Post by Sebastián J. Mollo

Weakness and cowardness abound in the unhallowed halls of Franciscan University of Steubenville. A provocative piece from The Catholic Esquire on the open letter from Franciscan University faculty asking the SSPX to reconsider the July 1 episcopal consecrations. The core argument is worth sitting with, whatever one's view of the Society, is that an appeal grounded in the documents of Vatican II is unlikely to persuade those whose principal concerns are with Vatican II itself, and that the real question being avoided is not whether unity matters but what, precisely, is the doctrinal tradeoff needed to achieve such "unity." Reasonable Catholics will disagree on the SSPX and on the Council. But the essay puts its finger on something real, the difficulty of resolving a dispute when both sides decline to engage the actual point of contention. Worth reading.