As the Consistory of Cardinals begins, there is apparently nothing on the official agenda on the ‘elephant in the room’, the looming consecration of bishops by the SSPX on July 1st. Pope Leo has urged the cardinals to ‘speak frankly’, so Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former head of the CDF (now DDF) did, exhorting that Rome must be prepared to accept and reconcile those who do not want to follow the SSPX, as many did not back in 1988. Pope John Paul II issued Ecclesia Dei, (suppressed, or some might say modified, by Pope Francis in 2019) which permitted widespread use of the TLM. Soon afterwards, he supported the founding of the FSSP (Fraternity of Saint Peter), to accommodate those devoted to the usus antiquior, but who wanted to maintain union with Rome.
This will be a balancing act, for how does the Pope set up another society, besides the FSSP, whose original purpose was to offer such a refuge, if you will? What more can be given? And if ‘more’ is given to the disaffected SSPX-ers than to the FSSP – well, what might imagine the outcome. Perhaps combining the two groups into a personal prelature? I’m uncertain that would work, as there an a priori antagonism. How would they ever agree?
As the signatories from Franciscan University appeal, may the SSPX reconsider their course of action, and seek unity and reform within the Church.
