Quote from: Matthew 2/7/2026, 1:06:57 AM
Anything touching on the Crisis is DOUBTFUL MATTER where leeway and benefit of the doubt is called for -- or is the "order of the day". In dubiis libertas.

I attend a Resistance chapel, because I believe the classic SSPX is the safest position to park yourself, with the goal of finding yourself  (and your family, children) still a good Catholic when the Crisis is over. Obviously when the SSPX gave up the fight, I followed the position to the group which continued to maintain it, the classic SSPX or "Resistance".

That doesn't mean I don't believe in my position, personally believe (in my opinion) that the Resistance is the best, or attack other positions with my words. But positions don't have feelings. I don't attack or ban other human beings made in God's image because they chose to park themselves in other positions to ride out the Crisis.

...

You lie to God.

... +Williamson...

...you lie...

...I will undoubtedly catch you in other lies...

So, back on topic of the consecrations, while anecdotal of course, after Mass this morning at SSPX chapel an older lady acosted me to inquire about the reported consecrations, where she was terrifed by the prospect of being schismatic.

I told her to just calm down since ...

1) there's no canonical penalty attached to merely saying that you're GOING to do consecrations ... and all the internet "lnfluencers" and grifters are making a lot of hay stirring things up, but nothing has happened, no chickens have hatched, and we can't put the cart before the horse

2) it's unlikely that Fr. Pagliarani will go ahead without Rome's approval, and this announcement was done to get Rome's attention after the latter had ignored previous requests for comment or discussion about the matter ... and it worked, as now Rome want to meet with them

3) even IF they go through with it, the bishops involved would get "excommunicated", and there's no penalty for anyone to keep going to their Masses, as excommunication is not contagious ... at most priests who would be ordained in the future by those bishops would be "suspended", but then no SSPX priests are in any kind of regular canonical status anyway, and, oh, BTW, you don't get excommunicated for, say, receiving Confirmation from one of those bishops either

4) even if consecrating without papal mandate is often referred to as a "schismatic act", it doesn't actually constitute schism per se, just makes you suspect, nor do priests who continue to stay in the SSPX or faithful who go to their Masses incur any penalties

5) Modernists have shot themselves in the foot, since their new Canon Law states explicitly that one can even attend Masses at schismatic churches (aka Greek Orthodox) for any just cause, and of course they leave that just cause vague and entirely subjective.  I think that saving your soul and getting Traditional Sacraments and avoiding Modernist poison certainly qualifies as just cause.

Of course, true Traditional Catholics admit that there's a schism, but know that it's Rome who are the ones that have split off from the Catholic Church, not us.  Yet this here is representative of the modern-day SSPX-er mentality.

I took this "gentle" approach with here, since even though she's weak, I didn't want her running off to some Bogus Ordo place in terror and, being older, die without valid Sacraments.  I did tell her at one point when she was hand-wringing about the Pope that I'm convinced that he's no pope at all and that there's nothing to be concerned about.  That may have gone over here head or not "registered" somehow.

But this is the kind of attitude you foster when SSPX play this game back and forth, where you suck up to the "Holy Father" and brag about having jurisdiction to hear Confessions, so that when that jurisdiction is taken away, now you have to backpedal and claim that jurisdiction wasn't necessary any (so then why were bragging about that the entire time?)  Are you telling all the married couples from the prior decades that they're not really married or that all the Confessions SSPX priests heard for decades without said "jurisdiction" were invalid?  That's what they strongly imply, but they try to have their cake and eat it too.

SSPX therefore know full well that they'll take a huge hit in terms of attendance if they go ahead with consecrations, much more of a hit than they did in 1988, when Traditional Catholics were much more staunch and convicted in their beliefs ... and given their ridiculous building projects, they know they can't afford too much of a drop in revenue (that's how little margin they left themselves with these foolhardy expenditures).

Rome on the other hand don't want them to accidentally pick some staunch Traditionalists to consecrate bishops ... so they'll make sure they only leave on this list the most foaming-at-the-mouth liberals one could find in SSPX, possibly even Modernist heretics like Fr. Paul Robinson.  So I think that this was just a ploy to get Rome talking, and the end result with be bishops of the caliber of a Fr. Robinson (sadly, Paul ... as Kevin would make a splendid bishop).

But I have spoken with quite a few of the modern SSPX attendees.  I know these are all new people, since the chapels in my area were relatively small, where everybody knew everybody, and each chapel had a core of about maybe 10 larger families that somehow (if you add in more extended relatives) constituted about 75% of the chapel's attendeeds (with prospects of inbreeding become an actual concern).  Now the SSPX chapel there has more than quadrupled in size, largely after Bergs gave SSPX "jurisdiction" to hear confessions.  But the end result is that you have an extremely watered-down type of Traditionalist who's par for the course these days.

The faster a chapel grows, the worse it will be in terms of how much of a "Trad" the faithful are in general. Even though the Francis era made "Trads" grow, it seems that even by accident he promoted his evil, since the faithful in most places of Traddielad are pretty watered down now, with so much new people who know little about the movement and are not necessarily disposed to learn.