What if....?

 ...the Society of St. Pius X came into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church

So again, there are talks that the SSPX is coming closer to being in full communion with Rome. Ah, optimism…it’s the prelude to the crushing disappointment to many of us who desperately wants those who have removed themselves from the Roman Catholic Church to return.  Be it Protestants, Orthodox, ‘Catholic’ separatists, or the very large population of secularized Catholics. There has been a great effort by the Vatican to reach out to these groups, to welcome them home. And every so often there are talks accompanied by the rumor that ‘unification is near’. And always there is disappointment. 

I’m not so optimistic this time. As a matter of fact, I think the most we can hope for from the SSPX is individuals and religious groups coming across rather than the society as a whole, like many Anglicans are doing thanks to Anglicanorum Coetibus. The leadership of the SSPX seems, quite simply, far too arrogant and/or stubborn to agree to any compromise that would see them back into full communion. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.

What if I was wrong? What if these recent talks produced the wonderful outcome of the SSPX coming into full communion with Rome?  What would that mean for the Church? What would that mean for our Archdiocese? I think sometimes we are so excited for the aspect of lost brethren to come back to the Church we hardly asks ourselves these questions.

In Anchorage, on the Old Seward Highway near Huffman, there is a white building that looks like someone’s house. It’s not a house; rather it’s St. Therese, Patron Saint of Alaska Mission, a SSPX mission and as far as I know the only SSPX operation in the state. I remember when I first started the process of entering the Church, there was a letter from the Archbishop clarifying that going to St. Therese Mission did not fulfill a Catholic’s obligation to attend Mass on Sunday. I really wish I could reproduce that letter, but I do remember it quite clearly, because before that point I had never heard of the Society.

If the SSPX came into full communion with Rome, be it under a separate ordinate or whatever, what would that make St. Therese, Patron Saint of Alaska Mission? Would the people who attend that mission welcome their brothers and sisters who, like themselves, are traditionally minded yet found it repugnant to break away from the Church?  Would the Archbishop be off the hook so to speak to cater to people wanting the extraordinary form practiced in the Archdiocese?  The most important question is would there be resistance or lack of cooperation from either the Archdiocese or the SSPX community?

It’s hard to speculate on the answers to these questions. There are a lot of variables, to include knowing the details of any agreement between the Vatican and the SSPX, which come into play. But we can never lose hope that, by the grace of the Holy Ghost, unification will come. We seem so close on many fronts to unifying lost brethren, yet so far on many other fronts.