GetToMass.com » SSPX http://www.gettomass.com Whoever eats my flesh & drinks my blood has eternal life & I will raise him up on the last day ~ John 6:54 Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:22:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Deep End of the Theological Pool http://www.gettomass.com/2010/02/deep-end-of-the-theological-pool/ http://www.gettomass.com/2010/02/deep-end-of-the-theological-pool/#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:23:07 +0000 John 6:54 http://www.gettomass.com/?p=1021 I am not a member of the SSPX but I do have a brother who is.  We have gone round and round on issues concerning the Catholic church and ultimately I don’t think either one of us has budge much from our initial positions.  I think we have both left things up to prayer ]]> I am not a member of the SSPX but I do have a brother who is.  We have gone round and round on issues concerning the Catholic church and ultimately I don’t think either one of us has budge much from our initial positions.  I think we have both left things up to prayer and the Holy Spirit.  I believe my brother to be a poor apologist for the SSPX although that doesn’t mean he’s not willing to have a spirited debate, his arguments just haven’t moved me nor have mine really moved him.  I’d say for more than the past year we have both dropped the “debating”, which my wife probably more accurately describes as arguing.  My best get under his skin line was telling him to “stop following excommunicated Bishops”.  Well eventually he did that since Pope Benedict XVI removed their excommunication’s.  How ever they are still not in full communion with the Pope from Rome’s standpoint.

Recently I saw a link in one of the comments on Fr. Z’s blog for a book from the Society of St. Pius X.  The book is called “The Problem of the Liturgical Reform” which can be found here  http://www.sspx.org/books/problem%20of%20the%20liturgical%20reform.pdf.

I’m not through reading it yet but I would say they have a pretty decent beef with how things were handled back in the 1960s.  The book is at the theologically deep end of the pool.  But I think any reader familiar with the Catholic Mass can pick up a few things and learn a thing or two about the prayers of the Mass prior to the Vatican II Council.

In the end I’m pretty sure the book is not going to change where I stand, but I will have an additional lens to look at my faith with and without stressing the relationship with my brother.  I feel I am sympathetic to those who want to worship in what is now called the Extraordinary form of the Mass.  I buy the line that the core worship of the Catholic Church for more than 500 years couldn’t be a bad thing, which is how it seems some priests and bishops today view the Extraordinary form of the Mass.  I believe Pope Benedict XVI did the right thing to allow priests publicly to say that Mass without the approval of their Bishops.  I believe the greater use of the old Mass will only have positive effects on our Catholic faith. 

But from what I’ve ready so far I believe the SSPX’s beef goes beyond the issue of the allowing the old Mass to be said freely.  Their beef is with the theology of the new Mass.  They’re not buying into the “Paschal Mystery”, as the “Paschal Mystery” is not what was used to create the old Mass.  The theology of the “Paschal Mystery” is basically in it’s infancy if you look at the history of the Catholic Church as a whole.  This is very weighty stuff but then shouldn’t we know some of this anyway?  This is our faith after all, we are talking about our eternal salvation.

So when things get deep or heavy, I think thats a sign we should pray.  May we pray to the Holy Spirit for unity among all Christians while remaining true to the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

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