I sadly read a piece posted by our friends at Rorate that the head of the SSPX, Bishop Bernard Fellay, excommunicated in 1998 for accepting episcopal consecration without pontifical mandate, has dissed His Holiness Benedict XVI during a sermon last Sunday in Paris at the SSPX "parish" St. Nicholas-du-Chardonnet.
Here is what Rorate posted:
And now, we have a perfectly liberal Pope, my very dear brothers. As he goes to this country [the United States], which is founded upon Masonic principles, that is, of a revolution, of a rebellion against God. And, well, he expressed his admiration, his fascination before this country which has decided to grant liberty to all religions. He goes so far as to condemn the confessional State. And he is called traditional! And this is true, this is true: he is perfectly liberal, perfectly contradictory. He has some good sides, the sides which we hail, for which we rejoice, such as what he has done for the Traditional liturgy.
What a mystery, my very dear brothers, what a mystery!
The original French is posted on the website La Porte Latine of the SSPX.
How gracious of him to admit that Pope Benedict has good side to him.
I cannot believe that a person who desires unity with the Roman Pontiff would stand up in a pulpit and say this sort of thing about the reigning Pope.
Thinking it is one thing, but saying it in a sermon is another.
However, this statement does underscore what I have been saying all along. The real problem for the
SSPX is not so much the liturgical issue or the excommunications, or even some juridical structure they could fit into. Those things can be solved with the a few signatures.
The real obstacle is the Church’s teaching about religious liberty.