In his October letter to the friends and benefactors of St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary, recently consecrated SSPX Bishop Michael Goldade explained how the Society’s July 1 consecrations brought the crisis in the Church into much needed focus.
“The consecrations became more than an isolated event providing auxiliary bishops to ensure the continuation of traditional sacraments dependent on the episcopal office,” His Excellency remarked. “They became an opportunity to highlight the root of the current crisis: the errors against the doctrine of the Faith.”
Goldade was consecrated without Leo’s permission on July 1 alongside Frs. Marc Hanappier, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, and Pascal Schreiber in Écône at the SSPX’s principal seminary. The Society has since filed paperwork challenging the subsequent excommunication decree authored by Cardinal Tucho Fernandez. The group recently announced that they have “taken the steps required by canon law for the appeal” to proceed.
Goldade first made waves the day after his consecration. During a Vespers service, he told the more than 15,000 faithful who were in attendance that “the Modernist Church is a desert that kills. It kills everything that it touches. It kills the supernatural life. It kills the sources of grace … it has placed man in the place of God.”
Goldade’s statement was promoted by SSPX layman Cullum Smith, who shared photos of it on social media on Tuesday, October 13. Smith noted that the statement was the first official letter from Bishop Goldade, who is an American, as the rector since the consecrations took place.
Elsewhere in his statement, Goldade provided an explanation as to how Catholics have arrived at the crisis, and how “the controversies in the Church have sunk to the level of such things as Communion for the divorced and remarried, the Pachamama cult, the blessing of same-sex couples, the separation of Church and State, the idea that all religions are paths leading to God.”
“The simple answer,” he began, “is that the theologians of the Second Vatican Council who had been silenced under Pope Pius XII, reinstated under Pope John XXIII, and granted privileged positions by Pope Paul VI planted their formulations and innovations into the documents of the Council that grew into the official teaching of the Church. What were initially ambiguous formulations became contradictions of the Deposit of Faith.”
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While speaking about Vatican II more specifically, Goldade, 45, explained that for “most modern churchmen, the Council is the foundational event,” but in reality it was an event that “institutionalized the modern errors.” Goldade continued by noting that “since errors opposed to the Faith are growing rather than lessening, and since the bishops cannot be trusted to amend the errors, the SSPX, for the sake of souls and the good of the Church could not wait any longer.”
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Last month while in South Africa, SSPX Superior General Fr. Davide Pagliarani made his own first public remarks since the consecrations. While speaking to faithful at the Priory of Our Lady of Sorrows in Roodepoort, Pagliarani explained that officials in Rome told him it was “useless” to talk about the Second Vatican Council. “We cannot agree on doctrine. Because if we can agree on doctrine, the Society is not needed anymore. It would mean that the crisis is over,” Pagliarani explained while reiterating that he spoke “the truth” to Leo’s representatives.
Goldade additionally noted that the consecrations had provoked strong reactions throughout the Catholic world. Traditional Catholics, on the one hand, expressed gratitude to Almighty God, appreciation for Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, and confidence in the Blessed Virgin Mary’s protection, while critics, on the other hand, denounced the event as an act of rebellion against ecclesiastical authority.
The debates do not seem to have negatively impacted the Society. In recent days, there have been reports that a growing number of clergy across the world have either joined or have started affiliating with the group, which was founded in 1970 and counts more than 700 priests as members.
Bishop Goldade used his letter to draw renewed attention to the SSPX’s 154-point Catholic Profession of Faith to Enlighten Souls Against Modern Errors, which was published on June 24. He also recounted his experience consecrating a church in Texas and his travels through Australia and New Zealand, where he administered confirmations, delivered conferences, and visited traditional communities.
He also expressed gratitude for the devotion of the faithful and asked for their prayers, while noting that the SSPX’s U.S.-based seminary in Virginia began its academic year with 99 seminarians, an encouraging sign for the future of the traditional priesthood.
