Could someone explain what "SSPX" is?

[coachkfan1]

You cannot attend Confession from an SSPX priest as he hasn’t been granted faculties. You can attend Mass, but it doesn’t fulfill your Sunday obligation if there is another church that you can attend that is in full communion with Rome (the SSPX are not in full communion with Rome). You can receive Communion at an SSPX Mass, but not if you are doing so out of a position of disobedience to Rome or disapproval of the Pope.

If you are considering becoming a Catholic, stick to a mainstream Catholic church (either OF or EF parish). I don’t think that SSPX would be able to initiate you into the Catholic Church anyway.

I appreciate the information, but does anyone else find this to be confusing as well…anything? God is not the author confusion and I think all this “you can do this but you can’t do that” is not helping the faithful. I am now talking about how the Vatican is dealing with this. Personally, I think that they should be all in or all out but as I said my knowledge of this situation is limited.

 

[Edmundus1581]

…The CDW has previously said that if one attends SSPX Masses solely out of attachment to the traditional form of the Mass, that’s acceptable…

Are you quite sure of that? I looked at this question in depth many years ago (as I was leaning towards the SSPX myself) and have checked for updates from time to time, and I am unaware of any such proclamation from the CDW.

One can always find partial arguments from SSPX and its sympathisers for the validity and licitness of its sacraments. Some of these arguments involve a few words from semi-official documents taken out of context.

I would be very surprised indeed if the CDW has promulgated an official ruling which would reverse the previous position that SSPX sacraments are illicit, and hence do not fulfil canonical obligations for Catholics.

For the OP, I expect that this is all very confusing! It would be much simpler for you if you just stuck with your local diocese and forgot about the SSPX. Within your own diocese you are permitted to shop around for a parish you like, or to attend an FSSP parish, which are a tradionalist society in full communion with the Church. The reason for the confusion is due mainly to the SSPX and its adherents who, of course, want to argue that they are in communion with Rome despite appearances, and also, to a lesser degree, from the Bishops who are slow to condemn the few Catholics who prefer an SSPX Mass. (or, perhaps, they are just don’t want to repeat rulings which have already been made).

 

[Corki]

Edmundus,

It’s hard to be specific without going way off-topic.

You are correct it was not the CDW. It was the Pontifical Ecclesia Dei Commission.

The oft-quoted letter to Msgr. Perl contained this admonition:

If your primary reason for attending were to manifest your desire to separate yourself from communion with the Roman Pontiff and those in communion with him, it would be a sin. If your intention is simply to participate in a Mass according to the 1962 Missal for the sake of devotion, this would not be a sin.

I would be very surprised if there was ever any official proclamation that could be used a either a blanket permission to attend SSPX Masses or a blanket prohibition. At least not until (God willing) their status is regularized.

I agree with you regarding the OP. For someone investigating the Church, the SSPX situation will only serve to confuse and complicate a journey home.

 

[vatcatholic]

the sspx is a heretical organization just like the mainstream Vatican II church. As the saint malachy prophecy and our lady of fatima prove we are in the last days. the church exists in a faithful remnant who hold to the dogmas learn more at www.vaticancatholic.com

 

[theistgal]

the sspx is a heretical organization just like the mainstream Vatican II church. As the saint malachy prophecy and our lady of fatima prove we are in the last days. the church exists in a faithful remnant who hold to the dogmas learn more at www.vaticancatholic.com

Why don’t you stop spamming every thread with your bogus website?

 

[Edmundus1581]

Edmundus,

It’s hard to be specific without going way off-topic.

I agree with you regarding the OP. For someone investigating the Church, the SSPX situation will only serve to confuse and complicate a journey home.

Thankyou, Corki, for the reply to my question (which was about the Vatican response to attendance at SSPX Masses). I deleted my post after I read some of the other posts because I saw that my information was out of date. Thankyou for posting a recent (and brief!) statement on the topic.

 

[Brendan_64]

I appreciate the information, but does anyone else find this to be confusing as well…anything? God is not the author confusion and I think all this “you can do this but you can’t do that” is not helping the faithful. I am now talking about how the Vatican is dealing with this. Personally, I think that they should be all in or all out but as I said my knowledge of this situation is limited.

If in doubt then don’t attend an SSPX church. It’s not as if there are not enough mainstream Catholic churches around that you need to attend an SSPX church.

Pope Benedict was very magnanimous in his dealings with the SSPX. He lifted the excommunications the SSPX bishops were under, and he reached out to try to genuinely try to deal with them with an aim to working with them towards a goal of full communion with Rome. But the SSPX rejected him. Pope Benedict said he was “treated hatefully, without misgiving or restraint,” for his “gesture of mercy” toward the SSPX bishops.

The SSPX are insistent that they will never accept the Vatican II position on ecumenism, the freedom of people to religious worship, and the view the Church now has on relationships with Jews. They insist that the Catholic Church rejects these parts of Vatican II, before they will consider coming back to full communion with Rome.

What more can the Vatican do? Completely tear up Nostra Aetate, Unitatis Redintegratio, and score out many sections in the other documents from Vatican II? Declare that anyone (including members of Christian denominations) who isn’t a member of the Catholic Church will definitely be going to Hell, ban Catholics from having any form of ecumenical dialogue with other Christian denominations, state that people on Earth do not have the freedom to worship and follow their own faith , and declare that Jews are the enemies of Christianity? Because that is pretty much what the SSPX seem to demand.

So else can the Vatican do? Declare that the SSPX are no longer part of the Catholic Church? That’s not how the Church operates. Groups walk away from the Church of their own accord, the Church isn’t in the business of kicking people out of the Church. Reinstate the excommunications? The Church could do that, but what would that achieve? Possibly The the lifting of the excommunications by Benedict might have been a mistake, but it was a magnanimous gesture by Benedict as he tried to reach out in charity to the SSPX.

In the end, whether the SSPX are “all in or all out” is up to them. It’s their decision. The Church can state Church Teachings, the SSPX can choose to act against these teachings, but so long as the maintain that they are part of the Catholic Church and recognise the Pope as the head of Christ’s Church on Earth, there’s not a lot more the Vatican can really do. A statement from the Vatican specifically the SSPX as heretics and schismatics is hardly likely to help matters. The Church works for unity, not to make the prospect of unity even more remote.