Their Bishops have apostolic succession. Their Priest are validly ordained. They practice the Catholic faith as it was practiced up until Vatican 2. They are Catholic. They get less respect on these forums then Orthodox, Protestant, Jew, and Muslim. They believe in the seven sacraments and everything in the Nicene Creed. Think about all of the truths of our faith that these other groups deny. Comparatively, the SSPX are our closest brothers that are not fully joined with us. Some of you should show some respect instead of contempt.
I’m sure they would get more respect if they gave a better example of respecting their superior, which is Holy Mother Church.
Instead, we see another example of the “disobedience is bad, except in our case because we’re right” double standard. Then you have the number of SSPX apologists that will step in and say “but it’s different, because they’re just trying to be
more strict instead of
less” as if that actually makes a difference in the argument.
What I see as a layperson is that their logic violates
at least 4 out of these 5 logical fallacies (I’ve been told I should have a slight content warning on these links; this is your heads up. The article is actually very insightful though overall).
Look, the problem is that nobody understands what the SSPX
wants anymore. The EF is free to be celebrated to people’s hearts content now. No, it’s not going to replace the OF and nobody thought it would anyways. To be frank, it’s like listening to the Occupy Movement; they make a lot of noise and won’t go away, but they won’t tell us what their beef is. And anything that starts off with a complain about VII (the actual council itself, not the aftermath) is a non-starter and makes them sound like a college student who’s still complaining about a present they didn’t get on their 10th birthday.
All they’re doing is sitting on the fence right now, just like other Catholics who believe in abortion or the like.
- Do you believe that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ and that the Church holds the deposit of faith and that the Magisterium is the only valid interpreter of scriptures and tradition? If so, then get in line behind them.
- Do you think that there’s no Pope or that the Church is fallible (can be wrong) or something stupid like that? Then just say it and we can all stop playing this game and just say goodbye and you can go off and do whatever (I don’t know, go follow Pope Michael or something).
- Do you agree with number 1, but don’t want to submit in obedience to the Church? Then why are you Catholic in the first place? Get over your own ego and go back to 1, or just admit already that you believe in 2. You can’t combine 1 and 2; they’re mutually exclusive.
Of course, they’ll claim the special case of trying to “reform” the Church (whatever their definition of “reform” is). Ok, so make you case to the Pope. If it’s rejected**, you still have to submit in obedience to the Church**. Otherwise, you’re basically Martin Luther (who probably would have been remembered as a great reformer/renewer of the Church if he would have stayed in the Church).
I never said it was an easy answer to give, but in the end there is only 1 correct answer. The Church, much like God, will wait patiently until they finally give it. The rest of us on the sidelines all have the same question going through our heads as we wait: “What are they waiting for?”
