The SSPX Crisis is not an Abstraction

I have tried to stay out of the tribal warfare surrounding the SSPX because I do not belong to anyone’s faction. I just want to be left alone to practice the orthodox Faith.

I am a convert, but I am not an uninformed one. Before entering the Catholic Church, I studied Catholic theology, Church history, papal authority, canon law, Vatican II, Tradition, and the Magisterium. I read the Summa cover to cover. I have continued studying ever since.

I understand why the consecration of bishops without a papal mandate is treated as an extraordinarily grave canonical act. I also understand why the SSPX believes that a state of necessity exists. Both are true.

What I cannot ignore is the glaring difference between the severity shown toward the SSPX and the patience Rome repeatedly extends elsewhere.

Rome negotiates in secret with a Chinese government that intrudes into the appointment of bishops. It tolerates years of open doctrinal pressure from the German Church over sexual morality, ordained ministry, ecclesiology, and other matters touching the deposit of faith.

The Church now permits pastoral blessings of same-sex couples while insisting that doctrine has not changed. We are repeatedly told that the synodal Church must listen, accompany, dialogue, build bridges, and seek fraternity with Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims, nonbelievers, and nearly everyone else. The Church puts women who support abortion into key roles in the curia. The Church considers it "wrong" to deny Communion to a politician who openly advocates for multiple heresies.

Yet Catholics who adhere to Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the perennial Magisterium are treated as though they are the one group beyond patience, dialogue, accompaniment, or pastoral mercy. This contradiction is difficult to ignore.

For me, however, this is not merely an argument about Vatican II, canon law, obedience, schism, or the internal politics of the Church.

I am largely homebound. I have never attended an SSPX chapel, but SSPX priests have been among the only priests willing to come to my home and provide pastoral and sacramental care to me over the last three years.

My registered parish has not been able to send its priests because I now live outside its geographic boundary. The local bishop is apparently a stickler for these rules, but he writes glowingly about accompanying the "marginalized" every June. I have been offered visits from extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, but that does not meet the same spiritual need. I need a priest. I need Confession. I need priestly Communion. I need spiritual direction and pastoral care from someone able to hear me, counsel me, absolve me, and bring me the Sacraments.

Over the last several years, the priests who have actually come to my home have been two from the local SSPX church. The people now being casually denounced online as schismatics are, in practical terms, among the only clergy who have shown up.

So when people celebrate punitive action against the SSPX or casually shout “schismatic,” they are not discussing an abstract factional dispute. They are discussing something that may leave people like me without meaningful access to confession, Communion, spiritual direction, and regular priestly care.

I am trying to remain an orthodox Catholic who follows Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium in good conscience.

Catholic obedience is real, but it is not mindless, childlike submission. Authority does not make every prudential judgment immune from moral scrutiny, nor does it make every pastoral consequence just simply because it can be defended in legal language.

The sacramental contradiction is especially difficult for me to accept. Under Catholic canon law, in a genuine situation of necessity, a Catholic may under certain conditions receive confession, the Eucharist, and anointing from an Orthodox priest whose sacraments the Church recognizes as valid. The Orthodox Churches have been separated from Rome for nearly a thousand years.

Yet I am now told that I cannot ordinarily receive valid absolution from an SSPX priest who professes the Catholic faith, recognizes the papacy, celebrates the Roman rite, and has actually been willing to come to my home, because Rome has withdrawn or denied the necessary faculties.

I understand the canonical distinctions between validity, liceity, jurisdiction, and supplied faculties. I have studied them. My objection is not that I do not understand the law. My objection is to the justice, consistency, and pastoral mercy of the result.

A Catholic in genuine necessity may be permitted to approach an Orthodox priest who is not in communion with Rome, yet may be forbidden from approaching a Catholic priest who professes the same Creed, recognizes the pope, celebrates the traditional Roman liturgy, and is physically present and willing to provide pastoral care.

That may be legally distinguishable. It does not automatically make it pastorally coherent. It certainly does not make the human consequences disappear.

I also question the hypocrisy of a synodal posture in which nearly everyone outside the Church is assured of love, dialogue, fraternity, accompaniment, and even shared religious gestures, while the SSPX is treated as uniquely intolerable. We are told that no one should be excluded. We are told to listen before judging. We are told to accompany people whose lives and beliefs stand in profound tension with Catholic teaching. We are told to recognize seeds of truth everywhere.

But when the subject is traditional Catholics, the language changes. Dialogue becomes discipline. Accompaniment becomes condemnation. Nuance disappears. People who have spent years studying the crisis are dismissed as disobedient, rigid, ignorant, or schismatic. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge that asymmetry is not being intellectually honest.

This does not mean that every action of the SSPX is correct. It does not mean that consecrating bishops without papal approval is insignificant. It does not mean that legitimate questions about authority, communion, and canonical order should be ignored.

It means that the Church cannot preach mercy, dialogue, listening, and accompaniment to the entire world while applying only punishment, exclusion, and contempt to traditional Catholics without expecting people to notice the contradiction.

It also means that people should stop treating this as an online blood sport. For some of us, this is not a debate about which Catholic faction wins. It may determine whether we have access to a priest. It may determine whether we can go to confession. It may determine whether we receive Communion from a priest rather than going months without the sacraments. It may determine whether someone comes to our home when we are ill, disabled, isolated, or dying. We saw this on stark display during the COVID crisis. And then, it was the SSPX that carried the torch for millions while local Dioceses closed churches and denied the Sacraments all across the globe.

That is why I cannot treat this as an abstract canonical controversy. I am not asking anyone to adopt all of my conclusions. I am asking people to recognize the real spiritual and human consequences of what is being done. I am asking for intellectual honesty about Rome’s double standards. I am asking for consistency in the application of mercy.

I am asking whether a Church that speaks so often about accompaniment can find a way to accompany Catholics like me, rather than leaving us alone and sacramentally stranded.

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In my opinion, the statement of “blessing same sex couples” is a bit disingenuous. While it is true any sinner(s) may request and receive a blessing, it is not true that a same sex relationship can be blessed. That which isn’t holy may not be blessed. The same would be true with any irregular relationship, regardless.

If the intent to suggest homosexuality, or any sexual behavior outside of marriage has somehow become acceptable since Vatican II just isn’t true. That includes divorce and remarriage without an annulment, so called gay marriage, living together, etc. Those remain irregular and sinful.

Again, my opinion, the issue with SSPX is more about pride than about teaching the true gospel message. I don’t doubt many of SSPX have good and faithful intentions. However, if the SSPX is to be believed, then it would also have to be true that God had abandoned the Catholic Church and its promised protection. I don’t think that is true.

Instead, in my opinion, those that lead SSPX believe they are the rightful holders of Authority, and they alone will decide who to obey. That belief is inconsistent with one, holy, and apostolic church.

There was an entire Mass celebrated by a Cardinal for “50 years of friendship, partnership and commitment to justice between Julian Filochowski and Martin Pendergast, two longstanding figures in pastoral outreach to homosexual Catholics in the Diocese of Westminster.”

Was it technically a “blessing” of a homosexual relationship? No.

Did the Cardinal provide a disclaimer? Yes.

Was the theme and the nature of the event horribly scandalous and likely to lead souls into error? Absolutely.

https://advaticanum.com/article/exclusive-cardinal-radcliffe-clarifies-role-in-london-mass-featuring-blessing-for-same-sex-couple/

Speaking exclusively AdVaticanum, Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe has offered a measured account of his participation in a thanksgiving Mass held at the Church of the Holy Apostles in London.

The event, held on 13 June, marked 50 years of friendship, partnership and commitment to justice between Julian Filochowski and Martin Pendergast, two longstanding figures in pastoral outreach to homosexual Catholics in the Diocese of Westminster.

Don Pagliarani denies your accusations in almost every statement he makes or releases to the public.

Do you see him as being disingenuous?

Hiding his true motivations/intentions?

We are generally discouraged from telling others what rests in their hearts, and occupies their minds. They can and should be asked to speak for themselves.

You may find this short article interesting:

What does it mean to bless those who curse you (Luke 6:28)?
https://www.gotquestions.org/bless-those-who-curse-you.html

We can bless those on the wrong path in sin and our enemies. We aren’t accepting their sin, but we are praying that God will intervene in their lives with the Truth of their fallen nature in a manner they realize the spiritual danger and turn to Christ for Salvation. For example: Holy Father, bless these two in a manner that brings their sin to Light, convict them with Your Holy Spirit so they realize they need deliverance from eternal death. Bring them under consequence so they humble themselves and cry out to Savior Lord Jesus in repentance. Transform their hearts and minds from the wicked one, for Your Honor and Glory.

In the same manner, my prayer: Father God, bring Your Holy Spirit upon these religious factions in a manner that exposed all sin in every level of operation. Shine the light of Your Truth upon every error and guide the astray back into Your path. Wash away all confusion and conflict with the crystal clear waters of Your Life and Love.

We pray that everyone who comes to You will grow in Your knowledge and wisdom, and will grow in their desire to become more like Son Jesus Christ and walk daily with Him In His Name we pray, the NAME above all names, amen.

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