We must refuse to attend the Mass of a compromise group,—even when we have no access to any other Mass. Attendance at a compromise Mass not only offends God, but it also sends the wrong message to our children.

A weak and cowardly Catholic parent rationalizes that he “has to” bring his family to the compromise group’s Mass because:

The truth is the opposite of these excuses. The great apostasy is worsening and you are teaching your children how to act when you are dead and they are adults making their own decisions while living in this great apostasy. Your refusing to attend the compromise groups is exactly what your children need to learn from you.

Like other parents who love their children, you want to prepare them now for the challenges they will face later. For example, if your children were likely to become blind, you would teach them braille ahead of time, to prepare them.

Likewise, you should prepare your children now to live in the continually-worsening great apostasy. This great apostasy is especially a crisis of Faith and there is no end in sight. After you are dead, this crisis will (apparently) continue during your children’s lives.

Your children have not yet formed a strong adult Faith and so they need the strengthening now of seeing your family standing against compromise to the Faith. You need to teach your children to value the Catholic Faith above everything. You do this by teaching them by word and example to sanctify Sundays without Mass when none is available without compromise.

Learn one way to sanctify Sundays without the Mass by reading this article: ../faith/sanctifying-sunday-no-mass.html

This gets your children into the habit of avoiding liberalism and also standing strong for the Faith.

By contrast, when you attend a compromise group (e.g., the N-SSPX or the Williamson group), you teach your children that liberal doctrine and lax morals are not enough to separate you from a compromise group. You have probably told your children that the family will leave when that group gets “bad enough”. However, “bad enough” is a squishy, ill-defined standard. Your children learn from you the practical lesson that your standard is never fulfilled and you continue to stay. You ultimately have no standard at all. Learning that lesson from you, they will stay in an ever-liberalizing group when they are adults and you are dead.

If your children are young and at home, teach them now the important life-lesson of standing up for the Faith by avoiding lax and liberal groups! If your children are grown and away from home, they are less apt to learn from you but at least you can set an example for them to follow. Either way, they need this lesson.