It is impossible to cover up everything which is written and said just now – about the Pope, about the Catholic Church, about the Fraternity which only two weeks ago hardly anybody had ever heard anything. All this was mixed together into a thick brew; it is quite difficult to separate one thing from the other. Words like anti-Semitism, negativist, racism... are arbitrarily put as etiquette both here and there, on Catholic priests, on the Pope, on laymen who have not deserved it. A bishop living in Argentine, who at first was said not even to be a Catholic – was the reason for a new kind of membership popping up in the Church - it seems one may be in communion with the Pope, one may acknowledge and admit that he is the Pope, however not being accepted in the Church’s community. A Catholic is supposed to adopt all the saying and writings of a Concilium which lasted for three years and produced four constitutions, nine decrees and three declarations, we are told. All this is completely new. How many Catholics are able to pass this inquisition? Perhaps one should turn to an enlightened Catholic priest in order to get proper instructions?

Some even Catholic magazines join the criticizers. For instance the Swedish esteemed Catholic cultural magazine, Signum, says: ”The most probable scenario would now be that the negotiations with SSPX be put on ice” – and one suspects that there are no tears shed over this assumption. But as a matter of fact, the truth seems to be that bridges are being built, breaks are being released. The squads of bishop Fellay are full of eager energy and wish to cooperate – on the home-page of the French district of SSPX we find that a public seminar is to be held on the coming Wednesday on the subjects of ”the lifting of the ex-communication” and ”future perspectives”. And the rumours concerning a wide-spread anti-Semitism are treated with the greatest gravity and openness.

The priests are still in a kind of ecclesiastical no man’s land, hardly even worth to be called a "provisional status". Their hands are tied behind their backs, even if they wish to administer the sacraments according to the Canonical law, they cannot do it without being part of a diocese or an order, or at least having their own jurisdiction. However, the often repeated assumption that we here have to do with on the one hand the Catholic Church in negotiations with a group that on the other hand is totally separated from the Catholic communion in faith, such a wording the Pope himself would never adhere to. There are innumerable evidences for this. Instead we have here to do with a rift in the question of interpreting the stand of the Church in certain questions. ”The decision made by Benedict XVI is a new possibility given us so that the strength of the communion may overcome the division”, as the optimistic archbishop of Paris, cardinal Vingt-Trois recently was heard to say.

While the tone set in Swedish media, tv-programs and blogs is extremely heated, you may in French and Swiss television follow studio debates held in a composed way, letting everybody say their opinion.

Everybody must not like all the herbs planted in the Lord’s vineyard. However letting our media treat our holy church and her leading figure like a ”pelele” – a straw doll, for everyone to strike, that is something to which we must all help to put a stop. And I believe we do it best by spreading the Church’s faith in the Truth and rendering the state of things, exactly the way they are.

Editor

Translation: Natasja Hovén

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