The SSPX Should Seek Full Communion “For the Good of Souls”

Do not forget that the Red Chinese regularly consecrate Bishops without Papal Mandate, and that seems to be fine with Leo and Fernández.

From One Peter Five

By Aurelio Porfiri

On February 12, a meeting took place between the Superior General of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, Fr. Davide Pagliarani, and the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Fernández.

This meeting was convened because on the previous February 2, Fr. Davide Pagliarani had announced new episcopal ordinations that are to take place next July 1. Obviously, from Rome this is seen as an act of grave disobedience, since these episcopal ordinations lack the authorization of the Supreme Pontiff.

I have often reflected on this issue of traditionalism; I have even written a book on the subject, because it seems to me a very important theme for understanding the direction in which the Church today is moving. I have never hidden my criticisms of certain very serious deviations within the present-day Church. Therefore, from a certain point of view, I can understand the reaction of those who seek a good for their spiritual life in a Church where it often seems difficult to find spiritual oases in which one can still perceive a sense of adoration, a sense of the sacred, a sense of a spirituality that unfortunately appears to have been lost.

I am certainly not hostile to people who, in some way, are trying to survive in a difficult situation such as the present one. However, I do have some reservations about certain behaviors.

First of all, let us remember that there are many people who experience this type of difficulty in today’s Church and yet remain within the Church, in some way also submitting themselves to the legitimate authorities of the Catholic Church: the Pope, the bishops, and so forth. With regard to the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, we know that the situation is different: they have an irregular status within the Catholic Church. The hope—especially for a reality that has become numerically significant—is that they may act in full communion with the current hierarchy.[1]

I believe it is important to reflect on one fact. The Superior General of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, Fr. Davide Pagliarani, stated in a recent interview, following the announcement of the episcopal ordinations, that for him and for the Fraternity the supreme good, the supreme law, is the good of souls—something with which, of course, we can only agree.

So I reflect on this: would it not be a far greater good for many more souls to act fully from within the Catholic Church? I imagine that in this way they could serve not only the more or less numerous group that gathers around them, but many more souls who could, also through their apostolate, come to know the treasures of tradition. If we consider valid—and it is valid—what Fr. Davide Pagliarani says about the supreme law being the good of souls, then in this sense one could do good to many more souls.

Naturally, Fr. Davide Pagliarani might respond that if they were to accept full communion with the Catholic Church, they might encounter serious difficulties in continuing their apostolate because of the opposition they would face within the Church. On the one hand, this is understandable and is the reality that many of us who live in full canonical regularity in the Catholic Church. Many of us live in the Church as on a cross: we know that being marginalized, sometimes scorned, hindered, is part of the situation.

Yet if Christ truly founded His Church, it is within this very Church that the battle must be fought.

In the communiqué released by the Fraternity of Saint Pius X after the meeting between the Superior General and Cardinal Fernández, it is stated:

He, [that is, Fr. Davide Pagliarani] was especially concerned to set forth the spirit of charity with which the Fraternity considers these consecrations, as well as its sincere desire to serve souls and the Roman Church. He finally renewed his desire that, taking into account the wholly particular circumstances in which Holy Church finds herself, the Fraternity may continue to operate in its present condition, exceptional and temporary, for the good of the souls who turn to it.

Here we are faced, in my view, with statements that are somewhat in tension. First, there is mention of a sincere desire to serve souls and the Roman Church; as said before, it would be far better if these souls were not only the restricted group that gathers around them, but the broad field of those within the Church who, perhaps through no fault of their own, are exposed to a type of “Catholic” teaching or indoctrination that is in fact entirely non-Catholic.

How much good could the Fraternity of Saint Pius X do within the Church, even while suffering—because we all suffer—while bringing even more souls to rediscover the beauty of tradition?

I believe that the stance of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X stems from a fundamental mistrust of the current hierarchy. A mistrust whose reasons I can also understand. I am not defending the current hierarchy or Cardinal Fernández; those who follow me know that I too have been and remain critical of many things. But this is the situation we have. We cannot create a surrogate of this situation and then say that we do so for the good of souls.

When it is said that there is a desire to continue operating in the present condition, described as exceptional and temporary, what is not really offered is a solution to the Fraternity’s canonical problem. One speaks of an exceptional and temporary situation, yet then asks to prolong what is nonetheless a wound within the Catholic Church.

I understand the reasons that lead the Fraternity not to be confident toward Rome. No one can deny that such reasons exist. But I believe that one must decide to face this challenge, not so much for one’s own canonical situation, but precisely for that good of souls so often cited by Fr. Pagliarani and which is truly so important for priests, bishops, and the Pope.

Certainly, one could say that many today in the Church do not act for the good of souls. I agree. This is a battle that has been fought for decades. Yet it is a battle that must be fought within the Church – within the jurisdictional structures of canonical unity.

I would like to cite a passage from the interview mentioned earlier, given by Fr. Davide Pagliarani to internal media of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X—a very interesting interview because by reading it one understands many aspects of the Fraternity’s path. Bringing forward certain criticisms of the present-day Church, he states:

Through the kerygma, the proclamation of the Gospel is isolated from the whole corpus of traditional doctrine and morality; and through synodality, traditional expositions are replaced with random decisions, easily absurd and doctrinally unjustifiable. Cardinal Zen himself considers this method manipulative and believes that attributing it to the Holy Spirit is blasphemous. I fear, unfortunately, that he is right.

As many know, I have collaborated with Cardinal Joseph Zen on several books published in Italian and English. I do not know whether Fr. Davide Pagliarani has read one of these books, One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, in which the Cardinal, in the final part, addresses the theme of synodality with a highly critical spirit. But there is a fundamental difference: Cardinal Zen has chosen, while suffering, to make these criticisms from within the Catholic Church, submitting to his superiors, even while resisting.

I am not saying that the criticisms of the Superior of the Fraternity are wrong; they are probably also correct. The issue is another: they are criticisms made, in a certain (canonical) sense, from outside, while at the same time declaring the desire to serve the Roman Church and the souls of the Roman Church.

I believe that it would be a far more beautiful and a far greater service if this apostolate of the SSPX, even if it is critical, were exercised fully from within canonical unity with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, accepting that cross which many Catholics have chosen to carry.

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[1] “Full communion” as distinct from “sacramental communion” is defined by the three elements given by St. Robert Bellarmine and repeated in Lumen Gentium, 14: “Basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved. They are fully incorporated in the society of the Church who, possessing the Spirit of Christ accept her entire system and all the means of salvation given to her, and are united with her as part of her visible bodily structure and through her with Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops. The bonds which bind men to the Church in a visible way are profession of faith, the sacraments, and ecclesiastical government and communion. He is not saved, however, who, though part of the body of the Church, does not persevere in charity (emphasis added).”