I received this from Alcuin Reid, who is the editor and author of good liturgical sources:
Statement by Dr Alcuin Reid:
On Friday BBC Radio asked me to discuss recent events concerning the SSPX on ‘The Sunday Programme’ this morning. Following that request I asked the SSPX for comment on the issues to be discussed.
Unfortunately Bishop Fellay’s reply reached me only after the programme aired. His reply, written for publication, states:
"The position of Bishop Williamson is clearly not the position of our Society.
Antisemitism has no place in our ranks.We follow fully God’s commandments on justice and charity and the constant teaching of the Church. Antisemitism has been condemned by the Church. So do we condemn it.
I fully agree with Fr Schmidberger’s statement about Bishop Williamson’s words. (www.fsspx.info)"
God bless you
+Bernard Fellay
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Anti-Semitism in the SSPX is a real problem:
http://www.sspx.org/Catholic_FAQs/jews_guilty_of_deicide.htm
This is confusing to me. This article is anti-semitic and is on the SSPX website:
http://www.sspx.org/against_the_sound_bites/mystery_of_the_jews.htm
The confusion people might have over Bp. Fellay’s words to Dr. Reid follow upon a very real disparity in what people understand by the term “anti-Semitism.” There is the sense in which it is condemned in, say, Pius XI’s Mit Brennender Sorge, and I have little doubt it is to this sense, one grounded in a concern for charity while not disregarding revealed truth, that Bp. Fellay refers.
The other, and today unfortunately more prevalent, sense of the term is ably represented by Jewish activists like Abraham Foxman of the ADL and by liberal religious and secular interests alike: that to engage in any sort of criticism of whatsoever is identified as “Jewish” is an act of “bigotry,” regardless of whatever substantiation one provides for that criticism.
Under that rigged latter definition, the entire Catholic Church has been convicted, from the Evangelists and St. Paul right up through Pius XII and every significant Father and Doctor of the Church in between. Whomever should follow the links to those SSPX commentaries above should know this: that far from one isolated group’s opinions, that content is an able reflection of centuries of Catholic tradition on the matter, which indeed to the minds of most was repudiated with Vatican II … hence, a most significant problem of doctrinal continuity, indeed. And that is going to be one of the thorniest discontinuity issues that needs to be resolved.
If I’m not mistaken http://www.sspx.org is the website of the American district of the SSPX. Perhaps Bp. Fellay needs to discipline them and order them to errase those webpages. Because it seems that the Superior General and the people who run the SSPX’s American website are not on the same page regarding judaism.
Those articles contain sound theology, not antisemitism. “Antisemitism” has become such a sloppy concept that is seems to now describe any idea which the Jews find offensive. In reality, its definition can’t be broader than “the irrational hatred of Jews for being Jews”.
Somerset ’76, I see the distinction you are making, but this example from the article I posted seems properly anti-semitic:
“Second Conclusion: Judaism is inimical to all nations in general, and in a special manner to Christian nations.”
I do think people who think like this have found ways of ridding their nations of Jews. This concerns me.
A quote from one of the SSPX websites listed by Rachel:
“Jews must not live together with Christians because this is what their own Jewish laws ordain and also because their errors and material superiority have virulent consequences among other peoples.”
We can’t be neighbors because Jewish laws forbid it, and also because such a close association has a “virulent” effect on Catholics?
Such notions, published on the SSPX website, makes one wonder what their leadership really believes in. Can we, Catholics, accept this statement as an expression of true Catholic teaching? The more I read SSPX’s own words, the more I feel I’ve entered into some strange parallel universe.
It is good to see the statement given to Alcuin Reid. But it’s puzzling: the Lefebvrists’ website has a ranting feature on Jews which makes really distressing reading. Why is it there? Why are they so obsessed with the subject? This is extraordinary material to find on the website of a group that now seeks union with the Catholic church: it claims to predict all sorts of weird future events and honestly reads like the nonsense produced by one these bogus visionaries.
Everyone is allowed to have hobbies – I recall one dear retired Anglican bishop who was an expert on knitting! But surely an obsession with Jewish-conspiracy theories is rather an unwholesome thing to put on a website that is meant to be the formal public face of a group that seeks to be a religious order in the RC Church?
The Pope’s lifting of the excommunication was a great gesture of mercy. We might have expected statements of gratitude, humility, and sorrow in return. We (a little belatedly!) got gratitude, but..er…that’s it. Now we must wait, and pray.
My explanation for this is that back in those days when the crisis started some people sought to explain this crisis by so-called conspiracy theories. These involved amongst others Freemasons and/or Jews in a conspiracy against the Church. Combine this with the isolation the SSPX has been in, and voilà we now see the result. Now we have a part of the SSPX with certain ideas that are not very healthy. As far as I can see unity with Peter is the only cure, but I hope and pray it is not to late.
This well made documentary would be worth 54 minutes of Alcuin Reid’s time:
http://svtplay.se/v/1426080/uppdrag_granskning/sspx_-_english_version
I wouldn’t call that obviously bias piece of propaganda anything like well made Gedsmk.