10-31-2022, 06:37 AM
The Recusant #59 - Editorial:
“There are a number of decent priests still operating as decent priests inside the Novus Ordo. ... I think that for a Catholic like yourself who is looking for the truth…if you look somewhere in your area within reach of your car’s petrol tank, your gasoline tank, you will find, somewhere, you will find a decent Novus Ordo priest. … I believe there are some who do understand it and who still want to practice as good priests. Now, they’re forced to celebrate the New Mass. But I think if you look around you enough and long enough and carefully enough, you will even find young Novus Ordo priests saying the old Mass.”
Dear Reader,
There can be little doubt that the old SSPX and Archbishop Lefebvre would have warned people to stay away from the present-day SSPX, and that they
would have done so using the same language which they used to describe the Indult / Ecclesia Dei priests. They are traitors. They are betraying us. They are shaking hands with those who hold liberal and modernist ideas condemned by the Church. They are shaking hands with the ones who are destroying the Church. People say that we have to be kind to them, that we have to be charitable, after all they say the Traditional Mass, they aren’t as bad as all that, are they? But they’re doing the work of the devil! They are no longer working for the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation of souls. One cannot shake hands with the modernists and at the same time try to defend Tradition. They have accepted the lawfulness and legitimacy of the New Mass and they constantly seek to ingratiate themselves with the modernist bishops and Pope Francis, praising them for the least sign of Catholic spirit. In attempting to restore the Traditional Mass without considering the historical context of the crisis of the Faith, in practice they have abandoned the fight against the new religion which is being installed. Availing ourselves of their Masses means putting ourselves in a state of contradiction. They are Conciliar Catholics, not Traditional Catholics, which is why we ought not to attend their Masses.
All of the above is what used to be said of the Ecclesia Dei / Indult Mass ‘Traditionalists’ (the Fraternity of St. Peter, Le Barroux monastery, et al.) by Archbishop Lefebvre and the old SSPX, and not so very long ago either. Today, the SSPX itself fits that description like a glove. Back then, the faithful were told by the SSPX that they shouldn’t go to the Indult Mass. Today, is it such a stretch to say that we shouldn’t go to the SSPX for Mass?
Furthermore, consider the following. In the years 1988 - 1991, when Archbishop Lefebvre condemned the Fraternity of St. Peter and Le Barroux as being “traitors,” “shaking hands with the modernists” and “doing the work of the devil” he was talking about priests who confidently boasted that they were able to use the Tridentine Missal exclusively.
Furthermore, there was no question of the validity of their holy orders: these original priests had been ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre himself. Even in the 1990s, when priests started appearing who had been ordained with the approval of modern Rome, it was usually by bishops who had themselves been consecrated before the changes, men such as Cardinal Palazzini or Cardinal Oddi. The same is true of the typical diocesan ‘Indult’ Mass of the period. In the late 1980s and early ’90s many of the diocesan priests offering the Indult Mass had been trained and ordained prior to the changes.
More than thirty years have passed since then. Today, the Indult / Motu Proprio priest is a different creature altogether. He is a priest ordained by bishops who are themselves the product of the doubtful Novus Ordo rite of episcopal consecrations. His seminary formation was at best a mixture of Tradition and Vatican II. His ‘permission’ to use the Tridentine Missal exclusively has long been a thing of the past, and in all likelihood he is a priest who offers both, even if he prefers one over the other. Since the end Archbishop Lefebvre’s life the ‘Indult-sphere’ has slid quite a bit further into conciliarism. For a rather alarming real-life example, take the unfortunate case of FSSP priest Fr James Mawdsley, who ‘preaches’ on
youtube (here) that two thirds of humanity make it to heaven, aborted babies go to heaven and that Limbo is only “a theory” which you are free to believe in or reject as you wish (he clearly rejects it). This is what many people today regard as a “Traditional” priest. Terrifying.
And if the Indult priests have slid, who today occupies the space which they once occupied? Who are the modern equivalent of those 1988 “traitors” (certainly valid ordinations, exclusive Tridentine Mass, reluctance to condemn the current Pope, constantly trying to be friendly to the local Novus Ordo bishop and praise him for the least sign of anything Catholic)..? Is that not the modern SSPX? Surely then it is not unreasonable to apply the condemnations of Archbishop Lefebvre and the old SSPX to the present-day SSPX, who have more in common with the Fraternity of St. Peter of 30 years ago than they do with the SSPX of thirty years ago.
Growing Confusion
And yet you might be amazed how much difficulty some people seem to have in grasping this, however obvious it may seem to you or I. Not so very long ago, a former friend from the SSPX wrote to me concerning the Resistance as though we were some sort of bizarre cult, like the ‘Church of Scientology’ or the Moonies and accusing every one of us of living in a perpetual state of mortal sin because we are “deliberately missing Mass on Sunday.” What’s
more, the ‘approved’ Indult / Motu Proprio Masses are included among those which we are in sin for “deliberately missing.” This gentleman has been supporting the SSPX for some thirty-odd years and has sons who are now priests, so I don’t think we can put it down to the innocent naivety of someone who is new to Tradition and doesn’t quite get it yet.
Nor is this growth in muddled thinking confined to the SSPX. Over here in England, the worshippers of Bishop Williamson say the same thing to anyone who’ll listen - namely that we are living in sin because we don’t attend whatever Mass happens to be nearby (be it Fake Resistance, SSPX, Indult… Novus Ordo too, I gather?). Because, you see, it’s a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday, as any fule kno, chiz chiz. Among these poor confused people are, I gather, at least one or two who used to attend the Resistance holy hour, for a least a couple of years, back in 2013 and 2014, so they did used to understand. And yet now they don’t. And presumably that must mean that they now condemn the behaviour of their former selves, shrouded in darkness and ignorance as they once were, until along came Bishop Williamson like an angel of light to free them from the intellectual shackles and hypnotism placed on them by the wicked, scheming Pfeifferites, er, I mean Hewko-ites, dispelling the gloomy clouds of ignorance from their minds, and bestowing upon them the spiritual enlightenment that each Sunday, come what may, you should just go to whatever Mass happens to be nearby and that you ought not to trouble yourself too much about which one as long as it isn’t too far from where you live. Any old Mass will do, even one which offends Almighty God. Have I got that right? Hmm. Somehow that just doesn’t seem right to me...
In the SSPX and among the Williamson Worshippers, the signs are not encouraging. When people who once saw clearly now see less clearly; when those who once made sacrifices now claim they no longer need to and even make a virtue out of not doing so; when important distinctions which used to be clearly understood are now replaced by one big blanket statement about ‘mortal sin’; when the question of what is pleasing to God becomes the question of what is convenient for me... There’s a word for that. It is what one calls a decline. Things are going backwards, they are getting worse, they are sliding downhill. They can’t see it themselves, because they are the ones sliding; to those of us on the outside, it is quite plain. But God has not changed. His teaching has not changed. And therefore the right way to act has not changed either. If in the 1990s it was wrong for us to attend the Indult Mass and right to stay away, even when there was no SSPX Mass nearby, then how has it become right to attend the Indult Mass in 2022 and “mortal sin” to stay away? How can it be right for Bishop Williamson to tell Traditional Catholics that they can get grace from going to the New Mass and recommend would-be Traditional Catholics to find whatever “decent” Novus Ordo priests lives near them, unless Archbishop Lefebvre was wrong to tell people to avoid it at all costs, even if it was the only Mass available in the whole country, and wrong to tell people to behave instead like the Catholics in the Amazon rainforest missions, saying the rosary and reading the missal on Sunday rather than risk having anything to do with the New Mass..? They can’t both be right. If one is right, the other has to be wrong.
It’s obvious. And yet fewer and fewer people can see what ought to be plain as the nose on your face. If it displeases God - no, if you even think it displeasing to God - then you don’t do it. If the end does not justify the means, if we cannot do evil that good may come of it, is it acceptable behaviour for Catholics to make compromises with the modernist enemy in order to gain access to the sacraments more often? Perhaps someone can enlighten me as to what it is I’m missing and where I’m going wrong?
In the meantime, we will keep praying and sacrificing for the restoration of the Church.
- The Editor
“There are a number of decent priests still operating as decent priests inside the Novus Ordo. ... I think that for a Catholic like yourself who is looking for the truth…if you look somewhere in your area within reach of your car’s petrol tank, your gasoline tank, you will find, somewhere, you will find a decent Novus Ordo priest. … I believe there are some who do understand it and who still want to practice as good priests. Now, they’re forced to celebrate the New Mass. But I think if you look around you enough and long enough and carefully enough, you will even find young Novus Ordo priests saying the old Mass.”
- Bishop Williamson, 4th August, 2022
Dear Reader,
There can be little doubt that the old SSPX and Archbishop Lefebvre would have warned people to stay away from the present-day SSPX, and that they
would have done so using the same language which they used to describe the Indult / Ecclesia Dei priests. They are traitors. They are betraying us. They are shaking hands with those who hold liberal and modernist ideas condemned by the Church. They are shaking hands with the ones who are destroying the Church. People say that we have to be kind to them, that we have to be charitable, after all they say the Traditional Mass, they aren’t as bad as all that, are they? But they’re doing the work of the devil! They are no longer working for the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation of souls. One cannot shake hands with the modernists and at the same time try to defend Tradition. They have accepted the lawfulness and legitimacy of the New Mass and they constantly seek to ingratiate themselves with the modernist bishops and Pope Francis, praising them for the least sign of Catholic spirit. In attempting to restore the Traditional Mass without considering the historical context of the crisis of the Faith, in practice they have abandoned the fight against the new religion which is being installed. Availing ourselves of their Masses means putting ourselves in a state of contradiction. They are Conciliar Catholics, not Traditional Catholics, which is why we ought not to attend their Masses.
All of the above is what used to be said of the Ecclesia Dei / Indult Mass ‘Traditionalists’ (the Fraternity of St. Peter, Le Barroux monastery, et al.) by Archbishop Lefebvre and the old SSPX, and not so very long ago either. Today, the SSPX itself fits that description like a glove. Back then, the faithful were told by the SSPX that they shouldn’t go to the Indult Mass. Today, is it such a stretch to say that we shouldn’t go to the SSPX for Mass?
Furthermore, consider the following. In the years 1988 - 1991, when Archbishop Lefebvre condemned the Fraternity of St. Peter and Le Barroux as being “traitors,” “shaking hands with the modernists” and “doing the work of the devil” he was talking about priests who confidently boasted that they were able to use the Tridentine Missal exclusively.
Furthermore, there was no question of the validity of their holy orders: these original priests had been ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre himself. Even in the 1990s, when priests started appearing who had been ordained with the approval of modern Rome, it was usually by bishops who had themselves been consecrated before the changes, men such as Cardinal Palazzini or Cardinal Oddi. The same is true of the typical diocesan ‘Indult’ Mass of the period. In the late 1980s and early ’90s many of the diocesan priests offering the Indult Mass had been trained and ordained prior to the changes.
More than thirty years have passed since then. Today, the Indult / Motu Proprio priest is a different creature altogether. He is a priest ordained by bishops who are themselves the product of the doubtful Novus Ordo rite of episcopal consecrations. His seminary formation was at best a mixture of Tradition and Vatican II. His ‘permission’ to use the Tridentine Missal exclusively has long been a thing of the past, and in all likelihood he is a priest who offers both, even if he prefers one over the other. Since the end Archbishop Lefebvre’s life the ‘Indult-sphere’ has slid quite a bit further into conciliarism. For a rather alarming real-life example, take the unfortunate case of FSSP priest Fr James Mawdsley, who ‘preaches’ on
youtube (here) that two thirds of humanity make it to heaven, aborted babies go to heaven and that Limbo is only “a theory” which you are free to believe in or reject as you wish (he clearly rejects it). This is what many people today regard as a “Traditional” priest. Terrifying.
And if the Indult priests have slid, who today occupies the space which they once occupied? Who are the modern equivalent of those 1988 “traitors” (certainly valid ordinations, exclusive Tridentine Mass, reluctance to condemn the current Pope, constantly trying to be friendly to the local Novus Ordo bishop and praise him for the least sign of anything Catholic)..? Is that not the modern SSPX? Surely then it is not unreasonable to apply the condemnations of Archbishop Lefebvre and the old SSPX to the present-day SSPX, who have more in common with the Fraternity of St. Peter of 30 years ago than they do with the SSPX of thirty years ago.
Growing Confusion
And yet you might be amazed how much difficulty some people seem to have in grasping this, however obvious it may seem to you or I. Not so very long ago, a former friend from the SSPX wrote to me concerning the Resistance as though we were some sort of bizarre cult, like the ‘Church of Scientology’ or the Moonies and accusing every one of us of living in a perpetual state of mortal sin because we are “deliberately missing Mass on Sunday.” What’s
more, the ‘approved’ Indult / Motu Proprio Masses are included among those which we are in sin for “deliberately missing.” This gentleman has been supporting the SSPX for some thirty-odd years and has sons who are now priests, so I don’t think we can put it down to the innocent naivety of someone who is new to Tradition and doesn’t quite get it yet.
Nor is this growth in muddled thinking confined to the SSPX. Over here in England, the worshippers of Bishop Williamson say the same thing to anyone who’ll listen - namely that we are living in sin because we don’t attend whatever Mass happens to be nearby (be it Fake Resistance, SSPX, Indult… Novus Ordo too, I gather?). Because, you see, it’s a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday, as any fule kno, chiz chiz. Among these poor confused people are, I gather, at least one or two who used to attend the Resistance holy hour, for a least a couple of years, back in 2013 and 2014, so they did used to understand. And yet now they don’t. And presumably that must mean that they now condemn the behaviour of their former selves, shrouded in darkness and ignorance as they once were, until along came Bishop Williamson like an angel of light to free them from the intellectual shackles and hypnotism placed on them by the wicked, scheming Pfeifferites, er, I mean Hewko-ites, dispelling the gloomy clouds of ignorance from their minds, and bestowing upon them the spiritual enlightenment that each Sunday, come what may, you should just go to whatever Mass happens to be nearby and that you ought not to trouble yourself too much about which one as long as it isn’t too far from where you live. Any old Mass will do, even one which offends Almighty God. Have I got that right? Hmm. Somehow that just doesn’t seem right to me...
In the SSPX and among the Williamson Worshippers, the signs are not encouraging. When people who once saw clearly now see less clearly; when those who once made sacrifices now claim they no longer need to and even make a virtue out of not doing so; when important distinctions which used to be clearly understood are now replaced by one big blanket statement about ‘mortal sin’; when the question of what is pleasing to God becomes the question of what is convenient for me... There’s a word for that. It is what one calls a decline. Things are going backwards, they are getting worse, they are sliding downhill. They can’t see it themselves, because they are the ones sliding; to those of us on the outside, it is quite plain. But God has not changed. His teaching has not changed. And therefore the right way to act has not changed either. If in the 1990s it was wrong for us to attend the Indult Mass and right to stay away, even when there was no SSPX Mass nearby, then how has it become right to attend the Indult Mass in 2022 and “mortal sin” to stay away? How can it be right for Bishop Williamson to tell Traditional Catholics that they can get grace from going to the New Mass and recommend would-be Traditional Catholics to find whatever “decent” Novus Ordo priests lives near them, unless Archbishop Lefebvre was wrong to tell people to avoid it at all costs, even if it was the only Mass available in the whole country, and wrong to tell people to behave instead like the Catholics in the Amazon rainforest missions, saying the rosary and reading the missal on Sunday rather than risk having anything to do with the New Mass..? They can’t both be right. If one is right, the other has to be wrong.
It’s obvious. And yet fewer and fewer people can see what ought to be plain as the nose on your face. If it displeases God - no, if you even think it displeasing to God - then you don’t do it. If the end does not justify the means, if we cannot do evil that good may come of it, is it acceptable behaviour for Catholics to make compromises with the modernist enemy in order to gain access to the sacraments more often? Perhaps someone can enlighten me as to what it is I’m missing and where I’m going wrong?
In the meantime, we will keep praying and sacrificing for the restoration of the Church.
- The Editor
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre