Update on "HAS THE SSPX CANADA IMPLICITLY ADMITS STATE OF NECESSITY NO LONGER EXISTS? ... NOPE!"

JMJ

The Groom pictured in the previous article has written an open letter providing the full context of the event. The pdf version is available here, and for convenience, I have copied the text to this post.

This first hand information provided much of the missing context!

May God Bless them!

P^3

A clarification on my wedding

Ottawa, ON

March 26th 2018

Greetings.
I, Nicolas Lessard, got married to Monica Green on the 10th of February 2018, in the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Augustine of Canterbury in Brandon, Manitoba. Both my wife and I are faithful of the Society of Saint Pius X. The host priest, Father Kelly received our vows, and Father Vachon, of the SSPX celebrated our wedding mass.

Following the wedding, there has been a lot of buzz about the circumstances of the wedding in the context of the relationship between Rome and the Society. This letter intends to address this “controversy”.

The first point I would like to make is that the controversy started off with the SSPX's Winnipeg bulletin showing a picture of my wife and me, Father Vachon of the SSPX, who prepared our marriage, and Father Kelly. The bulletin didn’t give many details and the articles that spawned from it implied or assumed many things that were false. Normally, someone who doesn’t know all the aspects of an issue should give the benefit of the doubt, in all Christian charity. The fact that some bloggers did not do so indicates to me that they are spinning a story to drive an ideological narrative, which is disingenuous and dishonest.

The second point addresses the location of the marriage. The location was not imposed on us by the diocese or the SSPX but was freely chosen by Monica (from SK) and myself (from QC). The SSPX priests here do not have the necessary civil license to perform marriages in Saskatchewan (SK) since they do not reside there, which complicated the location selection. We found this church, which presented all the qualities we were looking for which many churches, including both the SSPX churches in Welwyn (SK) and Winnipeg (MB), lacked. These include seating capacity, whether the church was heated (we’re in Canada here!), distance to the reception hall, cost, transports, and the dignity of the church. This last point is worth mentioning since all attendees noticed the sheer beauty of St. Augustine of Canterbury. There was an appreciation for the beautiful harmony of the Traditional liturgy, the Gregorian singing and the church’s well preserved gothic interior.

The third point regards the laws of the Church. Monica and I consider ourselves not just faithful of the SSPX, but faithful Roman Catholics. In spite of the cancerous crisis going on in the Church, she stays the One True Church of God, and thus the errors of her representatives do not negate the obligation to follow legitimate requests.

Neither of us were willing to weaken our marriage bonds by operating outside proper regulations.
We would have had Father Vachon receive our marriage vows if it had been up to us. But since, we were in a church of the diocese, we followed the directives given to the Society by Rome concerning the Society’s marriages. We understand that the Society has followed this same procedure for many individual cases long before these directives were published anyway; actual SSPX parishioners will know that.

I hope this letter answers most of the questions that were raised from this one picture and label in a parish bulletin. Although it is unfortunate that our marriage was used by some online to promote baseless speculation, my wife and I will take this occasion to ask those who read this to pray for us and for the SSPX!

Nicolas Lessard

The Catholic Church and the Rule of Law- Part II: Dr. John Lamont

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Open Letter to Cardinal Gantin - July 6, 1988

There has been some discussion (read lots) about the term 'Conciliar Church'. I have posted this letter written by the Superior General and District Superiors of the SSPX after the 1988 Consecrations. Of particular interest is that the 'Conciliar Church' being referred to as a system. My paraphrase would be that the SSPX regards the 'conciliar Church' as an error within the Church. Source Open Letter to Cardinal Gantin Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops

Morning and Evening and other sundry Prayers

+ JMJ Along the theme of P^3 (Prayer, Penance, Patience), and for my own reference ... here is a collection of Morning and Evening prayers from the Ideal Daily Missal along with some additional prayers. In this crisis of the Church, I do not think it is possible to do too much prayer, penance and have patience. P^3

Rome and the SSPX - Version 2026 Part 6b: Principles and Rules for Surviving this Crisis of the Catholic Church (Principle 1)

+ JMJ Principle 1: Realize that something is amiss in the Catholic Church The world in which I had my Traditional Awakening, is one in which practically anything pre-Conciliar such as liturgy, doctrinc, and even dogmas are either suppressed, ignored or re-framed to be acceptable to the ‘world’. What is more, the people adhering to these pre-conciliar teachings and liturgy are persecuted by other members of the Catholic Church. The things that non-Trads say about Trads can be quite extreme. For example, accusations against Traditionalists include that they are: A revival of the Jansenists (link) , Schismatics, Heretics, Uncharitable, Lefebrists Radicals Integrists When one group of Catholics is persecuted by the others for simply wanting to live as Catholics before them did for generations … well something is wrong. Further, we need to realize that when what was previously condemned is now promoted and what was previously promoted as the trut...

Forget the Reformation - It is time for Abrogation - Louie Verrecchio

Mr. Verrecchio has pointed out one solution to this crisis that is a dream of many Traditional Catholics of my acquaintance: The complete obliteration of the Novus Ordo Missae. If this were to occur, undoubtedly a revolt would occur within the Church, but the battle lines would be much clearer. I assume that a lot of material heretics would make the transition to being formal heretics. P^3 Prayer Penance Patience Courtesy of Louie Verrecchio A recent article by Fr. Thomas Kocik on the New Liturgical Movement website, Reforming the Irreformable? , is getting some well-deserved attention in traditional circles. (Do yourself a favor and read it in its entirety if you haven’t already.)

Tradicat

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