The upcoming episcopal consecrations by the SSPX are rushing upon us and will result in a return to schism and the formal excommunications of those involved. Many think the matter is merely about the old versus the reformed liturgy, but the flourishing of the Fraternity of St. Peter proves this is false. The real issue is ecclesiology and obedience. While anachronistic about our Catholic past, the SSPX are “Protestant” in their attitude towards Rome. They have forfeited juridical standing in the Church, impugned the authority of the Pope, blasphemed the Holy Spirit about the Missal of Paul VI, and have cast the opinion of a few against the world’s many bishops in the Magisterium and have rejected a received ecumenical Council (Vatican II). The SSPX claims necessity for their July 1 consecrations of four new bishops due to an “unprecedented crisis in faith,” and yet, they fail to appreciate how they have contributed to this impasse. Fermenting rebellion, there has been a marked increase in belligerence to the living Church and to the Holy Father. Taking a page from their book, the discontent, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, has now both rejected Vatican II and the reformed liturgy. But he has gone even further, by denying the validity of Pope Francis’ papacy and thus meriting for himself excommunication. Posturing as an anti-pope with his letters against the Holy See, he says he intends to start his own seminary to make his own priests. Traditionalism is fragmenting just as did Luther’s reformational Protestantism. Such is inevitable once there is a break with the see of unity or Peter.
This morning, I read one online poster (known as a faithful Catholic) who announced that having to choose between Pope Leo XIV and Archbishop Viganò, he would follow the excommunicated bishop “outside the gates of the so-called synodal church.” The statement deeply troubled me. I wrote the following in response:
“I will keep you in prayer. Be careful what you say. The scandals have sadly cost us many souls. Remember, even good men can forget themselves and become lost. But if we find Christ and his Eucharist in the Church (no matter the form of ritual) then our course is clear. When the murmuring Jews walked away, Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘Do you also want to leave?’ And Peter responded, ‘Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.’ (See John 6:67-68) There may be much we do not understand or even find offensive, but it is then most of all that we must remain faithful. So many foolishly sin these days against Christ’s pledge of ‘indefectibility’ toward the Church. Some with a grade school understanding of their catechism would even challenge the doctors of the faith. Many blaspheme the Spirit of God by disparaging the Eucharist that makes available both ‘the real presence’ of Christ and his ‘saving oblation’ on Calvary. Others latch on to learned men more filled with themselves than the Holy Spirit and a docility to just authority. If I should soon die, I would hope to pronounce two ancient cries from my lips. The first is ‘Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia.’ And given the name of our current Pope, the second would echo the bishops at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, ‘Petrus per Leo locutus est.’”
Archbishop Viganò says in his recent letter to Pope Leo XVI that he hid his location for several years after his exposure about Cardinal McCarrick’s crimes, insinuating that he was afraid for his life and conjectured that his predecessor in Washington, Nuncio Pietro Sambi, might have been murdered. Are we to believe that Catholic churchmen hire hitmen? I think not.
Next, he begins his wholesale assault on Vatican II by attacking a host of theologians as in league with modernists, lumping together Küng, Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Rahner, Schillebeeckx, and Congar. [It should be said that even Pope Benedict XVI reluctantly censured his friend Fr. Kung. Fr. Rahner was criticized more as a philosopher than a theologian; and was still trusted to investigate Schillebeeckx for the Holy See. Fr. Schillebeeckx, despite many just criticisms of his Christology, wrote a profound book about the Church as the sacrament of salvation.]
Denouncing postconciliar popes and rejecting pope Francis entirely, he then states the following: “In the face of the excommunication unjustly imposed upon me, I declare that I am not a schismatic!” Sorry, it just does not wash. Much of his overt piety is charming. I would further affirm his attraction to tradition and our rich past. But now is a time to build ties from modernity to antiquity, not to sever them. We need to find pathways to reconcile the last half century with the two millennium that came before.
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