Bishop Richard Williamson, 84, has reportedly suffered a severe stroke and has fallen into a coma; doctors have said he is in the last hours of his life.
Here is a tweet by British journalist Edward Pentin on Williamson’s condition, link.
The bishop was excommunicated twice, and his views on the Holocaust led to him to be condemned as a holocaust denier (comments at this link speak to this matter).
His last public appearance was eight days ago, on January 19, when he delivered a homily (link).
Now, in what doctors say are Williamson’s final hours in this mortal life, we should pray for him and for his immortal soul, at the hour of his death
Letter #9, 2025, Monday, January 27: Top Ten 2024 #4
As I write, doctors have told the friends of Bishop Richard Williamson — who has suffered a grave stroke and fallen into a coma, and for this reason received the last rites — that Williamson will pass away in the next hours. (Reports a few hours ago that he had died were false, see link.)
***
Bishop Williamson gave a sermon on Sunday, November 10, 2024, now two months ago (here is a link to the YouTube video of the sermon) in which he spoke about the election, a few days earlier, of Donald Trump as president of the United States.
In his sermon, Williamson stresses that “politics are nowhere near as important as religion,” and he adds that a man’s relationship with God is the chief relationship for any man, meaning that politics, and the compromises politics seem inevitably to entail, must always, in the final analysis, be secondary, in any individual’s life, to the relationship of the individual soul to God.
He notes, citing American Catholic writer and editor Michael Matt, that the Republican platform in 2016 mentions God 16 times, while in 2024 the platform mention God only twice (at about 1:35 on the tape).
He says this signifies that the entire American society continues to embrace views that depart from those of the Christian faith, views that are “liberal,” adding: “the essence of liberalism is liberation from God” (at the 10-minute mark).
He sums up his critique of modern Western secular humanism, which he calls liberalism, this way: “‘I want to be free to do what I like’; that is liberalism.”
***
The connection with Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò
It has been reported for some time in various places that, more than one year ago, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, 84, received from Bishop Richard Williamson, conditionally, his “re-consecration” as a bishop according to the old rite of episcopal consecration in use prior to 1968 when the rite was modernized by Pope Paul VI.
This is said to have occurred in mid-2023.
Viganò was excommunicated by the Holy See on July 4, 2024, but not for this reason.
***
The new rite has been criticized by some — very few, actually — Churchmen and theologians, who go so far as to argue that the new rite is invalid.
Yet even the quite conservative Society of St. Pius X — the SSPX, founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre — has concluded that the new rite is, in fact, valid, link.
The disturbing consequence of a belief that the new rite is not valid would be… that all the bishops of the Catholic Church consecrated in the new rite since 1968 are not really bishops.
A corollary of such a belief would be that only bishops consecrated prior to 1968, that is, prior to 57 years ago (meaning, since they would have had to have been at least age 30 prior to 1968 in order to be consecrated, they would now all be 87 years old or older.
In addition to these 87+ year-old bishops, there would, in this scenario, also be a relative handful of younger priests validly consecrated as bishops, irregularly (i.e., not approved by Rome) by those older “valid” bishops as bishops, after 1968 but still in the old rite.
But still, this scenario would leave as valid bishops only a very small number of the Catholic bishops in the world today.
Of course, this process of thought, skeptical or “doubtful” regarding the new rite of consecration, leaves aside the question of the many hundreds of the world’s Orthodox bishops, whom Catholics and Orthodox alike believe have been validly consecrated because they have been consecrated in the unchanged Orthodox rite of episcopal consecration, though those consecrated Orthodox bishops would not be in union with Rome, due to the Catholic-Orthodox schism that has lasted since the year 1054 A.D., and so would be regarded as schismatic bishops, even if valid bishops.
To return to the case of Archbishop Viganò, the generally reliable Italian Catholic journal La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana (The New Daily Compass) wrote on January 11, 2024 (one year and two weeks ago now) in an article by editor Riccardo Cascioli entitled “La crisi genera scismi: ora tocca a monsignor Viganò” (“The crisis generates schism: now it is Monsignor Vigano’s turn”) reports at this link as follows (there is even more at the link, which is in Italian — you may translate it using Google Translate):
“The rumor had been circulating for a few months [Note: therefore, since sometime in the middle part of 2023] and now the news has been relaunched by some traditionalist websites: Monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò has been re-consecrated bishop by Monsignor Richard Williamson, the English bishop ordained illicitly by Monsignor Marcel Lefebvre in 1988 and then expelled from the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) in 2012. Since then, Williamson, who is excommunicated, has dedicated himself to founding a network of groups that call for resistance against any attempt to normalize relations with the Roman Catholic Church.
“The episcopal re-consecration of Monsignor Viganò, ‘sub condicione’ [“conditionally”] means that the former apostolic nuncio to the United States has become convinced of the thesis (first supported and then rejected by Lefebvre) that all the sacraments administered after the liturgical reform following the Second Vatican Council are ‘dubious,’ or rather, their validity is uncertain, due to the doctrinal deviations made by the Council itself.
“Despite some denials circulating online, several sources have confirmed this ‘schismatic’ step by Monsignor Viganò. And he himself, questioned by La Bussola with an email, did not want to deny the news, declaring himself only surprised by our current interest in his personal affairs. Therefore, if the news were officially confirmed, Monsignor Viganò would be excommunicated latae sententiae.”
So, though there has been no full confirmation of this reported “conditional re-consecration” of Archbishop Viganò by Bishop Williamson as a Catholic bishop, Cascioli nevertheless felt certain enough of the truth of the story to publish this report because of “several sources” (not named) who “have confirmed this ‘schismatic’ step by Monsignor Viganò.”
One of those sources seems to be this January 7, 2024, French article in French in Riposte Catholique (link):
Bishop Viganò has been reconsecrated bishop
jmvaas
January 7, 2024
The news was widely commented on social networks, mainly arousing astonishment: Bishop Carlo Maria Viganò has been reconsecrated bishop under condition by Bishop Williamson. The emeritus apostolic nuncio in Washington has therefore chosen to align himself more with the positions of the “resistance”, even if it means following it on certain questions such as those relating to the validity of orders conferred within the “official” Church.
And this French article cites this January 4, 2024 English-language tweet (link) by Trad Cath HQ@FlatTrads:
“For the information of all, Archbishop Vigano @CarloMVigano, it is confirmed is now conditionally consecrated and is a Bishop of the Resistance with Bishop Williamson. We welcome his excellency to our ranks!”
The discussion then includes these brief tweets:
My question to Archbishop Viganò
On July 6, 2024, six months ago, two days after he was excommunicated by the Vatican, I sent to the archbishop, whom I have known for some years, a link to the Riposte Catholique article, along with this request for a clarification. I wrote as follows:
“I do not wish to impose on you. I consider your age and I hope that your health remains good.
“But I would like to ask you something, with respect.
“A few months ago this French website broke the news that you had yourself re-consecrated a bishop by Mgr Williamson:
https://riposte-catholique.fr/archives/185656
“When you were asked by Italian Vaticanist Aldo Maria Valli whether it was true or not, you just declined to answer ‘due to safety reasons.’
“Could I know the truth about this matter?
“I would like to know what happened, and, if it is true, the profound motivations.
“I think I would be able to understand them, perhaps better than many. —Bob”
I did not immediately receive any answer.
Three days later, the archbishop wrote back to me to ask about a Youtube podcast I had appeared on with Dr. Edmund Mazza, on July 8, 2024, sending me a link to a comment on the podcast — this link — and asking me if what American Catholic writer Mike Lewis said in his tweet about the podcast — “Listening to Viganò confidant Robert Moynihan in this podcast… He says (around the 35 minute mark or so) that he tried to broker a meeting between Pope Francis and Viganò but Viganò declined” — was true.
I began to write my answer, in some haste, then my finger accidentally hit the “send” button, with several sentences still incomplete.
So I wrote to the archbishop that I had sent the message by mistake, unfinished.
Then I wrote the message again, saying essentially that, “Yes, I hoped it might be possible to find some way, perhaps, to organize a meeting to avoid a rupture and the consequent excommunication.”
Then the archbishop replied: “Giriamo pagina, Bob. Devi capire che c’e’ in corso una guerra e che non ci puo’ essere alcuna riconciliazione con il Maligno e con i suoi servi, ne compatibilita’ tra la luce e le tenebre.”
We have exchanged messages since then, but the archbishop never did answer my question about his alleged mid-2023 conditional re-consecration according to the old rite as a Catholic bishop by Bishop Richard Williamson, for whom we now pray intensely, as he departs in silence from this fallen world… —RM
With the aid, and in the hope, of Christ, believers can
overcome any difficulties…
Here are the testimonies of 10 of His people
Top Ten 2024
It was a difficult year. Around the world there were wars and rumors of wars; brutally contentious elections; assassinations and assassination attempts; deadly storms, earthquakes and mudslides. Conflicts within the Church — excommunications, criminal trials, continuing abuse allegations and the tug-of-war between modernism and tradition — were sometimes just as painful.
Yet the Church is — in a way the world is not — consecrated and filled with grace by her divine Spouse, the Lord Jesus, who ever and always “makes all things new.”
The grace and peace of Christ is available to all Christians of good will, and in 2024, as in every year, it was the antidote to the sickness of our modern age, and the leavening of our lives otherwise weighed down by the consequences of sin.
Jesus did indeed, in 2024, somehow renew us and bring us joy and strength, and one way He accomplished this was through the lives and testimonies of His people. We have chosen 10 of them for your reflection here.
Archbishop Stephen Ameyu Mulla of Juba, South Sudan
“What our country needs so badly is not a human peace”
Stephen Ameyu Martin Mulla, 61, was born in Ido in the Equatoria region of Sudan, now South Sudan — a country which gained its independence from Sudan in 2011 after more than 21 years of civil war, the longest-running in Africa. Despite this, South Sudan continues to struggle with conflicts linked to ethnicity, politics, resources and natural disasters.
In the midst of the continuing conflict, Mulla attended seminaries, both minor and major, in Sudan and was ordained in 1991 for the diocese of Torit. After earning a doctorate in dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome, he became a professor and dean of the Saint Paul National Major Seminary in Juba, and a lecturer and consultant for the Sudanese Organization for Non-violence and Democracy (SONAD). He founded a local humanitarian NGO, the Horiok Community Association and Development (HODA) in 2005, worked for women’s rights organizations from 2013 to 2016, and then as deputy director of the Institute of Applied Research and Community Outreach at the Catholic University of South Sudan.
In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Torit, a see which had been without a bishop for five years. Later that year, Pope Francis promoted him to archbishop of Juba. His appointment as archbishop met with some opposition, partially tied to ethnic divisions, that included charges of improper influence and unsuitability, which Pope Francis reviewed and rejected.
He is currently vice president of the Catholic Conference of Bishops of Sudan and South Sudan, and served as host for Pope Francis’ visit to South Sudan in February, 2023. Pope Francis chose him to be made a cardinal that same year.
Cardinal Mulla has been on the front lines of the peace and reconciliation efforts in the conflict-ridden East African nation. Known as a peacemaker, Cardinal Mulla wrote in a 2023 letter to the Pope, “The peace which our country so badly needs is not a purely human peace based on personal interests, but rather the peace of Jesus.”
At the 2024 Synod in Rome, Mulla spoke of the efforts of the Holy See to mediate peace in 2018 between leaders in South Sudan, where a plurality of the population — including the president, Salva Kiir Mayardit — is Catholic. While the countries ended major hostilities and formed a unity government that year, Mulla says the various sides in the conflict have not yet achieved lasting peace.
“The country is still unstable and we continue to insist, as bishops, that this revitalized peace agreement should be implemented,” he said.
“There is corruption, there is mismanagement of the resources. It is a country that came out and had the potential of being a good and prosperous country, but because of mismanagement, a lot of problems have happened, and so many people are suffering.”
He also spoke of the need for increased attention to environmental concerns, as a wave of ecological crises batter the Northeast Africa region, including food insecurity, a water crisis and desertification. South Sudan, which is located in the Nile River Basin, also faces devastating floods on a regular basis.
“A lot of cities have been submerged, and many people are suffering as we talk,” said Cardinal Mulla, who spoke of tent cities that have lasted years following the displacement of thousands of residents.
Cardinal Mulla offered a reflection on “The Bishop’s Ministry from a Synodal Perspective” at the 2023 Synod on Synodality. In it, he cast synodality in terms of evangelization, rather than Church governance.
“The aim of these participatory processes should not be ecclesiastical organization, but rather the missionary aspiration of reaching everyone,” he said. “The Bishop should also be conscious of the missionary character of his pastoral ministry and ensure that all his pastoral activity is marked by a missionary spirit capable of awakening and maintaining among the faithful a zeal for the spread of the Gospel.”
Facebook Comments