Yet SSPX accepts Novus Ordo priests without re-ordination…

SSPX Priest: ‘My Conviction is that Novus Ordo Priests are Not Validly Ordained’

Fr. Michael Johnson, SSPX, on June 18, 2023

Although Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Garden Grove, California, does not officially belong to the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), priests of the Society currently take care of priestly duties there.

This past Sunday, June 18, 2023, Fr. Michael Johnson, SSPX, offered Mass at Our Lady Help of Christians and gave a sermon in which he briefly mentioned that it is his personal conviction that priestly ordinations in the 1968 Roman rite of Paul VI (“Novus Ordo” ordinations) are invalid.… READ MORE

Return of an old straw man…

On Disobeying the Pope:
Comments on a recent One Peter Five Article

“Can a Catholic Ever Disobey a Pope?” That is the question currently being asked at One Peter Five. An article by that title was posted on July 17, 2020, written by Paul Casey.

The author begins by claiming:

“No one is ever allowed to disobey the pope. Period.”

The statement is made repeatedly on social media, usually in an attempt to end a debate. It’s taken as a given. No sources cited, no documentation provided. It’s merely assumed. It is, after all, obvious.

READ MORE

Response to a critic continued…

Peace in the Crisis?
Catholic Family News Promotes a Dangerous Tranquility
 (PART 2)

by Francis del Sarto

[NOTE: This is Part 2 of a response to a series of articles that the author has since withdrawn and that Catholic Family News has removed from its web site. As a courtesy, we have changed the name of the original author to the pseudonym “Andrew Fornak”.]

CONTINUED FROM PART 1

This analysis is a response to most of Part II of Andrew Fornak’s article “Finding Peace in the Crisis” published in November 2018 in Catholic Family News.… READ MORE

Response to a popular argument…

The Case of Robert Grosseteste:
Historical Precedent for Recognize-and-Resist?

A large amount of traditionalist recognize-and-resist theology goes back to the research and argumentation of one man: the British writer Michael Treharne Davies (1936-2004). It is propagated chiefly by the Lefebvrist Society of St. Pius X, whose main lay apologist he was for decades, by the Fatima Center, by Catholic Family News, by The Remnant, and by similar organizations or publications.

Unable to use genuine traditional Catholic theology to back up their recognize-and-resist position, these false traditionalists — we like to call them semi-trads or neo-trads — attempt time and again to find some kind of precedent in Church history that they can point to and say, “See, we’re simply doing what was done back then.”… READ MORE

John Daly destroys Semi-Trad Pioneer

The Errors of Michael Davies:
A Comprehensive Refutation

MICHAEL DAVIES — AN EVALUATION
by John S. Daly

(1st ed. 1989, 2nd ed. 2015)

FREE DOWNLOAD!

One of the most prominent and influential writers of the traditionalist movement in the Vatican II Church was the English writer Michael Treharne Davies (1936-2004), shown above with then-“Cardinal” Joseph Ratzinger. No individual has written more prolifically than Davies on traditionalist issues, and probably no single layman, with the possible exception of Dietrich von Hildebrand, has enjoyed wider prominence, credibility, and trustworthiness than him. But is this respect Mr. Davies has enjoyed really well-founded?… READ MORE

John Daly destroys a foundational pillar of false traditionalism

Faith and Authority:
When is Disobedience Legitimate?

(Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo / Alamy Stock Photo)

One of the foundational pillars of the popular “recognize-and-resist” position of the Society of St. Pius X and their theological cousins is the idea that whenever a lawful ecclesiastical authority, such as the Pope, abuses his office by giving a command that ought not to be given, then his inferiors have the right, perhaps even the duty, to resist it, that is, they are permitted or required to disobey by refusing to carry it out. Conversely, the recognize-and-resist adherents maintain that if an action is laudable and profitable to the Church or to souls and yet it is being forbidden by a legitimate Catholic authority for an unjust or insufficiently good reason, then it is licit to carry it out anyway, despite the superior’s prohibition. … READ MORE

Justifying a false pope at the expense of a true one…

A Response to “Bishop” Athanasius Schneider’s Claims against Pope Liberius

athanasius-schneider8

With the recent kerfuffle about the five dubia submitted by “Cardinals” Caffarra, Burke, Meisner, and Brandmuller, it was just a matter of time before we were going to hear from Mr. Athanasius Schneider, the auxiliary “bishop” of the Novus Ordo Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana, Kazakhstan. Schneider is about as far right in the Novus Ordo spectrum one can be while still being considered in full communion with the Modernist-in-Chief in Vatican City.

In a new interview published at the Rorate Caeli blog, Schneider has come to the defense of the four “cardinals” mentioned above, whose dubia (“doubts”, or formal requests for clarification) have forced Francis into a corner from which he will not be able to escape because they do not allow for anything but a clear and straightforward answer, something Francis has been deliberately refusing to give in public (but not in private!READ MORE

Demystifying an overrated figure…

The Errors of Dietrich von Hildebrand

One of the big names that is sometimes brought up in connection with traditionalist Catholic issues is that of Dietrich von Hildebrand (1889-1977). Propped up by the thoroughly-discredited Michael Davies as an ultra-Catholic superhero who opposed many of the changes of Vatican II, von Hildebrand’s name has long been a favorite among Novus Ordo conservatives and traditionalists of a more intellectual bent.

Whether it be Michael Voris, Catholic AnswersThe Wanderer, The Remnant, Keep the Faith, or EWTN, somehow everyone likes to have this thinker in their camp, if not for his critique of the post-conciliar debacle, then for his phenomenological and personalist philosophy, which is a big hit in the Novus Ordo Church and was promoted heavily by “Pope” John Paul II. … READ MORE

The Phenomenon of Dietrich von Hildebrand

dietrich-von-hildebrand

by John S. Daly

Taken from Chapter 1 of
Michael Davies – An Evaluation
New Edition (2015)

used with permission


Excerpt from Chapter One: Davies’s Attitude to Authority

Instances of Hero Worship

One of the writers whom [Michael] Davies most frequently quotes is Dietrich von Hildebrand, an American layman whose name would probably be mentioned in a footnote or appendix to a reasonably comprehensive history of twentieth century philosophy – a man who had no significant theological status and simply wrote his opinions on Vatican II and its revolution as a private individual just as Davies does and just as the present writer is doing.… READ MORE

Did Vatican II Teach Infallibly?
The Ordinary and Universal Magisterium

by John S. Daly

Second, Revised Edition

First printed in The Four Marks

Album / Alamy Stock Photo

Most traditional Catholics know that Vatican II taught heresies and other errors. They rightly refuse to accept this false teaching. But when asked how it can be right to reject the teaching of a General Council of the Catholic Church, they reply that Vatican II was a special kind of council; it was non-dogmatic and non-infallible. As such it could err, and did err, and Catholics may reject its errors without doubting the legitimacy of the authority that promulgated those errors.

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Sedevacantism

Sedevacantism

The Vacancy of the Papal Throne since the Death of Pope Pius XII

The Chair of St. Peter in Vatican City (image: shutterstock.com)

On this page we present a slew of links to articles, blog posts, books, audios, and videos dealing with the subject matter of the Papacy, Sedevacantism, the false theological position known as “recognize-but-resist”, the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), the Second Vatican Council, and the Novus Ordo Magisterium. We have tried as much as possible to group the links by topic. Due to the recent publication of the book True or False Pope? Refuting Sedevacantism and Other Modern Errors by John Salza and Robert Siscoe, there is a separate group of links relating just to that.… READ MORE

The Alleged Fall of Pope Liberius, His Alleged Excommunication of St. Athanasius, and other Anti-Papal Libels

pope-liberius.jpg

by John S. Daly

Taken from Chapter 10 of
Michael Davies – An Evaluation
New Edition (2015)

used with permission


Chapter Ten: The Alleged Fall of Pope Liberius, His Alleged Excommunication of St. Athanasius, and other Anti-Papal Libels

“Glory not in the dishonour of thy father: for his shame is no glory to thee.”
(Ecclesiasticus 3:12)

Davies’s Comments on Liberius

The following extracts from Michael Davies’s writings all concern the same subject. They all say much the same thing. Indeed some readers will find them unbearably repetitive.… READ MORE

Setting the Historical Record straight…

The Truth about Pope Liberius and the “Excommunication” of St. Athanasius

liberius-athanasius.jpg
Now that Francis has successfully detonated his nuclear bomb called Amoris Laetitia — the “Apostolic Exhortation” effectively granting free rein to people in permanent adultery and other “irregular unions” to receive the Novus Ordo sacraments — the anti-sedevacantist “resistance traditionalists” are scrambling to justify their refusal to countenance the possibility that perhaps, just perhaps, a man whom anyone can see is truly the Vicar of Satan cannot also be the Vicar of Jesus Christ at the same time (cf. 2 Cor 6:15).

One of the most predictable internet sites in this regard is the famous indult blog Rorate Caeli, which quickly recycled the old litany of “heretical Popes” of the past to justify the current situation:

Why it is intrinsically impossible to be more Catholic than the Pope, is something we explained to The Remnant’s chief rhetorician Christopher Ferrara a few months ago, and it bears repeating:

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Why Suarez’s position cannot be held today

The Opinion of Francisco Suarez on the Question of a Heretical Pope

As Neo-Traditionalists John Salza and Robert Siscoe begin to ship the first copies of their new book against Sedevacantism to their hapless recipients, we continue to rain on their parade by refuting some of the errors we expect to see in their work, which have been around for decades. The following is an excerpt from John Daly’s book against the pseudo-traditionalist pioneer and SSPX apologist Michael Davies (1936-2004), whose research and argumentation has long been the bedrock for probably most of the English-speaking world on traditionalist issues, including Sedevacantism.… READ MORE

Without a declaration, is it just a “private judgment”?

Sedevacantism and Private Judgment:
Are Sedevacantists Just “Protestants”?

The Chair of St. Peter in Vatican City

While Neo-Trads John Salza and Robert Siscoe are struggling with the “printing process” of their new book against Sedevacantism so that publication has now suffered a setback due to “unanticipated delays”, we are happily continuing our preemption of various arguments we expect to find in their 700-page tome. One of those arguments is sure to be that Sedevacantists’ rejection of the papal claims of the Vatican II “popes” is founded on “private judgment”, the same kind as that found in Protestants in their selective and wholly subjective acceptance of whatever seems right and Christian to them.… READ MORE