Traditional Redemptorists reject validity of popes since Vatican II
(PerMariam) — The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer have issued a strident statement condemning the teaching of Vatican II, and rejecting the legitimacy of the popes since the council.
The “Modernist presence within the structures and hierarchy of the official Church has gone beyond critical mass to a near saturation point.” This reads a portion of the new and explosive letter released today by a traditional Mass community.
The Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (FSSR), a traditional community born out of the SSPX, has been based on a remote island off the coast of Scotland since 2012.
On May 2, the community issued a 21-page letter, condemning what they described as the influx of Modernism in the church and into the papal office. The priests and brothers wrote:
The problem is, as St Pius X warned, that the structures of the Catholic Church have been infiltrated by men of a different non-Catholic religion. They use the Catholic name, they occupy the Catholic buildings, they know the Catholic culture. From the outside they look to be Catholics, but they do not profess the Catholic Faith as taught through the centuries. In reality, they have been formed as revolutionaries committed to the condemned Freemasonic heresies of Religious Liberty, Religious Indifference and False Ecumenism. Their infiltration has struck a lethal wound to the Catholic religion; they have brought about a major schism from the Mystical Body. We must stand firmly with the Catholic Church and move well away from the camouflage of its counterfeit.
They argued that “since the Second Vatican Council, the apparent Popes have caused a spiritual catastrophe of the greatest imaginable proportions.”
Additionally they wrote that, “new doctrinal, moral, liturgical, and disciplinary decisions since Vatican II cannot be accepted because they contradict what came before. Accepting the false teaching of Vatican II separates us from the Catholic Church.”
The community denied that in writing such lines they were leaving the Catholic Church, saying that “our Faith has not changed. Holding the True Faith of our Fathers, we will continue to offer the True Mass. We will worship the True God. And we will work for an Imperfect General Council to bring about the triumph of Christ’s One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.”
“We are not saying that we should leave the Catholic Church,” the added. “The Catholic Church is the Ark of Salvation, the Mystical Body of Christ, the Bride without spot or wrinkle. We cling to her with all our strength. But we must recognise that the institutional structures that claims to be the Catholic Church have been infiltrated.”
However they argued that they would give no recognition to Pope Leo XIV as pope, stating:
we must do what Catholics have always done in times of crisis: We must hold fast to the Faith as it has always been taught. We must give no juridical recognition to those who have departed from it, including Leo XIV and his bishops.
As for how the community envisages a way forward for the church, they called for an “imperfect council of all Catholic bishops of the world who have kept the true faith, to pronounce on the status of the present papal pretender, Leo XIV, and on the status of his Conciliar Church predecessors.“
Until that time as such a council is “convoked and its investigations are concluded, and until papal clarifications are issued, we cannot accept the current pretenders to the papacy from the time of the Second Vatican Council.”
Recent months have seen them become increasingly vocal over the crisis in the Church, leading the bishop of Aberdeen, the diocese in which they are incarnated, to condemn the order and hint at Vatican censure. Bishop Hugh Gilbert wrote in October:
“The Diocese deeply regrets the tone, direction and key elements of this Letter. It is incompatible with the Catholic sense of the Church’s unity. While remaining open to conversation with the Congregation, the Diocese has made alternative arrangements for the ongoing provision of the older rite of the Roman Mass (usus antiquior) at St John’s, Fetternear.
The competent Dicasteries of the Holy See are also studying the situation and will provide canonical and doctrinal guidance. This is all an invitation to prayer for that unity of the Church so close to the Heart of Christ.”
The order was also recently evicted from the New Zealand Diocese of Christchurch, in a move which many deemed to be without cause. A full analysis by this correspondent on the background of that incident can be found here.
With the FSSR’s latest statement rejecting Vatican II, and all popes since then, it is highly likely that the Vatican will intervene swiftly to issue formal penalties of excommunication upon the order.
At the time of publication, the Holy See has not yet responded to the community’s declaration. This story is developing …