Since we don’ t know what the SSPX is going to respond, we can’t speak for them. All we have is a letter with fragments of what they spoke about. If I may, I would like to share some thoughts and maybe shed some like on details.
The first is that the two new Archbishops are politely, but firmly saying that there is nothing in Vatican II Documents that can be negotiated. They must be accepted in their totality and it’s not up for discussion. They are not willing to discuss it, especially with the SSPX. This message is loud and clear.
They are willing to discuss it with legitimate and authorized theologians. But the SSPX are not legitimate theologians. They have no canonical status. This is what Archbishop DiNoia keeps pointing to. If they accept what is being offered to the, they will have canonical status. In that case, they can also ask for license to write and teach theology. With that license, they can then engage in dialogue with the various theologians around the world and at the Holy See on different points of concern to them.
There is another point. Many people point to what Cardinal Ratzinger wrote once upon a time about the Paul Mass. However, two years ago, when asked about those statements, he retracted them. He admitted that they were poorly stated and that his statements had not conveyed the truth about the Ordinary Form, which he now sees as pope. He made a very special point to mention that as pope things look very different. You often end up retracting positions. People don’t seem to want to let those positions go, even though he does.
As for the Ordinary Form of the Mass, it is precisely the theology of the Ordinary Form, not the validity, that the Vatican is saying that the SSPX must agree not to criticize or debate. Again, my believe is that if they were legitimate theologians, they would get some slack on this. But they are not. You have to be in the Church to be authorized to be a theologian. Having a degree does not make you a theologian. I’ll give one example, Archbishop Fulton Sheen was never a theologian. He had a doctorate degree, but he never had a license. He was a motivational speaker, as far as the Church was concerned.
Neither of these men are willing to budge on these two points and both are separately saying that this was the pope’s idea at the last minute. Pope Benedict will not budge. He will give them anything, but those two points. They can have seminaries, a prelature, a prelate, houses, faithful, an apostolate and even participation in diocesan life, if they want it. They can celebrate the EF to their hearts’ content. But they must agree that there is no error in the documents of Vatican II and that there is no weakness in the theology of the Pauline Mass, because the pope cannot make that kind of error.
They are being invited to take the Dominican position. There is X and there is Y. You prefer X and I prefer Y. I promise that I will never say a word about X. I promise that I will accept that X is valid and that there is no error in it. However, I will go with Y, because it is my preference and I feel that it is as valid as X. This position has kept the Dominicans in the popes’ good graces for about 400 years, since the foundation of the Jesuits and they took on the SJs. The pope told both to back down or he would snap them back faster than a rubber band. Each side holds opposing definitions of grace to this day. The popes say that there is no problem as long as neither is contrary to revealed dogma.
The thing about the laity and the SSPX has to be understood or there are going to be some hard feelings. No religious order, no religious congregation, nor society of secular life, and no secular order is allowed to tell the laity what it’s doing, why it’s doing it or when it’s doing it. This comes from the Council of Trent. The laity and the bishops are not to be informed of anything. To ensure that neither laity nor bishops are informed, the chapter is to be attended by delegates, not the entire community. The delegates must make an oath of secrecy under penalty of excommunication. They may not speak about what was said even to the members of their community.
They can only reveal to the members of their community the conclusions. These are revealed in forms of statutes, if they are laws or in forms of action plans, if they are concerning the future. How they go there, who said what and why, cannot be shared even with the members of the community. We who are not delegates to the chapter are never told why we’re suddenly going West instead of South. We’re simply told to change direction, shut up and do it now. The bishops are not told. They are simply told that the community is doing this or that. If they don’t like it, they can complain to the pope. The laity is not to be told anything at all. The laity may be shown the constitutions and new statutes if there are any. Pastoral plans are to be shared with the laity on a need to know basis, but the need to know to which the Church refers to is to individuals, not the entire lay community.
These laws are still enforced today by the Sacred Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which is what the SSPX are. If the SSPX wants to re-enter the mainstream, it has to begin to comply with the Church’s laws on these matters. The SSPX has made it a very bad habit of telling the laity everything and of involving the laity in all of its affairs, including its problems. Now, they will have to learn to hold back, if they are going to be a prelature and the Society itself is going to be a fully recognized community separate from religious and laity. In that case, whatever they do or say, is not to be shared with bishops, religious, laity or members of other institutes of apostolic life.
This is a practice that goes back for 500 years. Unfortunately, in the effort to include the laity and make the laity more active in the Church, many priests, brothers and sisters broke with this practice. The law was never abrogated. The silence was to be maintained. But the enthusiasm of engaging the laity overcame common sense. The laity was brought into many things that they were not supposed to be part of. Things that they should have controlled, were never given to them, for example: soup kitchens, homeless shelters, pro-life ministries, education, healthcare, etc. However, they were on parish councils as equals to the clergy and religious. They were associates, tertiaries and oblates as equals to the Benedictines, Dominicans, Carmelites, Franciscans and Trinitarians. In fact, the new third orders and the new oblates that came after Vatican II are not in the same canonical status as the older ones. The older ones are actually real orders with a voice and vote in Rome, not just in their society or congregation. For example, the superior general of the Secular Franciscans sat right with the other male Superiors General as an equal at Vatican II and worked on Pefectae Caritatis with other religious men.
This is the custom that the SSPX is trying to follow and we have to be patient with them. They are trying to get it right. They wouldn’t be very good traditionalists, if they sent out memos to their lay friends.
I hope this helps.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
