SSPX: Provisional All-Clear

 

You will remember my corruptio optimi pessima blog post of only some days ago. The main issues there were the following: 

1. A bishop coming from outside and appointed from the Pope among a terna chosen by the SSPX
2. The possibility of this bishop to have sweeping powers concerning, inter alia, new admissions, with a huge danger of infiltration of V II elements. 
3. The ability of this bishop, which could be reasonably inferred from his extensive powers, to dispose of the assets as he sees fit, with the imaginable consequences. 

I had expressed, on that occasion, my hope that this turned out not to be so. Fortunately, it did turn out not to be so. 

Louie Verrecchio writes the following on his blog (emphasis mine): 

Just to make certain, I reached out to the District House of SSPX here in the U.S. for clarification and was informed that my understanding is correct; i.e., the terna – should it come to this – will not include anyone from outside of the Society.

Point 1. of the above is therefore out-of-the-way. There would be no infiltration even indirectly piloted from the Vatican. The breeze you’re noticing now is my sigh of relief. 

But what about points 2 and 3?

Here too, the excellent Mr Verrecchio comes to the rescue. 

I was cautioned to keep in mind that the proposed prelature, from the standpoint of the Society, is entirely contingent upon Rome accepting certain non-negotiable conditions; e.g., no doctrinal compromises will be made by the SSPX, and the Society must be entirely free to continue preaching and practicing as it always has.

Note the reference to “practicing”. If we read it together with the above we come back to what I touched upon in another post of mine, 

It appears the problem of who controls what, and what the powers of the Vatican after a possible “reconciliation” will be, has been recognised by the SSPX and is being dealt with accordingly: we do not trust you and we want to have total autonomy just as before, is the message. I read this yesterday, and it truly made my day.

In consideration of all this, I think it is fair to give a (provisional) all-clear. There will be other occasions to be worried, but sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Two (or four) words of conclusion. Why, some would ask, has your humble correspondent shot with the Great Bertha at the first sign of danger?

For the following reasons:

1. The words in themselves were alarming. The fact that it turned out that the words were actually wrong does not mean the alarm was not justified. The very words were there. 
2. This was compounded by other very alarming statements of the bishop: “[Francis] wants the good of tradition, he wants tradition to […] spread in the Church”. Really? This can be dismissed as some form of not very clever diplomacy now, but it could not be dismissed so easily then. It frankly had the smell of betrayal. 
3. The SSPX is the greatest bastion of Catholic orthodoxy remained. It is the beacon that will – God willing – lead a perverted Vatican back to the path of virtue. And Satan is obviously working against it. Allow me to take every signal that the smoke of Satan might be entering it extremely seriously, and to sound the alarm as loud as I can.
4. This blog has always believed reality must be seen as it is, instead of fabricating a parallel world to accommodate our illusions. If I see that the SSPX might be giving up, how many times I have said they will never do so it’s irrelevant. If I smell betrayal, I will tell you so. It does not matter how dear the SSPX is to me or to you. Truth first. 

Well, this is it then. You can sleep at night again.

For now. 

M