![]() ![]() In the letter accompanying Traditionis Custodes, Pope Francis also refers to the SSPX as in schism: ![]() Not true. Benedict's lifting of the excommunications did nothing to change the SSPX's objective state of schism, any more than Pope Paul VI's 1965 lifting of excommunications imposed on Orthodox bishops affected the Orthodox Church's state of schism. Some mistakenly argue that Pope Benedict's 2009 lifting of the excommunications on four SSPX bishops ended the schism. This is simply not an argument that can be made. While SSPX loyalists love to cite Pope Francis' indult as "proof" the SSPX cannot be in schism, recall that the Orthodox Church also has faculties to witness marriages and hear confessions, yet no Catholic would claim the Orthodox Church is not in schism. Thus the 2009 motu proprio declaring the SSPX to have "no canonical status" remains in force and has never changed. Those who wished to return to full communion with the Church were required to have their marriages convalidated.įor the benefit of such Catholics, the pope offered the indult for SSPX clergy to validly preside over marriages - in order to prevent the grave problem of Catholics entering into invalid (therefore sinful) unions. Many Catholics are unaware that marriages witnessed in the SSPX before the indult resulted in thousands of invalid marriages. The benefit was provided explicitly for the good of the faithful in the Jubilee Year of Mercy, and not for the benefit of the SSPX. This has never been formally changed by the Holy See, in spite of Pope Francis' recent indults allowing the Society to witness marriages or hear confessions. The SSPX has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry. The SSPX is not in full communion with the Church and is invited by the Church to rediscover this path.Ģ. The excommunications have been lifted, but the canonical status of the SSPX remains unchanged.ġ. Hence such disobedience - which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy - constitutes a schismatic act. In itself, this act was one of disobedience to the Roman Pontiff in a very grave matter and of supreme importance for the unity of the Church, such as is the ordination of bishops whereby the apostolic succession is sacramentally perpetuated. The SSPX bishops were excommunicated and their illicit consecrations defined as schismatic in the motu proprio Ecclesia Deiissued July 2, 1988: However, the doctrinal questions obviously remain and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry. (emphasis added) Pius X" to rediscover the path to full communion with the Church. As I explained in my Letter to the Catholic Bishops of last 10 March, the remission of the excommunication was a measure taken in the context of ecclesiastical discipline to free the individuals from the burden of conscience constituted by the most serious of ecclesiastical penalties. With this decision I intended to remove an impediment that might have jeopardized the opening of a door to dialogue and thereby to invite the Bishops and the "Society of St. In the same spirit and with the same commitment to encouraging the resolution of all fractures and divisions in the Church and to healing a wound in the ecclesial fabric that was more and more painfully felt, I wished to remit the excommunication of the four Bishops illicitly ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre. The position of Church Militant concerning the SSPX is that of the Holy Father, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, as expressed in the motu proprio Ecclesiae Unitatem, issued July 2, 2009: ![]()
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