Tucho Has Leo in a Real Bind

Blind leading the blind...

In my last piece, I wrote about the canonical disaster that Tucho created with his pseudo-excommunication of the SSPX, and fraudulent claims about the whole Society as such being in schism. Since it was published, my conclusions have been vindicated in the mainstream. Father Gerald Murray attested to the fact that the priests and laity had not been excommunicated in a segment on EWTN with Raymond Arroyo, and a Canon Lawyer writing for Rorate Caeli explained the same thing.

In addition, they confirmed that not only has the SSPX not been excommunicated and is not in schism, but, technically speaking, the priests still have the faculties that were recognized by Pope Francis. Now, we will leave the notion of supplied jurisdiction aside for now, it is explained in my aforementioned essay.

In any event, for the Society priests to lose their faculties, Pope Leo would have to essentially undo what Francis did, and he will have to do it specifically. That is the law. The Pope can change the law, and he is not bound by it personally (according to most opinions, I believe) but he must govern by it so long as it is still the law.

This creates quite a problem for Leo, which has seemingly been caused by Fernandez.

To put it mildly, the dynamic duo of New Springtime devotees have created an utter train-wreck, and they have humiliated all those commentators who have been claiming for years that the Society was in schism, as well as the reactionaries who jumped online as soon as the Decree was issued to wax sophistically about the new SSPX schism… which doesn’t exist.

Let me explain.

The very fact that Tucho wrote in his Note that the Society was to be consider as schismatic “from now on,” is an admission that before “from now on,” they have not been in schism. Of course, they were not put into schism, as the Note has about as much juridical weight as the weightless PDF it was released in. Nevertheless, it is a clear admission that the Society was not in schism beforehand. And, since it is not in schism now… this means it never has been.

But! How is that possible! Some people on podcasts and blogs have said it was in schism for so long!!

Well, I know that everything on the internet is usually true, but, sadly, in this case, it was not so.

So, first and foremost, can we have an apology for all the slanderous claims that have been made about the Society for years?

Don’t hold your breath; it was always negligent, and maybe even prideful to make judgements about an entire group of people that were not consistent with the Church’s position on said group — so much for “obedience!” — and negligent and prideful people don’t usually eat humble pie.

At any rate, the bind that Leo has been strangled with is even tighter.

You see, Leo threatened in his last-minute email to Don Pagliarani that the sacraments of the SSPX requiring jurisdiction would be invalidated, and Tucho attested to as much in his opinion piece. But, of course that isn’t true — at least not yet — which is the real problem.

If Pope Leo wants to take away the favours granted for the SSPX, he will have to deal with them as his subjects, which will mean they are under his authority… which will mean they are in the Church.

Sure, Fernandez has released the farcical document outlining a path to “return” to the Church, for priests and laity. But, if any priest (and I will be surprised if any do) does take up that offer, the whole Francis-faculty question will be moot in that case anyway. So, what is Leo to do?

Should he come out and release some sort of Motu Proprio — or other such document — officially revoking the favours granted by Francis? And, would that be addressed to the SSPX, which is a recognized body of priests of the Church under his authority? And, would that mean they are part of the Catholic Church that he governs?

Oh boy, that would be very embarrassing for Tucho, because it would be a papal admission of the invalidity of his schism claims.

Now, in theory, maybe Pope Leo wants to actually go nuclear and seek to officially smash the SSPX in some astonishing way. Well, if that were to happen, to my mind, it would only be more evidence that the so-called Conciliar Church (a term coined by the Vatican in the 70s, by the way) is even more off the rails that we thought. Also, it will still be evidence that basically everything Fernandez recently did was legal fiction.

And, while I can’t go into it here, it would be such an absurd act that it would seem like the poor man had gone mad, and mad Popes can’t make sound decisions, no matter how many times you scream “OBEDIENT” in capslock in comments sections.

Kyrie Eleison