Former Society of St. Pius X priest calls "close co-operation" with Rome "harmful, even destructive"

We are not against a return to a normal juridical status in the Church for Catholic Tradition, but the circumstances and timing have to be right.
Regular readers of WWW will know that Walt is an old-fashioned, traditional Roman Catholic -- a "scary right-winger" -- and unrepentant about being criticized by the likes of Jeff Mirus and others who have partaken of the poisoned fruit of Vatican II.

There are some "Catholics of Tradition", notably Bishop Bernard Fellay, head of the Society of St. Pius X, who wish and work for reconciliation with Rome. There are others, like Bishop Richard Williamson and a growing number of former SSPX priests, who think bending the knee to Rome and accepting the "principles" of Vatican II would be tantamount to spiritual suicide.

Father Brendan King is one of those who have become disaffected with the SSPX. On May 3rd, he left the order, joining Fr. Edward MacDonald, who quit just after Easter to become an independent Traditional Catholic priest. Fr. Paul Morgan, District Superior of the SSPX in Britain and Ireland, is leaving his position shortly for a year's "sabbatical".

On the occasion of his departure, Fr. King gave a sermon explaining his reasons for leaving, which you can read in full on the Respice Stellam blogsite. Here Walt presents the conclusion, Fr. King's "Statement of Position", which is a very good summary of Traditional Catholic thinking on the problems of the modernist Church.

In our opinion we think close co-operation with the post conciliar authorities at the present time would be harmful and even destructive for the goal that we are working towards which is the full restoration in the Church of Catholic tradition and the establishment of the Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This was the aim and objective of our founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and that of all the modern Popes up to the time of Vatican II.

Rome has always been the centre of Catholic unity and the Papacy the guardian of orthodoxy for two thousand years. Tragically, Catholic Rome and the successors of Peter have for the past forty years succumbed to the powerful influences of liberal protestantism and modernism leading to the weakening of the faith of millions of souls and drawing the Church of Christ towards apostasy. As a consequence of this, devout Catholics have been obliged to withdraw their obedience and allegiance from the post-conciliar authorities in order to preserve their faith and Catholic way of life. We must obey God and the authority of Catholic Tradition, rather than the false modernist shepherds of contemporary Rome. This situation and choice has been forced on traditional Catholics by modernist Rome because Vatican II is the cause of the crisis.

We do not accept that Rome is now more sympathetic towards Tradition and is more favourably disposed towards the Society. Rather and on the contrary, there are so many instances of a very aggressive attitude towards any group or individual turning to tradition coming under ecclesiastical censure. It is beyond dispute that Rome is now more modernist and liberal than during the Pontificate of John Paul II, so rather than seek a rapprochement with Rome, we need to maintain our position of prudent but respectful detachment.

Surely, our firm and constant adherence to the perennial magisterium of the Church is the best witness we can give to modernist Rome. We have no right to imperil the hard earned fruits of forty years of combat for the Faith simply because the Roman authorities are nice and approachable and tell us we can trust them. We have far too much to lose and in our opinion such a rapprochement would be an enormous gamble. We must not and cannot squander the glorious legacy and heritage of Archbishop Lefebvre.