(LifeSiteNews) — The director of the SSPX seminary in Switzerland has said the pope will thank them one day for preserving Church teaching and Tradition.
Father Bernard de Lacoste, director of the SSPX seminary in Ecône, Switzerland, told the French-language Swiss newspaper Le Nouvelliste that the pope will one day recognize the problems of the Second Vatican Council and thank the Society for its work.
De Lacoste stressed that they do not intend to cause schism with the episcopal consecrations planned for July 1 without the Vatican’s permission.
“A schism is defined by the will to break with the Catholic Church. But the fact is that we are performing these episcopal ordinations precisely in order to remain Roman Catholic,” the priest said.
“We would rather die than cause a schism,” he added.
In the interview, de Lacoste criticized the Second Vatican Council for what the Society perceives as modernist errors.
“Modernism is a theological error,” he stated, adding that the teachings of the Second Vatican Council contradict “what the Church has taught for 20 centuries.”
According to de Lacoste, the council did not achieve what it set out to do, namely, to bring a breath of fresh air into the Church, as evidenced by the declining number of practicing believers and priests.
He reiterated that the SSPX upholds traditional Church teaching, especially on matters of sexual morals, which many in the hierarchy today have downplayed or outright denied.
He said that divorce and civilly “remarrying” is a mortal sin, as well as homosexual acts and all other sexual acts outside of a valid marriage.
“Sexual relationships are intended for procreation, and exclusively within the framework of a stable marriage between a man and a woman who will be able to raise their children,” de Lacoste emphasized. “This is the natural order intended by the Creator.”
READ: Bishop Mutsaerts sides with Cdls. Müller, Sarah against Schneider on SSPX consecrations
The seminary director described Society members as “doctors of the soul,” and said the faithful “need the unabridged doctrine, the sacraments administered in accordance with that doctrine, and the traditional liturgy in order to enter heaven.”
De Lacoste said he believes the future of the Church lies with Tradition and the SSPX, as the number of Catholics attending their Masses is steadily rising.
“We are certain that one day the pope will acknowledge that he has strayed from Catholic doctrine and will thank the Society for having preserved it in its entirety by granting it canonical status,” he concluded.
The planned episcopal consecrations of the SSPX without Rome’s approval has caused much controversy within the Church, including among bishops and cardinals who uphold Catholic Tradition. While Bishop Athanasius Schneider came out in support of the SSPX, many other conservative bishops, like Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Cardinal Robert Sarah, and Bishop Marian Eleganti, have opposed the consecrations and warned that it would be a “schismatic act.”