ELEISON COMMENTS DCCC (November 12, 2022) : 79 SEMINARIANS – III
Over the last two weeks these “Comments” have presented the apparent good news of a record number of new seminarians for the new school-year in the four major seminaries of the “Society of St Pius X”, but the “Comments” also wondered whether that good news is as real as it is apparent. For, just as Vatican II (1962-1965) officially replaced the true Catholic Church with the Conciliar Newchurch, centred on man instead of on God, so the Society’s General Chapter of 2012 officially replaced Archbishop Lefebvre’s true Society with an essentially different Newsociety. What remains to be proved is that what happened to the Society in 2012 was such a change as to cast some doubt upon the good news of 79 new priestly vocations.
Now praise be to God for so many young men still today having enough faith, courage and good will to be wanting to be traditional priests, and praise be to the Newsociety for maintaining enough of Catholic Tradition to attract these young men. However, in seminaries of the Newsociety under the control of the Archbishop’s successors, will they be learning what they would have learned while the Archbishop was still in control ? Surely not. And does it matter ? Surely it does. And in what does the difference consist ?
Prior to 2012, a principle laid down by the Archbishop was still the Society’s official policy towards Rome, namely, there can be no merely practical agreement between the SSPX and the Newchurch without there first being a doctrinal agreement, in other words Truth before Authority. On the contrary, because in 2012 any such doctrinal agreement seemed impossible, the General Chapter of that year laid down as principle that even without a doctrinal agreement, nevertheless a practical agreement with Rome would be possible and desirable, in other words friendliness with Authority even without Truth. Now in fairness to the Newsociety, this did not mean accepting either Vatican II (the theory of modernism) or the New Mass (its practice), so that the Newsociety cannot be accused of completely abandoning the Truth. But whereas the Archbishop had after 1988 cut all practical contact with the faithless modernists, on the contrary almost as soon as he died in 1991, his successors renewed those dangerous but supposedly harmless contacts (is there in fact anything more slippery or infectious than the heresy of modernism ?).
And whereas Archbishop Lefebvre crowned his long and illustrious career as a Catholic bishop by saving Catholic Tradition (Truth) for the entire Church, by consecrating four bishops to ensure the Society’s survival in 1988 against (Authority) the Pope’s express condemnation; and whereas Archbishop Vigano continues in his glorious footsteps by (Truth) denouncing clearly and in public the unutterable crimes of our present (Authority) Church and world leaders; on the contrary, the official Newsociety is silent or critical of Archbishop Vigano (Truth), but defers to apparent Authority, in the world concerning, for instance, the abominable Covid “vaccine”, and in the Church concerning Pope Bergoglio, because the Newsociety wants this notorious murderer of Catholic Tradition to give his official approval to its consecration of bishops for Tradition ! Did not Fr Schmidberger (SSPX Superior General from 1982 to 1994) recently tell a layman asking about bishops so needed for the SSPX that it is not consecrating any, because it is waiting for the green light from Pope Bergoglio ? And has the Newsociety anybody but itself to blame for having in 2012 driven the SSPX up this blind alley ! But is it aiming to produce 79 blind alley priests ?
Patience. In worldly terms, the basic problem is that Archbishop Lefebvre was an old wolf whereas his successors have been, relatively speaking, wolf cubs. He knew the old Faith and the old Church, as it is difficult for youngsters to know them, and he took the old doctrine seriously, knowing that Catholic Truth redeems the world. God is love, yes, but without Truth He cannot be the true God. “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth, hears my voice” (Jn. XVIII, 37). Seminarians, old or new, let us hear His voice !
Kyrie eleison
Have patience, many lies will soon be banished.
God’s wrath will see to it, that they have vanished.