The Recusant

This September will see the 10 year anniversary of the death of Michael Davies.

A strong supporter of Archbishop Lefebvre until the time of the 1988 episcopal consecrations, he then opted to side with the indultarian Una Voce movement (becoming its President in 1992).

Having traded the battle for integral Catholic doctrine in preference for the permission to attend the 1962 Mass, he significantly toned down his rhetoric, lest his movement be seen to criticize the modernists, and jeopardize the indult.

Among other things, he is remembered for his famous saying, "It is the Mass that matters."

Indeed, this saying could be the motto for every indult group in the Church, since it is the only thing their false obedience has been able to retain (and even in that respect, it is only to be considered a preference; a rite on equal footing with the Novus Ordo).

So, it was only natural that Michael Davies and the SSPX should drift apart.

Whether he was conscious of it or not, Michael Davies was only given his “table scraps” because the Romans perceived that others like him (i.e., battle weary, or scrupulous, or compromised Catholics) could be drawn away from the SSPX with the lure of an approved Traditional Latin Mass.

So pitched were the differences between the SSPX and various indult/Ecclesia Dei organizations, that they would not even march in the same direction at the annual Chartres (France) Pilgrimage for Tradition, nor would they travel the same route: Leaders would meet in advance of the opposed pilgrimages to ensure the two did not intersect!

This was symbolic of the completely opposite ends which the two groups had in mind: Securing the Mass, on the one hand, vs. securing the entire Faith, on the other.

But those were the good old days.

Recent years have seen mounting evidence of a convergence of aims and ends between the SSPX and the various indult groups in ways which would have been impossible under Archbishop Lefebvre: The notice appearing on the SSPX Polish District website congratulating the Ecclesia Dei communities' recent 2013 ordinations; the January 2014 letter from Menzingen in which Fr. Pivert's book is condemned, with Menzingen offering strident defenses of the indult communities; the ‘trad-cumenical’ initiatives in which The Remnant participates at The Angelus conferences; etc).

But I would like to discuss one which flew under the radar: The 2007 Angelus Press reprint of the revised/expanded "Pope John's Council" by Michael Davies.

Having just illustrated the divergence of opinion between Michael Davies and the SSPX since the 1988 episcopal consecrations (and the dumbing-down of the subject matter of Davies' later books, which must always follow upon a regularization), it is a pleasant mythology spread amongst SSPXers that, towards the end of his life, Michael Davies "came back" to the SSPX, and again collaborated with them, having realized the limited and short-sighted nature of his indult position.

However, it is the purpose of this brief article to demonstrate that in fact, it is the opposite which is true:

That with the commencement in 2007 of the branding campaign (designed to cease-fire against modernism and the modernists in Rome, for the purposes of securing a Roman approval of the SSPX), the SSPX moved closer to Michael Davies' indult position, rather than the other way around.

Observe that in 2001, the SSPX was condemning Dominus Iesus thusly:

My conclusion is this:

The publication of this revised Michael Davies work was one of the first attempts by the branded SSPX at incrementally "shifting" the SSPX audience towards looking favorably upon recent magisterial documents;

It was useful for building the bridge between SSPXers, Romans, and indultarians.

The only other alternative is to believe that the SSPX has suddenly become doctrinally incompetent, and is oblivious to publishing errors, which is not likely.

In any case, it shows that Michael Davies definitely did not come back to a traditional SSPX perspective (as though Archbishop Lefebvre would have accepted Dominus Iesus any more than Bishop Fellay did in 2001), but instead, that the SSPX moved towards Michael Davies' indult position.

More disturbing than this, is the fact that in the larger picture (in light of the other examples cited above, which is far from exhaustive), it evinces an SSPX embarked upon a trajectory of convergence with the indult communities.

Once that convergence is completed, via slow boil, will there really be any need to negotiate a practical accord?

Indeed, as the Dominicans at Avrillé recently wrote, the terrain is already prepared for a recognition of tolerance “ad tempus” (in which no written accord will be necessary).

But at what price?

When the day comes that you see the indultarian and SSPX Chartres Pilgrimages for Tradition marching in the same direction, understand that there is much more symbolism there than meets the eye.

Postscript:

In view of the eminence and reputation of Michael Davies, many readers of this article may be reluctant to accept that so gifted a man erred in so obvious and fundamental a doctrine as that on the Church's teaching regarding apostolicity.

The first error of Mr. Davies is that he overlooked (or ignored) the distinction between material vs formal apostolicity (even though, interestingly enough, he uses the term "formal apostolic succession" in an erroneous sense at the bottom of p. 97).

As recounted above, "material apostolicity" is mere episcopal continuity (i.e., episcopal lineage traceable down to the Apostles), whereas "formal apostolicity" adds to mere material apostolicity the power of jurisdiction, which comes from the Pope.

Since a schismatic "church" cannot possess jurisdiction (other than a supplied jurisdiction acquired through necessity), and therefore cannot possess formal apostolicity, it necessarily follows that schismatic churches can never be considered authentic or true local churches.

But Michael Davies says otherwise:

On p. 98, he cites in support of his contention that the schismatic Orthodox possess formal apostolicity the Apostolic Letter of Pope Pius IX, Arcano Divinae Providentiae (1868), in which he observes that the great Pontiff "invited the bishops of the churches of the Oriental Rite not in communion with Rome to be present at the First Vatican Council on an equal basis with the bishops of the Latin Rite in communion with Rome."

Now it is telling that this citation (obviously meant to justify Dominus Iesus, which follows as a separate appendix at the end of the book on pp 403-408) is entirely absent from the original 1970s version of "Pope John's Council."

But what is missed by Davies is that the Apostolic Letter is not an invitation to participate in Vatican I as schismatics, but an invitation to rejoin the Mystical Body of Christ in order that they could participate:

"On September 8, 1868, the pope wrote an Apostolic Letter, Arcano divinae Providentiae consilio, to the Eastern Orthodox patriarchs, which demanded fidelity to the commitment they made to reunion at the Council of Lyons in 1274 and again at the Council of Florence in 1439."
vox-nova.com/2008/06/14/the-politics-of-infallibility-at-vatican-i-part-1/    

But Davies, confusing the matter even further, misreads this Letter as pointing to the Councils of Lyons and Florence as having allowed schismatics to participate as schismatics, not as uniates (as though schismatics could set policy and doctrine for the Catholic Church!), and not in the proper sense just previously quoted.

For example, the Orthodox participated in the Second Council of Lyons only because they consented to sign this declaration (which made them Catholics):

"The Holy Roman Church possesses the supreme and full primacy and principality over the whole Catholic Church. She truly and humbly acknowledges that she received this from the Lord himself in blessed Peter, the prince and chief of the apostles, whose successor the Roman Pontiff is, together with the fullness of power. And since before all others she has the duty of defending the truth of the faith, so if any questions arise concerning the faith, it is by her judgment that they must be settled."

That this participation and Council did not end the schism permanently or completely is only because, according to Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology, the representatives had no authority to bind the other Orthodox bishops back home.

But the simple fact is that those Orthodox who participated were converted Catholics at the onset by the signing of that declaration.

It is worth mentioning that in so far as certain Churches (e.g., the Greek Orthodox) become uniate or schismatic at various points in history, they likewise vacillated between true particular churches possessing formal apostolicity, and schismatic churches, possessing only material apostolicity (therefore not representing true local churches at such times).

But in the appendix titled "The Declaration Dominus Iesus Re: The Term Subsistit," which represents a blatant defense of Lumen Gentium as well, the reader will be shocked to see how far this error regarding formal apostolicity and true local churches causes Davies to embrace the new ecclesiology:

"But what of the churches, dioceses, that have breached their unity with the Holy See? Do they cease to be particular churches? By no means." (P. 406)

Now, I will be unjustly fair to Mr. Davies here, because as the phrase stands, he does not distinguish between authentic and schismatic particular churches (which makes it merely ambiguous).

But from the context, previous quotes showing him arguing in favor of schismatic churches representing authentic churches, and the sentence immediately following that just quoted, in which Mr. Davies reverts to his already refuted erroneous interpretation of Pius IX's Arcano Divinae Providentiae, we know what he means, and he finishes with the alarming statement that:

"There is thus no doubt whatsoever that the Dioceses of the Eastern Orthodox Churches constitute true particular churches despite being schismatic." (p. 406)

That statement is heretical, insofar as it directly contradicts the Church's immemorial teaching on apostolicity, in addition to implicitly rejecting Pope Pius XII's encyclical Mystici Corporis Christii (of which Dominus Iesus and Lumen Gentium are also violators).

No particular church can be said to be a “true particular church” which does not possess formal apostolicity, and therefore receive its jurisdiction from the Pope.  It necessarily follows, therefore, that all true particular churches are in union with Rome, since otherwise, it is not possible for them to possess ordinary jurisdiction (the distinguishing feature of formal apostolicity). To say otherwise is to make of the Petrine Primacy an empty title, by implying jurisdiction (which only flows from Peter) is not necessary for a true particular church to have a legitimate apostolic mission.

And it is ludicrous to contend that there can be such a thing as a true particular church not in union with Peter, which is at once divided in government, worship, doctrine, and devoid of jurisdiction and legitimate apostolic mission, for to hold any other opinion is to negate the gravity of schism (and heresy) and make the injunctions of the Church and Pius XII, et al, frivolous and of no consequence for salvation.