Catholics only: Opinion of the Society of Saint Pius X

[TJ in Oregon]

Positive but with qualifications.

First, the positive. They are actually practicing Catholics who hold to the faith, unlike so many groups who aren't in an irregular communion with the Church. They are almost unfailingly people who are living a Christian life. Despite being somewhat radical traditionalists, they've mostly kicked out the truly crazy people (like the Sedevacantists) and their current leadership seems to be more open to regularizing the Society. They can sometimes be jaded and bitter, but remember the vitriol they've had to (mostly unfairly) deal with over the course of decades. The bitterness is more often paranoia than actual hatred.

On the negative side, the Society and its members often believe that they alone saved the Tridentine form of the Mass and that Archbishop Lefebvre was justified in illicitly ordaining bishops against the pope. They need to accept that they didn't alone save it, were wrong to illicitly ordain bishops, accept the legitimacy of the Second Vatican Council (which most do anyway), and accept the Pope's authority.

I wouldn't go to an SSPX chapel for Mass unless it was the only valid option and all others were even more illicit or unless they were regularized with the Church, but I wish them well and hope to see them fully regularized in the near future. Christendom needn't be divided over differences so petty as those between the SSPX and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church.

[TJ in Oregon]

Schismatics, automatic HP. I won't pretend to be an expert on them but while ,I'm all with them in terms of rejecting liturgical wishy-washiness and a "reform of the reform", "good intentions" are not enough in my book to justify de facto rejecting the authority of the Pope and liberally accusing other Catholics of heresy.

I'd agree, except your criticisms don't actually apply to the SSPX. They aren't schismatic. You're pummeling a straw man.