A Dangerous Cult




Fr. Jurgen Wegner, Bishop Bernard Fellay and Fr. Thomas Rosica

  Salt + Light Television is a Canadian Roman Catholic organization dedicated to bringing light to the world with a strong focus on the teachings of the Church. Rev. Thomas Rosica, CSB, is the CEO responsible for launching this network in 2003. Visitors to their online site will be surprised to find a program headlining an interview conducted by Fr. Rosica, in 2009 with Bishop Bernard Fellay, SSPX superior general of the Traditionalist Catholic Society of St. Pius X. This organization is the extremely controversial Catholic movement originally founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. This group took the lead in opposing the changes within the Church associated with the Second Vatican Council. In 1988 Pope John Paul II ordered Lefebvre and his supporting bishops to be excommunicated for consecrating bishops against the direct orders of the Holy See. In 2009, Benedict XVI temporarily lifted the excommunication.

The dialogue between Fr. Rosica and Bishop Bernard belies the huge and undeniable gulf in beliefs that exists between these two Catholic religions. Fr. Rosica’s promise to inform Roman Catholics in Canada of this matter falls painfully short on many key issues which were completely ignored or avoided.

For example, SSPX is totally opposed to any changes introduced by Vatican II. Claiming "it was hijacked by the liberal elements within the Church” and it therefore contains “adulterated Catholic teaching”. Collegiality as introduced by the Council is rejected by SSPX "because it tampers with the divine constitution of the Church”. At the same time SSPX is opposed to religious liberty after ‘freedom of conscience’ was given primacy over dogma and doctrine through Vatican II. SSPX clearly favours Catholic exclusivism and therefore rejects all attempts towards ecumenism. Not surprisingly they therefore clearly reject mixed marriages. At the same time it also rejects application of Sacrament of Anointing the Sick to non-Catholics. Perhaps the greatest scandal for the Catholic Church and insult to many Jews is the nagging question “is the Society of St. Pius X anti-Semitic?” to which Bishop Fellay responded “by no means! Nothing could be further from the truth. A simply visit to the Society’s website will quickly reveal the real answers.

At no time during the interview was mention made of the persecution of the Jews during the Inquisition. 

To this day SSPX holds that:

• no blame attaches to the Church for her behaviour towards heresy in those rude days

• the Inquisition was entrusted to the finest flowers of the clergy of the era.

• the occasional executions of heretics during this period must be ascribed partly to the arbitrary action of individual rulers, partly to the fanatic outbreaks of the overzealous populace

• the secret examination of witnesses and consequent official indictment procedure was common to all courts from the time of Innocent III.

• torture was not regarded as a mode of punishment, but purely as a means of eliciting the truth

• On the whole, the Inquisition was humanely conducted

Finally, SSPX considers following points introduced by Vatican II defective:

• diminution in censures (excommunication of freemasons, etc.),

• the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas is no longer strictly enjoined in seminaries (canons 251ff),

• general absolutions are more readily available (canons 961-963, etc.).

• the theory of evolution is atheistic and has not been proven as fact.

• Cremation is brutal, as if the fire was doing violence to the body, and, through the body it consumes, to the spouse, children, relatives, and friends.

Fr. Rosica owes it to his followers to reveal the real truth behind what can only be called a dangerous cult. 

CULT. Def. followers of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices. or  a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre