Getting rid of the evidence.
Now they decide to dismiss him.
As they say about Roman Catholic Bishops - he was thrown under the bus. Talk is Williamson may find sanctuary in Brazil. Isn't that where a few of the Nazis of WWII found refuge as well? Sounds like a Dan Brown novel in the making.
The Society of St. Pius X has expelled Bishop Richard Williamson, saying he has distanced himself from the traditionalist Catholic group’s leadership and he has refused “to show due respect and obedience to his lawful superiors.”
The bishop told Swedish public television that only as many as 300,000 Jews died in the Holocaust, when the accepted figure is about six million.
Bishop Williamson caused internal strife in August when he made an unauthorized visit to a Brazilian breakaway Benedictine monastery and celebrated the sacrament of Confirmation there for nearly 100 lay Catholics.
A Society of St. Pius X district superior protested that the visit was an act of disobedience that disrespected the society’s procedures. - CNA
Figure that one out. An already disobedient group - many regard as schismatic - expells a bishop for disobedience. Hello? Aren't they all disobedient?
Lay people: Stay outta church politics - pay, pray, and obey.
UPDATE: The real reason why Williamson was expelled. Go here.
Terry, I would have thought you to be above such generalizations. I'm actually disappointed in you for the first time. Bishop Williamson showed me personally a lot of mercy, kindness and understanding through a letter many, many years ago. While I may not agree with everything he said or stood for, I think he was and shall continue to be a very misunderstood man. I for one shall continue to pray for him and all involved. I am rather saddened by the turn of events regarding his expulsion
ReplyDeleteActually it was Argentina where some Nazis escaped to if I'm not mistaken. It's actually a low blow somehow equating Catholic traditionalists with Nazis. I lived in Germany for 13 years and I must say that I have never found a people who were more ashamed of that part of their history. It is easy for Americans to sit in their ivory towers and point fingers at the Germans. It would never occur to Americans to delve into their own historical demons but I digress.
I find the comment on disobedience interesting. Disobedience among those who call themselves Catholics is always problematic. The last 40+ years have been fraught with disobedient bishops, priests and faithful. I'm sure anyone reading this can provide ample examples of such disobedience. Communion in the hand and altar girls were initiated firstly in disobedience prior to any permission being given for such novelties. Bishops BISHOPS! were in open defiance of Rome in this regard and under pressure Rome acquiesced... Only after these things had become widespread was permission granted which leads to the mindset that disobedience leads to approval. I could give other examples of disobedience later given approval by Rome. Imagine if you will if parents later gave approval to acts of disobedience of their children what chaos would ensue and then ask yourself why the Church is in such a mess. Yet, we find justifications for such ridiculous behavior. Therefore one finds himself in a rather strange situation at Mass on Sundays of witnessing acts that were once done in disobedience and then were later approved. Those in the SSPX don't have a corner on disobedience. I think in my humble opinion that the great majority of them are grabbing for something to keep afloat in the flood modernism. They are simply trying to save their souls and those of their families. I'm not going to sit in judgement on them. I am edified by many of them.
What is interesting to note is that those involved with the SSPX bishops, priests and faithful are what all Catholics once were:
Traditional Catholics' Motto:
We are what you once were.
We believe what you once believed.
We worship as you once worshipped.
If you were right then, we are right now.
If we are wrong now, you were wrong then.
“What earlier generations held as
sacred, remains sacred and great
for us too, and it cannot be all of a
sudden entirely forbidden or even
considered harmful.”
~ Pope Benedict XVI
"Terry, I would have thought you to be above such generalizations. I'm actually disappointed in you for the first time."
DeleteI'm sure it won't be your last.
Oh I'm over it... Everyone is entitled to his/her opinion. The reality is that I respect you as a friend even though I've never met you. You do an inestimible service with your blog. Your humor is spot on and poignant. In the end you make me laugh.
DeleteThanks. Remember, it's all fallible blogma - not just me, but all bloggers.
DeleteA bunch of expelled SSPX priests have started a group called the SSPX of the Strict Observance. The elected leader? None other than one Joseph Pfeiffer.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was deciding about going to the local SSPX parish, I first made an appointment to speak to a priest. I asked about their standing with Rome. Father Pfeiffer told me they were in perfectly good standing with Rome - which we know is a lie. Hence, we spent 8 long years at the SSPX church before finally "turning over the rock."
It simply never occurred to me that a priest would lie. I could write a book about the goings on at that church, but I won't.
I've run into some of the more 'out there' at a bookstore I once managed. They don't have the market cornered however - there are plenty of extremists to go around.
DeleteI used to know Father Pfeiffer when he was in Denver and my children were in his SSPX school.
DeleteI'm not surprised by his starting the breakaway Strict Observance because he was one of the few I have doubted would come back because of his demand that the Visible Church had to first renounce Vatican II.
With that said, if the Visible Church desperately needs men like Fr. Pfeiffer. Smart, Dynamic, Charismatic and Selfless.
servus, I didn't take the comment about Nazis in South America as equating dissident Catholics with them but rather as a point of interest, that a Holocaust minimizer was going to the same place the Nazi's took refuge.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nan - that was my point.
DeleteThat's also what I understand. And Williamson is English not German - if he WERE German, I seriously doubt he'd be denying the Holocaust - never have I met a people who take it more seriously.
DeleteI was going to say something about his being British and compare him to Basil Fawltey and 'don't mention the war'.
DeleteWhat I don't understand is where these batshit crazy groups get their funding.
ReplyDeleteFrom batshit crazy people with money. A lot of cult of personality stuff.
DeleteIt seems to me that whenever a "piece" breaks away from the church is keeps getting broken into smaller and smaller pieces. Hopefully these broken pieces can find their way home.
ReplyDelete