His Excellency began his talk with a brief history of the battle for Tradition. He said that “the situation in the Church is more complex” and “diversified” than it would seem at first glance.

    Bishop Fellay talked at some length about the pre-concicular theologians whose works were either condemned, such as the Jesuit Henri De Lebac and the Dominican Yves Congar and American, Courtney-Murray, or under suspicion such as Karl Rahner. These men, he said, were recalled and became very prominent at the Council. Rahner in particular was so influential that it was said “Rahner locuta est, causa finita est". The present Pope worked hand in hand with Rahner at the Council.

    He then talked somewhat of the history of the fight for Tradition, Archbishop Lefebvre and the Episcopal consecrations. The bishop then moved on to the present situation, especially the Motu Proprio and the revised Good Friday prayer.

    He took fully into account the outside pressures applied by the ADL and others (not to mention those within the Church i.e. bishops, etc.) on the Holy Father. His remarks were most charitable towards the Pope. That being said, he went to affirm that the Good Friday prayer “is one of the oldest prayers, dating to at least the 3rd century and that it was one of the treasures of the Church." That alone "would be an argument against changing the prayer. How can we say ‘this prayer is wrong’”? He said the new prayer is “deeply changed”. The bishop then said “it's politics, it is not about religion.” And that “we will be using the old prayer.”

    Bishop Fellay went on to say that the first part of the revised prayer is totally orthodox, but that the second part was “very clever” as it is able to be viewed in an eschatological fashion. In fact, he said that interpreted was done that way by Cardinal Kasper in a commentary broadcast on Vatican Radio Feb. 7th, where Kasper spoke of St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans. Reportedly Cardinal Kasper said something to the effect that “we will not try to convert the Jews as we do the pagans.” [Note, Kasper made similar to remarks in a letter to Rabbi Rosen on Feb 13 - see below].

    A source had told Bishop Fellay that the Pope said he “never suffered so much in his life as he did with the Motu Proprio” and that he (the Pope) “had to do it in conscience.” The Bishop commented that “this is a decisive point” in history. “on the one hand you have the Pope, on the other the Bishops” and in spite of collegiality the Motu Proprio was released.

    Bishop Fellay told us that we must have Hope. There are some incredible things taking place since the MP has been released. For example he said “300 priests joined Tradition as a whole” as did a Congregation of Contemplative Nuns. He did say, however, that “this fight is not over, be ready for a long fight.” 

Denis Giannelli

The Fr. Fahey Institute
Poughkeepsie, NY