If you'll excuse my optimism, I'm forced to conclude that "it could have been worse" without God's intervention/protection. Especially considering the magnitude of the willingness to betray and change the SSPX.
What if Pope Benedict XVI had signed the deal before he resigned?
I don't know what people WANTED to have happen instead of what happened today -- but keep in mind FREE WILL. The individual SSPX Catholics (who want a deal) can't have their Free Will violated, nor can Bp. Fellay, Fr. Pfluger, Krah -- the list goes on.
Remember, Vatican II was the same way. It wasn't just a corruption at the top -- it was a corruption ALL OVER, including and especially the laymen at the bottom. Vatican II is what people wanted all along. They wanted more and more to be accepted by the modern world.
Sounds like the SSPX circa 2011. You can't have more and more worldliness, compromise, and dissonance in the lives of countless SSPX Catholics and still have the SSPX cruise along for decades on end with no problems.
Well, Mathew, I will not question your optimism!! And, we certainly won't question the way Our Lady brought a tremendous halt to the proceedings, using her rosaries like that !
However, a great part of me wishes that it actually happened-- that they publicly signed a deal, that the sodomite and perverted bishops and cardinals and rabbis in Rome and New York City all rose up in great exclamation and welcomed "back" the recalcitrant SSPX-- then we'd have a much better chance of waking people up.
Seems the remnant is getting smaller and smaller. This "slow cooking" of he frog is boiling away the zeal of many formerly "traditional" Catholics.