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Holy
Cross Seminary
Most
Asked Questions About the Society of Saint Pius X
Question
13: What are we to think of the
Fraternity of Saint Peter?
Since
the introduction of the new sacramental rites, Rome had allowed
no Society or Congregation exclusive use of the older rites. Then
on June 30, 1988, Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops to
ensure the survival of the traditional priesthood and sacraments,
and especially of the traditional Latin Mass. Suddenly, within two
days, Pope John Paul II recognized1
the "right-fill aspirations" (for these things) of those
who wouldn't support Archbishop Lefebvre's stance, and offered to
give to them what he had always refused the Archbishop. A dozen
or so priests of the Society of Saint Pius X accepted this "good
will" and broke away to found the Society of Saint Peter.
The
Society of Saint Peter is founded upon more than questionable principles,
for the following reasons:
(i) It
accepts that the conciliar Church has the power:
- to take
away the Mass of all time (for the Novus Ordo Missaeis not
another form of this, QUESTION
11 1°),
- to grant
it to those only who accept the same conciliar Church's novel
orientations (in life, belief, structures),
- to declare
non-Catholic those who deny this by word or deed,2
and,
- to professes
itself in a certain way in communion with anyone calling himself
"Christian," and yet to declare itself out of communion
with Catholics whose sole crime is wanting to remain Catholic.3
(ii)
In practice, the priests of the Society of Saint Peter, having recourse
to a Novus Ordo bishop willing to permit the traditional
rites and willing to ordain their candidates, they are forced to
abandon the fight against the new religion which is being installed:
-
they reject
the Novus Ordo Missae only because it is not their "spirituality"
and claim the traditional Latin Mass only in virtue of their
"charism" acknowledged them by the Pope,
-
they seek
to ingratiate themselves with the local bishops, praising them
for the least sign of Catholic spirit and keeping quiet on their modernist deviations,4 even
though by doing so they end up encouraging them along their
wrong path, and
-
note, for
example, the Society of Saint Peter's wholehearted acceptance
of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (QUESTION
14),acceptance of Novus Ordo professors
in their seminaries, and blanket acceptance of Vatican Us orthodoxy
(QUESTION
6).
They are therefore
conciliar Catholics and not traditional Catholics.
This being so,
attending their Mass is:
- accepting
the compromise on which they are based,
- accepting
the direction taken by the conciliar Church and the consequent
destruction of the Catholic Faith and practices, and
- accepting,
in particular, the lawfulness and doctrinal soundness of the
Novus Ordo Missae and Vatican II.
That is why
a Catholic ought not to attend their Masses.
1.
Ecclesia Dei Afflicta, July 2, 1988
2.
An interpretation of "Everyone should be aware that formal
adherence to the schism (of Archbishop Lefebvre) is a grave offense
against God and carries the penalty of excommunication" Ecclesia
DeiAfflicta.
3.
Vatican II, e.g., Lumen Gentium, §15; Unitatis Redintegratio
§3.
4.
Unless perhaps it is a question of a diocese where they have no
hopes of starting up.
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