Brother,
I have a sort of, side question. How did you become interested in the question of the SSPX? I suspect that the society doesn’t even pass the mind of the average priest or religious. The vast majority of Catholics have no idea what the SSPX is or have only the most vague notion of what it is. The only reason I know who/what they are is because of CAF.
Just curious.
Thanks and God Bless
Purely by accident. I was studying the lives and spirituality of Popes John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II and ran into the issues with the Lefebvrist movement. A few months later, an entire community of Franciscans were excommunicated, dismissed from the order for pledging allegiance to the Archbishop over St. Francis, which is a big no no. In his Testament, St. Francis wrote the the brothers owed obedience to their canonically elected superiors, to him, to the local bishop and to the pope. This he commanded and let those brothers who do not observe “my command suffer the eternal fires of hell.” There is a curse with his command. The Church has never abrogated it. It’s still in place. Few people want to risk wrestling with one of the most powerful saints in Church history.
I found all of this very interesting and my first thought was a simple question. Why would these people want to risk their souls fighting holy popes, holy religious founders, holy superiors? I started to read more books, pay attention to blogs and forums, etc.
I should just say, in case you don’t know it, that my doctorate is in Ascetical and Mystical Theology and my dissertation was on the reform movements of Francis of Assisi and Teresa of Avila. The spirituality that drives reform movements has always been of interest to me.
As a student of the spiritual life, the most important question when one looks at a phenomenon is, “Where is the Holy Spirit?” That question is followed by another question. “Is it the Holy Spirit speaking or is it the human element?” This is an important question, because when we hold on to what Popes 1, 2 and 3 said we have to remember that the Holy Spirit was speaking, but he could have been speaking to a particular time and situation and if that situation no longer exists, then we have to go back to the Holly Spirit and listen to what he has to say to our current situation.
Finally, Mystical Theology has proven that no spiritual master has ever denied obedience to Peter. There have been moments when the Masters have asked Peter for clarification and when they have proposed ideas to Peter that are more in keeping with the Gospel. However, the thought of walking away from Peter if he should disagree was the farthest thing from their mind.
One of the great mystics of Catholic history is St. Paul himself. As I say to people here all the time. The disagreement between Peter and Paul is overplayed in order to justify the traditionalist behavior. But if we follow Paul’s writings very closely, the writings of the Fathers who knew him and the Acts of the Apostles, Paul was very submissive to Peter. He approaches Peter with great energy and great respect. He would not have taken his people and walked away had Peter said “No to him.” He understood that difference between tradition and Tradition. Their dispute was not dogmatic. It was disciplinary. St. Clement of Rome drives this point home very strongly in his writings to the Church at Ephasus. He recalls Paul’s dealings with Peter and he alludes to Paul’s submissiveness to authority. He invokes Paul’s example for the Ephesians and demands that they submit to the Bishop of Rome.
That’s it in a nutshell. Spirituality is my thing and there is an undercurrent here that belongs in the sphere of Christian Spirituality that is not being discussed on blogs and forums, because most laymen and diocesan priests have no formal training in Christian Spirituality. They may have many practices and customs that are part of Christian spirituality. But they don’t have the tools to analyze these customs and they don’t have the tools to go deeper than to say, “We want adoration back and the common recitation of the Rosary.” The question is not whether these things are good or bad. They are good. The question is whether the request comes from the Holy Spirit or from the person. The way to tell the difference is to remember that the Holy Spirit will never contradict the Church and will guide Peter, not lead men to turn their backs on Peter.
I’m not too concerned about CITH, COTT, EF, OF, Rosary or Adoration. I’m interested in who is making the request? Is it man or is it the Holy Spirit? That’s the role of Spiritual Theology in the life of the Church.
