Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the Members of the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization, 18 April 2008:
Human rights, of course, must include the right to religious freedom, understood as the expression of a dimension that is at once individual and communitarian – a vision that brings out the unity of the person while clearly distinguishing between the dimension of the citizen and that of the believer. The activity of the United Nations in recent years has ensured that public debate gives space to viewpoints inspired by a religious vision in all its dimensions, including ritual, worship, education, dissemination of information and the freedom to profess and choose religion. It is inconceivable, then, that believers should have to suppress a part of themselves – their faith – in order to be active citizens. It should never be necessary to deny God in order to enjoy one’s rights. The rights associated with religion are all the more in need of protection if they are considered to clash with a prevailing secular ideology or with majority religious positions of an exclusive nature. The full guarantee of religious liberty cannot be limited to the free exercise of worship, but has to give due consideration to the public dimension of religion, and hence to the possibility of believers playing their part in building the social order. Indeed, they actually do so, for example through their influential and generous involvement in a vast network of initiatives which extend from Universities, scientific institutions and schools to health care agencies and charitable organizations in the service of the poorest and most marginalized.[1] (my emphasis)
Bl. Pope Pius IX, Syllabus Errorum, 8 December 1864, Condemns the following propositions:
15. Every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which, guided by the light of reason, he shall consider true. -- Allocution "Maxima quidem," June 9, 1862; Damnatio "Multiplices inter," June 10, 1851.
16. Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation. -- Encyclical "Qui pluribus," Nov. 9, 1846.
77. In the present day it is no longer expedient that the Catholic religion should be held as the only religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other forms of worship. -- Allocution "Nemo vestrum," July 26, 1855.
78. Hence it has been wisely decided by law, in some Catholic countries, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of their own peculiar worship. -- Allocution "Acerbissimum," Sept. 27, 1852.
79. Moreover, it is false that the civil liberty of every form of worship, and the full power, given to all, of overtly and publicly manifesting any opinions whatsoever and thoughts, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people, and to propagate the pest of indifferentism. -- Allocution "Nunquam fore," Dec. 15, 1856. [2]
His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, in his visit to the United States has given us divers proofs that the crisis is not over and that Summorum Pontifucum did not end it. We saw in Friday's post the abomination that was the Washington Papal Mass and touched briefly on the continuation of oecumenical "prayer gatherings". Now we see the pope reaffirm the view he expressed as Cardinal Ratzinger that "... the text [of the Vatican II documents, especially Gaudium et Spes] serves as a counter syllabus and, as such, represents, on the part of the Church, an attempt at an official reconciliation with the new era inaugurated in 1789."[3] Bishop Fellay has the right of it when he says: " ... it is necessary to conclude that nothing [sic] has changed in the will of Rome to follow the Conciliar orientations."[4]
If nothing has changed, the crisis is not over. Deo Gratias, Bishop Fellay is able to see this and concludes that the S.S.P.X "ne peut pas signer d'accord". His letter that said this antedated the Supreme Pontiff's visit to the United States, but that visit has only confirmed the Superior General of the S.S.P.X's wise words.
Posted on the Fourth Sunday after Easter, a.D. MMVIII
[1]http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2008/april/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20080418_un-visit_en.html
[2] http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9syll.htm
[3] Ratzinger, Joseph. Principles of Catholic Theology (tr. Sister Mary Frances McCarthy). Ft. Collins: Ignatius Press, 1987. pp. 381-382
[4] New Catholic. "Fellay: SSPX 'cannot sign an agreement'". Rorate Caeli. 19 April 2008. <http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2008/04/urgent-fellay-sspx-cannot-sign.html>
