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News Roundup: August 23, 2026

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JMJ

I want to highlight / respond to two articles in particular:


National Catholic Reporter: Former SSPX member says unity with Catholicism means more than valid ordinations: 

  1. First, Louis Massett was not a member of the SSPX, only priests, religious and perhaps the Third Order members are actually members of the SSPX. 
  2. Massett's experience regarding the cultural shift is aligned with my experience in that a change in belief is followed by a change in the artifacts - such as dress, music, association etc.  There are extremes in each of these - to the point where belief exceeds what is actually required.  Female dress is a key point and, for better or worse, Bishop Williamson's (RIP) series on slacks for women reflect a more extreme version of the modesty.
  3. "They're not Catholic. They're SSPX" actually reflects either the Sedevacantist or modern Catholic perspective.  
    1. In general the Sedevacantists - and I've run into this belief system throughout the world - believe that the Pope's elected since a certain time CANNOT be Catholic.  I hold that a sedevacantist will not regularly attend the novus ordo missae. Some, not all, will attend the SSPX.
    2. I've seen the 'They're not Catholic' perspective from ignorant Modern Catholics who just can't believe that what the SSPX believes is Catholic.  Read Cognitive Dissonance (link).
  4. Conspiracy theories are not limited to the SSPX. I've heard these theories from various non-trads, trads, non-Catholics ... so we can set this aside. If you haven't encountered a conspiracy theorist outside the SSPX ... then perhaps you need to open both your eyes and ears when out and about.
  5. Then there's the 'schism' Schick. I asked the authority and can say that the SSPX post 1988 was listed as 'not in full communion' and since the 2026 amateur canonical warning and declaration of schism didn't change anything (link). 

God's Unconditional Love and the SSPX's Conditions: 

  1. So an SSPX priest recommended that her parents 'ostracize' their daughter. I know of cases where that could have been culturally aligned in the Church of the 1950s and I know that the contrary advice is also provided by SSPX priests when a child leaves the SSPX and / or the Catholic Church.  What I noticed is that she is silent on the rationale for the cutting of ties with their daughter.
  2. Interestingly, I was in St. Mary's in the same era when both McAuliffe and Massett. Some elements they highlighted as cultural and I can say that our experiences were either very different or we remember them differently.
  3. In the end, McAuliffe has left the Catholic Faith and holds onto only a single hope by ending these words: God who loves us all, unconditionally. And that’s what counts.  This is a narrow perspective and I would say reflects a confirmation bias of someone who has lost the Faith. God does love us all unconditionally and at the same time will deal with each and everyone of us with Justice.  God will condemn each person who dies in a state of personal mortal sin to an eternity in Hell with the punishments due to their actual sins.

As always, these types of articles don't reflect the actual core issues of the crisis of the Catholic Church and the SSPX response to it.

P^3



 1 Popes Past Present and Future

2 The Church, The Crisis and the Persecution

3 SSPX

4 World, Wars and Conflict




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