How does one find the Visible Church on earth? The answer is that it has, as its head, the Vicar of Christ. That will be true until the end of time. To say that we are not bound by or do not recognize the legitimate request of the Pope to solve a canonical dispute or irregularity implies that we reject him at an authoritative level and implies that he is illegitimate. The further implication is that the solution of the canonical irregularity is a de-facto acceptance of heresy. It despairs of the Hope (and therefore the Holy Ghost) and implies that within the halls of Rome, it would be impossible for the SSPX to find like-minded priests or bishops, to maintain the faith, or convert the heretics. We are fortunate that the original apostles did not despair of converting the monolithic pagan societies of Rome and Greece! The heretical sayings and teachings of Bishops and Cardinals in the Newchurch do not give us dispensation from canonical regularity with the Vicar of Christ – as long as we do not accept heresy in a matter of faith. Archbishop Lefebvre did not seek, at any time, to break canonical regularity with the Pope and the Church and when it happened, he vigorously protested the legality of it according to canon law and he sought to rectify it so that his little Society could grow and populate the clergy with his traditionally trained priests. He said after reneging on the protocol the following day that it was “.. with great excitement ..” that he signed the accord but then after reflection, feared that the SSPX was not adequately protected against the whiles of modernist Bishops and the Curia. He wrote “I Accuse the Council” in 1982 and went on to entertain signing the Protocol in 1988 without requiring the conversion of Rome as a condition. He also did not take a vote of his priests before initially signing the Protocol.
It would have been possible for St. Issac Jocques to have sent the Hurons here in Central New York some written materials denouncing their pagan religion and warning them from France that they would all end up in perdition without Christ. In that case, there would be no Huron Catholics, or St. Kateri or even St. Issac Jocques. He knew that the only way to convert was to live among the pagans and convert by example and the witness of the faith. We are currently NOT converting Rome. We are in essence sitting on an island and complaining about their heresy which they effectively ignore.
So my question is: Where are the truly courageous traditional priest warriors? Where are the priests with true backbone? Where are the truly courageous traditional Bishops with true backbone? Where are the priests with the stomach for fighting Rome from within Rome? Are there any courageous laity up for that fight or are you completely content in the private Valhalla of your chapels? Do you not possess the same fervor to restore the church that the liberals had to destroy it?
I am absolutely fed up abdicating the treasures of Holy Mother Church including the Eternal City to modernists and heretics. Perhaps many of you will not mind crawling back into your local Howard Johnsons for Mass on Sundays but I condemn that retreat. With no apologies to St. Athanasius, I want the faith AND the churches!
Have you ever been to Rome and visited the bones of St. Peter in the crypt far below the main altar next to the Clementine Chapel? I have and I want so badly to see the custody of those sacred places restored to the true faith. I want to see St. Peter’s turned back into the sublime place of worship that it once was instead of the irreverent museum it has become. I am personally sick of walking into beautiful Basilicas like those in Syracuse and Buffalo and seeing the “Table” in front of the glorious altar. I want to see SSPX Cardinals in the Curia and electing Popes.
Why do I hear erstwhile traditional men, priests and laity alike, cower at the prospect of what modernist Rome may make them do after a canonical regularization? It is sickening to me. How many liberals did it take to hijack the faith in the 60’s? Not that many. All of the traditional groups that have regularized their situation since 1988 have been comprised of roughly a half a dozen priests and no laity to speak of. The exception would be Campos with a bishop. Our situation is 550+ priests, 200+ seminarians, monasteries, convents, and perhaps nearly a million faithful. So there is absolutely no precedent in modern history of a sizable united stable group of Traditionals accepting a canonical regularization.
I am ready to do that battle from within the castle walls. If you are content with lobbing artillery shells at its walls and then retreating to a safe distance to avoid counter-attack, I would argue that it takes very little, if any, courage to do that. We can post sermons on YouTube and sit in our chapels and shake our fists and preach to the choir about modernism and the new Mass, or we can enter through the front gates of the citadel. Maybe they’ll attempt to take away some of our weapons? I suggest it might make the battle more interesting since the Holy Ghost will certainly be our support.
Well said!
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