(LifeSiteNews) — On this special episode of The John Henry Westen Show, coming to you from Écône, Switzerland, where I have just been, covering the SSPX bishop’s consecrations this week.
I want to give you my reflections on my time being here, especially in light of what just happened at the Vatican, the declaration of excommunications, not only on the bishops, but also on the priests, and even, it says, “the faithful who are formally in support or formally adhere to the SSPX.”
I’ve been speaking to a lot of people this week; it’s amazing how many there are. There were over 16,000 faithful here, not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of priests and bishops, and so on.
Beautiful liturgy in the blazing heat
The first thing I wanted to tell you about was the liturgy.
It was beautiful. It was also in a tent, but even in a tent, they were able to make it incredibly beautiful. You saw those images at LifeSiteNews, and the vestments and everything, just with such detail, such honor and glory to our Lord.
And as I mentioned previously, it wasn’t easy. They were having a heat wave here, so as the clerics were dressed up in their multiple layers of garments to give glory to God, many people said, “Oh, they’re trying to show off,” or whatever. No, it’s been incredibly hot here.
Speaking of heat, I must also say how impressed I was with the brothers of the Society. These are monks; they are not yet priests. They may be seminarians, but they’re running around in full habits in blazing hot sun, setting up for 16,000 people. We were getting there; they were still building the incredible, unbelievable structures that they had to set up to care for the pilgrims, and they were doing that in the blazing heat.
WATCH: SSPX consecrations: A state of emergency DEMANDED extraordinary measures
So that was just neat to see. It was a real sacrifice, real suffering, but done with such joy. That was the weird part, such joy, no grumpiness that I saw.
Then we got to the Mass of the bishop’s consecrations, the homily was given by Don Pagliarani, the superior general of the Society. And it was a neat homily, delivered in French. Don Pagliarani, for lack of a better word, comes across as holy.
Pagliarani urges new bishops to be ‘wise as serpents’
The homily struck me, though, because I’m listening to it also as a reporter, and in the homily, it is, in fact, the first homily I’ve ever heard of a priest talking about “being like a serpent.” So he’s giving advice to the new bishops, and he tells them “to be like a serpent.”
But you should actually hear his words, because they’re beautiful, they’re the words of our Lord, by the way (Matthew 10:16). Our Lord is the one who called us to be as wise as serpents, as innocent as doves. Here were the words.
Pagliarani said:
“Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and as simple as doves.” Why must one be like a serpent? Why must a bishop be like a serpent? It’s in order to discern, grasp, and detect the duplicity, ambiguity, and cunning that exist in the world and among the enemies of the cross.
Your worst enemies will not attack you head on. They will try to make you slide gradually into a perception of the faith, of the Christian life, and of relations with the world that is a little more up to date, that must be understood. When you sense this danger, step back, pray, observe, seek advice, evaluate, remain still before reacting like a serpent. When you react, when the Holy Ghost gives you the necessary light to act, do so and never go back. This is what it means to be like a serpent, to grasp the duplicity, the ambiguity, and the cunning that exist in the world, and to speak, to preach like doves, simply, without duplicity and without fear, without equivocation, without ambiguity. The duplicity that you must discern in others must never be your own.
The Society of Saint Pius X will never back down from the Gospel, no matter how controversial.
Devout families praying the Rosary in the mud during a massive thunderstorm
Another great gift here in Écône was meeting countless devout families this week. It was stunning to see what I can only describe as “Catholics.” Beautiful, faithful families, dressed well in a way that really marked them as Catholics. So much joy, so much light in their eyes.
Their example, the example of the faithful, really, really struck me. And it struck me most as, these are Catholics. Who can be against these Catholics?
Another thing that happened was the rainstorm that occurred right after the consecration was done during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that was pretty stunning. It was pretty severe, it was like thunder, and it was a lot of rain.
And so I went outside during the rain to capture some of that, because it was unreal. The rain was coming down in buckets, but as I looked out from the media tent, the faithful were not moving. In fact, they were encouraged to, but when I went outside, I saw families sort of sheltering under one umbrella, the whole family huddled together, but they’re all there.
READ: I went to Ecône for the SSPX consecrations. Here is what I experienced
And I saw that over and over again. And then, as this was going on, the priests and the bishops couldn’t go on with Holy Communion in the storm, so they decided to pray, to pray the Holy Rosary in Latin.
So there they were in the midst of an unreal storm, praying the Rosary. And there were the faithful, some of them kneeling in the mud and in the rain, praying the Holy Rosary. Just beautiful, strikingly beautiful.
Afterward, it made us think, “Whatever storms come, these faithful will not budge.” They will maintain the one true faith, nothing about moving to another faith, nothing about breaking from the Church.
Bishop Michael Goldade’s remarks on the ‘modernist church’
After the consecration Mass, as vespers were starting, one of the new bishops, the American, Michael Goldade, was asked to give a few words. This was the first kind of speech, if you will, in English. And so he starts speaking and has some really striking words about the actual situation in the Church and the Society.
These are his words:
Of course, today we see such wreckage. If the Catholic church in her tradition brings forth life, the modernist church is a desert. It kills, it kills everything that it touches. It kills the supernatural life, it kills the sources of grace, it dries up everything. It has placed man in the place of God and therefore turned away from the sources of life.
He even said he talked to many Catholics who weren’t part of the Society who supported them, even though they weren’t even into tradition.
And here’s what he said:
These faithful who do not understand the complexities of modernism, of the modernist disease, see something is wrong. Something is dying with this new religion. And that, in fact, it is tradition, which is making a restoration, which is giving life.
Those words were honestly a grace to hear.
Humility of the SSPX priests
I was also struck by the humility of so many of the Society priests I’ve met here. Dr. Maike Hickson shared a particularly touching story about one priest. Her grandfather, I believe in the Netherlands, who wasn’t even Catholic or a Christian, was dying, and she tried to find a priest for him.
She called around, couldn’t find anybody, and finally got this number for this one SSPX priest far, far away. She explained her situation, and he basically asked, “Would you like me to leave now?”
Dr. Hickson was stunned because this was a cold call from hours and hours away for her non-Catholic grandfather, whom the priest didn’t even know. And her grandfather was so touched and moved after hearing this story, and the priest catechized and brought that dying man into faith just before his death.
That story reminded me of why all these faithful are so committed to the Society. Do you remember during COVID when the SSPX was the only show in town? Everybody shut their doors to the faithful; there was virtually no Mass except the Society.
Perplexing statements against consecrations
In the days leading up to the consecrations, you had various statements that were really perplexing to me. Cardinal Müller is saying there’s no state of emergency in the church. A similar statement from a man I consider one of the holiest men I know, a bit of a friend since I’ve known him and met him, and spoken to him personally, Father Chad Ripperger.
And then something similar from Dr. Taylor Marshall, another friend of mine, who said he thought it was too early in Pope Leo’s pontificate to know where he is, and that they should have waited. I was really, really perplexed by that.
And I’ll tell you why. I mean, I’ve been speaking on this issue of the crisis in the Church now since Pope Francis, since one of his first official documents, you know, teaching against the Church, which we’ve really never had before. Official teaching documents of a pope are supposed to be adhered to.
READ: Vatican Cardinal Fernández declares six SSPX bishops excommunicated
Catholics are required to give submission of mind and will to these pronouncements from the pope. And especially when they’re in official documents, and we have exhortation after exhortation after exhortation that totally fly in the face of Church teaching.
Probably the clearest one is the death penalty, because in the death penalty you have the constant teaching of the Church for 2,000 years that it is permissible to use. So, that direct contradiction is just one of many to which Catholics are now supposed to submit in mind and will. But how can you submit in mind and will to teachings that go against the 2,000-year history of Catholic Church teaching? And there are more of them.
The gay couple blessing document, Fiducia Supplicans: the line from it, if you’re looking at it, is paragraph 39: “It is possible to bless couples who are living together, or who are divorced and remarried, or same sex couples.” Are Catholics now supposed to adhere to that in mind and in will?
To hear my full reflections, tune in to this episode of The John Henry Westen Show by clicking here.
