Reading the salty responses in this thread one would think Fr. Hewko insulted the Lyceum itself when the forum he was referring to is a <moderated>

All it means is that the salt has not lost its savor!  🧂  

Are you a “Fr. Hewko cult member”?  If so, it proves at least one person uses the internet!

(BTW, Fr. Hewko does NOT tell people not to use the internet!  He encourages its use for accessing good Catholic literature, sermons, conferences, music, etc. He reluctantly concedes it is a necessary part of functioning in modern life for business, information, and so forth.  He strongly cautions parents about its danger to children.)

We're not here to gossip and speculate about the Resistance bishops. Let's keep it on topic.

I certainly find Fr. Hewko's comments about the forum not only inappropriate, but even ridiculous to a degree.

As a bit of an ancedote, I found this website to be a resource of great value as I was coming from the Novus Ordo into Tradition. Having no traditional Catholics in my life at the time to set an example and point me in the right direction, this place provided me with those things, albeit through the lesser realm of the digital world. Now that I regularly attend Mass at a traditional chapel and have a solid friend group there, things are different, but I see clearly that this website was an aid to me in that phase of my conversion.

This does not excuse the bad elements of this forum, but to see only poison in discussions among Catholics about serious issues in the Crisis in the Church is giving into sentimentalism. Sure, sometimes the arguments here get annoying and rather heated, but the worst arguments on CathInfo hold nothing to the venom to the drama one finds and hears about on Twitter, 4chan, Discord, etc. In the example of Twitter particularly, that platform has a vile history with the "cancel culture" of the SJWs; such incidents have resulted in death threats, addresses being doxxed, excremental language being hurled all in the name of being a "decent human being" to use a pet phrase of those Pharisees. Now, do these things sound anything like the behavior of the users of our alleged "cesspool of filth and sewage"?

Fr. Hewko would have been justified in calling those websites cesspools "filth and sewage", but he chose to single out CathInfo instead. It's quite sad that he has let his judgement become clouded by an unjustified bias, and we ought to continue our prayers for him.

If Fr Hewko wanted rehab, he could get help.  He's a grown man.  And God would help him.  Whatever problems you assume he has, it's not +W's fault, or anyone else's.

Assuming Father wanted help, do you know of any priest who would give Fr. Hewko an exorcism, under the authority of Bp. Zendejas? 

To clarify my point on Fr. Hewko’s dilemma.

 If +W had created an SSPX Resistance structure instead of  decentralizing and allowing for a leadership vacuum, there would be a Resistance managing team of priests and laity to assist Fr. Hewko. 

This Resistance team would also help organize and sustain independent chapels, raise funds, etc., instead of letting the SSPX take the real estate for free. 

Here's an idea, I could be wrong about, but hear me out.

Incredulous alleges that +Williamson, using his powerful personality, could have coalesced and spearheaded the Resistance, functioning as a force-multiplier to make the Resistance bigger, better, stronger, even larger than all the independent and other priests in the Resistance combined (as we see it today).

First of all, you can't thwart God's will. If God meant for an SSPX II, you better believe it would have happened. +Williamson's glory (that God had planned for him) would have been taken from him and given to another. God doesn't need ANY of us -- not even a precious rarity like a Traditional Bishop in 2023. God is fully in control.

If God had wanted an SSPX II in 2023, there would BE an SSPX II in 2023. Perhaps with Bp. Zendejas, Bp. Faure, Bp. Novak, Bp. Timothy Pfeiffer, or someone else at the helm. God makes His will happen. He can resort to inspirations, miracles if need be. He arranges everything in power and wisdom. Going against His holy will is kicking against the goad. Completely futile.

Second of all, you assume that countless others both priest and laity "would have" jumped ship and joined the Resistance if +Williamson had acted as a unifying lightning rod, a second coming of +Lefebvre as it were, to create an SSPX II as it were.

But that is open for debate. The SSPX has powerful propaganda. The world has its claws into MOST of the SSPX faithful. People don't want to abandon their chapels they've donated to for years. Some of them don't understand the Archbishop's fight to begin with. Many of the SSPX Faithful are ignorant about the Crisis, Vatican II, etc. Some are recent converts from the Novus Ordo. The list of reasons is very long.

And even a 1/10 scale model of the SSPX would pale in comparison to "what they have" by staying in the SSPX. So don't kid yourself. Those who left for principles, the Faith, dogmatic reasons (the current Resistance) would have left either way. And those who stayed for "practical" reasons would still have stayed in the SSPX -- for the same reasons: the priests would say they can help more people in the SSPX, and the Faithful would enjoy more of everything by staying in the SSPX.

So there you have it.

And even a 1/10 scale model of the SSPX would pale in comparison to "what they have" by staying in the SSPX. So don't kid yourself. Those who left for principles, the Faith, dogmatic reasons (the current Resistance) would have left either way. And those who stayed for "practical" reasons would still have stayed in the SSPX

Indeed, Matthew, there you have it! 100%!

I think all the independent priests WANTED/WANT to be independent.

Your idea that there would be a flourishing SSPX II "if only Bishop Williamson had thought differently" has numerous problems:

1. If creating an SSPX II were meant to be, i.e., there were enough Resistant priests willing to work under a bishop and/or group, then SOMEONE would have stepped in to fill the leadership void by now. Bp. Zendejas, for example.

2. If Bp. Williamson is responsible for the would-be "substantial Resistance group" disbanding and dispersing, then WHERE ARE THEY NOW? You're not claiming +Williamson killed them or caused them to abandon their vocation or something, so where are they now? Where are all these Resistant priests who sighed and went off on their own reluctantly because of +Williamson?


The "structured" Resistance under Bp. Zendejas for example is as big as it ever was going to be. You can't create priests out of thin air. The SSPX II just wasn't meant to happen. It's a different time than back in the 70's. Right now we're talking about a remnant of a remnant. Eventually it gets too small to have a District House, Book Publishing company, Retreat Center, College like at St. Mary's, large 100-capacity seminary, etc. You can't keep LITERALLY decimating (lopping zeroes off, making something 1/10th as big) a group and still maintain those things.

Your last sentence has me scratching my head. There aren't enough people to do "fundraising". There are barely enough supporters to support the handful of chapels there are. And what properties are the SSPX picking up for free? I wasn't aware of any free properties for the taking. And besides, even if there were, what could anyone do about it? Without enough priests to serve the chapels, they're going to stay "available" for the first priest (or group) who comes along.

And why wouldn't one of these "orphaned" forced-to-be-Independent priests end up with this free real estate instead of the SSPX? Your accusations don't even add up or make sense.

Stop blaming +Williamson for the Crisis in the Church II: The Next Phase. It's not his fault.

I disagree.

There was a time of grace when an "SSPX 2B" could have been established, and in fact this was the original intent of the Resistance: If +Fellay sold out, we'd start anew.

The notion of independence was not within the collective consciousness of resistance clergy or laity in 2012, until +Williamson introduced it when he joined the already extant resistance movement (which he soon transformed after his advent).

Only a revisionist will deny this, but you will not find any mention of "independence" in any of the original Resistance blogs, like Save Our SSPX, TrueTrad, or NonPossumus, et al.

When Fr. Pfeiffer went to war with +Williamson over this point, the rest of us only had two choices:

Join the war (but lose a bishop), or bite our lips (and lose our future). 

It was a lose-lose position to be put in, and the cause of it was that+Williamson did not want what we wanted (and needed): A congregation, with all the structure, seminary, hierarchy, and stability which come with it.

By 2014, the schism was a public scandal, and the observant SSPX clergy and laity saw there was no future in an independence movement.

By 2015, with the episcopal consecration of +Faure, we gained a seminary and congregation, but it was too little, too late for any large-scale resistance: The once-interested SSPXers had already turned away their gaze and slunk back into complacency, having seen the writing on the wall.

It has to be admitted that the original sin of the Resistance was for a movement which proclaimed hyper-fidelity to Lefebvre, to have allowed itself to have been lured away from his vision of organization for the apostolate. 

What could have been, now will never be.  But there was a time of grace which was missed.

So...God's will has been defeated you're saying? Give me a break!

"Could have been" and "What if" are the devil's 2 favorite phrases. You know that, right?

God could raise up children to Abraham TODAY if He wanted to. No one thwart's God's will. Or his overall Providence and plan for the world, for the history of mankind.

Keep in mind this whole CRISIS is on God's timetable. It will end precisely when God intends it to. He is fully in control.

You're saying there could have been an SSPX II if only we had a bishop who wanted to try that. But some human being (priest, bishop) would have stepped up and filled the void -- if that had been God's will. Are you saying +Williamson was *that* special? He's just a bishop. There are other bishops. And even more priests -- who could be consecrated validly in due time. There are plenty of valid bishops and priests in the world of Tradition.

I support +Williamson as much as anyone -- but I disagree that he was "our only hope, and he blew it!"

Red herring.