DDF also warns laymen against receiving illicit sacraments and adherence to the schism
The Holy See’s office of Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith declares all six bishops of the Society of St. Pius X to be excommunicated and in schism in a decree issued this morning following:
“Despite the warnings addressed to the Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, having committed an act of a schismatic nature through the episcopal consecration of four priests, without a pontifical mandate and against the will of the Supreme Pontiff, has ipso facto incurred the penalties provided for by canon 1387 and canon 1364 § 1 CIC 2021,” the decree reads.
It continues: “I therefore declare for all legal purposes that both the aforementioned Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta and Pascal Schreiber, Michael Goldade, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry and Marc Hanappier have incurred ipso facto the latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.”
“I further declare that Bishop Bernard Fellay, having directly participated in the liturgical celebration as a co-consecrator, thus publicly adhering to the schismatic act, has incurred the latae sententiae excommunication provided for by canon 1364 § 1 CIC 2021.” The sacraments of Penance and Matrimony provided by SSPX priests and bishops are also now declared to be invalid.
The decree also warns the priests and lay faithful “not to adhere to the schism of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, because they would ipso facto incur the penalty of latae sententiae excommunication.”
In an explanatory note, the DDF adds the following: “Therefore, this Dicastery, in the faithful exercise of the functions entrusted to it, deems it necessary to note that this act constituted the crime of schism, with canonical consequences for the sacred ministers and lay faithful involved. Indeed, as already declared in 1988, ‘such disobedience—which entails a practical rejection of the Roman Primacy—constitutes a schismatic act” (cf. John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei , 3).’”
Catholic canonists have been contacted to provide a better understanding of what the canonical consequences for the SSPX priest and laymen means by “a practical rejection of the Roman Primacy.” While both documents repeatedly warn the Catholic lay faithful not to attend Mass or receive the sacraments, the document references a 1996 Explanatory Note of the Pontifical Council for Legislative texts, which it states is still in force. Previous correspondence from the now defunct Pontifical Council Ecclesia Dei indicated that mere attendance at a Catholic rite at an SSPX chapel to fulfill one’s Sunday obligation was neither sinful nor a canonical delict.
An official response by the Society of St. Pius X was not available in time for this story.
In a related note, Bishop Terry LaValley, Bishop of Ogdensburg (N.Y.) issued a letter to his diocese warning them not to attend the SSPX chapel in his diocese and referred them to two other TLM locations. Follow-up questions to the diocese on whether or not these locations provide all of the traditional sacraments to the Catholic faithful were not answered by the diocese by deadline.
In addition, questions to the bishop requesting how many times he has warned his Catholic faithful against the grave sin of participating in false worship at the hundreds of schismatic and heretical Protestant ecclesial communities and multiple Muslim and Jewish worship centers were not answered by deadline.
Related RTV: The SSPX Consecrations are History: Now what?
