Traditional Believers: Beware!

In a recent post I said (slightly revised here for clarity):

Truly, since Tradition is a vehicle of Divine Revelation it is not Traditionalists in the FFI, FSSP, ICKSP, the Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney, the Institute of the Good Shepherd or the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer et al, who are a problem; nor is it the Diocesan priest who preaches the whole of Vatican II and sometimes celebrates with the Usus Antiquior, nor is it the laity of Una VoceFoederatio Internationalis. All of these accept Vatican II and happily co-exist with those who favour the Novus Ordo. It is liberals, clerical and lay, who focus only on the new and refuse the old who are problematic. Why? Bbecause they are in danger of erecting a new Church by cutting us off from our liturgical and doctrinal foundations. 

I am becoming more and more concerned that Traditional Catholics are under unjust attack by such liberals, and increasingly concerned that Pope Francis is not coming to our aid. Indeed (and though we cannot state that the Pope has actively instigated such persecution) he appears to stimulate the persecution with his comments about neo-pelagians and gnosticism. All the Traditional folk I personally know, and all the Orders/Fraternities that have happily existed in complete union with Rome under the two previous Popes, must now feel under threat because of the actions taken against the Franciscans of the Immaculate, and here’s why:

if I were to reject Vatican II and preached against it; and if I were to become so adverse to the Missa Normativa that I refused to use it, then I would expect to be placed under sanctions. I would not however, expect every priest of the Diocese who upholds Vatican II and celebrates in the Usus Antiquior yet happily co-exists with the Missa Normativa to have the same sanctions placed on them: one does not punish a whole family because of the crimes of the one or even the few. That is what has been done in the FFI: all the priests of the FFI have had been refused permission to live by Summorum Pontificum in that they must now apply to their superior to celebrate in the Usus Antiquior. I cannot help but think that if a whole Order/Fraternity can be placed under sanctions because of the actions/words of a few, then Rome could extend the sanctions to all Orders/Fraternities because of failures in one Order/Fraternity, the principle of extending sanctions to all because of the failures of the few having been established.

We must all pray hard that the situation with the FFI and Rome is resolved swiftly and justly, for the sake of us all and for ‘reconciliation in the heart of the Church’ (Pope Benedict XVI).