John VennariJune 3, 2016 saw the final ordinations at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona Minnesota. The seminary will move next year to its new location in Virginia.
To mark the special occasion, over 3300 faithful attended the ordinations. I was privileged to be there as well.
My initial report will focus on the ordination sermon of SSPX Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta.
Seven new priests and nine new deacons were ordained, which brings the number of SSPX priests to 600 worldwide.
Along with Bishop de Galarreta, present at the ordination were Bishop Tissier de Malleraise; Father Niklaus Pfluger, First Assistant of the SSPX; Father Jurgen Wegner, Superior of the United States; Father Daniel Couture, Superior of Canada; Father Robert Brucciani, Superior of Great Britain, and more than 90 other priests.
The following is from notes I took from Bishop de Galarreta’s homily, which will serve for now until the Bishop’s speech is formally released.[1] Most of what I have here is a summary of his words. I’ve also added some explanation, such as details of Cardinal Muller’s insistence that the SSPX must accept Vatican II in its totality.
Alter Christus
The bishop delivered his homily in his native Spanish, which was translated into English by Father Juan Iscara.
Bishop de Galarreta regarded this day of ordinations as “a day full of noble deep joy.” He noted the ordinations take place on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, and that the priest is another Christ. The priest continues the presence and actions of Christ, and perpetuates His sacrifice.
Our Lord is the way, the truth and the life: The way, Our Lord told us “no one comes to the Father but through Me”; the truth, He is the light without darkness, the source of all truth; and the life, for all spiritual life comes by means of His sacrifice which is the source of all grace.
The priest, by virtue of his priesthood, participates in the triple power of Christ: the power to rule, the power to teach, the power to sanctify.
These and other truths are obscured by the Conciliar revolution. Bishop de Galarreta notes the liberal spirit obscures the Social Kingship of Christ. We have a situation of crisis within the Church. It is doctrinal relativism that leads to moral relativism, including the promotion of the sin and scandal of opening Holy Communion to the divorce and remarried, and even to those who live their lives opposed to nature. “It is an unimaginable situation,” laments the bishop.
Today’s ecclesiastical authorities call good evil and evil good. Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches that a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. Yet we now have the “fruit of corruption.” The tree from which it comes is bad. The Conciliar doctrine is the “bad tree of Vatican II.”
The legislation and practices that flow from the Council spread this bad fruit. One example is the reversal of the ends of marriage effectively found in the Council document Gaudium et Spes. There is also the “personalist” spirit that permeates the Council. Pope Francis’ Amoris Latitia propounds a moral relativism, and “there are no groups of cardinals and bishops who publicly oppose this scandal.” Modernism dissolves Faith.
Bishop de Galarreta alluded to today’s gestures of the Ecclesia Dei Commission concerning normalization of the SSPX wherein the Fraternity is supposedly no longer expected to accept those points of the Council the SSPX has always resisted, such as religious liberty, ecumenism and the New Mass. This new framework for normalization is what Msgr. Pozzo, head of the Ecclesia Dei commission, had related to Bishop Fellay.
But, according to Bishop de Galarrata, “Francis corrected Pozzo.”
This is the first I heard of any such correction, and various priests I subsequently questioned were not aware of it either (I did not see Bishop de Galarreta after the ordination ceremony). Perhaps the bishop was referring to Pope Francis’ interview with La Croix wherein Francis said regarding the establishment of a Personal Prelature for SSPX: “That would be a possible solution but beforehand it will be necessary to establish a fundamental agreement with them. The Second Vatican Council has its value. We will advance slowly and patiently.”
Religious Liberty and the Resurrection?
Bishop de Galarrata then commented on recent remarks from Ludwig Cardinal Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (who is the hierarchical superior of Mgr. Pozzo) wherein the Cardinal indicated that he expects the SSPX to accept Vatican II in its totality.
In a Herder Korrespondenz, interview, Cardinal Müller claimed that one cannot discount the Council as “only pastoral chatter” just because it adopted no binding dogmas.
Müller gave the deficient example that no Pope has ever proclaimed Christ’s Resurrection as an ex cathedra [infallible] dogma, and yet it “belongs in the center of the creed, it is the foundation.”
Yet, contrary to what Cardinal Müller implies, Vatican II’s new orientation of ecumenism and religious liberty, which are the fruit of liberal Catholicism – and which have been previous condemned by the Church’s perennial magisterium – cannot in any way be placed on the same level of the doctrine of Our Lord’s resurrection.[2]
Nonetheless, Müller claims in reference to the relevant Council texts, “Religious freedom as a fundamental human right and freedom to protect religion regarding the supernatural revelation in Jesus Christ are recognized by every Catholic without reservation.”
The recognition of the Second Vatican Council, insists Müller, is “not an unreasonably high hurdle” to overcome. He says it is “the adequate remedy to enter into full communion with the Pope and the bishops in communion with him.”[3]
Bishop de Galarreta noted in his homily that such a condition would be a “communion of error,” which the SSPX deems unacceptable.
“Our combat continues,” concludes Bishop de Galarreta, noting that Bishop Fellay says if we have to choose between the Faith and compromise, we will not choose compromise.
Bishop de Galarreta closed by returning to considerations on the Sacred Heart. When we are presented with the love of this Heart, we must “return love for love, gift for gift, sacrifice for sacrifice, reparation for reparation.”
Related:
• SSPX/Müller: “Key Points” of the Council Negotiable?
• Francis’ Trustworthiness in Light of the Forte Revelation – With related thoughts on the present SSPX drama
Notes:
[1] Due to unusual circumstances on my end, I was not able to record the homily as I usually do.
[2] For superb treatment of the Council’s Religious Liberty, see They Have Uncrowned Him by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre
[3] Personally, I believe that in the end, today’s Vatican will not yet give way on Vatican II. I will expand on this in another write-up.
Matt Gaspers
