Repent of heresy- SSPX to head of German Bishops Conference

FSSPX.INFO - Priesterbruderschaft St. Pius X. Deutschland

SSPX urges immediate withdrawal of false doctrine publically proclaimed by Archbishop Zollitsch

On Holy Saturday, the Chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Robert Zollitsch, on "Horizons" (HR, 11. 4. 2009) denied the expiatory nature of the suffering and death of Christ. God through the suffering of his son, only showed solidarity with humanity in order to stand by them them in suffering and death. Indeed Jesus had taken on the sins of the people. He had not atoned for them, but but only born them from a sense of togetherness out in order to come close. False, indeed heretical, is the denial of expiatory sacrifice required by the Father. This denial according to the clear teaching of the Church can be seen as heresy! The Archbishop is hereby urged to withdraw his false public statements.

The crucial passage in the interview reads:

"You would now no longer describe it in such a way that God gave his own son, because we humans were so sinful? You would no longer describe it like this?"

"No. God had given his own Son in solidarity with us unto this last death agony and to show: so much are you worth to me, I go with you, and I am totally with you in every situation”.

Thereby the chairman of the German Bishops' Conference and Archbishop of Freiburg, Robert Zollitsch denies a dogma of the church. If he not withdraw this denial he runs the risk, according to canon law of formal heresy.

The doctrine of this church is clear:

The meretricious cause is the only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, "when we were enemies," [Rom 5.10], "because of the great love with which he loved us" [Eph 2,4], through his holy Suffering on the Wood of the Cross merited our justification [Ch. 10], and to God the Father, has made satisfaction for us (Council of Trent, DH 1529).

From Pius X. the decree "Lamentabili" the following sentence is condemned as modernism: "The doctrine of Christ’s expiatory death is no teaching of the Gospels, but only Pauline" (DH 3438).

The testimony of Scripture is inexhaustible. Here are just a selection:

"Now that we are justified by his blood ... we were reconciled by the death of his Son" (Rom 5.10).

"He has our sins in his body on the wood taken to Himself so that we, being dead to sin, are made righteous" (1 Pet 2.24).

"By his wounds have you been healed " (Is 53.6).

"This is my blood, shed for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Matt. 26.28).

To summarize, this can be said that Archbishop Zollitsch makes out of the expiatory sacrifice in reparation a " victim in solidarity " Christ suffers from a sense of community as therapeutic companion in our troubles, but not because the need of salvation from sin exists.

We therefore call on the Archbishop of Freiburg and chairman of the German Bishops' Conference to make an immediate retraction. This statement must be described as a heresy, and as setting aside the doctrine of the Catholic Church because from the mouth of a leading bishop it causes serious harm.

We hope that the clarification of this statement will occur publicly and in the next few days.

Comments

Anita Moore said…
What would be the point of being a "victim in solidarity"? I don't think I could come up with anything more depressing than that. If that's true, then (a) the gates of Heaven are still closed against us, and (b) the gates of Heaven can never be opened to us, since not even the death of God's only begotten Son could unlock them. Why would anybody even want to believe such a thing?

Wow.
Jeffrey Pinyan said…
I think it would help the SSPX's case (as they begin to enter their theological discussions with Rome) if they began quoting post-Vatican II documents, just to show that they recognize SOME continuity in the teaching of the Church.

For example, they could have quoted from the contemporary Catechism (not because it is superior to the Roman Catechism, but simply because it is contemporary) to provide proof of the doctrine of the Church concerning the expiatory death of Christ on the cross:

The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who "loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins" (1 Jn 4:10): "the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world" (1 Jn 4:14), and "he was revealed to take away sins." (1 Jn 3:5) [CCC 457]

Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men. Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life. (cf. Trent, DS 1529) [CCC 1992]

I hope I'm not being misunderstood in this suggestion. I am not saying that the SSPX needs the approval of some German archbishop, but the credibility of the SSPX claim to desire full communion with Rome might be increased by their willingness to refer to post-Vatican II documents (whichever ones they see as accurately describing the faith).
PMG said…
Let me ask a question, half seriously, half tongue in cheek...

Who is the bigger heretic, the Bishop who denies the holocaust, or the Bishop who denies the expiatory nature of the suffering and death of Christ?
From James with a link removed.

Now if only the SSPX would come out and condemn the heretical new Catholic "Shoah" Theology upon which Bp. Williamson is being left to hang out and dry. (His tormentors want him to recant just as certain Church officials wanted a young maiden and patron saint of France to recant before they burned her at the stake.) In the words of the noted scholar on Orthodox Judaism this Shoah (or Holocaust) Theology is nothing less than an alibi for the revolutionary overthrow of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Rodolfo Mora said…
This is the same bishop that cries out to heaven for vengeance, against the bishop Williamson for his reductionist statement about the genocide of the Jews people. This heretical bishop, has no quarrels in made anti-Catholic statements to please the secular media, and being “political correct. I do not doubt about the genocide, and I will never do so, for that it is an historical fact. But the Church has no opinion about these secular accounts. Now, in the communist Russia, at least 80% of the politburos were atheists Jews. Are we going to blame the Jews people as a whole for this Christian genocide? No. then, you must judge the Catholic Church by the statement of one isolated bishop, right?