Transcript:
Second question about this Society of Pius the Tenth, is it truly not schismatic in Norway?
So Bishop Athanasius Schneider has come out and said to my illustrious Commander in Chief, John Henry Weston, that the Society of Saint Pius the Tenth is in no way schismatic. In fact, he went on to say that he believed that those who claim they are schismatic suffer from a narrow and legalistic viewpoint. “Or if someone is saying this, it’s a very narrow legalistic view of the reality of the church in which we are now. Such a view is putting the letter of the Canon Law above the importance, the primary importance of the fullness of the Catholic faith and of the traditional liturgy. This is above a pure letter of a canon in the Code of Canon Law.”
Now, what the good Bishop is saying here should not be controversial. What he is basically saying is that there is a letter of the law and a spirit of the law. The positive laws of the church, the Canon Laws of the church that we currently use, come from a code written in 1983. How could it be that in our 2000-year-old church, thousands of years before that with the Old Covenant, how could it be that codes written in 1983 somehow supersede the mission of the Church, which is the salvation of souls? And even if we go back before that, we come to the 1917 code, which is the first sort of ostensible universal code of Canon Law.
The point of this is, Bishop Schneider is saying that this insistence of the folks calling the Society of Saint Pius the Tenth schismatic is acting as legalists, which he says misses the whole point of the mission of the church. But there’s something else that he has to say. “Schism is only, traditionally, in the first centuries, in the first millennium, when there was a concrete intent of a bishop, of a priest, to build up his own parallel church, not naming the Pope, refusing any connection with the Pope. It is not only the question of subordination. It is the question of the will to have, to desire to have a canonical community with the Pope. And this is expressed, firstly, in the Holy Mass, when a priest and a bishop are naming the Pope, the current Pope, in the canon of the Eucharist, because the Holy Eucharist is the greatest expression of the unity in the church.”
You know, it seems so simple when you hear Bishop Schneider talk about it. He says, basically, if a priest or a bishop is celebrating Mass and is using the name of the Pope and the local bishop, not sure how it works if you are a bishop, I don’t know, but if he’s using the proper names of the ordinaries, the authorities in the Mass while performing the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the sacrament of Holy Communion, that’s de facto an expression that he is in communion. I mean, the sacrament is literally called Holy Communion.
How could a prelate use the names of various authorities and the diocese in the canon while performing the de facto sign of union in the church, and somehow not be in union or communion with that local ordinary? It’s like, sure, you are a priest who performs the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and you offer Holy Communion, but you are not in communion. It doesn’t make any sense.
As the bishop says, this idea that you could call the SSPX schismatic just doesn’t fit. It makes you wonder, why are people doing their best continuously to find a way, to find a reason why they shouldn’t have a fraternal union with those who attend the SSPX and accept the priests as simply Catholic? Well, Schneider actually has some words for those who continually call this society schismatic.
For those people who are saying that they are schismatics, I would wish for them to visit at least the seminaries of the Society of Pius the 10th. I would wish that they visit the big parishes, the great parishes, and the lay people, the families, the youth of the Society of Pius the 10th, and I cannot believe they will not be moved by their true, authentic Catholic faith and their respect for the Pope, Francis, for the local bishop. You will be moved by this after you have visited them. In my case, I was one of the visitators six years ago, sent by the Holy See. You will not be able to say they are schismatics.
So let’s think about this for a second. Keyboard warriors, guys who have changed their religions half a dozen times, people who flip-flop around through different liturgies, they are telling you that you shouldn’t go to the SSPX, or that they are in schism, or that they sound schismatic or uncharitable or imprudent. But Bishop Schneider, who is probably one of the holiest bishops on Earth, probably one of the holiest bishops in the last 50 years, who was tasked by the Vatican with actually visiting the SSPX in an official capacity, had a glowing review. And he was there and said they are just simply Catholic. He is perhaps the greatest voice for traditionally minded Catholics on Earth right now. Everyone who meets him says that he is astounding in his holiness. I had the pleasure of meeting him in Pittsburgh, and I’ve talked to him on the computer before.
He grew up under communist persecution and kept the Catholic faith, and is so traditionally minded, they sent him basically to Siberia in Kazakhstan. But we shouldn’t listen to him. Instead, we should listen to Mr. Flip-Flop keyboard warrior with the YouTube channel. That doesn’t sound right to me.
Another aspect we have to take into account, Pope Francis granted ordinary faculties of confession, habitual, ordinary, universal faculties of confession to the priests of the Society of Pius the 10th. How could the Roman Pontiff grant such faculties, which is a jurisdictional faculty to a schismatic priest? It is a contradiction of the canon law. And so in this case, the Pope is de facto interpreting the canon law and saying, by granting them the ordinary faculties of Holy Confession, by granting them the possibility to assist canonically, the marriages with the approval of the local parish or the ordinary by these acts of the Roman Pontiff, it’s declaring them de facto, implicitly, they are not schismatics, but they could not be schismatic priests doing such acts of jurisdiction.
Ultimately, schism at its root is a sin against charity. It’s a sin that resides in the heart. We might say, think of all of the enemies of Holy Mother church, communists, leftists, liberals, whatever. And there are people who spend a huge amount of time going after the Society of Saint Pius X, people who pray their rosaries, believe the deposit of faith, attend and approve the liturgy of the church, pray for the local bishop, and pray for the Pope. Goodness gracious, the Angelus press hymnal has Pope Francis’s name, Franciscus in Latin, printed in it so that when you’re singing the benediction services, you name the pope by name intentionally, but there are people who will spend all of their time going after them. If you are someone who is going after the SSPX, and you are calling them schismatic, respectfully, I think you need to look inside and say, What on earth am I doing? All the enemies in the church, and I’m going to spend my time going after them. There is nothing wrong with the SSPX. There is something wrong with you.
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