kay fisher

Registered Operating Department Practitioner - Anaesthetics - WORCESTERSHIRE ROYAL HOSPITAL (NHS)

[Cullum Smith @CullumSmith]

Why does the SSPX need to consecrate bishops?

It's a reasonable question. After all, none of the other traddy groups have their own bishops, and they seem to get along just fine.

1. The mission of the SSPX is to preserve the traditional Catholic priesthood, including formation, discipline, philosophy, and pastoral practice.

Archbishop Lefebvre sold this mission to Paul VI as the "experiment of tradition." During a time when it seemed anything could (and would) be changed, why not keep a little side chapel in the Church of the New Advent for the old stuff?

Now, the preservation of the priesthood obviously requires the ability to ordain priests, and to do this requires a bishop.

Unfortunately, the SSPX continues to be Church's loudest critic of Vatican II — the council that somehow changed both nothing and everything at the same time, and by which the Church now seeks to define herself.

Consequently, the SSPX is the third rail of the entire conciliar milieu. Archbishop Lefebvre was forbidden to ordain priests in 1976, but continued doing so. No conciliar bishop in his right mind is stepping up to ordain SSPX priests today. Could you imagine the headlines?

The FSSP and similar groups rely on TLM-friendly prelates like Cardinal Burke and Bishop Bruskewitz to confer priestly ordination, but these men are known to denounce the SSPX publicly. The only outsider who might even consider ordaining SSPX priests is Bishop Schneider.

And since everyone must "return in due time" to the Novus Ordo according to Traditionis Custodes, there is presently very little reason to think that Rome would even allow such ordinations to take place.

So, if the SSPX is to continue to exist, they will need bishops to continue ordaining priests from their ever-growing classes of seminarians.

2. The SSPX has hundreds of thousands of lay faithful requiring the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Because SSPX bishops have no ordinary jurisdiction, they cannot delegate the task of Confirmation to SSPX priests. (Of course, any priest can administer Confirmation to someone in danger of death.)

The SSPX has only two aging bishops, but hundreds of chapels across six continents. A huge portion of their bishops' time is spent traveling the world and slapping kids with Sacred Chrism.

You might argue that those people could receive Confirmation from just about anyone else. Why do they need the SSPX to do it?

Well, for whatever reason, those people have chosen the SSPX for their spiritual home — and the faculties granted by Rome in recent years have not exactly discouraged them from doing that. If you think it's easy to call up a random parish and schedule Confirmation, I encourage you to give it a try!

3. There are very few bishops remaining who were consecrated in the Old Rite.

The bishops currently providing ordination to the FSSP/ICKSP/etc were consecrated using the Novus Ordo formula, and in the context of the Novus Ordo Mass.

I'm not here to argue about validity of the Novus Ordo episcopal consecrations — but there's obvious value for a group like the SSPX to maintain continuity with the traditional episcopal rites for the bishops that serve them.

So, what now?

In 1988, Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops to guarantee continuity of the traditional priesthood.

Of the four original bishops, two have recently gone to their eternal reward. The remaining two are approaching their 70s.

Since the original excommunications, the SSPX has steadily grown — thanks in part to the Society's quasi-regularization by Rome over the years.

Now, they have 5 seminaries,
94 Catholic schools,
798 Mass locations,
733 priests,
264 seminarians,
395 religious brothers and sisters,
and hundreds of thousands of lay faithful that depend on them for traditional sacraments.

And after witnessing the Francis pontificate and the death of half their bishops, the man to decide their fate within the structures of the Church is...Cardinal Tucho Fernandez.

Given the current state of the Church, accepting a future without SSPX bishops is tantamount to informing all their priests and faithful that "it's over."

Do I wish they had tried harder to negotiate this time? Yes.

Do I have any reason to believe that the end result would be any different? No.

And if you think the situation is less dire now than it was in 1988, you may want to do some research on the Overton Window.

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@BillKilvington @cpdme I’d love to come and do a talk for our ODP’s at the next conference if that’s possible.

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@sitsio How very sad

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@gandolfiqueen5 @FatherAltman Absolutely agree

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@crabbymikejames @FatherAltman I agree. I sat through a similar mass myself some time ago and felt physically sick. I vowed I’d never just sit idly by if I experienced that again. I think people forget what the Holy Mass is and have lost reverence.

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@FatherAltman And this was a homily during the holy sacrifice of the mass. Awful.

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@LilaGraceRose Ok we are officially screwed. What utter sickening nonsense.

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@justcorrect @TaylorRMarshall Completely agree with you

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@TaylorRMarshall please could you help / promote this charitable cause. As Saint John Henry Newman becomes a Doctor of the Church, the current Father & Brothers of his Oratory church in Birmingham, UK are making an appeal for help. God Bless🙏 https://t.co/D1OwqaIQuD

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@BillKilvington Yes - advanced Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) practitioner. I deliver ECT independently. Am also ECT clinical lead and manager within mental health trust

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@liamtuffs1 @Keir_Starmer Well said @liamtuffs1

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@Keir_Starmer So what happened to the extra money for teachers and facilities in the state education system then @Keir_Starmer ? Was that a lie to win over public support?

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@Disgruntled_ODP Happy times - can so relate to that!!

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@bphillipsonMP This policy is cruel and discriminatory. Then to introduce it from January, leaving a matter of weeks for parents to move kids around is wicked. The poor children. I’ve sacrificed A LOT to send my kids to private school. I’m not rich. Kids are heartbroken

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@The_HCPC ensure that international staff with qualifications in only one area of Operating Department Practice, are unable to be titled ODPs as this is a protected title for who have done the whole UK curriculum. It is misleading to have single specialisms & less training use the title.

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@catecclesstour Congratulations from one ODP to another. Amazing achievement. You can tell them all who ODP’s are. 👊🏼👊🏼

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@CollegeODP @SuzanneRastrick @The_HCPC We desperately need to see ODP’s included on the list of prescribers. I hold an advanced role and recommend things to be prescribed on a regular basis - yet I cannot prescribe them myself. Oh the irony. This is holding me back massively. ODP’s really need to be supported here.

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@CollegeODP @DHSCgovuk @RCSLTpolicy It is just so painfully slow. Keep pushing.

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@CollegeODP Thank you - I feel we need to be more active & publicly responsive as a professional group. Good to see the college doing this.

[kay fisher @kayworcester]

@odpPIPcast I am the first ODP in the U.K. to manage and run an Electroconvulsive therapy department. Now also work down in London at Royal College of Psychiatrists as an ECT advisor. Historically only nurses had this role. Changing the mindsets of clinicians!!