S
SamH
Guest
They are NOT CATHOLIC BISHOPS and as such are not recognized within the Catholic Church hierarchy, they are Bishops of the Society of St. Pius X .Actually, there is no question that the SSPX Bishops are, in fact, validly ordained Bishops. However, their ordination was illicit. As such, they are suspended, i.e., they have no Sees, cannot licitly (but can validly) ordain other priests or consecrate other Bishops, will not be elevated to Cardinals, will not serve in the Holy See administration, etc.
So, they are every bit as much Bishops as the Pope himself. They are just suspended from performing their functions as such, until the whole SSPX situation gets straightened out.
According to the Pope: " The doctrinal questions obviously remain and until they are clarified the Society has no **canonical status **in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry."
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/apost_letters/documents/hf_ben-xvi_apl_20090702_ecclesiae-unitatem_en.html