I may be slightly misunderstanding here - it sounds like you are supporting the SSPX in that view?
Yes, I am.
If that is so, than how is it in any way different from what the Reformers said about the justification for their actions?
The Protestants were judging the Catholic Church by comparing it with a picture of the Apostolic Church which they believed to be accurate, but which was in fact 90% imaginary. This imaginary picture was given emotional credence by the very bad state of the church, especially in places like Northern Germany and Scotland. In the intervening centuries, the early history of the Church has become much clearer, with many ancient documents that had been lost (e.g. the Epistle of Clement (4th pope) to the Corinthians) turning up. I would say that their appeal to “the apostolic church” is now completely untenable. But at the time it had just enough credibility to give impetus to their rebellion.
The SSPX, on the other hand, can point to actual documents from as recently as ten years before the council (e.g. Pope Pius XII’s
Divina Afflantu Spiritu on the liturgy, and innumerable encyclicals condemning Modernism), which severely condemn the very suggestions about changes that the Modernists in Vatican II tried to force on the whole Church. Instead of thrashing out these difficulties (which were not invented by the SSPX), a heavy-handed attempt was made to silence them, and when that did not work, they were accused of disobedience.
Or are you suggesting that it is the same, and the Reformers were only wrong because their theology was wrong? Or you think that the Reformers were right?
In the immortal phrase, the Protestants ‘threw out the baby with the bathwater’. That is a much more appropriate description of* what the Mainstream did post Vatican II* than what the SSPX did.
In the 15th century, a full century before Luther, a certain nobleman of upright intentions warned a major council of Bishops, who were wasting their time on red herringss,
“My lords, if you do not reform the Church, the Germans will do it for you”.
In the 17th century was what we call the Catholic Counter-Reformation, a great flowering of the Church. They rectified perhaps all of the** legitimate grievances** that had given credibility to the Reformers. “If only” they had done it all in the 15th century, there would have been no Protestant Rebellion. But “we carry a treasure in earthen vessels” and as usual in human affairs, the remedy was not applied until after it was too late.
I am not of a mind to support each and every action of the SSPX. But I do affirm that it was their steadfast refusal to be silenced – by using unjust and irregular, hence invalid, means – that has induced a new attitude in the Vatican. Archbp Lefebvre & Bp Fellay after him, have always re-affirmed that “only the Pope can solve this crisis”. Bp Fellay said recently,
We have now reached a very critical point in the course of events. The Novus Ordo Bishops, those who lived through Vatican II, are getting old. For them Vatican II was their baby. They cannot entertain the idea that it was all a huge mistake. The younger bishops are more unformed in the Faith, but they do not have this attachment to Vatican II.
Therefore the duration and the details of this crisis are not our concern. Our concern is that the Church get back on its tracks.
The Vatican insists that it is we who are the problem.
I said recently to Cdl Castrillon Hoyos: "Please forget about the SSPX and deal with your own problems! When you have done that, you will discover that the SSPX is no longer a problem!
We are a thermometer of the state of the Church. A doctor ought not to get upset at his own thermometer! Cure the sickness and the thermometer will go down by itself!
(From Notes Taken During a Conference given by Bp Fellay, SSPX, On Saturday 18 November 2007 in Corpus Christi Church, Athlone, Co. Roscommon, Ireland.
