Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Decree from Pope Roger on the Williamson Affaire

The Remnant linked today to an important announcement in the Observatore Silicano. From the Taj Mahoney in Los Angeles, Pope Roger (in a declaration signed by himself and two officials of the American Jewish Committee) decreed that Bp. Richard Williamson was banned from Catholic facilities in the Archdiocese. So what? I can't imagine any member of, or lay adherent to, the Society, much less Bishop Williamson, spending a whole lot of time on Pope Roger's property. The whole point and beauty of being SSPX in L.A. is that you can ignore Pope Roger!

But his Holiness further declared as follows:
"Holocaust deniers like Williamson will find no sympathetic ear or place of refuge in the Catholic Church, of which he is not—and may never become—a member," said a commentary signed jointly by Mahony, head of the nation's largest archdiocese, and two officials of the American Jewish Committee.

"The cardinal wishes to send a clear signal to the Jewish community that Williamson is not a member or even welcome in the Catholic Church until he renounces his views," said Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the archdiocese.

Hmm. So Bp. Williamson isn't a member of the Catholic Church and may never become one? It seems that crazy Kraut antipope Ratzinger has it all wrong, huh, your Holiness? We're so glad we have you could take time from your liturgical dancing at the annual Religious Education Conference (and your federal grand jury investigation) to declare what Bp. Williamson's status is and to do so jointly with two Jewish guys who themselves aren't members of the Catholic Church.

I guess this is just one of the next logical steps after setting up your own liturgical rules contrary to Roman authority...to declare for yourself who is and who isn't Catholic, even if you don't have territorial jurisdiction over such persons.

Then again, wouldn't it be cool if Bishops could do such things? I can't imagine it would be difficult to find some Bishop somewhere to declare Pope Roger to be forever and irreconcilably outside the Church.