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What's Absurd: An Unbelievable Injustice

I can't wrap my head around the recent unequal, unjust treatment of faithful Catholics that is so unfair!

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What's Absurd: An Unbelievable Injustice

I can't wrap my head around the recent unequal, unjust treatment of faithful Catholics that is so unfair!

By Mary H.

While attending the 'Tridentine Mass' close to home the other Sunday (a Mass celebrated by an abbey in full communion with the Church), something hit me. I don't mean physically, but still it was jolting. Put aside the legalisms for a moment and hear me out. Also, I may speak in general so don't get hung up on minor, essentially irrelevant points.

What struck me was...

* Non Mass-attending 'Catholics' — NOT excommunicated.

* Mass-attending 'Catholics' who dress immodestly & reject infallible Church doctrines and who attend a Protestantized Mass with all matter of lunacy & blasphemy ('devil horns', 'liturgical dancing', inculturation, and even invalid matter) — NOT excommunicated.

* All manner of so-called 'Catholics' who go against the Pope on contraception, divorce/'remarriage', etc. — NOT excommunicated.

* Chinese Catholics tied to bishops selected by the Communist CCP — NOT excommunicated.

* Modestly dressed Mass-attending Catholics who uphold all infallible Church doctrines, pray for the Pope, and faithfully live Catholic lives - and who desire (for the right reasons) to attend the reverent traditional Catholic Mass guaranteed to them forever by Pope St. Pius V — Supposedly excommunicated if they attend Mass at the 'wrong place' at present (i.e. SSPX).

I am not, and have never been, a member of the SSPX. Yet this unequal treatment of my fellow Catholics shocks me to the core. I understand that the SSPX has appealed the excommunications to Rome (rather strange for supposed 'schismatics', no?) and I hope they will receive a favorable response soon.

In the meantime, how can it be that...?

* the modern Vatican scandalously blesses adulterous couples and those whose sin 'cries out to heaven' while excommunicating faithful Catholics?

* the modern Vatican looks favorably upon true schismatics (e.g. the so-called Orthodox), and even gives awards and honors to them - and even recently gave relics of the Apostle St. Peter to them! - yet criticizes, insults, and excommunicates faithful Catholics, calling them schismatic, for trying to protect Catholic tradition?

* the modern Vatican doesn't excommunicate the Chinese who 'choose their bishops at will', but excommunicates faithful Catholics who (clearly, IMHO) acted under a state of necessity, creating some new bishops in the face of great hostility to tradition when their current bishops were elderly?

* a recent Pope 'bowed his head to receive a 'blessing' from 100 Protestant Pentecostal ministers (heretics who have no power of orders) in front of the cameras', but it is the SSPX that is called schismatic & penalized?

* the modern Vatican can honor the heresiarch Martin Luther with a postage stamp to commemorate the 500-year anniversary of the Protestant heresy/schism on one hand, and excommunicate the very-Catholic SSPX on the other hand?

* the modern Vatican can host pro-abortion, pro-homosexual/'transgender', pro-female 'ordination' feminists, but it is the SSPX that is called schismatic & penalized?

In just about every corner of the Church, disobedience of rebellious Catholics is not punished - and may even be rewarded! - yet the SSPX is punished. Even excommunicated! And for what?

The SSPX and its members...

* don't deny any articles of the Catholic faith

* are faithful to Catholic tradition - as the Church always taught

* cherish Catholic tradition - which is their birthright

* recognize their right to receive & defend true Catholic tradition

* likely view the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the heart of the Church and act accordingly (e.g. reverently)

* pray for the Pope

And most of the individual members of the SSPX presumably...

* didn't have a say in the matter of the 7/2026 (or 1988) consecrations [Note: See here for guest article on the 2026 SSPX Episcopal Consecrations]

* didn't get a trial before being 'excommunicated' for something that others in their organization did

* didn't actively participate in the alleged 'schismatic act' of consecration

Yet various faithful SSPX-supporting Catholics are 'excommunicated' in general? Kicked out of the Church? Denied sacraments and a Catholic burial? While at the same time we watch all manner of disobedience, dissent, blasphemy, heresy and true schism being included, awarded, praised, honored? Those promoting disobedience, dissent, blasphemy, heresy and true schism are in good standing in the Church? Non-practicing Catholics are also in good standing? Chinese Catholics following Communist selected bishops are likewise in good standing? At a time when sin, error, disobedience and rebellion are widespread this is a good time to excommunicate from among the few faithful, practicing Catholics? For the crime of loving Catholic tradition, which we are all called to do? I find it to be an absurd, unbelievable injustice! I can't wrap my head around the recent unequal, unjust treatment of faithful Catholics that is so unfair!

Make it make sense! Actually no sense can be made of it because it's frankly diabolical.

Here are some facts...

* The Novus Ordo is a Protestantized rite created with the assistance of Protestants

* Catholics have a right to the traditional Mass according to immemorial custom and explicitly by Pope St. Pius V (in a document that "cannot be revoked or modified, but remain[s] always valid and retain[s] its full force")

* There has been a great hostility towards tradition from those who should be preserving it [try here for some examples]. In a recent year, for example, the Vatican has only 'allowed fewer than 60 parish churches worldwide' to offer the TLM - which means MOST Catholics are denied their birthright

* Even the Second Vatican Council celebrated using the TLM and said they wanted to support it in 'every way'...

"Finally, in faithful obedience to tradition, the sacred Council declares that Holy Mother Church holds all lawfully recognized rites to be of equal right and dignity; that she wishes to preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way." (Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium)

Some examples in today's Catholic Church which are in sharp contrast to the treatment afforded to 'excommunicated' SSPX members...

* Archbishop Gregory told a 'transgender Catholic', "You belong to the heart of this Church. And there is nothing that you may do, may say, that will ever rip you from the heart of this Church." — Never to be excommunicated, apparently. Those denying God's plan for creation are thus apparently on safer ground than tradition-loving SSPX members.

* "[A] radical political movement was on full display in a shocking parody of a 'Catholic funeral' for a transgender activist. From start to finish, the service derided the Catholic faith, blasphemed its hallowed space, and ridiculed a holy and beloved female saint..." — Scandalous, blasphemous, and NOT excommunicated.

* "Pope Francis granted the schismatic Anglican 'Archbishop' of Canterbury, Justin Welby, permission to celebrate an 'Anglican Eucharist' at the high altar in the Catholic Basilica of St. Bartholomew, Rome. Later the same day, during an ecumenical Vespers at the Papal Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls, Pope Francis and 'Archbishop' Welby jointly 'commissioned' pairs of Catholic and Anglican bishops as if they possessed equivalent orders" [Note: Anglicans do NOT have valid orders] — Shocking, scandalous, and NO excommunications.

* A pro-homosexual priest said that "all LGBTQ people are beloved children of God, that God made them who they are, and that they have as much place in our churches as anyone else." — Those committing a sin that 'cries to heaven' apparently have more place in the Church than certain faithful Catholic SSPX members have?

The treatment of the SSPX is supposedly related to 'disobedience', but they forget...

1. Disobedience is sometimes allowed, even a necessity at times (of course this refers to laws of men, not God's laws)

2. The 'disobedience' of the SSPX may be in the best interest of souls and the common good

3. Disobedience is NOT the same as schism

As I said, I've never been part of the SSPX, but I have read some of Archbishop Lefebvre's writings and find that it is often difficult to argue with his logic. It seems that the modern Vatican is trying to make a prophet of him!

Here are some example quotes...

"When I was a child the Church everywhere had the same faith, the same sacraments and the same Sacrifice of the Mass. If anyone had told me then that it would be changed, I would not have believed him." (Lefebvre, Open Letter to Confused Catholics)

"Psychologically, pastorally, and theologically it is impossible for Catholics to give up a liturgy which is the true expression and stay of their faith, and adopt new rites conceived by heretics without exposing their faith to the greatest danger. It is not possible to imitate Protestants indefinitely without becoming one. How many of the faithful, how many young priests, how many bishops have lost their faith since these reforms were adopted? One cannot flout nature and faith and escape their vengeance." (Lefebvre, A Bishop Speaks)

"[St. Vincent of Lérins], who had experienced the shock of heresies, gives a rule of conduct which still holds good after fifteen hundred years: What should the Catholic Christian therefore do if some part of the Church arrives at the point of detaching itself from the universal communion and the universal faith? What else can he do but prefer the general body which is healthy to the gangrenous and corrupted limb? And if some new contagion strives to poison, not just a small part of the Church but the whole Church at once, then again his great concern will be to attach himself to Antiquity which obviously cannot any more be seduced by any deceptive novelty." (Lefebvre, Open Letter to Confused Catholics)

"Two religions confront each other; we are in a dramatic situation and it is impossible to avoid a choice, but the choice is not between obedience and disobedience. What is suggested to us, what we are expressly invited to do, what we are persecuted for not doing, is to choose an appearance of obedience. But even the Holy Father cannot ask us to abandon our faith. We therefore choose to keep it and we cannot be mistaken in clinging to what the Church has taught for two thousand years. The crisis is profound, cleverly organized and directed, and by this token one can truly believe that the master mind is not a man but Satan himself. For it is a master stroke of Satan to get Catholics to disobey the whole of Tradition in the name of obedience." (Lefebvre, Open Letter to Confused Catholics)

And with the 'abomination of synodality' on the horizon, consider this gem...

"Well, I am not of that religion. I do not accept that new religion." (Lefebvre, Open Letter to Confused Catholics)

Are not the excommunications of faithful SSPX Catholics in connection with the consecration of tradition-friendly bishops a special irony in light of synodality, which claims that...?

"[T]he Synodal Assembly desires that the People of God have a greater voice in choosing Bishops."

Like I said, put aside legalisms for a moment and consider things as they really are today in the post-Vatican II Church (now the Synodal Church).

Consider how disobedient, dissenting, blasphemous, heretical, and truly schismatic persons are treated and contrast this with how individual, faithful members of the very-Catholic SSPX have been treated.

It is absurd.

I am given some perspective by this quote in a book regarding St. Athanasius (a saint, by the way, who was unjustly excommunicated)...

"[P]apal excommunications do not involve infallibility, there have been far too many unjust excommunications in the history of the Church for this to be the case." (Davies)

Signature: By Mary H.

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