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| Dr Stefanie Maria Knab |
Fr Felix Selden C.O.
DELEGATUS SEDIS APOSTOLICAE
PRO CONFEDERATIONE ORATORII
S. PHILIPPI NERII
The Oratory Vienna
5 October 2010
Dear Fr Selden,
I acknowledge receipt of your letter of 24 September 2010. In case you should ask me why I did not protest publicly about your scandalous ruling at the end of May, the answer is obvious: on the day after his banishment to the Trappist monastery, Fr Dermot asked his companions for “prayer and silence”.
You ask the question “I do not know whether you have examined Fr Dermot medically yourself”. My answer to that is yes, on 21 April 2010
I examined him medically myself at the guesthouse of the Convent of St Crescentia in Kaufbeuren.
It is simply a misrepresentation of the facts in order to protect yourself when you claim, amongst other things, that “To my certain knowledge, thank God, he enjoys good health”.
As you know, Fr Dermot asked for my medical advice in April 2010.
There was also a matter of medication, so I showed him the way to the Crescentia Apothecary. (In November 2001 I was in Rome at the canonisation of our Blessed Crescentia of Kaufbeuren.)
As a hospital chaplain in the Rudolf Foundation Hospital in Vienna you will be aware, dear Fr Selden, that as a doctor I am bound by my duty of confidentiality. I repeat: Fr Dermot also keeps silent about the Apostolic Visitation.
Your sentence on Fr Dr Dermot Fenlon CO of five years’ exclaustration is as much an abuse of power as it is a lack of judgement, since you failed to acknowledge crucial aspects of the case. It is foreseeable that your action against your confrere Fr Fenlon will end up before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Then I will ask Fr Dermot to release me from my duty of medical confidentiality. I will then be prepared to act as an expert witness before the Strasbourg Court.
Since at one time we supported lieutenant colonel Juergen Rose (Munich), who was refusing war service on grounds of conscience, we are also acquainted with the ECCHR. The European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights is a charitable and independent human rights organisation based in Berlin. It was founded in 2007 by a small group of well-known human rights lawyers, in order to protect and enforce by legal means the human rights which are enshrined in the General Declaration of Human Rights as well as other human rights declarations and national constitutions. At the same time we feel committed to the creative and effective use of the law as a driver for societal and social change.
The ECCHR will better enable a network of European human rights lawyers and human rights activists, who will exchange their knowledge and experience in the battle for human rights and together develop cross-border strategies.
Against this background I recommend that you read very carefully the speech of Pope Benedict XVI at Holyrood House, Edinburgh on 16 September 2010 (“and to promote the spread of authentic human rights”).
Say “Yes!” to authentic human rights.
I do appreciate your personal request for making peace (“pacification”):
I will light a candle for you in our parish church of St Martin in Kaufbeuren.
Yours sincerely
Dr Knab
Senior Doctor of the Central Anaesthetic Department, Ostallgäu
PS. Unfortunately I found no answer to my questions in your letter referred to above. A pity!
