The 13 SSPX Demands for the Normalization of their Relationship With the Vatican
The SSPX "Minimum Requirements" to be Placed on the Holy See
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The precise relationship of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to the Vatican has, at best, been unclear since the excommunication of Archbishop Lefebvre after he performed “unilateral” consecrations of four bishops in 1988. Pope John Paul II called the acts of Lefebvre schismatic, while Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications and entered into dialogue aiming at normalization with the Society, a process continued by Pope Francis, including granting their priests official canonical faculties in certain cases while calling them “Catholics on the path to full communion.”1
Bishops and Cardinals have made opposing statements on the current status of the SSPX, with the SSPX claiming that they were canonically established and never properly suppressed, whilst opponents suggest that they have no valid jurisdiction and are in something less than full communion. The SSPX themselves claim only that they operate on the basis of supply jurisdiction until the crisis in the Church is resolved, but fully recognize and respect the Pope by virtue of displaying his picture in all their chapels.
The Society remains in continued dialogue with the Vatican, both in hopes of helping to resolve the crisis in what Lefebvre called “modernist Rome” but also to gain “official” or “normalized” status with said “modernist Rome.”
This process of dialogue and negotiation has gained new ground under Pope Leo XIV, with the Society in fact having produced an official document of “minimum requirements for the Holy See” to present to the Pope and the Vatican as their stipulations for any “normalization” offer offered by the Vatican. While it has not yet been released publicly, IIT intelligence agents2 were able to obtain a copy of this list of demands, outlined below, along with our comments and thoughts on each of them:
Official SSPX Demands
The SSPX will have whatever canonical status (congregation, personal prelature, religious order, vicariate, ordinariate) their own canon lawyers deem best for them. They probably understand what all these terms mean better than the Vatican canonists, to be honest.
The SSPX will gain at least a 51% ownership stake in the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) and the ability to discipline the priests in the Fraternity who “schismed” from them. This is an internal dispute we’re not going to get ourselves involved in.
Angelus Press will become the official publisher for all new encyclicals and documents issued by the Pope or the official Vatican dicasteries. Business, it’s all about business. Besides, Angelus Press uses better paper and has better typesetting than the Vatican, and is also better at running a properly traditional website than the Vatican. They’ll be put in charge of all Vatican communications, actually.
Traditionis Custodes will be repealed. We can all agree on that one.
The “SSPX Resistance” will be excommunicated. Supply jurisdiction doesn’t help out their case.
Archbishop Lefebvre will be canonized within one year. He should also be named a Doctor of the Church.
Pope John Paul II’s bull of excommunication against Archbishop Lefebvre will be burned publicly in St. Peter’s Square. The ceremony will be live-streamed, and Bishop Martin and Fr. James Martin will be forced to watch. But beware of Fr. James Martin angrily founding a society of his own! Maybe the Vatican II documents will also be burned in St. Peter’s Square if Nostra Aetate and Dignitatis Humanae can’t be properly reconciled with tradition to the SSPX’s (and all of our) satisfaction.
Vatican II, Pope John XXIII, and Pope Paul VI will each be commemorated and celebrated in the liturgical calendar, but as days of fasting and mourning. We mourn their memory, yes, we truly do.
The SSPX will receive as many bishops of their own choice as they deem necessary to their mission, plus a voting majority of cardinals in the college of cardinals. This will ensure that the Vatican can’t renege on any deal they make. Besides, Rome will be “eternal Rome” again if the next Pope is an SSPX Pope, right?
The Immaculata in St. Mary’s, Kansas, will become an official Cathedral Shrine of a new SSPX-run diocese encompassing the town. It has as many practicing Catholics as most dioceses already, so this wouldn’t be asking much.
Any Catholics who speak badly about the SSPX will receive a personal inquisitory visit from . “I’m just asking questions,” he’ll say to you when he arrives. “Nothing to worry about. Unless you say or have said anything bad about the SSPX or about Canadians, that is. We Canadians are kind people… usually…” We all know that Kennedy Hall is secretly on the inside of everything that goes on within the Church. We know he’s secretly been negotiating with Cardinal Burke for years, and it was his support that swung the conclave in Pope Leo’s favor. So why don’t we take this top intelligence asset of the SSPX and turn him against the enemies of tradition?
The SSPX will receive ten blank bulls of excommunication, signed by the Pope, and free for them to use against modernist theologians or clerics of their choice. Who will these be used against?
All Catholics Must Watch the Mass of the Ages documentary, and all priests must attend a “re-education” seminar hosted by SSPX theologians. We’ve got to purge the modernism out of them somehow.
We hope full normalization can be achieved and the crisis in the Church can end soon by the Vatican agreeing to these terms without any delay.
But watch out, those Vatican negotiators, just as in the 1980s, can be wily. Watch out for the counter-proposals issued by the Vatican, coming soon, only on Irkutsk Ice Truckers!
You will all have to guess on whether we acquired this list from
. We have been in communication with him. Yes, we seriously have!
Just read this to my wife! Loved it!
Some of these bullet points are reasonable, most are way too far-fetched at this juncture. Baby steps...