Is the SSPX in Schism? What is the difference between Disobedience and Schism???

JMJ

There remains people ... even today ... who believe that the SSPX is in schism.

The Evidence

So ... let's go through some of the arguments put forward to support that assertion.

3. 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. Hence such disobedience - which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy - constitutes a schismatic act.(Note 3) In performing such an act, notwithstanding the formal canonical warning sent to them by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops on 17 June last, Mons. Lefebvre ... have incurred the grave penalty of excommunication envisaged by ecclesiastical law.(Note 4) Vatican: Ecclesia Dei Adflicta

So ... Pope St. John Paul II wrote that the disobedience implies a rejection of the Roman primacy and therefore constitutes a schismatic act. This is followed by the reference to the Canon 751 in the 1982 code of canon law.

Note 3: Can. 751 Heresy is the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.

Things are vague about what constitutes submission to the Supreme Pontiff. The clear items are when the Pope issues commands and decrees related to Faith and Morals with the intention to bind.

Note 4: Canon 1382 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law deals with the consecration of a bishop without papal mandate. Specifically, it states that a bishop who consecrates someone as a bishop without the required papal mandate, and the person who receives such consecration, incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See. This means the excommunication is incurred automatically upon the commission of the act, without the need for a formal declaration.

Counter Point

Point 1 The Missing Canon

So, the first problem is that Canon 751 was not cited in the Canonical Warning.

Canonical Warning Congregation for Bishops to His Excellency Archbishop
Marcel Lefebvre, Archbishop-Bishop Emeritus of Tulle
Since on June 15, 1988 you stated that you intended to ordain four priests to the episcopate without having obtained the mandate of the Supreme Pontiff as required by Canon 1013 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, I myself convey to you this public canonical warning, confirming that if you should carry out your intention as stated above, you yourself and also the bishops ordained by you shall incur ipso facto excommunication latæ sententiæ reserved to the Apostolic See in accordance with Canon 1382. I therefore entreat and beseech you in the name of Jesus Christ to weigh carefully what you are about to undertake against the laws of sacred discipline, and the very grave consequences resulting therefrom for the communion of the Catholic Church, of which you are a bishop.
Given at Rome, from the Office of the Congregation for Bishops, June 17, 1988.
By Mandate of the Supreme Pontiff,
Bernardin Card. Gantin

So, what what we have here is a law that "changed" after the fact and the Canonical warning. Even in the Catholic Church, I don't think a person can be guilty after the fact.

Point 2 Implied Is Not a Fact

The second point that I would make is that PSJP2 stated that the act of consecration without Pontifical Mandate "... implies in practice a rejection of the Roman primacy ...". I fail to see how that assertion can be made in the face of the actual intentions stated by Archbishop Lefebvre before he consecrated the four bishops. In other words, "implies" means that something wasn't stated explicitly. So now we have a canonical assertion that Archbishop Lefebvre believed something other than what he stated.

Point 3 The Missing Canon Revisited

My third point is that, when PSJP2 mentioned that they incurred the penalty of excommunication, he only cites canon 1382, not Canon 751. So it doesn't figure in the excommunication.

Point 4 Rome Says Nope

My fourth and final point is that when I asked the CDF about this in 2014 ... I received the following reply stating that the SSPX is not in full communion. Now I know that some say it is code for schism and I would ask - prove it. Yes, Rome has used this phrase to include groups that are either objectively schismatic or heretical ... as well as the SSPX which is neither. So we have term used to collect them all together.

I will be the first to acknowledge that the SSPX is not in a state of full communion. It is obvious to anyone who understands how the Catholic Church is contituted.

Point 5 Talking Heads Aside

I know that there are many reputable people who have made the assertion that the SSPX is schismatic etc. In the face of the above, I fail to see how their assertions align with the reality.

Conclusion

While many want to believe that the SSPX is in schism, the facts noted above just don't support the belief and assertions. When I first heard that people were saying that the SSPX was in schism because of Ecclesia Dei, I responded simply that it was a scare tactic. Looking above I have reached the same conclusion again ... 37 years later.

Hopefully, Pope Leo XIV will cut the Schismatic Gordian Knot and enact the 2014 agreement without the footnotes that changed the meaning of the agreement.

P^3

PS. I have discussed disobedience in this collection (link) and would like to draw your attention to this summary Refresher (link). Disobedience is just that, disobedience. It does not automatically imply a rejection of the authority of the superior, but that a higher authority requires obedience.

If that were not the case, then all the bishops who fought Pope Benedict XVI were schismatic :-)

Reference

https://tradicat.blogspot.com/2015/07/a-look-back-cardinal-lara-and-sspx.html

https://tradicat.blogspot.com/2017/10/is-sspx-in-schism.html

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/imply

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