Yes, I know that my readership is used to my endless rants against modernist heresy polluting the metaphysical landscape with lies, half truths and just overall subjective nonesense, but every now and then the crazies come out in full force and warrant my attention. How often can it said that I rail on these guys? Well, it seems not often enough! The last post in which I referenced these uhh,..'people,' I compared them to people who view Elvis regularly, get abducted by Aliens or are awaiting the return of Tupac Shakur. This past week, I was privy to a conversation in which biting my lip was the pen ultimate act of resistance. Did I want to retaliate? Actually no,.but I nearly laughed my ass off and concluded that this dude, as sincere as he was,..was badly in need of mental therapy (yes,..despite last week's post.)
So, once again, let's set the stage shall we? Who are the sedevacante? They are a group of 'traditionalist' catholics who claim that the last valid Pope was Pius XII. Subsequent Popes have preached heresy (according to them) or have been everything from duplicate imposters to satanic infiltrators. The sad reality is that we've seen this stuff before. Every council has always produced years of confusion, division and downright schism, Vatican II being no different! Yet still the crazies persist, blindly accusing the post conciliar Church of being something that it isn't. Obviously the same can be said for the 'Spirit of VII' crowd, but the danger with the Sedevacantist position is that it ultimately becomes yet another form of protestantism. Nowhere in VII does the Church make any dogmatic pronouncement! Read the friggin documents people! VII was/is a pastoral council put forth in good faith by Blessed John XXIII in order to face the problems of the world which the Church was experiencing. Does VII say anything about the Mass being 'versus populem?' NO! Does VII say anything about the Mass not retaining parts in Latin? NO! Even in Nostra Aetate, which the Traditionalist schismatics love to pick apart,..The Church does not relinquish the claim that She and She alone is the One True Church, but instead brings about a more pastoral/relationship approach by comparing degrees to it,.(potency!) Guess who else did that? Aquinas! Arghhhhhhh!
So now, I'll describe the discussion. It started off pretty friendly enough, with both us articulating difficulties with implementing the actual Council as it has been hijacked by the 'spirit of..' crowd. Next up we spoke about Assisi, something that I as a Catholic have never really been comfortable with. ('Assisi' was a gathering of different religious leaders from different backrounds all praying to 'God' in the name of peace. Granted, I don't know the details on it, but for me it seemed like an exercise in empty inter faith/ecumenism,.the lowest common denominator kind..Where was the call to evangelization? To Truth?!?) So, back to the conversation. I asked if he had ever heard of the SSPX or FSSP? To my delight he said yes. So we continued speaking regarding the canonical status of both groups, one being irregular (the SSPX). Then it happened...Very 'matter of factly' I was informed that despite their good intentions there hasn't been a true Pope since Pius XII. Yup. Vatican II was inspired by Satan, and thus through an infiltration, the Church apostasized and became the 'Novus Ordo' religion, based on false ecumenism. The danger with any heresy, is that it contains elements of truth within its message. This was no different and while my readership is familiar with the modernist nonsense that we frequently have to endure through so-called 'social justice' priests, liberation theology and piss poor liturgy, this has left an almost vacuum for these extreme cases on the right of the spectrum to go by undetected. Naturally the conversation was one sided from that point on, as I was shown the error of my ways in remaining with the post conciliar Church..(no mention of Matthew's gates of hell...) and had to bite my lip as he accused John Paul II of being demonic. I truly felt sorry for this protestant dude. Yes, protestant because that's really what the sedevacante become.
To conclude, upon my reversion to the Faith, I too noticed many wrongs with the Church. Stuff that 'I' wanted to right. I think you get my point. Our faith is a gift from God to be freely accepted by us. We are on the Holy Spirit's time, not our own. Through Spiritual Direction, I learned, (correction, still learning,..) to be more compassionate and understanding that Jesus meets us where we are, and then invites us to be perfected. A great example of this is the story of the Samaritain woman at the well. The Sedevacante protestants too often forget Jesus's quote about the Church in Matthew,.it can never fall into error!
St Thomas Aquinas,.......Ora pro nobis!
6 comments:
A short time after my conversion I started to get led down the Sede path...exploring their arguments but then St. Ignatius of Antioch put me in check:
"As therefore the Lord did nothing without the Father, being united to Him, neither by Himself nor by the apostles, so neither do ye anything without the bishop and presbyters. Neither endeavour that anything appear reasonable and proper to yourselves apart; but being come together into the same place, let there be one prayer, one supplication, one mind, one hope, in love and in joy undefiled. There is one Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is more excellent. Do ye therefore all run together as into one temple of God, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, who came forth from one Father, and is with and has gone to one."
Very good post!
My own thoughts on "traditionalism" (i.e., *not* referring to groups such as FSSP, but rather schismatic groups, especially sedevacantists) is this:
Such "traditionalism" seems to me to have the same relation to Tradition as atheistic "rationalism" does to reason: at the most it is a parody of it.
That said, when it comes to groups such as the FSSP, I find myself in great sympathy with them...
And Christina, that is a wonderful quote from St. Ignatius. :-)
What's the sede situation like in Quebec? Are there a lot of them?
A few scattered people here and there,..
Great post! The Sedevacante folks put the JFK conspiracy theorists to shame. They think that the College of Cardinals was/is full of Freemason secret agents.
Great post!
"Through Spiritual Direction, I learned, (correction, still learning,..) to be more compassionate and understanding that Jesus meets us where we are, and then invites us to be perfected."
I am in full agreement.
The Sedevacante folks do seem kinda nuts or living in their own fantasy land.
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