Misericordia Et Misera: Controlled Explosion


NOV 21
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The V II nuChurch was slowly beginning to come to terms with the fact that the SSPX is, erm, Catholic….

The Apostolic letter Misericordia et Misera was released today, and it did not contain the huge bomb of the regularisation of the SSPX. However, it still contained a controlled explosion: the Vatican recognises the sacramental validity of SSPX confessions beyond the Year of false Mercy and, this time sine die.
This is not huge, but it’s big. It seems clear to me that such a decision is clear indicator of a situation like the one I have tried to describe yesterday: the SSPX and the Vatican already have an agreement in the pocket and what is happening now is the preparation of the ground, the “framing” of the reconciliation in a big “Project Mercy” to be used by Francis as an alibi to pursue his heretical agenda. 
If this were not the case, it would be difficult to understand why Francis would not take this carrot (admitting for a moment the SSPX cares for it) away from the SSPX and send a message on the lines of: “I have given you something, but now it’s your turn to make a step towards me”. On the contrary, today’s announcement makes sense only if it is the prelude to bigger things to come. 
What has not happened is what I had considered, yesterday, also a possibility: that Francis is so scared of the dubia-Cardinals that he needs to push the button of the reconciliation now. This is clearly not the case. However, one can say that in this perspective it makes even more sense to wait for such an announcement around the time the cardinals do accuse him of heresy.
I think this development is 100% positive, at least from what we can see at the moment. The SSPX does not give an inch, but they get a lot of credit and credibility even among the V II movers and shakers, who will now have a great deal of difficulty in explaining to their V II-ing sheep what is, exactly, so wrong with an organisation by which everyone can go for Mass, Communion and Confession without even the Vatican having to say a word. If this is not a formal recognition, it is certainly an informal one, as the SSPX is now meant to have these faculties in permanence as opposed to a special concession limited in time. 
I am, personally, not interested in Francis recognising the SSPX, exactly as I am not interested in Francis beatifying Pius XII. I could not care less about what Francis says whether I can confess, make communion or (in hypothesis) marry in a SSPX chapel. But again, he is the Pope, and if the Pope says that you are right you don’t go to him and say that he is wrong in saying that you are right. You might as well say that two and two is five because Francis happens to say that it is four. 
Let Francis concede to the SSPX all that he thinks useful to promote his agenda, and let faithful Catholics (starting from the same SSPX) oppose his obvious Modernism with the same energy with which they have done it up to now (I remind my readers that the only bishops openly accusing the Pope of being a Modernist through and through are, to date, the SSPX ones). 
Francis’ little Spiel is obvious enough, nor can it be avoided. 
But it does not mean that we should not make the most of it.