Posted on 06/28/2013 2:09:10 PM PDT by Teófilo
Brethren, Peace and Good to all of you.
As you may know from most Catholic media, the Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), founded by the dissident traditionalist French Bishop Marcel Lefebvre, has announced its definitive separation from the Catholic Church.
I don't have to go into the details and for that I refer you to the news report. However, I will share my opinion with you: even when I prayed for a miracle, and granted the SSPX the benefit of the doubt, I never really believed they were actig in good faith. You can read my consistent doubts throughout all my posts about the SSPX collected under the "SSPX" tag or category.
I also will tell you the core reason why the SSPX rejected normalization with the Church - an event that will lead them into formal schism again: their core leadership, many of their clergy as well as their laity are a bunch of anti-Semites. Period, yes, that's what it is, I have no doubt about. For them, the Jewish people have no reason to exist, as individuals, as a distinct community, and as a state. They feel odium theologicum against the Jews and therefore disagree vehemently any exchange between the Church and the Jews that is not aimed at obtaining their unconditional capitulation to Christian truth. Since they no longer find the Church a hospitable place to exercise their hatred under the mantle of traditional liturgics and piety, they leave us so that they can hate in peace.
Brothers and Sisters: I have learned to love the usus antiquor, the extraordinary form of the Latin Mass. I love too the Byzantine Liturgy, and I am at home in a Mass of Paul VI properly and reverently celebrated according to the rubrics. The SSPX has no standing whatsoever to judge the Church gathered around Peter's Successor, nor the spiritual standing of the vast majority of Catholic Christians who disagree with their stands. The SSPX is headed to die in the vineyard now that they have cut themselves off from the Church of Jesus Christ.
To those Catholics of good faith that up to now have stood with the SSPX, you now face a serious choice: you either return in body, mind, and soul to the Catholic Church, or dissolve yourselves in the mist of schism and separation. Your salvation depends now on your decision.
Return, oh return, to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Roman Church. Repent, confess, and begin your healing. Then, come with us to help us rebuild the Church.
Ping!
Why waste digital ink over the SSPX, a miniscule group that is still Catholic but in an irregular juridical status until the Vatican says otherwise?
We’ve got far far bigger problems to deal with than a bunch of poor abused Catholics who sought refuge from liturgical abuse and heterodoxy with priests and bishops who still believe and preach the Faith and Liturgy as it was taught for 1960 years.
It’s of interest to me.
Praytell, Teo. Please tell us exactly when, and why, the SSPX entered and then exited formal schism, your Highness. What exactly happened betwixt your two imaginary dates? What iota of Faith did the SSPX reject or invent to transfer them from one status to the other?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we have a Pope declaring atheists can go to Heaven and his Princes of the Church are preparing to celebrate Luther's 500 year old attack against the One, True Church.
Because it needs to be pointed out that high piety is not foreign to high pride.
The true Traditionalists are faithful to Peter’s Successor. Those who aren’t, follow idols of their own creation. They are not truly Catholics.
This fact needs to sink in in all our minds.
+JMJ,
~Theo
What is your authority to demand confession and repentance, your Highness? What confessions and repentance did the Archdiocese of Campos make? As far a rebuilding your personal idea of a "church", I'm sure the SSPX will pass.
Speaking of high piety, preach it to Francis, Bishop of Rome.
All bishops once ordained by Bp. Lefevbre illictly were once excommunicated, along with Bp. Lefevbre himself. Since they were the in charge of the SSPX, that made the SSPX excommunicated and in schism.
Pope (E) Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications to facilitate their reconciliation. At that moment the SSPX ceased to be in schism and only became an irregular body within the Church.
The new stance by the SSPX ruling bishop rejects dialogue. They might not be right now into schism but I don’t need to be a seasoned vaticanista to know that they’ll soon be back on square one, perhaps by performing illicit ordinations or episcopal consecrations.
I don’t lift myself in judgment of Peter’s Successor and the bishops and faithful in communion with him. That’s the arrogated prerogative of heretics and schismatics. If you don’t want to be in that company, you know what you need to do. Then come and help us rebuild the Church.
+JMJ,
~Theo
My authority derives from my baptismal dignity and my duty to perform the works of spiritual mercy.
+JMJ,
~Theo
Scripture states: “You shall not speak ill of the leader of your people.”
+JMJ,
~Theo
They aren’t going to accept gay marriage.
I figured you were an Obama fan.
Did not Paul speak ill of Peter, your Highness? Did not St Catherine to her pope?
If you feel that the Holy Spirit has abandoned the Catholic Church, feel free to join the SSPX. You will not be the first person to leave the Church in history in protest for one thing or another.
+JMJ,
~Theo
Insulting me will avail you nothing
They never left the Church. And thank you for calling me “Your Highness,” for indeed I am a son of God and brother to the King of Kings. Our Christian dignity is a royal dignity that we often forget.
+JMJ,
~Theo
We can’t entirely rule out hope for the future, but the news story certainly indicates that they have refused the Vatican’s very generous offers to make an agreement that would let them back into the Church from their state of schism.
I much preferred the traditional Latin Mass and I am constantly irritated by much of the new music and other aberrations in the post-Vatican II Church. The new translation is a big step in the right direction, but it still has its annoyances. But I put up with all that stuff, because it is the One True, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. And it still makes the Mass and Sacraments available to us.
I don’t know if I agree that anti-Semitism is the PRIMARY reason why they have refused to come to an agreement. I suspect that they have learned to enjoy their position of power and authority, and that the breaking point is that they would have to re-submit themselves to the authority of the Magisterium. They’re just too proud and full of themselves to do that. Sad, because a lot of what they objected to was, indeed, objectionable. But they crossed the line into heresy and schism, and now they are refusing to return.
HEAR HEAR. :-)
+JMJ,
~Theo
Well, at least you admit the Church is in trouble. Yet, you have the very "audacity of hope" to ask the very Society you are demonizing to rebuild it!
And contrary to what you think, Pope Francis is not what you say he is. Pope Francis has never said that people who are against gay marriage are excommunicated. Quite the opposite. Why don't you concern yourself with your own soul, instead of vesting yourself with authority you don;t have.
You will not be the first person to leave the Church in history in protest for one thing or another.
Could you please make up your mind! If the SSPX never left the Church, why did you say they were in schism and soon going to enter it again. Do you believe the Orthodox, the Lutherans, Anglicans, etc, also never left the Church?
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