Bishop Fellay's letter from 2012 to the fellow bishops (than 3): "To read your letter, one seriously wonders if you still believe that the visible Church whose seat is at Rome is indeed the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ."
Letter of the General Council of the Society of Saint Pius X
The following is a translation of the internal letter sent by Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX /SSPX), and the other two members of the General Council, First Assistant Fr. Niklaus Pfluger and Second Assistant Fr. Alain-Marc Nély, on April 14, 2012 - we have received implicit consent from competent source to make it public. We vouch for the authenticity of the letter and the French text from which the following accurate translation is derived.
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SOCIETY
OF SAINT PIUS X
Menzingen, April 14, 2012
The Most Reverend Tissier de Mallerais, Williamson, and de Galarreta
Your Excellencies,
Your collective letter addressed to the members of the General Council received our full attention. We thank you for your solicitude and charity. Allow us in our turn, with the same concern for justice and charity, to make the following observations.
First of all, the letter indeed mentions the gravity of the crisis gripping the …
" To read your letter, one seriously wonders if you still believe that the visible Church whose seat is at Rome is indeed the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ"
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Oh, they could rightly say: yes but it would not have been tantamount to saying they still believed that Ratzinger was the visible head of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
For example, one can reasonably believe that the visible Church whose seat is at Rome is indeed the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ but the see happens to be vacant at the moment.