u/ParacelcusABA

Please post all news and views regarding SSPX here.

Update: per the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith:

- All SSPX bishops have been excommunicated

- All priests affiliated with the SSPX are also excommunicated

- Any lay persons who "formally adhere" to the SSPX will be excommunicated

- Lay persons are warned against participating in any events associated with the SSPX

To clarify, "formal adherence" to the schism does not many anyone who attends an SSPX service is excommunicated. It requires a deliberate and conscious act of embracing the schism.

For example, the excommunication of the priests of SSPX means that it's priests can no longer validly perform marriages or confessions. Intentionally seeking out an SSPX priest to receive these sacraments is a schismatic act. Additionally, consciously choosing to receive illicit sacraments from the SSPX when any other option is available is a deliberate act of breaking communion and will incur excommunication.

Additionally, any excommunicated priest is permitted to return to the church, provided the following conditions are met:

• Disaffiliation with the SSPX
• Accept the legitimacy of Vatican II and the New Mass
• Formally request communion from the bishop or ordinary with jurisdiction
• Write a handwritten letter addressed to the Pope requesting the lifting of the excommunication
• Attach to the letter addressed to the Pope and formal declaration of faith accepting the teachings of the council and the validity of ths New Mass

Additionally, weekly prayer services are offered in English, French, and Kreyol. Please pray in solidarity with our brothers and sisters from Haiti.

There's a lot of misinformation going around online about the SSPX and what is happening today. This is a brief and by no means exhaustive rundown of what is actually going on. As always, check your sources for corroboration and accuracy before posting. I guarantee no take is so urgent that it needs to be posted without checking first.

THE SSPX

Officially the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, or the Society of Pius X. They were founded in 1970 by former Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The organization was founded with the explicit purpose of organizing opposition to the Second Vatican Council. Since their founding, they have been based around the Econe Seminary in Switzerland. In the states, they are primarily known as providers of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass (or the Traditional Latin Mass as it is often called). However, this is not their primary purpose. Their primary purpose is, and has always been, organized dissent against the validity and authority of the Second Vatican Council. While this has focused on the changes to the Mass implemented by Paul VI, this has also included all post-VII doctrinal developments, including the teachings on ecumenism, the relationship between church and state, the social teaching of the church, etc.

What the SSPX is not

The SSPX has no relation to Opus Dei, theologically or organizational. Whatever Opus Dei's faults, it has always maintained a stance of continuity and assent with Vatican II. Additionally, Opus Dei is primarily lay-led while SSPX is an organization of priests and Bishops. Opus Dei also predates the existence of both the SSPX and Vatican II by about 40 years. Opus Dei has consistently been extremely protective of positive relationships with the papacy, and has accordingly avoided association with schismatic movements.

SSPX are not sedevacantists, at least not historically. The modern sedevacantist movement is rooted in the activity of priests who were expelled and condemned by SSPX in the 1980s. Despite their belief that the Church is fallen into heresy, the SSPX has consistently condemned sedevacantism.

Attempts to call SSPX "MAGA" are overly simplistic at best and counterfactual at best. SSPX is rooted in a European ideology of reaction that predates the MAGA tendency in America by about a century and a half. The two have, in some respects, similar enemies and worldviews, but the same issue true of just about any far right Western movement.

What's happening today

The SSPX is, despite repeated urging by the Pope and the Dicastery, consecrating bishops without the approval of the Holy See. This is canonically defined as a schismatic act, which incurs the penalty of automatic excommunication for everyone involved. This is, notably, the second time this has happened. Marcel Lefebvre directed the consecration of bishops against the ruling of Pope John Paul II in 1988. Lefebvre had, up to this point, been carefully toeing a fine line of dissent as opposed to outright rebellion against the church. At the start of 1988, he even signed a statement accepting Vatican II and promising fidelity to the pope and the Church. However, panic regarding the death of his movement as he was reaching the end of his life, along with increasing paranoia and conspiratorial thinking apparently drove him to extremes. Because the Bishops of the SSPX were excommunicated, they lost canonical jurisdiction and thus their ability to validly confer some sacraments. What is happening today is essentially a repeat of what happened in 1988.

Why is this happening again?

The answer is complicated and involves decades of push and pull between the SSPX and the Church. Not everyone in the SSPX was happy with the schism, and they scrambled to rejoin the church. The church had largely non interest in reconciliation with the main body of the SSPX until after Lefebvre's death in 1991. Inspired by limited demonstrations of rapproachment, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication on SSPX bishops. This was an extremely controversial decision, as this excommunication did not come with the requirement of any recantation or submission. Since then, the SSPX has largely taken advantage of their canonically ambiguous status to essentially set themselves up as a parallel magisterium, catering to Catholics who reject Vatican II. Despite this, the Church under both Benedict and Francis were determined to bring the SSPX back into the fold. Both relaxed restrictions on the celebration of the old mass in the hopes this would inspire Catholics who prefer the old mass against disobedience. However, these efforts were largely wasted, because the SSPX's position has always been that the Church has to reconcile itself to them, not the other way around. They remain adamant that the Second Vatican Council is invalid and the Church has embraced heretical modernism. The church has been equally adamant that the Second Vatican Council is fully legitimate and should be interpreted in continuity with the deposit of the faith. As a result, the two reached an impasse.

Two turning points occurred in the 2020s. First, the death, removal, or retirement of several SSPX bishops. This, apparently, induced a panic not unlike that faced by Lefebvre in the 80s. Second, there have been clear signals from the Holy See that patience for SSPX resistance has reached its end. Pope Francis rescinded the liberalization of the practice of the TLM, acknowledging both the lack of progress towards reconciliation and that the Church's grace was being taken advantage of. Pope Leo XIV has largely maintained this stance, and has shown signs that he intends to take an increasingly firm stance against ecclesial rebellion. Faced with this, the SSPX announced in February that they would consecrate new bishops at the start of July. Pope Leo urged them not to do this, as this would once again put the organization in formal schism with the Church. The SSPX responded with a "profession of faith", once again asserting that they reject Vatican II and that the church is in heresy. The consecrations proceeded this morning

What happens next?

No ruling is needed. Schismatic acts incur excommunication automatically. Despite decades of efforts at reconciliation from the Church, the SSPX has chosen to become a schismatic sect. On the bright side, this means that the SSPX can no longer leverage the ambiguity of their canonical status to foment rebellion within the church. Unfortunately, this also likely means that they and the laypeople who attend their services will fall further and further away from the Church, likely forming their own private sect. The extensions on jurisdiction to perform valid confessions by Pope Francis will likely be removed. What will happen from the Church's end remains to be seen.

Pray for those who have been led astray by this rebellious, obstinate movement that they may return to conmunion.

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