Church history teaches us that schisms, unlike heresies, have also arisen among orthodox Catholics and have taken root due to human limitations, stubbornness and a lack of sensitivity on the part of legitimate authority.
Let us remember the Donatists, to whom Saint Augustine had to oppose, Jansenism, which led to the schism of Utrecht with an illegitimate episcopal consecration, then the Old Catholics after Vatican I.
The clear criteria of Catholic orthodoxy
But there are clear criteria for Catholic orthodoxy, formulated by Ignatius of Antioch and increasingly clarified, notably at the Council of Trent against the Protestants. They essentially include full communion with the universal Church, in particular with the college of bishops, which finds in the Roman Pope, personal successor of Saint Peter, its permanent and visible principle and foundation of unity in revealed truth.
Other ecclesial communities can certainly rightly claim to be Catholic because they agree in all or almost all with the faith of the Catholic Church; however, they are not so if they do not also formally recognize the supreme authority of the pope and do not practice sacramental and canonical unity with him.
No new dogma at Vatican II
There is no doubt that the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) agrees in content with the Catholic faith. And if it rejects the Second Vatican Council in whole or in part, it places itself in contradiction with itself, since it rightly asserts that the Second Vatican Council did not propose a new doctrine in the form of a dogma.
The Council itself was animated by the clear awareness of being part of the continuity of all its predecessors, in particular those of Trent and Vatican I. It was only a question of systematically exposing to the faithful the still valid doctrine on divine Revelation (Dei Verbum) and on the Church of the Triune God (Lumen gentium).
The Church does not need rejuvenation treatments
Nor was the liturgy to be reformed as if it had become obsolete. Contrary to the progressive narrative, the Church does not need a facelift. Founded once and for all by Christ, the Church, body of Christ and temple of the Holy Spirit, remains young and alive until the last day.
The substance of the sacraments and their essential form are given to us and escape any intervention of the Church, while the ecclesiastical authority is empowered to determine their ritual form, not in an arbitrary and authoritarian manner, but with great respect for received ecclesial traditions and the sensitivity of the faithful.
This is why, conversely, the assertion that the Latin liturgy is illegitimate is theologically erroneous, because the law of prayer is the law of faith. This concerns the content of the faith, not the external ritual form, which has undergone many variations throughout the history of the Church.
In this sense, any theologically trained Catholic must criticize the motu proprio Traditionis custodes (2021) as well as its sometimes unworthy implementation on the part of intellectually outdated bishops, due to its insufficient theological argumentation and its lack of pastoral sense.
But to doubt that the Mass of Paul VI (because of, for example, the possibility of concelebration, the orientation of the altar or the use of vernacular languages) contradicts the tradition of the Church as a normative criterion for the interpretation of Revelation – or even that it is imbued with Masonic thought – is a theologically aberrant position and unworthy of someone who wants to be seriously Catholic.
Liturgical abuses must not be attributed to the Council
Liturgical abuses should not be attributed to the rite of the Novus Ordo nor to the Council, but to those who are guilty of such profanations through ignorance or frivolity.
Nor can a true Catholic be expected to accept without criticism any document emanating from Rome or from an episcopal authority. Irenaeus of Lyons, Cyprian of Carthage, Augustine and many others have rightly expressed criticism of certain positions and actions.
Likewise, bishops concerned with orthodoxy have, more recently, been troubled by documents confusingly mixing dogmatic and pastoral arguments, or containing imprudent assertions, such as the idea – relativizing Christ – that all religions are paths to God, while, concerning Mary co-redemptrix, emphasis is placed on the unique mediation of Christ without taking into account the doctrine of Mary’s cooperation in the work of salvation. This happens every time the Magisterium favors media impact to the detriment of a prior scientific and religious theology.
However, I have the firm conviction that the Church can overcome external attacks and internal confusion. Rightly, the SSPX and a large part of Catholics deplore that, under the guise of renewal of the Church, great doctrinal uncertainties and even heresies have penetrated into the Church. But heresies, from Arianism to modernism, were overcome only by those who remained in the Church.
Fighting for the true faith within the Church
If the SSPX wants to exert a positive influence in the history of the Church, it cannot fight for the true faith from an external position against the Church united with the Pope, but only within it, with the Pope and with all the bishops, theologians and Orthodox faithful. Otherwise, his protest will have no effect and will even be mocked by heretical groups who will accuse orthodox Catholics of sterile traditionalism and narrow-minded fundamentalism.
This appears particularly in the German synodal path, where it is effectively a question of introducing heretical doctrines by taking up atheistic anthropologies, and of setting up an ecclesial structure of the Anglican type, in diametric contradiction with the sacramental and apostolic constitution of the Church. This would establish a national Church which would only recognize the pope as an honorary head.
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