Letters

SSPX response

Timothy Hungerford

Contents - Nov 2005 - Buy a copy now Editorial: A remarkable Catholic parish National Press Club: Cardinal George Pell on the dictatorship of relativism - Cardinal George Pell News: The Church Around the World Sister Miriam Duggan: the Church's response to AIDS - Anh Nguyen Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist: areas for remedial action identified - Peter Westmore Thomas More Centre: Fifty years from Shadowlands: Childhood memories of the world of C. S. Lewis - Msgr Peter J. Elliott Call to Holiness: Contemplating the Eucharistic Face of Christ - Christine McCarthy Letters: Myths exploded - Nola Viney Letters: Church Music - Chris Wilson Letters: New Zealand visitor to Brisbane - Leo Leitch Letters: Gnostic gospels and the Da Vinci Code - Fr G.H. Duggan SM Letters: Example needed - Betty Griffin Letters: Basic differences to overcome - Dr Arnold Jago Letters: SSPX response - Timothy Hungerford Letters: Vatican II and Benedict XVI - Jim Howe Books: The Incredible Da Vinci Code, by Frank Mobbs - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: Philosophy 101 Meets Socrates, by Peter Kreeft - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Books: Stem Cells, by Norman M. Ford and Michael Herbert - Kerrie Allen Books: More good reading from AD Books Reflection: The concrete character of Christianity - John Young

I wish to comment on the review by Fr Glen Tattersall FSSP of More Catholic than the Pope (August AD2000).

There is not one school in New Zealand under a Catholic bishop to which we would send one of our ten children. Who is to blame for that? Where does the buck stop in any organisation?

In the spirit of ecumenism, what does the Catholic hierarchy not allow us to do? Are we not permitted to share with the Anglicans, Lutherans, Jews? What then about the traditionalist Catholic priests of the Society of St Pius X? Are we encouraged to share with them? Hardly.

A first class job has been done of alienating Catholics from the chapels and schools which have SSPX priests as their chaplains. But these chaplains stand without compromise for the faith of our Fathers. What do they get for this?

I am a simple layman caught in the crossfire regarding the status of the SSPX. In this confusion I can only rely on the simple words of Our Lord that in order to tell whether things are of Him or not we should judge them by their fruits.

These SSPX chaplains are fearless in spending themselves for Christ. It is not just the Mass, but the whole Catholic culture in which I enjoy seeing my children challenged and educated.

Youth calls for heroism, all or nothing, and children are not fooled. We only have a limited number of years with our children in order to get it right; only we are answerable if we don't.

I regret the number of years procrastinating over "are they or aren't they?" regarding the SSPX. Life is short and childhood shorter. Faith is permanent and Church politics is a passing scene.

I know of no other churches that offer so many prayers for the Pope than those chaplained by SSPX priests.

TIMOTHY HUNGERFORD
Wanganui, New Zealand

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 18 No 10 (November 2005), p. 15