![]() ![]() ![]() They would rupture communion with the Church even if there were no difference in belief whatsoever.īut the SSPX is more like a heresy because in practice it prospers around the world by drawing to it those people in every region who have serious reservations about key Catholic doctrines as they have become more fully understood and developed in modern times, or serious reservations about disciplinary changes which they believe fundamentally alter the salvific efficacy of the Church. The ordination of bishops without papal approval and the establishment of a separate ecclesiastical governance are, of course, schismatic acts. This is so even though the form of the organization is based on a technical refusal (and a practical rejection) of the Pope’s authority to order episcopal jurisdiction in the Church. In this sense it is far more like a heresy (as in some respects the hardening beliefs of the Society may well prove in time to be). Few at the lower levels have any vested interest in perpetuating the separation. Peter, then everybody else more or less goes along. If, at the highest levels of negotiation, a solution is reached, and the wayward parties can be persuaded that it is to their advantage to recognize and obey the lawful successor of St. There is a certain convenience to this sort of schism if it does not go on long enough to become deeply ingrained in the piety of those who are separated. They then advance an argument as to why a different pope is really the legitimate one (the typical case in the West, usually arising from dynastic squabbles) or why no pope is really necessary (the typical case in the East, arising from excessive deference to the Emperor in Constantinople). For reasons that are largely socio-political, leaders in one region or another resent and reject the authority of a particular pope. In Catholic history, the problem of schism has most often been territorial. ![]() What I mean by this is best explained by considering an alternative case. ![]()
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