praying for everyone (grumpy me included:thumbsup
Remember - their status has been irregular since 1975 - when their status as a recognized association of the Catholic Faithful was revoked by the diocese where it was granted originally, and they’d been operating beyond that diocese since almost immediately after their creation. And Rome never granted an appeal of that.
They are a private clerical association. Pious unions were abolished in 1983. All institutes, including religious orders, religious congregations, secular orders, secular institutes and societies of apostolic life fall under the umbrella of “Association of the Christian Faithful.”
Father was very concerned about the laity who followed the SSPX and the SSPV. He created a short program to train catechists to educate laymen who were following these groups and others like them.Due to a break in my theology studies, I’ve been able to resume study of the Marian Catechist coursework by Fr. John Hardon, S.J. In the course of my search for additional resources, I came across this reference to Fr. Hardon and his concern for the SSPX. While hardly an update, I find it to be a fascinating glimpse of what one of the undisputed giants of post-Vatican II catechetical writing thought about the SSPX:
“He [Fr. Hardon] was one of the great and persevering orthodox giants of our time, always faithful and obedient to the Church and the Holy Father, and was much concerned about orthodox and otherwise committed Catholics who were tempted to join schismatic breakaway groups such as the SSPX. He understood perfectly well why they were troubled, and was sympathetic to their concerns (insofar as possible), but he never for a moment accepted the premise that a schismatic act was ever justified. I know this for a fact because I heard him speak about it on many occasions. He encouraged us – as lay catechists – to reach out to such people and attempt to bring them back into full communion with the Church. Yet he yielded nothing to the modernist dissidents on the opposite end of the spectrum either, to put it very mildly. He was simply, well, an orthodox Catholic.” (italics mine).
source: socrates58.blogspot.com/2006/04/fr-john-hardon-sj-servant-of-god-1914.html
My question is, what does “reach out to such people and attempt to bring them back into full communion with the Church” entail? It sounds like Fr. Hardon is calling for engagement and not ostracism (my personal feeling is that ostracism yields nothing but more insularity and separation). But how to reach out and engage, and yet remain faithful to the Magisterium? Is Fr. Hardon only referring to those who are “tempted” to join breakaway groups, but have not yet done so? In other words, who is he referring to as “them” in the phrase, “attempt to bring them back into full communion with the Church?”
Fr. Hardon did not live long enough to see the excommunications lifted, so it’s only conjecture to imagine what he would have had to say about the SSPX situation today…
Thanks jwinch2, for posting something that is actually recent…not an update on negotiations, so to speak, but certainly a well written and balanced article by Dom Alcuin. The article reminds us that while SSPX reconciliation has been trivialized by some, its importance dismissed due to the relatively small size of the organization, SSPX reconciliation is not a trivial matter to Pope Benedict XVI.
post reported
How about instead we focus on quotes that Pope Benedict has made;
When you have popes like Pope Benedict XVI, who have been public figures long before they took office, you always go with their last position or last answer to a question.
One should never lose hope.
He’ll have to be canonized first. A doctor is one who is a teacher of the faith. He or she need not have achieved great things.
Well he certainly has exhibited the “patience of a saint.” If he can pull off SSPX reconciliation, wouldn’t that be an act of heroism, so to speak? I mean in terms of the “heroic effort” required in dealing with all involved, including all of those on both sides who oppose reconciliation.One should never lose hope.
He’ll have to be canonized first. A doctor is one who is a teacher of the faith. He or she need not have achieved great things.
St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Therese never did any great pastoral service for the Church or built great institutions.
Their heroic lives of virtue made them saints. The doctorate came from their scholarship.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV
And since the reigning pope decides what is and is not dogma, and what is and is not divinely revealed moral law, you cannot be sure of the permanency of any of the Catholic Church’s teachings.