In December of last year, the world’s largest food and beverage producer, Nestlé, had an international crisis on its hands. The company was moved to launch a major product recall as infant formula produced at several of its factories was found to be contaminated with a substance that can cause severe illness or worse.
Once the recall had been fully executed and the initial parental shock had transitioned to a more sober state of grave concern, Nestlé issued exactly the sorts of reassuring statements one might expect from a mega-cap consumer brand determined to restore its wounded image, retain its customers, and maintain its position of dominance in the marketplace:
We do not compromise on our commitment to high standards.
We are deeply moved by the testimonies of the families affected.
We remain guided by our values, the actions we are taking demonstrate our commitment.
After the dust finally settled, marketing and public relations experts gave Nestlé high scores for its “well-crafted response.” (Dr. Melisa Mete, Marketing Lecturer, Henley Business School)
The Nestlé infant formula crisis hasn’t been in the news for many months now, but it came to mind as I read Fr. Davide Pagliarani’s July 19th Letter to all the faithful of the Society of Saint Pius X in response to the excommunications that followed the episcopal consecrations of July 1.
It too was filled with exactly the sorts of reassuring to our valued customers statements that one might expect from a PR savvy organization, this one a Trad, Inc. franchise determined to maintain its position of dominance in the Resist-the-Pope marketplace.
I want first of all to thank you … These consecrations were carried out for each one of you, dear faithful … Your souls are the true treasure entrusted to the Fraternity … The Fraternity will never abandon you. Your souls will never lose their value and their price in the eyes of its priests.
That said, Fr. Pagliarani’s letter wasn’t nearly as polished as Nestlé’s damage control campaign, in fact, it comes off as amateurish by comparison. Worse, from a Catholic perspective, it’s an absolute abomination.
One can only pity the Society’s sincere but naïve patrons who genuinely believe that the SSPX is the embodiment of sensus Catholicus, the polar opposite of their nemesis, the conciliar enterprise that they call the Church.
What the Letter demonstrates for those with eyes to see, however, is that the SSPX has more than a little of that conciliar blood coursing through its own veins. Fr. Pagliarani writes:
On July 1, many faithful from around the world were present at Écône, and they represented all of you. It was an immense joy to see them in such great numbers and with such fervor. As you surely know, a storm broke out during the ceremony: “Before the brightness of his presence, the clouds fled… And the Lord thundered from on high, and the Most High made his voice heard” (Ps. 17:13-14).
See what he did there? It’s that venerable conciliar pastime of quoting God’s holy word in a shameless attempt to appear credibly Catholic, even when the verse cited is totally irrelevant, if not contrary, to the facts on the ground.
For the those unfamiliar with the actual events of July 1:
The clouds didn’t flee Écône, on the contrary, they arrived with force shortly after Our Lord Jesus Christ was made really and truly present – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – on the Altar; so forcefully, in fact, that the Mass was temporarily halted.
What are the spiritual implications of the storm and its timing?
You can decide that for yourself, but you may want to be careful about assigning biblical significance to the event (a la Fr. Pagliarani) lest you invite your “full communion” cousins to see your Psalms 17 and raise you a Jeremiah 30.
Behold the whirlwind of the Lord, his fury going forth, a violent storm, it shall rest upon the head of the wicked. (Jeremiah 30:23)
After commending the rain-soaked faithful for staying in place, Fr. Pagliarani pivoted to the excommunications, predictably playing the victim card and inviting his flock to do the same.
Until the very last day, I had hoped for a gesture of benevolence, or at least of simple understanding, from the Holy See. But the consecrations were condemned, and the severity of the sanctions imposed is unprecedented.
In reality, it wasn’t the consecrations that were condemned, it was the blatant, premeditated disregard for the authority of the man the Society calls “Holy Father.”
As for the sanctions themselves, they’re not exactly unprecedented. As I demonstrated in a previous post, there is little difference between the Unholy See’s response to the SSPX consecrations of 1988 and the current situation.
In any event, Fr. Pagliarani – from a position that he evidently believes is located several notches above the Chair of St. Peter – declared the excommunications “perfectly unjust,” saying that “such a condemnation cannot be valid.”
He went on to refer to the excommunications as an “immense” and “profound humiliation.”
In exactly what sense he wants to be understood on this point, only he can say.
Whatever the case may be, Fr. Pagliarani’s humiliation stands in stark contrast to Archbishop Lefebvre’s appropriately indignant response to his suspension for ordaining seminarians in 1976 against the wishes of Paul VI:
[W]e are suspended a divinis by the Conciliar Church and for the Conciliar Church, of which we refuse to be part. This Conciliar Church is a schismatic Church, because it breaks with the Catholic Church of all time. It has its new dogmas, its new priesthood, its new institutions, its new worship—already condemned by the Church in many official and definitive documents.
Never mind how Archbishop Lefebvre may have occasionally qualified these comments moving forward. The salient point is that the conciliar church’s break with the Church of all time has only accelerated over the ensuing fifty years, exponentially so since the archbishop’s death in 1991, to the point where even Protestants are moved to openly wonder, “Is the pope Catholic?”
Despite the increasingly obvious nature of the present apostasy, Fr. Pagliarani writes and speaks with even less Catholic clarity and conviction than the Society’s founder.
And why, one may wonder, is that? Is it by ignorance or by design?
Either way, this is what the SSPX brand has come to represent:
A community for those who believe that the true religion in our day is best lived in open opposition to the Holy Roman Pontiff, the most recent ecumenical council of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and the authoritative magisterium that followed.
From where did the members of this community ever get the idea that such an attitude is not only compatible with Catholic tradition but absolutely required of those who embrace it?
They were indoctrinated with this Protestant mindset over the course of many years by the leadership of the SSPX, men who – unlike the corporate executives of Nestlé – have no qualms about feeding contagion to their children and, moreover, have come to the realization that the more they poison the minds of the traumatized faithful, the better their brand is likely to fare, at least in the temporal sphere.
About the excommunications, Fr. Pagliarani told the faithful:
The sanctions intend to strike you as well in a rather cruel way. This is certainly painful, but do not be too surprised by it. In the end, it is Tradition itself, which we cherish more than anything, that is excommunicated in all those who embody it.
Imagine, telling these poor brainwashed persons:
It should not surprise you that the one true Church of Jesus Christ, acting authoritatively through a Roman Congregation at the direction of the Most Holy Father, intends to inflict pain upon you. But take heart! Your wounds are but collateral damage. What the Holy See truly cannot tolerate is Tradition (capital T) itself.
PAY CLOSE ATTENTION: The Society of St. Pius X openly, repeatedly, and without apology preaches a Catholic Church that is far more the cruel mistress than a Holy Mother. Talk about inflicting pain!
In addition to being a damnable lie, it’s also a grave ecclesiological heresy to proclaim that Tradition is being authoritatively excised from the faithful by the See of Rome, an impossibility given the indefectibility of the Catholic Church.
Fr. Pagliarani then encouraged his unfortunate flock to wear their excommunication, and the “humiliation” that results therefrom, as a badge of honor:
If, to ensure for it the teaching of the true faith and the administration of the true sacraments, it is necessary to pay the price of such a humiliation, then it is worth it.
Fr. Pagliarani is not the first influential priest to abuse his position by suggesting that it is at times necessary to endure an excommunication that is “perfectly unjust” in order to uphold one’s duty to the truth.
In 1713, Pope Clement XI, in the Dogmatic Constitution, Unigenitus, condemned this very error attributed to the Oratorian Fr. Paschasius Quesnel:
CONDEMNED: The fear of an unjust excommunication should never hinder us from fulfilling our duty; never are we separated from the Church, even when by the wickedness of men we seem to be expelled from it, as long as we are attached to God, to Jesus Christ, and to the Church herself by charity. (DZ 1441)
CONDEMNED: To suffer in peace an excommunication and an unjust anathema rather than betray truth, is to imitate St. Paul; far be it from rebelling against authority or of destroying unity. (DZ 1442)
Novus Ordo Watch, ever prepared to confront today’s version of age-old errors with eminently unambiguous authoritative condemnations, posted the above just one day after the July 1 consecrations.
Though little more needs to be said, I would only add that Pope Clement XI was neither the first, nor the last, Roman Pontiff to dispatch with such foolishness.
In 1520, Pope Leo X, regarding the errors of Martin Luther, condemned the following in the papal bull Exsurge Domine :
Excommunications are only external penalties and they do not deprive man of the common spiritual prayers of the Church. Christians must be taught to cherish excommunications rather than to fear them. (DZ 763, 764)
In 1794, Pope Pius VI issued a similar condemnation in Auctorem Fidei, this time regarding the Errors of the Synod of Pistoia:
CONDEMNED: The proposition asserting that “the effect of excommunication is merely exterior, because by its nature it merely excludes from exterior communion with the Church”; as if excommunication were not a spiritual punishment, binding in heaven, obligating souls. (cf DZ 1546)
From a Catholic perspective, the “humiliation” of the SSPX is entirely appropriate as those who offer pious platitudes to the “Most Holy Father” and then presume to thumb their nose at his rulings display a lack of humility that is truly humiliating.
This, however, is the everyday modus operandi of today’s Society of St. Pius X. One can only imagine how Archbishop Lefebvre would have wept had he lived to see it.
What began as his valiant attempt to form holy priests to counter the abandonment of faith occasioned by Vatican Council II has morphed into a full-fledged part of the crisis, a shameless purveyor of grave errors already condemned by the Church in many official and definitive documents.
