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Except, as you yourself have done a good job pointing out, it was the very, very, very online "tradcath" deep end.
I've listened to about half of the SSPX Crisis in the Church Podcast. These are IRL TradCaths who go off the deep end in relation to all sorts of actual theological, doctrinal, and ecclesiastical topics. But it doesn't make for good television. "The Vatican forced Archbishop Lefevbre's hand! He had to do the Econe consecrations!" is a snooze fest from the jump.
Online Tradcaths, being very online and aware of the mechanics of social media, thus decided to release the mixtape of; Flat Earth (Remix), All Them Hoes is Dudes, and (Living in a) Pedophiles Paradise.
I never followed much of Candance Owens' career. A limited background being my caveat, it appears to me she lost some esteem when she went out on her own and has dealt with that poorly.
There are IRL not-online tradcaths who believe and happily explain all sorts of schizo theories about Jews/healthcare/gender/history and geography/etc. It's not a majority but they do exist- those old timers sitting in a corner drinking coffee for hours after mass will probably start with some tamer stuff about the 2020 election, moving into Pearl Harbor truth before going off about the Jews controlling big pharma to cause homosexuality and ending with Antarctica being forested and British control of the Falklands exists to prevent the Argentine military from making this discovery and blowing the lid off of it. Much much less race baiting than online twitterati tradcaths but pretty schizo, even if your median IRL rad-trad conspiracy theory is a snoozefest to everyone except their co-religionists. I'm not paying too too much attention to Candace Owens but she's definitely an active and involved rad trad who would be notable within the community even if she wasn't already a celebrity- she's definitely at least heard the particular actual-schizo cocktail crazy rad trads get into.
As an aside, the SSPX keeps its priests- and important laypeople- on a much shorter leash than the FSSP, and while they have other problems 'letting unrelated schizophrenia spread unchecked' is not one. You want to find rad trads who are into esoteric paranoid schizophrenia in totally unrelated ways, you talk to elderly people at larger FSSP parishes. The society will only tolerate unrelated conspiracy theories if they further the hardline social conservatism- eg women in pants is a masonic plot, the pill causes homosexuality in nearby males, etc.
Thanks for this.
The FSSP and SSPX split has so many weird interconnections. I'm still parsing them. As you say, the FSSP is in full communion with Rome, yet has a much broader schizo tendency. The SSPX seems to have rebuffed Benedict XVI's sincere invitation to get back into communion. Then, when Pope Francis tried again - and SSPX rebuffed the offer again - Cardinal Burke, of all people, appears to have totally dismissed the SSPX. But it also appears to me that the SSPX has really well informed their priests in terms of doctrine. The SSPX podcast, regardless of where you come down on the issues presented, is full of priests who could be teaching graudate level theology, philosophy, and metaphyiscs. When I imagine their depth of catechesis and priestly formation versus a guitar-and-piano NO priest, I have to chuckle.
I'm looking for a reliable Latin Mass and want to avoid even accidental schism. At this point, I'm getting interest in the ICKSP if for no other reason than, as the kids say, their "drip" is "on point."
It was once explained to me as ‘SSPX priests are from here to here(gestures right to left with hands), FSSP priests are from here to here(gestures more broadly)’. And this is basically true- SSPX priests are pretty reliably priests who would be hardliners but not out of bounds in the FSSP. As a general rule, the two get along well behind closed doors and the fraternity tends to be much more into ‘high liturgy’, as they’re both lefebvrists and fr Berg took, disproportionately, more high liturgy oriented seminarians in the split.
As an aside, ‘rebuffed pope Francis’ is not the greatest description, because pope Francis didn’t really make an offer. There’s a de facto temporary deal in place in which the SSPX has jurisdiction and no universal penalties(although they might have some local issues depending on the bishop), and in theory negotiations on a permanent one are… well, stalled out might be a generous term, but at least theoretically there’s supposed to be a permanent situation constructed in the future. According to bishop Schneider, Benedict’s offer was expected to be a nonstarter and only given to open negotiations, and progress was ongoing even during the rejection. Reading between the lines a bit the offer was probably intended to shape certain internal political factors in the society(=sidelining Williamson), and if so it certainly worked.
Thank you! Sincerely.
It seems to me that some sort of reintegration isn't that difficult to imagine, but that it would just take a few last painful steps on all sides to make it happen. Like you pointed out, Williamson was schismatic or, at least, cheerfully antagonistic. Another assumption I'd make is that part of reintegration would be at least a private admission by Fellay and/or other leadership that, yes, Lefenvre did some not-very-nice-things and we (the SSPX) acknowledge that. Mostly, I chalk a lot of this up to the fact that the Roman Catholic Church is a massive bureaucracy that moves very slowly (one of the things I like about it most) and the crucial variable here is mostly just time. It would also seem that everything is on pause until Francis goes to his reward as well.
Again, appreciate your continued commentary here as you're obviously more well versed on this stuff than my trying-to-TradCath-ass.
On 1- much more broadly. SSPX chapels have less polyphonics, fewer high masses, don’t attempt to reintegrate pre-55 ritual at all, etc, etc. As usual the fraternity is more varied but it’s a pretty good rule of thumb.
A big Latin bureaucracy. The leadership on both sides is Latin(Italian and French for the SSPX, Italian and Hispanic for the hierarchy). Handshake agreements which don’t quite agree with ‘paper’ status are Good Enough for both sides not to need to hurry.
Notably, FSSP leadership is natively Germanic and Western Slavic speaking, except for those in actual Latin speaking countries.
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