I wish had seen this item posted by Deacon Greg Kandra over on The Deacon's Bench before my post yesterday. I remain dismayed and a bit distraught over what seems to be a much too hasty reconciliation. Deacon Greg's post is SSPX website: "Judaism is inimical to all nations in general". From this article, entitled The Mystery of the Jewish People in History, which is still posted as of this morning on the SSPX's American website: "If the unrepentant Jewish people are disposed by God to be a theological enemy, the status of this opposition must be universal, inevitable, and terrible."
If the Jewish people, even the so-called "unrepentant" ones, have been "disposed by God to be a theological enemy," then God is capricious and unreliable, which, of course, He is not. One cannot twist what St. Paul writes to mean that God has disposed the Jewish people to oppose him. Anti-Semitism inevitably leads to theological error, known as heresy, as the quote above indicates, but more troubling is that it is simply racist, which is gravely sinful.
Seán Cardinal O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston and a Catholic blogger, puts this controversy in proper perspective in his post It is never too late to Arise!
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hi Scott, I am by no means an expert, but from the ZENIT link that translates the decree, the society itself has to show that it recognizes the magisterium and authority of the Pope.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the outward sign the Vatican is expecting, that of a visible unity, that this anti-Semitic nonsense would have to go. As clearly the Church is against it in every way.
Also, from personal experience, being wrong, as I believe the SSPX are, doesn't mean there isn't hope for a proper reconciliation.
Is it possible this is the spirit of our Pope's de-excommunication?
It is now in the SSPX court, so to speak.
Also, it brings out dialog re: "traditionalism". I think it has the possibility of pushing people who have been grumpy grumblers about Vatican II, towards their own personal reconciliation. I mean, if I were calling myself a "traditionalist", I'd be running from that like it were on fire and had the plague all at once.
But then, I am an idealist and think everyone else should be one too.
You are correct and they have not done so. There are so many issues on which their views must change to be in meaningful communion, like accepting VII as a legitmate ecumenical council. In any case, these illicitly consecrated bishops are not regularized. I do find some hope in the fact that the three, through likely anti-Semitic in their own views, have called on Williamson to be quiet in public. This shows that they are taking the invitation seriously.
ReplyDeleteWe should actively hope and pray for their conversion and reconciliation, but given the indefensible history of Christian anti-Semitism in Europe, which continues today in the anti-Israeli stance of many European governments, this is is a serious matter and cannot be ignored. I was heartened by the Holy Father's public repudiation of Williamson's nonsense, but not by Williamson's non-apology, which added insult to injury.
I have no doubts about the Holy Father's intentions or motives, they are pure and pastoral, aimed solely at the unity of the Church, the manintenance and furthering of which constitute his primary ministry. In my own humble and likely ill-informed opinion, this may have come a bit prematurely. Next to the dangerous racism, what bothers me most is the slap at the Holy Father Williamson took with his words.
Jesus was a Dreidel spinner!