Category: Evangelization

New England readers will be interested to know that Prof. Scott Hahn is giving a day of talks at St. Joseph Church in Charlton, MA (that’s near Sturbridge) on Saturday, June 28. Tickets are $10, and if you’re interested, read on for the details:

I had lunch with Spirit-filled Christian Guy on Friday. We started talking about prayer and I brought up praying for the dead. He said, “There ain’t no such place as purgatory!” I told him I wasn’t talking about Purgatory. One of the merits of praying for the dead is that God, who is outside of time, takes into account our prayers for someone who has passed on at the time they are judged, even if that is in the past. I think this is sensible and true. He disagreed.
“Someone is either going to heaven or hell based on whether or not they accept Christ while they are alive. You are just wasting your time if you’re praying for the dead!”
I appreciate any thoughts or Scriptural passages that might help me out. Thanks!

It’s funny, but over the last couple days I’ve been reflecting on the SSPX situation, and how its various leaders are now quoting Archbishop Lefebvre to justify contradictory offers. Some, like Fr. Aulagnier if I am not mistaken, feel that Lefebvre would have accepted Rome’s recent offer. Others don’t. Who is right?
In a limited way, probably both. We humans are self-contradictory at times; we also like to create God in our own image. This is why Christ gave us the Roman papacy, so we would always know where the Church is. Take your eye off the papacy and you get chaos and contradiction.

Was it Mother Teresa who said “God has lots of money”? Whatever – give the good folks at Envoy Magazine some help in their worthy ministry.

Meanwhile, Williamson continues on as always….

In the past week or two, even some of the most hardened traditionalists I know have complained about SSPX Bishop Williamson’s latest monthly letter, in which he appears to take a very firm stand against the possibility of an SSPX reconciliation. Here’s an excerpt:

Even if these Romans were to speak exactly the same language as the SSPX still, by their modernist religion, they would not be meaninq the same things. Therefore the “reconciliation” would be verbal, not real, and the SSPX would have lost the protection of its present marginalization.

This does not appear to be much different than his various negative comments about the Campos reconciliation. Williamson, as everyone knows, is from England and was raised (at least nominally) as an Anglican. Reportedly, he briefly passed through the Catholic Church on his way to the SSPX schism. He know runs the SSPX’s American seminary, and his influence within North America appears to be quite strong.

On the other end of the spectrum, (which is surprising given his past reputation as a SSPX hardliner) L’Abbe Paul Aulagnier from France is now making some pretty strong statements in favor of reconciliation. To share a little of his background, he was one of the SSPX’s first priests and has held the offices of District Superior of France (which if I understand correctly is sort of the position of “first among equals” when it comes to SSPX District Superiorships), District Superior of Belgium and Second Assistant to the Superior General. Here’s a loose translation of an excerpt from a recent interview he gave ITEM, in which he tackles these same topics:

I am very happy with the positive reaction of Bishop Fellay. “The negotiations continue,” he said, “they are not dead.” This is something good. I am always very favorable towards these contacts with Rome. We cannot “separate” from Rome, “forget” Rome.

Thus the best thing is to keep things, it is to keep these contacts frequent. Otherwise our “battle” would lose its reason of being. Our goal, over and above the salvation of souls, is to see our Apostolic Tradition rekindle in Rome — and from Rome to the entire Church.

All isolation is dangerous, and ours in particular.

If we were not to turn toward Rome, we could in time create “a little Church”. [Basically a non-Catholic Church like the Old Catholics – PJV]

Then the schism would be consummated well and good. This is our danger. This is why I am happy about Bishop Fellay.

This is also why I’m happy with the “agreement” that Bishop Rangel worked to bring to a successful conclusion with Rome by creating a personal apostolic administration with an exclusive right to the Tridentine liturgy. I hope we will get there ourselves as well.

Granted, my translation isn’t perfect, but you get the gist of what Fr. Aulagnier is saying. Despite couching his comments behind appeals to Bishop Fellay’s recent comments, it has taken him great courage to state what he has stated in public. (Which is why I’m not gonna quibble with him over whether the SSPX is headed towards schism or already there — suffice to say, it appears that we both agree the SSPX will end up there permanently in the future if negotiations and contacts aren’t intensified.) My heart and prayers go out to Fr. Aulagnier and I pray he will be successful in urging the SSPX toward reconciliation.

Unfortunately, my head tells me that most SSPX clergy still stand behind Williamson, and that he will likely win out if we don’t see a massive change of heart among these same clergy. My pessimism is further amplified by the fact Fr. Aulagnier was recently transfered to North America. This is not good in my opinion. I have always found the SSPX quite euro-centric and thus I would not venture to guess that this transfer to North America was a promotion — especially as Aulagnier is now in the heart of Williamson’s sphere of influence.

Which only raises the following question: whose side Bishop Fellay is really taking behind the scenes? In other words, if Bishop Fellay is really in favor reconciliation, why would he transfer the SSPX’s most outspoken and well-respected reconciliarist ourside of his reported sphere influence after he appeared to break with the party line, when no action appears to have been taken against Bishop Williamson — who appears to be the SSPX’s most outspoken opponent to reconcilation?

This gives the appearance of a double-standard and sends a strong message to the outside world that Williamson’s ideological influence has won out within the SSPX. In my opinion, traditionalists on both sides need to watch the SSPX’s treatment of Fr. Aulagnier carefully, because it likely will be the litmus test of how serious the SSPX is in approaching negotiations. Those like myself at St. Blog who favor reconciliation need to make a strong statement in support of Aulagnier right now.