Matt: Cardinal Burke Did Not “Betray” Traditional Movement with SSPX Comments

If you’re fortunate,  you’ve probably been spared the drama over some comments Cardinal Burke made at a conference back in June or July regarding the SSPX.  When asked specifically whether lay Catholics should or could attend an SSPX parish, Cardinal Burke said (in main point) they were schismatic, and that while their Masses were valid they were not licit and should be avoided.  This is the 100% mainstream conservative opinion in the Church, and the one that was espoused by the Pope Emeritus.

Some folks took grave exception to this commentary and opined that Cardinal Burke had somehow exposed himself as a true modernist at heart, or that he had failed the traditional movement, or that he is now rather suspect and not a good friend of traditional Catholics.

I think Michael Matt sums up my sentiments more or less exactly.  I am not surprised at what Cardinal Burke said in the slightest.  As I said, it’s pretty much the default position of the hierarchical Church, what these men in positions of power are taught and expected to say.  This doesn’t make Cardinal Burke a bad person or somehow a turncoat.  The good things he has done remain.  He remains the chief opponent of Francis in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, the author of the Dubia, and a very good friend of the Traditional Latin Mass.  But, like all of us, he’s far from perfect, and probably does not, nor ever will, align with our every desire as a perfect Catholic prelate (we all know there has only ever been one perfect prelate, and ever will be – Marcel Lefebvre).

Personally, I was neither exercised by the cardinal’s comments, nor by the reaction.  In fact, I completely expected the reaction.  If Matt’s video below did not so well accord with my own views and provide sensible counsel, I would not have covered the matter at all.  I don’t want to see the comments turn into one of those endless SSPX/anti-SSPX imbroglios.  They are boring and have already been done to death 1000 times over.  You are welcome to your opinion and to express it, but if the tete a tete’s get to extensive and descend into incivility I will terminate the comments (but not take any action against particular commenters, especially those who have been around a long time).  Experience has taught that anything touching on the SSPX tends to lead to great passions on all sides.  Let’s try to keep things cool.

I think Matt’s video could be easily summed up as: don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.  Sure, Cardinal Burke may have said something you or I or we don’t like, or wish he had said another way, but he does a great deal of good at the same time.