I don't agree. I'm not saying the Society is bad news, but I've heard many horror stories, and I also have a few of my own which I won't go into here.
I'm reminded of Belloc who quipped that the Church teaches it is Divinely instituted and sustained, but he knew it because "no institution run with an equal mix of ineptitude and wickedness would have lasted a fortnight".
Every organization has it's bad apples. I'm a SSPX teacher and I have plenty of "horror stories", plenty of problems, plenty of priests who make plenty of mistakes, plenty of laity who are morons. From my days at an Independent chapel I can tell you there are twice as many of each at any Independent chapel than in the whole US SSPX. And the Indult and FSSP crowd has more than even the Independents and Sedevacantist combined.
The SSPX isn't the Church and it's certainly not perfect. If we expect it to be either, we're in for a great disappointment.
The other point I want to make is that St. Mary's is run the way the SSPX wants it to be run, so you cannot divorce the school policies from the Society's viewpoints. They really are one and the same.
I would absolutely disagree here. Again, speaking with knowledge of the subject. The SSPX is quite a large organization. St. Mary's is run by the five or six priests that are there now (and mostly by the Rector and Pastor). I'm sure the SSPX higher-ups have plenty of input, but Bishop Fellay isn't managing the everyday affairs of St. Mary's, nor is Fr. Fullerton, and St. Mary's policy is certainly not SSPX policy.
Also, Eric said in the post that St. Mary's was leaning toward a new policy of disallowing student websites, and asked him to take his down. He did not say he was threatened with expulsion if he refused, he said that that was the apparent penalty of the forthcoming policy being considered and why he would not continue over the summer.
I am appalled that they have forced Eric to dismantle something he labored for a year to build up. They are out of line.
If a confessor told someone to give up their live-in girlfriend they had been with for a year, no one would blink an eye. If a Catholic school said to a young man that he needed to give up his employment as an organist at the Anglican church, we'd also not think twice. If a spiritual director said a young man should leave his high paying job and go to the seminary or the monastery, we would look at it as a great thing. Certainly the young man may have many feelings like that young man that asked Our Lord what he must do. "If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me."
In this case, Eric enrolled at St. Mary's not to be educated, but to be formed. A school, in the true sense, is for formation. So long as it is not immoral, if the superiors command something, you have a choice. If you desire to be formed, you obey. If not, you leave. I see no injustice there, but much logic. Just as a seminarian does not get to decide if his spiritual director is competent, the student does not get to pick and choose parts of the formation that suit him. If he wants to go to a different director or a different school, fine.
If he does not want the formation offered, he should not be there.
Clearly, Eric does want the formation they offer.
The problem is that we approach it from a very American viewpoint. He was writing very Godly things, and certainly that must be good. I enjoyed his writing, myself and do see it as a great loss. Yet is blogging his vocation? Is that good for him? Good for his formation? Or are we more concerned about ourselves?
Is it not very selfish of us to say that our (I include myself here) addictions to the Internet, our "need" for knowledge, our view that the someone must always be around to critique the modern world somehow make a just request by Eric's superiors unjust?
From what some of said it sounds like they feel it is unjust that St. Mary's is taking
Vive Christus Rex from them!
Indeed, where does Eric get his knowledge, where do all of us old blogger get our knowledge? I'm reminded of what Dr. Senior said in his Restoration of Christian Culture, quoting a Saint (though I forget which one). When asked what to read, this Saint said, "Read anything by someone with 'Saint' in front of their name". All the Saints say essentially the same thing. Flee from materialism and the pomps of the world, the flesh and the devil and follow the example of Christ.
Eric has expounded on that point quite well in the past.
Who are we to say that St. Mary's is out of line? Who made us their judges?
