POPE LEO’S EXCOMMUNICATION OF THE SSPX, CLEARLY AND UNAMBIGUOUSLY STATING THEY ARE SCHISMATIC IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR BUT IS IT VATICAN II?

Also, Cardinal Fernandez’s clarifying notes makes clear that lay people should not participate in FSSPX Masses on a regular basis.

Let’s go back to the late 1960’s and early 1970’s and the fever of ecumenism that spread throughout the Church and even in my little old parish in Augusta, Georgia.

And let’s talk about today, ecumenically speaking and independent of the FSSPX:

I can remember that prior to Vatican II Catholics were warned not to step foot in a Protestant Church and not to be fooled by what looks like a Catholic Mass in High Episcopal Parishes. 

And then Vatican II supposedly tore that all down. 

I remember my pastor in Augusta in the early 1970’s telling a mother who asked if her daughter could attend a Sunday Protestant Service at her friend’s Church and he said yes and she did not need to also go to Sunday Mass. 

When I was in the seminary in the late 1970’s one of our priest-Dominican professors, who went on to become the Superior of his southern province, brought a group of us seminarians to an AME Church in Baltimore for one of their Sunday Services which also featured their Communion. The good Father went up and received their Holy Communion along with some other seminarians—I chose to hang back, so pre-Vatican II was I in the most liberal seminary in the country. But I was quite flexible about what others wanted to do, thus very post-Vatican II in that regard.

Today, I know many Catholics who have joined the Episcopal Church, especially the upwardly mobile and still receive Holy Communion when they attend a Catholic Mass. Many more Catholics have become non-denominational and yes, if they attend a Catholic funeral or wedding they receive Holy Communion.

And many practicing Catholics when they attend an Episcopal wedding or funeral where their Eucharist is celebrated, will go to Communion.

So, why is the pope and Cardinal Fernandez not concerned about other schismatic sects that Catholic attend and also participate in their Communion and with no warnings to them and the proper expression of ecumenism as Vatican II taught? And what about their possible excommunication. Are they to do what Cardinal Fernandez says even FSSPX laity must do who have participated in the FSSPX and attend Mass in their churches regularly?

Curious on Hilton Head Island on the 4th of July