Posted on 02/13/2026 5:53:31 PM PST by ebb tide
Your Holiness,
God is in charge of His Church and will always provide for those who truly want to serve Him as faithful Catholics. As such, although we write with concern about the recent news from Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández’s meeting with the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Fr. Davide Pagliarani, we nonetheless have complete trust in God’s loving Providence. God will not abandon the bishops, priests, and religious of the SSPX (or the laity they serve), who want nothing other than to be faithful to the Catholic Church, its immutable teachings, and to the Chair of St. Peter that you hold.
Just a few weeks ago, on the Solemnity of the Conversion of St. Paul, you pronounced a strong desire for all Christians to recognize a unity that you described as already existing: “We are one! We already are! Let us recognize it, experience it and make it visible!” As you are painfully aware, many Christians to whom you addressed these words currently despise the teachings of the Catholic Church and have no desire for unity with Rome. Nonetheless, you surely chose your words based on an ardent desire to advance the ecumenical project which animated the Second Vatican Council and so many of the initiatives that have followed. How can we reconcile this with the suggestion that Rome will cast off the SSPX if it consecrates bishops to continue its work?
Ever since your election, you have also sought to continue your predecessor’s work with the Synod on Synodality, which counts all the baptized as members of the People of God, and therefore members of the Synodal Church. As you know, one of the foundations of the Synodal Church is an inclusivity that embraces all Christians. But if the Synodal Church accepts all Christians, how can it also decide to cast off the SSPX if it consecrates bishops to continue its work?
If you cooperate with God’s grace to understand these issues, you will surely come to see that it truly is an injustice that Rome would punish those who want to remain faithful and loyal to the Church while those who actively reject the Church’s immutable teachings are embraced.
As you are also aware, even among those who count themselves as Catholic there are many who openly reject the Church’s immutable teachings. While this fault is perhaps excusable among the simple faithful who have not been taught their religion, the same excuse cannot exonerate the many bishops and cardinals who teach errors opposed to what the Catholic Church has always taught. We must reasonably wonder how it could possibly be the case that the Vatican can promote these men to the highest places in the Church and yet cast off the SSPX if it consecrates bishops to continue its work.
Over a decade before you were born, Pius XII published his important encyclical on the Mystical Body of Christ, Mystici Corporis, which includes a sentence which posed a real challenge to Cardinal Augustin Bea and his fellow advocates for ecumenism at the Council: “Actually only those are to be included as members of the Church who have been baptized and profess the true faith, and who have not been so unfortunate as to separate themselves from the unity of the Body, or been excluded by legitimate authority for grave faults committed.” Does the requirement to “profess the true faith” still apply today? If so, why are so many who do not profess the true Faith embraced by Rome as members of the Church? And why is it that only those, such as the SSPX, who profess the same true Faith that Pius XII held scorned by Rome?
Perhaps your ministry to date has not allowed you to become intimately familiar with the issues related to the SSPX. However, you now have an absolute duty before God to judge this matter properly, and so you have a corresponding obligation to understand why it is that the bishops, priests, and religious of the SSPX (as well as the laity they serve) have willingly suffered so many hardships at the hands of Rome for decades to keep the same Faith that Pius XII and his predecessors defended against the ideas that have caused so much turmoil in the Church. If you cooperate with God’s grace to understand these issues, you will surely come to see that it truly is an injustice that Rome would punish those who want to remain faithful and loyal to the Church while those who actively reject the Church’s immutable teachings are embraced.
Holy Father, the world knows of your compassion for immigrants, even those who have disobeyed laws to reach lands that may offer them a better life. There is some analogy, however imperfect, to the situation with the SSPX today, which has been seeking for months already to gain your approval to consecrate bishops so that it can continue to serve God, the Church, souls, and you. If you will not grant them what they believe they need and have requested, they will be compelled to proceed in disobedience. Unlike the disobedience of those who enter a nation illegally, the disobedience of the SSPX would be motivated entirely by a desire to remain obedient to the divine laws that have been so thoroughly disregarded by many in Rome for decades. Would you purport to throw them out of the Church at the same time that you call on nations to welcome those who cross their borders illegally? If so, how can we believe your compassion for immigrants truly springs from a Catholic heart?
There are many in Rome who see the SSPX as an obstacle to ecumenism and Synodality, and surely they will be telling you that it is best to cast them off. Whatever you decide, though, God will protect the SSPX, just as He protected Daniel in the lion’s den. Even so, your decision will of course be immensely important for the Church and world. If you cast off those who simply want to faithfully serve the Church in accordance with their consciences, the world will recognize that all of the talk related to ecumenism, Synodality, and compassion is hypocritical and motivated by unholy desires. May Our Lord, through the intercession of His Mother, grant you the grace to choose another path.
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Jim
Ping
Orthodoxy is not a crime.
CC
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