Hervé Yannou, the Rome correspondent for the French national daily Le Figaro, reports the following today:
La Fraternité Saint-Pie X rejette les propositions du Pape et affirme qu'elle n'acceptera jamais Vatican II.
It is no. Bishop Bernard Fellay, Superior of the schismatic [sic] Fraternity of Saint Pius X, and leader of the Integrist [sic] Catholics, has rejected the hand extended by the Vatican last week to reunite with Church ranks. While the official response has not yet been published [sic], there is no doubt: Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's faithful do not wish, twenty years after their excommunication, [to profit from] the historic occasion which Benedict XVI has offered them to defitively reconcile with the Holy See.
RORATE note. This is repulsive: tendentious punditry dressed up as a news report. It may well be that the content of the response sent by Bishop Fellay last Thursday is absolutely negative regarding the conditions proposed by Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, but M. Yannou has certainly based his "report" solely on recycled news, such as the telephone interview granted by the FSSPX/SSPX spokesman, Father Lorans, to some news agencies and to the interview granted by Bishop Richard Williamson to Petrus. Not a single word of the letter itself is to be found in Yannou's article.
Some repetition of Yannou's opinion piece is likely to be seen in news dispatches and large newspapers throughout the day, as was probably his intent: not to report but to influence. Since this poor weblog has always had as its main goal, from its first news translation, to help those who read it to discriminate what seems to be true reporting (or, at least, credible rumors) from biased distortions, we warn our readers against the distorters during these very delicate days. (Tip: Le Forum Catholique)
[Update: On the other hand, the most trustworthy French daily, Présent, reports the following today: "What we may accurately say at the current hour is that Bishop Fellay has certainly answered, in the established time, the cardinalatial letter. And that some underline that he would have been given a positive notice of receipt..."]
Some repetition of Yannou's opinion piece is likely to be seen in news dispatches and large newspapers throughout the day, as was probably his intent: not to report but to influence. Since this poor weblog has always had as its main goal, from its first news translation, to help those who read it to discriminate what seems to be true reporting (or, at least, credible rumors) from biased distortions, we warn our readers against the distorters during these very delicate days. (Tip: Le Forum Catholique)
[Update: On the other hand, the most trustworthy French daily, Présent, reports the following today: "What we may accurately say at the current hour is that Bishop Fellay has certainly answered, in the established time, the cardinalatial letter. And that some underline that he would have been given a positive notice of receipt..."]
