In 1896, the American Congregationalist minister Charles Monroe Sheldon published a book subtitled, What Would Jesus Do?
Some 100 years later, the initials WWJD – an abbreviated representation of the very same question – began appearing on bracelets, bumper stickers, coffee mugs and all manner of Protestant kitsch.
As a moral compass, the question itself has a great deal of merit, but only to the extent that it is guided by an authentic sensus Catholicus.
Apart from this, fallen men will inevitably create a Jesus of their own making; a false god who, surprise, surprise, just so happens to share their every opinion.
A good example of this can be found in the writings of the Protestant philosopher and author, Kelly James Clark, who went so far as to play the WWJD card to insist that “the followers of Jesus should not impose their moral views on gay marriage.”
This phenomenon of creating a shadow authority that confirms one’s every position is not, however, exclusively Protestant; in fact, it appears rather evident in what is perhaps the most unlikely of places – the Society of St. Pius X.
In this particular instance, the Society’s leadership, as well as those who dissent from their positions, frequently cite the example of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre; with each side accusing the other of failing to properly discern, “WWMD?” – What Would Marcel Do?
The end result isn’t all that different than what is found among the Protestants as each one inevitably creates an Archbishop of their own making; a dubious authority figure who, surprise, surprise, just so happens to share their every opinion.
In spite of their errors, the Protestants are at least asking the right question.
The same cannot be said, however, of those whose default approach to the present situation is to ask, “WWMD?”
Now, don’t misunderstand me: I think that one does very well to delve deeply into the writings and the example of Archbishop Lefebvre; looking to him as a model of faithful Catholic sonship even in the most difficult of times.
To do so, however, is to recognize that Archbishop Lefebvre didn’t engage the crisis with Rome, such as it was in his day, by asking What Would Fr. Lefloch – or any other purely human figure – Do?
Rather, he faced every challenge that came his way by prayerfully pondering the whole of Catholic tradition, allowing this alone to serve as his guide, and we must do the same.
The crisis with Rome, such as it was in his day…
Let’s be very clear:
While Archbishop Lefebvre faced many unprecedented challenges, never did he face anything like Francis and his Love Letter to Satan; otherwise known as, Amoris Laetitia.
As such, while I do not doubt the good intentions of those who, in their approach to today’s circumstances, lay exclusive claim to the Archbishop’s example, I do believe that the “WWMD?” method is a cop out; even if taken inadvertently.
It seems to me that those who sincerely wish to honor the memory of Archbishop Lefebvre by tempering their reaction to Amoris Laetitia, as if to claim that he would do the same if alive today, are actually doing him a grave injustice.
For instance, this is the message conveyed in Fr. Jean-Michel Gleize’s recent series of articles on Francis and Amoris Laetitia.
[NOTE: I have confirmed with SSPX leadership that these articles do indeed represent the Society’s official position.]
Think about it:
Francis, via an “Apostolic Exhortation” disseminated throughout the Universal Church, plainly insists that God at times “asks” us to persist in the mortal sin of adultery. (cf AL 303) That’s right – according to Francis, the very Author of the Commandment against adultery is said to occasionally will it!
Can there be any doubt that Archbishop Lefebvre would have publicly condemned, and in the severest of terms, this blatant affront to the All Holy God?
And yet, in a lengthy series of articles wherein he proposed to examine Francis vis-à-vis the text of Amoris Laetitia, Fr. Gleize not only chose to ignore this clearly blasphemous and heretical assertion altogether, he even claimed recourse to the prudence of Archbishop Lefebvre in drawing the conclusion that Francis cannot be considered to have rejected, or even contradicted, revealed truth.
In conclusion:
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre ran his race. He remained faithful in spite of every obstacle that the Evil One and his coconspirators placed in his path.
Now, it’s our turn.
The enemy remains the same, but the obstacles that we face are most certainly unique.
It’s time for all who love tradition to cease playing the “WWMD?” card and to get on with the business of directly engaging the heresies of Francis like true soldiers for Christ.
When the SSPX didn’t come out in support of the four Cardinals I guessed there was a change of heart in that camp. The discussions on their reported offer of a personal prelature must have had a great deal to do with their decision to keep quiet. Not the Knights in shining armour then, ready & willing to do battle for Christ’s Church on earth after all. Have they analysed what effect this will have on Traditional Catholics as a whole? They will now be seen as the ones who hung out the four Cardinals to dry on an issue they themselves should have given their full backing to. This is a tragedy.
The issue for SSPX is not AL or Francis. It is still the same issue as it was in the 1970s. Is V2 and the NO Catholic? The SSPX tried to get answers from Rome to the meaning of certain V2 documents. I would say after 50 years if the SSPX still doesnt know the answer, then they are not too swift or are in denial. The answer is obvious and has been demonstrated countless times and in countless ways. It is no longer Catholic. So SSPX, what’s plan B? Because plan A isnt going anywhere.
I tend to agree. They roared like lions at the abuses of JPII and Benedict XVI, but have been quite as church mice by comparison as of late, with a pope that is far worse by any standard.
Once again, this argument makes no sense. While Archbishop Lefebvre lived, St. JPII allowed non-Catholics including the “Eastern Orthodox” to receive communion in the universally promulgated new code of Canon Law. Now, the Orthodox can be said to hold on to many heresies including denying papal infallibility, but what is truly remarkable is that the Orthodox also allow divorce and remarriage!
It is perfectly clear that if the SSPX were to act against Pope Francis they would HAVE to declare that SJPII had lost the pontificate with the imposition of the new code of canon law. How is this not clear to everyone?
You have a gift for describing what is happening with great clarity and truth. A Catholic voice in the wilderness. Thank you and may God console and guide and protect you.
Credibility must be earned. It is like trust, difficult to build up, easy to break down.
The SSPX, as far as I can tell, does not any longer deserve credibility, and likely does not deserve our trust as well.
There is only one time to answer to a crisis. A fireman who runs to a blaze after the structure is cinder and ashes is useless. It does no good to say “I wish that I had been there to put this fire out!”, when he actually was there all along, he just chose to look in the opposite direction, at a house that was not burning down. How can the SSPX be taken seriously now that they have chosen, CHOSEN, to remain silent, get some property, and prepare to set up house with heretics and destroyers? Feh, as a Catholic, I have no use for such men. Perhaps you do.
The time is not only short, it is NOW, for men to proclaim whom they serve, and if they serve Christ, to defend the faith and the flock. We do not need advanced degrees in theology to comprehend this entire situation. It is actually quite obvious and easy. We see the heretics and destroyers. We see the enablers. We see the weak and cowardly, who enable both. Personally we don’t want anything to do with any of them.
Gang, its perfectly clear to sedevacantists.
Evangeline–Thank you for this comment. It is exactly how I feel. It’s a matter of trust. If the SSPX leadership feels they can trust Modernist Rome (especially under the current pontificate), then the SSPX has lost its trustworthiness. If the SSPX feels they could better convert Rome from within, then the SSPX is delusional. If the SSPX leadership thinks they could function without fear of the wolves, they are seriously naive. I always felt the SSPX was the safety net for aka Catholics, now they are walking the tightrope. Let’s pray that these rumors are nothing more than rumors. Bishop Fellay needs our prayers for guidance.
If we try to find a complement for the message of La Salette in the silent symbolism of Knock, we see that the crisis in the Church prophesized in La Salette are confirmed by the presence of St. John, who appeared as a Bishop with a book – probably the Apocalypse – in his hand. This is tantamount to him saying: “The crisis that Our Lady predicted in La Salette, which will make Rome become the seat of the Antichrist and will represent the eclipse of the Church, I also prophesized in the Apocalypse.”
So, we should understand the crisis as something permitted by God for His final victory and greater glory. For the glory of the Lamb of God, which also appears luminous over the altar in Knock as well as in the Apocalypse. It is something that invites us not to despair, but to trust Our Lady and Our Lord.
Also the presence of St. Joseph, Protector of the Church, in the Knock apparition sends the message: “No matter how grave the crisis may be, I will continue to protect the Church and lead her to a safe port as I did with the Holy Family. You, the faithful, must have recourse to me and my Most Holy Spouse, the Virgin Mary, in this crisis.” Again, the message is to increase our confidence in the supernatural.
http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/a061_Knock_3.html
If you made them out to be Knights in Shining Armour then that’s on you, Ana Milan. You may now view them as the “ones who hung out the four Cardinals” but that could also be because you are putting too much stock into mere mortals.
We shouldn’t’ do that.
It is very clear. I think more and more people are seeing the contradiction. Gangenelli may be an enemy of the Faith, but he makes a lot of sense sometimes.
The beginning of the end for the SSPX, barring Divine intervention, was the Williamson affair, which was a cleverly engineered black op:
https://onemillimeterpeter.wordpress.com/2017/03/30/the-anglican-conspiracy/
Williamson is now laughing it up, promoting the horrendous Poem of the Man-God, and being fawned over by the Cathinfo cult. In the meantime, the SSPX have been floundering around like blind men. St. Marcel Lefebvre, pray for us all!
Unfortunately, if you apply WWMD logic, you would first have to pick which Marcel to emulate. Based on the Abp’s sermons and writings, he went back and forth on his opinion of modernist Rome. In hindsight he should have just decided to have nothing to do with them anymore. He did say at one time that reconcilliation would happen without any need of negotiations if Rome would return to the faith. Well its obvious that Rome has not returned, so why the push for reconciliation?
All this pettifogging scribbling. You’d all do yourselves a much greater service by hitting your knees and praying that things don’t get worse. And what makes any of you think that the Vatican or anyone else is going to survive 2017? Remember Fatima? Or is that no longer relevant? This endless blather about what the SSPX is going to do or not do is a waste of time. And it always the same people. Don’t you have anything better with which to occupy your time. Just make sure your own house is in order: pray the daily Rosary, do spiritual reading, it’s Lent, pray the Stations of the Cross. All this is just pride rearing its ugly head as though anyone is really interested in what anyone else has to say. It’s written today and tomorrow it’s forgotten…until the next time when each of you can pat yourself on the back and proudly proclaim: there: I contributed some profound and insightful comments.
It’s all rubbish. The Welsh have a saying for this type of self-congratulation.
Mae pechod mawr fynd i mewn trwy ddrws bach. [A great sin can enter through a small door.]
You make some good points, but we are also called to save souls. If something is amiss its your Catholic duty to point it out. At least thats how I see it. You say that worrying about what the SSPX is going to do or not is a waste of time. According to that way of thinking, why should anyone say anything about anyone? Why communicate at all?
Its called passion. Everyone is passionate about something. For me, its my salvation and the salvation of my family, friends, and ultimately all of mankind. Don’t criticize how others express that passion. If you are not called to these sorts of discussions, then don’t read them and follow the rest of your advice and pray for your salvation and that of your family’s, plus ours as well. The temporal Church is rudderless at the moment. Those who many think are its Captain and leaders are in fact enemy agents. We are in unchartered waters. Avoid the modernists, pray your Rosary, and follow God’s call for your mission in these troubled times.
You made my point. “Why communicate at all”? It’s a waste of life. No one can do anything to change the situation anyway. “If something is amiss it[‘]s your Catholic duty to point it out”. But pointing it out to each other is like “preaching to the choir”. But if you want to keep posting go ahead if you believe your doing some good but in the larger scheme of things it matters little. As I wrote, tomorrow it will tossed into the dustbin of history and no one will remember. The SSPX will do what it does and the Vatican will do what it does. Sitting about chewing on your finger nails won’t change a thing.
Dduw bendithia chi.
If a Catholic doesn’t want to ask what Archbishop Lefebvre would or might do in the current situation in the Church, then that’s their choice. After all, the Archbishop was not a sedevacantist. So…he can’t be used by the sedevacantists in order to further the idea that Francis is not the Pope.
But…..since there would be no TLM offered in the conciliar church today (including Summorum Pontificum) then I think it’s fair to look to the Archbishop in this terrible time of Crisis. Anyone who attends a diocesan TLM owes a debt of gratitude to Archbishop Lefebvre. And, it was the Archbishop who rightly saw what was happening to the Church, while others simply went along with it. Archbishop Lefebvre was never deluded about what was going on. That’s one reason why we look his example for guidance.
The degree of Modernist heresy that a Pope adheres to is not the issue. Francis is far more Modernist than his predecessors, but his predecessors were still modernists. Either one is a modernist, or not. All of the Popes since the Council have been modernists, and therefore at odds with the Catholic Faith. So what if Francis is worse. It was inevitable that we would get a Francis eventually.
You write well about your passion for the salvation of your family, friends and all of mankind. That is my wish as well. And, some people who aren’t totally asleep, which most people who call themselves Catholics are, already know that the Vatican is filled with “enemy agents”, Masons, pederasts, and satanists. But endless writing about it isn’t going to change anything. The only recourse is prayer and lots of it. That is where your passion should be focused. Having said that if you believe your “passion” is posting on forums then be my guest. I’ll just leave you with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3FDsy5mRFE
Dduw bendithia chi.
Gwaredd-If this is how you truly feel, why take the time and effort to make your comments.
The Archbishop had grave concerns about the validity of orders in the new church. If he was correct, its safe to say that Benedict was never a bishop and Francis was never even a priest.
“He who governs his passions is master of the world. We must either rule them, or be ruled by them.”
-St. Dominic
stevesojac:
You are calumniating a good man, a good priest, a good bishop. Your sick article about Bp. Williamson is beyond calumny – it’s utterly demonic.
Would Jesus continue this game of cat and mouse and for 50 years?
I think traditioninaction.org has it figured out. It is Mao’s strategy to defeat the enemy. Keep them disoriented. Or, keep flashing a piece of meat in front of a dog and keep snatching it away. He’ll keep coming back hoping to get the meat.
If the SSPX thinks the Church after Vatican II is the same Catholic Church as it was prior to it, it has no credibility and no right to keep disobeying pope after pope and the teachings of magisterium after magisterium when they believe all to be valid.
All they have accomplished is give the revolutionary anti-Christ’s within the Modernist church more time to convince more people to join their revolution. Either submit and quit playing cat and mouse or stand up for Christ and state they will never compromise with any change that doesn’t leave the true faith intact.
That’s a good question which has boggled the minds of men since the introduction of this miserable vehicle called the internet. It’s simply addicting and while I’m trying desperately to break the habit, it’s difficult. I used to be a habitual poster on JewTube, and a lot of other blogs and forums until I realized that no one really cares what I nor anyone else really thinks about anything. Everyone just want to get their “2cents” in.
I guess a lot of my reason for posting here is that there seems to be posts by some people, certainly not all, who want to keep taking the SSPX to task for “crimes” real or imagined. This bothers me and here’s why.
This past week my mother-in-law was taken to hospital and was not expected to live. She hadn’t been to the sacraments for years–her husband for over 40. She had the nasty habit of swearing at the drop of the hat. In any event I knew as well as my wife that these N.O. priests generally don’t waste much time on the dying except for saying a few prayers and giving them some sort of blessing since everyone goes to Heaven anyway. My sister-in-law’s comment was: “She’s basically a good person so God will over-look her faults”. That’s what 50 years of N.O. brain-washing did to one person. My wife and I both knew that she needed the Traditional rites of the Church. But how? My wife made a phone call to the nearest chapel co-ordinator to find out where to contact their priest. She finally made contact and this SSPX priest who then drove two and half hours in the pouring rain at 10.00 at night to hospital to administer the last rites. That’s Charity! So when I hear negative comments about the SSPX I tend to get a bit un-hinged.
So my comments about a lot of this endless posting about this and that seems to me pointless. We prayed for a miracle and received one. Whether it will bear fruit remains to be seen. The docs performed a heart catheterization which showed no defects so home she goes. Now, she’ll be back with her husband who drives her nuts with his endless babbling about nothing. He runs his mouth 24/7. He drives me loony. The obvious risk is that she will fall into her old habit of blaspheming again when she gets angry. So instead of posting I need to focus my attention on prayer. Period.
Finally, if I’ve offended anyone by my comments I sincerely apologize. If I have any excuse is because of the stress I’m under right now. At this point I have one request: would each of you pray a Rosary for my mother-in-law for her salvation.
fendithion Duw i chi i gyd.
…shake the dust from your sandals, SSPX. Move on. The Restoration will not include modernists.
Well, I dont chew on my fingernails over the SSPX (or anything for that matter)…but I do feel it my duty to expose anything that is opposed to Christ’s One Church.
Gwaredd Thomas
Your in-laws sound a lot like my parents. FYI….you didnt offend me at all…no need to apologize for anything.
On these blogs we seem to forget that we all have to still live in this modernistic post-Christian world. It is not easy to practice the faith the way most of our ancestors practiced. We have been robbed of our birthright. But due to some Grace none of us deserve, we have held to Tradition. I do thank the Lord for the SSPX and all those who have fought the changes. We argue over details because we all want whats best for our souls. I am so grateful to the SSPX, I may seem harsh because I sense trap is being laid for them. Gwarred, it is amazing that a SSPX would drive that far for Extreme Unction. You are right, that is true charity.
Gwaredd–Thank you for your honest response. The story you relate about your mother-in-law and the SSPX priest is a familiar one. That is why there is so much passion regarding the future of the SSPX. Many of us feel that regularization with Modernist Rome is a very dangerous step. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Prayer is our greatest weapon. Let us all pray for each other during these perilous times. Extreme Unction is a sacrament of many graces, not only physical, but also spiritual. There is great hope for her salvation.
Surely you know St Dominic means our lower passions and not our zeal or passion for Godly pursuits of the truth.
I’ve heard of the “two Lucys” now I’m beginning to believe in the “two Bernards”. Such a change since about 2009.
St. Therese of Lisieux:
“Oh! If I were unfaithful, if I committed only the slightest infidelity, I feel that I would pay for it with frightful troubles, and I would no longer be able to accept death. Thus I never cease to say to God: ‘O my God, I beg You, preserve me from the misfortune of being unfaithful.’ ”
I asked: “What infidelity are you speaking about?”
“A proud thought voluntarily entertained. For example, if I were to say to myself: I have acquired a certain virtue, and I am certain I can practice it. For then, this would be relying upon my own strength, and when we do this, we run the risk of falling into the abyss. However, I will have the right of doing stupid things up until my death, if I am humble and if I remain little. Look at little children: they never stop breaking things, tearing things, falling down, and they do this even while loving their parents very, very much. When I fall in this way, it makes me realize my nothingness more, and I say to myself: What would I do, and what would I become, if I were to rely upon my own strength?
“I understand very well why St. Peter fell. Poor Peter, he was relying upon himself instead of relying only upon God’s strength. I conclude from this experience that if I said to myself: “O my God, You know very well I love You too much to dwell upon one single thought against the faith,” my temptations would become more violent and I would certainly succumb to them.
“I’m very sure that if St. Peter had said humbly to Jesus: ‘Give me the grace, I beg You, to follow You even to death,’ he would have received it immediately.
“I’m very certain that Our Lord didn’t say anymore to His Apostles through His instructions and His physical presence than He says to us through His good inspirations and His grace. He could have said to St. Peter: “Ask me for the strength to accomplish what you want.” But no, He didn’t because He wanted to show him his weakness, and because, before ruling the Church that is filled with sinners, he had to experience for himself what man is able to do without God’s help.
“Before Peter fell, Our Lord had said to him: ‘And once you are converted, strengthen your brethren.” This means: Convince them of the weakness of human strength through your own experience.”
Archbishop Lefebvre:
“You don’t have a dialogue with the devil, be he Communist or Mason! You exorcise him with prayers and fight against him with out ceasing. “Watch and pray,” the Scripture says. It was through a resistance kept up at every moment and through the use of all available means, that the first Christians triumphed over two and a half centuries of persecution. Trusting in the Cross of our Lord, in its power of redemption, sure of the help of the Virgin Mary, terror of demons and Queen of Martyrs, faithful Catholics have overcome trials and were willing even to give their lives to preserve their Faith and that of their children.”
Bp Fellay has sold the SSPX for 30 pieces of silver. This is, however, not recent, but a long past decision.
Your constant trolling can be amusing, but never instructive. More often you are simply offensive with malice and without purpose. I invite you to get serious or, alternatively, to leave.
Oh it’s clear to everyone. JPII and Francis said and did scandalous things that definitely fall under material heresy.
What is not clear, and what the Gag and the Sedes repeatedly fail to understand the distinction of ‘what happens next.’
Myself, and I believe Louie too, sensibly acknowledge the possibility that even JPII and Francis could be formally condemned as heretics and therefore anti-Popes.
I presume Siscoe believes that despite how obviously heretically mad Francis behaves, we can only count on God or a Council to formally and officially remove an anti-Pope.
The presume the Sedes believe they can do this on their own personal authority and don’t need a Council or God to go through the motions. The Pope is judged by their fiat using circular reasoning that he is not the Pope.
I presume Louie believes that along the lines of the Sedes it is obvious when the Pope is a heretic by common sense reasoning, but unlike Siscoe does not see the current churchmen as having the cajoles to do their duty, or rather are very much of one mind with JPII and Francis. So Louie must wait for God to act first with a future council coming later.
We know for a fact that GageNs here believes the Pope is actually a god, based on forming himself purely on protestant distortions. And this god is one who has power to contradict himself and his previous avatars like Allah, and that gags will follow them wherever they go because it seems they are Yahweh incarnate following every election and remake the world anew in their own image the moment the white smoke starts a-blowin.
The SSPX is more along the lines of Siscoe and myself in that they themselves don’t possess the authority to declare JPII an anti-Pope even if they personally believe it is so.
This is clear to everyone, except for Gagen.
And a bigger question goes even further that if we were to accept the Sede criteria we will have found the Popes as far back as the 1800s who rejected the entire Tradition and Canonical Trials and enforcements of their predecessors with regards to the heresy of heliocentrism. Something that JPII himself tried to overturn, when surprise-surprise, he could not and instead just appealed to the modern consensus of Relativity to remind the Academy of Sciences that nobody could prove which body was moving around which. Frankly a lot of Sedes themselves subscribe to heliocentrism to an extent that not even those anti-Popes JPII and Benedict XVI did, each holding the justifiability of both coordinate systems as being valid.
Sr. Lucia, whom I’m sure Louie would appeal to, also for some reason treated all those Conciliar Popes as the valid Popes, and obeyed them to remain silent. Did the Mother of God just forget to mention all this to her? Or perhaps there is more to the topic of Papal validity for office holder than just material heresy or scandalous action? Not that their positions couldn’t be overturned in the future, but presuming what Sr. Lucia knew, then either she treated them as Popes despite their heresy and what she would personally have witnessed as their refusal to obey God and the Queen of Heaven as His ambassador and messenger, and practically in possession of all the graces and power belonging to her spouse, the Holy Spirit, and Sr. Lucia obeyed them because either a) they remained Popes despite this and she received no indications otherwise, or b) she was given and knew they were anti-Popes, but given the Church may no official ruing, kept this to herself and treated them with all due reverence and duty towards their office because the Church has made no ruling. Therefore it was out of prudence. This is essentially the argument Fr. Gruner made against the Sedes. The only reply the Sedes have back is to dismiss Sr. Lucia the same way the Vatican did as some country bumpkin girl who doesn’t know everything and all the complexities involved.
I personally side with this interpretation – these Popes remain for us in our small period of time as valid Popes until ruled otherwise. And whereas the current occupant makes it clear as day his nature, he still retains the authority of the Office until deposed officially by God through his physical disposal or acting through the system within the Church. And given the current heirarchy, I believe it will be the former as the system itself is currently roadblocked by like-minded heretics. And their heresies are to be considered material until all due procedure is followed to ascertain their formality. Which means these priests, cardinal and bishops can only be resisted in so far as they violate the common sense commandments and teachings of the Church. But until then they are only formally disposed by the authority above them. Not me. Until then I must learnt to suffer the situation and prepare for what’s coming. Because Ladies and Gents, when God finally does move to remove this Pope, there’s a good chance we’re going to be going along with him in short order by that prophecied mechanism known as the Annihilation of Nations.