In fact the SSPX is not schismatic and so the authorities of the Church have never formally pronounced them to be so. We as lay people cannot declare things which the Church has not.
True, their consecration of Bishops without mandate was described as a "schismatic act" but they did that not to separate themselves from the Church, …
In fact the SSPX is not schismatic and so the authorities of the Church have never formally pronounced them to be so. We as lay people cannot declare things which the Church has not.
True, their consecration of Bishops without mandate was described as a "schismatic act" but they did that not to separate themselves from the Church, but because they consider the Church to be in a state of emergency - a contingency which Canon law allows for.
(I share the view that the Church is in a state of emergency.)
I respect your view on the traditional Mass - and of course your own liturgical preference. Your view makes sense to me.
However, when I attended the novus ordo liturgy, for the most part I did not even know what the consecration and offertory were. I only learned about these concepts from tradition.
Tradition is also what taught me what the Mass is, how to pray the rosary, about Fatima, and essentially everything I know about the Catholic faith.
Modern Catholicism taught me that everyone is nice and that the Jews and Protestants are brilliant. (seriously, that was it). I left school knowing more about Bar Mitzvahs than Catholic Sacraments. To this day, I know words and phrases in Hebrew - I cant think why!?! As a child, I thought the Mass was a kind of mediocre get-together for elderly ladies.
Ultimately, the only reason the SSPX exists is because many in the hierarchy are abusive authorities who bully and abuse Catholics who prefer a traditional approach.
My 3 small daughters and I (along with an entire healthy congregation) were recently expelled from our Parish Church because our Bishop does not like the traditional Mass and lacked the Christian charity to allow us to continue in peace.
He aims us to force us to attend modern liturgies. However, as a parent charged with passing on the faith to my children, I cannot do that in good conscience because - in my experience in my own diocese- the modern Mass retains very few people and those whom it does retain are often very superficial Catholics.
The situation might be different elsewhere, but that what we are dealing with here. I have to make decisions based on what I think will maximum the chance of my daughters practising the faith.
We - and many others - wanted to attend a Mass provided by the Diocese, but the Diocese itself prevents us from doing so. And so all of those people (and their donations) now go to the SSPX.
We obviously have extremely different experiences. The members of my parish are extremely faithfilled. We have a booming Catholic school with which our pastor is heavily involved, but of course this being Indiana most grade school and high school students are publicly funded wherever they go to school. A recent Crisis magazine article listed our diocese as one of the ten best for migrating to if one wants to move to protect one's faith, so there's that as well.
Hi Sue,
In fact the SSPX is not schismatic and so the authorities of the Church have never formally pronounced them to be so. We as lay people cannot declare things which the Church has not.
True, their consecration of Bishops without mandate was described as a "schismatic act" but they did that not to separate themselves from the Church, but because they consider the Church to be in a state of emergency - a contingency which Canon law allows for.
(I share the view that the Church is in a state of emergency.)
I respect your view on the traditional Mass - and of course your own liturgical preference. Your view makes sense to me.
However, when I attended the novus ordo liturgy, for the most part I did not even know what the consecration and offertory were. I only learned about these concepts from tradition.
Tradition is also what taught me what the Mass is, how to pray the rosary, about Fatima, and essentially everything I know about the Catholic faith.
Modern Catholicism taught me that everyone is nice and that the Jews and Protestants are brilliant. (seriously, that was it). I left school knowing more about Bar Mitzvahs than Catholic Sacraments. To this day, I know words and phrases in Hebrew - I cant think why!?! As a child, I thought the Mass was a kind of mediocre get-together for elderly ladies.
Ultimately, the only reason the SSPX exists is because many in the hierarchy are abusive authorities who bully and abuse Catholics who prefer a traditional approach.
My 3 small daughters and I (along with an entire healthy congregation) were recently expelled from our Parish Church because our Bishop does not like the traditional Mass and lacked the Christian charity to allow us to continue in peace.
He aims us to force us to attend modern liturgies. However, as a parent charged with passing on the faith to my children, I cannot do that in good conscience because - in my experience in my own diocese- the modern Mass retains very few people and those whom it does retain are often very superficial Catholics.
The situation might be different elsewhere, but that what we are dealing with here. I have to make decisions based on what I think will maximum the chance of my daughters practising the faith.
We - and many others - wanted to attend a Mass provided by the Diocese, but the Diocese itself prevents us from doing so. And so all of those people (and their donations) now go to the SSPX.
Its all so sad and needless.
We obviously have extremely different experiences. The members of my parish are extremely faithfilled. We have a booming Catholic school with which our pastor is heavily involved, but of course this being Indiana most grade school and high school students are publicly funded wherever they go to school. A recent Crisis magazine article listed our diocese as one of the ten best for migrating to if one wants to move to protect one's faith, so there's that as well.