Application to SSPX seminary question

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orgel_maestro

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This question mainly concerns the more traditional Catholics in here. I was just reading about major/minor orders and stumbled upon the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary (SSPX), and I clicked on their application tab, one of the things they required was a copy of the certificate of my parents catholic marriage.

Now, my parents were never married inside the Church (I think), in fact theyre now some what agnostic and have been to church since forever. Why is it important whether my parents were married validly inside the Church? So, my question is, would they really reject your application if your parents werent married within the Church? even if I’m a baptized and confirmed practicing Roman Catholic? --That is the SSPX seminary in Minnesota. (By the way, I’m not part of the SSPX, I was just asking out of curiosity, I intend to join the FSSP). So, my other question is, does the FSSP require a copy of my parent’s marriage certificate? Why would this matter anyways? Shouldnt me being baptized, free from financial obligations, good mental and coporal health, confirmed, practicing, and living a moral Catholic life all that would be required?
 
orgel_maestro said:
This question mainly concerns the more traditional Catholics in here. I was just reading about major/minor orders and stumbled upon the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary (SSPX), and I clicked on their application tab, one of the things they required was a copy of the certificate of my parents catholic marriage.

Now, my parents were never married inside the Church (I think), in fact theyre now some what agnostic and have been to church since forever. Why is it important whether my parents were married validly inside the Church? So, my question is, would they really reject your application if your parents werent married within the Church? even if I’m a baptized and confirmed practicing Roman Catholic? --That is the SSPX seminary in Minnesota. (By the way, I’m not part of the SSPX, I was just asking out of curiosity, I intend to join the FSSP). So, my other question is, does the FSSP require a copy of my parent’s marriage certificate? Why would this matter anyways? Shouldnt me being baptized, free from financial obligations, good mental and coporal health, confirmed, practicing, and living a moral Catholic life all that would be required?
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Maybe its something got to do with the 1917 code of Canon Law, which the SSPX still follow , which required that a man who is to receive the tonsure must be legitimate, I think the term used was he must not be a ‘bastard’. I’m sure FSSP don’t require this because they follow the new Code which droped this clause.
Pax Christi,
Kieran
 
Are you aware first of all that SSPX is not in Communion with Rome? (just asking to be sure…) For the life of me I cannot understand how someone could willingly follow a group with leaders who have been Excommunicated.🤷

But for the other part, up until Vatican II a man could not become a priest if his parents were not married with the Church, therefore, a candidate could be rejected based off of that. Nowadays that has changed.
👍
 
He didn’t say he was going to the SSPX seminary… he was asking does the FSSP ask for your parent’s marriage certificate because the SSPX seminary does…
 
CatholicMC said:
But for the other part, up until Vatican II a man could not become a priest if his parents were not married with the Church, therefore, a candidate could be rejected based off of that.
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Wow, is that really true? There are so many saints who were converts and became great priests–often converts are even more faithful and zealous for souls than life-long Catholics–I can’t imagine the Church would exclude them :eek:
 
Genesis315 said:
Wow, is that really true? There are so many saints who were converts and became great priests–often converts are even more faithful and zealous for souls than life-long Catholics–I can’t imagine the Church would exclude them :eek:
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I’m sure you could have got a dispensation if you asked your bishop at the time. What about the SSPX Bishop Williamson, he didn’t convert to Catholicism until 1971?
 
Dispensation for bastard candidates had to be granted by the Pope if I am not mistaken.
 
Some religious orders and dioceses still ask for a candidates parents’ marriage certificate.

But this does not have to do with the legitimacy of the candidates birth because that is no longer in the Code of Canon Law. It was in the old Code but that has been replaced by the new Code which no longer has that in it. The FSSP, while a traditional group, follows the same Code of Canon Law as the rest of the Church.

I am not sure why they still ask for such a thing. Part of it might be that this is what was done in the past and another part might be the issue of converts. Converts to the Church must wait 5 years (I believe it is 5 years) before they may apply for religious life or to be a candidate for Holy Orders.
 
ByzCath said:
Some religious orders and dioceses still ask for a candidates parents’ marriage certificate.

But this does not have to do with the legitimacy of the candidates birth because that is no longer in the Code of Canon Law. It was in the old Code but that has been replaced by the new Code which no longer has that in it. The FSSP, while a traditional group, follows the same Code of Canon Law as the rest of the Church.

I am not sure why they still ask for such a thing. Part of it might be that this is what was done in the past and another part might be the issue of converts. Converts to the Church must wait 5 years (I believe it is 5 years) before they may apply for religious life or to be a candidate for Holy Orders.
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Code:
Hi Bro David, O’Carm!!!:extrahappy:
 
ByzCath said:
I am not sure why they still ask for such a thing. Part of it might be that this is what was done in the past and another part might be the issue of converts. Converts to the Church must wait 5 years (I believe it is 5 years) before they may apply for religious life or to be a candidate for Holy Orders.
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I thought it was 2 years, but will do some homework and check on that…I thought I came across this incidently awhile ago, reading that one had to be an active in the parish for two years before applying to seminary. Could it depend on the diocese and what each requires, or the rite within the Catholic church?
 
The FSSP, while a traditional group, follows the same Code of Canon Law as the rest of the Church.
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Yes, but at the same time, they are allowed to place further restrictions on themselves internally as an institute. They can’t stop a bastard from becoming a priest in the Church, but they can exclude him by their own constitutions and disciplines if they want to make legitimacy or Catholic-married parents a requirement. I doubt that they do. But they could. Traditionalist groups, even in communion with Rome, often try to require as many of the traditional rules as possible, as long as they dont contradict the new rules in anyway. But as long as they are only adding rules IN ADDITION TO the current canon law, they can do it.
 
The Traditionalist societies like the FSSP, and especially the ICRSS since I have experience with them, take anomalous examples case by case. I.e. They are not heartless, un-catholic and Jansenistic-like in their selection process.

For example, the ICRSS has an age limit of 30 to enter the Seminary. I know one chap there who is over 40.

It will be the same with bastards, even in the SSPX most likely.

Also, are you sure they follow the 1917 code?
 
batteddy said:
Yes, but at the same time, they are allowed to place further restrictions on themselves internally as an institute. They can’t stop a bastard from becoming a priest in the Church, but they can exclude him by their own constitutions and disciplines if they want to make legitimacy or Catholic-married parents a requirement. I doubt that they do. But they could. Traditionalist groups, even in communion with Rome, often try to require as many of the traditional rules as possible, as long as they dont contradict the new rules in anyway. But as long as they are only adding rules IN ADDITION TO the current canon law, they can do it.
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But the problem with doing this is that under the original restrictions a man of illegitimate birth could receive a dispensation from Rome. Now that this is not part of the Code of Canon Law no dispensation can be received.

So if an order/congregation/society of apostolic life/priestly society has this in their constitutions then they are going a step further than Tradition did as there is no dispensation available.
 
OK! So I e-mailed the vocations officer for FSSP, they obviously follow the new canon law, and so they said converts need to wait 2 years before entering seminary and that the parent’s marriage does not directly factor into acceptance, they dont care so much whether your parents are married in the Catholic church, they care more on how the positions of the parents have factored into the development of the applicant’s social abilities.
 
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