SSPX and the Resistance - A Comparison Of Ecclesiology

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JMJ

Background

I have in my possession a 'private conference not to be put on the internet' titled: How to see clearly through the current situation of Tradition?  According to their website, it was delivered by a Monk of Avrille November 15, 2014.

My intention in reviewing this document is to determine if it is consistent with my earlier observations of the issues I noted in the 'resistance' (see links below). Specifically, that the 'resistance' believes that the 'conciliar Church' is a separate organization that is parallel to the One, Holy, Roman, Catholic Church.
Let's put this into context first, as there is a tendency to oversimplify the structure of the Church from a liturgical and hierarchical perspective. 

The Catholic Church is:

 “the assembly of men united in the profession of the same Christian faith and in the communion of the same sacraments, under the rule of legitimate pastors, and in particular, that of the one Vicar of Christ on earth, the Roman Pontiff.” St. Robert Bellarmine

One objection that is put forward is that 'Modern Catholics don't profess the same Christian faith'.  This is false on a number of fronts. First, it is a generalization which is a fallacy.  Second, Catholics in material heresy are still deemed among the members of the Church since the Church assumes that they will submit to the authority of the Church when corrected. Thirdly, one can profess the faith explicitly or implicitly. I doubt many Traditionalist could quote all 230 (ish) de fide teachings of the Church.  They implicitly profess their belief whenever they recite the Creeds of the Catholic Church - just as the 'Modern' Catholics do.

So let's put this canard aside.

From an organizational point of view, the rule of legitimate pastors is hierarchical (complete list http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/).






Keeping in mind that Christ is the Head of the Church and the Pope is His Vicar on Earth and that the Church includes the Church Suffering and Triumphant a complete diagram of the Church looks something like this:
 From a liturgical point of view, the 'same sacraments' are present in a number of different rites. Below is a chart from Phatmass that outlines the origins of the rites of the Church:

Source: Phatmass

To be clear, each of every one of these rites is a rite of the Catholic Church. Those who attend them, provided they are not in schism or heresy, are just as Catholic as those who attend the Roman rite. I have noted that a fair number of Traditionalists are ignorant about the breadth of liturgical practice within the Catholic Church.

Finally, I realize that some would contest that the Novus Ordo Missae is a Rite of the Church.  For now I will assume that it was 'legitimately promulgated' - setting aside any legal wrangling about the 'form' of the promulgation.  Meaning that 'Modern' Catholics participate in the same Sacraments and Legitimate worship as Traditionalists.

Conciliar Church

At its root, the crisis is due to the influence of certain underlying assumptions / values that have dominated the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council.  The first manifestation was during the conflict between Cardinals Ottaviani and Bea on the document of Religious Liberty.  The conflict has been ongoing from that point with the alteration of any and all artifacts and values that are not aligned with the new cultural assumptions.  

Cultural Perspective
Sense Making
The Vatican and the SSPX

With this foundation, we can explore the different perspectives of how the crisis of the Church affects the Church. Different perspectives are a natural consequence of our cultural background (see links below) and experiences.  In trying to impose a framework around this crisis, one term has been persistently used to encompass all the manifestations of the crisis: Conciliar Church.

The SSPX views the conciliar Church is a 'movement' within the Church of Christ. The members of the Church Militant subscribe or participate in this movement in varying degrees. (see Can one speak of the Conciliar Church?)  The varying degrees of 'infection' is represented by the gradient, with solid red being fully infected and white not infected. As we are unable to read souls like St. Padre Pio, these gradients are for illustrative purposes only.

Please note that while infected with the errors that run rampant in the Catholic Church, the people are still members of the Catholic Church as long as they don't separate themselves from the Church via either schism or heresy under the conditions discussed elsewhere on this blog ( Heresy Plain and Not So Simple ) .


... and as far as I can tell from their writings, this is how the 'resistance' sees the situation:

The generality of the leading lights of the 'resistance' see the "Conciliar Church" as a separate entity that is not within the Catholic Church.  The Vicar of Christ is simultaneously the head of both of these organizations.

As Fr. Rua (Resistance) put it:

"We appeal to you to recognize that the visible church is not the Catholic Church. It is the Conciliar Church, the Church of the new Advent as they call themselves. This Conciliar Church is suicidal and will bring about the institutional death of the Catholic Church but the faith will remain and hence the Mystical Body will remain for all days. ...
Where is the error in Bishop Fellay’s theology? It is the ecclesiological model from which he draws his conclusions. He considers the visible structure of the church to be the Conciliar Church. In a previous essay we noted that Athanasius and Archbishop Lefebvre were correct to point out that the Catholic Church resides in the Faith. We must worship in Spirit and in Truth. Structures and buildings do not constitute the Church. The Pope and officials in Rome may possess the structures but have lost the Faith." (Fr. Rua A Response to Fr. Daniel Themann’s Lecture Piece by Piece.) (link)

There is also a tendency within the 'resistance' to see only traditionalists as remaining within the Catholic Church.

This creates a number of problems concerning visibility and Indefectibility of the Church

The 'visibility' of the Church does not reside in buildings, see this link for an explanation.

I am uncertain if the resistance includes the sede-vacantists in the "Trad" category. Perhaps they have a separate conciliar type structure for them.

Attached below are some articles that I've written on this topic.

I have concluded that the 'resistance' sees any canonical regularization as a submission and attachment to the conciliar Church and not the Catholic Church.  Hence their response to even the possibility that the SSPX could have been regularized.

With that foundation, we can now explore this sensitive resistance document and evaluate if my earlier conclusions are supported.

P^3

References:

SSPX and the Resistance - A Comparison Of Ecclesiology 

Open Letter to Bishop Williamson Regarding EC354 - Updated June 7, 2014

Where are Bishop Williamson and the 'resistance' going?

How far does the Apple fall from the Tree? Fr. Pfeiffer as the Apple and Bishop Williamson as the Tree

How far does the Apple fall from the Tree? Fr. Pfeiffer as the Apple and Bishop Williamson as the Tree. - The Sequel

Series Links
Part 1: Background
Part 2: Introduction and Heart of the Fight
Part 3: Distinction between "eternal Rome" and "the Rome of Neo-Modernist ..."
Part 4: Silence regarding the Roman scandals
Part 5: Relations with Conciliar Rome: can a practical agreement ...