The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) have resurfaced. They plan to consecrate bishops without papal mandate — an act that would carry serious canonical consequences and risk deepening the rupture that has existed since 1988.
Whatever one thinks of the theological disputes involved — Vatican II, the liturgy, religious liberty, ecumenism — the deeper question beneath all of it is this: What does fidelity to Rome actually mean?
And this is where St. Cyprian—the subject of today’s Fathers Know Best article—comes into play.
St. Cyprian is writing in the middle of ecclesial chaos, schismatic movements, rival claimants to authority — and he does not blink. In the 3rd century, after brutal Roman persecutions under Emperor Decius, many Christians had lapsed under pressure. After the persecutions, many Christians wanted to reconcile with Rome. The Church had to decide whether and how these Christians could be reconciled.
Pope Cornelius and bishops like Cyprian held that the Church had authority to restore the repentant/lapsed Christians through penance. But a Roman priest named Novatian disagreed. He argued that the Church could not absolve such grave sins. When Cornelius was elected bishop of Rome, Novatian rejected him, and rejected both the policy and the authority behind it. He then had himself consecrated as a rival bishop of Rome (Pope). From that act flowed a parallel hierarchy built on the claim of greater fidelity.
Purity movements. Competing hierarchies. Claims to be “more faithful” than the Church herself. Cyprian steps directly into that storm.
📜 St. Cyprian of Carthage
On the Unity of the Catholic Church
“The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church…’ On him he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep; and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair, and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity… If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith?”
And again:
“He can no longer have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother… Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress is separated from the promises of the Church… You cannot have God for your Father if you do not have the Church for your mother.”
What Cyprian Is Saying
Cyprian’s argument is uncomfortable because it’s so concrete. Unity is not invisible. It is not sentimental. It is not merely spiritual agreement. Unity is visible, sacramental, and anchored in communion with the successor of Peter.
You do not safeguard orthodoxy by creating parallel authority structures (even an authority of the self). You don’t preserve purity by stepping outside visible communion.
And you can’t protect tradition by severing the bond of unity.
For Cyprian, the Chair of Peter is not decorative — it is the principle of unity Christ established. (Reflection continues below)
Reflection
This doesn’t mean Rome is flawles or that every prudential judgment made in the Vatican is beyond criticism (for example, Traditiones Custodes, which I’m not a fan of, but I understand why it happened).
It doeesn’t mean Catholics can’t seek clarification where confusion exists. But what Cyprian makes unmistakably clear is that fidelity to the Church cannot take the form of self-authorization. One cannot claim to defend Catholicism by constructing parallel authority outside the unity Christ established.
The Novatian crisis shows how easily a disagreement can lead to a dispute that harms the faithful. What began as disagreement over the reconciliation of the lapsed quickly became a rival claim to the See of Peter itself.
Schisms rarely begin with open rebellion against Christ. They begin with sincere people convinced they are defending Catholicism more faithfully than the visible Church He established. That conviction can feel righteous while still be errant or even destructive.
The hard question Cyprian forces us to confront is this: are we defending Christ’s Church in the way Christ structured it, or are we defending our understanding of it?
Hey, shameless plug here, but consider checking out the latest over at The Forge. Here’s a little rundown of what I’ve posted this past week (articles and podcasts)
God bless you, family. I hope you enjoyed this.God be with you guy!
