But if you think about it, $50,000,000 would be sufficient to buy homes for 200 Catholic families. I'm sure there are many couples with 8-10 children struggling to make ends meet, and many faithful assisting at Mass in dumpy little quasi-chapels, wondering whether the $50,000,000 could have been better spent. They could have spent about $1,000,000 tops to expand Winona with an extra wing, modernize the HVAC system, etc. and it would have been perfectly fine. Or I'm sure they could have built an adequate facility for about $10,000,000 from scratch. So this is an incredible extravagence.
As great is it would be for the SSPX to get into the charity business, and start giving brand-new homes to poor people, a similar argument could be made that even if they stuck to building and maintaining CHAPELS, the money could be better spent.
I know that one of those $250,000 family homes you quote could buy PLENTY of chapel for many places. Our "chapel" here is a metal warehouse building 1,200 square feet, 12 foot roof. Even when you include assembly, putting in electrical/plumbing, air conditioning, and misc. "finishing", you could get a lot of chapel space for $100,000.
Long story short, the SSPX was, and should be, in the "mission chapel" or "lifeboat" business. Not building parish CHURCHES, monuments, or anything like that. They should be all about building infrastructure for priests to travel around, stay here or there, say Mass here or there (some chapels larger, some smaller) and
serving as many Faithful in the United States as possible. You know, saving souls and keeping the Faith alive. Transmitting the Faith to the next generation via Traditional doctrine, Mass, and sacraments. The only goal of +ABL.Building $50 million monuments does NOT meet that goal. That suggests a radically different goal (impressing The World, impressing the Modernists in Rome, etc.)
Solving the Crisis in the Church was only ever a nice "extra". If the SSPX could have a hand in it, then great. But all THEY have to do (all WE have to do) is do our duty, keep the Faith, maintain hope, and save our souls.
Solving the Crisis is in God's hands alone. He MIGHT make use of us -- but let's put it this way: He can best make use of us if we are faithful to HIM FIRST and put our TRUST IN HIM, not in man, not in marketing corporations, not in numbers, not in money.