The Stockdale Paradox, the Church and the SSPX

I was recently reminded of the 'Stockdale Paradox' and have concluded that it is based upon  Catholic virtues.

Here's an excerpt from wikipedia's article on Admiral Stockdale:

In a business book by James C. Collins called Good to Great, Collins writes about a conversation he had with Stockdale regarding his coping strategy during his period in the Vietnamese POW camp.^[11]

I never lost faith in the end of the story, I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade."^[12]

When Collins asked who didn't make it out of Vietnam, Stockdale replied:

Oh, that's easy, the optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, 'We're going to be out by Christmas.' And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they'd say, 'We're going to be out by Easter.' And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart."^[12]

Stockdale then added:

This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."^[12]

Witnessing this philosophy of duality, Collins went on to describe it as the Stockdale Paradox. 

Wikipedia 

 As I re-read my copy of Good to Great, I was struck by how the Paradox is aligned with the Catholic virtues of Hope and Fortitude:

Hope, in its widest acceptation, is described as the desire of something together with the expectation of obtaining it. The Scholastics say that it is a movement of the appetite towards a future good, which though hard to attain is possible of attainment. 

Catholic Encyclopedia

FortitudeAs temperance and its annexed virtues remove from the will hindrances to rational good arising from sensuous pleasure, so fortitude removes from the will those obstacles arising from the difficulties of doing what reason requires. Hence fortitude, which implies a certain moral strength and courage, is the virtue by which one meets and sustains dangers and difficulties, even death itself, and in never through fear of these deterred from the pursuit of good which reason dictates. (See FORTITUDE.) The virtues annexed to fortitude are:

• Patience, which disposes us to bear present evils with equanimity; for as the brave man is one who represses those fears which make him shrink from meeting dangers which reason dictates he should encounter, so also the patient man is one who endures present evils in such a way as not to be inordinately cast down by them.

• Munificence, which disposes one to incur great expenses for the suitable doing of a great work. It differs from mere liberality, as it has reference not to ordinary expenses and donations, but to those that are great. Hence the munificent man is one who gives with royal generosity, who does things not on a cheap but magnificent scale, always, however, in accordance with right reason.

• Magnanimity, which implies a reaching out of the soul to great things, is the virtue which regulates man with regard to honours. The magnanimous man aims at great works in every line of virtue, making it his purpose to do things worthy of great honour. Nor is magnanimity incompatible with true humility. "Magnanimity", says St. Thomas, "makes a man deem himself worthy of great honours in consideration of the Divine gifts he possesses; whilst humility makes him think little of himself in consideration of his own short-comings".

• Perseverance, the virtue which disposes to continuance in the accomplishment of good works in spite of the difficulties attendant upon them. As a moral virtue it is not to be taken precisely for what is designated as final perseverance, that special gift of the predestined by which one is found in the state of grace at the moment of death. It is used here to designate that virtue which disposes one to continuance in any virtuous work whatsoever.

Catholic Encyclopedia

 In the context of the crisis that the Church is slowly becoming aware of and the situation of the SSPX with regards to its viewpoint on the root causes of the crisis, I think that the Stockdale Paradox applies perfectly.

Catholics know that the Church will continue to the end of the World. Further, we know that the Pope is the visible sign of the Unity.  So we have the hope that the Church will emerge from this crisis stronger than it entered it.

However, given the situation in the Church and the abhorrence of Traditional Church Teaching that  people in the World and unfortunately some within the Church have, it is obvious that this will not be easy even if the Pope were to unilaterally regularize the SSPX tomorrow.

We have to face the harsh reality that the World hates what the Catholic Church represents and those who both know and exemplify what the Church represents are in for a rough ride.

We must practice the virtues of Hope and Fortitude.

If the turmoil in the Church at the possibility of a regularization of the SSPX is any indication, when it does happen, the fault lines will be very clear and it will be very rough on those who don't compromise the Faith and Teachings of the Church.