My understanding is they are willing for a peaceful coexistence. After all there is the Indult but many at my Chapel went that route and found it was not as promised. Not as promised? What does that mean? What was the promise? I have attended an Indult and found it to be identical to the Mass celebrated pre-Vatican II (which I still remember).
The Host from NO rites are used with the Latin Mass etc.
The forumula for confecting the host consists of wheat and water. What's different?
Even the Marionite and Byzantine rites are under pressure, or so I hear.
What sort of pressure? I attend the Maronite Divine Liturgy. If anything, VCII mandated that they are to restore their liturgy to its authentic origins, which they are in the process of doing.
They are very proud and a bit exasperating I grant you but I know what I feel when I am in our little Chapel and what I did not feel in the NO Churches, it was an astonishing difference.
The RC diocese in which I reside is 'shepherded' by one of the most liberal bishops in the US. Exasperated by the liturgical abuses at my parish, I set off in search of a more reverent liturgy, a holy priest and a welcoming community. I compiled a list of other Catholic parishes within a certain radius of home, and included any Eastern Catholic Churches within that range. At NO time did it ever occur to me to include SSPX Chapels on that list!
This is what I do not understand. Why would someone who seeks a more reverant liturgy turn towards a schismatic group? It simply doesn't make any sense.
After visiting different parishes each week, it was the Maronite Catholic liturgy that grabbed my heart and soul and would not relinquish them. That is where I attend Mass each week. The Maronites have welcomed me with open arms and, in utter gratitude to the Lord who directed me to them, I have spent the past year assisting them in all aspects of their community.
The Eastern Churches are the Treasures of the Catholic Church" - Pope John XXIII
By separating themselves from the Magisterium, the SSPX, like other denominations that have traveled this route, are sepated from Church teachings.
"The Pope is the Supreme legislator in the Church." Communion with him is a fundamental, non-negotiable hallmark of Catholicism which is not determined by those who set themselves up to judge him, but by the Pope himself (cf. Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium #22-25).
It may still be difficult to characterize the entire Society of St. Pius X, but SSPX documentation witnesses to a consistent condemnation of the new Mass, the Pope and anyone who disagrees with the authorities of the Society in the smallest degree. Such behaviour is not consistent with the practice of the Catholic faith.
Re: "Not as promised? What does that mean? What was the promise? I have attended an Indult and found it to be identical to the Mass celebrated pre-Vatican II (which I still remember)."
I am not the one to answer your question. I do not attack the Indult and have not been convinced to follow suit by those who do. I can only offer a limited understanding of the reasoning of those who say stay away from the Indult. They say it is a danger to the faith, but I doubt that fully answers your question because it does not fully answer mine.
Re: "What sort of pressure? I attend the Maronite Divine Liturgy. If anything, VCII mandated that they are to restore their liturgy to its authentic origins, which they are in the process of doing."
Now this would worry me. After all getting back to the early church rites was the claim the NO used to justify their changes. They were selective in what they chose. At no point in the early church was the service like it is today. They picked the parts they liked and ignored other parts from the same period they did not have a hankering for. You do not see them giving penances such as they had in the early church do you? There is no way the early Church would have tolerated the permissiveness on divorce and abortion that is routine in the Church today.
Re: "At NO time did it ever occur to me to include SSPX Chapels on that list!"
I'm not sure what you want me to do about that. You will have to come to terms as best you can. I advise you to follow your conscience after much prayer.
Re: "Why would someone who seeks a more reverent liturgy turn towards a schismatic group? It simply doesn't make any sense."
Of course it doesn't as long as you see them as schismatic. They recognize the Pope and they mourned the passing of John Paul II. A SSPX priest is accepted as a priest without another ordination, which the RCC does not do for Anglican priest or any other that I know about. So how schismatic they are is not confirmed by action on the part of Bishops, even liberal Bishops. But you think they are schismatic. I understand the words but not how you got there. I doubt I will change your mind, I accept that is your position and I leave it to time and event to do what I have inadiquate words to accomplish.
Re: "It may still be difficult to characterize the entire Society of St. Pius X, but SSPX documentation witnesses to a consistent condemnation of the new Mass, the Pope and anyone who disagrees with the authorities of the Society in the smallest degree. Such behaviour is not consistent with the practice of the Catholic faith."
That has not been my experience. I hear it most often from folks who would not go near SSPX, so how useful is that. People with no experience with SSPX telling people with experience to watch out they are gonna get you. The reverse is not true. Most people in SSPX have been battered and bruised by liberal even conservative but political Bishops. All right that is the way it is for now. Not much has changed at least for now.