Bishop Fellay asked them the question: What do you expect from the Society of St. Pius X? Aside from a few who asked “to learn to celebrate the old rite”, the majority replied, “We are looking for DOCTRINE.” That brought him to illustrate the case of an Italian Vicar General who said to one of the members of the SSPX, “I began to read the catechism of St. Pius X; well, I admit that I would not be able to answer those questions… because no one ever taught me to do so!” Bishop Fellay added that these admissions by the priests are sad: “They didn’t teach us anything!” It is as though many of them, despite their university degrees and years of study, had been equipped with useless doctrinal tools, with containers but not with Catholic content. That is why all of them, almost instinctively, crave the teaching of St. Thomas!

Priests who learn to celebrate the Mass of All Time undergo a spiritual renewal. Through the rite the doubts of their souls begin to be cleared up, and they begin “to put their lives in order again and to put in order also their relations with the faithful.” Bishop Fellay describes this as “the work of Grace on the priest through the Mass”. Thus the liturgy leads to doctrine and doctrine to morality, because “faith without works is dead.” And thereby the priest discovers a new yet ancient way of being faithful to his own ministry. And he does so above all by rediscovering “objectivity and realism”.

As an example of these priests who contact the Society all around the world and sometimes decide to join it, here is the story of Don Massimo, Italian priest who decides to leave his parish on December 25th.