His Excellency Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta is probably the most discreet and least known of the four bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X. At the time of the lifting of the so-called “excommunications,” the famous Spanish daily El Pais devoted an article to the “youngest Spanish bishop.” He was born on January 14, 1957, in Torrelavega, in the northern part of the country, but his parents emigrated to Argentina when he was four years old. Their son entered the diocesan seminary of La Plata in 1975. The crisis in the Church was raging, and those who wanted to maintain Tradition were particularly persecuted. Alfonso de Galarreta was one of them. Recognizing that his training did not conform to the ideal of the priesthood which the Church had always taught, he felt compelled to leave the seminary after two years. He entered the seminary in Ecône in 1978 and was ordained priest by Archbishop Lefebvre in Buenos Aires in August 1980.
He taught for five years at the seminary of La Reja, which the Society of Saint Pius X opened near Buenos Aires. Then, from 1985 to 1988, he worked nearby as the District Superior of South America, overseeing the expanding work on the young continent. He was one of the very first priests that Archbishop Lefebvre considered for the episcopate, even if he was informed of this late by telephone. On June 30, 1988, he was consecrated at Ecône and traveled around the whole world to confer the sacraments, bless churches, and receive religious vows. From that date, he was appointed rector of the seminary of La Reja, which he left in 1994 when the new superior, Bishop Fellay, appointed him as head of the autonomous House [similar to a District] of Spain and Portugal. Since 2002, his role in the leadership of the Society has increased as he was named second assistant to the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X. Finally, in early 2009, he returned to the direction of the seminary at La Reja following the departure of Bishop Richard Williamson. At the same time, he is responsible for ensuring in a particular way the needs of religious communities who are friends of the Society. As such, for example, he celebrated the funeral of Fr. Angel at the Benedictine monastery of Bellaigue in March 2008.
Of a simple, cheerful and tactful manner, Bishop de Galarreta is very measured in his reactions while being firm on principles. He has always insisted on the futility of a purely practical agreement. His qualities have earned him a great respect within the Society, and his measured, prudent opinions are particularly listened to.
The eldest son of four, Fr. Benedict de Jorna was born on September 1, 1951. He entered the seminary at Ecône in October 1978. He was ordained on June 29, 1984, by Archbishop Lefebvre. He then became director of St. Bernard’s School in Paris. Three years later he was appointed to the seminary at Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, where his classes included metaphysics and logic. He also traveled regularly to the Institute of St. Pius X in Paris and for the apostolate at St. Nicolas du Chardonnet.
On August 15, 1994, he was appointed superior of the District of France, taking over from Fr. Paul Aulagnier.
Two years later, he became rector of the seminary at Ecône, succeeding Fr. Michel Simoulin. In this post he holds the record for longevity as he has held this post for nearly 14 years. His mandates have been renewed without difficulty even though the smooth running of the seminary was publicly questioned in the summer of 2004 by priests who then left the Society. Fr. de Jorna, however, received throughout this crisis the full support of his superiors.
This reserved priest deftly employs humor in private and is a tireless walker in the mountains. In 1999, after hitting it off with Fr. Guy Gilbert, the “hoodlums’ priest,” who had come to visit Ecône, he posed for photographers after their arm wrestling match. Recently, after the accidental death of three seminarians in the mountains, he comforted his students in this trial.
A professor of philosophy and dogma and a great lover of books, Fr. de Jorna is a staunch defender of St. Thomas Aquinas and he smites the modern philosophers in his classes. He has also worked to refute the Cassisiacum thesis which was introduced by Fr. Guerard des Lauriers (a view very close to the sedevacantist theory which argues that the Church is currently without a pope).
In his teaching, this obscure laborer likes to use analogies and parables. However, he is always plain-spoken when the subject is Vatican II and its applications, of which he rejects the “new ecclesiology.” At the last symposium organized by the Society of Saint Pius X in Paris, he contributed a paper on the implementation of the Council, which has been published.
Fr. de Jorna, while very lucid and firm about the distance between Tradition and Modernism, nonetheless considers as possible the doctrinal discussions, which must rise above mere diplomacy. About the “Romanitas” of Archbishop Lefebvre, he writes: “His sons, his disciples, his successors, are of the same mind: it would be easier to take away our souls than our love of Rome.” This time he goes to Rome to discuss...
Fr. Jean-Michel Gleize was born on July 16, 1966. A graduate of the prestigious École Nationale des Chartes, he has been a paleographic archivist since 1991, when he defended his thesis on the “Édition critique des oeuvres de François Le Roy pour servir d’introduction à l’étude de la spirtualité fontevriste au moment de la réforme de l’ordre: 1470-1530.” He entered Ecône the same year and was ordained on June 29, 1996. He was appointed professor at the seminary and placed in charge of, among others, the apologetics course and the theology of the Church.
His studies led him to write a book about the founder of Protestantism (The True Face of Luther). In 2004, relying on his formation in Latin, he translated from the language of Cicero The Divine Institution of the Sovereign Pontificate of the Bishop of Rome by Cajetan and, in 2008, Tradition by Cardinal Franzelin.
Fr. Gleize is still professor of ecclesiology at the seminary of Ecône. He has published many articles and given several lectures in France, particularly on problems related to the current crisis of the Church.
By nature discreet, this learned priest, whose meekness is appreciated, goes regularly to St. Nicolas du Chardonnet in order to assist the priests assigned to this church in the ministry there. For him, the conduct of the pastoral ministry should flow from the principles governing being and action, which serves to make him adhere all the more earnestly to the unaltered teaching of the Magisterium prior to the last Council and to be circumspect amid the doctrinal deviations that have infiltrated the holy Church throughout the 20th century.
His long years at the seminary in Ecône have strengthened his appreciation of the greatness of the priesthood.
Fr. Patrick de La Rocque was born on November 20, 1968. He entered the seminary in Ecône in 1985. He was ordained a priest, like his classmate Fr. Regis de Cacqueray-Valmenier–today the Superior of the French District of the Society of Saint Pius X–on June 29, 1992, by the Brazilian Bishop Licinio Rangel.
He began his ministry as a teacher of philosophy at St. Mary’s School before joining, in 1994, St. Joseph des Carmes School in Aude, along with Fr. de Cacqueray. Starting in 1996, he prepared students for the priesthood at the seminary in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain. In 2002, he was again assigned to parish ministry, becoming prior at Toulouse and then, in 2008, at Nantes.
Along with his pastoral activities, he was entrusted with several tasks by the French District of the Society of Saint Pius X and the General House. These included in particular the publication of the Letter to Our Fellow-Priests, which established links with the official French clergy, and, in the year 2006, the development of a DVD for learning to celebrate the traditional Mass.
He is a productive theologian who combines the analysis of modern theories with flexibility of mind; he does not hesitate to withdraw to think over his subjects. He coauthored some studies published under the name of the SSPX, including The Problem of the Liturgical Reform in 2001, and From Ecumenism to Silent Apostasy: Twenty-five Years of Pontificate in 2004, presented in Rome by Bishop Fellay. On the official web site of the District of France (La Porte Latine), he has recently published studies on the Roman document on Limbo and the Encyclical Spe Salvi.
Smiling and affable, for several years he has been exchanging correspondence with prelates of the Curia on the thorny issues that separate the Holy See and the Society. He has also maintained contacts with the Swiss Cardinal Georges Cottier and the Dominican Charles Morerod. On January 9 of this year, he participated in the theological congress in Paris sponsored by Courrier de Rome [French counterpart of the Italian periodical SiSiNoNo].
Born in Triest on December 26, 1951, and ordained for his diocese on September 24, 1977. He was professor of theology at the Pontifical Lateran University and assistant secretary of the International Theological Commission until July 8, 2009. This man, close to the Pope, contributed to the work of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the time when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. While he was still a member of this commission, following the lifting of the so-called “censures” of the bishops of the Society, in 2009 he was entrusted with the secretariat of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, responsible for organizing the doctrinal discussions with Archbishop Lefebvre’s organization.
Anxious to remain discreet, Monsignor Pozzo is interested in the traditional Mass. He also says that he is concerned about doctrinal issues: “I have always expressed an interest in and spiritual sensitivity toward the Gregorian liturgy, just as I am aware of the problems and theological controversies related to the interpretation of Vatican II–it did not start today–and the need to restore and strengthen Tradition and the Catholic identity in our civilization”(Interview with L’Homme Nouveau, November 18, 2009).
Archbishop Francisco Luis Ladaria Ferrer was born in Manacor on the island of Majorca, Spain, April 19, 1944. He joined the Jesuits in 1966 and was ordained on July 29, 1973. Two years later, he submitted his thesis on the Holy Spirit in the writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers at the Pontifical Gregorian University and became professor of dogmatic theology at the Pontifical University of Comillas in Spain and then at the Gregorian University, where he became vice-rector in 1986. A member of the International Theological Commission since 1992, he knew Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became secretary general of it in 2004. On July 9, 2008, he was appointed by him who had been elected under the name of Benedict XVI as secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and promoted to the rank archbishop.
At the International Theological Commission, he particularly worked on the text of Limbo, which appeared in 2007 (which says that children who die unbaptized would be destined to paradise). He has published books on various topics like the Trinity (2002) and original sin and grace (2005).
Fr. Karl Josef Becker, a Jesuit, was born in Cologne, Germany, on April 18, 1928. A professor of dogmatic theology, this man close to the Pope has long taught at the School of Theology at the Gregorian University. Of the same nationality and generation as the Pope (they are just one year apart), he has been at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith even longer than Cardinal Ratzinger, as he began working as a consultor on September 15, 1977. He has thus worked for over 25 years alongside the man who became Benedict XVI. He has particularly delved into the question of “subsistit in,” which says, according to the pernicious doctrine from the conciliar Constitution Lumen Gentium, that the church founded by Jesus Christ “subsists in the Catholic Church.” He has attempted to give a traditional reading of this passage (which is not possible). Finally, he worked on the note condemning the work of the French Jesuit Jacques Dupuis on religious pluralism.
Fr. Charles Morerod is a Swiss Dominican, born in Riaz, in the Vaud Canton on October 28, 1961. Admitted to the order in 1983, he was ordained in 1988. A professor of dogmatic theology and dean of theology at the Angelicum in Rome, he was appointed by Benedict XVI secretary general of the Pontifical Theological Commission and consultor of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. A doctor of law, he presented to the Faculty of Theology at the University of Freiburg a thesis on Cajetan, master general of his order and commentator on St. Thomas. In 1994, he also published a work, Cajetan and Luther in 1518, then one on the Protestant John Hick, in 2006.
Heir of Cardinal Charles Journet and close to Cardinal Georges Cottier, he made many contributions to the journal Nova et Vetera, of which he was editor for the French edition. A specialist in ecumenism, he argues, paradoxically, that it is made possible by dogma! This idea he develops in his book, published in 2005, Tradition and Christian Unity: Doctrine as a Condition of the Possibility of Ecumenism.
Msgr. Fernando Ocariz Brana was born in Paris on October 27, 1944. After studying physical sciences in Barcelona, he was ordained priest in 1971 and obtained his doctorate in theology the same year. A member of Opus Dei, of which he has been Vicar General since April 23, 1994, he taught at the University of the Holy Cross in Rome, which is run by his religious society. In 1986 he was summoned to the Curia as adviser to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he became a collaborator of Cardinal Ratzinger. Three years later, he was also appointed to the Pontifical Theological Academy. In his numerous theological and philosophical works he has worked on the concepts of Tradition, the Magisterium, and the refutation of Marxism. He maintains that the conciliar document Dignitatis Humanae is homogeneous with Tradition.
According to the American Vaticanist John Allen, he played an important role in the drafting of the Roman Declaration Dominus Jesus, on the question of salvation in Jesus Christ.