What to Avoid
How to Spot Red Flags and Signs of Scandal in a Liturgy
There are many things that may indicate a faithful Catholic should not attend a particular liturgy. In the interest of avoiding causing or participating in scandal or apostasy, there are certain types of illicit practices that a Catholic should simply avoid interacting with.
Schismatic and Canonically Irregular Churches
It is important to remember that not every church that refers to itself as “Catholic” is actually Catholic. The word Catholic should only refer to the Roman Catholic Church, joined by a vow of obedience to the hierarchy of Catholic bishops and the pope. Some churches, even those who refer to themselves as Catholic, are either obedient to an outside hierarchy meant to resemble the Roman Catholic hierarchy, but wholly separated from it. These churches are either independent bodies with no tie to a broader array of communities, or a separate religious body that claims to be the true Catholic Church. A great example of one of these phenomena is the SSPV (Society of Saint Pius V). Not to be confused with the SSPX (Society of Saint Pius X, which will be explained later), the SSPV is an organization that broke off entirely from the Catholic Church in 1983. This organization calls itself Catholic, and is an example of a sedevacantist religious group. Sedevacantism is a movement whose foundational principle is the claim that, after the death of Pope Pius XII, subsequent occupants of the Chair of Saint Peter (the papacy) invalidly hold the office due to their alleged espousal of one or more heresies. These groups are extremely traditionally-minded, and hold that liturgical and pastoral changes made during the Second Vatican Council were invalid, principally because the council took place prior to the end of Pope Pius XII’s papacy (the last papacy that these groups hold to be valid).
Adherents to the SSPV do not claim a valid successor to the papacy within their ranks, but they do deny the validity of Pope Francis’s pontificate, as well as the pontificates of Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI.