{This was written by a close friend of mine who is also a priest in the Ordinariate. I include it here because it is a wonderful take on the current situation with the SSPX.}
UP FRONT: THE SITUATION WITH THE SSPX HAS NO CONNECTION TO THE ORDINARIATE. WE KEEP GETTING ASKED ABOUT IT, THOUGH, SO IT IS WORTH SHARING JUST A LITTLE HERE. CHARITY MUST PREVAIL HERE, AND NO ONE SHOULD BE PLEASED AT WHAT HAS OCCURRED.
Mark 7:10-13 (RSV-CE) - He said to them (Pharisees), “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die’; but you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God) then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do.”
There are numerous epidemics in the world today, but one is an habitual breaking off of relationships with parents by young adult children. What has been transpiring in families across the culture has also recently manifested the same behavior in the schism brought about by the actions of the SSPX.
A family situation:
There have been many instances in which even very faithful families have had at least one child inexplicably walk away from the Faith. Even in some young people who stay close to the faith, though, what can happen is that they pursue a course of action in life, even a vocation, without giving heed to the parents who take the place of God in their lives. This is a role enumerated by multiple historic catechisms, and even the current-day CCC 2217, reminds us that obedience to parents is owed until ‘emancipation,’ though honor is due throughout all of life. When parents see a child careening down a path that experience and wisdom tell them will bring hardship and pain, they may try to slow it down or stop it, even offering compromise so as to help guide things in a way that will bring a better result. Parents must also balance this with the CCC 2230 guidance that they are not to force a profession or choice of spouse upon a child - historic catechisms remind us parents can err in this both by being too severe OR too lax with children. The child, however, until now dependent upon their parents, walks away from them, because they don’t feel supported in this endeavor, and say that what they’re doing isn’t wrong, but is actually following God’s Will, setting the will of their own parents in opposition to God’s Will. Unfortunately, they may be supported by others who affirm what they are doing, in contradiction to their parents, thereby exacerbating the divide. Later on, they claim to love and miss their parents, all the while still claiming that they did nothing wrong in ‘how’ they pursued what they wanted. There can be forgiveness all around, but reconciliation seems impossible without acknowledgement of the wrong. Unfortunately, the longer the divide lasts, the harder it will be to achieve reconciliation.
The ecclesial situation:
Christ gave His authority to the Church, the Pope at the head and the visible sign of unity, the clergy fulfilling the roles of governance, teaching, and sanctification. The jurisdiction to lead is given from the Holy Father to Bishops serving as Ordinaries. The Holy Father is the Vicar of Christ, but serves as tangible father to all. In this case, some have pursued what they wanted, how they wanted, with no opening to compromise, all the while claiming to follow God’s Will, setting the Holy Father in opposition to God Himself, out of a claimed ‘state of emergency,’ after appealing to the Holy Father, and being first asked, and then told not to do what they proceeded to do. What has been laid out by the Holy See does include a path to reconciliation, though, which hinges upon repentance, and an intentional seeking of reunion with the Church. Unfortunately, there are many who will affirm the course taken, reinforcing the original sin of pride and the spirit of rebellion. Fr. De Souza, a long-time friend of Bp Lopes, wrote this on the SSPX saying there can be no compromise: see here. Another reminder is here.
The defining marker of being in communion with the Catholic Church is submission to the Bishop of Rome (see this). The same issue was and continues to be made in ‘Anglo-Catholic’ situations, that some think they are already Catholic, and so refuse to make open and intentional submission to Rome, stating that they don’t need to, thus proving that they are actually wrong and not Catholic. The only difference is that the SSPX is more like the Orthodox than ‘Anglo-Catholics,’ since they have valid Orders and sacraments.
These claims about a ‘State of Emergency’ in the Church, or as it says in Canon 1323.4, out of ‘necessity,’ supposedly allow for the setting aside of normal rules. To do simply what prudence dictates for the good of souls has no clear definition in the Church, but what Fr. Ripperger researched on this was that the closest we could say would be a situation in which access to superiors was no longer available. COVID would have been the closest we’ve actually seen, in that some of us were simply baptizing in homes, offering Masses in backyards, doing whatever we had to do for the good of souls, things which normally would not have been allowed, because we were cut off by government law. Even still, Bp Lopes was completely ok with all this when I called him to discuss it.
The SSPX claim to a state of emergency, though, is a claim that the superiors, the Holy See, and the institutional Church, were no longer doing their jobs of teaching and sanctifying, but rather just wrongly claiming to govern, such that only the SSPX are really passing along the faith. So this isn’t that there’s no access to superiors, but rather there’s not concurrence by superiors, no agreement. This cannot hold.
These 2 hierarchies of family and Church were established by God Himself, and according to the testimony of exorcists, even demons are required to respect those hierarchies. They should both be treated with the utmost of respect. It is possible to do the right thing, but the wrong way - right intentions do not make everything legitimate; we can be sincere and still wrong. We must agree with the Apostles from Acts that we must obey God, rather than men, but to embrace the first virtue any of us can learn before the age of reason - obedience - we are to obey those God puts over us, so long as they do not demand that we violate God’s law. St. Benedict was also clear about this in his Rule, regarding God’s judgment upon vicious superiors, and the virtue shown by subordinates through obedience. This draws upon James 3:1, regarding the greater accounting, the greater judgment, that will come upon those at elevated levels in the hierarchies.
It is an interesting canonical perspective in terms of simply following what Archbishop Lefebvre had previously stated himself and agreed to (for which, see this). Every human person has free will, and the ability to choose. What we are not entitled to is choices without consequences; there are always consequences when we choose. Also, some have used the term 'ultimatum,' but that's simply a negative, ominous way of saying consequences we don't like from choices we want to make and have approved, so when you hear it or read it, feel free to set it aside.
CONCLUSION of my thoughts: While there are individuals in Rome who have done or said or written things that we would all disagree with, even things that we would question as being truly Catholic, ‘two wrongs don’t make a right.’ The Church as the Bride of Christ is indefectible. What the SSPX has done is to set themselves up as the ‘remnant,’ the only true Church. There are some out there saying the excommunications are invalid because of who issued them; no logical or reasonable argument can be made with such people, because their starting point, their philosophical 'first principles' are that the Church is wrong and the Society is right, period. Admittedly, Cardinal Fernandez signed them, and there are questions about him, though he is under the authority of the Holy Father. Disregard the Holy Father and claim he’s a heretic and become a sedevacantist,... or don’t, and obey. In the meantime, they have separated themselves from the authority of the Pope, and should be treated as such - respected, but not part of the family until they decide to change. Appeals to ‘how beautiful’ things are in the Society are emotional, just like people telling parents they should just approve of the wrongs of their children in order to maintain a relationship. God calls us to Him, but on HIS terms, not ones we make for ourselves. The Church is His Body, His Bride, united to Him for eternity.