Society of St. Pius X shouldn’t be judged by the acts of few

I met a young man who habitually goes to Masses said by priests of the Society of Saint Pius X. It may surprise many that he lacked horns and a pointed tail and refrained from making anti-Semitic remarks. He was just a nice, dark-haired young man in a cable-knit sweater, a British soldier between tours of duty in Afghanistan. 

I think of this nice young man every time I read yet another article in a Catholic newspaper or on a Catholic blog about the supposed anti-Semitism of the Society of St. Pius X. I think of the anti-Semitic comments I have heard in my life, none of which were uttered by members of the SSPX.

The first was in my ordinary Catholic school yard, yelled by a bully. The second was in a bus station, expressed by a stranger frustrated by Good Friday closings. The third was on a bus, uttered by a classmate in my ordinary Catholic high school.

More recently, I was told by a young man from Syria that when he was a child, both Christians and Muslim children thought it meritorious to throw rocks at the house of the only Jew in town. Even more recently, I heard anti-Jewish remarks at an anti-Israel rally. There is no doubt in my mind that anti-Jewish prejudice is still rampant, and I think it is both bewildering and a sad illustration of the fact that we live in a broken universe. When people are frustrated and unhappy, they sometimes concoct lunatic theories about a rival group. This is called scapegoating.

The Society of Saint Pius X, a fraternity of Roman Catholic priests founded in 1970 by French archbishop Marcel LeFebvre, has been scapegoated for as long as I can remember.

When I was in school, teachers and priests were careful to instill in us a respect for people whose religious beliefs and traditions were different from our own. I do not think I ever heard a word in dispargement for Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs or any other religious group from any Catholic priest or teacher. But I certainly heard that the traditionalist SSPX was dangerous.

Our spirit of ecumenism obviously has not extended to the SSPX. The fiercest condemnation I heard was not from a liberal Catholic, but from a conservative Catholic indignant at the idea that one might pray for the salvation of LeFebvre. He argued that LeFebvre had died excommunicated and was therefore burning in hell.

This opinion would be particularly irksome to a priest friend of mine who knew and loved LeFebvre and was, in fact, ordained by him some years before LeFebvre was excommunicated for ordaining four priests as bishops without permission of Pope John Paul II. The only members of the SSPX to be excommunicated were LeFebvre, the bishop who assisted him and the four priests involved. (These four had their excommunication lifted in 2009.)

The ordinations created a rift between the SSPX and the rest of the Church, and within the SSPX itself.  Not wanting to be in a state of disobedience to the Pope, many priests left the Society and formed the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. Like the SSPX, they are devoted to preserving the traditional form of the Mass and teaching Catholic doctrine. Unlike the SSPX, they have the complete sanction of the Holy See. I have never heard a FSSP priest speak in disparagment of the SSPX; I am frequently asked by an FSSP priest to pray for the SSPX.

The Holy See and the Society of Pius X are currently negotiating to bring the SSPX entirely back into the fold, which the latter insists it never left. The issues, related to Catholic doctrine after the Second Vatican Council, are perhaps too complex for the world media, which cannot see beyond the personal failings of holocaust denying SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson.

In the wake of the clerical sex abuse scandals, ordinary Catholics know how horrible it is to be lumped in with that small percentage of priests who have committed crimes against children. We know that it is not just to thousands of innocent priests who bear the brunt of the world’s disgust, or millions of ordinary Catholic laypeople who read or hear comments about “Catholics and their child-abusing priests.” Thus we, of all people, should know not to judge an entire religious fraternity and its adherents by the ill-judged opinions of, as far as we know, a very few. 

We have offered a warm welcome to those who have joined us through the Anglican Ordinariate. I hope we will be able to offer the same welcome to our brothers in the SSPX.