Bishop Fellay on the Doctrinal Declaration- London

Bishop Fellay Speaks on the Doctrinal Declaration

The text comes from a conference +Fellay gave at St. Michael's School in England, on 2nd June, 2013.

The conference was recorded and then transcribed and published in print in the Autumn 2013 edition of the British District magazine Mater Dei.

"Once again, what is spreading on the internet in the past few months is a total misrepresentation of my position. Take 'Ignis Ardens' or 'The Recusant' and all these things; they are totally out of it. Nothing to do with reality. Sorry! When they say there are some points which may give that idea - I probably and certainly was not clear enough. I would never write again the letter which i wrote to the Pope and the Cardinal in April in the way I did. I would never, because it is clear that it was a failure [c'etait rate - said in French]. I did not find the right words. That's why I said to DiNoia: 'We take it back, we renounce' - not only withdraw. It cannot be the base for a future work. We have to take another way".

Lady in audience
"Can you address the question I presented about the retraction of the statement"?

+Fellay
"That's precisely what I am saying now. I said 'renounce,' please!"

Lady in audience
"Will you retract it?"

+ Fellay
"Which is the same!"

Lady in audience
"I think there is a legal distinction, my Lord. I think that your retraction means that you would need to issue another statement explaining exactly which parts of Vatican II you can accept, like the Primacy of the Pope, and making utterly clear, to avoid any ambiguity, which parts of Rome the SSPX rejects at the moment. That would be a retraction. Not just a verbal announcement but a new statement.

+Fellay
"This is done! It's over! This thing has nothing to do.... It's over"!

Lady in audience
But there is still ambiguity and, although we're much relieved by your withdrawing this statement last year, there are still murmurings and disquiet about the situation. If you were to make it completely unambiguous by retracting the statement and issuing a new one then we would all know where the SSPX stands. We wouldn't need to have any further deliberations with Rome or with the press or anybody.

+Fellay
There is no necessity for any kind of deliberation. This statement is non-existent. Full stop. Sorry, there is someone behind you...".