All You Need to Know About Bishop Fellay

RELATIONS WITH ROME

We come up against the same problem in our relations with Rome. If Rome desires to receive us, and even invites us, it is in this new broad and pluralistic perspective that accepts that contradictory points of view can coexist (for it does not accept that there is such a thing as a contradiction). This is not a question of divergent acceptable positions that make up the richness of the Church in its diversity. It is rather a question of a non-Catholic way of thinking that wants to make itself accepted at any price by everyone and for everyone.

The Catholic Faith, to the contrary, is exclusive, as is all truth. It cannot grant any rights to contrary ideas, even if exterior circumstances sometimes demand tolerance, in view of the common good.

The Catholic spirit which flows from this Faith is also exclusive, and it is incompatible with the spirit of the world, even if in the life of numerous faithful we can see the incoherence of the mixture of Catholic and worldly elements.

We are aware that our explanation is a little schematic. When we speak of modern Rome or today's Rome, we must add that it is not modernist in an entirely rigid and invariable manner, nor do we deny that even at Rome there are a certain number of prelates who would like to stand up against this catastrophe. But so far, everything indicates that the direction remains that of the post-conciliar Reforms, in the name of the untouchable Council. It is still, implicitly and explicitly, the Council and the New Mass that Rome plans to impose upon us as a present-day and general rule of Catholic life. This is the foreign way of thinking of which we spoke above, and which they desire still and always to force us to accept. Rome has made it the condition sine qua non of our regularization. There remains for us, then, to continue our hunger strike with respect to these novelties, until such time as Rome finally agrees to give us -and to the entire Mystical Body -the nourishing bread of Catholic Tradition for which we have been begging during this already very long night. However, we will never tire of knocking. It is Our Lord Himself who taught us this. It is He who has the words of Everlasting Life. We believe in His Omnipotence, we believe in His promises.

May Our Lady, Mother of the Church, who is so great and motherly in her protection, deign to guide us along the paths of patience and fidelity and "cum prole pia" 3 bless us abundantly.

+Bernard Fellay

On the feast of the Precious Blood, July 1, 2003