My Aunt and Uncle just visited me this weekend. They are both in the SSPX. They stayed only for two days, they could hardly stand to talk to us, let alone look at us because we are so liberal. In most circles, we are extremely conservative, but compared to them we are flaming liberals.
I mean, we tried to wear more conservative clothing when they were here, like we didn’t wear shorts, even though the weather is over 100 degrees here in Vegas, we girls wore longer skirts to mass, we made sure that we made the local hybrid mass (they went to the SSPX mass) we didn’t bring up religion, we were more than kind, but they hardly said anything to us.
They are my mother’s siblings, yet they can hardly stand to be around her simply because she and her husband and children go to the Novus Ordo mass. They can hardly talk to her because of it. They can hardly talk to their nieces and nephews because we go to the NO mass, and when they do talk to us it is about modesty and morals. Well, I am the most conservative girl my age who I have ever met who is not in the SSPX. Just because I wear pants and shorts, and play sports, and am strong willed, and go to the NO mass, they think I am going to hell! It is sad, horribly sad.
Whenever I am away from them, I forget, and I begin to hope that someday, in my lifetime, they will return to the Church, but then when I see them and I see the intense dislike for their own sister, I realize that it would take a miracle beyond anything seen for hundreds of years for the SSPX to return to the Church. I keep praying, but news such as the news that started this thread, that does not give me hope, no, I have very little hope, I have only enough hope to keep praying.
To me, the SSPX is worse than the protestants, at least the protestants do not call themselves Catholic, and at least they do not lie and say they accept the pope when they don’t. The SSPX is worse for the Church than any protestant religion ever was because instead of fighting for the Church from within, the stradle the walls and help to destroy the Church both from within and from without. The trads in the Church are fed up with the liberal bishops, so they give in to their weaknesses and leave the Church that Christ started and join the group that separated themselves from the fullness of the truth, so the SSPX is stealing away the cream of the crop from the Church. And they are also, keeping many people who would otherwise be out helping the Church to recover from the bad bishops and priests, away from the Church, so the Church which is finally starting to build itself back up, is having trouble finding the right people to do the work in the parishes.
Most people that I meet in the NO, don’t know very much about their faith, but we don’t have anyone to teach them, the only people willing to do the job are the liberals who know even less than the students. The people who gave up the good fight should instead be in the Church fighting to restore the beauty that was almost forgotten before it is lost.
At my NO parish, the priest is trying to learn the TLM, but he is the vicar of Las Vegas, he is also a cannon lawyer, and since one of the judges for the Church (I can’t remember the exact title) had a heart attack, my priest is filling in for that job, he is also the pastor of a parish with 10,000 member families, and is in charge of the school attached to that parish. He only has one full time other priest to help him with the parish. He has so little time to sit and learn the Latin, and he is the type that would do it right if he does do it, so it will take him a while.
This is the kind of battle that is being fought! We need the trads to join together and help these lone priests, and help from within, not attack from without.
Sorry for being so long.
