Four months after leaving the SSPX

[TheExorcist]

@TheExorcist: I can PM you my location if you wish to know more. As for the public, it suffices to say that I was born and live in Europe.

Ok no that’s perfect. When I was first reading your posts it seemed like thats where you were but later on there were some weird location things that made me think you were close to me.

 

[Boulder257]

Again, Canon 1248 [from the current Code] says:

“can. 1248 1. The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day or on the evening of the preceding day.”

I appreciate your twisting the words around to meet your goals, but I stand behind my answer and those of the apologists. They do not have faculties to participate in Catholic sacraments, therefore, they do not fall under the umbrella you use.

 

[floresco]

I’m not sure if you can answer this, but is having deep involvement with the SSPX, or the anti-Vatican II movement in general, considered a sin?

I have a friend who used to be very involved with the SSPX and he speaks of his past association as if it were a sin. I am pretty sure he confessed this in the Sacrament. I suspect this is because he had a schismatic attitude during his time there.

On the other hand, I attend Masses celebrated by the SSPX with a clear conscience and having discussed it with my spiritual director.

Back to the OP: Depending on one’s personality, four months is not a long time to get used to a new parish. When I have started at a new parish, it usually takes me more than a year to start to feel at home. So it is possible that some of your feelings are not so much leaving SSPX issues as adjusting to new people issues and perhaps they will improve with time.

 

[Cambridge]

@ opening post, I think your analogy to Communism was excellent, because it represents a group that was at odds with the prevailing culture.

I’d say there is a huge difference between a small church and a huge church. It’s like 50 instant friends at a small church and like being an invisible alien at a huge church.

It’s like you are in some kind of us versus them situation, that pushes everyone into this togetherness mode. Modern Culture and its perceived corruption of The RCC, being resisted by a group of Catholics struggling to preserve Traditional Culture and nudge Rome back to it. That militancy is invigorating and Modern Culture is creepy.

I think you need a plan to keep your Traditional values, without the encouragement and support you’ve probably come to rely on. Also, you need a mission/team/plan/struggle, to replace the one you’ve abandoned.

Fight the good fight

 

[Cambridge]

If you’re looking for a role model, I’d think someone like E. Michael Jones. He’s very militant, firmly opposed to Modernism, very Catholic and has always thought that The SSPX was schismatic and has not really changed his opinion on that. However, he attracts the same people who would have loved Bishop Williamson’s sermon on “1984.”

So, he proves it can be done, but I think it’s harder to do it that way.

You also expose yourself to more temptation than you would at an SSPX chapel. I guess you’ve already decided it is worth it, but I’d expect that decision to be challenged.

God Bless

 

[Catholic4Jesus]

[Dear Moderators: I write this in the Traditional Catholic section of the forum because it largely relates to feelings of someone who left the SSPX, and seeking advice of other fellow traditional Catholics, who are more likely to have experienced simillar situations. However, if you believe this should be in the Family Life or Prayer Intentions forums, feel free to move it,]

I remember listening to an interview of a right-wing deputy of my country, who had been a high-rank communist, where she revealed some details of her exit of the communist party milieu. She related how she suddenly found herself without friends and, she said smilling, with no coffee shop to go to (as all her former “friends” were communist and disproved of her change).

Please do not assume I’m comparing the SSPX, which has plenty of good things, with the demoniacal communist ideology, because I’m not. However, the details of that interview came frequently to mind after I walked away from the SSPX. After more than two years of total commitment to the “cause”, I found myself pretty much without friends (with the exception of a long-date friend), and, most of all, feeling tremendously isolated. After leaving my gilfriend due to other issues (as I described some months ago here on CAF), this feeling of loneliness became even more pressuring, and, I believe, is leading me towards a depression.

Yes, I know, perhaps the feeling should be the opposite, as I shifted from a small group to an huge reality: the Church! However, I believe those of you who have been SSPXers can relate to this: the SSPX is a family, and, specially if you are very commited to it (I did Chartres-Paris 2 times, I went to Écône, etc.), and thus you feel very integrated.

Now, on the contrary, I feel quite alone! I don’t feel confortable in any parish in my region (there is not a single EF, not even a latin OF), and the parish where I feel better (which has a reverent OF) is not my home parish, and although I spend much of my time there, I don’t have a close relation with the priests nor with any of the parish staff. Parishes look so closed (even my home parish does)!

Also, I’ve been being tempted (yes, I know it’s a temptation, even my parents, who are’nt practicing Catholics have told me it’s a stupid temptation) into thinking that perhaps I’ll never find a girl that I could marry, because in my country/region traditional/conservative catholicism is pretty much non-existing. The only “conservative” group that is active here is Opus Dei, and I don’t feel confortable with their spirituality (Opus Dei is great, but it’s just not for me).

Once again, perhaps former SSPXers can relate to this: when you’re a young SSPXer, you are within a circle of young people commited to the Church (in their way), and even if you don’t find a girl within your chapel, you’ll sure you’ll find one at Post Falls, St. Mary’s or in France.

Up to now this has been a huge rant, but my purpose is to see if anyone relates to these feelings and/or has experienced the same, or if you can give any encouragement.

After leaving the SSPX, I immediately joined the Confraternity of Saint Peter (even if the nearest FSSP chapel is some 600 miles away), so I could feel I belonged somewhere (even if only spiritually). I’m planning to start practising a martial art (Krag Maga) and to attend some FSSP mixed retreats in the future (perhaps a good way to find a prospective spouse). Do you have any further suggestion?

Of course, I would be very grateful if you pray an Hail Mary for me. This whole situation is not being easy to overcome. However, I hope this doesnt’ sound like I regreat having left the SSPX. Nothing is better than to feel and to be in full communion with the Vicar of Christ. Ubi Petro, ibi Ecclesia.

I am an ex-Traditionalist too.

 

[MonicaMariaGS]

Hello!
I can totally understand where you are coming from…My parents have made me to be a part of Opus Dei, and I feel like there was more to the Catholic Faith…My heart was yearning for more.

I am a freshman in college, and we have religious sisters here from “Servants of the Pierced Heart of Jesus and Mary”, and I must say…When I first stepped into the Newman center, it felt like home!

I like that you are opened to what God has ready for you…Just keep praying that He will work in your life. I also have been invited to the SSPX, but I have not gone because the person that invited me, told me that they didn’t have a lot of friends…Which kind of pulled me away from talking to them again.

Pray a lot to God, pray the Rosary every day, you want to remain happy and close to God…

 

[JReducation]

Hello!
I can totally understand where you are coming from…My parents have made me to be a part of Opus Dei, and I feel like there was more to the Catholic Faith…My heart was yearning for more.

I am a freshman in college, and we have religious sisters here from “Servants of the Pierced Heart of Jesus and Mary”, and I must say…When I first stepped into the Newman center, it felt like home!

I like that you are opened to what God has ready for you…Just keep praying that He will work in your life. I also have been invited to the SSPX, but I have not gone because the person that invited me, told me that they didn’t have a lot of friends…Which kind of pulled me away from talking to them again.

Pray a lot to God, pray the Rosary every day, you want to remain happy and close to God…

Give the sisters my love. I work alongside their sisters back home. You have a great congregation up there.

 

[Blessed_is_He]

I belonged to sspx for two or three years. It was the greatest. I met a ton of people and A couple took me under their wing. I have learned so much about the faith being in sspx than ever before. It is sad how the nous Ordonez is so lax. Anyway, when I visited my friend on the opposite side of the county I met so many sspx families… It felt like such a breath of fresh air having traditional families living in the world not of it. The family that mentored me, we would travel 2 hours to a chapel. It’s true a close knit group. Since leaving though I went to traditional Latin mass for awhile but I did not feel comfortable there. Now, though I can not go back because 1. I am gay and in a relationship and 2. I have a son out of wedlock. Both would be candle. I would love to go back. Now I do not feel at home anywhere.

 

[Saints_Alive]

zombie thread