Pope Francis declared that, in the 2025 “holy year”[1], people can gain a plenary indulgence by praying in one of many churches throughout the world, viz., the cathedral in any diocese, plus many other churches. He did this in 2015 too.
The “new” liberal SSPX promotes participation in this “holy year” and encourages its followers to pray in conciliar churches. One of the “new” SSPX priests, Fr. Peter Scott, who had previously been uncompromising, promotes this evil in these words:
Of course, most of us cannot go in person to Rome, but in this case, we can gain the plenary indulgence by visiting and praying a Rosary in the cathedral of our town, and fulfilling all the other conditions required.[2]
The now-liberal Fr. Peter Scott is simply following his now-liberal group. When Pope Francis declared a “holy year” about ten years ago and declared that people can gain a plenary indulgence by praying in one of many churches throughout the world, viz., the cathedral in any diocese, plus many other churches, Bishop Fellay strongly urged his followers to participate in the so-called “holy year” by going to conciliar churches to pray. He wrote:
Must we then deprive ourselves of the graces of a Holy Year? Quite the contrary. When the floodgates of grace are opened wide, we must receive abundantly![3]
The “new” SSPX has been weakening for a long time and has long blurred the difference between the conciliar church – which is a new religion[4] – and the true Catholic Church of all time. This causes the “new” SSPX to increasingly promote praying in conciliar churches, which are occupied by the modernists and which for almost 60 years have been used to further Revolution.
For example, the “new” SSPX was thrilled that one of its priests said Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2014/08/sspx-priest-celebrates-mass-in-saint.html (Fittingly, this new-SSPX video showing the Mass in this basilica is posted by a person whose user name is New Catholic.)
Reminder: We Should Stay Out of Conciliar Churches and Other Compromise Chapels
There are three reasons we should not go into conciliar churches to pray:
1. Places of sacrilege are most unfitting places to pray;
2. We should abhor and shun places of sacrilege; and
3. We must avoid giving scandal.
Below, we discuss each of these points.
1. Sacrilege Makes a Conciliar Church Unfitting for Prayer
Places of evil are inherently very unfitting places for spiritual actions such as prayer. Prayer is among the very best and most sacred “Things”. To mix prayer with the worst (viz., an evil place) is most unfitting and offensive to God. It is like choosing the filthiest, most disgusting vessel as the container for the most precious liquid – it is wholly unfitting.
The Summa explains this truth admirably:
Now although, properly speaking, a corporeal thing cannot be the subject of the stain of sin, nevertheless, on account of sin corporeal [i.e., physical] things contract a certain unfittingness for being appointed to spiritual purposes; and for this reason, we find that places where crimes have been committed are reckoned unfit for the performance of sacred actions therein, unless they be cleansed beforehand.[5]
But sins directed against God are the gravest sins – much worse, for example, than the crime of murder, because murder is a sin directed against man, not God. Summa, IIa IIae, Q.13, a.3, ad 1.
The new mass is inherently protestantized and man-centered and so is always “an irreverent treatment of the Sacred” (the definition of a sacrilege). Summa, IIa IIae, Q.99, a.1.[6] Thus, the new mass is objectively worse than murder, since the new mass is objectively a grave offense directed against God Himself.
If a new mass is valid, that makes it objectively worse – by being a valid (rather than invalid) sacrilege. A valid sacrilege even more strongly calls down the wrath of God because a valid sacrilege compels God Himself (Sacramentally present) to take part in the sacrilege.
Thus, conciliar churches are inherent dens of sacrilege because the new mass is said there (and for many other reasons). As a den of sacrilege, it is a very unfitting place to pray. Summa Supp. Q.74, a.1, respondeo.
In conciliar churches also we find other evils such as scandalous conciliar sermons, “communion” in the hand and “eucharistic” ministers, gross immodesty, banal un-Catholic music, bookshelves full of poisonous materials, ugly conciliar “art”, “priests” walking around in street clothes, and so on. All of these things tend to weaken the Faith of good Traditional Catholics, as well as weaken the horror for sin and compromise that we must maintain.
2. Faithful and Informed Catholics Instinctively Abhor Conciliar Churches
In the proportion in which we love Our Lord, we should abhor conciliar churches. This is like a widow who loved her deceased husband. In proportion to her love for him, she would not wish to use as a place of amusement, rest, and comfort the location in which her husband had previously been tortured and brutally murdered. Her love would not permit it.
Similarly, those who love Our Lord and realize that the new mass is objectively a sacrilege, would never wish to be in a place which continues to be used for the new mass and other conciliar evils. And the more an informed Catholic loves Our Lord, the more he finds conciliar churches intolerably odious – more because of the sacrileges that continue to occur there than because of the buildings’ conciliar ugliness! This is a second reason informed Catholics do not enter conciliar churches.
3. Entering Conciliar Churches Causes Scandal
Scandal is giving the appearance of evil which makes another person more likely to sin. Summa, IIa IIae, Q.43, a.1, ad 2.
To the extent others see us entering a conciliar church, it gives scandal because this would tend to give credence (in their minds) to what goes on there. Most people would not make the distinction when we entered a conciliar church, e.g., to pray the rosary but not when the new mass is said there. Each person’s presence adds a little to the appearance that the conciliar church is more visited/attended and that what goes on there is more accepted.
Without thinking deeply about the matter, many people would tend to think that those entering a conciliar church approve what is happening there. Therefore, in the eyes of many people, we would indicate our approval generally for what goes on there, regardless of our real opinion. Because people are social creatures, they would tend to accept the conciliar church because they see other people accepting it. This is a third reason that informed Catholics do not enter conciliar churches.
Conclusion
For the three reasons given above, Catholics should never go into a conciliar church to pray. It is among the most unfitting places to pray and is among the places that a faithful and informed Catholic would least desire to be, because it is a place of sacrilege and grave offense to Our Lord.
What a contrast this Catholic position is to that of the “new” SSPX leaders, who urge us to pray in conciliar churches for the “holy year”! They see no reason why the new mass should make conciliar churches unfitting for prayer because they already say kind things about the new mass and are moving toward accepting it.[7]
Would the “new” SSPX tell the faithful to stay away from conciliar churches if, in those churches, people regularly and openly spit on the SSPX logo or on a picture of Bishop Fellay there? If so, that means the “new” SSPX is more offended at insults to their bishop and their own institution, than at the infinite offenses given to Our Lord God in the sacrileges of the new mass.
Postscript:
Because of the liberalism and other compromises of groups such as the “new” SSPX,[8] their Masses and other activities in their own chapels also offend God.[9] Thus, as outlined above, the “new” SSPX chapels are also unfitting places to pray, are places that faithful and informed Catholics should abhor, and are places where scandal would arise from persons entering there. Let us stay out of their liberal and compromise chapels as we should stay away from the mainstream conciliar churches!
[1] The conciliar church is a new and false religion. Read this analysis here: https://catholiccandle.org/2024/02/05/the-conciliar-church-is-anti-god-and-anti-catholic/
There has been nothing holy whatsoever about the new conciliar religion itself, arising out of the 16 documents of Vatican II, and perpetuated and strengthened through the gravely anti-Catholic words, actions, and omissions of the leaders of that false religion, such as the conciliar popes and the conciliar clergy.
But that does not mean that the leaders of this new religion might not (subjectively) believe that they can both be members of this new false religion while also being members of the Catholic Church, just as men could suppose that it is possible to be members of the freemasons at the same time as being Catholic. Such dual membership, while possible, would show their great confusion of mind but it would not make it impossible for them to be (confused) members of the Catholic Church.
[2] Fr. Peter Scott, 2- 20-25 Defende Nos, #123, p.3 (emphasis added).
[3] Quoted from Bishop Fellay letter #84, May 24, 2015.
[4] Read the analysis in these articles:
Ø https://catholiccandle.org/2024/02/05/the-conciliar-church-is-anti-god-and-anti-catholic/
and
Ø https://catholiccandle.org/2020/11/01/the-conciliar-church-is-anti-god-and-is-a-cult-of-man/
[5] Summa Supp. Q.74, a.1, respondeo (emphasis added; bracketed word added for clarity).
[6] Read this article about why the new mass never gives grace: https://catholiccandle.org/2020/03/01/the-new-mass-does-not-give-grace/
[7] See, e.g., example #6 in the list of 21 examples of “new” SSPX liberalism. This list is found here: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/03/27/21-examples-of-liberalism-in-the-new-sspx/
[8] See, e.g., the examples of 21 examples of “new” SSPX liberalism, found here: https://catholiccandle.org/2025/03/27/21-examples-of-liberalism-in-the-new-sspx/