A Look Back: References of State of Necessity

JMJ

Has Rome ever supported the SSPX's conclusion that a state of necessity exists?

We have the words of Pope Benedict XVI as related by Bishp Fellay from 2006:

Nevertheless, and this is very interesting too, during the private audience with the pope, the pope re-used the argument saying: "You may not justify your activity by referring to a state of necessity" giving as explanation: "I am trying", he said, "to solve the problems", such were his very words. It is at the same time an avowal: it means that there are problems; if he tries to solve them, it is because the problems still exist. And a few minutes later, in his explanation, he himself said: "We should see if there is not a state of necessity in France and in Germany." This shows that after all our argument is not so bad. Well this was just a very small development to say that…

Bishop Fellay: ... First I wondered why these two countries? Now this is a pure… it is a personal explanation. I think that the Holy Father, at that point, was referring to the liturgical problems and the opposition the freedom for the old Mass can meet in these two countries. I am not sure this is it, it is my attempt at an explanation. Because if I compare France and Germany with the other countries in the world, truly I, for my part, cannot see much difference. It is true that from the liturgical viewpoint in the United States, for instance, there is much more freedom, many more bishops, there are at least 150 dioceses where the Tridentine Mass is celebrated, it is called the Indult Mass, i.e. the bishop give the permission. But when we speak of a state of necessity, we consider something else. There is not only the liturgy, there is all the life of the Church, there is the teaching of the faith…
Source: Bishop Fellay Press Conference 2006

The symptoms of the state of necessity can easily be found in the break down of discipline, liturgy and doctrine within the Church.

But to find the root cause we'd have to look deeper into the intentions of those perpetrating the state of necessity.

I suspect we would find Neo-Modernists and a bunch of other 'ists'.

P^3

Comments

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