The following is a general transcript of today’s podcast:

The Catholic Church has completely lost its ability to prioritize.

In the midst of a global crisis of faith, where belief in the Real Presence is a minority view for Catholics but contraception use isn’t, we are spending our time talking about the environment and the material needs of the poor.

We have bishops facilitating gay marriage. Bishops proposing that people living in adulterous relationships should be admitted to communion. Bishops who want to legitimize cohabitation and in vitro fertilization. Bishops who have mostly been silent on the horrors revealed in the Planned Parenthood videos. And when a few HAVE spoken out, they’ve made moral equivocation between dismembering children alive and selling their parts to the highest bidder and racism and joblessness, of all things.

We have heretics — actual, open, obvious heretics who flaunt their opposition of Church teaching — being given favored status by the Pope, who is inviting them to have a seat at the table to help determine the Church’s future course of action as regards her moral teaching.

And yet the only enemy everyone can seem to agree on is that thriving island of traditionalism known as the Society of St. Pius X. You may have heard of them – they’re the guys who celebrate the Traditional Latin Mass, hold Traditional Catholic doctrinal positions, and last year they ordained more priests than any diocese in the United States. They believe Pope Francis is the pope and they pray for him. They desire in every way to be fully and completely Catholic.

Sounds dangerous, doesn’t it? We should really beat those guys to a pulp. Clearly, they’re the problem.

What the hell is wrong with us?

Bishop Athanasius Schneider, who I really believe is God’s gift to a Church that has all but completely lost its mind, was made an official observer of the SSPX by the Holy See. I’m not sure how he got the job, because he actually believes in what the Church teaches and is not afraid to say so, but again, God works in mysterious ways. I’ll take it.

And after his most recent visit to the SSPX seminary this past February, he came away with a positive impression. Asked about it in an interview this month, he said he saw “no weighty reasons” that the SSPX shouldn’t be reconciled as they are.

But lest you think I’m paraphrasing, here’s what he said:

“To my knowledge there are no weighty reasons in order to deny the clergy and faithful of the SSPX the official canonical recognition, meanwhile they should be accepted as they are. … When the SSPX believes, worship and conducts a moral live as it was demanded and recognized by the Supreme Magisterium and was observed universally in the Church during a centuries long period and when the SSPX recognizes the legitimacy of the Pope and the diocesan bishops and prays for them publicly and recognizes also the validity of the sacraments according to the editio typica of the new liturgical books, this should suffice for a canonical recognition of the SSPX on behalf of the Holy See.”

He’s not putting the impetus on the SSPX. He’s saying it’s Rome that needs to fix this. There’s no significant reason they shouldn’t have this status. In fact, he says that if Rome doesn’t do this, “the Church of our days will manifestly loose its credibility and the history will one day reproach to the ecclesiastical authorities of our days that they have  ‘laid on the brothers greater burden than required’ (cf. Acts 15:28), which is contrary to the pastoral method of the Apostles.” I think we can all agree that the Society is far from perfect, and has made plenty of mistakes in their internal governance and even their approach to the Church. But if there is no significant obstacle to their reunion with...