Bishop Bernard Fellay (in front of a painting of Pope Pius X), current Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X.

Bernard Fellay, SSPX (born 12 April 1958) is a Catholic Bishop and superior general of the Traditionalist Catholic Society of St. Pius X. Fellay was excommunicated in 1988 by the Roman Catholic Church because of his unauthorized consecration by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, deemed by the Holy See to be "unlawful" and "a schismatic act".^[1] The excommunication was lifted by the Holy See in January 2009.^[2]

[edit] Early life and ministry

Fellay was born in Sierre, Switzerland in 1958. In October 1977, at the age of nineteen, Fellay began studies for the priesthood at the International Seminary of Saint Pius X at Ecône, Switzerland. On 29 June 1982 he was ordained a priest by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. After his ordination, he was named Bursar General of the SSPX and was stationed at Rickenbach, the headquarters of the SSPX in Switzerland. He continued in that position for the next ten years.

[edit] Consecration and excommunication

In June 1988 Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre announced his intention to consecrate Fellay and three other priests as bishops. Lefebvre did not have a pontifical mandate for these consecrations (i.e. permission from the pope), normally required by Canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law. On June 17, 1988 Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops sent Fellay a formal canonical warning that he would automatically incur the penalty of excommunication if he were ordained by Lefebvre without papal permission.

On June 30, 1988 Fellay and the three other priests were consecrated bishop by Archbishop Lefebvre. On July 1, 1988 Cardinal Gantin issued a declaration stating that Lefebvre, Fellay, and the three other newly-ordained bishops "have incurred ipso facto the excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Apostolic See".

On July 2, 1988, Pope John Paul II issued the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei, in which he reaffirmed the excommunication, and described the consecration as an act of "disobedience to the Roman pontiff in a very grave matter and of supreme importance for the unity of the Church", and that "such disobedience — which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy — constitutes a schismatic act".^[3] Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, head of the commission responsible for implementing Ecclesia Dei, has said this resulted in a "situation of separation, even if it was not a formal schism".^[4]

Fellay and his supporters denied the validity of the excommunication, saying that the consecrations were necessary due to a moral and theological crisis in the Catholic Church.^[5][6][7]

[edit] SSPX Superior General

In July 1994 the General Chapter of the SSPX met at Ecône and elected Fellay Superior General in succession to Father Franz Schmidberger. On 12 July 2006, he was re-elected to another twelve-year term, which expires in 2018.

On 29 August 2005 Fellay was received in audience by Pope Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo.^[8] The audience was also attended by Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos and Father Schmidberger. They discussed the present state of the Church and of the SSPX, the Society's concerns about Modernism in the Church, the re-allowance of the Tridentine Mass, and the possible recognition of the SSPX by the Holy See.

By a decree of 21 January 2009 (Protocol Number 126/2009), which was issued in response to a renewed request that Bishop Fellay made on behalf of all four bishops whom Lefebvre had consecrated on 30 June 1988, the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, by the power expressly granted to him by Pope Benedict XVI, remitted the automatic excommunication that they had thereby incurred, and expressed the wish that this would be followed speedily by full communion of the whole of the Society of Saint Pius X with the Church, thus bearing witness, by the proof of visible unity, to true loyalty and true recognition of the Pope's Magisterium and authority.^[2] The canonical situation of the four bishops thus became the same as that of the other clergy of the Society, who are suspended a divinis.^[9]

The remissions have not been unanimously welcomed by all members of the SSPX. Fr. Florian Abrahamowicz, a SSPX's dean of Northeastern Italy, called the action "insulting," since it claimed to remit an excommunication of these four bishops that the Society had officially maintained since 1988 did not exist.^[10] Abrahamowicz was very soon expelled by the Italian chapter of the Society of Saint Pius X, whether for this reason or his Holocaust-related remarks.^[11]

Speaking in relation to the upcoming talks with Rome in an interview in July 2009, Fellay said of the significance of the Second Vatican Council that: "'We will not make any compromise on the Council. I have no intention of making a compromise. The truth does not tolerate compromise. We do not want a compromise, we want clarity regarding the Council.'"

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Writings of Bishop Fellay
• Society of Pope St. Pius X
• Catholic World News Article: SSPX leader rejects hopes for reconciliation with Rome