I wasn't alive then, but right before Vatican II apparently the Church was doing VERY WELL materially in terms of numbers, finances, even in terms of conversions. The Church was in victory/expansion mode.

I heard that even certain countries were on the verge of "falling", in terms of capitulating their resistance to Catholicism. India, for example, was allegedly on the verge of falling like dominoes into Catholicism.

And then Vatican II happened.

Fast forward to today.

The SSPX was a work spanning decades, with the fruits of the various holy priests and their apostolates (including confessions, sermons, the Tridentine Mass, retreats, boys camps, and much more) were starting to come to fruition through an increasing overflowing US Seminary (Winona, MN).

What I'm trying to say is -- the overflowing seminary is NOT because they got rid of Bishop Williamson, moderated their position to be more Conciliar Rome friendly, massively censored the Archbishop, G.R.E.C., or anything like that. In fact, the growth happened IN SPITE OF these foolish moves on the part of the SSPX leadership.

I know this to be true. I was there. The growth happened once the boys schools (etc.) had a chance to grow fruit. Once the SSPX was large enough, you basically had to wait 18 years until one generation who grew up with good Catholic training from the get-go could get to Seminary entrance age.

And just look at your "recent history" books. It's a fact that the SSPX was almost microscopic in the USA during the 1980's (in terms of property, numbers, etc.) It started to bounce back by 1990. Ask around your SSPX chapel -- how many people there pre-date 1990? I bet not very many.

After listening to Fr. Wolfgang Goettler's "history of the SSPX" conference, I now understand why. (Fr. Goettler is a German priest who has been in the SSPX since the very beginning -- a rare feat!) This conference is where I learned how decimated the SSPX was only 30 years ago. This is the time period when +Lefebvre contemplated pulling the SSPX out of the USA altogether.

A year after I got there, in 2001, we had 38 seminarians.
By the time I left in Dec 2003, we had 65. The flood had begun.

According to many priests, etc. they attributed the surge in entrants to the fruits of our various schools. And that's exactly what started to happen -- right before things started to tumble down.

Just like Vatican II. The Church was on the cusp of great growth, but the devil comes in RIGHT in the nick of time and demolishes it all.

History repeats itself?

This thought came to me as I was watching the SSPX's latest update video on their new seminary.

 May the Sacred Heart of Jesus shine for his light
on us his faithful remnant to be true with him.

 I think many have learned now that we have so many advances
to get knowledge so fast and communicate with others worldwide,
at such a convenience in so many places. I wonder why it took this
long for some to learn about Catholicity in the right way.