[Catholic Caucus] The SSPX, Parish Orphans and Trad Infighting

During the COVID shutdown of the Catholic Church throughout the United States that began in 2020, the Diocese of Arlington (Virginia) reportedly had churches close their doors for nine weeks. During this time, a handful of Catholics reached out to the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) and requested them to provide the Sacraments. Recently, lay faithful who regularly attend the diocesan Traditional Latin Masses in Front Royal, have heard more than one sermon with apologetics against the Society of St. Pius X, the Sacraments and their work in the area. The spokesperson for the Diocese of Arlington spokesperson and pastor of St. John the Baptist declined repeated requests to provide their insights for this story.

In 2020, the SSPX worked with local state and health authorities, as they did in many areas of the U.S. during the shutdown, and were able to offer Holy Mass and other Sacraments as requested by the Catholic laity, as is their canonical right:

On July 29, 2022, Bishop Michael Burnbridge reduced the number of church locations offering the Traditional Latin Mass from 21 to 8 locations with four remaining in diocesan church buildings. [2] “Not all of the original 21 were for Sunday Mass locations,” said Karen Hickey, of Middletown, Virginia, who frequents the Traditional Latin Mass and is a parishioner of St. John the Baptist in Front Royal, Virginia.

“Many of those who attended the Society’s fairground Masses returned to the parish Traditional Latin Masses when the diocesan churches reopened. Many of those currently at the Society in Front Royal are not from the area,” Hickey said. “Those sacraments are not valid without the permission of the Bishop. So saying that they are offering invalid Sacraments is more accurate.”

[Editor’s note: this claim, as OnePeterFive readers should know, is false. The Sacraments of the SSPX are Catholic Sacraments in communion with the Holy See (and the local bishop), which has given jurisdiction also for Confession and Marriage (the jurisdiction for the latter is subject to each bishop’s judgment). The most that critics can allege against them is that these Sacraments are illicit, even though that is a matter of dispute. What is not in dispute by any competent ecclesiastical authority (Ecclesia Dei and subsequent Vatican bodies) is that the SSPX Sacraments are both Catholic and valid.]

Meanwhile Mary Ann Kreitzer lives in Woodstock, Virginia, and she expressed thanks for the SSPX’s willingness to serve her family’s and friends’ needs during the lockdown in 2020.

“The situation in the Diocese of Arlington has been a source of grief to me personally,” she said. It seems strange to see the bishop obey the pope when he says to suppress the Traditional Latin Mass, but ignore the 2017 letter urging bishops to give jurisdiction to the SSPX to witness marriages and offer nuptial Masses,” she said. “It makes no sense.”

But Hickey had a different view. “The SPPX Priests do not have permission to say Mass or offer any sacraments in the Arlington diocese,” she said,

But the SSPX chapel, alongside the eight diocesan-authorized Traditional Latin Mass locations is also growing, according to Kreitzer. She notes that a family just moved there from the Society’s largest church in Kansas to be closer to their family on the east coast and is now attending. There are also families flocking there from neighboring states where they can be assured of receiving the full Traditional Catholic life and all of the Sacraments.

Similar to the years since the full continuation of the SSPX in 1988, affirmed with four consecrated bishops, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (PCED), along with the local diocesan Ordinary, would often plant the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter locations near SSPX chapels in order to attempt to encourage Catholics to attend their churches instead. What has happened in many locations is that more traditionally-minded Catholic families populated the area and then attended the locations that were most convenient for their families.

In other words, Catholics families just want the Sacraments. They don’t concern themselves as much with these clerical questions. Pious Catholic families naturally unite the clans without using the label.

The analogy could be used as Ronald Reagan’s pro-capitalistic jingles such as “A rising tide rises all ships.” In other words, the more choices that Catholics have for the Traditional Mass and Sacraments convenient for their living and work situation, the more quickly the Traditional Latin Mass locations and local community grow, thereby hastening building of God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”

Kreitzer said that she finds it “ironic” to see more criticism and hostility levied against traditional Catholics than against those who embrace Protestantism and even paganism. “How can one justify bowing to Pachamama and then treating traditional Catholics like unclean lepers not worthy to worship in the same churches with the clean children attending the Novus Ordo?” she queried.

Kreitzer said that she finds very upsetting “the internecine warfare between traditionalists.”

“The drumbeating against the SSPX with false accusations that they are stealing parishioners from the diocesan churches is upsetting,” Kreitzer said. “The SSPX priests instructed us from the beginning not to ‘recruit.’ Kreitzer said that when someone left an SSPX brochure at St. John the Baptist parish, the SSPX Priest corrected his flock and told them, “From the beginning, those who wanted to attend the chapel had to request to be invited. Those coming to the chapel choose to come from other dioceses such as West Virginia and Maryland.”

The canonical debate regarding the details around Sacrament of matrimony is a matter of differing opinions among canonists. At least one noted canonist suggests that a dispensation can be applied for with one’s diocesan bishop similar to those granted regularly when Catholics desire a spiritual good, to achieve family harmony, to obtain parental consent, etc.

Both the SSPX and the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) declined to officially comment for this story. However, the SPPX position on the 2017 PCED/Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith letter can be found here.

It is noteworthy, however, that St. John the Baptist has invited Fr. Josef Bisig, a co-founder of the FSSP, after leaving the SSPX, for an April 16 presentation at the parish. The parish bulletin reads:

The consecrations of the four bishops for the SSPX have always been valid, and the excommunications were remitted by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009:

“A rising tide lifts all boats.” And while the angst and controversy and ill will seems to be proliferating in some parts of Catholic parish life in the Arlington diocese, Karen Hickey provides this hopeful perspective:

“Archbishop Lefebvre made it very clear that if the Society was to continue, it would be by the providence of God, words the chapel Priests use often,” said Mary Ann Kreitzer. She continued,

"We are being cared for by the FSSP in Front Royal regularly, our parish priests are amazing and we lack for nothing—which is incredible given current times. And we do not fear what the future brings."

As Karen "Brutus" Hickey steps down from the Rostrum, Marcus Antonius stands for his amicable oration-

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Friends, the noble Karen has the right of it! We need not fear what the future brings! Indeed, Yes! as long as we keep quiet about the disaster of Vatican 2 and heresies streaming out from most of our bishops and the Vatican- we need not fear!

And of course we must remember to not make too much noise about modernist doctrines of Ecumenism, Religious Liberty, and Collegiality! We once condemned these things as dangers to the Truth- but what is Truth?

As long as we stay silent we don't need to fear about what the future brings here in our little enclave. Karen assures us of this and Karen is an honourable women! After all the Bishop has only closed down 60 percent of the locations which offered the Traditional mass- and I am assured that the Bishop is an honourable man!

Unless of course the SSPX and others were not here to give us an alternative Traditional Mass that isn't held hostage by the Diocese and Conciliar Rome. Then we may have just cause to tremble.

But what of this SSPX who provides us protection. This illicit bunch who claims to hold the Faith which was passed down for centuries in more esteem than the contradictory demands of the modern Pope! Who would put the needs of the souls under their care above the orders of a Bishop! Such a grievous fault! And grievously hath the SSPX answered for it!

Yes we lack for nothing in this world! Our light burns brightly under our protective Bushel! And those who don't live near enough to our enclave to attend? Well- Faith should be made of sterner stuff! They shall just have to attend a mass they are morally certain endangers their childrens' Faith as well as their own. They shall have to shun a Faith and a mass we all loved once but have been ordered to disavow, to regard the mass which formed the Saints as merely a selfish preference by the Bishops- who Karen has assured me love and care for our souls. Karen has assured me of this, and Karen is an honourable woman!

I speak not to disprove what Karen spoke, But here I am to speak what I do know. Our faithful ancestors and all the saints did love this mass once, not without cause: What cause withholds you then, to mourn for it?

O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts, And men have lost their reason. Bear with me; My heart is in the coffin there with the parishes who had to give up their beloved Roman Rite, And I must pause till it come back to me.

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With apologies to Shakespeare.

And I will close with a quote from Vatican II-

The sacred Council declares that holy Mother Church holds all lawfully acknowledged rites to be of equal right and dignity; that she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way. (Sacrosanctum Concilium, 1963, #4)

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