The SSPX Debate Rages On Tiresomely

Over at Damian Thompson's blog the debate on the lifting of the excommunication of the SSPX bishops rages on tiresomely. It is tiresome because the Holy Father has made his decision to lift the excommunication and that is that. The fact that one of this schismatic group of SSPX Bishops is a holocaust sceptic/denier is embarrassingly bad press, but then, didn't Our Lord have a habit of embracing the outcast and confounding people's expectations of how He would treat people?

This was one of the themes of Fr Ray Blake's homily last night at the very inspiring and transcendant Mass in the Extraordinary Form at St Mary Magdalen's Church on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

I, for my part, have put my two pennies worth into the debate on Damian's blog. What really annoys me is the fact that even though the Holy Father is extending the hand of friendship he is being castigated. Even though the Holy Father, in the eyes of God, is the humble peacemaker, he is derided as welcoming an anti-semitic. Even though the Holy Father is seeking unity for the Church, he is accused of spreading division. What also really annoys me is that there are so many Catholics on DT's Telegraph blog who time and time again attack the Holy Father, Holy Mother Church and the Magisterium, wishing really, to make the Church in THEIR own image, rather than What She Is, i.e. One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. Since when has it been acceptable for Catholics to deride His Holiness, question and deny Church teaching repetitively and hold views on many subjects which are patently heretical and in direct opposition to the Gospel?

Here's my two pennies worth on the SSPX Debate...

The private views held by SSPX are not really matters of our concern when it comes to bringing souls into communion with the Holy See. What is more important? That Williamson and any other Bishops who have dodgy views are locked outside of the Ark of Salvation (The Church) or that they are invited in so that they may still have hope of God's Salvation?

The Holy Father is a true Shepherd because he doesn't want to see men and women left outside the Church, even, yes even if they are reactionaries! If the One True Church still has a place for woolly liberals who patently don't believe even in the Magisterium of Holy Mother Church, who don't believe in Papal Supremacy and the Apostolic Succession afforded to the successor of St Peter and the Apostles, who disobediently question, villify and even try to smear the character of the Holy Father, then it has room for troublesome reactionaries with distorted views of history!

Bishop Fellay slapped down Williamson for his anti-semitic comments. If you went through the entire Church from Laity, Priest, Clergy, Bishop or even Pope with a bizarre personal viewpoint comb, you might discover many, many strange and weird political, historical and social views.

But this isn't what Church unity is about! The Holy Father is looking for an end to unnecessary schism. What concerns him is not what the World thinks of his Pontificate, but what Our Lord thinks of his Pontificate!

We know that Christ prayed the Church may be One and Holy! We know through the private revelations of St Faustina that it breaks Our Lord's heart to see the Church separated and divided! The Holy Father is doing the Will of God, and in the face of the World, the Holy Will of God will always be a huge sign of contradicion!

Have people forgotten exactly what it means to incur excommunication? If there were hope of someone's excommunication being lifted and in doing so, they come back to the True Faith, is that not something to rejoice over? Ultimately, people who do not want to see healing between the SSPX and Holy Mother Church reveal more about their lack of generosity than about the malevolence of the renegade Bishops. For they would rather see the souls of the erring damned, than see them saved!

At a time when the vast majority of Bishops of England and Wales fail even to preach the Gospel, follow the Magisterium, or show obedience to the Holy Father, leaving half of us wondering if they believe in anything at all, the fact that a group of maverick Bishops are reactionary old codgers seeking reconciliation with Rome, is at least something to be welcomed - regardless of whether one of them is patently a nutty old right winger!

Some people are starting to worry about the Holy Father's health. I'm not surprised, the poor man is bending over backwards! He's trying to accommodate the erring and those who have strayed, seeking reconciliation and unification with the See of St Andrew in the East, seeking reconciliation with the SSPX even though they're stubborn as mules and even offering a special prelature to Anglican clergy who wish to come over to Rome! Its bound to take its toll somehow and at some point people are bound to shocked by his sacrificial generosity...in all this what is the Holy Father sacrificing? He is sacrificing his and the Church's pride in order to show forth the generosity and love of Christ!