6/5/2023 0 Comments Sspx st marys ks bulletin![]() ![]() They were wary of being labeled bigots by co-workers and even friends. When they lived in other places, many SSPX families felt isolated by their faith, keenly aware that their theological convictions were out of step with America’s evolving cultural sensibilities and what they perceive as the growing liberalism of the Catholic Church, especially on issues such as gay marriage and abortion. But many are pushed here as much as they are pulled. Newcomers are attracted by the opportunity to live beside like-minded neighbors. Right: A young man takes part in an SSPX rite. Real estate sells at price points closer to those of Kansas’s big cities than of its other small towns. The parish rector, Father Patrick Rutledge, has to scramble each summer to accommodate rising enrollment. The school is constantly running out of classroom space. Even with six Masses on Sundays, parishioners fill the Society’s chapel to capacity overflow services are held in the gym of the Society’s academy, which inhabits an imposing campus built by the Jesuit missionaries who called St. Marys, the followers of SSPX have more than doubled the town’s size. At housewarming parties and potluck dinners, children huddle around pianos for sing-alongs. ![]() Women in long, modest skirts loaded vans that had enough seats to accommodate eight or nine kids -unlike most American Catholics, SSPX members abide by the Vatican’s prohibition on birth control. On a recent afternoon, I visited the general store, where polite teens played bluegrass music beside rows of dried goods. Yet hints of the town’s utopian project are everywhere. Residents watch prestige television on Hulu and catch Sunday-afternoon football games moms drive to Topeka to shop at Sam’s Club. Marys isn’t nearly as cut off from modern life as, say, the Amish communities that still abjure all modern technology, be it tractor or cellphone. Throughout American history, religious groups have walled themselves off from the rhythms and mores of society. To most American Catholics under the age of 50, it would be unrecognizable. Perfumed with incense and filled with majestic Latin hymns, the service has an air of formality and grandeur. Though not fully recognized by the Vatican, the priests of SSPX see themselves as defenders of the true practices of Roman Catholicism, including the traditional Latin Mass, celebrated each day in St. Named for the early-20th-century pope who railed against the forces of modernism, the international order of priests was formed in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church’s attempt, in the 1960s, to meet the challenges of contemporary life. Marys is home to a chapter of the Society of St. To hear more feature stories, see our full list or get the Audm iPhone app. ![]()
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