| Society of St. Pius X June 30, 2008 |
From the article on the our home page (SSPX still Fears Union with Rome) the continuing negotiations between Rome and the Society of St. Pius X have once again stalled. I wish to present a concise analysis of this situation and hopefully give some insight regarding what is happening within the various factions of the Catholic Church in A. D. 2008.
June 30, 2008 will be the 20th anniversary of the consecration of four bishops by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. This act by Msgr. Lefebvre was one done in desperation because of continually being jerked around by Rome specifically by the Modernists. Throughout the negotiations began by Pope John Paul II Lefebvre received numerous contradictory signals which finally caused the break between the Society and the Vatican.
In technical terms this is not a Schism as such because the leadership of the SSPX not only believe in the Petrine Office and its universal jurisdiction they adhere to it without compromise specifically as it has been handed down from the Apostles. A true schism as has been in existence since A.D. 1054 between the Greek Orthodox and the Latin West denies the supreme authority of Peter and rejects his universal jurisdiction over Dogma and Morals. It is the difference between political parties as is found in the United States and Secession of a State from the Federal Government. This analogy is poor but close to the point. The Greek Orthodox are in Secession from the Catholic Church and the Society of Pius X are a party within the Church.
The problem at present remains the bone of contention that has plagued the Church since 1965, the Second Vatican Council and its implementation within the Catholic Church. For Lefebvre and the bishops consecrated by him, the Second Vatican Council when stepped back from and analyzed objectively is such a significant rupture from nearly 2000 years of handed on tradition that it was itself a quasi schismatic act brought about by the majority of the world's bishops. These bishops either deliberately or unknowingly denied foundational principles of Ecclesiastical tradition which has caused chaos within the Church ever since. Where once the principles of the Church were built upon the Rock of tradition now they have been replaced by the shifting sands of novelty and innovation which have been condemned by countless Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Saints. This denial of foundational principles and the replacing of those principles with novel ideas and innovative concepts has changed the entire dynamic of Catholic ethos and culture to such an extent that the Church no longer acts like the Catholic Church. This has been most evident in the Mass. For nearly 2000 years every Western Rite Catholic experienced a Mass that was essentially and culturally the same just as the Eastern Catholics have and continue to experience. But with the advent of Vatican II and the changes it spawned the Immemorial Mass was pushed aside and a new synthetic, artificial Mass replaced it. There is an old theological maxim "Your Prayer manifests your Faith" Lex orandi, lex credendi. So the novelty and innovation initiated by the Second Vatican Council forced the Church to produce a Mass that would in essence reflect the "new spirit" that had been embraced by the Church. The Novus Ordo or New Order of the Mass is a perfect MANIFESTATION of the "spirit of Vatican II" and that, dear reader, is the whole point. Bishop Fellay and the Society of Pope St. Pius X, reject the spirit of Vatican II with all of its manifestations. Have you ever noticed that you cannot go to the Novus Ordo Mass and expect the same Mass no matter where you are? In fact you can't even expect the same Mass most of the time in the same parish you attend. The Mass is a perfect reflection of the chaos spawned by the Council. The New Mass isn't so much a problem as it is the alarm signaling a grave crisis of Faith in the Church and that is why Bishop Fellay continues to reject these offers from Rome. The Pope has embraced the Council as if it is the be all and end all of the Catholic Faith. The Pope and the Novus Ordo Church have embraced the Council and attached themselves to it like a severely abused child clings to the abusive parent convincing himself that the parent only abuses him because he deserves to be abused. For the abused child the parent is right and he is wrong if he ever questions the abusive parent he will feel guilty and will do things that will bring down the wrath of the parent upon his head. The Pope who is wedded to the Council could never admit that the Council was a total failure. He was one of the peritus at the Council he help to write the main documents produced by the Council. For him the principles of liberalism upon which the Council was built were forged in the fires of European Angst and are the logical development of philosophical and theological concepts. Novelty and Innovation are not bad but necessary to the life of the Church as it moves through history according to the mind of Pope Benedict. Without change and innovation an organic thing dies so the Church must adapt to the time and the age in which it finds itself. This, to Benedict, is the "gift" of the Vatican Council and it is needed because without it the Church would have been in dire circumstances and the faithful would eventually have abandoned her anyway. The process of change is like a slow moving pendulum according to the mind of the Pope. When pushed it will swing in one direction and then needs to come back to a more central position as it naturally moves back toward the other position. For Pope Benedict the Vatican Council pushed the pendulum to the left now it must start moving to the right again in order to synthesize what it has learned and bring the Church to balance incorporating the good of the novel with the tried and true of the traditional. The Council was good therefore and must merely be balanced out. If you want to think of the Church like Benedict think of it like a tree that with Vatican II the tree was allowed to grow wild sprouting shoots and branches all over the place. Now he is the gardener who must come now and prune the tree properly getting rid of the dangerous and improperly formed branches and trim the older branches to help them grow as well.
Both Fellay and Benedict see the Church from different perspectives and this is where the problem arises. Fellay could never accept the Pope's view of the Church because it is foreign to the constant ecclesiastical traditions and teachings of the Fathers. On the other hand Benedict cannot understand Fellay's rejection of his olive branch. He believes the SSPX would be an asset to the Church in bring about the synthesis of the new with the old. He does not understand the reticence of Fellay and the other bishops of the Society to embrace the offer. It is generous and his release of the traditional Latin Mass was a demonstration of his good will toward their cause. You see Benedict just doesn't get it. His attitude is "Can't we just all get along". What he doesn't understand is that the traditionalists do not have a spirit of compromise when it comes to what they see are static unchanging principles that were handed onto us to be protected not meddled with and changed. For Fellay, the Church is more like a ship that has hit an iceberg. Rearranging the deck chairs doesn't solve the problem it just means the ship will continue to sink. Fellay and the SSPX are still on the deck trying to convince everyone that the ship is filling with water and even if God guaranteed it won't sink there are still many souls that will be lost. AG
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| Resistance to the Motu Proprio on the Traditional Latin Mass |
The resistance of many bishops to the freeing of the traditional Latin Mass was not only anticipated but assumed. The Novus Ordo was exactly that a New Order, a New religion, where the "community is Christ" and man is the center. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence and who is not lead around by his emotions can easily see the "man-centeredness" of the new liturgy and its removal of any semblance of the transcendent. So is it surprising that those who wanted this new religion in the first place and who love the three dimensional plane or reality more than the fourth dimension of the spirit would oppose a return to the supernatural reality expressed so profoundly by the Mass given to us by Blessed Peter?
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This blatant and brazen attitude of Archbishop Niederauer is incredible. He obviously has no sense of shame regarding his personal proclivities and his constant promotion of the HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA! He is about as Catholic as Rasputin. One wonders if he is a member of an occult society posing as a Roman Catholic Bishop in order to destroy as many souls as possible. He is obviously a spiritual vampire bent on turning as many souls into vampires like himself. He is not to be trusted nor obeyed. He is a man who is evil with evil intentions and is to be shunned by all right thinking and faithful Roman Catholics. "BY THEIR FRUITS SHALL YE KNOW THEM!" If the Holy Father refuses to do anything about this homo-wolf then we the faithful will have to take matters into our own hands. In the old days a man like this would have been tarred and feathered and then run out of town on a rail. Sadly, the Sodomites, who run the City of San Francisco are already filled with the spirit of death and darkness. So in the end, our fight is not against flesh and blood but against the Powers of Darkness who continue to enslave millions in addiction. How Long Oh Lord? AG
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