Sweden and FSSPX

Do Muslims Get Their Info on Franco from Harun Yahya? · Sweden and FSSPX

Let's set the scene, a bit.

Two known and young Trad Catholics are Nick Fuentes and Connor Estelle. While they are known only as "Trad" Catholics, I don't have pretty much doubt their priests are from the FSSPX. If there aren't, there certainly are people like them at some FSSPX chapels and St. Nicolas du Chardonnet. You may have noted, Connor Estelle, in his interview for The Catholic Herald, came out as in support of Francisco Franco. At St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, I more than once went to the Missa pro defunctis mass for el Caudillo. I always felt a peace, wondering "is this really necessary, isn't he already in Heaven?" (I'm an ex-Palmarian, and Palmar de Troya have actually canonised him, so, to them 20 November is not a day for black, but for, I think red — I think they concluded he was a martyr, not just any saint). I reflected on it in words like "the Church keeps praying up to canonisation" ... a bit like a Missa pro defunctis for Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, also still not canonised.

Meanwhile. Sweden involves quite a lot of people who fought in the International Brigades. Some of those might be prone to compare Franco to Hitler. I think most Swedes would unthinkingly qualify Franco as a Fascist, and in some of the jargons about movements and philosophies, you don't define Fascism as "Corporativism, Antiparliamentarianism, Street Fighting" but as "philosophy of Gentile, Rosenberg and Hitler". In other words Fascism is both defined as sth objectionable and criminal, and applied to things that are not necessarily so, including Franco. To give a taste of the atmosphere, in a parish I often visited, at the time an exclusively Novus Ordo parish, like my own, I knew a family from Paraguay, and once I accompanied the dad and mum to a countermanifestation against a Communist parade. The three of us stood there, he held up a cross, we chanted "we are the black forces" ... the slogans of the Commies were against the black forces. I was more scrupulous back then, confessed, and was reprimanded for that participation. My father confessor by "black forces" probably thought Fascists, and in fact, when I checked with the family from Paraguay, in their country it's the party colour of Christian Democrats. Gasperi or Adenauer, not Mussolini or Franco.*

Add to that, National Socialism was to a very high degree Protestant. And consequently authoritarian, as opposed to rectitudarian (who's commanding matter's more than what's right). The exact same thing is true of Sweden at large. So, what will happen to Catholics who swim in that culture? They will overemphasise the authority structures and Swedish Catholics are very prone to do this equation:

Martin Luther = did not obey the Pope (even when excommunicated)
Monsignor Lefebvre = did not obey the Pope (even when excommunicated)
Monsignor Lefebvre = Martin Luther

So, in Monsignor Lefebvre, they basically see "nearly a Lutheran" who, it being known he appreciated Franco, appreciated "nearly a Nazi".**

Again, when FSSPX say "we have a right to work here, because there is a case of necessity" it's not altogether clear that in Sweden there actually is one, on Lefebvrian principles. A Sedevacantist or a Conclavist or a Palmarian could say "the Novus Ordo is invalid, there is a case of necessity" but FSSPX tends to focus on other things, how Missa versus populum fosters an irreverent attitude, how clown masses and guitar masses destroy reverence altogether, how in some cases this could lead to priests having an invalid intention and therefore offering an invalid mass, especially because "for you and for many"*** was replaced by "for all" ... most of this part of a case of necessity doesn't exist in Sweden. The Swedish translation was "for you and for the many", clown masses and guitar masses don't exist, priests are usually pretty well aware of what Sacrifice of the Mass is ... Sweden is a bit of a mixture of Archdiocese of Paris in respect of World War II politics and Normandy or Var in respect of theology or liturgy. The devout Swedish mass goer who hears a Lefebvrian case for not going to Novus Ordo will say "if you just mean Extraordinary Rite is preferrable, that's not a state of emergency, and if you mean Novus Ordo is automatically invalid, you are Sedevacantists" ... the best actually Lefebvrian case for a case of necessity would be for some Catholics who want to honour Franco and be blunt to Protestants about the Reformation being wrong. I was as discouraged in that, as I was in my Franco admiration.

But they will have no problem saying between Catholics that the Reformation was wrong, insofar as they love telling Lefebvrians they are as wrong as Luther.

It happened in 1993, to me, when I lost friends over coming out as Lefebvrian. It happened again in recent news, as you will see from this video by Anthony Stine:

Drama Explodes Between The SSPX And A Mainstream Bishop
Return To Tradition | 25.VIII.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkBeXz2fWWM

I have my own issue with Arborelius°, whose name he mispronounced this first time, but I'm far from surprised by his ungenerous attitude to the FSSPX. I suspect his worst concern could be, in the FSSPX, people like Nick Fuentes and Connor Estelle aren't treated as excommunicated. Neither are they in Normandy, which liturgically and theologically corresponds better to Swedish mainstream Catholicism. It wasn't Germany, it wasn't Pétain, but the Allies that made thousands of homeless in 1945 by bombing Le Havre ... °° And obviously, if in Burgos you go to Mass every Lord's Day and vote Partido Popular, you are probably pretty friendly to Franco. I mean, Fraga was friendlier to Franco than Gasperi to Mussolini. But never mind all that. Arborelius has let so many Swedes down by accepting to "obey a foreign potentate" (the Pope), by bowing down to statues of Mary, by saying Calvary is made present in ever Mass, by saying if you use condoms you go to Hell, he can't also let them down by allowing one of his flock to praise the former Caudillo of Spain! Or by not demonising as best as he can the priests who will allow their flock to do so.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Lewis IX of France
25.VIII.2025

Apud Carthaginem sancti Ludovici Noni, Regis Francorum et Confessoris, vitae sanctitate ac miraculorum gloria praeclari, cujus ossa postmodum Lutetiam Parisiorum sunt relata.

PS, in case some misunderstand my words about Arborelius' conversion, I obviously also let down many Swedes by accepting to "obey a foreign potentate" (the Pope), by bowing down to statues of Mary, by saying Calvary is made present in ever Mass, by saying if you use condoms you go to Hell ...

And I don't regret it./HGL

* In fact, the Falange of Franco combined a blue shirt and a red beret.
** Monsignor Lefebvre also appreciated Adenauer, clearly an anti-Nazi, as well as Salazar and De Valera. Of these, De Valera was once mass server to Monsignor Lefebvre, well before Vatican II or at least before the Liturgic Reform.
*** pro vobis et pro multis
° Anders Arborelius
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anders_Arborelius
°° Φιλολoγικά / Philologica : Qui fut Dom Gaston Aubourg - et qui sauva Bayeux?
Mardi, 23 octobre, 2012 par by Hans Georg Lundahl à 7:14
https://filolohika.blogspot.com/2012/10/qui-fut-dom-gaston-aubourg-et-qui-sauva.html