The SSPX and the Demonic

The Society of St Pius X, in Cape Town and worldwide, needs our prayers. Badly.

The SSPX continues to disgust, which has prompted me to contemplate the spiritual origin of their maleficence. There is something dark and sinister about their behaviour, their attitude, and even aspects of their theology, and it has become clearer since COVID. After all, what sort of religion tries to con people with fake funerals?

Demons, Malice, and Stupidity

There’s a saying that says that one shouldn’t attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity.

There’s also a saying that one shouldn’t attribute to demons what can be attributed to malice, because human nature on its own is capable of great evil.

But what is the role of demons in our lives, and is it wrong to see a role for demons in everything bad?

The role of demons in human sin

I don’t know. I do think that attributing evil to human nature is a far more severe condemnation and judgement of the problematic individuals than attributing, partially or fully, their acts to demonic influence. Since I would like to give people the benefit of the doubt, the excuse of demonic influence works. Maybe that’s denying reality, a harsh reality where evil humans are commonplace. I’d rather believe in weak humans who were the puppets of a malevolent someone, or something, else.

Can something be attributed to both human stupidity and demonic influence? Can something be attributed to both human malice and demonic influence?

Let’s look at the other side of the coin. Should we attribute everything good to God’s influence? Or to the human capacity for good? Are these two mutually exclusive?

In Christian theology, God created everything that is good, and we choose to participate in that or to not participate. Demons, on the other hand, do not create evil, but they do enjoy it and promote it. And they’re there cheering it on whenever it happens. We humans are capable of evil without the assistance of demons. But I doubt that evil happens without the demons cheering it on, and that is what is going on here.

It may sound like I am minimising human evil and superstitiously attributing it to demons. Like people who say “the devil made me do it” or like people who imagine demons around every corner waiting to tempt or torment them or to have their words sung alongside drums and an electric guitar. The latter, no. The former – perhaps. I do feel the need to understand human evil in a way that allows for greater mercy. My target in the equation is culpability. I’ll leave that discussion for another time, though.

I don’t believe there are demons around each corner, making people listen to rock music or persuading women to wear pants. If they exist, they must be looking on in glee. But they are not there causing every malady anyone suffers.

Institutional evil

We are all sinners. We all have a demon cheering sometimes. But institutional sin, institutional evil – this is something else, and it needs to be called out, especially when that institution is parading their sin for all to see and claiming to be Catholic and giving Christianity and the Catholic Church a bad name. The cover-ups with the abuse scandal needed calling out, and the Catholic Church learned a tough lesson with that – and still is paying for it. Likewise, the narcissism of the SSPX needs to be called out. The psychopathy of the pseudo-traditionalists needs to be called out.

The COVID cult found in the SSPX, with COVID denialism, mask denialism, insistence on singing, trying to have fake funerals – this is evil.

These are people who were willing to sacrifice the lives of those around them in order to serve their own needs. They insisted on singing. They tried to have fake funerals. This is not normal. The demons are cheering.

Somewhere, somehow, malice was involved. If that malice was demonic, the humans were less culpable. If that malice was human, the demonic cheered it on and helped make it seem acceptable, as the demonic tends to do. After that came ignorance, and a “follow the leader” sheep mentality. The demonic cheered that on too, and made it seem good. People like this have an excuse to act the way they do – ignorance, and blindness.

I do not believe that the SSPX, worldwide or locally, is experiencing demonic possession, wholesale or in part. If their disregard for human life is purely their own evil or their own ignorance or their own sheep mentality, then the demons are cheering. If their disregard for human life is purely demonic influence, then the demons are cheering. It’s probably >90% ignorance and sheep mentality, and >90% demonic cheering and encouragement, with minimal direct demonic causation or intervention. I see the same mentality played out in the rest of the inward-looking right wing “traditionalist” movement. They’ve forgotten their neighbour. And the demons are cheering.

A cloud of darkness, a cloud of witnesses

There is a cloud of darkness hanging over the SSPX, as if between them and the cloud of witnesses in heaven. The demons don’t want the light to come through, and they encourage the SSPX to hide from the light, and the SSPX have confused light and darkness. They have done this for years – decades, in fact. It has corrupted their theology, their love of neighbour, their unity with the Church. And now this has also infected conservative Catholics and driven them to the right wing, and the demons are cheering at the prospect of further schism.

The SSPX needs to escape from this demonic influence. They are in desperate need of reform. Collectively, and going all the way to the top, they demonstrate moral and spiritual corruption to the extent that I cannot recognise the SSPX as a Christian organisation. They have the outward appearance of Catholicism, and that is all. Their sacraments are valid, and God works through them, and grace comes from them, but when evil administers and receives the sacraments, grace tends to bounce off the wicked like water off a duck’s back. Compare McCarrick. I am ashamed to call the SSPX my past acquaintance. I struggle to refer to the hive as my brothers in Christ, and so I will not do so. The Church is a hospital for sinners, but she doesn’t have a ward where the sick get permission to unrepentantly revel in their disease and spread it to others with glee. Any such ward is not within the Church. It’s in the territory where the demons sit and cheer. It’s moral Babylon. God loves them. But he’s calling them home to the Church, and the SSPX as an institution is fighting that call.

As individuals, they are confused, misled, and probably unaware of the degree of evil of their organisation and the attitude it encourages. The prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do“, is appropriate. So is prayer for their deliverance from whatever is holding them back from conversion.

The recent SSPX and COVID series:
The SSPX and COVID – The Index of Lessons Learnt
Part 1 – The SSPX – when a church goes COVID cult
Part 2 – Update on SSPX sect’s evasion of lockdown
Part 3 – Is the SSPX in schism from the Catholic Church?
Part 4 – SSPX – the Dangers of a Cult Mentality
Part 5 – The SSPX – COVID and religious quackery
Part 6 – SSPX – turning ordinary Masses into funerals (how to)
Part 7 – The Psychopathy of “Traditionalist” Catholicism

SSPX, Pinelands, Cape Town, 36 Central Avenue, 33 Central Square, 19 St Stephens Road, Latin Mass