Thank you CA.
I think it is very uncharitable the manner in which Bishop Tomas has been judged in this thread.
All this drama was stirred up by Fr Da Silva who trained with the Resistance and then "suddenly" after ordination to the priesthood became sedevacantist and put a cat amongst the pigeons with those beliefs that typically attach to sedevacantists, causing unnecessary disturbance among the faithful.
Archbishop Lefebvre, the SSPX and the Resistance have never held that the new rite of priestly ordination is invalid in itself, but that the circuмstances of the ordination must be judged on a case by case basis, and no one was better qualified than Archbishop Lefebvre to do this, as happened in the case of Fr Jahir.
Imagine if I studied in one of the sede seminaries, such as the CMRI seminary or Bp Sanborn's seminary, got ordained, and then started spreading theories about the invalidity of Thuc-line bishops.
What do you think they would do to me? Exactly what I deserved - they would drop kick me out of there as hard and fast as they could and tell me what a scoundrel and trouble maker I am.
It is not Bishop Tomas who is the villain in this drama.
Tradition has long been sustained in Brazil and certain newcomers have done nothing but cause trouble and division instead of fortifying the already existing efforts.
How can any Traditionalist priest or bishop expect blind obedience, when the basis of Traditionalism is questioning the Pope?
If we question the Pope for the bad things that he does and teach, how can we be expected to simply accept anything that people below the Pope do and teach? It simply makes no sense.
Any bishop or priest who minister the sacraments to the faithful of Tradition is obliged to show his credentials. I see no way around it.
If they are legitimate, they have no reason at all not to give you the dates, rites and names of the bishops who ordained or consecrated them. If they resist on doing this, there is some sinister reason behind it.
In the case being discussed, it seems that the reason is that the bishop does not want to give in to the demanding faithful because he knows that this pressure is due to something that a Sedevacantist told them. In other words, he doesn't want to give in to "Sedevacantist demands", even if is it for the benefit of the faithful. And this is a sinister reason.
Holy Orders are public business. Always.
The only exception are in the context of persecution. Bishop Williamson did some secret consecrations lately, but now they are public. As far as I know, none of these new bishops were ordaining or confirming before their consecrations were made public.