The repartee between the Society of St. Pius X and the Conciliar Church has blossomed into a tragicomic caricature of churchmanship, an ecclesial version of Saturday Night Live, an ever more tiresome spoof put on by actors who effortlessly drift between parody and absurdity.
Don’t get me wrong, as numerous posts on this blog indicate, there are any number of issues surrounding the SSPX and its relationship with conciliar Rome that deserve thoughtful treatment.
Even so, the disingenuous pseudo-pious rhetoric is now so over the top that it’s difficult to take seriously.
SSPX Superior General Fr. Davide Pagliarani’s most recent Love Letter to Leo is a perfect example, starting with the greeting.
Most Holy Father…
Sure, the SSPX routinely addressed the much more obnoxious heretic Bergoglio the same way, but that doesn’t make the present case any less preposterous by comparison. In fact, I would argue that the opposite is true.
With every passing year, the apostasy in Rome accumulates as each successive anti-pope dutifully leads naïve souls further down the poisonous path forged by his predecessors.
And let us not forget that among the very first lines spoken by Prevost upon assuming the stage name Leo XIV was the infamous declaration (or threat, if you prefer), “We want to be a Synodal Church!”
This is the same charlatan who insists that Francis is looking down on us from Heaven. He has also made clear his admiration for Amoris Laetitia and even issued an Apostolic Letter [sic] of his own confirming the indisputably schismatic Orthodox, reassuring them, “We share the same faith.”
Some Holy Father, no?
Fr. Pagliarani went on to lament “the profoundly tragic context in which the universal Church finds herself,” namely, “the doctrinal and moral confusion into which the Church is plunged.”
The Superior General’s somber assessment of Mother Church’s ill health no doubt moved throngs of sincere but brainwashed “trads” to nod in sorrowful agreement, as if numerous holy popes and saints were sadly mistaken when they taught throughout the centuries, without equivocation, that the Church cannot err in faith and morals.
Fr. Pagliarani went on to say of the Society’s attempts to convey to Rome the necessity of consecrating bishops:
“We had asked for bread … we received a stone.”
“We had asked for a fish … we received a serpent.”
“We had asked for an egg …. we received a scorpion.”
Phrases lifted from Sacred Scripture are to be expected in a letter to an alleged pope, I suppose.
Even so, Fr. Pagliarani’s words read like a Masterpiece Theatre script from which Old English lines are recited by actors in Medieval costumery. In other words, very much like his expressions of diplomatic deference directed toward His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, Fr. Pagliarani’s use of bible quotes comes off as performative, forced, and contrived, to say nothing of the fact that the loving father-faithful son dynamic doesn’t even remotely fit the facts on the ground.
That’s bad enough, but what came next is pure unadulterated fiction:
“We had asked to be instructed and confirmed in the faith of all time; instead, we have been declared schismatic a second time.”
On second thought, fiction is way too polite.
The SSPX most certainly did not turn to Rome for instruction, rather, it took upon itself the role of instructor. At no point in this most recent dust-up did the SSPX behave as a child looking up to a parent, much less a subject seeking guidance from a superior.
Even so, Fr. Pagliarani protested a bit too much, writing:
“We in no way claim to substitute ourselves for the Church…”
So, let me get this straight: The SSPX was instructed in no uncertain terms by those who exercise authority in “the Church,” up to and including the “Holy Father,” to refrain from consecrating bishops and they did it anyway.
I suppose it’s true, the SSPX doesn’t really consider itself a substitute, rather, it considers itself superior to the entity they call “the Church” and the man they call pope!
Nearing the conclusion of his missive, Fr. Pagliarani wrote:
The Society of Saint Pius X sincerely renews the promise it has already expressed to Your Holiness … to devote all its energies to preserving Tradition and placing it at the service of the Church…
Ah, yes, preserving the ancient and immutable pastime of priests and bishops instilling fear in the faithful, cautioning them that they must ever be on guard against corrupt faith and morals propagated by the Church, often by the Roman Pontiff himself, lest they be deceived all the way to Hell.
Viva tradition!
