Diocese and SSPX Seminary

[OLRansom]

I can assure you that the formation in an SSPX seminary is top-notch.

Have you been formed by them yourself, or is this merely conjecture based upon what you have seen of the results?  Is this merely said in comparison to the admittedly deplorable formation received in NO seminaries?

Probably the best theological training you could receive anywhere in the world today...

Have you been trained in Thomistic philosophy or theology?  If not, how can you say, with any authority, anything at all about the theological training?

Thank you for your consideration of these questions, none of which is meant to incite ill feeling or create an atmosphere of heated debate.

[HMiS]

The FSSP seminaries are in structure the same as the SSPX seminaries. They might have some more "mainstream" Thomist professors though. I do not know whether they are accredited for a scholarship. But they certainly do not offer Theology Licentiates or a PhD degree. Some FSSP priests however do continue studying in Rome, at pontifical universities.

As said, in this crisis situation the education in traditional Roman Catholic seminaries is good, but it is not a very high leveled universitary branch of priestly education. It is not the Gregoriana or the Angelicum. Sad, but true.

[Kenny]

Have you been trained in Thomistic philosophy or theology?  If not, how can you say, with any authority, anything at all about the theological training?

 I'm not sure what DominusTecum studies in St Mary's, but I do know that the school of Thomistic thought has been taught in seminaries for centuries. In addition to that, my personal observation of the priests of the SSPX qualifies and confirms (at least for myself) DominusTecum's statement that the SSPX seminaries are just about the best places where one may receive "the best theological training ... anywhere in the world today."

If you are still doubtful, find any SSPX priest to speak to about philosophy and/or theology.

[Kephapaulos]

The FSSP seminaries are in structure the same as the SSPX seminaries. They might have some more "mainstream" Thomist professors though. I do not know whether they are accredited for a scholarship. But they certainly do not offer Theology Licentiates or a PhD degree. Some FSSP priests however do continue studying in Rome, at pontifical universities.

As said, in this crisis situation the education in traditional Roman Catholic seminaries is good, but it is not a very high leveled universitary branch of priestly education. It is not the Gregoriana or the Angelicum. Sad, but true.

What do you mean by "mainstream" Thomist professors? If professors at pontifical universities know Thomism so well, what stops them from applying it to our present situation, and do they see that modernism has infected the Vatican? Or is it simply out of feat that they do not expose what is going on if they see that modernism has infiltrated the Vatican?

[HMiS]

The fact is that present renommated Thomist theological professors shun the SSPX for fear of their own income, and because they think it might harm their reputation. Please consider that those wanting to make a theological carreer, will have to pass in almost every university called "Catholic" these days, ultra-modernists and progressist, who are all very intolerant even to those professors allied to the FSSP or the IBP. All tolerance and religious liberty and academical freedom stops when they find out this or that professor is in any way associated to "the old church" and "the old Mass".

Of course this fear is not justified, and quite cowardous. But still it is the situation.

[HMiS]

The accredited theological Catholic universities and seminaries in western Europe I know, offer indoctrination courses with blown-up attacks upon Catholic dogma etc. etc. They offer a very poor training. Compared to them the non-accredited SSPX seminaries are actually very good. Our young parish chaplain, who goes along with all liturgical experimentation and young adult choirs and girl altar servers etc., is very poorly educated. That is what I can conclude. And I am not even theologically educated at university, I study a secular science.

But the SSPX seminaries cannot compete in academical level with the Angelicum or l'Institut Catholique. Even if neo-modernists have some positions in those too.