I don’t understand how a group like SSPX can consider them Orthodox Catholic, but take it upon themselves to ignore any teaching of the Church after Pius X. Isn’t part of being Orthodox that you do not rebel against anything that the Pope approves of? Why do they feel that they know better?
To be honest, orthodoxy has different meanings for different people. For the Traditionalist Movement it means to teach, worship and exercise ministry as it has always been done.
Here is the glitch. That “as it has always been done” can be challenged by a lot of people. The truth is that there has never been a one size fits all in the Latin Church. That’s more common to the other 22 Catholic Churches, probably because they’re much smaller. Just think about the fact that we have five major schools of spirituality in the Latin Church. They have only one major school for the Eastern Churches. We have five major religious orders and all of our catechisms, liturgical books, vestments, forms of ministry, music, art and devotions have come from them. It is only now that secular priests are getting involved in this kind of stuff. Each of these religious orders expanded and they went through various reforms. As they did so, they made changes to many things, including the liturgy and the catechism.
Trent and St. Pius V tried to unify it all. In the end, neither were successful. Pope Pius was a Dominican. He was pressured by his Master General not to impose the Tridentine mass on the Dominicans. This opened the flood gates. Along came the Carmelites, Carthusians, Franciscans, Benedictines, Augustinians, and Jesuits with the same request and all were excused from using the Tridentine mass and from using the Catechism of Trent. The Dominicans and Jesuits produced their own, which did not agree in everything. After about 100 years of calling each other heretics, the pope threatened them, if they didn’t stop. They asked the pope to look a their work and tell them which was correct. The pope said that he would not become involved in the affairs of two of the three most powerful orders in the Church, unless one of them were teaching heresy, which was not the case. They simply disagreed on the definition of grace, but both definitions were acceptable. Since then, there have been many such situations in which popes have never really intervened. They don’t want to get involved.
The Modernist movement arouse in the late 19th century. It was bigger than religion. But many people reduced it to a conflict with Catholicism. Pope St. Pius X issued a strong condemnation against Modernism. Bl. John Paul retracted the oath against Modernism, because as he said, the oath is not a guarantee of fidelity. People make vows of chastity, celibacy and marriage too. That does not seem to stop those who are determined to get what they want.
The final straw between the SSPX and Rome was when Archbishop Lefebvre ordained four bishops without the pope’s permission, knowing that he would be excommunicated. The SSPX and their friends, even on this forum, argue that the excommunications were unfair and not valid. Cardinal Ratzinger and Pope John Paul both responded to this many years ago. The excommunications are valid, because the pope says they are valid. He can excommunicate for any reason he wants. In this case, the pope did not do the excommunicating, the law did. The SSPX and their lay friends argue that the bishop believed that there was a state of emergency. There is a canon that says that if you do something believing that it’s an emergency, even if you’re wrong, you cannot be excommunicated.
There is also the faith of the Church and the tradition that goes back to Boniface IV that says that the laws of the Church are subject to the pope. The pope is not subject to the laws. Pope John Paul responded by saying that he would not allow this law to be applied to the SSPX bishops. Cardinal Ratzinger added that this is the pope’s right and the case is closed. There is no appeal, because the pope has the divine authority to say what law applies to you and what does not.
The big deal was not about being traditionalist, but about illegal ordinations of bishops. Over the years, they have made many comments that have created many concerns. Some of their comments, make sense, when you take them in context. Out of context, they sound strange. Some of their comments are insubordinate, arrogant, and just plain defiant. This letter is a good example. They use the word “demand”.
No Catholic has the right to demand anything from the Church except the sacraments. That’s a divine right. They’re not demanding sacraments. There is arrogance there.
They use terms like the “errors of Vatican II”. The Church cannot teach error. If there are errors, they are in the interpretation of what Vatican II said or in the application, not in the Council documents. This sends off a signal of defiance. Here are four bishops, with very basic theological education, challenging the likes of Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI who could run laps around the four bishops of the SSPX, with their genius in law, theology and philosophy. These men are scholars. They understand their theology and they understand what they as popes can and cannot do. They also understand what their predecessors said and what binds them as what does not. For a bishop that was not even chosen by the pope and who is far less educated than the pope to tell the pope that this or that is in error, when the pope looks at it from every angle and does not see the error, it comes off as arrogant. Pope Benedict said that the SSPX is arrogant. These are not my words. He said this in a number of documents in the last three years. It’s a conflict that the pope has been trying to bend in order to resolve. But they SSPX now seems not so flexible.
Bishop Fellay betrayed the Vatican. This raises the questions in the mind of all of us who are in positions of authority. He was the one who was going to make the decision for the SSPX, because he is the superior general. When he gave the decision to the general chapter, he created an untenable situation. Whatever the general chapter decides, the superior general is bound to do.
The general chapter has decided that it cannot accept what Rome wants. Now, Bishop Fellay cannot legally come back and unilaterally accept in the name of the SSPX. He no longer has the authority to do so.
The Vatican and all of us had been told to butt out of this. This discussion was between a small group that consisted of Bishop Fellay and his theological advisers and Cardinal Levada and his theological advisers. All bishops, cardinals and religious superiors were to offer no (name removed by moderator)ut. This was going to be a unilateral decision between Pope Benedict and Bishop Fellay, after the dialogue between the two teams was over.
Suddenly, on the SSPX side, we have common priests voting on matters of theological and canonical importance, but on the Vatican side, no one is allowed a vote except the committee of cardinals and their vote is consultative, not legislative as is the vote of the chapter delegates of the SSPX. The cardinals can vote, but they cannot bind the pope. The chapter delegates can bind Bishop Fellay and every superior general for generations to come. That was not expected. He never said that a special general chapter would be called to decide. He had even sent a very strong letter to the community telling them that he and his council were in charge and this was going to be his decision and they were going to have to obey. In his letter he also said, “The pope wants this now and he will no longer wait.”
This turn of events raises more red flags for many people, about trust, obedience and even about the authority of the superior general. It’s a mess and we have to pray that the Holy Spirit turns on a light.
My hope is that this letter is the interpretation of the writer, not the actual statement of the general chapter. We’ll have to wait for the next installment.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
Franciscan Superior)
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We are cute as the dickens and a little eccentric. That cuteness may distract from our intelligence. :egyptian:
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