Bro JR, my problem with that is the practical one that I have a large family to raise in the Faith. I frankly do not care too much who helps me, so long as they can be shown to be true to the Faith. As soon as our diocese begins to come anywhere near what the SSPX are achieving in that direction, I will be delighted. As they still are not doing so, I see no point in blaming the SSPX for their emergency work : indeed I am eternally grateful to them.
I don’t find a problem with their mission. I believe the problem is one that has nothing to do with parenting. If they backed off from publicly correcting everyone else, including the pope, they would probably get their message across with less conflict.
It creates a conflict when one has to ask oneself, “Why do I have to answer to you?”
The moment that question is raised, whatever good you wanted to achieve gets lost in translation.
On the other hand, if you just go about your business and serve your people, let the bishop and the Holy See deal with those not under your care, people would not be so sensitive.
I see many traditionalists in the mainstream Church. I live with some. But these folks are not out to correct the world. They are out to fix their own lives and let the world do whatever it wants. I’ll give you a simple example.
About 25 years ago, the Franciscans of the Renewal were born. It was a small group of 6 friars who believed that they needed to get back to the early days of Franciscan life. They have done a beautiful job at returning to the 13th century. Here is what they did not do.
They never said a single word against the larger Franciscan family. To this day, we do not know and we will never know what errors they found.
Here is the result. Others looked at what they accomplished and followed suit. In the USA alone more than 20 or 25 new Franciscan communities have been born from the older larger ones. Each one has a different ministry, which is why we are autonomous. However, we are all on the same page when it comes to going back as far as we can to the 13th century values, charism and mission that St. Francis left us.
However, what other Franciscans do or not do is not our concern. We do not address it. That’s a concern for their superiors, the Sacred Congregation for Religious and the Holy Father. We just look the other way and focus on our daily life and our ministry.
My own little community, as traditionalist as we are, we are treated well and we deal well with other Franciscans and other Catholics. We never say “This is wrong” or “You’re wrong”. That’s someone else’s job. We tell our own people when they’re right or wrong. By the way, when I say traditionalist, I mean as in recovering Franciscan values and practices.
This is the part that I think gets the SSPX into trouble, not the service that they provide for their people, but the things that they say about others. Of course, their people then go around repeating it. That seems to be getting the Vatican upset at them. Why? Because no other institute has ever taken such a role.
Bp Fellay made very definite statements that he claimed were made to himself. Either these statements were really made, or they were not. If they were not, then Bp Fellay must be a liar. It is not very difficult. I do not believe he is, and I never said anybody else said this, But if anybody else, at some future date, rejects Bp Fellay’s statement, then they must ipso facto be calling him a liar. I don’t remember making any accusations.
I’m going to respectfully disagree with you here. I can see where someone can say something different from what was said and not be a liar. Perception is everything.
I have always believed that perception gets a tighter grip on us than does truth. That makes us mistaken, not liars.
Two people can be in the same conversation and report two conflicting stories. Their perception is influenced by many things, not only what is said during the dialogue. Both are telling the truth that they see.
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