Let’s face it, like the German Catholic Augustinian monk, Father Martin Luther, the FSSPX are rebels, revolutionaries and think they know better than Holy Mother Church headed by the Successor of Saint Peter. They think, like Fr. Martin Luther, they can keep the Church faithful and purified.
Unlike Fr. Martin Luther’s reformation that was instrumentalized by the various kingdoms at the time to distance themselves from Rome’s political interference, no country in which there are large numbers of FSSPX communities will use them to hate Rome.
In terms of the number of practicing Catholics, the FSSPX are a drop in the bucket and are receiving far more attention for their disobedience and upcoming schism than their numbers require or deserve.
I was happy when Saint Pope John Paul II reached out to traditionalists to allow them to have the Tridentine Mass with His Holiness’ Ecclesia Dei. He also formed the FSSP to keep those who were attracted to the rebellious FXSSP in ecclesial union with Rome.
Pope Benedict put St. John Paul’s efforts on steroids only to have an authoritarian pope reverse all of that in a very unfortunate and, quite frankly, dishonest way.
Synodality, as promoted by Pope Francis, encourages the heterodox to let their voices be heard even when they were speaking out against defined doctrines of the Church, as it concerns Holy Orders and more perniciously about changing Catholic morality in sexual matters into acceptable amorality.
Yes, those denying defined Catholic teachings were encouraged to let their position be known through synodality. They are secure and brash enough to say that they must first change Catholics’ orthodoxy by making unacceptable sinful behavior into acceptable and virtuous lifestyles. Then and only then, can they change doctrines and morals—they understand what it means to cook Catholics in a crockpot so they won’t know they are being cooked only to learn eventually that they are overcooked!
Yet, the FSSPX doesn’t really want to change any doctrines or moral teachings of the Church. Yes, they disagree with the post-Vatican II revision of the Mass by a small group of elitist liturgical theologians.
Yes, they disagree with ecumenism, religious freedom and a few other non-dogmatic teachings of Vatican II—more pastoral positions than dogmatic definitions .
Yet, synodality gave voices to heterodox Catholics, to include some bishops and some bishop-cardinals, to change the doctrines and dogmas of Holy Orders, Marriage, and sexual morality, positions that really need be be anathematized not regularized.
The recent practice of synodality as well as the heretical and schismatic German synodal way are much greater threat to Catholic ecclesial unity and communion.
The FSSPX are insignificant chicken feed compared to the greatest threat to the Catholic Church in this our Modern Church which is heterodox synodality and the German Sinodal Way.
Just my two cents worth, as outdated as cents is (pun intended).
12 comments:
While I do not support the SSPX's decision to consecrate bishops without papal approval, what is always left out of this discussion is the actions of bishops against traditionally inclined Catholics that led many to believe that they had to seek a place in an independent SSPX. Yes, what the society is proposing is wrong, but it is a reaction to a prior injustice that continues. This, and not just what the SSPX is doing, needs to be addressed.
I agree and agree that the juice isn't worth the squeeze just because Rome wants to prove a point while letting other and greater threats persist.
Personally, I agree with some points of disagreement that the Society has maintained.
Some day when the Church returns to sanity, Archbishop LeFebvre will be declared a saint and Paul VI's sainthood revoked.
Pope Leo XIV has determined that the level of attention that the SSPX requires/deserves is so grave that the Society has been notified as follows:
"The episcopal ordinations announced by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X do not have the corresponding pontifical mandate.
"This action will constitute ‘a schismatic act’ (Pope St. John Paul II, Ecclesia Dei, no. 3), and ‘formal adherence to the schism constitutes a grave offense against God and entails the excommunication established by the law of the Church’ (ibid., 5c; cf. Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Explanatory Note, 24 August 1996).”
In light of the above, the SSPX requires/deserves a monumental level of attention, as Pope Leo XIV has made clear. As he is a holy and great Pope/Pastor, anything less from His Holiness would be unimaginable.
His Holiness is determined in clear, merciful fashion, to keep certain among his spiritual children from the grave sin of schism.
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Pope Benedict XVI addressed the following issue in regard to the degree of attention that should be devoted to the SSPX:
"Can we be totally indifferent about a community which has 491 priests, 215 seminarians, 6 seminaries, 88 schools, 2 university-level institutes, 117 religious brothers, 164 religious sisters and thousands of lay faithful?
"Should we casually let them drift farther from the Church?"
Therefore, a holy pastor, in this case, Pope Leo XIV, will, so to speak, leave 99 amongst his flock to devote time and energy to save his one lost sheep.
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In light of Jesus Christ's example in the care of His flock's spiritual well-being, the Society does not constitute "a drop in the bucket"...they deserve/require the degree of attention (which is substantial) as determined by Pope Leo XIV.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Yes but my post is on the real threat of the Pope Francis version of synodality that emboldened the German heretical and schismatic way. Comment on that please.
Father McDonald said..."Yes, they disagree with the post-Vatican II revision of the Mass by a small group of elitist liturgical theologians."
Pope Saint John Paul II:
"The reform of the rites and the liturgical books...was brought to an effective conclusion in a few years thanks to the considerable and self less work of a large number of experts and bishops from all parts of the world."
"...a large number of experts and bishops from all parts of the world."
Pope Saint John Paul II opposed the notion that the reformed Mass is the work of "a small group of elitist liturgical theologians."
The True Church has assured us that the Holy Ghost has guided the "post-Vatican II revision of the Mass."
It would not matter if the reformed Mass is the work of just one "elitist." Holy Mother Church has guaranteed that said Mass is of unquestioned orthodoxy/holiness.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Father McDonald said..."Yes but my post is on the real threat of the Pope Francis version of synodality that emboldened the German heretical and schismatic way. Comment on that please."
Father, from your headline, "THE FSSPX UPCOMING SCHISM...," to numerous paragraphs in your post, you focused considerable attention upon the FSSPX.
Therefore, I had focused upon the FSSPX.
Anyway, as to "the German heretical and schismatic way..."...sure.
Father, I reject respectfully your claim that it is Pope Francis' "version of synodality that emboldened the German heretical and schismatic way."
As then-Cardinal Robert Prevost, for example, had declared, and has confirmed as Pope Leo XIV, Pope Francis "version of synodality" was/is orthodox...the work of the Holy Ghost.
Only a mistaken, or outright devious person, could possibly have employed Pope Francis' holy, orthodox Synodal-related teachings to form an heretical and schismatic result.
Father, your comment in question is akin to folks who have attributed Pope Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum for having emboldened supposedly the war against the Holy Mass of Pope Saint Paul VI.
Or, those who have blamed Vatican II for the work of folks who have distorted the Council to reimage the Church.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
The German Church has far too much money: more than it knows what to do with. This, in part, explains the thrust of strange ideas formed through the perversity of synodality. To keep the money flowing into the German Church, it allows this in order that people do not cancel their 'church tax'.
Rather than only proposing ideas from the Local Church to the Universal, the bishops of Germany ought, also, to present firmly the teaching of the Universal Church to the local. As the Lord reminded, 'you cannot serve two masters!(Mt 6:24).
This links to the matter of SSPX: for part of the 'esse' of the Bishop is this representation of local to Universal and Universal to local. It is very difficult to see how the Bishops of SSPX can achieve this. In its widest sense the Local (SSPX or German Synods) are represented without the Universal being considered. Is not the two way representation called 'being in communion'.
St. John Paul II basically stated that elitists revised the Mass by using the term experts. Please tell us, MT, how many people, who were elitists, were on St.Pope Paul’s Consilium? It was not a large group of bishops and experts, it was a small group of elitists. JPII and so many others conflate those consulted on Sacrosanctum Concilium with Paul VI’s Consilium. The two are entirely different. Like me, you were probably taught that Vatican II changed the Mass. No it was Consilium and only one man approved it, St. Pope Paul VI—it was not approved by an ecumenical council, meaning the pope and bishops.
"...they had to seek a place in an independent SSPX."
There are two, and only two, this we HAVE to do in this life. One is stay the color we were born, Michael Jackson notwhithstanding, and the other is we must die.
Other than that, everything is a choice. Those who leapt into the fire with SSPX were free to stay if they chose. No one made them leave.
Father McDonald said..."St. John Paul II basically stated that elitists revised the Mass by using the term experts."
Pope Saint John Paul II said that the "reform of the rites and the liturgical books" represented "the considerable and self less work of a large number of experts and bishops from all parts of the world."
If that constituted his way of having "basically stated that elitists revised the Mass," then the supposed "elitists" in question had performed holy work as Pope Saint John Paul II declared:
"...the reform of the Liturgy is strictly traditional and in accordance with the ancient usage of the holy Fathers".
Pope Saint John Paul II had declared also that “the liturgical renewal is the most visible fruit of the whole work of the Council”.
As we have learned from Saint John Paul II, Deo gratias for the holy, stellar collective effort of the so-called "elitists" in question.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Father McDonald said..."Like me, you were probably taught that Vatican II changed the Mass. No it was Consilium and only one man approved it, St. Pope Paul VI—it was not approved by an ecumenical council, meaning the pope and bishops."
Okay. So be it.
From: Pope Venerable Pius XII:
"It follows from this that the Sovereign Pontiff alone enjoys the right to recognize and establish any practice touching the worship of God, to introduce and approve new rites, as also to modify those he judges to require modification."
Pope Saint Paul VI, who was blessed with never-failing faith, as well as the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, promulgated the holy, orthodox Mass in question, from which countless spiritual graces have long flowed.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
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