A young man recently asked Bishop Williamson for advice where to attend Mass, telling the bishop that there was an indult mass and an N-SSPX mass near him. Bishop Williamson told him to attend whatever was the “least contaminated” mass near him.¹ In this context, Bishop Williamson was approving (in principle) attendance at indult masses (which requires attendees to accept and approve all Vatican II errors²).

This should not surprise us, because Bishop Williamson also approves attending:

• the evil, conciliar, new mass (if a person feels it helps him);³
• the sedevacantists’ masses;⁴ and
• the feeneyites’ masses.⁵

Bishop Williamson even publicly declared that there is “true worship of God” among the Anglican heretics.⁶

Thus, because Bishop Williamson has promoted the new conciliar mass and other evil masses in the past, it appears his failure (up to now) to also approve attending the indult mass, must have been a mere oversight.

Bishop Williamson approving the indult (motu proprio) mass is evil! An informed Traditional Catholic knows never to attend the indult mass. Read twenty reasons to never attend the indult/motu proprio mass.

The “old” SSPX regularly warned against attending the indult mass. Archbishop Lefebvre called those masses a “scam” and a danger to the Faith.⁷

Whereas Bishop Williamson approves of attending the indult mass, Archbishop Lefebvre taught that the indult groups are doing the devil’s work and are betraying us. Here are Archbishop Lefebvre’s words:

[W]e must not waver for one moment ... in not being with those who are in the process of betraying us. Some people are always admiring the grass in the neighbor’s field. Instead of looking to their friends, to the Church’s defenders, to those fighting on the battlefield, they look to our enemies on the other side. “After all, we must be charitable, we must be kind, we must not be divisive, after all, they are celebrating the Tridentine Mass, they are not as bad as everyone says”—but they are betraying us—betraying us! They are shaking hands with the Church’s destroyers. They are shaking hands with people holding modernist and liberal ideas condemned by the Church. So they are doing the devil’s work.⁸

When Archbishop Lefebvre condemned the indult groups as traitors and “destroyers of the Faith”, he especially lamented the young people falling into the trap of attending the indult mass. Here are Archbishop Lefebvre’s words in a 1991 interview:

Q: But there are Traditionalists who have made an agreement with Rome while conceding nothing.

A: That is false. They have given up their ability to oppose Rome. They must remain silent, given the favors they have been granted. Then they begin to slide ever so slowly, until they end up admitting the errors of Vatican II. “It’s a very dangerous situation.” Such concessions by Rome are meant only to get Traditionalists to break with the SSPX and submit to Rome.

Q: You say that such Traditionalists have “betrayed.” Isn’t that a bit harsh?

A: Not at all! For instance, Dom Gérard made use of me, of the SSPX and its chapels and benefactors, and now they suddenly abandon us and join with the destroyers of the Faith. They have abandoned the fight for the Faith. They can no longer attack Rome. They have understood nothing of the doctrinal question. It is awful to think of the youngsters who joined them for the sake of Tradition and are now following them to Conciliar Rome.⁹

When Bishop Williamson approved¹⁰ of the young man attending the indult mass, he led this young man into the very trap which Archbishop Lefebvre lamented!

Besides Archbishop Lefebvre’s own condemnations, the “old” SSPX faithfully followed its founder and published repeated warnings against attending the indult mass. For example, when summarizing the evils of the indult Society of St. Peter, the “old” SSPX warned that:

They are therefore Conciliar Catholics and not traditional Catholics. This being so, attending their Mass is:

• accepting the compromise on which they are based,
• accepting the direction taken by the Conciliar Church and the consequent destruction of the Catholic Faith and practices, and
• accepting, in particular, the lawfulness and doctrinal soundness of the Novus Ordo Missae and Vatican II.

That is why a Catholic ought not to attend their Masses.¹¹

Tragically, however, there are many ways Bishop Williamson has departed from the “old” SSPX’s traditional teaching and is progressively rolling out a liberal agenda, against the true Catholic Faith and against his founder, Archbishop Lefebvre.¹²

Bishop Williamson’s Broader Approval of Attending Contaminated Masses

Bishop Williamson’s latest liberal advice doesn’t merely promote attending the indult mass. He also promotes the general principle of attending any contaminated (i.e., compromise) Tridentine Mass, unless there is a less-contaminated mass in the area. Here are his words:

[B]e content to attend the least contaminated Tridentine Mass that there is anywhere near you ....¹³

The truth is that no Catholic should ever attend a mass that is contaminated, i.e., a compromise! Bishop Williamson’s advice is plainly evil and promotes (objective) mortal sin! This is true for six reasons:

• His advice is irrational because spiritual contamination is spiritual poison. If all of the masses in a region are poisonous (i.e., contaminated), then faithful Catholics must do without the Mass, out of love for God, and for the sake of the Catholic Faith, just as countless Catholics have, in history.¹⁴
• Although we must not accept even the tiniest contamination (i.e., spiritual poison), Bishop Williamson’s advice is even more obviously irrational because it is so relativistic. It contains no limiting principle except conditioning attendance on the presence of some other local mass which is even worse than the one he recommends be attended. It is so irrational to choose a mass however bad it is, “justifying” it simply because it is less contaminated than some other (worse) mass nearby!
• Bishop Williamson’s advice is evil because it includes the un-Catholic practice of praying with those persons objectively outside the Catholic religion (e.g., those in the new conciliar religion). Although we do not judge their interior culpability¹⁵, those persons objectively are in a false (conciliar) church and objectively support the enemies of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is forbidden to pray with those who are objectively in a false religion.¹⁶
• Bishop Williamson’s advice is evil because it includes the un-Catholic practice of praying in the buildings of a false religion (e.g., those belonging to the false conciliar religion). The buildings of any false religion (e.g., the new conciliar religion) are bad places to pray!¹⁷
• The indult mass is a Tridentine Mass said within the new, false conciliar religion. Bishop Williamson’s advice is evil because it promotes the error that the Traditional Mass or anything else can be good inside a false religion (such as the new conciliar religion)!¹⁸ The truth is that everything in a false religion greatly offends God, even those things which would please God in His true Church.
• Bishop Williamson’s advice is shown to be evil by the Martyrs who have chosen a glorious death, rather than follow the evil advice Bishop Williamson gives his followers. (See, e.g., the section below concerning the life of St. Hermenegild.)

Martyrs Have Chosen Glorious Deaths Because They Reject the Evil Advice Bishop Williamson Gives His Followers.

Saints, such as St. Hermenegild, proved with their blood the great evil of Bishop Williamson’s advice.

Pope Saint Gregory the Great, Doctor of the Church, who was a contemporary of St. Hermenegild, recounts his glorious life and his courageous martyrdom because he refused the “least-contaminated” communion “that there is anywhere near you” (as Bishop Williamson advised the young man recently¹⁹). Here is St. Gregory’s account:

King Hermenegild, son of Leovigild king of the Visigoths, was converted, from the Arian heresy, to the Catholic faith, by the preaching of the venerable Leander, Bishop of Seville, one of my oldest and dearest friends. ... It was the Feast of Easter. At an early hour of the night, when all was still, his wicked father sent an Arian Bishop to him, with this message, that if he would receive Communion from his hands, (the Communion of a sacrilegious consecration!) he should be restored to favor. True to his Creator, the man of God gave a merited reproof to the Arian Bishop, and, with holy indignation, rejected his sinful offer; for though his body lay prostrate in chains, his soul stood on ground beyond the reach of tyranny. The Bishop therefore, returned whence he had come. The Arian father raged, and straightway sent his lictors [i.e., officers], bidding them repair to the prison of the unflinching Confessor of the Lord, and murder him on the spot. They obeyed; they entered the prison; they cleft his skull with a sword; they took away the life of the body, and slew what he, the slain one, had sworn to count as vile. Miracles soon followed, whereby heaven testified to the true glory of Hermenegild; for during, the night, there was heard sweet music nigh to the body of the King and Martyr,—King indeed, because he was a Martyr.²⁰

Had St. Hermenegild been the young man to whom Bishop Williamson gave his evil advice²¹ (and had Hermenegild been so foolish as to follow this advice), Hermenegild would be so far from dying a martyr, he would not even have been in prison. Instead, such a misguided “Hermenegild” would have frequently attended an Arian mass because this Arian mass would have been the “least contaminated” mass “that there is anywhere near you” (to use Bishop Williamson’s own words).

Thanks be to God, that St. Hermenegild knew his Catholic Faith and so is a glorious martyr rather than a traitor to his Lord and the Catholic Faith!

Thanks be to God, that St. Hermenegild preferred to die rather than follow evil advice such as given by Bishop Williamson!

Notice St. Gregory tells us that St. Hermenegild was offered a validly-consecrated Host.²² According to Bishop Williamson’s false theology, receiving this Host would have given St. Hermenegild grace (because Bishop Williamson falsely says valid sacraments always give grace).²³ But St. Hermenegild chose death rather than commit the mortal sin of receiving this Host! He knew that even valid sacraments given in a false religion (such as Arianism, or the new conciliar religion) do not give grace.

St. Jerome, Doctor of the Church, teaches the same thing, viz., that the Holy Eucharist gives no help to those outside the true Catholic Church because the Catholic Church is “where alone the paschal Lamb can be rightly eaten”.²⁴

St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, likewise teaches the same truth, that even the Catholic Sacraments do no good in a false religion:

For all the sacraments of Christ, if not combined with the Charity which belongs to the unity of Christ [i.e., the unity of the Catholic Church], are possessed not unto salvation, but unto judgment.²⁵

Of course, the great St. Hermenegild was not a blind sheep like Bishop Williamson’s followers, who are unwaveringly loyal but uninformed enough to defend his errors (or cowardly enough to remain silent). Had Bishop Williamson given St. Hermenegild the advice he gave to the young man,²⁶ then this great saint would have given “a merited reproof to [that] Bishop, and, with holy indignation, rejected his sinful [advice]”.²⁷