German documentary about the SSPX (English translation provided)

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In Germany, the SSPX is seen much less favorably than in the USA. Here, people point out their lack of ministry, state of suspension, and other problems that Catholics should be aware of. In Germany, however, that’s just the beginning. They are seen as right-wing political extremists as well, and are attacked viciously by German politicians as well as the German bishops.

Therefore it was fairly surprising when this fair-minded documentary appeared on TV in Germany last year. It examines the SSPX mainly from the point of view of a seminarian and also from the point of view of a student at a SSPX-run boarding school for girls, with commentary by other associated persons, such as the headmistress of the boarding school, the rector of the German seminary of the SSPX, Fr. Stefan Frey, and SSPX superior Bishop Bernard Fellay.

One of Brother JR’s comments in the thread on SSPX ordination photos reminded me of the video, so I figured I would post it here for people to take a look at. I translated the documentary into English at the time it appeared last year, so for those who don’t understand German but would like to watch the film, the English text follows in the next few posts. It is a rough translation, not polished, but sufficient, and hopefully it is possible to follow the documentary by reference to the translation while watching.

My disclaimer: I do not frequent SSPX Masses and I don’t recommend to any Catholic that they make an SSPX chapel their regular destination for receiving the sacraments.

The Video: gloria.tv/?media=97103
 
Fr. Elias Stolz: You won’t be easily accepted, not even by your old friends, and we also have the example of Our Lord, who also wasn’t appreciated. He was a stumbling stone. But it comes with the territory, it comes with it.

Bishop Fellay: The world may not understand. Most of the world won’t understand. No idea.

Veronica Fleischer: My goal in life is naturally Heaven. That I go to Heaven, and really everything that I do here on Earth is just a path, to Heaven. And of course I make an effort, to do everything I do to the best of my ability, and also in conformity to God’s will, so that I can be with Him in Heaven.

Title: Rebels against Rome … The Pius Brothers

Narrator: Today, three men will be ordained to the Catholic priesthood. The ceremony is grand and glorious. The setting is magnificent. Over a thousand faithful have come. They don’t seem to be rebels againt Rome. The schoolgirl Veronica Fleischer, The youngest of the candidates, Elias Stolz. But for the official Catholic Church, this ordination is illegal, because the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X has withdrawn their obedience from the Pope. This film will given an impression of the mindset that guides their actions.

(Bishop Bernard Fellay)

Bishop Fellay Just because authority is no longer wielded correctly, is abused, that doesn’t change the principle of obedience at all. We have no desire, truly no desire, to act in disobedience. That doesn’t belong to Catholicism. And when we act so, then we seek, with every action, to find the will of God. Where is God’s will, Where is the law of the Church?

Narrator: They have now served the law of Church, as they understand it, for four decades, in open rebellion against Rome. A fraternity with just about 400 priests worldwide. In Bavaria, in Zeitzkofen, they educate the next generation.

(Fr. Stefan Frey)

Fr. Stefan Frey: The future priest must grow, and develop a deep, solid, masculine spirituality, in life the union with God, our Lord Jesus Christ. The young man, who is interested in the priesthood, and also convinced is, that God has called him to this vocation, he enters this seminary for a six-year formation. During this time, the calling is examined, tested, and the necessary knowledge acquired in an intensive course of studies, so that he can be a competent, credible proclaimer of the Gospel.

(Chant practice)

Narrator: Elias Stolz, the second oldest of a devout family with ten children. Originally he wanted to be a musician. He studied trumpet at the most prestigious conservatories. His professors predicted he would have a brilliant career as a musician. But he chose another path.

(Fr. Elias Stolz)

Fr. Elias Stolz: For me, it wasn’t about pursuing a career. What drew me was much deeper really, I’ll say… say it was the truth really. Where can you find the truth? Where is the Gospel lived? And you see now the apostles also didn’t try to climb the ladder, but there I don’t want to say that I’d like to compare myself to the apostles, but uh, it was really about, that I wanted to find the true priesthood. That’s what I was looking for, and that’s how I discovered the fraternity.

(Church)

Narrator: Morning Mass at the boarding school St. Teresia near Bonn. The pupils come from devout families, like Veronica Fleischer.

Veronica Fleischer: I have four siblings. We always say grace before and after meals. Then there’s morning and evening prayers too. On Sundays, you go to Mas, and then there’s also the rosary every day actually. A devout family.

Narrator: For Veronica, the transition to the girls school of the Pius fraternity, run by nuns, was a seamless continuation of her life at home.

(Prayer)

Veronica Fleischer: My sister is also here, and it was always clear to me that I would come here. Of course I thought it would be great, and I have to say, that has proved to be the case.

Narrator: St. Teresia is an accredited private preperatory school. The schoolday is organized strictly according to the religious beliefs of the Pius brothers.

(Class Prayer)

Narrator: Frequent prayer ist a matter of course here: prayer in common, but also in private.

(Veronica Fleischer)

Veronica Fleischer: I also have extra prayers for examinations, for example, um, I had one three days before the exam, and you pray it every day, and then somehow you do have the assurance, that Gott will just help you and be with you during the examination.
 
Narrator: Again and again one sees this almost complete certainty. A school with a hotline to God. But the schoolgirls will eventually have to prove, in their graduation examination, that they have mastered the same material that is taught in the public schools.

(Sister Metz)

Interviewer: Why does a priestly fraternity have a girls school?

Sister Metz: Well, excuse me I have to think about that. I wasn’t expecting the question. Ok. Why does a… hmm… because… It’s a part of the entire priestly formation… What belongs to a priestly formation is, more than anything, the mother. We know from many saints, that it was their mothers, that brought them up, that brought up the children so, that have lead their sons to God so that they have been able to recognize and discern their vocation. And, um, now in this time especially, when more and more families are falling apart, more than ever we need families, and mothers, that teach their children religion.

(Girls in room)

Unnamed Girl: … what makes us so alien, or still more when we go out wearing skirts. We were just recently in the historical museum and there people were looking at us like we came from the moon or something.

Veronica Fleischer: … when we appear in public, that is … actually it doesn’t bother us at all.

Narrator: Neither miniskirts, nor discos, nor sex with boys have any place in their world.

Unnamed Girl: This modesty is because we simply don’t agree with many things in the world, and there people think of it as kind of straitjacket, which… yes people say that a lot when they come here: “I always thought it would be so strict here, it would be like a jail, it would be a convent, where you can’t do anything. You can’t go to the disco, you can’t drink, you can’t smoke…” It’s not like that. We do drink wine. Yes really! And then there is prayer. That is our conviction, and…

Interviewer: You just said that you don’t agree in general with many things in the world. What things?

Unnamed Girl: Well, umm…

Veronica Fleischer: well abortion for example.

Unnamed Girl: yes.

Veronica Fleischer: I don’t agree with that for example. We just don’t support it. There we just say, we fall back on the ten commandments and accordingly it is murder to kill children.

Narrator: In the sheltered, orthodox world of St. Teresia, there doesn’t seem to be any room for the needs of the world outside. There is no place for self doubt.

(Prayers in the Church)

Lord, send us priests
Lord, send us holy priests
Lord, send us many holy priests

Narrator: In the seminary it’s time for recreation, for the midday break. Almost all of the seminarians play soccer. Elias also, but now, after two injuries, he would rather watch, since his ordination to the priesthood is fast approaching.

(Lecture)

Narrator: The lecture in the seminary.

(Ave Maria…)

Narrator: Overhead projector, computer presentation, whiteboard markers: these things are unnecessary hier. None of the students uses a laptop. But Latin, the ancient language of the Church, is maintained.

Fr. Elias Stolz: Ever since we were small, we always went to traditional Masses. Actually I only know the old Mass.

Interviewer: In Latin

Fr. Elias Stolz: In Latin

(Schola)

Fr. Elias Stolz: For one thing there are the externals, the music, the Latin, all of the ceremonies, the reverence that is expressed. But it’s not just that. All of the externals are connected together with the whole theology in the background. All of the truths that are expressed in the old Mass.

Narrator: The whole truth, the true tradition, the true priesthood. Expressions that mirror the belief in the mission. We are the true Church. The official Church, Pope included, in error.

Fr. Stefan Frey: Since the second Vatican Council, it is true, a new concept of the priesthood, a secular concept of the priesthood, has taken over. The priest no longer sees himself, or less so, as the minister of God, with a supernatural ministry. Instead he sees himself more as a social apostle, as a political reformer maybe, or in mission lands as an aid worker, or a counselor. His mission has then become secular, and that has plunged many priests into a serious identity crisis.

(Trees)

Narrator: And because they see things in this way, the Pius brothers withdrew obedience to Rome and the Pope after the council. In Menzingen, canton Zug, at the foot of the Swiss Alps, they have built their world headquarters. The General House. General Superior is Bishop Bernard Fellay. He is one of the four Pius bishops, whose excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009, a gesture of paternal empathy.

Bishop Fellay: What is so remarkable, is that this work is now so well known, and even finds itself in a position of conflict, just because we simply wanted to be true to everything that the Church up to now has always done. That is the problem, the renewal, the accomodation to the modern world. I believe there you touch the problem, and why, and when we say no.

Fr. Stefan Frey: Basically it is really a betrayal of the mission of the Church, a capitulation to the zeitgeist. The Church has been sent to sanctify the world, and exactly the opposite has occurred. The Church has been profaned by the world.

Bishop Fellay: Fundamentally, it is that humanity, or if you will, the Church, has to fulfill it’s obligations to God. And that is done by serving God, the service of God. That part that is dedicated to God, that must remain completely sacred.
 
(Seminarians Congregating)

Narrator: Every day before the evening Mass, the priests and seminarians pray in Zaitzkofen in front of the Sacred Heart of Jesus fountain. Exclusively in Latin… Latin, another symbol of the resistance against any kind of reform. An example is the prayer book. The seminary uses the prayer and music book of the diocese of Regensburg. But between pages 90 and 119, something is missing. The pages have been removed. A look at the uncensored prayer book makes it clear why. The reforms of the council are objectionable. The pure sacrificial worship service with the priest as the sole intermediary between God and the community was abolished… in favor of a participatory service of readings in the local vernacular language. The Pius brothers do not agree with this increased recognition of the laity, of the community.

Bishop Fellay: When one speaks of a worship service, you have to understand what service is. When it is service to God, then that means that the most important thing is God, and not man. If so, then the one to whom you speak is not to the people, but to God.

(Preparations for Ordination)

Narrator: In Zaitzkofen, the preparations for the ordinations to the priesthood are in full swing.

(Seminarians in silent prayer)

Fr. Elias Stolz: I think it is very important, the silence. It is above all a great help, and you eventually learn to recognize the value in it, the riches actually, that lie in silence. Because you can somehow better cultivate your contact with the supernatural, because you can go deeper, because, above all, you aren’t distracted. Silence is actually only the means by which true contemplation happens, really, or prayer, contemplative prayer, that is the raising up of the soul to God, and to supernatural things.

Narrator: Enthusiasm for tradition. Does it leave any place for the religious debates of today? Dialog, for example, as it was practiced at the 2010 Ecumenical Church Conference in Munich?

(Bishop Fellay at Ordination)

Bishop Fellay: Wenn one sees what is happening today, for example, that ecumenical conference there a month ago. How can, how can bishops approve of that? That has nothing more to do with the Church, or with the Gospel. That leads souls directly into hell. When you approve of sin, then that is really and truly, to open the doors of hell.

(Bishop Fellay in Menzingen)

Bishop Fellay It’s about authenticity, about truth, even then when some people don’t like it. And there, the Church says "watch out, you protestants. Once you were Catholic. Until Luther, you were all Catholic. At that time you were, you separated yourself and you have lost something. You are like an airplace which has lost… I don’t know… a wing, a motor, something is missing. Your airplane can’t fly. Therefore, one can no longer call it an airplane. One can’t dare to call it a Church, because it’s missing, umm… things, or parts, which are necessary for flight.

(Preparations for Ordination)

Narrator: In the park in Zaitzkofen, the Mass is being prepared for many hundreds of participants…

(Library)

Narrator: Inside, everything is calm. The library: For Elias, it is special place of peace, of contemplation. Not the slightest hectic. In the entire seminary, no cellphone shrieks. Neither radios nor televisions can be found. Nothing is permitted to district the priests of tomorrow.

(Refectory)

Narrator: Tranquility. Silence. Also at dinner. There is a public reading, in the old monastic tradition. The subject is surprising. The reading concerns the holocaust… The priests in Zaitzkofen were horrified as, in 2009, Bishop Richard Williamson, here in their own house, denied the holocaust. Their answer: Readings concentrating on the third reich.

(Preparations for Ordination)

Narrator: Final preparations. Each seminarian lends a hand. That is a part of the educational program: We are strong, only as a community.

(Sign: Confessions)

(Sweeping)

Narrator: Sweeping the courtyard in Zaitzkofen. It might as well be an official part of the formation. The seminarians will be freed from this lowly work after their ordination to the priesthood.

(Girls school)

Narrator: How will the girls at St. Theresia shape their future? Will they concentrate on home and family? Pursue a career? Will we run into Veronica in a few years in a hospital as Dr. Fleischer?

Veronica Fleischer: Well of course I can’t say 100% what my vocation is. I mean, at the moment, it’s school, but later, if I were to say, to consider what I want to do with my life, I just pray a lot about it, also to the Holy Ghost, that He will enlighten me, or I think about what advantages one option brings, and what the other one brings. But ultimately I have to do what God wants, and not what I want.

(In Church)

Narrator: Will the Virgin Mary help her to find an answer?

(Seminary)

Narrator: Evening Mass in Zaitzkofen. The preparations are complete. Everything is ready.
 
(Lights out - Morning)

Narrator: Saturday, nine o’clock in the morning… Elias goes to his ordination. None of the thousand participants is bothered by it. But for the German bishops, and for the official Catholic Church, this ordination is a provocation. For them, the Pius brothers are rebels against Rome. His ordination is illegal… but not invalid. A mystery of Catholic canon law.

(Kyrie Eleison)

Narrator: Prostrate on the floor. A symbol of dedication.

(Laying on Hands)

Narrator: The laying on of hands. From now on he may, the tradition says, speak in the Name of Christ. The liturgical vestments. Only an ordained priest can celebrate the Mass… The anointing of the hands, which starting today can give blessings… The Mass is more than four hours long… Then the community greets their new priests.

Fr. Elias Stolz: Yes, I was excited.

Interviewer: But you looked so calm.

Fr. Elias Stolz: Well yes perhaps, it was just maybe an interior excitement, you can say, and also, there was the night before. That was… I just couldn’t sleep. That was just everything… It’s was, you can say, that moment for which I have been waiting.

Narrator: And hundreds are waiting for him. For Father Elias… They all want to receive his blessing, his first blessing

Fr. Elias Stolz: It is so, that through this laying on of the hands, and through the priestly blessing of the new priest, then practically you can say, for the recipient, wenn he is properly disposed of course, special graces from God are given, and also an indulgence.

Veronica Fleischer: You feel like you aren’t alone, when you receive a blessing. It’s a simply a kind of support. That you can keep on fighting, and not all has been lost.

Interviewer: That sounds so negative. Not all has been lost. You are 17, 18 years old. What in the world could be all lost?

Veronica Fleischer: No, no, no. I didn’t mean it that way. I said it’s all lost, but just, when you are stuck in a hole for example, Why does that happen? When things aren’t going well, and you’ve done poorly on an assignment, or something like that. That you get over it and think to yourself, it’s not really such a disaster when I get a bad grade, or something.

Narrator: For traditionalist faithful, Elias is now a second Christ. Not someone trying to save the world, but someone who offers sacrifice, who blesses, who forgives. A link to God.

Fr. Elias Stolz: It is quite rare… or let me say it differently: An angel appears to tell us the will of God. In the first place, it comes through our superiors, through the rules that we have, through the constitution we… that we have in our fraternity. First and foremost that is the will of God.

Narrator: The preconciliar celebration ends in a family festival. A fraternity that celebrates itself, joyfully, harmonious, as if Rome and the Pope, and the rest of the world did not exist.
 
Thank you for sharing this!

I think the most profound moment of the film was when they mentioned Bishop Williamson’s denying the holocost there at Zaitzkofen, and the the seminarians shudder in disbelief and decide to recite memoirs of the Third Reich. I found it to be a great witness to traditionalists not being crazy idiots with a political axe to grind.

That girl Veronica Fleischer had a very Bayrische accent. Made me miss Germany so much!
 
Thanks for posting this. Interesting.

In 1995 in the BBC there was a five piece series about Vatican II for the 40th anniversary of the closing. One of the session was about the Liturgy. The SSPX received equal time like the rest of the Church. My guess is that the media uses anything whatever is possible to promote the disunity in the Church.

This has nothing to do with the SSPX itself. Not they are the evil.
 
Will S:
My disclaimer: I do not frequent SSPX Masses and I don’t recommend to any Catholic that they make an SSPX chapel their regular destination for receiving the sacraments.
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For the life of me, I can’t figure out a valid reason for posting this documentary whatsoever. 🤷

You have posted ordination pictures in a separate thread. Any SSPX member knows to look on the SSPX.org website and can view these to their heart’s content. Is it to bring familiarity to the forefront so that it will simulate that they are a lawful part of the Catholic Church?

Why then do we not post the ordination photos of EO’s, or other rites, such as Maronite? It seems to me the SSPX are being fed to us by you as a regular diet, when most of us here are not interested in viewing illicit ordinations or trying to understand an SSPX doctumentary. What is your agenda here, particularly since nobody made a request for any of this?
 
Sirach2 said:
For the life of me, I can’t figure out a valid reason for posting this documentary whatsoever. 🤷

You have posted ordination pictures in a separate thread. Any SSPX member knows to look on the SSPX.org website and can view these to their heart’s content. Is it to bring familiarity to the forefront so that it will simulate that they are a lawful part of the Catholic Church?

Why then do we not post the ordination photos of EO’s, or other rites, such as Maronite? It seems to me the SSPX are being fed to us by you as a regular diet, when most of us here are not interested in viewing illicit ordinations or trying to understand an SSPX doctumentary. What is your agenda here, particularly since nobody made a request for any of this?
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Well, the facts are:
  • the SSPX consists of Roman Catholic clergy
  • the SSPX are part of the Church
  • this is the Traditional Catholicism forum
  • the SSPX is of interest, and our pope, H.H. BXVI is interested in finding a way to achieve reconcilliation
I think you are the one with an agenda, that being, introducing negativity into any thread about the SSPX.

You can rant away, leave the TC forum, or ignore the SSPX posts. Your choice. But you can’t make the rules and that’s the way it is.
 
Perhaps so, At Trent, perhaps so. I honestly have never seen photos of Byzantine ordinations, Maronite, or any other lawful rite of the Church, so it does seem rather unusual for one who claims not to belong to SSPX to spoon-feed us with so much material. Nor have I seen five-post documentaries of these lawful rites being circulated anywhere on the foruum. It seems to me a valid question to ask why the repetition is occurring for a rite that is irregular. Obviously, you do not agree.
 
Sirach2 said:
Perhaps so, At Trent, perhaps so. I honestly have never seen photos of Byzantine ordinations, Maronite, or any other lawful rite of the Church, so it does seem rather unusual for one who claims not to belong to SSPX to spoon-feed us with so much material. Nor have I seen five-post documentaries of these lawful rites being circulated anywhere on the foruum. It seems to me a valid question to ask why the repetition is occurring for a rite that is irregular. Obviously, you do not agree.
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It was a worthwhile documentary. I believe the church and the SSPX will together be stronger once the breach is healed. The documentary gave me some hope that the SSPX has not completely gone off the deep-end yet.
 
Sirach2 said:
Perhaps so, At Trent, perhaps so. I honestly have never seen photos of Byzantine ordinations, Maronite, or any other lawful rite of the Church, so it does seem rather unusual for one who claims not to belong to SSPX to spoon-feed us with so much material. Nor have I seen five-post documentaries of these lawful rites being circulated anywhere on the foruum. It seems to me a valid question to ask why the repetition is occurring for a rite that is irregular. Obviously, you do not agree.
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Well, a good place to look for such photos would be Eastern Catholicism.

If the SSPX bishops were still excommunicated, and the Church was ignoring them or speaking against them, I could understand not wanting talk of them here. But, that simply isn’t the case.

The SSPX is disobedient, yes, but their reasons are understandable to many who are not affiliated with them. Many don’t understand how disobedience can be justified. Fair enough, but when the pope grants requests made by the SSPX, that should tell us something. If he can show some sympathy, so can we. We don’t have to, but those of us who do see some good in the SSPX are at least of similar mindset with H.H. here.
 
Sirach2 said:
For the life of me, I can’t figure out a valid reason for posting this documentary whatsoever. 🤷
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The relationship between the SSPX and the Holy See is the central axis in traditional Catholicism. If you want to understand traditional Catholicism then you need to understand the SSPX. Part of understanding the SSPX is understanding how the SSPX views themselves. This is why this documentary was broadcast on German State Television and it’s why it is appropriate here, in the traditional Catholicism forum.
Sirach2 said:
Why then do we not post the ordination photos of EO’s
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First off, the “EOs” are not Catholic. They are true schismatics. The SSPX are Catholic. Second off, if you are interested in eastern Catholic rites, societies, ordinations, and the like, then go post them in the eastern Catholicism forum, where they belong. It won’t bother me a bit.
Sirach2 said:
It seems to me the SSPX are being fed to us by you as a regular diet, when most of us here are not interested in viewing illicit ordinations or trying to understand an SSPX doctumentary.
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If you aren’t interested then don’t look at the threads. The thread title makes it quite clear what the subject matter is. It seems to me also, that you are out of place in the traditional Catholicism forum as you don’t seem to have much interest in traditional Catholicism.
 
Hey Will…that was good thanks. I was able to minimize your translation and follow right along. I watched the whole thing.

Like you, I’m not telling anyone else to put aside their concerns about jurisdiction. The sad thing is that this is what many faithful really want and have difficulty finding anywhere else. How can one not admire the young ladies and the seminarians? I don’t think anyone can accuse them of nostalgia for the old days!

Are there television documentaries about the Maronites anyway, or the Eastern Orthodox? There was a Dan Rather Reports when he visited the American seminary in Winona, Minnesota that came out a year or so ago. I think you should find that and try to post it since you are so crazy to promote the SSPX!

Kidding. Thanks again.

PP
 
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