SSPX: from the Welborn mosh pit

A reader writes:

"Over at open book [Amy Welborn's blog, now "Charlotte Was Both"], bracing back and forths on the SSPX deal.

http://amywelborn.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/lefebvre-part-ii/#comment-11358

I attended a non-schismatic Latin Mass a while back, and was both intrigued, attracted, and a bit repelled. So I don't mean this as a Trad shout out at all. But i thought these comments in the com box by trp were on point:

The comment in question reads as follows:

The Vatican could have put together lots of neat PR packets for the press, and the headlines would have been the same. I, for one, appreciate the Vatican’s indifference to the MSM. The facts are out there, easily accessible to any journalist; it’s really their fault if they are utterly uninterested in discovering them.

The rejection by the SSPX of V2 is, for me, a non-starter. More than half of my parish rejects the basics of the Catholic faith. “The Trinity? You’ve got to be kidding me! What are you, a traditionalist or something?” Should they be summarily excommunicated? And if you are going to start with the rebellious clerics; well, there’s Father McBrian and plenty others where he comes from. If you were to distribute a doctrinal check list, I suspect that the SSPX–priests, bishops, and laity–would score better than the average Catholic in good standing.

Archbishop Williamson’s statements are foolish, probably sinful, and an embarrassment to all traditionalists. However, they cannot compare in gravity to the sins of prelates who have not been relieved of their duties. If you compare him with Abp Mahony, for example, you will likely find that the latter has done far more real harm. The secular press can continue with their nonsense, but I will not be more upset about Abp Williamson than I am about Abp Mahony. I hope that both will disappear from the scene.

Here’s the really painful point to make: the SSPX may not want full communion, and they may be right not to want it. Thanks to the brilliant and holy Benedict XVI, it is now becoming mainstream to question the idea that the authentic liturgy and doctrine of the Church was born the 1960’s, and that everything that was taught and believed before that decade was a bunch of superstitious, bigoted nonsense. We have also begun to undo some of the brutal iconoclasm that has devastated our churches, art, music, and liturgy. However, we’ve made baby steps. None of it would have been possible without the SSPX’s rebellion. I can understand why even reasonable factions of the SSPX might now be very diffident about submitting themselves to the authority of the current hierarchy of the Church. They have Pope Benedict as their ally; but he has many, many enemies who hate the SSPX, and hate everything that they have managed stubbornly to preserve.

[Hat tip to J.M.]