Multiple Ironies
1)If the SSPX is right, then it is on the path to salvation. But if it is wrong, then Vatican II and the conciliar popes interpreting it are right about ecumenism and non Catholic faiths, and therefore the SSPX is on its own rightful path to salvation, like Protestants, the Orthodox, etc. The irony.
2)If the SSPX are not like Protestants, then that accusation doesn’t apply, but is an idiotic projection of the Protestantization that obviously has taken over the post-conciliar Church especially in the Novus Ordo Missae. Yet ironically, if they are like Protestants, then according to the post-conciliar Church they are on their own rightful path to salvation, to be praised and welcomed. Again, the irony.
Francis praised Martin Luther, honoring him with a statue in the Vatican, participated in a Lutheran conference honoring Luther, and even signed a joint declaration that says Catholic and Lutheran understandings of justification are compatible (!!!!!), which would be contrary to the Council of Trent.
3)If the Society is not a formal schism post July 1st, then they are individually in full communion, and it would be wrong to set up a formal process for them, as is now being done, to approach their local bishop to “leave their newly established state of formal schism,” to be “reconciled” into “full communion with the Church.” But if they are a formal schism, like the Orthodox, then confessions and marriages would be considered valid, and per the Ecumenical Directory one can actively attend their Masses, contrary to what we are being told now. Yet again, the irony.
The Ultimate Irony Post July 1st
If the SSPX is now de facto deemed a formal schism, and officially treated as such, even though illicitly done so by the bishops, by a false reading of the Decree, and therefore treated now as a “schismatic Church,” and that includes anyone who fully adheres to their doctrinal positions, even if never attending, then this signals a new, bizarre twist, a NOW official kind of schism between the Vatican and the pre-conciliar Church (33 AD - 1962 AD), and those representing it today from 1962 - Present.
On the controversial doctrinal issues, like ecumenism or communion for public adulterers, either the Church before 1962 was right, or the Church authorities after 1962 are right. These errors are not merely different perspectives applied to new circumstances. They are essential contradictions, where the erroneous position today does not have the same meaning in continuity with the traditional teaching.
For example, prior to Vatican II the idea religious liberty should be practically unlimited as a natural right, except for particular reasons of the public good, in all times and places, was in fact condemned as a modernist error. Yet V2, and the conciliar popes interpreting V2, literally teach the above to be true. It is a mutation of doctrine in discontinuity.
Therefore, while ironically the status quo view post July 1st is that the SSPX and its doctrinal allies are now to be viewed officially as a false Church, that only means that those who adhere externally and internally in spirit to the false sinister Declarations of schism, of over 600,000 Catholics, that is by ultimately, formally rejecting the traditional doctrine as “SSPX errors,”then it is them that constitute at least materially a schism and a false Church.
Even though as canonist Fr. Murray says we now have a “canonical mess,” since the only document with legal force is the Decree which only declared excommunicated the six bishops (!), in a paradoxical way, the overall Declarations of schism, ultimately due to the conciliar and liturgical doctrinal errors, signify a major turning point.
This Turning Point
And that turning point is that officially the SSPX is the main organization and movement which officially represents the preservation of Catholic Tradition, and the Papal Magisterium from St. Peter through 1962, contrary to the conciliar, modernist errors.
This is not to say the conciliar establishment running the Church or the Holy See per se now constitute a new Formal Schismatic Church in themselves, which would violate indefectability, this fact therefore invalidates sedevacantism, or that the Church post July 1st has been literally reduced to the SSPX.
But in some mysterious, apocalyptic kind of way, that is impossible to fully wrap one’s brain around, the fight between Catholicism and modernism is officially represented by this new declaration of schism. On one side is the SSPX and the entire true Church; on the other side are the modernist leaders in charge of an Ape of the Church, especially over the Vatican.
This is a test for everyone. Once knowing the facts, Catholics must side with the SSPX over these false Declarations to avoid themselves participating in the (material) schism of the Leo/Fernandez led Vatican.
A Visualization of the Church Today
The juridical Church traditionally, visually would look like cathedrals dotting a map of the globe with lines drawn to Rome. Yet spiritually and doctrinally since the Council, with practically all diocesan bishops succumbing at least partly to Modernism, at least in the Latin Church, including most in Rome, then this juridical map no longer simply represents the true Church today. In much the same way as during the Arian crisis.
Officially the center of the Church is Rome and the Pope, but they are practically and partly, in some sense, in material heresy, material schism, and material apostasy. This leaves the SSPX, and the wider Traditional Movement at the spiritual center. You could ALSO draw on the map a special, extraordinary line between the International Headquarters of the SSPX, the FSSP, ICK, etc directly to Eternal Rome, and lines drawn to their District Headquarters around the world.
But if you identify with the approved TLM groups, YET also if you are anti-SSPX, and accept the conciliar errors, and an attitude of blind obedience, then spiritually speaking on the new visual map you stand with the modernists as enablers in the dark outer circles.
But for everybody who unites in spirit to the SSPX’s providential adherence to Tradition and pre-conciliar papal teachings, and essentially contrary to the modernist conciliar errors, then you stand at the spiritual center of the Church most closely united to Eternal Rome and the Papacy, including to Pope Leo (unless of course a future pope declares him and Francis as anti-popes and formal heretics, for creating a new, false, schismatic “synodal church” with all of its new errors).
Conclusion with a Solution Going Forward
In conclusion, ironically this de facto Vatican campaign places the entire SSPX and its wider doctrinal adherents outside of the visible Church, yet the actual canonical documents from Rome do nothing of the sort. We are dealing with a level of official canonical fact overlaid by a level of willful disinformation. From the exact same authorities, principally Fernandez.
The SSPX and likeminded traditional Catholics remain then canonically speaking Catholic and on good terms with the Church. Yet thankfully, now more directly than ever before, separated off in a formal way, from the “Ape of the Church” which now publicly reveals to everyone it exists, with all of its sinister motives, vs the true Church.
Therefore, after some study of the facts, doctrinal issues, and canonical issues, one is compelled to back away right now in a spirit of preservation and retreat from the official authorities, though not turning our backs on them, and to embrace the bishops and priests of the SSPX, and similar, aligned priests and religious, for pastoral help having been forced out of “the churches” into the ecclesial desert. They have the official churches, but we have the Faith, per St. Athanasius.
So once again this whole ironical situation shows one more irony, and that is while the traditional Church is not reduced down to the SSPX, the SSPX remains still the main group we must support and follow, leading the holy fight of upholding true doctrine and liturgy in obedience to God, and to the Popes and Church of 2000 years.
Going Forward. New Independent Catholic Chapels in Every Diocese
While Leo is to be accepted as a valid pope, unless declared by a future pope to be an anti-pope, the question at least being legitimately raised today, and the same for each bishop of the entire conciliar hierarchy, and while the juridical structure remains authoritative, canon law itself, which is from the Pope himself, by means of epikeia and the state of necessity, extends the true Church beyond the ordinary juridical structure overrun by modernists. Just as during the time of St. Athanasius when most dioceses were overrun either by Arians, Semi-Arians, or Those Leaning Towards Arianism.
The imperative now more than ever, caused by this new post July 1st situation, and the Big Lie and Persecution now against the SSPX and its doctrinal supporters, in the wake of the Nuclear Bomb dropped onto the SSPX and wider remnant, is to join as much as possible with the SSPX.
Join an SSPX chapel or start one locally beginning with a local prayer and study group, in contact with an SSPX chaplain who surely will visit to say Mass at some point, and talk via phone or FaceTime. Give it a name and plan for the future.
If you go to the FSSP or Institute, start preparing for The Great Purge of the trad movement, to do the above, as these recent “excommunications” are only a shot in the air warning what is coming soon. For all traditional Catholics everywhere.
The FSSP
Just ask yourself these two questions: when FSSP etc priests are at first required to just concelebrate the Novus Ordo, once a year, what percentage will comply? And when most certainly cannot in good conscience say the Novus Ordo, will the FSSP really continue to exist as a TLM apostolate in canonical communion with Rome?
Barring a miracle which I do not presume, it is impossible.
Traditionis Custodes is just in its first phases. It’s going nowhere. If the 1988 indult, Summorum Pontificum, and now the Nuclear SSPX “excommunications” are ultimately designed to bridge us all back to the Novus Ordo Religion, then it makes no sense to go back to Sunmorum Pontificum.
In just a few years, through Traditionis Custodes, they managed to wipe out most of the TLM movement, at least the approved TLM’s. And since most dioceses now have NO approved Latin Mass, what remains to entice the SSPXers to leave the relative oasis of their Chapels?
When they all know that canonically the only document of legal force about SSPX “excommunications” is the Decree only mentioning the six bishops. For the tiny few who don’t see that, and leave, there will be in comparison an influx of Catholics who love Catholic Tradition, and WHO DO know the Decree does not apply to the priests or the laity.
In short, it makes no sense then that the same modernist leaders would partially or fully restore SP or something akin to it, just to draw a tiny few SSPXers now out of their “schism,” that is who would leave. That would be unleashing a new phase of the trad movement upon the dioceses, when they want it systematically quarantined and snuffed out.
This is why I don’t see any other way right now until a future pope than to have Catholic chapels operating under what canon law allows during states of necessity.
If you are a seminarian, odds are you are very traditional and smart about what is coming. The baby boomer modernists still have a couple decades left to do their damage, which will include making sure the future modernist minority is still in charge of the “Synodal Church.” Why not consider joining the SSPX?
The same for all traditional minded diocesan priests, we having a small handful in the Tulsa diocese. How many more errors from the Vatican can you take? How much longer can you operate in an environment hostile to Tradition, traditional liturgy, and the TLM?
Let every diocesan priest approach their bishop with a formal rejection of the conciliar errors, including since 2013, and refusing in writing to say anymore the Protestantized liturgy.
If they are less than accepting or accommodating, which they certainly will be lacking, then they are a danger and you are justified in retreating. Go outside of the city, start a Gofundme, raise $ to buy a long double wide mobile home and turn it into a traditional mission chapel and rectory of sorts. Start a YouTube channel airing daily Mass and your sermons, and catechetical conferences.
Renew contacts with the bishop every so often to discuss your traditional profession of Faith and request for a Doctrinal Agreement, in the likes of the SSPX, but at the diocesan level. Serve Catholics within driving distances across the diocese and beyond to set up a network of TLM chapels. And go get some extra short term training with the SSPX in their diocesan priest training center in Colorado, and then ask to place yourself and your chapels under their care.
As Leo recently said, if the SSPX (really anyone aligned with them) will not accept certain “fundamental elements” of and since the Council, which in truth are not “fundamental elements” but on some level contrary to faith or morals, then they “must move on.” They have in fact moved on. We are left behind them. They have turned their backs on us, not us.
They have reached a certain FINALITY with the SSPX, and with the TLM within the diocesan mainstream. Both are “behind them.” They have “moved forward.” And they will not turn back except by our prayers and a miracle one day.
Prepare now.
