Miseremini Me

(Source)

The formerly-Catholic Society of St Pius X triggered the schism by consecrating bishops without the Pope’s approval, a key part of the ceremony for Catholic believers.

The other clergy of SSPX are now notified that they are in a state of schism and subject to excommunication if they adhere to the society rather than to the Church.

Laity who formally adhere to the schism — that is, those who willfully choose the society over obedience to Pope Leo XIV — are themselves considered excommunicated.

But many of the laity will choose — however painful it may be for them — to remain within the Church rather than SSPX.

Tomorrow is my first ultrasound since becoming pregnant. And I'm just extremely anxious that the worst case scenario could happen tomorrow that there will be no heartbeat or baby will be in the wrong spot. I know I have nothing to fear for God is watching over this little one. But there's just that little part of my brain that is terrified that something is going to go wrong.

Published on July 2 by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the decree specified that the consecrating bishops, Bishops Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay, as well as the four bishops consecrated, Bishops Pascal Schreiber, Michael Goldade, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, and Marc Hanappier, have incurred excommunication latae sententiae for performing the consecrations. These excommunications, according to canon law, can only be removed by the pope.

The decree also warned Catholic clergy and lay faithful not to adhere to the SSPX’s “schism,” under penalty of automatic excommunication.

…

The note also stated that SSPX clergy “administer the sacraments illicitly and that the sacrament of penance administered by them and the marriage assisted by them are invalid.”

Pope Francis had granted SSPX priests special permission to hear confessions and conduct marriage ceremonies as part of his outreach to the group.

The Vatican stated on May 13 that the consecrations would be a schismatic act, resulting in automatic excommunication for the consecrating bishops and those consecrated. The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, later called the SSPX’s act “schismatic”.

Welcome to high-church Protestantism, brethren:

But not all in the society believe the penalty of excommunication will apply to them.

Although participation by the faithful at the consecrations could be interpreted as "formal adherence" to the society's schism, SSPX Fr. Michel Rion, the main organizer of the bishop consecrations at Écône, told reporters that "all the parishioners who are here are certain to be in the church and to be sons of the pope, and they are hurt and so sad."

"I think most of the parishioners do know that the sacraments will still be valid and licit, what is very sad is that some people may not understand and see that is the case," he said, in contrast to the note issued that morning by the Vatican. "We simply hope and pray — because we know it was the right thing to do — that they will see the importance of it."

Many of the lay faithful in attendance grew up within SSPX communities, including Goldade, the freshly excommunicated U.S. bishop.

Lillian Riddell from Ontario, Canada, 20, said she was 7 years old when her mother began taking her family to an SSPX chapel to attend the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass because "they're the best priests you can find."

The prospect of excommunication would not affect her relationship with the church or the society, she told NCR: "I'll just continue my way of life," Riddell said. "I love the SSPX, I think what they're doing is amazing for all Catholics."

Ana Sofía Ribera Sánchez, said her grandparents were introduced to the society when Lefebvre traveled to Mexico City, where her brother is now an SSPX priest. Her family traveled to Switzerland from Mexico to celebrate the moment in the SSPX's history amid the "persecution" she said it has recently been subjected to.

"It's difficult when you're told you're wrong, especially when it comes from the pope, but I think that's the struggle that all Catholics must confront, because we defend the truth," she told NCR.

But not even the pope could dissuade her from continuing her faith life with the SSPX.

"I am in a place where my ideas are aligned," she said with a broad smile. "No one is moving me from there."

And as to that last quote from Ms. Sánchez?

I mean…

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures and by clear reason (for I do not trust in the pope or councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted. My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.”

But then come the words that are even more famous, “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” These words Luther spoke in German, “Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir. Amen.”

That’s Luther at Worms, ma’am.

The “Seven Arrows” Icon (Softener of Evil Hearts)

This icon viscerally embodies St. Simeon’s prophecy, showing seven swords (or arrows) piercing the Theotokos’ heart. The hymnography of Great Friday echoes this imagery, as heard in the Sticheron on the Veneration of the Holy Shroud: “O Mother, beholding Your Son upon the Cross, You cried out weeping: ‘Woe is me, My Child! Woe is me, Light of my eyes and beloved womb! The sword foretold by Simeon has now pierced my heart— Yet I entreat You: Turn my mourning into the joy of Your Resurrection!’” The seven swords are arranged variably—three on each side with one below, or four and three. Archimandrite Raphael (Karelin) interprets them as the seven sorrows the Theotokos endured throughout Christ’s life:

Simeon’s prophecy

The Flight into Egypt

Losing the 12-year-old Jesus in the Temple

The Nazarenes’ attempt to kill Christ

His trial before Pilate

The Crucifixion

His Entombment

Roses at Sissinghurst Castle, Kent, England

I’ve decided to tell you guys a story about piracy.

I didn’t think I had much to add to the piracy commentary I made yesterday, but after seeing some of the replies to it, I decided it’s time for this story.

Here are a few things we should get clear before I go on:

1) This is a U.S. centered discussion. Not because I value my non U.S. readers any less, but because I am published with a U.S. publisher first, who then sells my rights elsewhere. This means that the fate of my books, good or bad, is largely decided on U.S. turf, through U.S. sales to readers and libraries.

2) This is not a conversation about whether or not artists deserve to get money for art, or whether or not you think I in particular, as a flawed human, deserve money. It is only about how piracy affects a book’s fate at the publishing house. 

3) It is also not a conversation about book prices, or publishing costs, or what is a fair price for art, though it is worthwhile to remember that every copy of a blockbuster sold means that the publishing house can publish new and niche voices. Publishing can’t afford to publish the new and midlist voices without the James Pattersons selling well. 

It is only about two statements that I saw go by: 

1) piracy doesn’t hurt publishing. 

2) someone who pirates the book was never going to buy it anyway, so it’s not a lost sale.

Now, with those statements in mind, here’s the story.

It’s the story of a novel called The Raven King, the fourth installment in a planned four book series. All three of its predecessors hit the bestseller list. Book three, however, faltered in strange ways. The print copies sold just as well as before, landing it on the list, but the e-copies dropped precipitously. 

Now, series are a strange and dangerous thing in publishing. They’re usually games of diminishing returns, for logical reasons: folks buy the first book, like it, maybe buy the second, lose interest. The number of folks who try the first will always be more than the number of folks who make it to the third or fourth. Sometimes this change in numbers is so extreme that publishers cancel the rest of the series, which you may have experienced as a reader — beginning a series only to have the release date of the next book get pushed off and pushed off again before it merely dies quietly in a corner somewhere by the flies.

So I expected to see a sales drop in book three, Blue Lily, Lily Blue, but as my readers are historically evenly split across the formats, I expected it to see the cut balanced across both formats. This was absolutely not true. Where were all the e-readers going? Articles online had headlines like PEOPLE NO LONGER ENJOY READING EBOOKS IT SEEMS.

Really?

There was another new phenomenon with Blue Lily, Lily Blue, too — one that started before it was published. Like many novels, it was available to early reviewers and booksellers in advanced form (ARCs: advanced reader copies). Traditionally these have been cheaply printed paperback versions of the book. Recently, e-ARCs have become common, available on locked sites from publishers. 

BLLB’s e-arc escaped the site, made it to the internet, and began circulating busily among fans long before the book had even hit shelves. Piracy is a thing authors have been told to live with, it’s not hurting you, it’s like the mites in your pillow, and so I didn’t think too hard about it until I got that royalty statement with BLLB’s e-sales cut in half. 

Strange, I thought. Particularly as it seemed on the internet and at my booming real-life book tours that interest in the Raven Cycle in general was growing, not shrinking. Meanwhile, floating about in the forums and on Tumblr as a creator, it was not difficult to see fans sharing the pdfs of the books back and forth. For awhile, I paid for a service that went through piracy sites and took down illegal pdfs, but it was pointless. There were too many. And as long as even one was left up, that was all that was needed for sharing. 

I asked my publisher to make sure there were no e-ARCs available of book four, the Raven King, explaining that I felt piracy was a real issue with this series in a way it hadn’t been for any of my others. They replied with the old adage that piracy didn’t really do anything, but yes, they’d make sure there was no e-ARCs if that made me happy. 

Then they told me that they were cutting the print run of The Raven King to less than half of the print run for Blue Lily, Lily Blue. No hard feelings, understand, they told me, it’s just that the sales for Blue Lily didn’t justify printing any more copies. The series was in decline, they were so proud of me, it had 19 starred reviews from pro journals and was the most starred YA series ever written, but that just didn’t equal sales. They still loved me.

This, my friends, is a real world consequence.

This is also where people usually step in and say, but that’s not piracy’s fault. You just said series naturally declined, and you just were a victim of bad marketing or bad covers or readers just actually don’t like you that much.

Hold that thought. 

I was intent on proving that piracy had affected the Raven Cycle, and so I began to work with one of my brothers on a plan. It was impossible to take down every illegal pdf; I’d already seen that. So we were going to do the opposite. We created a pdf of the Raven King. It was the same length as the real book, but it was just the first four chapters over and over again. At the end, my brother wrote a small note about the ways piracy hurt your favorite books. I knew we wouldn’t be able to hold the fort for long — real versions would slowly get passed around by hand through forum messaging — but I told my brother: I want to hold the fort for one week. Enough to prove that a point. Enough to show everyone that this is no longer 2004. This is the smart phone generation, and a pirated book sometimes is a lost sale.

Then, on midnight of my book release, my brother put it up everywhere on every pirate site. He uploaded dozens and dozens and dozens of these pdfs of The Raven King. You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting one of his pdfs. We sailed those epub seas with our own flag shredding the sky.

The effects were instant. The forums and sites exploded with bewildered activity. Fans asked if anyone had managed to find a link to a legit pdf. Dozens of posts appeared saying that since they hadn’t been able to find a pdf, they’d been forced to hit up Amazon and buy the book.

And we sold out of the first printing in two days.

Two days.

I was on tour for it, and the bookstores I went to didn’t have enough copies to sell to people coming, because online orders had emptied the warehouse. My publisher scrambled to print more, and then print more again. Print sales and e-sales became once more evenly matched.

Then the pdfs hit the forums and e-sales sagged and it was business as usual, but it didn’t matter: I’d proven the point. Piracy has consequences.

That’s the end of the story, but there’s an epilogue. I’m now writing three more books set in that world, books that I’m absolutely delighted to be able to write. They’re an absolute blast. My publisher bought this trilogy because the numbers on the previous series supported them buying more books in that world. But the numbers almost didn’t. Because even as I knew I had more readers than ever, on paper, the Raven Cycle was petering out. 

The Ronan trilogy nearly didn’t exist because of piracy. And already I can see in the tags how Tumblr users are talking about how they intend to pirate book one of the new trilogy for any number of reasons, because I am terrible or because they would ‘rather die than pay for a book’. As an author, I can’t stop that. But pirating book one means that publishing cancels book two. This ain’t 2004 anymore. A pirated copy isn’t ‘good advertising’ or ‘great word of mouth’ or ‘not really a lost sale.’