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1. On whose terms will the Society be reconciled? It clearly seems to be on their own, rather than those of Christ and the Gospel, or the Church whose Tradition they claim to uphold. Whatever happened to the perennial virtue of obedience?

   Posted By: Br Ruben Martello FSF

2. Quite. Let 'em go stew in their own schismatic juice.

   Posted By: JR,Sydney

3. Other commentary suggests that Fr Pfluger is not speaking as the 'competenet authoritiy'. At any rate, the SSPX and Roman officials have engaged in a serious round of discussions and it is to be hoped that common ground will be found. Indeed this dialogue may provide some clarity about what is and isn't de fide from the 2nd Vatican Council. As a layman reading its texts in comparison with other ecumeical councils it provides very little clarity.

   Posted By: Peter in Canberra

4. JR, it seems to me there are those who operate within the church who are materially more schismatic than the SSPX yet they escape sanction. Those who constantly agitate for women's ordination spring immediately to mind.

   Posted By: Peter in Canberra

5. Why does the Vatican bother with the backward looking SSPX?

   Posted By: Kenneth Mortimer

6. Yeah, right, Peter. 50 years ago no-one would have imagined women on the altar, and the roof hasn't fallen in, despite what you might intimate. There's more to the story than that dreary old chestnut of OoW. Lord preserve us from the like of the SSPX.

   Posted By: JR,Sydney

7. Kenneth, it's all about appearances. It seems that there are some in the Vatican who think that anyone who is into all that exclusivist Triddie stuff and which promotes the siege mentality has to be OK. Certainly the SSPX ( and remember the members are all clergy) seem to be good at getting their followers to pray, pay and obey.

   Posted By: JR,Sydney

8. My reading of the SSPX's available official documentation explains that its sole reason for existing is the preservation of the Catholic Priesthood according to its concept of same. I hardly think that that is worthy cause on its own. What about the love of the God's people and all that that requires in a world such as we have?

   Posted By: Thomas James

9. Others not affiliated with the SSPX are also beginning to question the issues of Vatican II, such as Msgr Bruno Gherardini, who has just published two books on the subject. So it is not just the SSPX (which not schismatic, by the way) that is questioning the Council.

   Posted By: Louis Tofari

10. Peter of Canberra: Maybe the ornate and delusional SSPX are actually doing you and everyone else a huge favour. It seems that they are demanding that the Vatican table a list of core, 'de fide', beliefs in an effort to identify what is legitimately negotiable and what is not.
    This demand is reasonable and timely as it will reveal just how few in fact are the absolutely essential doctrines at the heart of the Catholic belief system.
    I think, Peter, that to your utter disgust and disappointment that 'Ordinatio Sacerdotalis' does not come under the category of core, dogamatic, 'de fide' essentialism. It is not and cannot be so.
    As for the conversation going on between the Vatican and the SSPX, I don't think the latter will move at all as they have grounded their very identity in a very narrow, reactive, counter Reformation Catholicism which is fixed and unbending.
    In effect, they have linked their identity and raison d'etre with what has become unwittingly for them an ideology sine qua non. Sadly, their attitude seems to have close parallels with some of the trendy trad latinist groups who find their solace in an elite, exclusivist liturgical sacerdotalism.
    This latter Catholic coalition is the one which shares the most common ground with the SSPX. They trace their origins back the arcane rites of Mithras.

    Posted By: David Timbs

11. Br Ruben: Just from observation on this website, obedience is in pretty short supply in the post-conciliar Church too.
    How much weeping and gnashing of teeth has there been over the new translation of the Missal?
    How many openly disobey the Church's teaching on contraception, abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, women priests, or even just the need for weekly Mass attendance?
    The troubles that the Church in Austria are experiencing at the moment is a prime example of this.
    How many Bishops will go into open revolt if the Pope and the SSPX do reach an agreement? Obedience? I think the SSPX is the least of your problems.

    Posted By: Adam Armstrong

12. Well said, Peter of Canberra. The church is in crisis, heresies abound, disobedience to the Pope is rife and the SSPX are the bad guys because they want to uphold Catholic tradition.
    That is, they want Catholics to be Catholics.
    There are a lot of things currently happening in the modern church more worthy of excommunication than the SSPX.

    Posted By: Noel

13. But is SSPX Catholic?

    Posted By: Charles

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