I don’t think I even know how to phrase this question. I am Catholic, always have been, and raised in a post Vatican II Church.
My husband became a Traditionalist 3 months after we were married and it has been very difficult to understand and reconcile this change in him.
I am very conservative and I follow Church teaching as closely as I know how to. My husband doesn’t like going to Mass at our Parish, he sometimes wonders if it is valid, and he wants to go to the Latin Mass exclusively and live like those people do. I don’t understand how I am doing anything wrong if I am following our Church and doctrines.
I have been reading that the SSPX community might be in full communion soon. I don’t have any idea what that means for us. I have read that Archbishop Lefevbre abandoned the Church, and taught that the devil penetrated the officials and the faithful should only go to his Church. How is that not the same thing Martin Luther did??
This was not something that Archbishop Lefevbre said, rather is is something that Pope Paul VI said during one of homilies after VII.
I think you need to read the history of the SSPX (if that is where you are attending with your husband. Find out first). They started out a fraternity with Vatican approval. The way it works is that most societies who wish canonical recognition (permission to exist) are allowed on a trial basis for some time. During/after that time Rome visits and reviews them to see how they are doing.
What happened was that a few prelates who were visting the seminary at Econe, during the trial period, did not like what they saw. Mostly that the seminarians were learing the traditional Mass.
The prelates recommended to Rome that the SSPX NOT be approved as a fraternity and that the who place be shutdown. There was no reason for this. The prelates that visited wanted the abolition of the traditional Mass and they say the SSPX seminary as a direct threat to the new mass.
Archbishop Lefevbre continued with the seminary against Rome’s wishes. Rome was happy to officially sanction Archbishop Lefevbre and remove any status he had in the Church. He was still a Bishop, but now with no mission in the Church. Archbishop Lefevbre saw his seminary and those young men who had spent many years of their lives preparing as the last vestige of traditional catholocism. He continued to ordain new Priests, but he was an old man.
Rome assumed that once he died the SSPX would slowly die as no Bishop would ordain priests in the traditional form once he was dead. The fly in the ointment came when Archbishop Lefevbre consecrated four new, young bishops. Rome was very against this as it would allow the SSPX to grow and continue after his death. Any Bishop, once a Bishop, has the power to erect new Bishops as long as proper form, matter and intention are present. The fact that he ordained new Bishops without papal approval meant the ordinations were illegal (illicit), but not invalid.
The Pope then stated that these new Bishops had excommunicated themselves by their actions. This was what Pope Benedict XVI lifted a few years back. The Pope then went on to state that the Traditional Mass had NEVER been supressed and it was always allowed to celebrated without any type of permission from the local Bishop. Summorum Pontificum went further and stated that the Pope wishes that EVERY parish in the word offer a traditional Mass where at least a few (1 or two) people desire it.
So that is where we are at today. The Vatican has stated a Catholic can validly fulfill his Sunday obligation at the SSPX Mass. They have stated that the Mass they celebrate is not invalid, etc. I would look for FSSP, ICRSS or just a diocesean priest who says the Extrodinary Form to attend.
You can even ask your parish priest to say the Extrodinary form. He MUST oblige you according to Summorum Pontificum. It is NOT optional for local priest he must either learn the Extrodinary form or find someone to say it for him. This would allow you to attend your local parish AND have the extrodinary form.