Monday, March 09, 2009

We Live in Interesting Times

The head of Moscow Police Pronin delivered a profound morality lesson to the press on Friday, in which he stated:

"“It’s unacceptable, gay pride parades shouldn’t be allowed. No one will dare to do it, such “brave-heart” will be torn to shreds."
“The West can say we’re bad guys, but our people will see it’s right. Our country is patriarchal, that’s sums it up."
“I positively agree with the Church, with the Patriarch, politicians, especially with Luzhkov, who are convinced that man and woman should love each other. It is established by God and nature.”

If Russia manages to preserve marriage in their culture, it will be interesting to see what the world will look like in 30 years.

Source: http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=5779


The German District Superior of the SSPX issued a response to the German Bishops Conference's recent statements. In it, they say that the Bishops should accurately represent their positions, especially concerning Vatican II, which the SSPX does not reject as a whole, contrary to what others have said. Also:

"The bishops are bound by the eighth commandment, which reads: "Thou shalt not give false testimony." We therefore urge the Episcopal Conference to take back the defamatory accusation of anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish sentiments within the SSPX. In the Williamson affair, the SSPX Superiors have reacted immediately. The German District has stated immediately after the publication of the unspeakable statements clearly and unambiguously condemned any kind of trivialisation of Nazi crimes and apologised to those who were injured by the statements. We would again point out that the father of Archbishop Lefebvre lost his life in Sonnenburg Concentration Camp."

Also, in their request for fair treatment, Fr. Schmidberger points out:

"The SSPX on the contrary detects within the German Episcopate a subtle rejection of papal authority. The attitude towards papal decrees of the recent past in this context is relevant:
a. The desire of the Pope to translate correctly the falsely rendered words of consecration, was ignored by the German bishops.
b. The motu proprio for the liberation of the old Mass is implemented by some bishops so restrictively that it almost remains ineffective.
c. The Good Friday prayers of the Pope were also erroneously described by some theologians in Germany as antisemitic.
d. The clear position of the Pope about the ecclesiastical understanding within Protestant communities was made in Germany overwhelmingly misunderstood.
e. Despite repeated calls, the German bishops do not withdraw the Königstein Declaration which makes the encyclical "Humanae Vitae" of Pope Paul VI ineffective.
f. Finally, the declaration "Dominus Jesus" was strongly criticised by German theologians because it only talked about the unique path to salvation offered by the Church. "

Hopefully this will encourage the Bishops Conference to open dialogue with the SSPX, which they have previously refused to do, despite requests from the SSPX. They say that "The integration of the SSPX into the Church which is a goal of the Apostolic See, remains given the current experience a project with dubious prospects of success."

2 comments:

Sylvia said...

Like that's not prejudicing the outcome (re: the final quote in your post)! And poor Russia . . . at least they have some things left to them. Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!

bakerstreetrider said...

I got some of this from Gloria TV news. It is a really interesting site, a Catholic youtube started by some German priests, and also a layperson. They post daily news digests that are both informative and sometimes amusing.
I encourage you to check it out:

www.gloria.tv