Bro JR, see my remarks below. I apologize in advance for their brevity. Before that, allow me to offer a few words on this from my perspective. At the (SSPX) priory where I assist at Mass, we have several lay folks who belong to Third Orders and have for many years. In addition to the SSPX Third Order, there are also Dominicans and Carmelites. We cooperate together within the chapel on many devotions. When the Feast of the Assumption arrives and we renew our commitments, the other Orders assist at that Mass and are included in our periodic days of recollection, given as a mission by one of the priests at our priory. As you can imagine, due to the irregular status of the Society, there is little concern among the faithful regarding the canonical status of the SSPX Third Order. Those that profess are simply looking for a strict rule to guide their interior life of prayer and to commit to, not only a more fervent prayer life, but to model that devotion for children, family members, etc. The added devotion to the Breviary involves us in the prayers for and by the church. Our vows and actions are what remain important to us when we promise ourselves before the Blessed Sacrament. However, I don’t mean to disparage or trivialize the canonical status of this or any other Third Order. Both my grandmother and my great-grandmother were buried in the Carmelite habit and their lives and professions made a profound impression on me and I hope to do the same for my children and friends alike.
This is OK. Many people make private vows and the Church recognizes them. She does not receive them, but she acknowledges that they exist.
It is not canonically erected. It was started by Archbishop Lefebvre when he was Superior General at the request of the faithful who felt called to a more devoted interior life but whose state in life precluding them from participating in the First or Second Order or as a lay oblate.
Who knows, the Sacred Congregation may treat it as a separate entity. The big issue with the SSPX is with the ordained. They are the ones who are suspended. I have never seen anything that says that their brothers or sisters are invalidly professed. As I keep saying, that’s the case with the Franciscans. We are one family with three orders and 112 obediences witihn those three orders. Each obedience is erected separately. The Church asks that we comply with the canonical requirements, the requirements of the local bishop, the requirements of the Sacred Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and in the case of Franciscans, with the rule that Francis wrote for your specific order, not the other two orders that he founded. The beginning is the approval of a bishop who is the ordinary of a diocese. The only exception is Opus Dei, because it is a prelature. It has its own Ordinary.
Although we refer to it as an Order internally, it is more properly a public association of the faithful.
A public association of the faithful has to be erected by the bishop of a diocese. An association can be public in that it is no secret and that it welcomes new members, but it cannot be a public association until it receives the Decree of Praise from a diocesan bishop. In that decree the diocesan bishop will state whether he grants it public association status or private association status. It is his call to make. Canonically, he is its major superior, though there is always a leader who actually runs the association.
The SSPX Third Order has a chaplain who is appointed by the Superior General. In the U.S., that is Fr. Gardner. He in turn delegates to each prior the duty of receiving professions before the Blessed Sacrament. I’m afraid I can’t authoritatively answer the question as to Fr. Garnder’s canonical authority to receive the vows as a representative of the church. Again, without sounding trite, my intent is to make and keep a set vows professed before the Blessed Sacrament. I expect that this will all be sorted out when the Society is canonically regularized, albeit it may be among the last things addressed.
Father does it this way, because he does not have the authirity to speak for the Church. In a typical profession, you always have an individual who receives the profession in the name of the Church. The wording is different, but essentially it’s the same meaning for secular orders, associations, religious orders and religious congregations.
For example, in the Franciscan family, whether you’re a religious or a secular, at the rite of profession the superior speaks in the name of Christ and the Church and his statement is accepted as infallible truth, because the Church is doing the speaking. Once you have stated your professon formula, the superior answers
“I, on the part of Christ, the Bl. Virgin Mary, our Holy Father Francis and the Church, promise that if you observe all these things you shall have eternal life.”
Every community has its own version of the same promise of eternal life made in the name of Christ and the Church, but the Church is specifically mentioned to ensure that the person doing the speaking is doing so, not in his name, but in the name of Christ and the Church. The profession is recorded and witnessed. Copies are sent to the proper canonical authority. If you wish to get out of it, you have to go through a canonical process and you can be denied.
In the case of private vows, you cannot be denied. The confessor dispenses you.
The day to day life does not change, because the canonical status is different. The day to day live is not governed by the canonical status, but by the rule or constitutions. In the case of the SSPX, it’s by the constitutions.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
I’m glad that I’m not the one who has to sort it all out.