Catholic Candle note:  Occasionally, we analyze the liberal statements of the SSPX.  Someone could wonder:

Why mention the SSPX any longer, since they are unimportant as merely one of very many compromise groups? 

It is true that a priest (or group) is of small importance when he (or the group) is merely one of countless compromisers.  By contrast, an uncompromising priest is of great importance, even though he is only one.

However, regarding the “new” SSPX: we sometimes mention them for at least these five reasons, motivated by charity:

Ø  New Catholic Candle readers might not be sufficiently informed of the “new” SSSPX’s liberalism to avoid that group.  Out of charity for them we occasionally provide these warnings to help these new readers appreciate the danger of the N-SSPX.

Ø  Some longtime Catholic Candle readers might forget the N-SSPX poison, or vacillate in their resolution to stay away from the N-SSPX if they never received a reminder warning about the danger of the N-SSPX.  This is like the fact that all it takes for many people to become conciliar is to never be reminded about the errors of Vatican II and the conciliar church.  Out of charity for them we occasionally provide these reminders for readers who would otherwise “forget” the danger of the N-SSPX.

Ø  The N-SSPX serves as an important study case to examine how leaving the truth often happens.  It is a warning to us all about a very common way to depart from the truth and become unfaithful.  Out of charity for ourselves we occasionally provide these insights about becoming unfaithful by taking this common road of compromise the N-SSPX is taking.

Ø  Over time, the N-SSPX provides us with a thorough catalogue of liberal compromises, and studying those compromises and errors with the contrasting Traditional Catholic truth is a helpful means of studying our Faith and guarding ourselves from the principal errors of our time.  This helps us to fulfill our duty of continually studying the doctrines of our Faith.  Out of charity for ourselves, we use the occasion of the N-SSPX’s liberalism to study our Traditional Catholic Faith better and the corresponding N-SSPX liberalism.

 

Ø  If the SSPX ever abjured its liberalism, it could do great good as it used to do, without the grave problem of doubtful ordinations like most other groups.

 

For those readers who are firm in their resolution to completely avoid supporting the N-SSPX, they can receive just as much of the substance of those Catholic Candle articles, if they substitute the phrase “a liberal could say” anytime they read “the SSPX teaches”.

The Liberal “New” SSPX Promotes the Error
That Everyone Is in the State of Grace

Sanctifying Grace is the soul’s participation in the Life and Nature of God. [1]  That is, Sanctifying Grace is God’s Life within us.  Thus, e.g., five of the Church’s seven Sacraments are called “Sacraments of the Living” because they must not be received by someone who does not already have God’s Life (Sanctifying Grace) within him.

Recently, The “new” liberal SSPX taught (heretically[2]) that we are all, always, unchangeably, in the state of Sanctifying Grace.  Here are the N-SSPX’s words:   

What never changes, no matter the state of things [is that] the divine life is in us.[3]

This statement is heretical for two reasons: 

v  First, it is false to claim that everyone possesses Sanctifying Grace – i.e., that the Divine Life Itself is within everyone – for the majority of men do not possess it.
 

v  Second, it is false to claim that for those who at one time possessed grace, this possession “never changes, no matter the state of things”, as if this Divine Life could never be lost.

Many, even of those who call themselves “traditional Catholics”, vacillate between the state of grace and the state of mortal sin, whereas, the N-SSPX says that “what never changes” is that grace, “the divine life”, is in us.

This N-SSPX teaching promotes universal salvation.  But it should not surprise us that the “new” SSPX promotes universal salvation, since that group promotes the vice of presumption in these words:

The virtue of hope gives us this certitude … we will see our God, that we will possess Him and willl [sic] be united to Him forever.

In other words, the “new” SSPX says Hope makes us sure we will go to heaven.[4]  Faithful and informed Catholics know that this is not the description of the Virtue of Hope but rather of the vice of presumption.

Conclusion: Let us fulfil our duty to regularly study our Catholic Faith.  Let us stay away from the “new” SSPX because it wars against that Faith!