True. Some movements, like Franciscans, remain in the (Catholic) faith tradition, and improve it. Other movements, such as Lutherans - and SSPX - become new faith traditions even though they never intended to. The process is gradual. By the time people become aware they are in a different faith tradition from Catholicism, they have already left it far behind. Separate institutional structures have hardened into place. New habits of thinking have become fixed in minds. Today, I am not aware of any fundamentalist, liberal Catholic, Muslim, or atheist group that is so fixated on criticizing the leaders of the Catholic Church as the SSPX.
Good or bad, it’s definitely a separate faith tradition.
Noooo, there are some out there who like to throw stones at the Catholic Church. However, they’re pockets, not entire faith traditions. You’re going to find ugly people in every group.
hi, newbie here. im a little bit frustrated on this topic… i thought it would be more on catholic faith discussion here. not creating confusions among catholics… well SSPX for what ive known follows the tradition of the church. they only fight for the restoration of the faith that have been lost… & open our minds to the truth and the errors of the modernism…
-Instead of throwing accusations or wrangling against each other,… lets pray for the church, lets pray for the pope, bishop priest, etc. Dont let satan ruin our faith!..
-“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand” (Mark 3:24). “There shall be one fold and one Shepherd” (John
10:16)
“If anyone rejects any written or unwritten Tradition of the Church, let him be anathema.”
—Second Council of Nicaea–
"“I vow to change nothing of the received Tradition, and nothing thereof I have found before guarded by my God-pleasing predecessors, to encroach,** to alter (change), or to permit any innovation therein”**
-The Papal Coronation Oath . .
The problem is that the SSPX is not the arbiter of tradition. Nor can the SSPX claim for itself the right to interpret tradition. Nor can it claim for itself the right to decide what is and is not consistent with tradition. It has tried to do so. Only the Pontiff has that authority.
The SSPX, nor anyone else either, can claim to have the authority to ordain anyone without the permission of the Church. This is a false ecclesiology. It is an ecclesiology that ignores the primacy, because it finds it inconvenient to obey the primacy. It is an ecclesiology that ignores the authority of the bishop, because it finds it inconvenient. The argument that the bishop is a Modernist cannot be applied to over 3,000 ordinaries in the Catholic Church. There has to be at least one bishop of one diocese whom they can find who is faithful. To believe that only their three surviving bishops are the only faithful bishops is not honest. Such an argument is sophistry.
The SSPX also ignores those of us who have remained attached to Peter and the bishops in communion with Peter, despite the problems of the last 50 years. This is also a false ecclesiology to believe or behave as if you’re the remnant of Catholicism and the other 2.1 billion Catholics are apple sauce. God does not withdraw his covenants. Those of us who have not violated the covenant deserve a little respect and recognition by the SSPX and its friends. However, the SSPX has made it clear that it thinks very little of most of us. It has even created it own branch of religious orders without the permission of the orders to do so. I know for a fact that the SSPX sponsors a branch of Capuchin Franciscans, without the permission of the lawful successor of St. Francis. It created a branch of the Secular Franciscan, again without the lawful permission of the lawful successor St. Francis.
When you take it upon yourself to do things without the permission of lawful ecclesiastical authority, your one leg is no longer well grounded in Catholic tradition. Part of Catholic tradition is operating within the Church, not going around the Church.
This is not about catechisms, the TLM, communion rails or May crowning. The issue here is much more serious. It’s about a view that beliefs that it has freedom and authority to operate without lawful oversight by the pope, bishops, religious superiors and other lawfully and canonically instituted authorities. When one does this, the message that one sends is that one no longer is beneath the law, but one can create one’s own law and one can interpret laws that only the Pontiff and those to whom he entrusts the interpretation of have a right to do. Such behavior is very bad ecclesiology. In other words, it’s very bad theology. Which leads to bad doctrine.
The moment that one’s theology of the Church is corrupted, the rest can easily follow. This is very dangerous. This is why Pope Benedict was very clear that the problem is their break with the Primacy. Without their obedience and submission to the Primacy, what is to keep them from falling into heresy?
The SSPX does not have the promise of infallibility. The papacy does and the bishops when gathered in a council with the pope. Three bishops are an open window for Satan.
So far, they have been very lucky. What’s to keep their luck holding up and who will bring them back, if they do fall into heresy? No one can bring them back, but Peter. But if they refuse to obey Peter, than who else can rescue them?
This is scary stuff.
Because of the fact that we’re dealing with bishops who can start their own Churches, this is more scary that Hans Kung, LCWR, or Call to Action Catholics. Those are small potatoes, because they have no episcopal powers.
