Month: December 2015

December 8, 2015 has come and is coming to a close.  There has been much hype amongst Traditional Catholics that this might have very well been the day that the neo-SSPX would officially announce a canonical agreement with Rome in the form of a Personal Prelature.  It is 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time – the time of the writing of this post; no announcement will be coming forth this day.

What does this lack of announcement mean for yellow lighters, that is, those Resistance clergy and faithful that for now reduce the acceptability of attending neo-SSPX Masses to the quality of the individual neo-SSPX priest?  Well, they will just have to wait longer before red lighting neo-SSPX Masses as the announcing of a canonical agreement is the red line that most Resistance clergy and faithful have drawn.  These yellow lighters, however, may very well be yellow lighting for some time to come.  Meanwhile, after three years and still counting, the Resistance movement has not gained much ground and is now weakening before our very eyes.

I propose that the yellow light position is partly guilty for the lack of gaining ground and current weakening of the Resistance movement.  The argument goes something like this:

The yellow light position is wishy-washy.  It keeps neo-SSPX priests and the faithful that have never stopped attending their Masses from leaving the neo-SSPX and consequently keeps the Resistance from growing.  On the other hand, as time drags on with the neo-SSPX and Rome continuing to negotiate, but without reaching a canonical agreement (or at least not announcing one potentially already signed), most Resistance priests maintain the yellow light position until an agreement is announced.  Meanwhile, some yellow light faithful get weary of the fight and/or become gradually absorbed into the neo-SSPX mentality causing them to permanently reintegrate with the neo-SSPX.  I would not be surprised if even red light faithful become negatively affected by continuous attendance at the Masses of yellow light clergy. Furthermore, the yellow light clergy themselves are susceptible to soften as time goes by.

And what is an underlying cause of the yellow light position itself?  It is that its holders fail to grasp that the neo-SSPX is toast right now and has been since 2012 because of its betrayal (i.e., April 15, 2012 Doctrinal Declaration, 2012 General Chapter Statement and Six Conditions, canonical agreement without Rome’s conversion, etc.) of the Catholic Faith.  This betrayal constitutes the marriage between the neo-SSPX and Rome; the canonical agreement will only constitute the consummation of that marriage.  Now yellow lighters will say either that the marriage has not yet taken place or that it has not yet been consummated.  To the former I say, “What more evidence do you need?  Why is the tsunami of evidence that has accumulated thus far not sufficient for you to conclude that a betrayal of the Catholic Faith has taken place?  The mere will of the neo-SSPX to join Modernist Rome without its conversion should be sufficient to show a betrayal of the Faith because it places the Faith in harm’s way.”  To the latter I say, “What person in their right mind would say that a marriage between a man and woman is not valid until it is consummated?  The validity of a marriage is sufficient to say that the bride and groom are off limits to anybody else who has a sense of decency.  Likewise, the validity of the marriage between the neo-SSPX and Rome is sufficient to say that they are off limits to both priests and faithful who claim to love the Catholic Faith.”

Unfortunately, the yellow light position proposes that the woman (neo-SSPX) is still available to other men (priests and faithful) because a marriage has not yet taken place or that the bride (neo-SSPX) is still available to other men (priests and faithful) because the marriage has not yet been consummated.  Sigh.  If we want the Resistance movement to (re)gain ground, I believe red lighting will give it a boost that it dearly needs.