Thursday, November 27, 2008

Open letter to the SSPX...

It's the Pauline Year. Expect great things. The B16 has asked Rome students in particular to read The Letter of Paul to the Romans. Why do Catholics never read the Bible?

In chapter eleven Paul calls himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles" (cf. verse 13) and just before he writes of some not having "full inclusion" (cf. verse 12).

Some boast of not having full inclusion. In fact, many do. The Orthodox come to mind.

Taking the line of Thomas, I don't share my own voice, but that of an authority:

"But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. You will say, 'Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.' That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off. And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree. Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be saved; as it is written."

-Romans 11:17...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

His Grace Bishop Williamson is always boasting on every YouTube video they have of him, but that is just his style of preaching.

Anonymous said...

"Tradidi quod et accepi."
(St. Paul, I Corith., Chapter 1)

This is the legacy that the Archbishop left for the Society, to which it has remained faithful these 35-40 years. So your open letter, Mr Sonnen, was somewhat beyond the pale.

Anonymous said...

Those who know His Grace know of his passive-aggressive behavior (passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to following through with expectations) although this is temperament (perhaps in some part genetically based).