He started in with GREC in the '90s and it's been downhill ever since.  Sad but true.

I don’t “get it” that Bp. Fellay doesn’t “get it.”  Why would he want to use a n.o. church building?  Why not use a big Protestant mega church if it’s space he’s after?  Or rent a gym, a room at room at the Y? 
What’s in it for him?  For SSPX?  Wouldn’t it be better to use secular space than a space dedicated to a false god, even if those who regularly attend there do so in ignorance? 
Is it money? Brownie points with the n.o. bishop?  A desire to see the SSPX as part of the pantheon of “catholic” ecuмania?  Has he lost the Faith? Did he ever have faith in the first place?  WWALD?
p

He absolutely "gets it".  He's a modernist infiltrator who's slowly breaking down the Trads left in the new-sspx, one step at a time.  He's using the same psychological warfare that the media uses.  1 compromise at a time, day by day.  Boiling the frog...

Speaking of excuses for practical reasons, does everybody here know about the following?

Father Kenneth Dean visited the SSPX chapel in our area, and I was there.  I knew him when he was a seminary professor at STAS Winona all those many years ago.

So, before the homily, he introduced himself, and explained that he was up at Winona again, at the Brothers' Novitiate.  OK, I get that.  But then he goes on to explain.

This year the Humanities Year seminarians were sent to Winona.  Why?  Get this ...

there wasn't enough room in Dillwyn.

I'm thinking:  YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.  You spent FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS on an UNFINISHED seminary that doesn't even have a decent chapel, and the excuse for this was that ... there wasn't enough room in Winona, and you're ... OUT OF ROOM?

So, that excuse was total bovine excrement, as we all know, since Winona had MANY acres of space where they could have added another building or two or three for a million dollars a piece, easy.

Now ... why are they out of room again?  So, last year 23 received tonsure.  Well ... that's only a few more than what my class was when I was there in Winona all those years ago.

Last year they ordained ... SIX, only FIVE for SSPX, and 1 was from Australia.  So, basically FOUR Americans got ordained in Dillwyn ... after they spent FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS claiming they were bursting at the seams in Winona.

So, if they could sent the Humanities Year students off to an alternate location ... uhm, why couldn't they have done that also when the seminary was at Winona, instead of sinking 50 million into it?

And it gets better.  So, because of Humanities year, they needed to send TWO more SSPX priests to the Brothers' Novitiate, to teach.  Now, given that these students are all following the same curriculum, WHY do you need TWO priests to teach them, especially since there would be some overlap with the classes the Brothers might be taking there.  BUT ... they ALREADY HAD FOUR PRIESTS there, making a total of SIX now.  We have yet another Priory with an excess number of priests, while many chapels are struggling with many, many young families, young children ... but who don't have Daily Mass, and a resident Priest, just a fly-in / fly-out situation. while various Piories have Six, Eight, and even TEN priests there?  Why did they need FOUR priests at a Brothers' NOVITIATE in the first place?  We had 6 years of actual Seminary being run and taught by ... SIX priests, the same number, and not only did they teach 6 years of different classes, they would fly out on weekends to serve various missions.  Now they need the same number for a novitiate and a year of humanities.  Unbelievable.

Even the younger priests I know of ... do very little actual travelling on Sundays.  I know situations where they could easily get another chapel served.  But it's as if they're completely pampering their priests.  Back in the day, the younger ones used to travel like crazy, since they had the energy for it.  Now, they are extremely laid back.

That's the kindof thing that led to anti-clericalism in the first place, where they see priests living cushy lifestyles, not having to work a whole lot ... while the laity are busting their butts raising large families, often working two jobs, not having a lot of spare money ... but then being constantly badgered to contribute more and more (even as a lot of money gets embezzled from any given chapel to causes unknown).

With every year that passes, despite there being some very good priests among them, the SSPX get more and more corrupt.  Sadly, another trend I'm seeing is where the younger priests are social butterflies, right out there in the vestibule yacking it up after Mass (about stupid trivial junk, small talk) ... after spending like 60 seconds making a thanksgiving after Mass.  At one chapel, I arrived an hour early, since I wanted to get to Confession, and I walked past the priest out in the parking lot chatting it up with some of the laity.  I stood in line for 30 minutes before the priest darkened the door, and by that time the line was from the back of the church all the way to the front, and people had been standing for 30 minutes, whiles this priest was yacking away.  I overheard what he was talking about too, since my path necessarily took me past them ... and it was literally about various baked goods for the bake sale.

Worse ... and worse ... and worse ... and worse.

They're repeating the 1950s here, and headed straight toward Vatican II 2.0, and you can see it happening like watching a train wreck in slow motion.  I believe this to be the result of cradle Trads heading now to the seminaries, priests who have absolutely no clue what the Conciliar Revolution actually was in practice, some of them because they don't know what else to do with their lives if they haven't met some serious girlfriend yet, and because they couldn't get a decent job with their degree from St. Mary's, to be able to support a familiy.  But after FIVE DECADES of SSPX, with so many children being raised by families at SSPX chapels, why is it that the seminary barely has greater numbers than when I was there 35+ years ago?  They really should be bursting at the seams by now.  But there's something rotten.  Yes, many go SV, others Ecclesia Dei over time ... but that still doesn't account for the huge numbers they have in various places compared to the 1980s.  Some of the largest chapels and priories today were 50 people in a rented hotel room when back in my own seminary days.  But with all that growth and 50 million dollars to blow for a seminary, and 25 million to blow at the chapel at St. Mary's ... with FOUR AMERICAN PRIESTS being ordained last year (the same as the average ordination class size 3 decades ago), where's the return on investment?

Another aspect that I'm seeing is there's FAR LESS attention paid to spiritual matters, and tons of energy put into this group, and that group, and the other group, and this fundraiser, and that funderaiser, etc.  Again, the very same thing the pre-V2 hierarchs were concerned about.  With the True Faith and the True Catholic Mass, we should have dozens of priests and religious living in the odor of sanctity by now ... but the SSPX are barren.


It's just awful to see this happening.

I think that someone ... Krah / Jaidhof ... persuaded +Fellay and company to undertake stupid, ridiculous, imprudent spending projects precisely so they would be held over a barrel financially and more easily extorted by threatening to pull funding from them if they did anything those jokers didn't like, i.e. being "Anti-Semitic" or condemning the heresies of the Anti-Church, etc.  They probably appealed to +Fellay's ego, showing him all the kingdoms of his SSPX world from the mountain top, and +Fellay bent the knee, since his ego couldn't resist the thought of his spiritual empire.

What kind of spiritual formation do you get when this is the "chapel" you walk into every day?


Now, let's have a look there behind the altar, from the other direction:


Nice view there of a fire alarm right above the tabernacle's cross, eh?

This is what they spent FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS on.

They probably didn’t pay 50m.  I’m sure some “payoffs” happened off books.  Maybe even money laundering.  50m is just a fairytale. 

I agree with Ladislaus.  I came to Tradition 25 years ago witnessing the decline of the SSPX.  The older priests mainly focused on tradition, VII errors and saving souls, while many of the younger priests seem to be focused on fellowship and praising Leo. Short, boring sermons to overflowing chapels with people just begging to hear the truth, but instead short sermon, short Mass with lots of time set aside for pot lucks and socializing.  Some of the younger priests tone down the choirs and encourage congregational singing (bring earplugs for that).  I'm very close to the end of the line for my attending the local SSPX chapel after all these years actively involved.  i'm praying for a miracle, but the death spiral is obvious.