I've just listened to the interview Bishop Fellay did with a Canadian priest-journalist; I was struck by the resemblance between his manner and that of our English "PEVs", the 'emergency' bishops who look after traditionalist Anglicans. There is the same unpompous kindly humility and sense that only a crisis in orthodoxy has propelled him into a less than normative structure of episcopal service to an orthodox remnant.
I wonder whether there would be the present revirescence of Traditionalism in our Western churches (Motu proprio; Reform of the Reform) if Marcel Lefebvre had not done what he did.
On this anniversary of Bishop Fellay's consecration, I think we should pray for him and the flock he guides. And for the English PEVs and the flocks they guide.
I think that history shows very clearly that the Archbishops actions were absolutely necessary. I have never been an SSPXer nor would I have been at the time, but one cannot deny history. Without them there would have been no indult in 1983.
ReplyDeleteThere is the … sense that only a crisis in orthodoxy has propelled him into a less than normative structure of episcopal service to an orthodox remnant. Recognising the overlap in our positions, there is good reason for us to hold in high respect the determination of Abp Lefebvre and his successors to ensure that an essential part of the Roman Catholic soul, effectively proscribed within the Catholic Church, be kept alive even at the cost of standing in imperfect relationship to the parent body. Would there have been Summorum Pontificum, and the rest of the "revirescence of Traditionalism", without the witness (however eccentric in some ways) of the SSPX? If it is our calling to be the Lefebvrists of Anglicanism, then so be it.
ReplyDelete… the same unpompous kindly humility … Many people have commented on the very different manner of the relationship between "our Bishops" and their clergy and people, in comparison with typical diocesan relationships. Without wishing to get too rose-tinted, what a joy it is to have men who are above all (and in spite of all pressures to the contrary) pastors, not managers; theologians, not church politicians; principled leaders, not episcopal Vicars of Bray!