This photo says it all. My mom always said, "Birds of a feather flock together." So here we have the scandalous porn-writing head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith sharing an intimate moment with the pope, il papa, my daddy in the spiritual life. I'm heartbroken and shaking my head after reading the explanatory note from Fernandez. [Published at the end.]
Will I stop going to the SSPX? No. My conscience tells me that in order to be in "full Communion" with Rome these days, I must accept those things I know to be untrue and against the faith. Fernandez talks about Canon Law, but, according to Infovaticana the formula of the decree and the explanatory note "lacks penal efficacy." So am I excommunicated? Who knows? In today's sad situation the Vatican Tower of Babel speaks with the voice of Humpty Dumpty. You remember the egg's philosophy right?:
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”
― Through the Looking Glass
Fernandez reigns as the Humpty Dumpty spokesman for the Vatican. Can we trust anything he says or does? I certainly can't.
Several months ago, Bishop Schneider said that excommunication of the SSPX would be invalid. Go here to read more. One thing he stated quite clearly:
“It is not a secret that there are strongly influential high-ranking clergy in our day, who simply hate all that is authentic Catholic tradition in doctrine and liturgy,” he wrote, and these people “would be happy if the SSPX could be just excommunicated, whereas in the same time they show the greatest possible tolerance towards all what is ambiguous and heretic in doctrine and liturgy, as it is the case with the so-called German Synodal Path.”
Schneider emphasized that for the neo‑modernist cardinals and bishops currently in power—who, in his view, support “sacrileges and heresies”—even a “minimal ecclesial integration of the SSPX would be unacceptable,” since they are “cowardly collaborators with the agenda of the world’s ideological elites.” Any agreement with the Society, he argued, would “unmask their betrayal of Christ and increase a reconquest of true Catholicity within the life of the Church in our day.”
Will Schneider be excommunicated next?
As I consider all these things I ask myself, whom do I trust more? Pope Leo and Cardinal Fernandez or Bishop Schneider. Goodness! I'll have to think about that...for a nanosecond.
It's a terrible thing to recognize that your father in faith is preaching a different gospel, a gospel of indifferentism and novelties. And that reminds me of St. Paul saying, "If any one [even an angel] preach to you a gospel, besides that which you have received, let him be anathema." Dare I say that the pope and Fernandez are no angels? No human is. We are fallen and subject to temptation and sin.
So where do I look for the truth? In what was handed on to the apostles by Jesus and transmitted by them over the millennia with correction from legitimate councils like Nicea, Trent, and Vatican I among others.
In the meanwhile, I'm sorry it has come to this, but I will continue to attend the SSPX in peace confident that the excommunications are invalid and that all will be well when God, as He always does, brings good out of evil. I will continue to pray for Pope Leo and poor, lost Cardinal Fernandez who is truly a pitiful and pathetic individual. May God shower them with grace and bring all persecution of the faithful to an end.
This morning I posted this on Facebook before I saw the decree of excommunication:
The sheep are discussing the SSPX consecrations. I overheard them complaining that they are being called black sheep because they are following a good shepherd disapproved by the master of the house. Poor sheep.
Full text of the Explanatory Note (InfoVaticana translation)
Prot. N. 99/2009
EXPLANATORY NOTE
From the time of Saint Paul VI until the most recent talks, recently held in this Dicastery, the multiple attempts to bring the adherents of the movement initiated by Mons. Marcel Lefebvre back into full communion with the Catholic Church have proved vain. This situation has been further aggravated by the recent episcopal consecrations celebrated without a pontifical mandate, against the will of the Holy Father, in open violation of canon law. Therefore, this Dicastery, in the faithful exercise of the functions entrusted to it, considers it necessary to state that such an act has constituted the crime of schism, with the canonical consequences for the sacred ministers and for the lay faithful involved. Indeed, as already declared in 1988, “such disobedience —which entails a practical rejection of the Roman Primacy— constitutes a schismatic act” (cf. John Paul II, Ap. Letter Ecclesia Dei, 3).
In this regard, from now on:
1. The sacred ministers belonging to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X are in schism and must therefore be considered schismatics (cf. Ecclesia Dei, 5 c; Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Explanatory Note on the excommunication for schism incurred by adherents to the movement of Bishop Marcel Lefebvre, 24.08.1996, 5-6), remaining subject to the excommunication provided for by law (can. 1364 § 1 CIC).
2. As regards the lay faithful, those who formally adhere to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X are to be considered schismatics and excommunicated under the conditions established in the Explanatory Note of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts of 1996 (cf. ibid., 7), still in force, which this Dicastery makes its own.
3. Finally, the holy People of God are warned that the sacred ministers of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X administer the sacraments illicitly and that the sacrament of penance administered by them and the marriage assisted by them are invalid.
The Church, as a solicitous mother, will welcome with sincere affection and lively solicitude all those who wish to return to full communion. The Apostolic Nuncios will provide the procedures that the Ordinaries may use in the various cases.
Finally, all the faithful are exhorted to remain steadfast in communion with the Roman Pontiff, with the Bishops in communion with him and with the whole Church (cf. Lumen Gentium, 22; can. 751 CIC), and to abstain from participating in the celebrations and activities promoted by the aforementioned Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X.
From the Palace of the Dicastery, 2 July 2026
Víctor M. Card. Fernández
Prefect
Mons. Armando Matteo
Secretary for the Doctrinal Section
John J. Kennedy
Titular Archbishop of Ossero
Secretary for the Disciplinary Section
If you continue to attend the SSPX church, then you are a member of that faith, which is not the Roman Catholic faith. I think that the Pope made it pretty clear. Seems like you’re ok with that, so go celebrate the ancient rites in peace.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness. Step outside your bubble and cconsider it is your men that have stepped outside the church. Maybe you are young. Older folks may have an easier time with all this, we KNOW what they push is not catholicism, we enjoyed real catholicism for many decades! It is now completely betond the pale. The synodal church discarded Jesus and the faith. Wake up.
DeleteThe synodal "church" is not the Roman Catholic faith.
DeleteMy parents and grandparents, great grandparents and great great great grandparents were all Catholics. Looking down from Heaven, which I hope they are, which set of practices and beliefs do you think they recognise as Catholic? God does not change. His Laws do not change. Go follow your faggo perv Cardinal and let him heal you with his mouth and your ice block blessing UN point man. As for me and my house, “We will serve the Lord”.
DeleteDiocesan priests who celebrate the Latin Mass, and the Fraternity of St Peter have a ministry in union with the Catholic Church, and approved by the Pope and the local bishop. The SSPX does not. For all their false claims, they have left the Barque of Peter, and their bishops are excommunicated, once again.
ReplyDeleteIt is untrue that their excommunication was "invalid."
Their Masses are illicit, and any attempted marriages or absolutions would be invalid.
You are not the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you?
DeleteThe sanctions of a pope who acts unjustly are not valid.
An unjust law is no law at all - an unjust command is no command at all.
Leo is a valid pope but one who is in error.
"Their Masses are illicit, and any attempted marriages or absolutions would be invalid."
DeleteThis makes no sense, and for many years people have been making such statements and ignoring the obvious contradiction.
If the bishops, priests, and laity affiliated with the SSPX are in schism, then their marriages and absolutions would be VALID. They would be just as valid as the sacraments administered by the schismatic Orthodox.
The Catholic Church does NOT believe that the marriages and the absolutions of the schismatic Orthodox are invalid.
The only way that marriages and absolutions lose validity is for CATHOLICS who do not follow canon law in that regard. But the comments in this section are stating that all the people involved are no longer Catholic.
So, if those people are no longer Catholic, their sacraments, all of them, are VALID, just as the sacraments, all of them, of the schismatic Orthodox are VALID, because only CATHOLICS are bound by canon law. Non-Catholics, such as the schismatic Orthodox, are not bound by canon law.
You can't have it both ways. Either the CATHOLICS who are not following canon law are still CATHOLIC (and therefore NOT excommunicated) with the ensuing marriages and absolutions being invalid OR the people involved are NOT CATHOLIC, which makes their marriages and absolutions VALID.
Which is it?
I have no idea what your qualifications are for saying the excommunications are valid or that the SSPX have left the barque of Peter. The pope is not superman and all his actions are not infallible. For those who turn the pope into an idol things are black and white. For those who recognize, as Doctor of the Church St.Robert Bellarmine did, that even a pope can do things that destroy the faith, we will continue to refuse to say that evil is good and good is evil.
ReplyDeleteAs for those commenters who get personal about the state of my "poor, lost soul" pray for me. I won't post your comments, but I appreciate prayers even when they come from those who regularly judge the inner forum of others which is also a sin. And that's what "Judge not lest ye be judged means." And in case you don't know what the "internal forum" is here's a definition::
The internal forum refers to the private judgment a person has regarding his own moral life. It involves the formation and consultation of his conscience and may also involve the personal guidance of a spiritual director and/or a confessor. As such, it is a good and necessary part of one’s spiritual life.
I intend to keep the faith as taught by Jesus and the apostles and all the saints and martyrs. As for accepting sexual immorality, blessing sodomy and adultery, giving tacit approval to abortion, contraception and LGBTQ ideology, euthanasia, etc. by putting their proponents on Vatican academies...somehow I think Jesus would be overturning the desks and podiums. I welcome your prayers, but suggest prayers and sacrifices for the pope would be more helpful. I have no power to change anything except by my own persona actions and witness. And I'm at peace and am no rebel when it comes to the doctrine and sacred tradition of the Church.
“For those who recognize, as Doctor of the Church St.Robert Bellarmine did, that even a pope can do things that destroy the faith, “
DeleteHi There,
Can you please site where you got the quote or saying from Robert Bellarmine where he says the Pope can “do things that destroy the faith”.
Thank you
It is quoted in Bishop Schneider's catechism p. 134 question 78. The quote comes from Bellarmine's De Romano Pontifice, bk. 2, chap. 29
DeleteMary Ann... thank you very much for your article. I wish people would realize that: #1 if it were not for the good Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre there would be no TLM communities, ex Institute of Christ the King, FSSP, etc. and I have heard from friends who go to both that some priests of these communities just trash the SSPX... well, they exist because there was a Marcel Lefebvre. 2# just wait and see, the time will come when Rome will come after all of those communities, just look and see what Cupich did to the Institute of Christ the King in Chicago and last the good Archbishop said that the Council Fathers were creating a "new church" and a "new religion" and we have it here today. It started with Paul VI and went to a Steroid High with Francis and now Leo... Mark my words, wait until they end their Synod, they have even said that they are creating a Synodal Church and that church will not be nor look like the Roman Catholic Church. It's time for people to wake up! Please listen to the current post discussion that Ann Barnhardt did.. some of the language is not the best but you will get the drift... There is a lot of truth to what they are saying and discussing... God bless you Mary Ann, keep up the great work... Fr. D. Roman Holland, MI
DeleteWhat most people don't realize is that FSSP, etc. exist only because of the SSPX. When the people in the Vatican have successfully gotten rid of the SSPX, then they will turn their attention to the other TLM orders as their objective is to eliminate the TLM. And that will not happen.
ReplyDeleteIf I had nearby access to SSPX I would be joining you. God bless. I trust your judgement.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your commentary. It truly saddened me when I heard. I attend FSSP and I know they wouldn’t even be here without SSPX. It’s such a tragic thing. Where is the liberality and generosity? If it’s not harming the church, let it flourish. I pray a way is made. The whole thing just breaks my heart. Praying for everyone. It is a test of faith and I’m afraid it will continue until Jesus returns. He said when I return, will I find any faith?
ReplyDeleteGood bless you and keep you.
I’ll be at my local SSPX chapel on Sunday. I’ve not officially joined the Parish yet, but I will be doing so. God has lead me there. I’m so saddened by those who don’t see the obvious. I pray for them all.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughtful commentary. Agree 100% - MM
ReplyDeleteI have yet to see anyone outside of SSPX-sympathetic circles address the canonical defense of necessity and its subjective state in the context of these excommunications. To my (non-canon) lawyer mind, that’s a serious issue. I suspect Cardinal Kiss-me can’t and won’t address its implications as, setting aside his own limited theological and canonical acumen, it would show his “excommunications” have no clothes. The usual disclaimer that I am not an SSPX attender—I have been to a grand total of two Masses by an SSPX priest in my lifetime. I simply have grave misgivings about the Vatican, including (certainly without limitation) its handling of the SSPX. And of course, the SSPX is a firewall against the complete extinction of traditional Catholic liturgy and thought without whom so much in the “mainstream” Church would not have been allowed.
ReplyDeleteThe Cardinal Radcliffe and two bishops bless a same-sex couple and celebrate a Thanksgiving Mass for their anniversary
ReplyDeletehttps://infovaticana.com/en/2026/07/02/cardinal-radcliffe-and-two-bishops-bless-a-same-sex-couple-and-celebrate-a-thanksgiving-mass-for-their-anniversary/