Re: Father Somerville.

From Mary Yuristy

Long before Fr. Somerville embraced the Society of St. Plus X (CI, Oct. 2004) Cardinal Ambrozic shut down "Fragments", a publication sponsored by the Toronto Archdiocese which focused on liturgy. Its editor was Father Stephen Somerville.

Why has the Cardinal not intervened in the case of the (un) Catholic News Times? Its penchant for dissent is well known. A shocking example is the article "Marching Against the Global Gay Rule", May 23, 2004; excerpts from it are: "From decrying emergency contraception for women raped in war-torn countries to condemning the use of condoms to prevent HIV/AIDS, the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church (sic) has allowed its outdated doctrinal positions to take priority over the lives of real people."

Why have not the pastors of the archdiocese been ordered to stop offering for sale such total dissent from true Church teaching?

Delhi, ON

From Ruth D. Liston

It is deeply saddening for me as a mother whose eldest sibling and her husband have left the Magisterium of the Catholic Faith to join the Plus X group of worshippers, to read the very sad story of Cardinal Ambrozic and Father Somerville and his suspension.

Is there any chance of forgiveness for the "Plus X" Catholics?

No one can imagine the hurt and sadness it has caused when we are unable to attend church together and we all worship the same God.

Please ask the "powers that be" to consider it.

Salt Spring Island, BC

Editor:

The Vatican has made a num her of overtures towards "Pius X' Catholics but so far the latter have rejected them. Continue to pray that they may return to full obedience to the Magisterium.

From Anthony Sistrom

I was very glad to see your long article on Fr. Somerville. I do not know of another priest in North America who has the courage to even mention a traditionalist priest in any but the most negative and condemnatory terms. You are absolutely unique.

Fr. Somerville has committed no crime, he has defended no heresy. Many priests who have done both are totally immune from criticism.

You chide Fr. Somerville for reading sede-vacantist books. I learned much from reading the books of sedevacantist Dr. Rama Coomaraswamy. He was incidentally the personal physician of Mother Teresa in Calcutta, though he failed to convert her to traditionalism.

You tell Fr. Somerville that "help is on the way," boasting of the new intervention by the Vatican in the affairs of the ICEL. Indeed, ICEL has produced a superb translation of the Mass by a Birmingham, U.K., priest, but it has already been rejected by proletarian bishops who reject its royal language.

Romanus Amerio in Iota Unum, his book on the Second Vatican Council, describes how, in the wake of the Council, there was a dramatic shift in the Curia from prescription to advising. The Church democratized no longer possesses within itself the power of renewal....

The Church in Japan survived for three centuries without priests and with only two sacraments. It retained its love for the papacy, the Virgin Mary, and the Eucharist intact. We are in the same position today.

With kind regards and best wishes. Please pray for me as I will for you. Eureka, California 

From Mrs. Esther Ryan

I have read the article about Father Stephen Somerville in the October issue, and wonder how such action can be justified.

In the same issue of Catholic Insight (p.33) I read that no suspension was given to Father Gravel, parish priest of St. Joachim de la Plaine in the diocese of Joliette for his denouncing publicly the Church's teaching on same-sex marriage, and no action was taken against his bishop who, according to this article, laughed it off and refused to rebuke him.

Again, in this same issue (p. 34) I read that Cardinal Ambrozic backed the appointment of Tina Molinari as national director of development of CMIC (Catholic Missions in Canada) even though he had been informed that she was a pro-abortion politician.

Yet a good and dedicated priest, such as Father Somerville, is suspended, because he has the courage to defend the true teachings of the Catholic Church and to uphold the traditional Latin Mass, and truthfully points out the abuses that are prevalent in the Novus Ordo Mass.

If the Novus Ordo Mass was so good, why were there so many local, liturgical abuses growing and why was it necessary to completely reorganize the ICEL itself in 2003 and 2004, and a new international English translation, much more sensitive to the sacred character of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, to be in the making for 2005 and 2006? If the Vatican had simply continued with the traditional Latin Mass, it would have been most difficult, if not impossible, for such abuses to come about. Catholics would have more reverence and respect for the Holy Eucharist and their faith would be much stronger.

Forty years may not be a long time for the Church to prepare a changeover in translating the Mass into a multitude of languages, but forty years of abuse in our Holy Mass has been devastating and has brought about the loss of many souls. There really was no need for this changeover, since the traditional Latin Mass was universal, and far superior.

Yet good priests are suspended because they do not want any part of the Novus Ordo Mass after witnessing the destruction it has brought about to the Catholic faith, and are not even allowed to say the traditional Latin Mass unless their bishop allows them to.

Cardinal Ambrozic backs Tina Molinari, a pro-abortionist, and suspends Fr. Somerville, a good Catholic priest. May God have mercy on him.

Toronto, ON