SSPX: Right Diagnosis, Wrong Cure

What the SSPX gets right about the crisis in the Church and where it mistakes fidelity for separation

I am still working my way through the repercussions of the recent announcement by the SSPX that they will consecrate new bishops this year with or without the Pope’s agreement. The consequence of this action is automatic excommunication for the consecrator and the one being consecrated. The justification from the SSPX is that there is an existential crisis in the Church which justifies this act of disobedience. Talks are ongoing between the Vatican and the SSPX and we should all pray that an agreement is reached.

The crisis diagnosed by the Priestly Society of St Pius X is not imaginary. It is not a rhetorical invention, nor merely the product of wounded sensibilities or aesthetic preference. A dramatic collapse in belief, a weakening of sacramental reverence, the evaporation of vocations in many parts of the world, moral confusion among clergy and an aggressive marginalisation of inherited liturgical forms are real phenomena. They are measurable, visible, and painful. Any Catholic who denies this, or who dismisses it as nostalgia or reactionary anxiety, is simply not being honest.

Nor is it difficult to see why Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre believed he was acting in a case of necessity when this happened before back in 1988. He looked upon a Church that seemed increasingly embarrassed by her own doctrinal clarity, fascinated by the approval of the modern world, and prepared to relativise her unique claims in the name of dialogue. The Assisi meetings, the rhetoric surrounding religious pluralism, the pastoral handling of dissent, and the widespread implementation of liturgical reform in a manner that often appeared iconoclastic and coercive all contributed to a sense that something essential was being lost. That concern did not disappear with his death. It has intensified for many Catholics in the decades since.

It is therefore neither just nor prudent to caricature the SSPX as irrational malcontents or enemies of the Church. Their critique arises from a genuine love of Catholic tradition and a desire to preserve what they believe is being eroded. I find it hard to understand why any Catholic of good will wood have a problem with that. Many of their priests live lives of sacrifice and discipline. Many of their faithful display seriousness about prayer, family life, and doctrinal formation that is undeniably lacking in large parts of the contemporary Church. These facts must be acknowledged plainly if any conversation is to be conducted in truth.