The SSPX refused to postpone the July 1 consecrations as a condition of doctrinal talks. Canon law foresees automatic excommunication for bishops involved in unauthorized episcopal consecrations.<\/p>\n
The Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) says it will proceed with plans to consecrate new bishops on July 1 without a pontifical mandate, despite a Vatican warning that the move would represent a \u201cdecisive rupture\u201d of communion and bring \u201cgrave consequences\u201d for the group.<\/p>\n
In a letter dated Feb. 18 \u2014 Ash Wednesday \u2014 Father Davide Pagliarani, the SSPX superior general, told Cardinal V\u00edctor Manuel Fern\u00e1ndez, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, that the traditionalist group could not accept either the Vatican\u2019s proposed framework for renewed dialogue or a delay of the announced consecration date.<\/p>\n
The SSPX, which exclusively celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass, maintains doctrinal differences with certain teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council, particularly with regard to religious freedom and the Church\u2019s approach to other faiths.<\/p>\n
\u201cI cannot accept the perspective and objectives in the name of which the dicastery offers to resume dialogue in the present situation, nor indeed the postponement of the date of 1 July,\u201d Pagliarani wrote.<\/p>\n
The Vatican\u2019s doctrinal office had recently proposed what it described as a \u201cspecifically theological\u201d path of dialogue aimed at identifying the minimum conditions for full communion with the Catholic Church but made the opening of that process contingent on suspending the planned July 1 consecrations. The Holy See warned that \u201cthe ordination of bishops without a mandate from the Holy Father\u201d would \u201cimply a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism)\u201d with \u201cgrave consequences\u201d for the fraternity as a whole.<\/p>\n
Under canon law, a bishop who consecrates another bishop without a papal mandate and the person who receives that consecration incur automatic (\u201clatae sententiae\u201d) excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See, a penalty that was publicly declared in the SSPX\u2019s 1988 rupture with Rome.<\/p>\n
SSPX argues consecrations would not be \u2018schismatic\u2019<\/p>\n
Alongside Pagliarani\u2019s letter, the SSPX circulated a doctrinal statement disputing the Vatican\u2019s characterization of unauthorized consecrations as necessarily schismatic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe society defends itself against any accusation of schism and, relying on all traditional theology and the Church\u2019s constant teaching, maintains that an episcopal consecration not authorized by the Holy See does not constitute a rupture of communion \u2014 provided it is not accompanied by schismatic intent or the conferral of jurisdiction,\u201d the SSPX statement said.<\/p>\n
In that statement, the society argued that schism consists in assuming jurisdiction independently of the pope\u2019s will and insisted that bishops consecrated as SSPX auxiliaries would \u201cassume no jurisdiction against the will of the pope and will in no way be schismatic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018A genuine case of conscience\u2019<\/p>\n
In his letter, Pagliarani said the current context \u2014 marked by public warnings about sanctions \u2014 undermines the serenity he believes is required for meaningful dialogue.<\/p>\n
He wrote that the SSPX and the Holy See \u201cboth know in advance\u201d they cannot reach doctrinal agreement \u201cparticularly regarding the fundamental orientations adopted since the Second Vatican Council,\u201d describing the disagreement as \u201ca genuine case of conscience\u201d rooted, in the SSPX\u2019s view, in a \u201crupture with the tradition of the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pagliarani also questioned the feasibility of a process intended to determine together \u201cthe minimum requirements for full communion,\u201d arguing that such criteria are the Church\u2019s to define and not something to be established jointly in dialogue.<\/p>\n
The letter, published by the society, was signed by members of its general council, including bishops Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay.<\/p>\n
A conflict stretching back to 1988<\/p>\n
The Vatican warning revives memories of the 1988 crisis, when Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without a pontifical mandate in defiance of Pope John Paul II. The Holy See declared the bishops excommunicated at the time; Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the surviving bishops in 2009 as a gesture toward reconciliation.<\/p>\n
In subsequent years, Pope Francis granted SSPX priests faculties to hear confessions validly and to witness marriages under certain conditions, while the society\u2019s canonical status has remained irregular and short of full recognition in the Church.<\/p>\n
The SSPX announced Feb. 2 that it intended to consecrate new bishops on July 1, a date that coincides with the anniversary of the 1988 decree declaring Lefebvre\u2019s excommunication.<\/p>\n
This story\u00a0was first published\u00a0by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.<\/p>\n