Known Errors of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX)

• Priests ordained with new ordination rite of the Novus Ordo are allowed into the Society without conditional ordination. The validity of these priests’ Mass and Sacraments are therefore doubtful. No one should receive doubtfully valid Sacraments.

• The SSPX believes Vatican II Popes are true, but at the same time disobeys them. Catholics MUST submit fully to true Popes on matters of faith and morals.

• Since the SSPX believes Vatican II popes are true popes and at the same time claim they are in error, this infringes on the dogma of papal infallibility. True popes cannot possibly introduce error into the Catholic Church.

• The SSPX believes Vatican II to be a legitimate council which, with its blatant errors (most notably, ecumenism), does not hold the Magisterium of the Catholic Church to be infallible. The Catholic Church has always taught that General Councils are infallible, which demand our absolute obedience, so we must obey Vatican II entirely, or not at all.

• The SSPX recognizes the Novus Ordo Mass, but tells people to stay away from it because it is "harmful", and that the Sacraments are "poisonous". It is blasphemy to say the One, Holy, Universal, and Apostolic Catholic Church can introduce anything harmful to the faithful. Church teaching on the subject: Pope Pius VI in Auctorem Fidei, 1794, condemns: ''the Church, governed by the Holy Spirit, could impose a disciplinary law that would be not only useless and more burdensome for the faithful than Christian liberty allows, but also dangerous and harmful" (again, this was condemned). Also, Pope Gregory XVI in Quo Graviora (1833) states, "The Church is the pillar and foundation of truth, all of which truth is taught by the Holy Spirit. Should the church be able to order, yield to, or permit those things which tend toward the destruction of souls and the disgrace and detriment of the sacrament instituted by Christ?”

• The SSPX uses the 1962 missal and Breviary of John XXIII, which are not the same as the Tridentine of all time. To follow the changes of John XXIII (who announced the start of Vatican II) is to dabble with the Modernists, who were condemned by Pope St. Pius X.

• Annulments from the Novus Ordo church are accepted in the SSPX. There were only 392 annulments worldwide from 1952-1956, and 49,069 annulments in the US alone in 2000. So the SSPX is increasing the annulment problem and has even set up tribunals to handle annulments themselves. This is another example of a Modernist error that Catholics must avoid.

Why we should not attend the SSPX Mass

• Since the SSPX allows priests ordained with the new rite of ordination of the Novus Ordo, visiting priests not properly ordained may at any time pass through any SSPX chapel, and say an invalid Mass and leave doubtfully consecrated hosts in the tabernacle, to be handed out during future Masses. So, while many say the SSPX has a “valid Mass and Sacraments”, this is not a certainty. Since there is no way to possibly keep track of visiting priests in any particular SSPX chapel, and confirming whether those priests are validly ordained, we must avoid Masses at SSPX chapels.

• The SSPX recognizes Benedict XVI as Pope and at the same time disobeys him, so the SSPX are acting in a schismatic way (in fact, Benedict XVI considers the SSPX as schismatic). While the SSPX has not been formally pronounced as schismatic by a true Pope as the Greek Orthodox have, we as Catholics should avoid any schismatics.

• To say Vatican II Popes are valid Popes but still teach error, infringes on the dogma of papal infallibility. In addition, the other errors that exist in the SSPX such as accepting annulments from the Novus Ordo church, and using the John XXIII liturgy must also be avoided at all costs.
  
  Scripture and past Church teaching plainly show us that we have a higher moral obligation to avoid errors over intentionally placing ourselves where these errors are known to exist:

  • "Since heresy, and any kind of infidelity, is a mortal sin, they also sin mortally who expose themselves to its danger, whether by their association, or by listening to preaching, or by their reading." - St. Alphonsus Ligouri

  • "A person who denies even one article of our faith could not be a Catholic; for truth is one and we must accept it whole and entire or not at all." - Baltimore Catechism

  • "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, but offend in one point, is become guilty of all." - St. James 2:10

  • "To reject but one article of faith taught by the Church is enough to destroy faith as one mortal sin is enough to destroy charity..." - St. Thomas Aquinas

  • "No one shall join in prayers with heretics or schismatics." The Synod of Laodicea (4th Century)

  • "There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by our Lord and handed down by Apostolic tradition" Encyclical on Unity of the Church by Pope Leo XIII, 1896
     

An example we must all heed: The Arians (who promoted a heresy on the divinity of Christ) also had a valid Mass and Sacraments. Though St. Athanasius (Doctor of the Church) warned all Catholics to avoid the Arians due to their heresy, as did two General Councils who condemned the Arian heresy. Yet the Arians still dragged two-thirds of the Catholic Church into heresy for three whole centuries. As Catholics, we have a higher moral obligation to avoid ANY and ALL errors in the Church, if we know error exists. We have the example of the Arians to show us the result of not avoiding error; it weakens the resistance of the average person, and they succumb to it. Hence the strong position of the Catholic Church on avoiding error completely.