SSPX: Does it Have Enough Priests to Make Bishops?

“Why doesn’t the SSPX consecrate new bishops? They’re going to face episcopal extinction along with the Ecclesia Dei groups!”
– Lots of People

Perhaps there’s a simple logistical answer to that question: the SSPX doesn’t have enough supply to meet the demand for an expanded traditional episcopacy.

Many times I have heard that the SSPX (also known as the “Neo-SSPX” among detractors) has a grave shortage of priests within its ranks. It possesses just enough clergy to fulfill its various missionary objectives, servicing dozens of chapels all across the land.

Since it is news that the Society wishes to consecrate new bishops soon (anywhere between two to 12 of them) we should wonder if it has sufficient priests to sustain itself while doing so. With all the analysis of this affair throughout Catholic media, I’m surprised nobody else has mentioned this practical matter.

After all, anyone who has attended an SSPX Mass has certainly heard the many pleas for the faithful to pray for new priests. The clergy mention it often, and the superior general even makes chapels pray a lengthy prayer for vocations before each Mass. 

Whenever SSPX parishioners pray together before Mass, the Rosary leader prays not one but TWO prayers for this intention. Only about 10% of the congregation prays along with the lengthy prayer because it lasts forever. Most parishioners prefer the shorter prayer (“O Lord, grant us priests”).

Nevertheless, I suppose you don’t employ such heavy urgency unless your Society is in dire sacerdotal straits. Yet we all know the Society is well overdue for new bishops after the loss of Monsignors Tissier de Mallerais and Williamson.

Can the SSPX accomplish both objectives: replenishing its clerical ranks at the episcopal and priestly levels? If it intends to achieve the former, then it may have to do so by depleting the latter. That is, however, unless it recruits prelates from outside the Society or invites some of its defectors to return as priests or bishops.

My readers should be familiar with the “SSPX Resistance” and its priests, like Fr. David Hewko. What would happen if the Neo-Society (which is at odds with its resistors, obviously) got its act together and reverted to Lefebvreian traditionalism? What if it returned to its steadfast opposition to Vatican II and modernism enough to convince the SSPX Resisters to reconcile? What if it resumed its practice of conditional ordination for all the priests it helped escape the Novus Ordo? I wonder if that would get the SSPX Resistance priests to consider returning.

Now, of course, this would take a minor miracle to occur.

The divide between the Neo-SSPX and the SSPX Resistance runs rather deep, and has at least since 2012. However, a reconciliation between the two camps may be the Neo-SSPX’s only chance unless it wishes to incur an even greater dearth of clergy. Simply put, few young men desire to enter the Catholic priesthood (in any of the camps) when they cannot tell what these societies represent.

Now is the time for the beleaguered SSPX to change this decadent trajectory and stand for something: a firm opposition to Vatican II, organized Jewry, all forms of modern politics, and most importantly, the entire wicked Synodal Anti-Church in Rome.

Nothing else will do. The Society’s existential future hinges upon these issues.

I’d like to add one other comment about the SSPX’s potential cooperation with that last awful element, the Vatican Anti-Church.

It should go without saying that we must object to any prospect of Fr. Pagliarani meeting with modernist Rome for negotiation, least of all with Cardinal Smooshy Kissies. The fact that this is even on the table demonstrates the probable outcome of this whole affair. It will lead to the inevitable consecration of mediocre pseudo-traditional bishops, and/or the co-optation of Vatican-approved hirelings from the Novus Ordo hellscape.

Instead of negotiation, SSPX leadership should eschew and oppose all the apostates and sex perverts in the fake “church” in Rome. Let us say, with Ann the Fag Slayer, that traditional Catholics have no business doing diplomacy with “sodomite groomer-porn peddlers.”

Are there any other ways the SSPX could recruit new priests or bishops to its cause?

Should Diocesan TLM Priests Join the SSPX?

Another way to resolve the priest scarcity crisis would be for diocesan priests to switch their affiliation and become SSPX priests. Admittedly, I do not know the logistics and canonical red tape involved with all that, but some would suggest this as a terrific way to combat the shortage.

I even heard this in a sermon recently: “Why don’t diocesan priests join the SSPX?”

To that, I might respond: why don’t SSPX priests join the SSPX Resistance and escape the sinking Fellayan-Pagliaranian ship? One could argue that the old wineskins of the Neo-SSPX structure can no longer support the burgeoning demand for traditional chapels, and that the only way to sustain the remnant Church is to go entirely underground.

If you are either an SSPX priest or a diocesan traditionalist, have you considered going independent like priests such as Frs. Hewko, Kramer, Voigt, and others?

What do you have to lose (MY PAYCHECK!!!)?

Conclusion – Pray for the Consecration of Russia to Mary’s Immaculate Heart

You may also have heard the miserable news that the Catholic Church has seen a 75% decline in marriages over the past half-century. In fact, participation in the entire sacramental economy has experienced a depression for roughly 60 years, and for very predictable reasons.

We must comprehend that the catastrophic decline in Catholic sacraments and vocations will continue until Our Lady’s requests have been met. What are they? The Blessed Virgin Mary has asked that we pray her Holy Rosary (every day, all 15 decades), wear Her brown scapular, and devote ourselves to Her Immaculate Heart. Moreover, a valid pope (which the Church lacks at the present time) must consecrate Russia to that same Heart.

Until this happens, the spiritual beatings will continue, and all requests for priests, bishops, religious, good spouses, and anything else will reach Heaven to no avail.

May God have mercy on the SSPX and grant its members the grace of reversion back to the original zeal of Archbishop Marcel Lefebrvre, who unequivocally opposed Vatican II and the evil modern Antichurch.