Witch-hunt for SSPX ‘Gay haters’ - Germany

Within the last 24 hours, there has been a huge media uproar in Germany concerning an article which appeared in the latest issue of the SSPX newsletter ‘Mitteilungsblatt’. The article goes on to explain how the CSD (Christopher Street Day = Gay pride parade) had mocked both the Church and the Pope in its previous parade last year in Stuttgart. Father Franz Schmidberger (District superior of SSPX - Germany) today released a statement (see below) concerning the ‘false interpretation of a text within the latest newsletter’.

There has been much opposition to the Society calling the CSD a ‘perverse’ movement, which is used as “propaganda...for the sin of Sodom”. The German Catholics Bishops Conference (Bonn) later distanced itself from the Society's claims.

The following sentence which was taken from an article within the SSPX newsletter 'Mitteilungsblatt' has been severely misinterpreted by the German press: "How proud we are when we read a history book and find that in the Third Reich there were courageous Catholics who said: 'We do not want this madness!". As a result, the Society is now being branded as a new ‘Nazi hate group’ and there are many politicians, activists, Jews and Catholic Bishops (in particular) who will stop at nothing to prevent the SSPX from gradually being reconciled with Rome.

Below is a statement from Fr Franz Schmidberger district superior of SSPX - Germany which was released today (03/07/09) on the Society's website:

[Based on ‘Google Translation’]

False interpretation of a text within the latest newsletter

In the newsletter of July 2009 there was an appeal for a peaceful demonstration at the Christopher Street Day rally in Stuttgart. [The article was] to encourage all Catholics, to model themselves on those men and women, which in the years of Nazism raised their voices against the blatant sins against the fifth commandment of God, even at the risk of their lives.
Catholics are always prompted to raise their voice not only when a totalitarian regime systematically flouts human dignity, but also when public groups raise up against the moral order - in this case against the sixth commandment of God.

We note that our reference to the Nazi injustice was completely misunderstood. According to the CSD, we have neither the intention nor the facts to equate the Nazi regime. We would however point out that according to Christian moral standards, the concern of the CSD is immoral. This is what we wanted the public to understand by our demonstration.

Father Franz Schmidberger, District Superior

[For the original German statement, click here]

I leave you with the relevant message of Our Lady of Fatima: “If my requests are heard, Russia will be converted, there will be peace. If not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, promoting wars and persecutions of the Church; the good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. But in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, she will be converted, and an era of peace will be conceded to humanity.”