In a CNA story we read the following:
My emphases and comments:
Lefebrivists [sic] demand Council be “corrected,” not interpreted
Rome, Oct 30, 2007 / 01:05 pm (CNA).- In an interview with Italian journalist Paolo Luigi Rodari, the author of the blog “Palazzo Apostolico,” Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X, said the schismatic movement demands not only a “correct interpretation” of Vatican II, but that the Council documents actually be changed. [Right. That’s gonna happen.]
Fellay defended his fellow excommunicated bishop, Ricard Williamson, identified by some in the media as leader of the “intransigent wing” of the fraternity. Fellay said, “Williamson and I are in agreement that it would be difficult to re-enter to [sic] the Church as it currently is.”
“The reasons are simple,” Fellay said, because “Benedict XVI has liberalized the ancient rite,” yet he has been criticized “by the majority of the bishops.” “What should we do? Re-enter the Church just to be insulted by these people?” he said. [Because it’s all about us.]
“In addition to the ancient rite,” he continued, “the problem for us is the words Pope Benedict has dedicated to Vatican II,” because “the rupture with the past is directly related, unfortunately, to some texts of Vatican II and these texts, in some way, should be revised.”
“Ratzinger should prepare for a direct revision of the Council texts and not just denounce their incorrect hermeneutic (interpretation),” Fellay went on. He cited as an example the declaration on religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae. [I have maintained for a long time that this is the single biggest problem with them.] According to Fellay, the document subjects the Church to the authority of the State. “In my opinion it should be the opposite: the State should submit to the Catholic faith and recognize that it is the religion of the State.”
Fellay said he has maintained ongoing correspondence with Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, “but no common working document exists yet.” “I remain confident, however, because all of our contact up to this point has been excellent,” he said.
A couple cautious observations can be made… and I mean cautious.
First, if Fellay can speak about "reentering" then that suggests he thinks they are "outside" the Church in some way. I would like to hear the French of that statement. Still, there is some phrase involving "outside the Church… something something something something" rattling around in my memory… what could it be?
Second, Fellay does not dispute that Vatican II was a Council of the Church. Some on the hard right do.
Third, a Pope can require changes to the documents of Councils before he ratifies and promulgates them. Is Fellay verging on assuming to himself the prerogatives of Popes? That is, does he think that he is the one with the charism in the Church to decided how the documents of Councils should be changed?
Fourth, what’s with the deal about being insulted?
Finally, when the late Archbishop, a great man in his day and a great missionary, took his bat and ball and went home to Econe, he left many people still in the Church to carry out a long and difficult task of promoting from within the Church the older form of Mass and the spirituality that flows from it.
They are the people who truly endured the insults.
If Bp. Fellay really thinks that before the SSPX can reenter the Church, the Roman Pontiff must correct Council documents, then I wonder if they really have any serious desire to "reenter the Church".
It sounds as if he has thrown out a proposition that he knows is a non-starter.
