Shane Schaetzel †☧ (@RealClearCatholic)

The only thing the SSPX proved last week is that they can be defiant and disobedient even when the pope gives them unprecedented favor in the Church. I know the SSPX think they will one day be welcomed back into the Church as an organization. I don’t think so. Pope Benedict XVI lifted the original 1988 excommunications and opened dialogue with the SSPX. Pope Frances granted them faculties, recognizing their sacraments of matrimony and confession. Pope Leo XIV maintained this standard and signaled openness to eventual regularization. Then, in the face of all this, and after multiple warnings, the SSPX committed the exact same act that got them excommunicated in the first place back in 1988. No pope can ever trust them again. And this is why I believe all dialogue with this organization (as an organization) is over. They have gone into schism for a thousand years (like the Orthodox). They’re so stubborn about it, they won’t even recognize the excommunications as valid. This is why I think it’s over. Henceforth, SSPX clergy have the FSSP to go to when they’re ready to submit to Rome. SSPX laity are free to come back to any jurisdiction in the Church they want. Until then, they all remain outside of the Church, excommunicate and in schism.