How Have the Popes Treated the SSPX? (National Catholic Register): “As the Society of St. Pius X is again on the brink of schism, perhaps a more traditional approach from the Holy See would serve the universal Church — and the adherents of the SSPX — better.”
9 Qualities of an Intellectually Well-Formed Seminarian (Church Life Journal): “Intellectual formation is more than passing exams or making good grades; it is about forming the seminarian so that he can think with the mind of Christ and the mind of the Church.”
A Well-Ordered Society Rooted in Truth, Justice, and Peace (What We Need Now): “When these rights and responsibilities are lacking or ignored, the human family begins to live in discord, disharmony, chaos.”
the informational abyss gazes also (bad cattitude – Substack): “everyone likes a good ‘man bites dog’ inversion story, but sometimes the tales so told are reason for concern. this is one of those times.”
In the Footsteps of Dialogue: China and the Legacy of Matteo Ricci (Church Life Journal): “The enterprise of writing and publishing books about Ricci is prodigious. In fact, it is dizzying as scholars seem to trip over their pens, hoping to offer their own unique contribution to the now popular Ricci industry.”
Gates of Heaven (Charlotte Was Both – WordPress): “Tribal and insular, we condemn, judge and convict our fellow humans of not only being different, but of perhaps even being less human, less deserving of respect, much less love, than we are.”
Candid talk from senior cardinal on Pope Francis, Benedict XVI (Crux): “Cardinal Camillo Ruini thinks Benedict XVI’s resignation was a mistake. Ruini also found himself flummoxed by the Francis pontificate and unsure whether the reign of the late Argentinian pontiff will prove to have done more harm or good.”
Bishop Barron: AOC mocks Western culture — Marx would love that, but I find it chilling (Fox News): “Secretary Rubio lyrically invoked Dante, the Cologne Cathedral, Shakespeare, the democratic form of government, the university system — even the Beatles and the Rolling Stones — as representations of that common vision.”
Some Larger Way: Teaching What’s Real (The Catholic Thing): “I’m not exaggerating when I say that without educational institutions like this one, the days will rapidly grow even darker and more chaotic for both America and Christianity.”
Too busy (MarcusGrodi.com): “Is this Lenten season possibly the moment, maybe for the first time, that the Lord is inviting you to consider the truth of the Catholic Church? A Church that claims a direct historical connection — an apostolic succession — with the very Church established by Jesus in His hand-chosen Apostles.”
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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SSPX – unfortunately bringing it on themselves, I have to say.
***
1. There is a way for a VATICAN II magisteria to come into growth and fruition and this by the SSPX is not part of it and will not be it.
2. New illicit consecration would re-emplace prior loss of communion and no-one would be able to consecrate in the apostolic succession.
3. Any co-consecrating bishops would fall foul to 2.
4. SSPX is proving that Lefebvre’s resistance to aspects of VATICAN II was meant as unconditional and final; and he could not be rehabilitated.
5. We do not know what Rifan and Francis were trying to forge/re-forge. VATICAN II is not the only issue for the Church nor the singular universal vision and SSPX seems to wish to dominate both at any cost. It could be providential that Francis did not succeed with them!
***
As I’ve said, I always felt they and Lefebvre could be retrieved because I sensed there is a way; but to be fair to myself (and everyone else!), there is no imperative that I am right about that. Chapp has some well-balanced considerations of his own, second link below, The SSPX Rupture (“rupturing”) With Tradition, NC REGISTER.
‘ Thirty-eight years ago, on June 30, 1988, Archbishop Lefebvre carried out the “operation-survival” of Catholic Tradition by consecrating four auxiliary bishops for the Society of Saint Pius X. As noted above, two of these bishops are now dead – along with Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer (the co-consecrator).
What is not well known is that this is not the first episcopal consecration that has taken place within the SSPX since 1988. In 1991, soon after the first consecrations, three of the SSPX bishops consecrated Fr Licínio Rangel for the Catholic remnant in the Dioceses of Campos. Both the fourth bishop (Bishop Fellay), and the Superior General (Fr Schmidberger), were in attendance. It is unclear whether permission was sought from the Vatican for this consecration.
Bishop Rangel died in 2002, having come to an agreement with the Vatican in 2001.
[ pictured: The consecration of Bishop Rangel in 1991. All four bishops of the SSPX were present, along with Fr Schmidberger, the then Superior General.]
Rangel was succeeded, within those structures, by Fernando Arêas Rifan, whose consecration by Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos was rendered certainly valid by Rangel’s presence as co-consecrator. Although he was one of the most stalwart defenders of tradition under de Castro Mayer, and assisted him in 1988, Rifan was pictured concelebrating the Novus Ordo Mass with Francis at Casa Santa Marta.
This consecration almost seems to have been forgotten – although not by the priests whom Rangel himself ordained for the SSPX. It was not mentioned in the 2009 decree purporting to remit the alleged excommunications of the four bishops. It also seems to have been forgotten (or overlooked) in the SSPX’s statement on the occasion of Bishop Williamson’s consecration of Bishop Jean-Michel Faure in 2015, criticising the failure to obtain permission from the Vatican.
To our knowledge, the Vatican did not publicly respond to Williamson’s consecration of Faure – nor to that of the other men he raised to the episcopate following his expulsion from the SSPX. ‘
https://www.wmreview.org/p/breaking-sspx-episcopal-consecrations
https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/chapp-sspx-rupture
Pope Leo should exercise Christian charity toward SSPX. He ought to recognize them as a distinct Rite within the Church.
Larry Chapp’s article repeats the assertion that the SSPX “left the Church” with the 1988 consecrations and will “leave the Church” again with those in July. However, as Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos and Pope Benedict stated, they were never “out” of the Church. Whatever one thinks of these consecrations’ liceity, the SSPX remains “in” the Church, as does their insistence that the texts and the spirit of Vatican II need revisiting and need to be officially interpreted in the the light of the Church’s magisterium of all time. Unfortunately for those who find this difficult – they cannot “move on”. Life wasn’t meant to be easy!
Chapp will rhetorically opine without clarifying or noting fine distinctions. Yes, Archbishop LeFebvre incurred the punishment of excommunication; he carried that cross to his death. Yes, Pope JPII applied the same sentence to the four men LeFebvre consecrated without papal mandate. Did those bishops so consecrated LEAVE the Church? Rather, did the Church not EXCLUDE them? Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications from the four illicitly consecrated bishops. The Society has an illicit (canonically irregular) standing in the Church. Their sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, Confession, and Marriage are valid. Ordaining priests, consecrating bishops, and Confirming are valid but illicit, with Consecration exposing the participants to excommunication.
(Little mention is made of Krakow’s Archbishop Karol Wojtyla’s secretly ordaining priests without papal permission. He incurred no punishment or censure.)
meiron, you write: “(Little mention is made of Krakow’s Archbishop Karol Wojtyla’s secretly ordaining priests without papal permission.”
Did you mean consecrating bishops w/o papal permission?
Wojtyla did not consecrate bishops, but he did ordain priests.
Canon law requires papal permission to ordain as well as to consecrate. Wojtyla ordained priests without permission.
My earlier reply may not have been 100% clear or accurate. Based upon an article at OnePeter5 (quoting Weigel’s Witness to Hope), Wojtyla ordained priests against the Vatican’s Ostopolitik policy. That policy did not permit bishops in soviet-occupied/controlled nations to ordain priests for some period of time.
https://onepeterfive.com/clandestine-ordinations-against-church-law-lessons-from-cardinal-wojtyla-and-cardinal-slipyj/
Concerned counsel from Ruini about state leaderships:
https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2026/02/senior-italian-cardinals-remarks-may-be-valuable-advice-for-u-s-political-hopefuls