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Excomm’d SSPX Bp. Williamson on Good Friday prayer: good points but calls Benedict XVI anti-semitic
Now, compare and contrast what Jacob Neusner wrote with what the excommunicated SSPX bishop Richard Williamson wrote.
Part of what Williamson writes, below, is rather interesting. He makes some good points. However, he steps over the line.
My emphases and comments:
True Anti-Semitism
Eleison Comments XXXIV
Most people seeing how Pope Benedict XVI has changed the Church’s Good Friday prayer for the Jews will think he has been their friend, because the change was in a direction demanded by spokesmen of theirs, who made themselves heard. However, for any Catholic who has the Catholic Faith, Benedict XVI has been in this not their friend but their enemy. [There it is, folks.]
The difference is quite simply the difference between our brief life here below, and life everlasting: For purposes of this life, lasting for each of us, let us say, 70 years, he has been their friend, because by, for instance, taking out of the 1962 text the references to the Jews’ "blindness", "darkness" and "the veil over their hearts", he has softened the Church’s solemn criticism of their condition.. On the other hand by the same softening he will also have diminished Catholics’ awareness of how especially Jews need the charity of Catholics’ prayers. [I don’t think anyone who actually reads the new Good Friday prayers can come to that conclusion. Folks, it is important to seek in the text what the text means. Seek help of interpretation, of course, but read the texts. Don’t just settle on what I or this exccommunicated bishop says.]
For indeed from Adam to world’s end, faith in the one and only Redeemer, to come or having come, can alone save any soul from eternal damnation, unless that soul lives without serious sin and is honestly ignorant of the Redeemer. But honest ignorance presents a particular difficulty for the Jews who had all the privileges of the Old Testament to prepare them for the coming of their Messiah, Jesus Christ, and who ever since have had to put "the veil over their hearts" in order not to recognize him in the multiple prophecies of their Old Testament, notably Isaiah LIII. [Take note of what Williamson does: he places great emphasis on the image of the "veil". He is saying that Jews really sort of know that Jesus is the Messiah, but they purposely blind themselves to the truth. For Williamson, they are not honest. I think that what Jews know and believe about Jesus is more complex. Still, the poetic image of "veil" does indeed get at this tangled issue in a way, arguably, that the newer prayer does not. The new prayer emphasized a different point.]
Therefore the recent Good Friday liturgy change, by diminishing Catholics’ awareness of that real "veil", etc, has done a disservice to Jews’ eternal salvation. [I don’t think that the Catholic people will necessarily have to remain ignorant of the "veil", if it is properly presented.] In this respect of the Catholic Faith, Benedict XVI has, objectively, shown himself to be against the Jews purely as Jews. [This strikes me as being over the top.] Is there any other possible true definition of the expression "anti-semite" ? [Williamson has just called Benedict XVI and "anti-semite".] Sacred Heart of Jesus, between now and world’s end, grant to your Church many martyrs to die for the eternal salvation of your racial kinsmen, beloved by you ! Kyrie eleison.
La Reja, Argentina posted by Bishop Richard Williamson at 11:41 PM
The SSPX seem to live as if the church was still in the Babylonian captivity of the 1970’s and 1980’s, and where they are the only faithful remnant holding on to orthodoxy and tradition. What they do not seem to realise is that the church have moved on a long way since then, and we are in the pontificate of Benedict XVI, not Paul VI! Ironically they are a mirror image of the aging liberal trendies, who hold the same position of the hermeneutic of rupture rather than continuity. So they are making the most preposterous claims about the Pope for changing the Good Friday prayers, even though we are still clearly praying for the conversion of the Jews!
Comment by The Expectation of Our Lady — 24 February 2008 @ 10:29 am“taking out of the 1962 text the references to the Jews’ “blindness”, “darkness” and “the veil over their hearts”
What Jews attend the TLM anyway?
don Jeffry
Comment by don Jeffry — 24 February 2008 @ 10:41 am“Take note of what Williamson does: he places great emphasis on the image of the “veil”. He is saying that Jews really sort of know that Jesus is the Messiah, but they purposely blind themselves to the truth. For Williamson, they are not honest.”
Fr. Z, this is where Williamson is wrong insofar as he presumes the ill will and culpable blindness of all Jews. Folks should read what the GSI have said on this point. We need to remember that God imposed the blindness—in part for the salvation of the gentiles. But, once the fulness of the gentiles have entered the Church then God will lift the veil of blindness…
Comment by schoolman — 24 February 2008 @ 10:42 amOkay, another reason to be a big fan of this pope . . . he’s now been called an anti-Semite by a Holocaust denier. How many people can say that?
Comment by Abe — 24 February 2008 @ 10:48 amFrankly, I am wary of our even acknowledging anything this guy says as significant. Having researched this Williamson fellow a bit and reading his stance on issues other than this one, I am more convinced than ever that any type of full reconciliation with the SSPX just isn’t going to happen because they (Williamson, Fellay, etc.) don’t want it to happen. Moreover, given the downright bizarre statements Williamson has made over the years (How about this pearl of wisdom: “Almost no girl should go to any university”), I’m not sure I would want him to be identified with the Church. As we say in the South, I think we need to “get shed of these folks” and move on. If SSPX’ers want to come back to the Church, fine and dandy. If not, goodbye and good luck with whatever it is you are looking for in a “church.”
Comment by TNCath — 24 February 2008 @ 1:07 pmDeborah: I removed your comments. Don’t cut and paste other people’s material into multiple comments. That’s not much better than spam. Give a precis of the arguments. And be sure that what you post is really germane to the topic.
Comment by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf — 24 February 2008 @ 1:16 pmOkay Father Z, perhaps that post was too long. I will shorten it.
The Jews do not believe Jesus is the Messiah because:
1) [Fr. Z adds: Jews claim that] Jesus did not fulfill the messianic prophecies.
2) [Jews claim that] Jesus did not embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah.
3) [Jews claim that] Biblical verses “referring” to Jesus are mistranslations.
4) Jewish belief is based on national revelation.
http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_messiah3.htm
Out of respect for dialogue between Jews and Christians Father, I hope you will allow this post to stand. [I fail to see why this would be a matter of “respect” for “dialogue”.]
Thank you.
Comment by Deborah — 24 February 2008 @ 1:19 pmSooner or later, I imagine, someone will bring up the “Williamson doesn’t speak for the SSPX” canard, ignoring the fact that the SSPX freely publishes his stuff on their websites. But why, I wonder, does the society put up with his rantings? Holocaust denial, 9/11 conspiracies (he claims the US bombed the WTC and hit the Penatgon with a guided missile, in order to justify war with Iraq), the already-quoted proscription against higher education for women (although he makes an exception for thos who wish to attend St Mary’s in Kansas, the SSPX’s unaccredited 2-year college)—where is the outrage over what an albatross he is for traditionalism?
Unless, of course, followers of the SSPX don’t object because they agree with him. And if the society knows anything, it knows what sells to those who have drunk the Kool-ade.
Comment by Integer Vitae — 24 February 2008 @ 1:36 pmWith regard to the reason why the SSPX keeps the good bishop around: this is the same reason the Church keeps bad bishops around, they do not want someone with valid episcopal orders running around loose consecrating bishops willy nilly. This has always been the pastoral reaction of the Church to bad bishops. Do you really think the world would be better, with Bishop Williamson starting his own society of priests?!
With regard to the statement about women in university, I would have to know the context. I remember Kimberly Hahn giving a talk in Steubenville, basically saying how wrong it is for girls to go to university to learn some practical skill, finding a husband, graduating and saddling her husband with a negative dowry of some $40000 in student loans. My own daughter is 18 and is going to college to be a nurse. She knows that we must pay as she goes, and there will be no dating/courting until after graduation. She chose nursing, just in case her husband/family runs into a hardship, she will be able to help the family by picking up a few shifts. She wants to be a stay at home mom. I remember a friend that graduated from Steubenville with a degree in communications and $60000 in loans. Of course she married out of college and immediately insisted that they could not think of having children until her loans were paid off, which would require her to work. This degree contributed little to her betterment as a human person (unlike a liberal arts degree) and guaranteed that her new family would suffer for her imprudent decision. Kimberly Hahn took quite a bit of flak about this, but she has witnessed first hand the insane idea that every woman should go to college and incur great debts for a degree they never will want to use, since most of the girls want to give their lives to the vocation of motherhood. But I guess I am just one of those people that have drunk too much of the “Kool-ade.”
Comment by Christopher Sarsfield — 24 February 2008 @ 2:22 pmFather – is there a reason you felt the need to add “Excomm’d” to the title? I had the impression from other posts that you did not necessarily consider the society Bishops excommunicated. Thanks to the SSPX i am Catholic now. Before I met the SSPX I was pro-abortion, pro women-priests, and anti-tradition. It pains me to see such a public priest speak against the society. Why do you not say similar things about the Bishops in the novus ordo who have acted in such a way that they are excommunicated ipso facto?
Bishop Williamson confirmed me – he is one of the holiest men I have met. It truly pains me to see a supposed traditional priest such as you subtly adding digs against the society in your posts. Your position has become abundantly clear this week. For the first time I am beginning to regret subscribing to a conservative Catholic blog instead of a traditional-only blog.
For the record, I am a parishioner of the London Oratory – not a regular SSPX parishioner. you will exclude many people from your site if you continue to attack the Society of Saint Pius X – no matter how subtly you try to do so.
Comment by Jamie — 24 February 2008 @ 2:23 pmHas anyone stopped to thing who really has the veil covering their eyes and heart