There is a Liberal-Modernist crisis in the Church—and now in the SSPX—so there is a real need for the “Resistance” which should be viewed as the present-day rebirth of Archbishop Lefebvre’s resistance (SSPX).

There is no doubt Bishop Fellay has a real problem convincing Traditional priests and laymen in the Society to accept the current trends in the SSPX of leaning Liberal and being soft on Modernism.

Fr. Daniel Cooper, recent prior in Arcadia, Cal., issued a four-page hit-job on the Resistance to help Bishop Fellay with the above-mentioned problem. I hope to rebut his letter.

The answer to Bp. Fellay’s problem is very simple: resolve the core issues of the problem of the SSPX leaning Liberal/soft on Modernism, and stop the frivolous and unfounded accusations and demands such as:

1. “We must obey Bp. Fellay because he has grace of state.” Response: Pope Francis has grace of state. Are we supposed to follow him without question? I don’t think so.
2. “Obedience—OBEDIENCE—OBEDIENCE.” Response: Are we to accept Liberalism and Modernism despite our informed consciences? Again, I don’t think so. We ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 5:29.

3. “Unity.” Response: For unity you have to agree on principles, etc., and with the direction the Society is going, (leaning Liberal and soft on Modernism), how can a traditionalist agree with that? Not a chance.

4. “Rumor-mongers and liars.” Response: When the Resistance tries to point out where the SSPX has gone off the straight and narrow, we are said to be liars and rumor-mongers. Let’s listen to Pope St. Felix III: Not to oppose error is to approve it, and not to defend Truth is to suppress it, and indeed to neglect to confound evil men, when we can do it, is no less a sin than to encourage them.

5. “Priests of the Resistance abuse the pulpit when attacking Bp. Fellay.” Response: Here again, think of the words of Pope St. Felix III (above).
6. “Resistance is a step away from sedevacantism.” Response: That statement couldn’t be further from the truth. That’s like accusing Archbishop Lefebvre of the same thing in the early ’70s when he stood up for Tradition, as the Resistance post-Vatican II.
7. “The Society needs to make a deal with Modernist Rome so that it has the authority to provide the sacraments, etc.” Response: This is a false need because Archbishop Lefebvre had authority for the sacraments, etc. for 40 years, supplied by emergency and necessity. So Bishop Fellay’s need for a deal is not valid because emergency and necessity are today even more valid (if that’s possible) than they were for Archbishop Lefebvre in the 1970s.

Speaking of a deal with Modernist Rome, every Traditional community that has made a deal, without exception, is now firmly under the thumb of Rome and accepting a degree of Modernism.

Bishop Fellay would like those in the Resistance to follow him in Operation Suicide and against our informed conscience. Not a chance. We will follow a Superior when he does God’s will without compromise.

What happens to priests in the SSPX who object to the liberal direction of the Society? They are not given an information-gathering hearing, but put on trial without a lawyer. And with Bishop Fellay as judge and jury, they are expelled, or bullied into keeping quiet and then transferred to obscurity.

As stated above, the answer to the split in the SSPX (and Bishop Fellay’s problem) is very simple and can be resolved by the Society explaining how the below-listed items are helpful in our fight for Tradition and against Liberalism and Modernism.

• The SSPX accepts 95% of the documents of Vatican II.
• The SSPX falsely claims that some Vatican II documents are entirely traditional.
• Bishop Fellay says: “One can make Archbishop Lefebvre say whatever one wants.”
• Bishop Fellay said he has “mixed feelings” about the beatification of Pope John Paul II (rather than recognizing it as evil).
• He has said that the “Second Vatican Council...illuminates...(i.e. deepens and further makes explicit)—some aspects of the life and of the doctrine of the Church.”
• Bishop Fellay accepted one of Pope John Paul II’s favorite phrases, that the Jews are our “Elder Brothers.”
• Bishop Fellay said Vatican II’s doctrine of religious liberty is “very, very limited.”
• The SSPX Superior General says that he “would like to hope that....Vatican II belongs to Tradition.”
• Bishop Fellay says that “The crisis [in the Church] came from the collapse of Church authority” rather than because Church authority was used to attack the Catholic Faith.

Bishop Fellay has said more than once, “Resist what?” My answer is: we resist the above list of Liberal and Modernist statements and ideas promoted by the SSPX. If you can’t make coherent arguments to support your various positions in a dispute, you must criticize and accuse your opponents in an effort to discredit them.

I have a prediction—which is really not hard to make—that when the next General Council of the Society meets in 2018, you can be sure all voting members will be on the Bishop Fellay team (by virtue of being appointed by him) and vote him in again as Superior General. What is hard to predict is what Rome has offered the Bishop to put a deal at the top of his bucket list, no matter how greatly it jeopardized the souls of SSPX priests and laymen and the future of the Society.

The situation is in God’s hands, but He expects us to fight and pray.