Filial Correction: SSPX On The Front Line

I have often considered Bishop Fellay more than a tad too diplomatic for my taste. There were some statements, before the (once again) expected reconciliation, that sounded frankly alarming. I have written about this with the usual openness. I have also written, on one occasion, that after the end (once again) of the talks it might have been worthwhile for the SSPX to think about a different future guide, one less prone to cause fears in the many SSPX supporters that a sellout in instalments might be taking place.

I am, therefore, very pleased to report Bishop Fellay's very undiplomatic initiative: the request to sign the Filial Correction upon knowing of its existence (that is: after the document had been delivered to Casa Sanctae Marthae).

We all know that the SSPX had already cast what is still the harshest rebuke of Pope Francis from a high-ranking prelate: “Modernist through and through”. However, this was years ago and before the at times eyebrow-raising interviews from Bishop Fellay. It is, therefore, beautiful to see the Bishop return to form and add his support to this great, historic document.

This might be the end of the beginning. This might be the beginning of the real beginning. What this most certainly is is a reaction that will live in the centuries and be a witness to future generations that whilst the almost entire clergy was silent or scared or meowing, the best of the laity and some courageous priests and bishops were men enough to call a heresy a heresy.

It's good to have the SSPX in the front line.

Those who don't like them would not have fought any battle anyway.

M

 

Filial Correction And FrancisVacantism

The Filial Correction is interesting in many ways.

One of them is the way the signatories put themselves in front of this frankly unbelievably disastrous papacy.

They do not leave any doubt about who is the reigning Pope. Not Benedict, or no one. The Pope is Francis. The Filial Correction exists exactly because Francis is Pope. They even go as far as to say that – bad as the man is, I add – the charisms of the role continue unabated, including the power to authoritatively bind the Church. A power which, they make clear, the Pope has not exercised in Amoris Laetitia.

(Mind: if the Pope were to get up one morning and pretend to exercise his infallibility in a way that contradicts what the Church has always believed we would not have a case of exercise of this power, but a case of formal heresy and relative sede vacante).

The Filial Correction does mention that Francis has created such a confusion that some even doubt that Francis is the Pope. But they don't. Nor do they ask for, say, Benedict's abdication from his title of “Pontiff Emeritus” and the return to his role of simple bishop (not cardinal; a Pope ceases to be a cardinal upon election, but he never ceases to be a bishop).

Francis is the reigning Pope. This is the reality under the sun. This reality the signatories acknowledge. So much so, that they react to this astonishingly bad, and very real, situation with the Filial Correction.

Francis is Pope. A true mess of a Pope, and a minion of Satan no doubt.

But Pope he is still is.

The Holy Ghost never promised us we would not get a bastard as a Pope. We have abundantly deserved one with 50 years of Aggiornamento, and we are now shown what our insolence and rebellion leads to.

We, collectively speaking, made this bed. We will, then, have to lie in it for as long as the Lord commands.

M