This old article by Bishop Sanborn may touch on this thread:
Twenty Years: A Personal Reflection
by Most Reverend Donald J. Sanborn
May 8, 2003
AN UNNOTICED ANNIVERSARY
April 27th, 2003 passed without fanfare, yet it was a memorable day for nine priests. Twenty years ago on this day, the break between the so-called “nine priests” and the Society of Saint Pius X was consummated.
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WERE WE RIGHT TO TAKE THIS STAND?
Hindsight always sees clearly. Now, after twenty years, the question can be calmly asked: In the light of the events of the past twenty years, were the nine priests right or wrong in taking their stand against Archbishop Lefebvre?
To answer this question, let us look at the progress of the issues.
First, the underlying issue: the ambivalence of Archbishop Lefebvre toward the Novus Ordo. What fruit has it produced? In the first place, it has produced the fruit of utter confusion and inconsistency in the minds of the SSPX faithful and priests. They are a house divided. Some are hardliners, some are soft. Some are closet sedevacantists. Some cannot wait for the day of reconciliation with the Vatican , whereas others vow that they will leave the day such a reconciliation goes through. Yet they are all worshipping in the same pews. The SSPX hierarchy cannot make up its mind about the prudence of reconciling. Over the years the flip flop has continued to the point of making one dizzy. Now the reconciliation is on; now it is off. Now it is good; now it is bad. It will happen; it will not happen. Today it will not happen; tomorrow it will happen. Today John Paul is the antichrist; tomorrow he is the Vicar of Christ; the next day he is not Catholic; the following day he is the Holy Father. Swing to the left; swing to the right.
In the second place, the SSPX faithful are constantly staring at the specter of a reconciliation with the Modernists which will destroy over thirty years of resistance to Modernism. Their churches, schools convents, and seminaries can be yanked from under them in a moment's notice, whenever the confused management of the SSPX thinks that it is the right time. One never knows when Bishop Fellay is going to give away the store to the Novus Ordo.
So I say that the nine priests were definitely right in taking their stand, so as to place the traditional movement on a solid and consistent theological basis, and to preserve the churches and other institutions from being, despoiled by the Novus Ordo hierarchy.
Let us turn to the question of the John XXIII liturgy (1962 Missal). Time showed that the acceptance of these reforms was a condition of reconciliation with the Modernists. This reason alone was sufficient to take a stand against them. But beyond this reason, we were right in preserving the sacred liturgy from the seeds of its own corruption implanted by Bugnini. It is impossible to object to the Novus Ordo, when you have accepted the seeds of the Novus Ordo embedded in the John XXIII liturgy. And so we see that the confused SSPX management is ready to accept the Novus Ordo as a legitimate rite, and to work side by side with it in a diocesan setting. Archbishop Lefebvre even accepted to have a Novus Ordo Mass said in Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet in Paris as one of the concessions to the Modernists in the now famous Protocol of May 5th, 1988. The retention of the pre 1955 liturgy is a firm no to any Modernist liturgical innovation. ....
What became of the marriage annulment question? Incredibly, the solution which the SSPX applied to this problem was to found their own marriage tribunal! This is clearly a usurpation of the authority of the Catholic Church. It is clear that we would never have been able to accept this, and we would have had to break over this issue alone.
What about the validity of the Novus Ordo priestly ordinations and episcopal consecrations? The SSPX accepts these as valid. Take note that in the conditions set down by Bishop Fellay to the Vatican for their return, there is no mention at all of the problem of invalid ordinations and consecrations in the new rite. So the nine priests were right again here to take their stand.
THE STORY OF THE THREE LITTLE PIGS
Painful as the separation was, therefore, it was nonetheless a prudent and wise decision which is confirmed by the events of the past twenty years. The nine priests, and other priests in this country and elsewhere in the world who made similar decisions, have placed the traditional movement on a firm theological and liturgical basis.
The SSPX priests and faithful often boast about the size, the international character, and the organizational unity of their group, in contrast to the small numbers and lack of organization among the sedevacantists. The SSPX faithful are like the Titanic passengers, who were enamoured by the beauty and strength of their ship, but oblivious to the fact that their captain had set aside, again and again, reports of deadly pack ice.
They, take their grandeur, numbers, and monetary success as a sign of God's blessing.
But is it? Is it considered good health to have a great athletic body, but inside to have a growing tumor which will bring death to it in six months?
Do we say that someone is blessed by God if he is rich, but his mind is so confused that he cannot make a single coherent statement?
Which is more valuable, the fifty carat rhinestone, or the one carat diamond?
The grand house which the SSPX has built is a house of straw which is ready to be blown down by the fuggy breath of the wolf in red Castrillon-Hoyos. When it collapses, and the only house left standing is the house of brick built by the nine priests and others like them, who took their stand against the spirit of compromise, then who will be the heroes?