!!
Do you have a link to a nationwide list of those Parishes which celebrate it?
Code word?!? We don't need no stinkin' code word.
Us KoC type Catholics, we use secret handshakes, remember?
Thanks for the news. That's wonderful. I'll continue to remember the young man in my prayers, especially that those in ecclesiastic authority now live up to their promises.
sitetest
Brian isn't actually a trad. He is sympathetic toward them, but sometimes thinks trads get a bit out of hand.
Extreme Trad? LOL! Tell that to the bongo drum and guitar playing choir at the Novus Ordo mass I attended yesterday. I thought extreme trads (like myself?) only attended schismatic Latin Masses?!? Heck, I barely make it to one Indult Latin Mass per year.
Extreme Trad? LOL! Don't tell my pastor at my Novus Ordo parish! He won't let me teach our Novus Ordo CCD class to the 10th and 11th graders for the sixth year running! Heck, he probably won't even let my oldest son serve his first Novus Ordo mass as an altar boy this fall. This could ruin my reputation!
By the way, after our meeting this morning, my bishop, Joseph Adamec, warmly shook my hand and said, "So nice to finally meet you in person, Dr. Kopp."
I am certainly glad I can't read thoughts...
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