I will stand with Bishop Fellay

I've been asked via email to "clarify my position" in regards to the canonical recognition of the SSPX. Accompanying that request was, I think, a veiled threat that this particular person would not return to Ars Orandi if I were to support an agreement between Rome and the SSPX.

Allow me, then to use this opportunity to reiterate what I have already made clear in the Q&A: I am not, in any way, affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X, nor do I attend an SSPX chapel, nor do I personally know any SSPX priests. Therefore, my "position" is completely irrelevant, and I shouldn't have to answer that question one way or the other. I would like to say that I'm here simply to propose the beauty and spiritual fecundity of the Traditional Latin Mass and traditional Catholicism.

However, I will, for the sake of clarity, make clear that I will stand with the Superior General of the SSPX, Bishop Fellay. I will support whatever decision he makes in regards to an agreement with the Pontificate of Benedict XVI. Even though I respect the person and profoundly honor the office of the Pope, frankly, I trust Bishop Fellay more than I trust the intentions of Pope Benedict XVI. Those intentions, however, in no way change the fact that greater will be the good fruits for the Church if the SSPX is reconciled and given canonical recognition than if its priests and bishops aren't. No matter the intentions of the Pope, be they liberal or genuine, nothing but good can come from canonical recognition if it means that the Society can gain that recognition without having to change who they are or what they stand for, which seems to be the case.

If the Holy Father gives Bishop Fellay everything he asks for, how can resistance from within the SSPX be anything less than a wholesale denial of the visible nature of the Catholic Church and the august role of the Office of St. Peter?

I would also like to make something very clear to those of you who seem to agree with the notion that every Catholic not affiliated with the SSPX is a Modernist or a liberal: YOU ARE WRONG. Your Superior General has told you, himself, that you are WRONG. I am not a liberal or Modernist because I attend a Traditional Latin Mass offered by a Fraternity priest or because I belong to a parish of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. Not only is such an opinion unrealistic, as your Superior General has told you, but it is intellectually lazy and disingenuous, and this applies to you whether you be a layman, priest or bishop.

It is my prayer that the SSPX will soon be given the canonical recognition that it deserves, that its Founder desired, and that its current Superior General so earnestly desires. It will not, by any stretch of the imagination, end the fight, but it will signal a decisive turning of the tide, which will benefit all traditional Catholics. It is high time that those members of the Society, who have in these recent days caused so much pain for their Superior General, realize that their insularity is not only intellectually false and prideful, but also diabolically uncharitable. It is uncharitable to the rest of us who are laboring, in the vineyard of the Church, for an end to the novus ordo Mass, and the full and complete restoration of the Traditional Latin Mass and traditional Catholicism.

Isn't it enough that we must face insidious enemies on the Left? Why now should we be decimated by blows from those who ought to be our brothers?