New Deal? No Deal?

Around the SSPX water cooler, there is definitely a buzz.  Some wring their hands and wonder how the SSPX can be an ally of Rome.  Others speak in excited tones about the canonical recognition of marriages and ordinations not encumbered by a latae sentiae suspension.  Priests range from indifferent ("What will it change?") to excited ("Finally .. after so many years").  The faithful, used to instant solution and resolution within the space of a twitter feed, want to know NOW.  Others who have been through it in 1988, 2000, 2005, 2009, etc, just continue to live their lives and raise their families and ask their friends to keep them updated.

Bishop Fellay sent in a reply.  He knew what was needed to pass muster but can't actually say that.  The Vatican knows what the bare minimum ante for admission is.  They held the envelope with the response up to the light and from the few words they can make out, it looks good.  The words apparently were Pope, good, Council okay, Kuhn nasty, "docs need work". Still not time for champagne but maybe, just maybe, Lent is over?

The winners? 

The modern church - get a counter-balance to the enormous pull from the leftists in Europe who openly threaten schism over women ordinations and homosexual marriage.

Pope Benedict - gains an ally from the conservative wing of the church and a hardened defender of the Papacy.  He also adds to his accomplishments, at 85 years old, of bringing Traditionalists and Anglicans into the canonical structure of the church, giving both, to coin a phrase, "canonical status and mission" And what a mission that is!

Bishop Fellay - against considerable dissent from within the ranks, particularly from the episcopate and the French clergy, finds a way for his order to remain the SSPX, regularize its priests, regularize independent priests who are just "friends", regularize Traditional Benedictines, Franciscans, Carmelites, Capuchins, and Salesians (no Jesuits to be seen for miles). And he may still be able to oppose the Council documents, adding his "now legitimately Roman" voice to those who use the Council Documents to perpetrate .. well, you know.

The losers?

FSSP - unless they can somehow benefit from this new structure - like maybe the same deal, why would future seminarians choose a priesthood where you reject modernism in the form of Catholic contraception, Catholic Divorce (annulment), and CINO Politicians who operate unfettered by their Bishops but cannot preach it from a diocesan pulpit without fear of censure?  Could the FSSP seminary become the alternative after rejection from the SSPX?

The ADL - they will be apoplectic and demand that Pope Benedict excommunicate himself.

The Diocese - who could have cozied up here and there to the Society and now finds itself with yet another missed opportunity for revenue.  And who will the SSPX attract from the diocese? Mostly conservative, upscale-trending thinking Catholics who want to escape the Obama-lovefest in the diocesan parishes. And, the SSPX will attract the young, newly married Catholics who rebel against the generation of their parents and their hippie, tree-hugging Our Fathers.  That will be the critical component in the demise of the diocese since this is where any prayer of a vocation will come from.

The Novus Ordo - whose demise would be hastened by the siphoning off of orthodox-minded candidates.  How many more years until there are no modern priests to man the handful of remaining churches?

The Casualties

Bishop Williamson - one of the best confessors who's ever forgiven me my sins.  Unfortunately, H.E. cannot accept the requests of the Superior General to lie low as his persona has been toxic since 2007. In past years, his eccentricities were "overlookable" but now they are so front and center that they distract from the mission of the priestly order.  He chose to be the voice against the canonical reconciliation and his fate, in this scene of the play, may only be retirement.  He could "venture out" as the leader of the band of independent priests and faithful who cannot stomach any association with the Vicar of Christ, fearing that they would eventually be "swallowed" whole by an apostate conglomeration and perhaps lose their faith, or perhaps conviction.  But this can only be a dead end since H.E. does not most likely aspire to be a modern day Archbishop Thuc.

The Reality - if you believe that Benedict XVI is the Vicar of Christ, how can you refuse a request that does not compromise faith or morals?  Is it not, in fact,  your duty to unite with him to help right the barque?

Methinks that the Pope (some Pope, anyway) will be God's tool to restore the faith.

I'll try and keep the lists updated, having a significantly vested interest in all this..