An Open Letter to the SSPX
You are faced with a painful decision. We made the same decision once, about a thousand years ago.
Dear friends,
You find yourselves in a painful position. You are being forced to choose between loyalty to the Pope and fidelity to what the Church has always believed and practiced. We sympathize with you deeply. We faced the same dilemma, once upon a time.
In the first millennium the Eastern churches had a robust sense of Roman primacy. We continue to venerate holy popes such as St. Gregory the Dialogist and St. Leo the Great. Yet we also came to see that not every man who occupied the chair of St. Peter preserved the faith in its fullness.
Consider one well-documented example. The filioque clause first appeared in the Creed at the Third Council of Toledo in A.D. 589, as a local response to Arianism among the Visigoths. Rome itself rejected this addition for centuries. In 809, when the issue was pressed, Pope St. Leo III even had two silver shields engraved with the original text of the original Nicene Creed (one in Greek, one in Latin) without the filioque, and placed them at the tomb of St. Peter.
Concerning the plates, the holy pope said: “I, Leo, put these here for the love and protection of the Orthodox faith.” He also noted that, in formulating the Symbol of Faith, the First and Second Ecumenical Councils had “acted upon divine illumination rather than by human wisdom… and far be it from me to count myself their equal.” In this, he was cheered and supported by the Eastern patriarchs.
Nevertheless, there were those who continued to disobey the pope—particularly the Frankish emperors. He and his clerical allies continued to use and promote the interpolated Creed, despite papal resistance.
Over time, the Frankish influence grew. Frank-appointed popes eventually reversed Rome’s earlier stance and added the filioque unilaterally. This caused great dismay among the Eastern patriarchs. Not long afterward, a papal legate excommunicated the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople precisely for refusing to adopt the new wording.
The irony is striking. The “innovative” Franks had defied papal authority for roughly four centuries, without any serious repercussion. And yet, once Rome adopted their change, the “traditional” Eastern churches were treated as schismatic for maintaining the ancient custom. Does that sound familiar?
The good news is that the Pope does not own the Church. It is not his personal property. As Pope St. Gregory the Great himself wrote, “Whosoever calls himself, or desires to be called, Universal Priest, is in his elation the precursor of Antichrist.”
We sympathize with the dilemma you face. And we invite you to consider that, perhaps, this is not the first time a pope has erred. Perhaps this is not the first time faithful Christians have had to choose between personal loyalty to the pope and fidelity to the Orthodox Catholic Faith “delivered once for all to the saints” (Jude 4).
Does the Pope truly have the power to expel such faithful souls from the Church—even when he is in the wrong—as though it were a private fief under his sole lordship?
If this seems to you like it may be a deeper problem, you may discover a home among us in Western-Rite Orthodoxy, where the historic Western liturgical and spiritual traditions are preserved in full communion with the Orthodox Catholic Church.
On a personal note, I myself am a convert from Catholicism to Orthodoxy. For years, I attended the Latin Mass exclusively. I wrote for The Remnant and spoke at the Catholic Identity Conference. I‘ve worshipped in SSPX chapels and spent time in St. Marys, Kansas. I still have many friends among the Society faithful.
I know you. I know that you‘re wonderful, Christ-loving people who desire above all to love Christ and His Holy Church.
So, whatever path you choose, you have my respect, my love, and my prayers. I'm truly sorry that you're forced to suffer this ordeal. As we say in the Orthodox Church, good strength.
May the Lord grant all of us clarity, courage, and peace. And may we all someday be one, as Christ and the Father are one.
In Christ,
Michael
