The Pope revokes the sentence of excommunication upon the Lefebvrists

[fpb]

I am horrified. Of all the unwelcome, untimely, ill-conceived, unnecessary, insulting and disastrous measures Pope Benedict could have taken, this is the worst. On the very week that the most anti-Catholic and pro-abortion President has taken office in Washington DC, the Pope seems to indicate that open flirtations with Le Pen and Pinochet,

Comments

[fpb]

Let me put it as clear as I can. These people are an offshoot of the old Action Francaise, condemned by Popes Pius X and XI. They are Fascists. They are racist (Lefebvre himself resigned his archbishopric of Dakar over the issue of appointing native clergy). They are unbelievably arrogant; time and time again, Fellay, their leader, has treated the Pope as though the Pope were the one who had to crawl before him - and that was when he was not teaching that the Pope was a heretic. A recent paper by Williamson charges the whole Catholic Church with the Adoptionist heresy. These people have not done anything to deserve to be in the Church. And Pope Benedict's unilateral lifting of a thrice-deserved sentence of excommunication carries the message that there is nothing wrong or sinful about any of this.

The only people to rejoice at this are the enemies of the Church. You are in the Netherlands - you will see and hear it. And unfortunately, it will have been deserved. Granted that there already are Fascist maniacs in the Church - I have one as parish priest, for my sins - does that mean that we have to go look for them in the hedges and fields?