Church and World
Fr. Franz Schmidberger, FSSPX,
on the Pope’s upcoming visit to Germany [Sept. 22-25, 2011]
What does the Superior of the German District of the SSPX think about the Pope’s upcoming trip to Germany? On September 21, 2011, the German news agency DAPD in Stuttgart asked Fr. Schmidberger nine questions about the Pope’s visit.
The negotiations between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X reached a critical point on Wednesday [Sept. 14] with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith setting conditions. In view of this situation, what do you think of Benedict XVI’s visit?
We are looking forward with joy to the visit of the Holy Father to our country; after all, he is the representative of Christ, God Incarnate, on earth. And this is true independently of the discussions between our Society and the Vatican.
What are your expectations for the visit of the German Pope to Germany?
We all hope for a real reinforcement of the Faith. The Pope should clearly explain to the German people that Christianity is based on faith in the Triune God, on our Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Church founded by Him; and that outside this Truth there is not nor can there be genuine spiritual life, nor any hope for the individual and no happy future for society. Pax Christi in regno Christi–the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ. To this must also be added love of the Church and of our Christian tradition. To be Christian is no burdensome load, but rather a merciful and liberating grace.
For the first time, the Pope is going to visit the nine federal states in which Catholics are in the minority. What impetus can the Pope give there?
The Pope could offer the Evangelical Christians of Germany a structure like the one established for Anglicans desirous of returning to the House of their Father, and which has proven to be extremely beneficial. Genuine ecumenism would consist in exhorting them to return to their roots, which sustained the whole Church until the Reformation.
How will the Society be following the Pope’s journey in Germany?
We’ll be watching the Pope’s visit attentively by means of the media, and during the different events we’ll be distributing literature to the faithful. Also, we have prepared for this event in our priories by a novena of prayer.
Do you recommend that your faithful participate in the religious ceremonies that will be taking place with the participation of the Pope, or do you advise them against it?
We have not made any recommendations to our faithful about attending; they are all aware of our justified reticence toward the new liturgy, and unfortunately this also applies to the Pope’s Masses.
As Superior of the SSPX District, what is your opinion of a Eucharistic celebration in a soccer stadium with a rather eclectic pre-show and with male and female altar servers?
All these mass events are exposed to the dangers typical of big demonstrations–the absence of the sacred, of dignity, and of holiness. Moreover, in the Church’s entire history, there have never been women ministers for the very reason that service at the altar has always been patterned on the priesthood, which is, according to the will of our Lord, reserved to men. Women priests are an invention of liberal churchmen who are more attached to the spirit of the age than to the Faith and to religion–the well-known “sentire cum ecclesia.”
By the Pope’s will, one of the key points of His voyage will be ecumenism. So, at Erfurt there will be an interview as well as an ecumenical religious service of the Word. What do you expect from this?
It is always important and useful to speak with men; but among men of the Church it is paramount to raise the question of Truth, to wit: Did Jesus Christ institute the Sacrifice of the Mass in expiation for our sins? Did He give us the gift of the priesthood? Did He institute sacramental confession, and did He build His Church on Peter? These ecumenical Liturgies of the Word not only are of no use for this, but they also sow confusion and contribute to religious relativism.
At the start of his trip, the Pope will meet with representatives of the Jewish community. Relations with the other religions are one of the subjects on which the differences between the Vatican and the SSPX are strongest. How do you envision this meeting on the agenda?
There again, beyond the exchange of polite greetings, the question of truth should be at the heart of the encounter. St. Peter, the first Pope, on Pentecost answered the Jews gathered at the Cenacle who asked him about salvation: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:37-38). Why then shouldn’t his current successor tell them the same thing?
At Berlin notably, homosexuals and lesbians plan to get out into the streets during the Pope’s visit to demonstrate against the Church’s sexual morality. They will likely attract a lot of attention. Do these protests risk eclipsing the message of Benedict XVI?
These protests highlight how far Germany has departed from the faith of their fathers, how far indecency can be flaunted in public, and how much the hatred of God has developed. Germany is by far a neo-pagan country, a land needing re-evangelization. It is for these people, too, that we pray.
(Sources: German District, translated from the approved French version; Rorate-Caeli blogspot)
Interview with Fr. Niklaus Pfluger
First Assistant of the Society of St. Pius X, Rev. Fr. Niklaus Pfluger, despite his very busy schedule, found time to answer a few questions for pius.info.
What do you think of the doctrinal preamble?
The document allows for corrections from our side. That is necessary also, if only to exclude clearly and definitively even the appearance of ambiguities and misunderstandings. So now it is our duty to send Rome an answer that reflects our position and unambiguously represents the concerns of Tradition. We owe it to our mission of fidelity to Catholic Tradition not to make any compromises. The faithful, and the priests even more, understand very well that in the past Rome’s offers to the various conservative communities were unacceptable. If Rome now makes an offer to the Society, then it must be made unambiguously and unmistakably clear that it is for the welfare of the Church and hastens a return to Tradition. We think and feel with the Catholic Church. She has a worldwide missionary task, and it was always the most ardent desire of our founder that Tradition should flourish again throughout the world. A canonical recognition of the Society of St. Pius X could accomplish just that.
Critics say that Rome is trying to set a trap for the Society and to take advantage of it.
This criticism is altogether justified and should be taken seriously. For how can we avoid giving the impression that this amounts after all to a tacit acceptance, so to speak, that would in fact lead to this parallel diversity and relativize the one truth; that is indeed precisely the basis of Modernism.
Assisi III and even more the unfortunate beatification of John Paul II, but also many other examples, make it clear that the leadership of the Church now as before is not ready to give up the false principles of Vatican II and their consequences. Therefore any “offer” made to Tradition must guarantee us the freedom to be able to continue our work and our critique of “modernist Rome.” And to be honest, this seems to be very, very difficult. Again, any false or dangerous compromise must be ruled out.
It is pointless to compare the present situation with the talks in 1988. At that time Rome wanted to prevent any sort of autonomy for the Society; the bishop that they maybe were and maybe were not going to grant would in any case have to be subject to Rome. That was simply too uncertain for Archbishop Lefebvre. If Marcel Lefebvre had given in, Rome could in fact have hoped that a Society without its “own” bishops would someday come round to the conciliar way. Today the situation is completely different. We have four bishops and meanwhile 550 priests worldwide. And the structures of the official Church are breaking down faster and faster. Rome can no longer confront the Society as it did more than 20 years ago.
Will the Society of St. Pius X agree to the preamble?
Here diplomacy plays an important role. Rome wants to save face in public. The pope has already been accused too often of lifting the “excommunication” of our bishops without preconditions. If it had been up to the majority of the German bishops, then the Society would have to sign a blank check recognizing the whole Council first. Incidentally, they are demanding that now as before. Pope Benedict has not done that. Moreover, free access to the Catholic Sacrifice of the Mass [i.e. Tridentine Mass] was the second condition required by the Society. Therefore Rome complied twice with the Society’s wishes. It is clear that now they are demanding a document that can be presented to the public. The question is, whether one can sign the document. In one week the superiors of the Society of St. Pius X will meet in [Albano Laziale, a suburb of] Rome to discuss this together. Of course it has to be clear to Cardinal Levada and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith too that they cannot insist on a document that the Society cannot justify in turn to its members and faithful.
Who gained the greater advantage from the theological talks, Rome or the Society of St. Pius X?
That is a very important point, and so I will say it again: We are not that concerned about any advantage of our own. We want to make the treasure that Archbishop Lefebvre entrusted to our safekeeping available again for the whole Church. To that extent, canonical recognition would be a gain for the Church. In that way a conservative bishop, for example, could ask Society priests to work in his diocesan seminary. Of course, the regularization of relations would also mean that Catholics who were perhaps kept away from the Society by the label “suspended” will now venture to take that step. But that is not what this is about. For 41 years the Society has grown steadily, even in spite of being beaten with the “excommunication” stick. We are concerned instead about the Catholic Church. Together with the Archbishop we too would like to say [the words of St. Paul, I Corinthians 11:23], “Tradidi quod et accepi”–We hand on what we ourselves have received.
(Translation by DICI)
Commentary on the Third Pastoral Journey of Benedict XVI to Germany
I. Berlin. From the first day of his visit to Berlin, Benedict XVI kept the commitment he gave to the journalists on the plane to the city: to avoid a brutal confrontation. As noted by Jean-Marie Guénois in Le Figaro on Religioblog: “It remains to be seen if this strategy will pay off.” Many journalists are surprised that the Pope has not addressed current problems—economic ones in particular, but also the geo-political ones—and that he addressed only matters of principle, which are considered stratospheric.… “Many of my colleagues think, however, that this is not the best method to use to put out the smoldering fire that exists at present in Germany and to address the dissatisfaction which strikes at the Church,” regarding the issues that are today debated by dissenting priests, and also by certain bishops: marriage for priests, ordination of women, welcoming remarried divorcees...
II. Erfurt. On the second day, under the sign of ecumenism, Benedict XVI used a reflection by Martin Luther on the gravity of sin to point out that divine mercy must not be forgotten. But can one isolate just that element of a reflection in the Lutheran context when the Pope wanted to borrow it? In a note on the possession of truth, often cited here, Thomistic philosopher Louis Jugnet says that Catholicism does not maintain that everything is false in the doctrines to which it is opposed, “but the question put forth here is different. It is the question of knowing if these truths are, so to speak, comfortable, free, and at home, in these opposing doctrines. Or ought we think that these truths have only a partial, fragmentary, or incomplete role there—that they are wrapped in flagrant errors which warp them by distorting the true focus—and that is what dominates in a false doctrine and by which it risks being literally disastrous. It is the spirit of this doctrine, the spirit of error and contradiction.”
Louis Jugnet gave a few examples to clarify this visit to Germany: “Judaism and Islam always insist on the unity of God (which is true), but they intentionally word it so, in a unilateral manner, which excludes the Christian dogma of the Trinity.” Luther insisted on the fact that it is only grace that justifies, and on its face, this formula is true. But with him, this excludes the Catholic economy of the sacraments.…Everything is not false, technically, in the adverse doctrines, but a spirit infects everything.” This is why, the French philosopher continues: “If these partial truths are acceptable and comparable, it is on condition of their being uprooted from these false doctrines (for that reason, there must first be a critique of the error) and ‘baptized’ in some way, reconsidered from another perspective.” But since the Second Vatican Council, which declined to use its power to condemn, criticism of error which would allow one to root out a partial truth from a false system is no longer done. For ecumenical reasons, the magisterial power of the Church is no longer exercised, and seems to have fallen dormant.
On the subject of the ecumenical inclination of his visit to Erfurt, Benedict XVI reiterated to journalists who accompanied him on the plane to Berlin the common and divergent points between Catholics and Protestants: “When I accepted the invitation to Germany, it was clear to me that ecumenism with our Protestant friends should be a strong point and central to this trip. We live in a secular age, as I said before, where Christians together have the mission to convey the message of God present, the message of Christ, to believe that it is possible, to go forward with these great ideas, with truth. And it is for this that together, Catholics and Protestants, are a fundamental component of our time, even if we are not all united institutionally and even though major problems remain, problems on the fundamentals of faith in Christ, in the Trinitarian God, and in man as image of God. We are united, and to show the world that, to deepen this unity, is essential in this moment of history....Accordingly, I am very happy to be able to show this fundamental unity, the fact that we are brothers and sisters who work together for the good of humanity, announcing the joyful message of Christ, of God who has a human face and who speaks with us.”
Two questions were asked: (1) These “major problems” which remain between Catholics and Protestants, such as the “fundamentals of the faith in Christ”–do they allow them to announce together and unequivocally the “joyous message of Christ”? (2) If this account is at its foundation discordant, what is the value of this work “together for the good of humanity”?
And in the end what is the result of the ecumenical efforts displayed by Benedict XVI with the German Lutherans? In the wake of the meeting in Erfurt, Fr. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, cautiously acknowledged to these journalists that “different assessments” of this meeting were possible. He pointed out encouraging aspects, from the ecumenical point of view, aspects equally highlighted by the Protestants, such as the positive evaluation of the faith of Luther by Benedict XVI, or again, the fact that the Pope came to Erfurt to pray at the same place where Lutheranism started. But he also had to admit: “Naturally, there were great expectations as to what the Pope could say, expectations that are perhaps a little higher than reality. One may be disappointed, because those expectations remained without answers. But you must see if those expectations were realistic.”
Yet, as of September 24, the majority of the German press believed that this meeting was a failure, especially from the Protestant point of view. “The Pope Disappoints the Hope of More Ecumenism” read the headline in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, then the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote, “So Close and Yet So Far.” The Berlin Tageszeitung, in tight with the Greens, spoke of a “historic” meeting which will produce no results. The Frankfurter Rundschau evokes “Roman Self-importance” and “Ecumenical Disaster.” The Berlin Tagesspiegel, while noting the homage given to Martin Luther by Benedict XVI, sees a “slap in the face” meted out to the Protestants.
III. Freiburg im Breisgau. On the last day of his trip, after having kept a cordial interreligious dialogue with Jews and Muslims, as well as a fraternal ecumenical dialogue with Protestants and the Orthodox, the Pope did not spare his fellow Catholics in speaking about the crisis of the faith, of subliminal relativism. One wonders if this crisis and this relativism are not encouraged by the cordial and fraternal dialogue with non-Catholics. Here the power of images and strength of example have more weight than adroit speech.
In the last speech of Benedict XVI to German Catholics involved in the Church and society, a paradox deserves to be noted. After having very conveniently recalled that the Church is in the world but is not of the world (see editorial), Benedict XVI considers secularization as a providential opportunity for the Church to get rid of the worldly spirit. However, it seems that there are two distinct realities: secularization, i.e. the dechristianization of the society, is not equivalent to renouncing the spirit of the world castigated by St. John in his first epistle:
One senses in the comments of the Pope a certain difficulty in reconciling the traditional teaching of the Church to fight against the spirit of the world and the new requirements of the Second Vatican Council lauding the “opening to the world” in the constitution Gaudium et Spes, “On the Church in the Modern World.” Indeed, it reads that “the Church must continuously distance herself from her environment; she must, as it were, leave the world,” and “she must constantly open herself to the concerns of the world.” Yet the concerns of the world—since the world is the world—are those listed by St. John, and the concerns of the contemporary dechristianized world are the same; in addition, most of the supporting institutions are now secularized. Yet, as Fr. Calmel wrote with clarity in École chrétienne renouvelée [Renewal of the Christian School]: “Two basic truths intrude upon our mind: in themselves these just institutions promote virtue,” and “evil is more formidable when scandal comes from the institutions themselves” (p. 168). But Christianity and Christian institutions are no longer acceptable since the issuance of the conciliar declaration Dignitatis Humanae, “On Religious Freedom.”
In the World but Not of the World
It is convenient to blame the secularization of society for the scarcity of vocations and the precipitous decline in religious practice… It would be more effective to give serious thought to that spirit of the world that entered the Church when she decided to open herself to the world’s preoccupations.–Fr. Alain Lorans, FSSPX
Europe: The Alarming Situation of Catholicism, According to Cardinal Erdö
Last September 29, on the occasion of the opening of the General Assembly of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences (CCEE) in Tirana, Albania, its president, Peter Cardinal Erdö, expressed concern about the increase of Christophobia in Europe. “In the media, the schools, and in public opinion there is a systematic propagation of an attitude opposed to Christianity,” maintained the Hungarian prelate. He went on to explain, “The Christian faith is represented in a false way, the Internet sites hosting Christian content are systematically being closed or censored.” For the Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, the “grave crisis of European countries is having a serious effect on the life of families and single people....One of the obvious symptoms of the crisis is the economic crash. But the ethical and anthropological crisis is more profound and insidious, and it is spreading into families, education, and the media.”
Peter Cardinal Erdö also denounced “drugs, abortion, and euthanasia” as manifestations of the “social tensions crossing Europe. Signs of a culture of death, they also symbolize the increasing violence that affects the younger generation and increases the sense of insecurity.” Again, according to the Cardinal, the Catholic Church in Europe is working “for a renewal of society by proclaiming the Christian message,” in taking up the call of the Pope for “a new evangelization of the continent.” (Source: DICI, No. 242)
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