How can SSPX be accused of schism while Communist China, German bishops remain in good standing?
The Chinese Communist government is allowed to choose bishops, but the Society of St. Pius X is facing the threat of excommunication for performing episcopal consecrations.
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Mon Jun 29, 2026 - 2:21 pm EDT
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(LifeSiteNews) — Why does Rome consent to Chinese communists dictating who becomes a bishop in China while forbidding the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) from consecrating its own bishops under threat of excommunication?
One aspect that I consider not insignificant is that SSPX priests (as well as Ecclesia Dei priests) are generally likely to be considerably better educated in philosophy and theology than most priests who “enjoyed” the priestly formation of the post-conciliar Church.
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PETITION: Urgent appeal to Pope Leo XIV to support the Priestly Society of St. Pius X
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This could be one reason for Rome’s rigorous stance toward the SSPX. It is possible that Rome fears its intellectual superiority and impact. The Society of St. Pius X is not as tame as the Ecclesia Dei communities. Were Rome to integrate the SSPX into the Catholic Church, it would naturally pose a threat to the left-leaning theology and pastoral practice that have spread throughout the Church since the Council and have caused unprecedented devastation up to the present day. The Traditional Mass could no longer be kept under wraps, as happened in many places despite Ecclesia Dei and Summorum Pontificum, and as is happening again by papal decree since Traditionis Custodes. The monoculture of the Novus Ordo imposed upon the Catholic faithful would come to an end. Yet the Novus Ordo faction vehemently resists this. After all, the faithful might simply vote with their feet.
The quality of the clergy in the post-conciliar Church, particularly in the Western cultural sphere, resembles the quality of personnel in secular political range. The growing lack of education and personal integrity in the latter finds its parallel among the clergy in a decline of intellectual and spiritual level. This is especially disastrous at the level of the higher and senior clergy, just as it is among top personnel in government and politics. In both spheres, key positions are far too often filled by people who are simply unsuited for them.
The result: both state and church are rapidly going downhill. It should be noted that in both areas, left-wing ideologues are the driving forces behind this ruinous course.
The Francis era brought about a veritable surge in ecclesiastical leadership personnel who are, in various respects, underqualified. Foremost among them is Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself. He should never have been elected Pope — perhaps he should not even have attained the office of bishop. Figures such as Fernández, Grech, and Parolin also have no place in top ecclesiastical offices. They are disastrous appointments.
I find it is bad that Leo XIV, even in the second year of his pontificate, continues to retain such individuals in office. I also have doubts about Leo due to his constant, effusive praise for his immediate predecessor, whose pontificate was truly catastrophic, as well as his episcopal appointments, through which he elevates a striking number of men sympathetic to homosexual ideology to episcopal sees. Why does he not instead rehabilitate the thoroughly orthodox Bishop Joseph Strickland, whom Pope Francis removed from office for his fearless defense of deeply traditional Catholic positions? Why does he not finally put an end to the German specter of the apostate “Synodal Path?” Why, indeed, does he not stop the synodality circus imposed on the universal Church by Francis, which, behind a cascade of empty rhetoric, works to undermine the Catholica?
This raises the question of whether Father Robert Prevost possesses the philosophical and theological education befitting the office of Pope as well as the orthodoxy indispensable for that office. He studied in the USA during the 1970s. However, the post-conciliar chaos was particularly acute there. The U.S. Church was among those local churches with the worst conditions and the greatest influence. Furthermore, I am by no means certain that Prevost’s long years in South America were conducive to his Catholic orthodoxy. Moreover, he is a member of a religious order, and it was precisely within religious orders that “the spirit of the Council” wreaked such devastating havoc.
History since the French Revolution teaches that wherever leftist forces gain and retain the upper hand, their actions and grandiose promises are followed by disillusionment, loss of freedom and decline, even to the point of collapse. The post-conciliar Church is in the process of experiencing this firsthand. John Paul II and Benedict XVI defended Catholic bastions against subversive leftist Catholicism, yet their successor opened the gates to it. With Pope Francis, the “progressives'” march through Catholic institutions has reached the very top. Since then, the church’s ride to rock bottom is accelerating. An alarming example of this is the aforementioned “Synodal Path.” A large majority of German bishops has, together with a top of functionary-Catholics from both the laity and the clergy, initiated a radical process that is transforming the Catholic Church in Germany into an institution of a neo-Protestant, politically correct civil religion.
In this explosive situation, couldn’t the task of saving the Catholic Church from the worst to the Society of Saint Pius X?
The Pope and his advisers ought to reflect deeply on this before bringing out the heavy artillery against SSPX. The seemingly banal refrain of an American rock classic could serve as a guiding principle: “Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself.”
The Society of St. Pius X, too, would do well to use this simple line of lyrics as a starting point for a self-critical examination of its own positions and actions.
Gottfried Paschke is a German Catholic layman who studied theology and mathematics.
TOPICS
TAGGED AS
- Ecclesia Dei
- Jorge Mario Bergoglio
- Novus Ordo
- Philosophy
- Pope Leo XIV
- post-conciliar church
- Robert Prevost
- Society of St. Pius X (SSPX)
- Summorum Pontificum
- Theology
- Traditional Mass
- Traditionis Custodes
