I'm not so sure that's true. On another forum, I met someone who met and "fell in love with" someone off the dating site CatholicSingles.com, who was in the SSPX. This was a constant source of friction between the two, the former being a more "modern" Catholic (for lack of a better term). I've also recently discovered that one of my fellow parishioners first came back to Catholicism (about 2 years ago) because of the actions of a very conservative Catholic, who has since become an SSPX.
Interestingly, both of these men (the SSPXers) were from the Illinois area. There must be some serious liturgical abuses out there. According to the former girl I mentioned (from another forum), the SSPX movement is gaining a lot of popularity in Illinois.
I wouldn't shrug the SSPX off so casually. This is a movement that finds a home in a lot of disgruntled, conservative Catholic hearts. That said, I don't think there will be any reconciliation, other than the SSPX admitting to the error of their ways, especially now since the Tridentine Masses are gaining popularity in many dioceses, the SSPX has little else to stand on, other than their simple, obstinate objection to Vatican II.
True enough and they have quite a few chapels in Texas. See chapel list below.
More locations of the SSPX worldwide:
If you click on each one of those links, they have quite a large following considering the number of locations, chapels, seminaries, etc. I wonder how many are in the SSPX? Does anyone know the exact number?
They are certainly not going away that's for sure or dying out as some predicted.
Dear FourtySeven,
I suspect that the SSPX waxes in one place while waning in another.
Some years ago, when I first began to encounter the followers of the SSPX schism, they asserted that the SSPX was a rapidly growing movement. I went to one of the websites, and found that worldwide, the SSPX has about 500 priests. That's perhaps half as many as live in the Archdiocese of Washington.
An SSPX sympathizer assured me that that was old data, from the early or mid-1990s. They had many more priests now (this was four or five years ago), he assured me.
I dug a little and found that they still had roughly 500 priests at that time. And even today, their numbers hover around 500 priests.
In the meanwhile, I suspect that the laity who attend their Masses probably haven't increased dramatically, either.
It's a stagnant, stagnating group of folks. It would be wonderful if the pope could persuade them to effect corporate reunion, but I think that their moment has passed, and it is quite possible that they will fade increasingly into irrelevancy.
It's too bad. There is nothing good about losing Catholics to schism.
sitetest
On the other hand, my Parish is spiced with scores of "bible-believing" converts from Protestant groups who have revivified our Church. Simply considered on the basis of "exchange," I think the Body of Christ has benefitted from the influx of protestants who have a personal relationship with Christ, a solid grasp of Scripture and service and the exodus of Catholics cleaved to clericalism, 16th century ritualistic formalism and a Fortress triumphalism.