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If the SSPX really were nothing more than the “tiny anti-modernist Catholic sect,” that David Gibson describes in a New York Times op-ed, their illicit ordination of new bishops would not command much attention— in fact wouldn’t merit a Times op-ed.
But despite Gibson’s effort to dismiss the SSPX, the group IS in the news. Why? First because they are not “tiny” any more; the group is as large as— and growing much faster than— many ordinary Catholic dioceses. Second, because many Catholics who are not SSPX members share the group’s concerns about doctrinal confusion and liturgical chaos.
Gibson writes off those concerns as “nostaliga, or rather ‘nostalgism,’ the unquestioning belief among some in the church that things were better in the past…” Exactly; there are “some” who think Catholicism was stronger when more than 20% of professed Catholics attended Mass, when parishes were being opened rather than shuttered, when young Catholics were not abandoning the faith in droves. If that’s nostalgia, then I, along with many thousands of other Catholics outside the SSPX, am guilty.
But I have to give Gibson credit: He quotes my wife Leila accurately, and links to her post, which effectively counters his argument.