The Catholic Church highly prizes Her ancient tradition of celibacy in the Roman Rite—which comprises roughly 98.4% of all Catholics.
The “old” SSPX taught that it was an evil against the Divine Law, against Apostolic Law and against the unanimous teaching of the Fathers of the Church that there were any married, non-celibate priests even in the Eastern Catholic Rites. The “old” SSPX explained that the existence of non-celibate married priests arose in the Eastern Church at the time of rising schism there (during the seventh century). The “old” SSPX added:
As for the popes who would grant a dispensation to the Orientals remaining Catholic, this was, ad duritiam cordis, because of the hardness of their hearts—in order to keep these clerics from becoming wholly schismatic.
Before Vatican II, this tradition of priestly celibacy was so revered that the Church banned the ordination of married men even in the tiny Eastern Catholic Rites, outside of their traditional territories.
However, the conciliar church energetically attacks and seeks to destroy virtually every Catholic Tradition. Very many conciliar revolutionaries detest this tradition of celibacy!
Thus, the conciliar revolution has been gradually chipping away at this tradition of priestly celibacy in the Roman Rite:
In 2009, Benedict XVI approved ordination of Anglican ministers, to become married Catholic (so-called) “priests” in the Roman Rite. Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus.
Pope Francis has now taken a further step toward a married, non-celibate priesthood in the Roman Rite. He recently declared:
In the Church, it always counts to discern the right moment, to recognize when the Holy Spirit is asking for something. That is why I say that we are thinking about the viri probati [i.e., ordaining older, married men].
When reporting this latest initiative to destroy this jewel of priestly celibacy, the “new” SSPX called Pope Francis’s statements “moderate”. Here are the “new” SSPX’s words of betrayal:
The actual public statements of Pope Francis about ordaining married men have been pragmatic and moderate. In 2016 he ruled out abolishing the requirement of priestly celibacy, saying that “it should remain as it is”. In the past and again in the recent interview with Die Zeit, he has mentioned ordaining viri probati; older men of proven faith and virtue, as a “possibility” that “we have to think about”. Married men could be ordained by way of exception in dioceses with the “enormous problem” of a shortage of priests. “We must also determine which tasks they can undertake, for example in remote communities,” the Holy Father remarked.
Bold emphasis added.
Instead of the “new” SSPX condemning Pope Francis’s attack on this precious Apostolic Tradition and Divine Law, the “new” SSPX tries to make Pope Francis’s evil initiative more palatable by citing the supposed precedent of former-Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 permission for Anglican ministers to be ordained Catholic “priests”. Here are the “new” SSPX’s minimizing words:
[I]n the Latin Church, some married non-Catholic clergymen who become Catholics receive permission to be ordained priests (for instance for the Anglican Ordinariate). In effect, Pope Francis told the reporter from Die Zeit that in the future there may be a few more special cases of married priests in the Catholic Church.
There is much evil in the conciliar church, and we can expect additional, incremental conciliar evil. The conciliar revolutionaries desire (the evil of) a married priesthood in the Roman Rite. Pope Francis is not “moderate” when he advances this revolutionary agenda and declares we should “think about” this evil, any more than a person is moderate to propose we should “think about” approving anything else that harms the Church.
The Catholic Church has made great efforts to protect the jewel of a celibate priesthood in the Roman Rite. Regarding this latest revolutionary step toward a married Roman Rite priesthood, what the “new” SSPX describes as “moderate”, Faithful Catholics condemn by its right name: “gradualism”.