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Posted on 07/09/2026 9:37:05 AM PDT by ebb tide
Écône: A Sign of Contradiction?
by Côme de Prévigny*
It has been repeated with evident satisfaction over the past few days: "The matter is settled. The schism is consummated. There is nothing more to expect from the SSPX." Very well. Granted. We should have turned the page by now. And yet the file stubbornly refuses to close and continues to occupy a prominent place in the news.
The extraordinary shockwave that has shaken social media and Catholic circles reveals, on the contrary, an affair far from resolved. Episcopal consecrations without a pontifical mandate take place dozens of times each year — in China, in Mexico, in the United States — without the Holy See reacting with anything approaching this level of vigor. Why the exception here?
1. A Welcome Applied Selectively
If the break is total and the Society definitively out of the picture, why is it not being given the same treatment reserved for other separated communities? Anglican bishops such as Sarah Mullaly, and scores of Protestant pastors, are received with courtesy, cordial dialogue, and media-friendly smiles. The SSPX, by contrast, remains the one body treated as an untouchable pariah. If it is truly "outside" the Church, then let it be accorded the diplomacy extended to those who have genuinely left: red carpets, exchanges of gifts, and florid communiqués. None of that is being offered. This targeted severity invites scrutiny.
2. An Unprecedented Sanction
In recent days, bishops have been issuing communiqués in rapid succession, and the Holy See has formulated a condemnation of unusual intensity — one touching all the faithful, a development without real precedent in a very long time. The threat of imminent danger is being brandished. And yet, according to the Society's own critics, the SSPX is nothing more than a small group of arrogant dissidents, a marginal backwater: supposedly more dangerous than open doctrinal deviations, more dangerous than the widespread abandonment of religious practice, more dangerous than public heresies, more dangerous even than certain grave moral scandals whose perpetrators are no longer sanctioned with anything approaching this degree of intensity. If the Society is so insignificant and so harmful, why such fear of the attraction it might exert on the faithful? Has the holy People of God lost all capacity for discernment? The contradiction is glaring: this organization is portrayed as a monster, while its opponents act as though that monster exercises an irresistible pull.
3. A Disproportionate Media Frenzy
Hostile commentators have canceled their vacations. Videos, op-eds, analyses, and public statements have been arriving in rapid succession. On X, priests are speaking of almost nothing else, sometimes replacing their Sunday preaching with impassioned admonitions. And yet, if one is to believe these same critics, the SSPX is merely an insignificant fringe group — practically a sect on the verge of extinction. So why this disproportionate relentlessness? Why this feverish mobilization over a handful of priests and faithful who, we are told, amount to nothing? Does it really require this expenditure of energy to deal with a few unhinged sheep?
Could this not be, at bottom, a diversion? A way of numbing oneself in an internal ecclesiastical controversy rather than confronting reality: the advance of radical Islam in Europe, the spread of wokism, the generalized moral and cultural degradation, or the imminent vote on euthanasia in France?
The SSPX thus becomes, despite itself, a sign of contradiction. Not out of any desire to provoke, but because everything said against it ends up contradicting itself. It lays bare the incoherences, the fears, and the blind spots of its adversaries. Through their extraordinary mobilization and their passionate interest, those adversaries are paying the Society, entirely against their will, a resounding tribute. These troubled days are forcing questions that many would prefer to avoid. The desperate appeals of Cardinals Müller and Koch, and of Bishop Bux, are proof enough of this. And that, perhaps more than anything else, is what disturbs people most.
* Pen name of a French-language writer who has written extensively for Rorate in the past
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Vatican Hypocrisy on Full Display
Ping
He has launched a torrent of texts under the title “After the Schism,” whose basic theme is: “I was right.” It would be just pathetic, if he weren’t so undeservedly influential. His insane takes against Acutis had seriously tarnished his reputation in the Vatican; now, the Consecrations may manage to make him heard in liturgical matters once more. An all-around disaster.
And nobody in Rome is happier with the Econe Consecrations than Grillo. In his mind, it confirms all his a priori opinions not only about the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), but of all Catholics who love the Traditional liturgy, wherever they may worship and whatever may be their affiliation. All traditional Catholics are evil and must be eradicated, and the old liturgy obliterated.
Maybe because Protestant pastors are just that, Protestant? They don’t claim to be more Catholic than the Vatican.
Nobody has claimed that; even though the Vatican is not very Catholic nowadays.
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Yes, the Catholic Church recognizes both Orthodox weddings and confessions as fully valid. Because the Orthodox Church possesses valid apostolic succession and true bishops, it is recognized to have all valid sacraments.
* Pen name of a French-language writer who has written extensively for Rorate in the past. *AKA Fake and Fraud.
“If the break is total and the Society definitively out of the picture, why is it not being given the same treatment reserved for other separated communities?” Even you aren’t this dum, ebby. But give it a try with an honest answer - “honest” is the operative word, if possible, *ebby - *AKA excommunicated schismatic
I wish to offer a word of reassurance. Excommunication does not fall upon those who have simply attended these liturgies out of a sincere desire to worship and who have never intended to reject the authority of the Holy Father or the teaching of the Church. Yet, what the Church now asks is straightforward: knowing the situation as it now stands, the faithful of the Catholic Church can no longer take part in the celebration of Mass or in any Sacraments celebrated by a priest of the Society of Saint Pius X, even for purely devotional reasons. To do so now is to show unity with the teachings of the Society which have been declared to be in contradiction to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.
One wonders what teachings the poor bishop is referring to. Nobody seems willing or able to list these "teachings".
Only dumb people spell “dumb” as dum.
not “dum” enough to be a schismatic exommunicant, *ebby - *AKA Fake and Fraud
He asked the photographer to keep the stilettos out of the image.
‘This is a canonical mess’: Fr. Murray explains why SSPX priests, laity are not excommunicated
You will get your instructions in how to return to the Church, if you wish, *ebby - *Find a Bishop
A lay adherent Saint Pius X must present to his or her bishop the Professio fidei and the Formula adhaesionis, dated and signed.
“Once the documentation has been obtained, the local Ordinary will see to welcoming the lay member of the faithful at the times and in the manner he deems most appropriate.”
Find a Bishop, *ebby - *AKA - this means you! Tuco is available
Looking for consistent sane logic in all the wrong places....with a stiff-necked papal leadership.
Continue with your nagging conscience, following what the Church has taught from the beginning through 1960, not what the modernists have built atop the cleared foundation.
You just can’t stop lying; even after being shown the truth.
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