From a reader…
QUAERITUR:
I recently read your “In Illo Tempore: 8th Sunday after Pentecost” commentary on One Peter Five. I ask your opinion on this, given your remarks on suffering. What would you say to someone who is suffering, due to having gone to an SSPX chapel for years, who has come to fall in love with that community since the issuing TC by Pope Francis, and now feels cut off due to the recent excommunications levied against laity, where out of humility, he feels that he can’t simply write off the excommunications as invalid. As someone who feels they found a solid, stable community with the Society, and now feel unjustly commanded by Rome to cut myself off from them, being forced back into the Diocesan structure again, I’m feeling much suffering, confusion and bitter zeal. Any words of advice would be helpful. Thank you and God Bless.
You are not alone.
I am still grappling with the fact that the Holy See and some bishops – with the sloppy documents they put out – have gone out of their way to scare people, to make them feel like outsiders or transgressors. This is an epoch when everyone is supposed to be hyper-pastoral, to listen, to accompany as people discern. According to a footnote, adulterers can receive Communion after “discerning”, but if you “discern” that you want to attend a TLM at an SSPX chapel you are … what? It’s not even clear “what” you are, so poorly drafted are these declarations and explanations.
However badly done it was, the “Explanatory Note”, which has no juridical force, did reference a previous document which made some distinctions about lay people who frequent chapels of the SSPX. The 1996 Explanatory Note describes people who attend SSPX chapels without having a “schismatic spirit”. In that case a person does not incur any censure.
In what you wrote, I do not pick up any sense of defiance of Rome or the local bishop. In fact, you seem concerned to respect their authority. Also, you state that you have developed a strong bond with the community of a chapel. That does not sound like a “schismatic spirit” to me. However, that is something only you can determine.
I note that you mentioned that you have gone to the SSPX chapel “since the issuing of TC”. It seems that you simply want to have the Church’s traditional sacred liturgy. That’s your primary motive. You did not write, “I go there in defiance of the Pope and the local bishop and no one can stop me!”
When laws place restrictions on people the Church wants us to interpret the laws as strictly as possible so that there isn’t “restriction creep”. Laws are not supposed to be cruel. Even though, as I understand, the 2026 Explanatory Note doesn’t have any juridical effect, in the spirit of that principle of interpretation of law – that is odiosa restringenda – it seems to me that your participation at an SSPX chapel especially because of the social bonds you now have, will not result in a censure, either automatic or declared.
So much suffering and anxiety has been inflicted on so many people because of ideology driven despotism. Let us ask Our Blessed Mother to intervene with the High Priest and bring this mess to an end.
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.
Amen.
As I have recounted elsewhere, in my variegated religious journey for a period of time I went from Rome to Orthodoxy (Antiochian-for those who know the Orthodox world, you have to know the jurisdiction to get context), and to that end, I stood up in the temple, in front of the whole congregation and the holy icons, and renounced the Pope and all his works. So, to paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen’s put down of Dan Quayle in, what, 1988?, I have been a schismatic, I know schism, and this SSPX thing ain’t schism.
Well, this is similar to my situation but different. I wonder: “Am I excommunicated?” Honestly, I don’t know and it anguishes me.
I go to the SSPX once a month because there is only one SSPX mass every month in my country. Unlike other SSPX parishioners, I go to the Novus Ordo mass the other weeks because I don’t think it is enough with one monthly mass and I think the NO mass is fully valid. I do believe that the Novos Ordo Mass is focused on the community, protestantized and often irreverent (please no more applauses and jokes: this is not a theater, for God’s sake).
To me, it is clear that the Church is in state of necessity because I have two eyes. But does this justify the disobedience of the SSPX? Wouldn’t this justify any initiative of any group that has good intentions? Is it the esplanatory note valid? If it is not, what authority and value do the Vatican has? If it is valid, how should we interpret it? Are the sedevacantists right? Are the non-Catholics right?
I think my excommunation hinges on whether I “adhere” to the doctrine of the SSPX (whatever that means) or if I go because of liturgical reasons. But I don’t go to the SSPX for liturgical reasons (the Latin Mass is nice but it is a strange world for me, because I was raised in the Novus Ordo). I really go to the SSPX for doctrinal reasons. Not because I am that devout and traditional (I think I am a very bad Catholic and my faith is very tiny), but because one of my sincerely held doctrines is the Law of Non Contradiction.
If the last two Popes are right, Christ was wrong and, hence, Catholicism is false. This is not up for debate. “Nobody goes to the Father but through Me” cannot be made logically compatible with “all religions are valid and my god is not better than your god”. That’s a fact, Jack. The same with adultery, with proselytizing, etc. And don’t get me started about priests saying heresies in the Novus Ordo masses I attend (not all masses of course, from time to time).
So traditional Catholicism is my last stop before leaving Catholicism. Protestantism does not make sense to me (Sola Scriptura is logically absurd) and Orthodoxy seems to fractured to be true. So for me there are only two options: traditional Catholicism is true or Christianity is false (and I fall back on deism, because the proofs of the existence of God are really good).
There is no traditionalist community in my country but the SSPX (and only once a month). I go to the SSPX to try to avoid leaving Catholicism. Sedevacantism is also a coherent position, but I don’t want to leave the Church and, in addition, there are no Sedevacantists community in my country. And praying the Rosary at home without going to mass (what Sedevacantist people do when they don’t have community) has never worked for me. Community is good for me.
So I go to the SSPX for doctrinal reasons? You bet I do: to escape the doctrine of the synodal church. Do I “adhere” to the beliefs of the SSPX? This is more tricky. The only doctrine of the SSPX that is condemed by the Vatican is the rejection of Vatican II. And I do reject Vatican II. To me it is obvious that this is the root of all current evils in the Church. There are statements of Vatican II that contradict traditional doctrine and other are ambiguous and have been planted and usted by modernists to dismantle traditional doctrine: this is why Vatican II is the only dogma they cannot allow to be denied.
So I guess I am excommunicated, right? I guess I am. But is it Vatican II a dogma? Am I willing to pay an eternity of torment to be right and feel myself with more authority than the Pope? If I fully return to the synodal Church, am I willing to pay an eternity of torment because I followed the heresies and apostasies of the synodal Church? I am between a rock and a hard place.
As many people, after experimenting with different ideologies in my youth, I slowly returned to the Catholic faith of my parents and my childhood. Back then, it seemed to me that I had found a rock to rely on. While the entire world changing and declining, I could trust the Catholic Church. The words of Christ, always the same words, giving eternal life.
In addition, I could put my mind to rest, because I shouldn’t investigate if every word said by the Church was true or not. For me, a brainy guy that anlyzes everything, not having to analyze the foundation of my worldview (Catholicism) was really satisfying.
It was not going to be. Now, being a Catholic is a labyrinth. Who is right? The conservatives inside the Church? The SSPX? The 1958 sedevacantists? The benevacantists? (the last Pope was Benedict XVI) Every of these groups have very good reasons and arguments that don’t add up. Am I betting my eternal soul on knowing to navigate this labyrinth of arguments and counter-arguments. Honestly, I am anguished. Next week, there is a SSPX mass in my country and I still don’t know what to do to save my eternal soul. Schismatics or modernists? Between a rock and a hard place.
It would be appropriate for a person’s pastor or bishop to advise this individual, but not a priest who has never met the individual. Sunday attendance at an SSPX chapel includes listening to a homily and being exposed to all kinds of false teaching, to say nothing of the discussions of people outside Mass. What would Pope Leo XIV advise this individual?
mcferran: What would Pope Leo XIV advise this individual?
We may never know, given that we have nothing from him that carries any weight. There is no indication in the Explanatory Note that the DDF even showed it to him, much less consulted him or sought approval. Nothing. We have no idea if it reflects the mind of Leo XIV or not. Time will tell.
listening to a homily and being exposed to all kinds of false teaching
That verges on rash judgement. You know nothing of the quality of preaching at this fellow’s chapel. While it is true that some SSPX priests have said harsh things about the present situation in Rome and elsewhere, it is also true that you are far more likely to hear something odd or downright wrong from a pulpit in a suburban US parish. I would hazard a guess that you are very unlikely to hear “false teaching” from an SSPX pulpit, at least as far as faith and morals go. Outside of those, what they say could be chalked up to debatable opinions.
to say nothing of the discussions of people outside Mass.
And that is exactly what YOU should say about those people whom you do not know: nothing.