This last of four volumes in the Letters from the Rector series includes Bishop Williamson’s letters 183 through 236 – the remaining 54 in the overall collection of 235 – written between February 9, 1999, and August 9, 2003, during the last part of his tenure at the head of the Winona seminary. Among other things, the Bishop addresses key events of the period, such as 9-11, the second war in Iraq, the President Clinton affair, and John Paul II’s famous “apologies,” as well as some of his favorite themes, to include rural vs. suburban life and the family, while simultaneously and consistently dealing with the relationship between the SSPX (and Catholic traditionalism generally) and Rome. The volume includes its own index and a comprehensive index to the four-volume series, and it closes with His Excellency’s charming poem bidding farewell to the United States after two decades’ worth of work forming priests for the Society of St. Pius X.
Richard N. Williamson (b. 1940) converted to Catholicism in 1971, was ordained a priest of the Catholic Church by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1976 for the latter’s Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X (FSSPX), and was consecrated a bishop by the Archbishop for the same fraternity in 1988. From 1976 to 2012 he served the FSSPX in various capacities, most notably as rector of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Ridgefield, Conn. (1983–1988) and later in Winona, Minn. (1988–2003). After a brief stint as rector of the FSSPX seminary at La Reja, Argentina (2003–2009), he was posted to England for a extended “sabbatical,” following his incendiary and widely circulated public remarks regarding the “holocaust.” The remarks, coupled with three decades’ worth of controversial opinions, as well as his disagreement with its recent management and direction, led to his (canonically irregular) removal from the FSSPX in late 2012, since which time he has operated as an independent bishop providing sacramental and doctrinal nourishment to a widely diverse group of Catholic faithful around the world.
He is widely known, and both loved and hated (as the case may be) for his controversial and “radical” (i.e., going to the “root” of the issue) opinions on matters both secular and religious, from 9-11 to World War II to modern film to suburban living to feminine dress and more. The bulk and essence of his opinions are captured in the letters “to friends and benefactors” ‒ including those featured in this volume ‒ that he wrote during his two decades of service at the helm of the Ridgefield and Winona seminaries, and which were succeeded in 2007 by his still-running weekly commentary entitled “Eleison Comments,” currently curated by the St. Marcel Initiative with the collaboration of the Bishop’s long-time friend, confidant, and now biographer, Dr. David Allen White.