SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre wasn’t a fan of the idea of African bishops, and thought Africans still needed European bishops looking after them. He was, from 1947-1961, a bishop in “French Africa”, specifically as archbishop of Dakar, Senegal. Towards the end of his time there, he told Pope John XXIII that “the Africans are …
Tag: Society of St Pius X
Nov 13 2022
Can Pope Francis grant schismatics faculties?
An important point been raised by sympathisers suggesting that schism doesn’t exist: the granting of faculties to SSPX priests for valid confession. This is unusual, unheard of, and suspended priests and schismatic priests do not have faculties, and therefore they cannot be suspended and/or schismatic.
Nov 11 2022
SSPX is in schism due to lack of faith
The Society of St Pius X (SSPX) was born in an act of schism stemming from a loss of faith and trust in God and his Church.
Nov 11 2022
Yes, the SSPX is schismatic
Recently, Archbishop Vigano and Bishop Athanasius Schneider opined that the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) is not in schism. Vigano claimed that Archbishop Lefebvre, the SSPX founder, was a holy man who demonstrated great fidelity to the Church.
I beg to differ.
Jun 18 2021
The SSPX and the Demonic
Pray for the conversion of the SSPX
That they abandon their errors
That they return to the Catholic faith
That they recognise the humanity in their neighbour
And that, as penance, the society be abolished and do no further harm.
Apr 15 2021
The SSPX preaches fake Sunday history
When you listen to a sermon, and the priest tells you something historical, you expect it to be true. Not something he just made up for the sermon.
When you read a church’s website that says they’re celebrating 1700 years of something, you expect that the event being celebrated is a historical one.
With the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) that is unfortunately not the case, as I’ve discovered. What follows here is over and above the fake funerals they tried to con the police into letting them have.
Mar 19 2021
The Cape Town SSPX, calumny, and fear
Today, as I was leaving for work, a member of the neighbouring Society of St Pius X (SSPX) congregation complained to me about what I’d said in the Pinelands Facebook group.
He clearly hadn’t read what I wrote there himself, so he accused me of calumny. Specifically relating to the issue of their (at the time) bishop Williamson’s Holocaust denialism and antisemitism.
Mar 14 2021
The Cape Town SSPX and COVID – The Index of Lessons Learnt
Over the last year, I’ve written about a Catholic fringe group, a cult, whose Masses I used to attend. I live(d) next door to them. The Society of St Pius X (SSPX) in Cape Town.
My realisation of the sickness within this cult began on St Patrick’s Day 2020, aka 17 March, as the COVID-19 pandemic was rearing it’s ugly (but real) head, and it will mostly come to an end on St Joseph’s Day 2021, aka 19 March. To St Joseph, thank you for getting rid of these people and their cleric.
Mar 06 2021
The Psychopathy of “Traditionalist” Catholicism
I have had a revelation. Not the supernatural type where one has a vision, but a natural but shocking realisation about an evil in the world. I finally understand how the sort of moral theology some on the “traditionalist” end of Catholicism espouse matches up with their behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic. And thus I also finally understand why such ideas allow the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) to be the way they are.
Feb 27 2021
SSPX: “Rome without a pope. Bergoglio is there, but not Peter.”
“Rome without a pope. Bergoglio is there, but not Peter.” That was the title of an article on the SSPX News website on 26 February 2021. “You are not authorized to access this page.” UPDATE 28 Feb: The article is now publicly accessible. Most likely accidentally published and then withdrawn until now. The page is …
Jan 02 2021
SSPX – turning ordinary Masses into funerals (how to)
Apparently nobody important has fallen for the funeral ploy, and instead there will be house Masses and very surreptitious chapel Masses, with the usual “park a distance away, creep in slowly one at a time, leave in the same cautious way” warning.
Sounds like a spy novel, and no doubt that’s part of the excitement for them. They get to live out their persecution complex, express their bizarre ideas about COVID, sing (very important to them), they feel like martyrs, and this gives them their adrenaline rush.
Oct 18 2020
Does the SSPX even exist?
The Society of St Pius X (SSPX) was founded on 7 November 1970, with the official document’s signatures predated to 1 November. It was established as a “pia unio”, a “pious union”, aka an association of the faithful, for a provisional/probationary period of 6 years.
On 6 May 1975, 4 years and 5 months later, that status was withdrawn. In the eyes of the Church, the SSPX no longer had any canonical status.
Oct 03 2020
The 2020 Sanger Award goes to the SSPX
Congratulations to the Society of St Pius X for winning the 2020 Sanger Award for Religious Courage.
Sep 28 2020
Maskless till the end, the SSPX way
On 24 Sept, it was the 50th anniversary of the founding of the SSPX seminary in Switzerland.
As I said before, with the SSPX the rot goes all the way to the top. I only know of our local SSPX cleric who told his congregation that the law doesn’t apply to them, but in at least 3 countries there have been altercations between the SSPX and law enforcement. That they are above the law is obviously not the published official policy of the SSPX, but it may well be the unspoken unpublished version.
The June ordinations in Switzerland demonstrated that their leadership had absolutely no regard for the safety of others when it came to social distancing and wearing masks.
The same was obvious on 24 September, with their Pontifical High Mass for the transfer of founder Archbishop Lefebvre’s body to another location. No social distancing. No masks.
Sep 13 2020
SSPX wore masks today! Well done!
The SSPX in Cape Town (and all over the world) have been problematic with their views on COVID-19 prevention.
The local community has commented on their masklessness. Today they wore masks.
Congratulations to all those who wear masks.
Doing so saves lives.
Sep 08 2020
The SSPX – COVID and religious quackery
The Society of St Pius X (SSPX) in Cape Town seems to have adopted quack science and fake news as their foundation for dealing with the COVID epidemic.
That was reported/discussed here and here and here. From initial underground Mass games during lockdown, through clerical encouragement of singing because the devil doesn’t like their singing, to utter disregard for wearing masks and social distancing, the activities of the SSPX have more than convinced me that they are a cult willing to spread disease without regard whatsoever for the safety of other Capetonians.
Now I focus on whether their theology is similar in nature to their belief in quack science and fake news.
Sep 06 2020
SSPX – the Dangers of a Cult Mentality
Previously we looked at clear, plain statements from three popes (and others) that confirmed that the relationship between the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) and the Catholic Church is not one of “full communion”. Now we’ll look at how they are a good example of a group with a cult mentality.
Sep 02 2020
Is the SSPX in schism from the Catholic Church?
“For the pastoral benefit of these faithful, and trusting in the good will of their priests to strive with God’s help for the recovery of full communion in the Catholic Church, I have personally decided to extend this faculty beyond the Jubilee Year …”
Jun 12 2020
Update on SSPX sect’s evasion of lockdown
At the 7 June sung Mass, the entire SSPX congregation was singing, in contravention of the law. The neighbours could hear it clearly. On Tuesday 9 June, the police met with the cleric and informed him that group singing was prohibited. He claimed that he did not know this. In light of his knowledge of the regulations, I do not believe the cleric.
Apr 29 2020
The SSPX – when a church goes COVID cult
As a clinical virologist involved in the fight against SARS coronavirus 2 in South Africa, I advised 2 Catholic groups in Cape Town on how to manage groups of people (at Mass and otherwise) during the local epidemic. The Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Town shut down 12 days before the country shut down, and went online with video streams of congregationless Masses. Some in the SSPX congregation then advertised their chapel as the only Catholic church that was open, then crammed “very close to 100 people” into a chapel that seats 70-80 at most, and then made plans to continue underground Mass throughout lockdown, thereby recklessly disregarding the safety of the community.
