![]() That accounts for five of the Church’s seven sacraments at the time those two articles were written, SSPX clergy had no faculties to validly hear confessions or celebrate weddings.īut in 2015, in anticipation of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis declared that he was giving SSPX clergy the faculty to celebrate the sacrament of penance validly, for the duration of that year: SSPX bishops can validly celebrate the sacraments of confirmation and holy orders. SSPX priests also administer valid sacraments of baptism (which, to be fair, anyone can administer validly, see “ Laypeople Can Always Baptize-But When Should They?” and “ What Happens When the Clergy Refuse to Baptize, Because of the Virus?” for more on this), Holy Communion, and anointing of the sick. (See “ Are They Really Catholic? Part II” for a discussion of the distinction between validity and liceity.) They do not have authority to minister to the Catholic faithful, because such authority can only be given to them by lawful church superiors-and to this day, they still don’t have any lawful church superiors.īack in 2013, we saw in “ Are SSPX Sacraments Valid? Part I” and “ Part II” that SSPX priests-who are themselves validly ordained, since the bishops who ordained them were validly consecrated-have the ability to celebrate a valid Mass. In other words, SSPX clergy may celebrate a beautiful and edifying Mass, but since their status in the Church has not yet been regularized, what they’re doing is illicit. In order to make this clear once again: until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers – even though they have been freed of the ecclesiastical penalty – do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church. Benedict XVI addressed this issue himself at the time:Īs long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church…. This action affected the canonical status of these four men personally it did not alter the irregular status of the SSPX itself. Archbishop Lefebvre had made the decision to consecrate four priests of the SSPX as bishops without the Pope’s approval, and according to the Vatican, he thereby engaged in a schismatic act.Īrchbishop Lefebvre died in 1991, so far as we know still under excommunication, But as was discussed in “ Canon Law and the SSPX,” in 2009 Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the four bishops whom Lefebvre had consecrated without a papal mandate. Only the Pope has the authority to decide who is to become a bishop, and to mandate that man’s episcopal consecration ( c. As was discussed in the post noted above, the consecration of these four bishops without a papal mandate was in direct violation of canon 1382. The canonical status of its leadership, however, was unfortunately clarified all too well in 1988, when Pope John Paul II formally declared that the four bishops consecrated for the Society by Archbishop Lefebvre were excommunicated, along with Lefebvre himself. Pius X (SSPX) can be found in “ Are They Excommunicated? Sanctions, Part III.” But in short, the SSPX’s canonical status has been unclear since its very inception in 1970, when it was founded by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre for the purpose of celebrating Mass and the sacraments using the preconciliar liturgical rites. ![]() Let’s take a look.Ī brief summary of the history of the Society of St. In reality, both she and her parents are on-track in certain respects-and there’s actually no contradiction here! The confusion stems from different ways of interpreting what “it’s okay to go” really means. –MartinaĪ: Martina deserves extra points for her open-mindedness, since she is willing to accept correction if she discovers that she is in error. If I am misunderstanding and this is a licit option, I will be happy to admit I am wrong. …here is a lot of vague yet conflicting information online about this issue. ![]() However my parents have a plethora of Catholic churches at their disposal and even an FSSP parish about the same distance as the SSPX one. My parents use as their defense that the SSPX are not sedevacantists, as they pray for the Pope, so how can they not be in full communion…. I have read your posts, and showed them to my parents, but they have heard it is okay to attend because they are only going for their love of the Latin liturgy. ![]() I have always understood that SSPX churches are not licit options for a Roman Catholic. Q: My parents (devout Catholics) have been attending an SSPX Mass on Sundays.
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