+
JMJ
While I personally doubt that Pope Francis will set aside the mantra, it is interesting how Come de Prévigny outlines the legitimacy provided to the SSPX.
All this as Rome destroys other traditional orders.
We do live in interesting times.
P^3
Source: Rorate-Caeli
The Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X: Prospects for 2019 (Guest Post)
by Côme de Prévigny
The visit this past November of Father Davide Pagliarani, new
Superior-General of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), to the Ecclesia
Dei Commission in Rome has revived the everlasting matter of the
relations between the Holy See and the society founded in 1970 by
Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, raising speculations on the possibility of
having this body officially recognized by the Vatican. Inquiring minds
wonder if a tendency that wants regularization or not has assumed
command of the SSPX. Here and there, a commentator strives to know if
doctrinal agreements should be reached before considering a practical
agreement, reaching back to a configuration that resembles the situation
of 15 years ago. But where, concretely, should these discussions lead?
Should they wait until Rome has finally condemned Vatican II, or rather
are mere safeguards enough? This point remains to be clarified.
Because the current canonical situation of the Society of St. Pius X is
mostly normalized. The Mass that its members celebrate is the same that
all priests of the world can recite or sing following the Motu Proprio
Summorum Pontificum, of July 7, 2007. The condemnations that weighed on
the bishops of the Society were lifted by a decree signed of January 21,
2009. In 2015, the Holy See granted to its Superior-General the powers
to judge on the first level of jurisdiction. The validity of the
confessions heard by its priests was recognized by the Apostolic Letter
Misericordia et Misera, of November 20, 2016.
In that same year, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei asked the
bishops of the dioceses in which Society seminaries are situated to
accept the ceremonies of ordinations that take place in them. Marriages
celebrated before Society priests are at last fully recognized by Rome,
as attested by a letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, of March 27, 2017. This document goes even further: it tells
Society priests to send registries proving the celebration of marriages
to diocesan chanceries. These registries are to be organized along with
the registries of all parishes and communities in fully regular
situation. Implicitly, since the sanctions have disappeared and since
its priests have received the canonical charge to administer the several
Sacraments, the Society has found anew its original status, which had
been abolished on May 6, 1975, and behaves, de facto, as a personal prelature.
Those who have become accustomed to reject all regularization, because
they fear that bad influences would arrive through canonical links, have
undoubtedly remarked that these branches have been almost completely
re-grafted. Nothing is missing for the Society, except perhaps a Court
of Ecclesiastical appeals for canonical procedures that a Prelature
structure would allow. One day, the Society will also have the need to
renew its bishops. In the current context, one cannot see what would
prevent the Pope from granting them to the Society. The SSPX has become,
in the end, as an automobile that has all elements to move forward: a
body, wheels, steering wheel, seats -- all elements are brand new and
nothing is missing. Due to a state of tension, both internal and
external, on the subject of regularization, undoubtedly due to the
current pontificate, all that is missing is a license plate bearing its
status, but the highway patrols around the world know that the car can
move as it pleases. Finding a church for a marriage celebration or for a
pilgrimage stop poses no difficulty anymore: this is not where the
problem is anymore. The Pope has decided it.
The faithful from all corners can visit the churches of the Society.
Their conscience cannot anymore be subjected to distress and anxiety.
These have been set aside by the pontifical texts. Now then, when will
the regularization has been almost completely accomplished by
installments become definitively official? Has it already taken place in pectore?
Will it take place one of these days on the back of the envelope, as if
to seal all that has been already granted? It is possible. In any
event, the Holy See has granted, on a practical level, all priestly
functions to the members of the SSPX. The assessment of catholicity has
been made on the long term, and not in view of conditions still to be
fulfilled. And it is only a matter of justice to the work of Abp
Lefebvre that it be thus recognized. Which is simply what he himself had
always asked for.
Comments
Post a Comment