The Pope has recently lifted the excommunications on the leaders of the FSSPX, the Tradtionalist Catholic priestly fraternity founded by Mons. Marcel Lefèbvre. I never really liked these guys; they and their perhaps 1.5 million followers were adamant that Vatican II had led the Church into heresy, that Rome had succumbed to 'Modernism', and that their brand of Catholicism was absolutely right on all issues. Boisterous, arrogant, and uncharitable. But they were challenging. There were points where I found it hard to reconcile Vat II with the constant teaching of the Church. Plus, I was gradually losing faith that Vat II was the "new springtime of the Church" it had been heralded as; after all, the post-Vat II era brought with it iconoclasm, a decline in observance of time-honoured devotions, a preponderance of openly heretical theologians, and a decline in Priests and vocations. But I just could not bring myself to believe that 99.9% of the Church could have just abandoned true Catholicism and that the Lefebvrists were the only true Catholics left.
When I heard that the excommunications were lifted, part of me was happy that the rift could now be healed, but I was uneasy that they were lifted without any formal apology from the society for its actions. After all, they have operated a parallel church illegally for 20 years. But at the end of the day, I am glad that almost 400 traditionally-minded Priests will now be serving the Church officially, and that the Traditionalists will come out of their bubble and have their stigma removed. Plus, we will finally get a clarification on the dubious parts of Vat II and bury its so-called 'spirit' for good.
There are still issues which need to be sorted out. The FSSPX are associated with some very radical rightists, among them Holocaust deniers. This is, of course, completely unacceptable but my guess is the more extreme elements will consider the FSSPX traitors and leave, becoming Sedevacantists or whatever. Either that or they will be silenced now the Vatican controls them. As for the rest, hopefully they will appreciate that not all 'mainstream' Catholics are Modernist traitors or heretics, but simply ordinary Catholics trying to get on with their lives, holding the faith but simply expressing it in a non-traditional way, be it with vernacular hymns or pop songs instead of Gregorian chant.
And as for the media's and the Liberals' response to this, they can go screw themselves. The Liberals spend so much time talking about 'inclusivity', but where is the inclusivity here? What, oecumenism is the dog's bollocks when (Liberal) Protestants are involved, but when it comes to Conservative Catholics who actually hold the Catholic faith (albeit with an ideological slant), then they must be left out in the cold? - Literally speaking, look here: http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-things-change.html
Even if they are very Conservative, the FSSPX and their sympathizers are a whole lot better than the heathen Marxists which have wrecked the Church over the course of the last 40 years. And I am sure a considerable number of Marxist Priests have denied that Stalin murdered 30 million people, but no-one have taken any notice of that.
Sanctus Pius X, ora pro nobis!
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