IS EMPHASIZING AUTHORITY RATHER THAN DOCTRINE A GOOD THING—YES AND NO, BECAUSE WITH ALL THINGS CATHOLIC IT SHOULDN’T BE EITHER/OR BUT BOTH/AND WHEN WHAT IS DISCUSSED IS FOR THE GOOD OF THE CHURCH AND HER UNITY IN JESUS CHRIST SPLENDOR OF TRUTH…

 This is a very good commentary by Serre Verweij for Rorate Caeli—read the whole commentary by pressing the title:

Rome and the Econe Consecrations: a Dispassionate Analysis of What is at Stake

 Polarization and Isolation: 

What Can Be Expected of the Relationship Between Rome and the SSPX

by Serre Verweij

for Rorate Cæli

MONEY BYTE, MY COMMENTS BELOW IT:

Under Leo, Vatican II appears to have been transformed primarily into a question of authority rather than of doctrine. The conflict with the SSPX is over schism, not heresy. The real dispute concerns who has the authority to determine when an emergency situation exists within the Church, and who can be trusted to address it. 

Pope Leo has proved considerably firmer regarding authority and hierarchy than many initially expected. He is not despotic in the manner Francis could often be; he follows the law, but he follows it very strictly. The Germans are discovering this, as one project after another is quietly cancelled. Pope Leo does not tolerate public dissent. Whereas Francis would often tolerate de facto heresy among progressives so long as outward submission was maintained, Leo extends somewhat greater latitude to those to the right of the recent Magisterium, as evidenced, for example, by his platforming of Bishop Erik Varden. Yet more than Francis, Leo prizes unity and obedience, which have always been cardinal Augustinian charisms.

There is a certain irony in the conclusion that suggests itself: Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society of Saint Pius X may ultimately get the last word on Vatican II, on religious liberty, and on dialogue with modernity — while the SSPX as an institution remains permanently isolated. Its positions are likely to become increasingly common within the Church over the coming decades. Its bishops and priests, however, will remain sidelined for having refused to be team players.

My Comments:

The line in the sand that Pope Leo has drawn in terms of the FSSPX disobedience isn’t so much their disagreements with Vatican II as it is with their obstinate decision to ordain new bishops. This was the line in the sand for Saint Pope John Paul II. 

What the commentary above makes clear is that it wasn’t so much the FSSPX’s rejection of Vatican II’s on Vatican II and the Church’s dialogue with modernity, as well as the kind of post Vatican II reform of the Mass by Bugnini and approved by St. Pope Paul VI but rather disobeying the pope on the ordination of new bishops. 

Perhaps the commentary should have touched upon the fact that for the FSSPX to get permission to ordain new bishops they would have to be more open to all the teachings of Vatican II which are normative even though not infallible. 

Through this excommunication of the FSSPX, the pope is warning other bishops and their followers, clergy and laity, who might think they can get away with at least “ordaining” women deacons, not to mention women “priests and deacons” which they won’t; they’ll be excommunicated too.

I would go as far as to say that bishops who approve of formal same sex blessings or whatever they call it as being elevated to that of the “Sacrament of Holy Matrimony” will also face excommunication. 

This, of course, it directed more toward Germany and its heretical and schismatic tendencies that they want approved. They are even more anti-Vatican II than the FSSPX, no? The line in the sand for Pope Leo is illicit ordinations and perhaps marriages, both of which would also be invalid.