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Winona is a perfect setting for the formation of SSPX priests, so long as you presume from the start that the priests being formed would be the kind that ABL had in mind, fighters for the Faith of Catholics.
It is ludicrous to build a new seminary when the current one has everything necessary, including room to build. The cost of fixing up and expanding the current one would be far less than building from scratch.
Marsha
Notice we are never given a truthful explanation of the real reason behind this obviously nonsensical decision to build a replacement seminary in Virginia. We are given a lot of doublespeak rhetoric, which upon cursory examination, gives no real reasons, and is therefore only smoke and mirrors (like almost everything else coming out of Menzingen these days).
The video below claims they did not have room in MN, with too many applicants and they were housed 3 to a room. But the land area they had there is plenty big enough for expansion. The "problem" they were facing was not the one they claimed it was.
Now, just a few years later, after the nefarious shenannigans in Menzingen (plus other factors) the erstwhile burgeoning list of new seminarians is suddenly shrinking, with fewer applicants this current year than in many previous years.
The SSPX video of the "new" seminary as envisioned several years ago:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/embed/KgOS9m-SBHg[/youtube]
Survivalism indeed. It seems to me that the new seminary information as presented on the SSPX website http://www.newseminaryproject.org/ is the opposite of survivalism. The SSPX is making their case that the new location has the ability to even have a brewery and book bindery of all things that will help sustain itself. In the event they plan to invite outside parties into the grounds to buy this or that, this will certainly impact the "soaked in silence" goal their initial videos of the seminary touted.
We were told the new seminary would allow the seminarians to "feel the presence of God," and I suppose by saying this, the old location did not allow this???
Say anything to get the stupid laity to give, is that it?
Finally, we were told the "new" seminary would "spread the love of Jesus Christ to all who are looking for the truth." What? The "old" location did not allow this? What is the purpose of a seminary, gentlemen?? I always thought it was about forming priests, period.
List me in the category of "dizzy and disgusted" with wallet closed. Please people, throwing money at this project is throwing it down a rat hole and by the way, the chapel is not even to square one.
Perhaps they should have built a chapel first? Where are the priorities?
The SSPX will still keep their old location but use it for a different purpose. So much for saving on maintenance.
Who would do this kind of financial ѕυιcιdє? Where is the wisdom?
Add to this the little murmurings of "pedigree" mentioned in another post. They're looking for applicants from families with lots of money. There have been some recent applicants from independent chapels who have been marginalized and sidelined and discriminated against at Winona because (they said) they had not come from SSPX schools and parishes. Upon further examination, maybe they also did not come from families with lots of money. But in any case, these young men came away from Winona saying that if they had to choose between becoming a priest in the SSPX or not pursuing their vocation, they would choose the latter.
That provides another clue for what's really going on.
A big new seminary in close proximity to Washington D.C., with all the associated allurement of worldliness close at hand -- and this is supposed to give the seminarians a "soaked in silence" environment, a place where they can "feel the presence of God?"
At a time when SSPX chapels worldwide are not expanding but rather being closed down (here and there, small numbers) and good priests are being expelled (+F claims they are also "small numbers"), while Resistance priests are having a hard time keeping up with the demand for new groups who request their visits for Mass, a new and LARGE commitment to a new seminary is undertaken with insufficient funding, the erstwhile growing numbers of new seminarians is suddenly shrinking, and the contributions of the Faithful are declining as well (for many reasons most of which are traceable directly to Menzingen!), there is only one reasonable explanation.
The real purpose of this seminary is something other than what they say it is. One possibility is that as the SSPX surges on to its financial nosedive, it feels the need to make big plans erupt as if in denial of the ongoing crisis. Another is that the longstanding push for 'normalization' with the modernists in Rome would be enhanced by the prospect of allowing NovusOrdo seminarians to supplement the empty spaces in the new Virginia seminary, in which case, it would be touted as a "win-win situation."
If the latter is the real deal, you can expect all the more to hear positive words from Menzingen about what happened in Rome this past
Quasimodo Sunday, at least liturgically. Sure, +Fellay will stick to his principled opposition to WHAT was done (canonizing popes who were not models of virtue), but nonetheless he will admit to being impressed with HOW they conducted the liturgy, for after all,
if ABL had seen canonizations celebrated like that, he might not have taken the step he did!! And when you do hear such words, just keep in mind, that NovusOrdo seminarians will likely be soon to arrive at the new seminary. And furthermore, you can expect an increasingly malleable format to liturgical practices at your local SSPX chapels. It will not be acceptable to have a militant spirit anymore. Militant spirit priests are shown the door, and so too militant spirit seminarians shall not be countenanced.
The new breed of seminarian will have to be able to rub shoulders with their NovusOrdo neighbors, and
the words of Rodney King will echo in their minds:
"Can't we all just get along?"
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