To Leave or Not Leave SSPX

[ServusMariae]

In my home country, I have been taking refuge at a small SSPX chapel for my Sunday obligation as an alternative to garbage Novus Ordo "masses" & an LGBT-affirming Latin Mass community (up to this day, I still can't believe it but it happened.) ... but lately, I'm getting protests from my parents that the priory is ridiculously far from home & we would have to incur extra transport costs (as my whole family & I are currently suffering a financial crisis) & I can't deny the fact the chapel is nowhere near to where I live, given there were (multiple) times when I barge into the middle of Holy Mass at the SSPX chapel with the craziest anxiety out of waiting for public transport (which can arrive at unreliable times & be delayed by traffic conditions no matter how early I wake from the bed & get out of home).

Yet very recently, I'm starting find myself questioning the authority of the SSPX as they would be having their General Chapter meeting this year ... I wonder why they act everything without the authority of the Pope & wonder why Archbishop Fellay can just elect a Superior General without consent from the Pope, the Head of the Church (& seeing that an Archbishop can be the boss of everything is just too hard for me to comprehend, me who badly yearns to reunite with the True Church of Rome despite its horribly messed-up state in this day & age & Pope Francis acts not-so-Catholic at times) ... I feel like I'm belonging to some underground cult rather than a real church ... yet the Archdiocese of my country is messed up. No one cares about true theology all except for my local SSPX. I love it, honestly - but I cannot fathom belonging to a club which boasts like it's a replacement for the Holy See & acts so freely without Rome's consent (albeit they care very deeply about the Pope) ... yet it's the only solution. I'm stranded.

(P.S: There's no FSSP in where I live, but the archdiocesan TLM community sprung out from the fruit of an FSSP priest long ago ... yet what to do when they take a "who are we to judge" stance towards LGBT Catholics ... sigh.)

[St.Justin]

Most religious groups do not require papal approval of their leadership.
They also have been granted Ordinary Jurisdiction from Rome for Weddings and Confessions. In any case Supplied Jurisdiction works just fine.
that should put to bed most of your objections

[Greg]

If you can show me where the "real church" is I will join it.

[Kaesekopf]

Save your soul, ignore the politics.

Go where you can get the sacraments unfettered.

[Miriam_M]

If you can show me where the "real church" is I will join it.

You're a member of it, Greg.  You have already joined it. You're baptized, and thus are obligated to fulfill your baptismal promises, regardless of whether various clergy and hierarchy do or do not fulfill their baptismal promises. You know what true Catholicism demands of you and me.  We're "only" required to live it, not to be responsible if others do not, including others with collars.  Particular Judgment for Greg, Particular Judgment for Miriam, Particular Judgment for Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio -- according to whatever name/title you want to recognize him as. 

IOW, becoming discouraged because our Church is not leading us --to the point where we do not fulfill those individual promises -- is not an option.  I don't think you want to go there.  Instead, our obligation, as part of those promises, is to pray when we are discouraged, pray for the virtues of fortitude, hope, etc.  As my confessor recently said to me, "Grace is always available; it's whether we ask for that grace, avail ourselves of it."

[Daniel]

I'd stop going. I can't say with complete certainty, but I don't think that the SSPX is allowed to be doing what it's doing.

[Jayne]

I'd stop going. I can't say with complete certainty, but I don't think that the SSPX is allowed to be doing what it's doing.

I attend an SSPX chapel with a clear conscience, though it took me some time to reach that conclusion.  There were statements from the Vatican which showed that there was no problem with attending Mass, but it took me longer to decide about Confession.  After studying the arguments for and against, I eventually became convinced that their Confessions do have supplied jurisdiction.

I found that I was far better able to cope with the chaotic situation in the Church when I placed meeting my basic spiritual needs first.  Sacraments are a basic spiritual need, much like food is a basic physical need. Faced with the choices that Servus has, I would probably pick the SSPX chapel.  While I don't have concerns about their authority to do what they do, it is less than ideal due to the distance and her parents objections.  Nevertheless, the other options are Novus Ordo, a morally compromised diocesan Mass, or no Mass at all.

[Gardener]

I'd stop going. I can't say with complete certainty, but I don't think that the SSPX is allowed to be doing what it's doing.

If they weren't allowed to be doing what they're doing, they wouldn't have been given faculties for Marriages and Confessions; further, such prelates as Bishop Athanasius Schneider would not be visiting them and celebrating Mass with/for them, nor making such statements as denying they are in schism and that their matter is an internal one. Heck, even Jimmy Akin has said one may indeed fulfill their Mass obligation at the SSPX -- heard it with my own ears. If such an arch-neoconservative Catholic personality as Akin agrees, such a Bishop as Bp. Schneider, and even the CDF and CDW have all said this, I find it hard to argue against given the wide swath cut by those various personalities.

---

OP - Why don't you trust in the providence of God? I've never known a person who had poverty of spirit in such regards who wasn't supplied with what is needed. However, if you reject the Sacraments, valid as they are, because of your disagreement with a prudential decision, you run head long into the essential errors of Donatism. If Christ be among sinners, why reject His presence for the cause of their presence? Is it Him you want, or a communal pat on the back? Be careful with the latter -- those hands often contain knives.

[ServusMariae]

I found that I was far better able to cope with the chaotic situation in the Church when I placed meeting my basic spiritual needs first.  Sacraments are a basic spiritual need, much like food is a basic physical need. Faced with the choices that Servus has, I would probably pick the SSPX chapel.  While I don't have concerns about their authority to do what they do, it is less than ideal due to the distance and her parents objections.  Nevertheless, the other options are Novus Ordo, a morally compromised diocesan Mass, or no Mass at all.

My sentiments exactly.  (albeit I am still trying to come to terms with what my beloved archdiocesan TLM community had done. I was part of the club for over 4-5 years & it's shocking, really, but gonna move on.)

Authority aside, the biggest issue that I face now is whether if I truly must fulfill the Sunday Obligation every single Sunday if I keep struggling with the transport. Sure, I am able to rise early, but the SSPX priory is 16300 metres away from home ... & the costs to get there are quite ... punishing in the eyes of my parents, yet I don't want to freak out for committing a mortal sin just because I genuinely do not always have the means to physically shuttle myself there. My mindset is "get there no matter what - or suffer the pain of offending God for all eternity."

(side note: My confessor once told me that I could always go to the archdiocesan TLM if the SSPX chapel was too inconvenient for me to jet .... but I admit I yet have to inform him of the "holy- communion-to-"transgenders" issue which abounds within the EF community. Tragic.)

[ServusMariae]

OP - Why don't you trust in the providence of God? I've never known a person who had poverty of spirit in such regards who wasn't supplied with what is needed. However, if you reject the Sacraments, valid as they are, because of your disagreement with a prudential decision, you run head long into the essential errors of Donatism. If Christ be among sinners, why reject His presence for the cause of their presence? Is it Him you want, or a communal pat on the back? Be careful with the latter -- those hands often contain knives.

Donatism? Really? I didn't know that ... but hey, now that I think of it ... I think the initial doubt that I have over SSPX may be all but just a temptation from The Evil One ... I'm sorry, Gardener - but thank you for the kind reminder. I guess I was just thrown into too much confusion.

[Jayne]

(side note: My confessor once told me that I could always go to the archdiocesan TLM if the SSPX chapel was too inconvenient for me to jet .... but I admit I yet have to inform him of the "holy- communion-to-"transgenders" issue which abounds within the EF community. Tragic.)

You would be better off discussing this with your confessor than asking the forum and getting a bunch of conflicting answers.  It is important to come to decision that you can carry out with a clear conscience.  You could easily end up feeling guilty no matter which choice you make and that sort of guilt is not from God.

All of your options have a serious down side:  SSPX - distance, expense;  diocesan TLM - morally compromised; Novus Ordo - too many problems to list; no Mass at all - failing Sunday obligation.

Not fulfilling one's Sunday obligation is a mortal sin, so I think that any option that is not a mortal sin is better than that.  If the SSPX is too far away to be practical, you need to consider whether sin is involved in the other options.

[ServusMariae]

You would be better off discussing this with your confessor than asking the forum and getting a bunch of conflicting answers.  It is important to come to decision that you can carry out with a clear conscience.  You could easily end up feeling guilty no matter which choice you make and that sort of guilt is not from God.

All of your options have a serious down side:  SSPX - distance, expense;  diocesan TLM - morally compromised; Novus Ordo - too many problems to list; no Mass at all - failing Sunday obligation.

Not fulfilling one's Sunday obligation is a mortal sin, so I think that any option that is not a mortal sin is better than that.  If the SSPX is too far away to be practical, you need to consider whether sin is involved in the other options.

I understand; I will bring it up to my confessor at earliest opportunity. Thank you, Jayne.

[Greg]

If you can show me where the "real church" is I will join it.

You're a member of it, Greg.  You have already joined it. You're baptized, and thus are obligated to fulfill your baptismal promises, regardless of whether various clergy and hierarchy do or do not fulfill their baptismal promises. You know what true Catholicism demands of you and me.  We're "only" required to live it, not to be responsible if others do not, including others with collars.  Particular Judgment for Greg, Particular Judgment for Miriam, Particular Judgment for Francis/Cardinal Bergoglio -- according to whatever name/title you want to recognize him as. 

IOW, becoming discouraged because our Church is not leading us --to the point where we do not fulfill those individual promises -- is not an option.  I don't think you want to go there.  Instead, our obligation, as part of those promises, is to pray when we are discouraged, pray for the virtues of fortitude, hope, etc.  As my confessor recently said to me, "Grace is always available; it's whether we ask for that grace, avail ourselves of it."

In which case I should go to the Church that most resembles it.

[Daniel]

.

[Daniel]

.