Rorate Caeli

Swedish TV, part 2: Upcoming attack on the Holy Father scheduled for Wednesday

From a source in Europe:

Next Wednesday, September 23rd, the Swedish public TV channel, SVT, in their program series called ”Uppdrag granskning” will broadcast a follow-up of their program from January this year about the SSPX.

This time the spotlight is directed towards the Vatican: what did the Vatican actually know about SSPX and the private opinions of Bishop Richard Williamson? In the promotion for the program it is said:

Last winter the Catholic Church was shaken by the interview made by Uppdrag granskning with Bishop Richard Williamson. The Pope and the cardinals in charge assured the world that they had not known about the interview, but this is not true.

Swedish Bishop Arborelius: "From our side we passed the information on. That is so to say the usual way of doing it, the local church passes important news about the Church on to the papal representation.”

What did the Vatican know about the Holocaust-denying bishop?

The new program will feature an interview with Cardinal Walter Kasper in connection with his visit to the choral festival Pueri Cantores in Stockholm in July, in which the Cardinal clearly explains that, just before the lifting of the excommunication, he had not received any information internally from within the Vatican, but that he had a general knowledge of the sympathies of Bishop Williamson. He further states in the interview that he thought this was something widely known making it a matter of surprise for him that the Pontifical Comission Ecclesia Dei did not know.

The Catholic Diocese of Stockholm had already warned the local Anglican parish priest, who lent out his church for Bishop Williamson in June 2008, about his supposed extremism. Despite the fact that Bishop Arborelius immediately after the January program said that SSPX is not a part of the Catholic Church, his office has been greatly concerned with the presence of SSPX in Sweden. Even a confidential letter sent to the diocese office was exposed in the now famous TV program from January to prove that measures had been taken by the diocese to stop the SSPX.

The diocese also cooperated with Swedish TV in making the documentary with the Williamson interview. The reporters were even invited to dinner at the bishop’s office, which was noted in the blog of one of the journalists. (See this and this.)

This time Bishop Arborelius will also be interviewed about his actions before the Williamson interview was broadcast. According to him, in an answer to an inquiry made by the Nuncio’s office, well in advance before the program in January, he had sent information regarding the contents of the text of the interview with Richard Williamson to the Vatican.

In the program, the Nuncio to Scandinavian countries, Archbishop Emil Paul Tscherrig, will also be questioned.
We have thus to prepare for another attack, aiming not so much at the SSPX as at the Holy See and the Pope, and we have to prepare for another wave of lies in an effort to put the Catholic Church under suspicion for extremist political views.
Swedish TV has earlier explained that this topic is of little interest for Swedish viewers. However, they choose to spend a lot of time and money on it and this in good timing with the first round of discussions between the representatives of the Holy See and SSPX.