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| Archbishop Viganò: Homily on the Ascension of the Lord |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-03-2025, 06:57 AM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Modicum et jam non videbitis me,
et iterum modicum et videbitis me,
quia vado ad Patrem.
John 16:16
During the singing of the Gospel we have just witnessed the Paschal Candle being extinguished, symbolizing the Ascension of Christ to the Father, Forty Days after the Resurrection. Some paintings represent the scene of the Ascension showing us the Apostles looking upwards, where sometimes we see the entire figure of the Lord and sometimes only His feet; in others, it is as if we saw what the Lord saw as He ascended, that is, his own feet and further down the absorbed faces of the Apostles. They are two different perspectives of the same scene, and it is precisely on this different perspective that I would like to pause with you as we meditate about the Mystery of the Ascension.
The reason why I believe that a meditation on this theme can be spiritually useful is that all reality, in the Immutable Eternity of God and in the frenetic becoming of time, reveals the Divine Order that unites the Creator Father to creatures, the Redeemer Son to those redeemed, and the Sanctifying Spirit to sanctified believers. And this wonderful intertwining between supernatural and earthly things, between spirit and body, has been definitively established by the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, who in Our Lord Jesus Christ sees the human nature and the divine nature united in the fulfillment of the Redemption. Christ the Man intercedes for sinful men, Christ God offers Himself to the Father to infinitely repair the infinite offenses against the infinite Majesty of God. We cannot conceive of Redemption without Incarnation, nor Incarnation without Charity towards God and towards our neighbor. And it is this perfection of our Holy Religion that shows it indubitably to be divine: only a God who is Love (1 John 4:16) can conceive of the folly of incarnating Himself to redeem the very creature that has rebelled against Him. Only an incarnate God can deign to remain among His own, forty days after being resurrected, postponing His corporeal return to the glory of Heaven.
We ponder the Ascension from below like the disciples, and we see the Lord departing after having promised the Apostles the sending of the Holy Spirit, who will burst into the Cenacle ten days hence. We see His feet, the cloths of the robe, and the clouds that open up to reveal the heavenly Court. We consider the Ascension as a moment of separation and deprivation, because we see the Lord ascend and leave this world in a sort of long parenthesis between His departure and His glorious return at the end of time. We see ourselves as fighters in a long and exhausting war, in which we have been left without a King and with weak or even traitorous generals. We are like the Jews left at the foot of Sinai by Moses, tempted to build a golden calf.
Instead, we ought to know how to look at the Ascension from above, as the Lord saw it: the Apostles becoming smaller and smaller, their features becoming more and more indistinct, while the dazzling light of Paradise approaches above us, and the praises of the angelic Choirs become clearer; while the doors of the heavenly Jerusalem open not only for the King of kings, but also for the holy souls of the Old Law, freed from Limbo on Easter Eve. We should consider the Ascension as the necessary premise of Pentecost, and Pentecost as the indispensable vehicle of Grace that prepares us to fight, to conquer, and to deserve the palm of victory. The absence of our King and Lord gives us the opportunity to testify to Him of our fidelity: not when He conquers and triumphs over His enemies; but when everyone, even His generals, betray Him and go over to the adversary. And just as among the Jews there were those who knew how to await the return of Moses with the tablets of the Law without building reassuring idols, so – and even more so – in the Church there have been, there still are and there always will be those who keep in mind the words of the Savior: A little while and you will no longer see me; a little while and you will see me again, because I am going to the Father (Jn 16:16). A little while and you will see me again: you will not know the day or the hour, because the master will come like a thief in the night, like the Bridegroom awaited by the wise virgins.
We should, dear faithful, understand that we are the ones who must reach the Lord in Heaven, because that is our true Homeland: Quæ sursum sunt quærite, the Divine Master told us: If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth (Col 3:1-2). In this light, human contingencies acquire their just weight, because they are brought back to that κόσμος of which Our Lord is the true and absolute Pantocrator, Lord of all things, Master of time and history. Instaurare omnia in Christo (Eph 1:10) means precisely this: to recapitulate, to bring back to the very first principle, to recognize the Lordship of Christ. And therefore, to be able to read the Divine promise of Non prævalebunt (Mt 16, 18) in the awareness of both the Cross and the Resurrection, of the necessary battle as well as of the indefectible victory.
If we understand that the earthly events that involve all of humanity and each of us individually are indefectibly intertwined with the eternity of God; if we understand that our Faith is not the human and immanent response to the need to believe, but the trusting and conscious adhesion to the perfect work of a God who wants us saved and holy; if we contemplate the Ascension as a mirror of the glorious return of the Rex tremendæ majestatis of the Last Judgement, then we also realize that it is truly a modicum, a short time. And with the theological Hope of the help of God, we can face this parenthesis, this modicum, with renewed vigor.
Dear faithful, we know that these are difficult days: the recent events, the death of Jorge Bergoglio, the convocation of the Conclave, the election of Pope Leo come at a time when we are worn out by decades of crisis, with the last few terrible years of usurpation, heresies, scandals, and the apostasy of almost the entire Catholic Hierarchy. Added to these events is the globalist coup, the increasingly evident hostility of world rulers towards those who are ruled, and the looming establishment of the tyranny of the New World Order with its diabolical agenda. We are all tired and worn out. Tired of fighting against blatant lies passed off as truth. Tired of having to justify the obvious, when the entire system propagates the absurd. Tired of having to defend ourselves from those who instead ought help us. Tired of having to protect ourselves from doctors who want to poison us, from judges who want to imprison honest people while freeing criminals, from teachers who teach errors, from priests and bishops who spread heresy and immorality. We are not made for this: it is not up to the flock to command the shepherds, the student to teach the teacher, the patient to give lessons to the doctor. This is the reason why authority exists: so that as a vicarious expression of the sole Authority of Jesus Christ, King and Pontiff, it may govern to bring about the Good, and not in order to destroy the institution within which it is exercised and to disperse the members.
Our weariness, our bitterness at seeing the opportunities that Providence offers us so often frustrated, the wear and tear of a nerve-wracking battle with a treacherous enemy without valid allies: all this is part of the time of trial. It is our cross, a cross that the Lord has wisely calibrated so that with His Grace we may be able to carry it to the end, an individual and collective cross that no earthly power will ever be able to change or erase. It is the cross that the Church must embrace, because it is the only hope – spes unica – to emerge victorious from this epochal battle: without the passio Ecclesiæ it is impossible for the Mystical Body to triumph with Her Divine Head. And neither peace, nor harmony, nor prosperity will ever be possible where human hopes are not based on the observance of the Holy Law of God and do not recognize the Universal Lordship of Jesus Christ.
It is not up to us – to any of us – to provide ordinary solutions in completely unique and extraordinary circumstances. We are required – and here the wisdom of the regula Fidei comes to our aid – not to change anything that the Lord has taught the Church and that the Church has faithfully transmitted to us. Continuing to believe what our fathers believed will not deprive us of eternal glory, just because we reject the novelties introduced by false shepherds and mercenaries. On the day of the particular Judgment at the moment of our death and on the day of the Universal Judgment at the end of time we will not be judged on the basis of Amoris Lætitia or Nostra Ætate, but on the basis of the Gospel.
Let us therefore live every moment of our life knowing that this is the time of trial; and that the more the battle rages, the more Our Lord will multiply the Graces He grants us to fight and conquer. And if it is true that the Lord is now physically in Heaven, it is equally true that He wanted to grant His Ministers the power to make Him still present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Every tabernacle, however abandoned and neglected by the foolishness of men, brings back to this valley of tears the glory of Heaven, the adoration of the Angels and Saints, the Real Presence of the incarnate God. It is true: the flame of the Paschal Candle may be extinguished, but the flame of the red sanctuary lamp that honors the Eucharistic King remains alive and burning. May the flame of Charity that burns in each of us also shine, so that our soul may be less unworthy of becoming the dwelling place of the Most Holy Trinity. And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
29 May MMXXV
in Ascensione Domini
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| Holy Mass in New York [Syracuse area] - June 8, 2025 |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-03-2025, 06:36 AM - Forum: June 2025
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Holy Sacrifice of the Mass - Pentecost Sunday
Date: Sunday, June 8, 2025
Time: Confessions - 8:45 AM
Holy Mass - 9:30 AM
Location: Hotel Concord Syracuse
6605 Old Collamer Road
East Syracuse, NY 13057
Contact: 315-391-7575
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| Am I validly baptised and adult conversion questions? |
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Posted by: Jude3 - 06-01-2025, 08:58 PM - Forum: Q&A: Catholic Answers to a Catholic Crisis
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Good evening,
I am learning so much from the recent edition of The Recusant. In some ways it seems as though it was written for me personally. I am a new convert to Catholicism and through my studies I have been rapidly coming to understand the damage done to the Catholic Church by the Second Vatican Council and the continuation, furthering, and deepening of that damage by the Popes since. I was originally baptized as a Protestant. I recently converted to Catholicism and received a conditional baptism in my local novus ordo church. When I understood the necessity of my converting to Catholicism, I did not do my do due diligence in research and was ignorant of the evils of the Second Vatican Council. Even when I came to have an understanding of the evils and dangers of the modernism of the conciliar church, I was mistaken in my belief that it was more beneficial to be Catholic in whatever manner that would allow me to attend mass and receive the sacraments than not. This recent issue of The Recusant is correcting my understandings. I am thankful for this. I have a couple of questions.
Question 1: Am I validly baptized? I believe in the truths of the Nicene Creed including confessing one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I did not have a video of my baptism to show the local novus ordo priest, so he thought it prudent to conditionally baptize me. I now understand through my reading of The Recusant that the faith is more important than the sacraments, but I do want to be assured that I am a validly baptized Catholic.
Question 2: How did an adult convert to Catholicism prior to The Second Vatican Council? What was the process? How does the Marian Corps of The Society of Saint Pius X receive adults into the Catholic Church? Is there any defined process of conversion from the modern Catholicism to pre-Vatican II Catholicism? I have a traditional catechism book that I am studying on my own and I listen to as much as I can from the Oratory of The Sorrowful Heart of Mary. It is my belief that the Marian Corps of The Society of Saint Pius X is the last bastion of authentic Christianity remaining.
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| St. Philip Neri Resurrects a Noble Youth |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-01-2025, 05:17 AM - Forum: The Saints
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St. Philip Neri Resurrects a Noble Youth
Adapted from the Life of St. Philip Neri
by Fr. PIetro Giacomo
TIA | May 31, 2025
The very presence of St. Philip of Neri spread about him an atmosphere of sunshine and gladness.. “When I met him in the street,” relates Don Pellegrino, “he would pat my cheek and say, ‘Well, how is Don Pellegrino?’ and leave me so full of joy that I could not tell which way I was going.”
![[Image: H279_Joy.jpg]](https://traditioninaction.org/religious/images_F-J/H279_Joy.jpg)
The very presence of St. Philip Neri dispelled sadness and perplexity
When Don Fabrizio di Massimi, head of one of the oldest patrician families in Rome, was in sadness or perplexity, he would go and stand at Philip's door in the Oratory. He said it was enough to see the priest or to be near him to find his heart lightened and gladdened.
When Don Fabrizio and his pious wife Lavinia de’ Rustici, who had five daughters, learned that Livinia was expecting another child, they asked their revered friend to pray for a successful pregnancy, and St. Philip assured them that he would.
When the labor pains had begun, Fabrizio went to the Oratory to ask St. Philip for prayers for a successful partuition. The Saint reflected a moment and then said, “This time your wife will have a son but I wish you to give him the name I shall choose. Do you agree to this?”
Fabrizio answered, “Yes.”
“Then,” replied Philip, “I will give him the name of Paolo.”
![[Image: H279_Pal.jpg]](https://traditioninaction.org/religious/images_F-J/H279_Pal.jpg)
The Palazzo Massimo has been the family home of the Italian patrician family for centuries
Lavinia died when the boy was still young, which caused the child great grief, for he had a great love for his mother. When the youth was about 14 years old, on the 10th of January, 1583, he fell sick of a fever, which lasted 65 days.
St. Philip Neri went to see Paolo every day, for he loved him tenderly and had heard his confessions ever since he was a child. Paolo was so pious a boy that when a friend Germanico Fedeli, wondering at his patience through so long and painful a malady, asked him if he would like to change his present illness for Germanico’s health, the youth replied that he would not barter it for the health of anyone, as he was quite content with his sickness.
On the 16th of March the poor boy was reduced to the last extremities. As St. Philip had desired to be informed when Paolo was close to death, they sent a messenger to tell him that the youth was asking insistently for him, and that if he wished to see him alive he must come as quickly as possible, as matters were now at the worst.
![[Image: H279_Res.jpg]](https://traditioninaction.org/religious/images_F-J/H279_Res.jpg)
St. Philip sprinkled holy water on the dead boy & his eyes opened normally
The messenger arriving at San Girolamo found that Philip was saying mass, so that he could not speak to him. Meanwhile the boy expired; his father closed his eyes, and Camillo, the curate of the parish who had given him Extreme Unction and made the commendation of his soul, had already left. The servants were preparing to wash the body and wrap it in linen cloths.
As soon as the Mass was concluded, St. Philip left to attend to Paolo. Don Fabrizio, weeping, met him at the top of the stairs and said to him, “You are too late. Paolo is dead.”
St. Philip replied, “And why did you not send someone to call me sooner?”
“We did,” rejoined Fabrizio, “but Your Reverence was saying Mass.”
Philip then entered the room where the dead body of the youth lay. Setting himself at the edge of the bed, he prayed for seven or eight minutes with the usual palpitation of his heart and trembling of his body. He then took some holy water and sprinkled the boy’s face, and put a little in his mouth. After this he breathed in his face, laid his hand upon his forehead, and called him twice with a loud and sonorous voice, “Paolo, Paolo!”
TThe youth immediately awoke as from a deep sleep, opened his eyes and said, as in reply to Philip’s call, “Father! I wanted to see you. I forgot to mention a sin, and I should like to go to confession.”
The holy priest ordered those who were round the bed to retire for awhile, and putting a crucifix into Paolo’s hand he heard his confession and gave him absolution.
![[Image: H279_Mas.jpg]](https://traditioninaction.org/religious/images_F-J/H279_Mas.jpg)
Masses are said every year on March 16 in the Palazzo Massimo to commemorate the miracle
WWhen the others returned to the room, Philip began to talk with the youth about his sister and mother, who were both dead, and this conversation lasted about half an hour. The youth conversed naturally with a clear distinct voice, as if he were in perfect health. The color had returned to his countenance, and to all who looked at him it seemed as if he had no ill heath at all.
At last St. Philip asked him before his father and all the others in the room if he would die willingly; he replied yes. A second time Philip asked him me if he could die willingly. He replied, “Yes, most willingly; especially so that I may go and see my mother and my sister in Paradise.”
Philip then gave him his blessing, saying, “Go, be blessed, and pray to God for me.“
Immediately with a placid countenance and without the least movement, Paolo expired in Philip’s arms.
Witnessing all this were Fabrizio with two of his daughters who were nuns in Santa Marta, his second wife Violante Santacroce, the servant Francesca who assisted Paolo in his illness, and several others.
In commemoration of this miracle, a special feast is celebrated each year on March 16 in the chapel of the Palazzo Massimo, which is still the home of the same family. The Palace is open to the public on this day from 7 am for consecutive Masses commemorating the miracle.
The chapel also has its own Votive Mass for the occasion, granted by Blessed Pius IX in 1855, at the behest of Francesco Saverio Cardinal Massimo, a member of the family. Through a time-honored indult, the family has special permission to reserve the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel’s tabernacle.
![[Image: H279_Visi.png]](https://traditioninaction.org/religious/images_F-J/H279_Visi.png)
One day a year the Massimo family opens their palace & splendid chapel to the public |
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| Leo XIV Continues Francis’ Tribute to Indifferentism |
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Posted by: Stone - 06-01-2025, 05:13 AM - Forum: Pope Leo XIV
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Leo XIV Continues Francis’ Tribute to Indifferentism
![[Image: z4nb9a2u13p0zed3xtf8u4lvmomidnqelngj9a9....75&webp=on]](https://seedus3932.gloriatv.net/storage1/z4nb9a2u13p0zed3xtf8u4lvmomidnqelngj9a9.webp?secure=C7KJP3SmJk5UTrXsppuJuA&expires=1748779875&webp=on)
gloria.tv | May 31. 2025
The Vatican Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue published on Friday a joint statement for the 8th so-called "Buddhist-Christian Colloquium", which concluded in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Around 150 Buddhist and Christian participants from 16 countries attended. Leo XIV’s delegate was Cardinal George Jacob Koovakad, Prefect of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, who delivered the opening address.
"During these days, we have prayed [to whom?], visited one another’s places of worship, studied and encountered one another in a spirit of mutual respect and friendship," reads the Vatican statement.
In continuity with Francis’ pontificate, the statement is filled with platitudes, at one point equating Christian revelation with pagan sources.
"We, the Buddhist and Christian participants, met in Phnom Penh - a land profoundly shaped by the compassionate witness of His Holiness Maha Ghosananda [pagan monk, +2007] - to reflect on our sacred texts, spiritual teachings, and lived experiences as sources of healing and hope for a world fractured by violence, injustice, and exploitation".
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| The Catholic Trumpet: Who Will Confess Him? |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-30-2025, 06:32 AM - Forum: The Catholic Trumpet
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WHO WILL CONFESS HIM?
![[Image: rs=w:1280]](https://img1.wsimg.com/isteam/ip/df55e1a9-c854-4d0b-a2a9-94177954436c/IMG_6352.png/:/cr=t:0%25,l:0%25,w:100%25,h:100%25/rs=w:1280)
The Catholic Trumpet [Slightly adapted and reformatted]| May 28, 2025
“Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.” — Matthew 10:32–33, Douay-Rheims
To confess Christ is not merely to say His name. It is to profess the true Catholic Faith: whole, public, and uncompromised, the Faith as it was always held before the disasters of Vatican II, and defended without wavering by +Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. It is to say: Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus—outside the Church there is no salvation.
It is not enough to believe this privately. Our Lord binds us to speak it openly, or be counted among those who deny Him.
And make no mistake: when a Protestant or false Christian says, “We are all Christians”, and we respond with silence, we do deny Him.
We deny His Church.
We deny His truth.
We deny the One whom we pretend to honor.
As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches:
“There is no confession of faith unless there is also the confession of those truths without which salvation is not possible.”
— Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 3, a. 2, ad 2
This is why silence is not neutrality. It is betrayal. It is cowardice wrapped in counterfeit charity.
St. Thomas More was beheaded for refusing to acknowledge a false head of the Church. He would not lie by silence. On the scaffold, his final words were:
“I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”
(Witness account, July 6, 1535)
St. Thomas Becket was murdered before the altar for defending the liberty of the Church against a crown that wanted submission. In a letter to Pope Alexander III, he wrote:
“It is because I fear the judgment of God more than the judgment of men, that I refuse to betray the liberty of the Church.”
(Letter to Pope Alexander III, 1166)
Both could have lived, if only they had kept silent.
But silence is not confession.
Silence, when truth demands a voice, is denial.
To withhold the Catholic Faith from a Protestant is to deny the visible Church of Christ. It is to speak a lie by omission. This violates the law of non-contradiction: what is true must be spoken; to remain silent in the face of heresy is to permit and promote error.
And Our Lord has warned us with eternal clarity:
“He that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him.”
There is no middle.
Confess Him, or deny Him.
Confess Him in His divinity.
Confess Him in His Sacraments.
Confess Him in His Church.
Confess Him through the Immaculate Heart of His Blessed Mother, without whom no one can truly know or love Him.
And if the world rejects us, then we will join the company of the martyrs.
St. Thomas More and St. Thomas Becket died with the Church. The question is not whether we admire them, but whether we will join them.
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| The Society’s Silence: What Happened to the Prophetic Voice of the SSPX? |
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Posted by: Stone - 05-30-2025, 06:17 AM - Forum: The New-Conciliar SSPX
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The Society’s Silence: What Happened to the Prophetic Voice of the SSPX?
How the SSPX Lost Its Voice When the Church Needed It Most
![[Image: https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.ama...3x477.jpeg]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fd3a55102-f28d-4c61-a76e-0a751e525b86_653x477.jpeg)
Chris Jackson - Big Modernism [Emphasis mine] | May 28, 2025
For many years, the Society of St. Pius X was a voice crying out in the wilderness. When the Church seemed to abandon her own traditions and embrace the modern world with open arms, it was the SSPX that stood up, refused to conform, and denounced the errors with apostolic clarity. They warned of a “new religion,” identified the dangers of ecumenism, and fearlessly called modernist Rome to conversion. Whether one agreed or disagreed with their canonical standing, few could deny the moral courage they displayed when nearly every other traditional voice had been silenced or absorbed.
But something changed.
Under the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, the SSPX was vocal, aggressive, and spiritually militant. Under Francis, and now Leo XIV, that voice has been muted. It is not merely a matter of tone but of mission. The SSPX of the 1990s and early 2000s was on fire. The SSPX of 2025 feels like it's been professionally managed, polished, and de-fanged.
What happened to the Society that once stood in opposition to the errors of the age, regardless of the consequences?
The Boldness of the Old SSPX: Public Rebukes, Fiery Sermons, and Clear Teaching
One of the clearest examples of the old SSPX spirit was the historic occupation of the Church of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet in Paris in 1977. Led by the fearless Mgr. François Ducaud-Bourget, traditional Catholics physically reclaimed the church for the Latin Mass, refusing to yield even under police pressure and media condemnation. That act of defiance wasn’t just symbolic, it was a lived expression of the SSPX’s willingness to stand firm in the face of institutional apostasy. It was a moment that inspired thousands and marked a real line in the sand. Where are priests like that today?
During the reign of John Paul II, the SSPX did not mince words. Their critiques were unambiguous. The 1986 Assisi prayer meeting was denounced as a public scandal: a “blasphemous pantheon of religions.” Archbishop Lefebvre and his successors saw it as a betrayal of the First Commandment and of the missionary mandate of the Church. The SSPX’s publications, such as The Angelus and Fideliter, routinely ran scathing theological critiques of the pontificate, analyzing conciliar texts, dissecting speeches, and comparing them to the perennial magisterium.
In 2005, when Benedict XVI took the throne, many hoped for a shift back toward Tradition. And in some ways, Benedict did soften the treatment of traditionalists, most notably through Summorum Pontificum. But the SSPX remained clear: Benedict was still a Vatican II pope. He upheld ecumenism, religious liberty, and collegiality: the very errors the Society had been founded to resist.
The Society issued respectful but firm critiques of his writings, including Deus Caritas Est, and raised alarms over the continuity Benedict tried to establish between the Council and Tradition. At no point did they imply that the crisis was over. Nor did they ever hint that reconciliation should come at the price of silence. Their sermons reflected this urgency: preaching was often direct, theologically rigorous, and unflinching in naming the crisis and its causes.
Their theological criticisms were reinforced by real ecclesial action. They continued to form priests, ordain bishops, and expand chapels while issuing public warnings about modernist Rome. In short, the SSPX had a mission and they fulfilled it openly, even defiantly.
The Turning Point: Rome’s Outreach, Internal Purges, and the PR Pivot
After 2009, things began to change.
Rome opened the door to doctrinal discussions with the SSPX. Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the four bishops. On the surface, this seemed like progress. But the cost of these talks became clear soon after. Once rumors of a possible agreement began to circulate in 2011–2012, internal divisions surfaced. Bishop Williamson was expelled. Priests known for their hardline positions began to vanish from public view.
A purge occurred.
Those who had spent years boldly denouncing the crisis in the Church, especially in sermons and publications, were replaced with calmer voices, more cautious men, men willing to “dialogue.” Sermons shifted. No longer did the Society’s priests call out the Pope by name for heretical statements. No longer did they explain how ecumenical actions contradicted Mortalium Animos or Quanta Cura. Now the sermons became “spiritual meditations,” perhaps personally edifying, but studiously apolitical and avoidant of crisis.
The Society’s messaging began to shift. The tone became polished, corporate, sanitized. The passion was gone.
The SSPX that once raged against the modernist Vatican was now issuing press releases “welcoming” gestures from the Holy See; even when those gestures came from Francis, whose record of doctrinal and liturgical abuse far exceeded that of his predecessors.
The Francis Years: From Prophets to Diplomats
With Francis, the crisis reached new heights. Pachamama. Abu Dhabi. The Amazon Synod. The Synod on Synodality. The persecution of the Latin Mass. The canonizations of John Paul II and Paul VI. Communion for the divorced and remarried. The papal silence on blessing same-sex couples in Germany. The public praise of Luther. The declaration that “diversity of religions is willed by God.”
What did the SSPX say?
Very little.
When they spoke at all, their tone was cautious, deferential, and oddly bureaucratic. Their critiques were not even remotely as forceful as their old responses to Benedict and John Paul II. Some examples:
- When Traditionis Custodes was released, the Society called it “a matter of concern,” but emphasized their own immunity and invited displaced faithful to attend SSPX chapels. No condemnation. No outcry. No “blasphemy” or “betrayal” like in the days of Assisi.
- When Francis signed the Abu Dhabi declaration, they issued a measured statement of theological “clarification,” avoiding any direct accusation of heresy or doctrinal rupture.
- When Pachamama was enthroned in the Vatican Gardens, the SSPX responded late and limply, with a generic critique of syncretism in general, not even naming Francis or the event in its headline.
Even in the rare instances where the SSPX has responded, such as its published analysis of Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican declaration permitting blessings for same-sex couples, the tone was cautious, clinical, and oddly dispassionate. Issued through FSSPX.News rather than from any district superior or bishop, the statement expressed concern over doctrinal confusion but avoided directly confronting the Pope’s personal approval or calling for resistance. Gone was the prophetic indignation once directed at lesser scandals; in its place stood a subdued essay that read more like an academic memo than a cry of alarm.
What once would have triggered a spiritual call to arms now elicited only a press release with footnotes.
And now, under Leo XIV, this pattern continues.
The Fullerton Letter: Polished Deference in the Age of Apostasy
Perhaps no document better illustrates the SSPX’s new tone than the May 21, 2025 letter issued by Fr. John Fullerton, the District Superior of the SSPX in the United States, addressing the election of Leo XIV. What should have been an opportunity to express grave concern, or at the very least, to issue a sober, theologically grounded warning, was instead a carefully constructed exercise in institutional diplomacy. In fact, the letter could have been mistaken for something issued by the FSSP or Opus Dei.
From the opening paragraph, the letter is drenched in procedural reverence and restrained commentary. Cardinal Prevost’s election is called a “momentous occasion,” and the faithful are encouraged to scrutinize the future with hopeful eyes, by examining not the doctrinal fruits of the new pontificate, but by comparing his gestures to those of his “predecessor.” Which predecessor? Even here, there is no mention of Francis at all, only a reference to Pope Leo XIII from over a century ago. As if the path to understanding Leo XIV’s pontificate lies in the 19th century rather than in the revolution of the last twelve years.
What follows is a striking absence of clarity. Instead of naming Leo XIV’s well-known track record—his praise for the Abu Dhabi declaration, his fidelity to the synodal revolution, his enthusiastic appointment of female dicastery heads, the letter warns the faithful not to be “overly influenced” by the online world or by “experts” scrutinizing the Pope’s words. In other words, don’t trust your own eyes. Don’t read what’s on the page. Don’t weigh his public record. Instead, just pray. Hope. Assume the best. Be quiet.
This rhetorical evasion is not merely disappointing, it is pastoral negligence. In decades past, the SSPX formed consciences by equipping them to judge modernism through the lens of Catholic Tradition. Now, it is instructing the faithful to suspend judgment, sideline their concerns, and defer to an undefined and nebulous “spirit of charity.”
The most glaring omission is any reference, explicit or implicit, to the doctrinal crisis the Church now faces under Leo XIV. This is the same man who canonized Francis with a tweet, praised the spirit of Nostra Aetate, and doubled down on the ecumenical and environmental trajectories of the past twelve years. And yet, not a single word of caution is issued. Not a hint of doctrinal discernment is proposed. Instead, Fullerton concludes with a sentimental invocation that Leo XIV might “fill the shoes of St. Peter,” as if the pontificate of Francis had never happened.
The letter says the Church has been “beset by a crisis that has lasted for nearly six decades,” yet offers no indication that the new pontificate continues or intensifies that crisis. On the contrary, it seems to suggest the opposite: that Leo XIV might be the man to reverse it. There is no recognition that Leo’s stated agenda is a continuation of Francis’s revolution, nor that his first public acts were celebrations of synodality, interreligious harmony, and a renewed “ecological conversion.” The reader is left with a vague impression that things are uncertain, but hopeful, and the job of the laity is not to analyze, not to speak, not to resist, but to pray and hold the pope “in your hearts.”
To be clear, prayer for the pope is right and good. It has always been part of the traditional liturgy, and no faithful Catholic would deny its necessity. But to use prayer as a substitute for truth, or worse, as a way to quiet legitimate alarm, is not spiritual leadership. It is public relations.
This is not how the SSPX once spoke. In the 1980s and 1990s, their press statements named names. They laid out the errors of Dignitatis Humanae, Unitatis Redintegratio, and Nostra Aetate with surgical precision. They did not tell the faithful to withhold judgment until more time passed, they warned that modernist theology had infected the Church at the highest levels, and that to remain silent in the face of such error was itself a betrayal of the faith.
Fr. Fullerton’s letter is not a betrayal in that sense, but it is a warning signal. It reveals an SSPX that now seeks to manage its public profile, rather than proclaim the truth without compromise. It reveals a Society increasingly cautious about how it is perceived by Rome and the public. It reveals a churchman more concerned with sounding “charitable” than being prophetic.
This is what happens when prophecy is replaced with diplomacy. When a society of priests founded to resist the revolution instead prays politely for the revolutionary-in-chief without a word of warning, the faithful are left without shepherds who speak plainly. The priests may still offer the Mass. They may still teach the catechism. But their silence on the great crisis of the day, when it counts most, will echo louder than any sermon.
The SSPX Faithful Deserve the Truth
None of this is to say the SSPX is invalid or useless. They provide the sacraments. They educate children. They form priests. For thousands of families, they are the last refuge from a Church that often feels hostile to its own patrimony.
And that is precisely the tragedy.
Because the faithful deserve more than silence. They deserve truth.
When those entrusted with preaching and shepherding choose diplomacy over doctrine, when they pull their punches for fear of losing favors, then they are no longer fulfilling their apostolic mission. They are managing a brand.
This doesn’t mean the SSPX is wicked. It means they are at a crossroads. Their silence may be strategic. It may be fearful. It may be the fruit of some unspoken understanding with Rome.
Whatever it is, it is not the voice of Archbishop Lefebvre. And it is not the SSPX many of us once knew.
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