Tuesday, August 30, 2005

He's a Cardinal, And You're Not

Well, one cardinal isn't prostrating himself before schismatics, and he's getting hell for it.

Mario Francesco Pompedda, a top-shelf canonist and former prefect of the Apostolic Signatura -- the church's supreme tribunal -- put some rational skids on the restoration parade in the Italian press today.... As CWNews reports
Full communion with the Lefebvrists can only be achieved “if the SSPX submits itself to the legitimate authority of the Pope” and recognizes the validity of Vatican II decrees, the Italian cardinal said....

Cardinal Pompedda argued, however, that “the real problem is not the Latin Mass.” He said that the SPPX was founded upon “an attitude of condemnation of the Second Vatican Council.”

Although the meeting between Pope Benedict and Bishop Fellay has generated new optimism about a possible reconciliation, Cardinal Pompedda said that he did not perceive a “new climate between the two parties.” He said, instead, that there is now “hope that the SSPX will really take the steps” that are necessary to reconcile with the Vatican. The cardinal explained that “it was not the Holy See that created the division,” but the defiance of the traditionalist groups. Only an end to that defiance will heal the schism, he said.
Unsurprisingly, the Lawler people are not happy that the Conciliar subterfuge has been interrupted by truth. One commentor raves:
Who is Pompedda? I've never heard of him. The only one I want to hear from is Pope Benedict and not some obscure Cardinal that's never been heard from before and probably will never be heard from again. The Vatican has bent over backwards to reconcile the Orthodox. They should do the same with the SSPX.
And what about proponents of women's ordination? The Holy See should bend over backwards for them, too? Should the Holy See bend over backward for Frances Kissling? Call to Action? Dignity? John Kerry? What's fair is fair, right?

I love it how the rightward fringe -- while castigating Mahony, Levada, and anyone else who gets in their way but remains in valid communion -- sees Fellay as a valid bishop who's just tragically misunderstood. He's not.

These same people can't accept that Mahony has licit authority over the archdiocese of Los Angeles -- and he actually got that from a Pope. Can't say the same about Fellay & Co. now, can we? Did the Trads raid the cafeteria while the Catholics slept?

It's like those stories about the women who were to be "ordained Catholic priests" on the St. Laurence River. The same people who talk about "Bishop Fellay" were all hopped up screaming for corrections about the festival on the boat, that "it's not an ordination."

But if it's the illicit ordination of someone who, though on a par with an ordained woman Catholic priest, can advance their political agenda -- even if the act was done in the face of the explicit stipulations of canon law and the emphatic pleas of their beloved John Paul the Great -- hism-schism... it's all good and holy. In the process, they imply that JP didn't know what he was talking about and didn't sufficiently bend enough.

So much for the right's claim that everything Wojtyla touched turned to orthodoxy... Apparently, he didn't touch them.

-30-

6 Comments:

Blogger Disgusted in DC said...

"But if you don't accept the Church's solemn TEACHING (not discipline) on women's ordination, you're not a Catholic at all."

This is not correct. The commentary to Ad Tuendam Fidem suggests that those who obstinately reject the church's teaching on OW are not in full communion with the Church. That is not the same thing as being outside the Church altogether. They still are Catholics, though perhaps not good ones.

If the SSPX is reconciled to the Church, I will not be wringing my hands too much if many of its members withhold internal assent to the declaration on religious freedom, other decrees on ecumenism, etc. Catholics have been able to withhold internal assent from various statements of the non-infallible magisterium under certain limited conditions, both before and after Vatican II. If the SSPX accepts the validity of the Vatican II decrees with this understanding in the background, then there should be no problem for either the Vatican or the SSPX. Chances are, however, that someone, somewhere will have a problem that scuttles any sort of reconcilation...

In contrast, I will be wringing my hands if open dissent from these Vatican II decrees continues to be part of the operating principle of the SSPX. If that is permitted to continue, then there is no point in bringing the SSPX back into the fold.

30/8/05 13:53  
Blogger Todd said...

Rocco, I think you nailed it.

30/8/05 13:53  
Blogger J. R. P. said...

As a member of what you perceived is the rightward "fringe", I think your characterization of each position is uncharitable.
I do think Fellay tragically misunderstands certain things - but that he is well intentioned. I put Bishop Mahoney is the same soup - on other topics.

I would think many people of similar lean would concur.

These same people can't accept that Mahony has licit authority over the archdiocese of Los Angeles -- and he actually got that from a Pope.


I think there is a difference between recognizing 'licit authority' and asserting they are exhibiting 'prudent judgement' and 'orthodox teaching'.

I don't see a mass defection of traditionalists to alternate societes from Mahoney's dioceses - just a requisite amount of bitching and moaning, which is their right as Americans - and right - and possibly duty - under Canon law as well (212.2 and 212.3).

It seems to me different in kind as well as degree for the people entrusted to a Bishop to look to the Vatican and the Church Universal to get their Bishop to stop what is perceived as a continued cluster of violations of time-tested doctrine and teaching, than for others who consult their own pineal gland to decide to reject bits and pieces of doctrine, dogma, and discipline.

30/8/05 14:17  
Blogger Disgusted in DC said...

Jeff,

Please re-read Cardinal Ratzinger's official commentary on Ad Tuendam Fidem. The ban on OW was never solemnly defined as a dogma of the faith, though it may be in the future. Those who support OW may very well not be in full communion with the Church, but they are not outside the Church altogether, i.e. excommunicated heretics or schismatics.

30/8/05 15:03  
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30/8/05 15:57  
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31/8/05 06:23  

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