On July 1 the Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) founded by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, will ordain four new bishops without Papal consent, an act which will incur automatic excommunication for those ordained and for the one who ordains them. That topic—the validity or not of this action is not for me to discuss here on this blog. However, a few days ago the Society also published the armorial bearings that will be assumed by these four men upon their ordination.

The coats of arms themselves are nicely designed, in accord with good heraldic practices and are alo very nicely rendered. However, my one and only question has to do with the style of these coats of arms. The Society of St. Pius X is well known for rejecting far more in the Church than simply the Novus Ordo Mass. Essentially, the rejected all of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, as well as the teachings in all of the Council’s documents and the practices that grew out of those reforms. So, that moves me to ask: why don’t these coats of arms also contain the mitre and the crozier as external ornaments to the shield? After all, such a practice was not only common but normative prior to the reforms in ecclesiastical heraldry made by the Instructions of St. Paul VI in 1967, 1968 and 1969. It is only from that time that episcopal coats of arms have regularly omitted the mitre resting on the shiled and the crozier standing behind the shield alongside the episcopal cross.

So, to be consistent with their usual practices why don’t they depict these new coats of arms in that way, that is to say in the “traditional” way? They seem to have no problem complying with the reform made to Catholic ecclesiastical heraldry made during the pontificate of the same Pope who reformed the Mass and many other things in the life of the Church. Doesn’t it seem a bit hypocritical to go along with this one change when refusing to accept all the others?

I think it does.