Since the recent revelations of systematic abuse and cover- up by SSPX priests and laity, CFN has gone to bat for the SSPX and has attacked those trying to expose the abuse and corruption.Īlthough allegedly having lost significant readership owing to the decline in print consumption, CFN was once considered among the premier traditional Catholic journals. Brian McCall, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma, become a de facto SSPX newspaper. While The Angelus is the official SSPX journal, CFN has, under the current editorial direction of Dr. The first of these Catholic media outlets infected by the SSPX is Catholic Family News (CFN). In the wake of these revelations, some media outlets have come to the defense of the SSPX - or have avoided reporting on the matter altogether.Īs the story of the SSPX grows darker and more sinister, a second story has developed: It seems that, in an attempt to get ahead of the news about the KBI criminal investigation, the SSPX tried to effect a media coup at several Catholic journalistic centers. Many believed that these overtures were sincere, and SSPX sincerely desired to enter into full communion with the Church. Spearheaded by Angelus Press editor James Vogel, the SSPX began a massive PR campaign during the Pope Francis era, reaching out to any and all forms of conservative and traditionalist Catholic media, hoping to spin a new image for the formerly marginalized group. The emergence of several splinter groups from the SSPX, known collectively as "The Resistance," who protested the SSPX's overtures toward reconciliation with Rome, further increased the profile of the SSPX, for the Society could claim that all of the "crazies" were migrating out of the SSPX and into these splinter groups. Williamson's notorious "Holocaust interview" further proved to be a blessing in disguise for the SSPX, for by expelling His Excellency in 2012, the SSPX could claim that they had put their more reactionary past behind them. The Holy Father's lifting of the excommunications coincided with a renaissance in interest in traditional Catholicism among young people, as the tidal wave of conservative American Catholic culture inaugurated by Pope John Paul II's 1993 World Youth Day visit to Denver crashed against the 2002 Boston Spotlight revelations, whi ch demonstrated that the reform inaugurated by John Paul was largely a paper tiger.Īt the same time, Bp. Its status as a marginal group changed, however, when Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the four SSPX bishops in January 2009. Throughout the early history of the group, the majority of SSPX adherents were content to be ignored by the world. This turned out not to be true - but it would take decades for the world to learn that. Mary's, Kansas Post Falls, Idaho and Walton, Kentucky.ĭespite alleged ties to militia groups as well as a long history of ties with various post-World War II manifestations of German National Socialism, the SSPX, for most of its history, could supposedly boast that, unlike the mainstream Catholic Church, it was not plagued by any sex scandals. Richard Williamson and the culture he created as rector of the SSPX American seminary, seemed content to dig in and hide out in its chapels and enclaves in St. Marys, KS, the epicenter of abuse allegations in the USĪlthough defending itself against charges of schism and protesting the 1988 excommunications of its bishops, the American wing of the SSPX, under the tremendous influence of Bp.
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