Archbishop Di Noia urges SSPX to take new attitude in unity talks

SSPX-DINOIA Jan-22-2013 (870 words) xxxi

Archbishop Di Noia urges SSPX to take new attitude in unity talks


Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior of the Society of St. Pius X, celebrates Mass at the society's headquarters in Menzingen, Switzerland, last year. (CNS/Paul Haring)

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The traditionalist Society of St. Pius X will have a future only if it returns to full communion with the Vatican and stops publicly criticizing the teaching of the pope, said the Vatican official responsible for relations with traditionalist Catholics.

"Surely the time has come to abandon the harsh and counterproductive rhetoric that has emerged over the past years," U.S. Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, vice president of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei," wrote to members of the SSPX in an Advent letter.

The archbishop's letter was sent several weeks before the SSPX superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, gave a speech in Canada Dec. 28 in which he described the Jews as enemies of the church and described as "evil" the Mass as reformed by the Second Vatican Council.

In the speech, Bishop Fellay reviewed his group's so-far unsuccessful reconciliation talks with the Vatican. He said he had continued the discussions for three years because top Vatican officials told him that Pope Benedict's true views were not reflected in official statements demanding the group accept the validity of the modern Mass, the Second Vatican Council as part of tradition and the magisterium (the church's teaching authority) as the judge of what is tradition.

Vatican Radio reported Jan. 20 on the contents of Archbishop Di Noia's Advent letter and provided links to the full text in both English and French. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told the French Catholic newspaper La Croix that the letter was a personal appeal from Archbishop Di Noia.

While Archbishop Di Noia said in the letter that the Vatican's relations with the SSPX "remain open and hopeful," he also said the Vatican would not and could not continue forever to remain silent when SSPX leaders misrepresent what is taking place in the discussions or publicly reject positions still supposedly being discussed with the Vatican.

"A review of the history of our relations since the 1970s leads to the sobering realization that the terms of our disagreement concerning Vatican Council II have remained, in effect, unchanged," the archbishop wrote.

Archbishop Di Noia suggested that the focus of future discussions would need to change to avoid "a well-meaning, but unending and fruitless exchange."

Instead of focusing first on specific teachings of the Second Vatican Council and of the popes since the mid-1960s, he said, the starting place must be on God's will that his church be united and on the roles of various ministers and faithful within the church.

"Nothing less than the unity of the church is at stake," he said.

"Our souls need first to be healed, to be cleansed of the bitterness and resentment that comes from 30 years of suspicion and anguish on both sides," he said. But healing also is needed for the "imperfections that have come about precisely because of the difficulties, especially the desire for an autonomy that is in fact outside the traditional forms of governance of the church."

Archbishop Di Noia also said a serious change of attitude was needed to move from a situation of stalemate toward reconciliation.

Humility must mark the followers of Christ, he said, and Christians must strive to recognize the goodness in others, even those with whom they disagree. "A divisive tone or imprudent statements" must be avoided, patience must prevail and if others need correction, it must be done "with charity, in the proper time and place."

"If our interactions are marked by pride, anger, impatience and inordinate zeal, our intemperate striving for the good of the church will lead to nothing but bitterness," the archbishop wrote.

The unity of the church is of such high value -- theologically and not just practically -- that Catholics are called to work to preserve or recover it "even if it involves suffering and patient endurance."

In order to maintain unity, he said, church members must recognize the rights and responsibilities each person has.

"Even if we are convinced that our perspective on a particular disputed question is the true one, we cannot usurp the office of the universal pontiff by presuming publicly to correct others within the church," Archbishop Di Noia wrote.

For priests, including those of the SSPX, he said, "it is the faith that should be preached from our pulpits, not the latest interpretation of what we take to be problematic about a magisterial document."

He said the SSPX originally was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and approved by the Vatican "to form priests for the service of the people of God, not the usurpation of the office of judging and correcting the theology or discipline of others within the church."

Theologians do have some room for engaging in a discussion with bishops and the pope about certain church teachings, but it must be done in a respectful way that aims at clarifying the truth, not trying to rally public opinion, said the archbishop, who has served as undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

"It has been a mistake to make every difficult point in the theological interpretation of Vatican II a matter of public controversy, trying to sway those who are not theologically sophisticated into adopting one's own point of view regarding subtle theological matters," he wrote.

The situation is grave. Ecclesia Dei is giving up correct doctrine to protect itself from the Jewish Left.They are expecting the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to accept it. Archbishop Augustine Di Noia's call to unity has been posted on Rorate Caeili and now re-reported in other media.The Vatican has sold out doctrine to the Jewish Left and now in the name of unity wants the SSPX to accept all that heresy.

The SSPX-Vatican talks were kept secret since it was the Vatican-side which had a lot to hide on doctrine.

Archbishop Di Noia has not quoted passages from the Bible, in the recent appeal to the SSPX, which says Jews need to convert.Neither did he quote passages to the Jewish Left rabbis, which indicate, outside the church there is no salvation.(John 3:5,Mk.16:16 etc).

Why does the SSPX have to accept Vatican Council II with the dead man walking theory?Why does the SSPX have to assume that invincible ignorance and a good conscience(LG 16), elements of sanctification(LG etc are exceptions to the literal interpretation of the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus?

The Vatican will pounce on any priest or seminarian who affirms the dogma on salvation.The Vatican wants to protect its property and privileges against the anti-Semitism law.

In all the Catholic Churches priests are to say during the homilies,that Jesus is the only Saviour. This is true but it is not the 'fullness of the truth'. The fullness of the truth is that Jesus is the only Saviour of the world and salvation is there in only the Catholic Church; all need to convert into the Catholic Church, with faith and baptism, for salvation.

Catholic priests in their homilies, with the approval of the Vatican and the Jewish Left, only say that salvation is available for all, it is universal.They do not say that to receive this salvation all need to be visible members of the Catholic Church.

Ecclesia Dei wants all the seminarians in the SSPX seminaries, to accept all this false doctrine.It is with such theology that the Novus Ordo Mass is being offered and so Bishop Bernard Fellay said this was all 'evil'.

Two leftist rabbis, Rosen and Segni, are on public record announcing their conditions for the SSPX to be accepted in the Church with full canonical status.There was no criticism from the Vatican to these Jewish rabbis telling Catholics what belief is acceptable to them and to be permitted by them.

CATECHISM BEING MISINTERPRETED

The Catechism is being misinterpreted on invincible ignorance and the baptism of desire and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is not issuing a correction. The Catechism of the Catholic Church does not state that these cases of the baptism of desire etc are explicit for us but yet this is how it is being interpreted by numerous prominent Catholics.

The Vatican wants to protect its political and economic interests.Now they want to enforce this 'new magisterium' on the SSPX in the name of unity.