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Former Society of St Pius X Bishop Richard Williamson will reportedly consecrate a bishop without the approval of Rome.
The Rorate Caeli blog reported the planned consecration this month of Fr Jean-Michel Faure at the monastery of Santa Cruz in Nova Friburgo in Brazil.
March 19 is the likely date.
Bishop Williamson was one of four bishops ordained by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988, against the orders of Pope John Paul II.
As such, Bishop Williamson and the other bishops involved incurred excommunications.
The excommunications of Bishop Williamson and three other traditionalist Society of St Pius X bishops were lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.
A scandal erupted, however, when it emerged that Bishop Williamson had previously claimed in a Swedish television interview that the Nazis did not use gas chambers and killed no more than 300,000 Jews.
The Vatican claimed that it had not known about Bishop Williamson’s extreme anti-semitic beliefs, despite the fact that evidence of this could easily be found on the Internet.
The affair turned into a major public relations disaster, attracting criticism from Jewish groups, Catholic leaders and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
A month after the Swedish interview went to air, the SSPX partially sanctioned Bishop Williamson by removing him from his position as the head of a seminary near Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Bishop Williamson was suspended by Pope Benedict until he repudiated his denial of the Holocaust.
In 2012, Bishop Williamson was expelled from the SSPX, for distancing “himself from the leadership and the government of the Saint Pius X Society . . . and refusing to show respect and obedience deserved by his legitimate superiors”.
Now, following this month’s episcopal consecration, according to Rorate Caeli, a new penalty of excommunication will fall upon Bishop Williamson and those he consecrates.
A second episcopal consecration by Bishop Williamson in Brazil has also been rumoured.
Fr Faure, who was ordained a priest by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1977, left the SSPX in 2013.
Sources
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