Bishop Fellay Gave Rome a Clear Condition
Bishop Fellay on TVLibertés - January 29, 2017
In an interview with an independent French television station, Bishop Fellay commented on the current status of relations between Rome and the SSPX.
During a 20 minute interview with TVLibertés on January 29, 2017, Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), commented on the crisis of the Church after the Second Vatican Council, the reaction of the clergy to today's confusion, the Rosary Crusade, and Pope Francis.
Bishop Fellay commented also on the Personal Prelature offered to the SSPX:
I think we do not have to wait for everything to be resolved in the Church, for all the problems to be solved. But a certain number of conditions are necessary, and for us the essential condition is our survival. So I have told Rome, very clearly, that, just as Archbishop [Marcel] Lefebvre used to say in his day, we have a sine qua non condition: if this condition is not met, then we will not move. And this condition is for us to be able to remain as we are, to keep all the principles that have kept us alive, that have kept us Catholic."
On Ecumenism and Religious Liberty
I think we are making headway here in the right direction. Rome is easing up. It is pretty recent; over the past two years now let’s say, Rome has been telling us that there are questions, or we can even say statements, put forward by the Council that are not required criteria for being Catholic. That means that we have the right not to agree and still be considered Catholic. And these questions are precisely the ones we dispute."
Archbishop Guido Pozzo, Secretary of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, confirmed the words of Bishop Fellay, according to Andrea Tornielli in Vatican Insider on January 30, 2017. "We are working at this moment on the completion of some aspects of the canonical solution, which will be the Personal Prelature."
In particular, Archbishop Pozzo confirmed an important piece of information made public by Bishop Fellay in the interview with TVLibertés:
The Holy See allows and tolerates the priestly ordinations of the Society of St. Pius X while continuing to consider them valid but not licit, after they disclose the names of the ordinands to the local bishop."
On the occasion of the priestly ordination of Fr. Daniel Sabur on July 2, 2016, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta revealed that a letter from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith had been sent to Bishop Fellay. In it, it was stated that the SSPX could proceed in its priestly ordinations without the authorization from the local bishop, should communicate the names of the ordained priests.
We will publish the complete interview of Bishop Fellay in the near future.
