What Does It Really Mean to be Faithful to the Church?: The SSPX and Safeguarding Tradition

On July 1st, the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is set to consecrate bishops in their order without papal approval. The Vatican has said that they will be excommunicated if they proceed with these consecrations, and supporters of the order are arguing that the SSPX wants to be faithful to the Church and only wishes to guard Her traditions through these consecrations. However, a desire to be faithful to the Church isn’t enough if your actions don’t align with this desire. Disobeying the pope is not being faithful to the Church and it shows a disregard for what He represents, which is the authority of Jesus Christ.

Jesus told Peter, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church” (Matthew 16:18). The foundation and authority given to Peter carries through to every pope up to the present day, and it will continue to carry through until the end of time. As Catholics, we don’t follow the pope because of who it is at the present time or what he’s doing. We follow the pope because he is the vicar of Christ and His representative on earth. This doesn’t mean he will always be perfect and do what he should, but because of the underlying foundation that is Christ, we must always remain faithful and obedient to the one who occupies the Chair of St. Peter, praying and offering sacrifices for him while suffering wrongs patiently (It’s a spiritual work of mercy plus it’s what Christ did during His Passion). We may offer criticism and not always agree, but we should never separate ourselves from the Holy Father and the Church because we don’t like what is being done.

What the SSPX is trying to say is that they do wish to remain faithful while still going through with these consecrations. They say they submit to papal authority yet want to appoint bishops without papal consent. Unfortunately for them, this doesn’t work out logically. If you want to submit to papal authority but only if the pope will allow things that you agree with, then you’re not really submitting to papal authority. You cannot pick and choose what the pope should do to gain your obedience.

Supporters of the order are pointing out that the SSPX is a traditional society that celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass and so it seems they are being unfairly targeted while more progressive stances in the Church are allowed to go on unchecked. Yes, this is unfair and can be frustrating, and as a priest told us in a homily after Archbishop Vigano was excommunicated: “I’m with you.” He agreed that it is frustrating when people on the right are targeted more than on the left. But, he said, we must still point out and correct wrongs that are committed both on the right and the left. Basically, yes it may be unfair, but if we want fairness, we have to be the first to advocate for it by being fair ourselves and correcting things on both sides. As regards the SSPX, this means that just because they are trying to safeguard tradition, which is a noble cause, that doesn’t mean that they can go about it the wrong way and ignore papal authority.

Separating yourself from the Church of Jesus Christ in order to try to safeguard tradition is actually shunning tradition by ignoring the authority of the Church Which has gone on for more than 2,000 years and has never failed to deliver the ones who remain faithful to Her from wayward popes and other trials. It also shows a lack of humility when we think that we have a better idea of how to run things then Christ Himself. Instead of separating ourselves from Holy Mother Church, we must trust that Christ will deliver us from unfair situations and reward us for staying the course and remaining faithful. Let us pray for the SSPX, that they may reconsider and choose to remain faithful to Pope Leo and to the Church.