Pope Francis: SSPX priests will licitly and validly absolve sins during Jubilee of Mercy [CWN]

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Pope Francis has declared that priests of the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, will validly and licitly absolve sins during the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy, …

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A gracious and wise move on the Holy Father’s part. I’m intrigued by the way in which he stated his intention.

Dan
 
CWN_News said:
Pope Francis has declared that priests of the Society of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, will validly and licitly absolve sins during the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy, …

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Yes, I’m excited by this too. Pray for unity. :gopray:

If their canonical status is regularized, which now seems likely (Thank God for Pope Francis!), then I can remove the anti-SSPX stuff from my website. 😃
 
“Furthermore, the Jubilee Indulgence can also be obtained for the deceased. We are bound to them by the witness of faith and charity that they have left us. Thus, as we remember them in the Eucharistic celebration, thus we can, in the great mystery of the Communion of Saints, pray for them, that the merciful Face of the Father free them of every remnant of fault and strongly embrace them in the unending beatitude.”

Thank you, Lord for answering my prayer through your faithful servant Pope Francis.
 
Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what does the Pope mean by “priests of the Society of St. Pius X” ? I don’t think, as a newcomer, that I actually understand what any of this means. Could someone kindly explain? Thanks!
 
rabby(name removed by moderator) said:
Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what does the Pope mean by “priests of the Society of St. Pius X” ? I don’t think, as a newcomer, that I actually understand what any of this means. Could someone kindly explain? Thanks!
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The Society of St. Pius X is an order of priests who only celebrate the pre-Vatican II Mass ( called the ‘Tridentine Mass’)

Their status is irregular in that they have resisted accepting the Church’s teaching on Vatican II. The priests of that order were thus suspended from ministry.

For a priest to offer Sacramental Absolution, the priest has to have ‘faculties’ in that they have permission from the local bishop to Absolve sins.

The SSPX ( as it is commonly known) did not have such permission due to their irregular status.

But the Pope has granted such ‘faculties’ for the duration of the Year of Mercy, so the sins that they Absolve are truly forgiven.
 
But doesn’t this really pose a problem for the sspx? They have claimed all along that they have faculties to hear confessions (and marriages, too). If they accept this limited faculty, it implies that they haven’t had proper authority all along. What happens when the jubilee year is over and their faculties expire? Will they still hear confessions? If they do, won’t that be a thumping of their nose in the face of the local bishops?

Also, Pope Benedict has said that the sspx do not have a legitimate ministry in the Church. Doesn’t this give them a de facto legitimate ministry? And again, what happens at the end of the year when this de facto ministry is no more?
 
Tim_D said:
But doesn’t this really pose a problem for the sspx? They have claimed all along that they have faculties to hear confessions (and marriages, too). If they accept this limited faculty, it implies that they haven’t had proper authority all along.
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I don’t know if they will “accept” it. My guess would be that they will be grateful for the gesture because it helps us all agree that they have faculties to forgive sin at least temporarily. I suppose they will maintain that they already had faculties and continue to have them, even though the pope seems to suggest that their faculties will expire at the end of the Jubilee. I pray that some more permanent, agreeable solution can be worked out before then.
What happens when the jubilee year is over and their faculties expire? Will they still hear confessions? If they do, won’t that be a thumping of their nose in the face of the local bishops?
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That’s what I guess they would do, but who knows, the Holy Spirit may move in their hearts during this time to restore full communion with the Holy Father.
Also, Pope Benedict has said that the sspx do not have a legitimate ministry in the Church. Doesn’t this give them a de facto legitimate ministry?
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That’s how it seems to me. They did not have a legitimate ministry under BXVI; they do now because Pope Francis has given it to them using his apostolic authority. And I think we should praise God for it and pray for permanent, full unity.
And again, what happens at the end of the year when this de facto ministry is no more?
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Unless a more permanent solution is found, I think they will go back to not having faculties, and those priests of the SSPX who continue to hear confessions will be doing so invalidly. But any priest who hears confessions without faculties will probably go on claiming he has faculties for the same reasons they currently use, though I don’t know what those reasons are. (It probably has something to do with having validly ordained bishops as part of the SSPX.)
 
Tim_D said:
If they accept this limited faculty, it implies that they haven’t had proper authority all along.
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There really is no ‘acceptance’ here. The SSPX priests will continue doing what they are doing, but now their Absolutions will be licit and valid
Doesn’t this give them a de facto legitimate ministry?
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de facto and de jure. By definition it is legitimate, as it conforms to the legio (law) of the Church, under Papal authority
 
Very confusing…I read the Pope will allow more priests to forgive people who had abortions during the “jubilee of mercy”. I thought any priest could always give absolution for any sin, if the person is sorry! :confused:
 
truetofaith said:
Very confusing…I read the Pope will allow more priests to forgive people who had abortions during the “jubilee of mercy”. I thought any priest could always give absolution for any sin, if the person is sorry! :confused:
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That is not true. A priest must have faculties, and those faculties are often limited.

Certain sins, such as deliberate desecration of the Eucharist, are reserved to the Pope himself. If someone confessed that particular sin, the priest could not immediately absolve the sin, but must petition Rome for permission to do so.

The sin of abortion is one reserved to the local bishop to absolve, but almost all US bishops have granted permission to their priests to absolve. So that faculty is already widely available in the US. But that might not be true in other countries.
 
dmar198 said:
Unless a more permanent solution is found, I think they will go back to not having faculties, and those priests of the SSPX who continue to hear confessions will be doing so invalidly. But any priest who hears confessions without faculties will probably go on claiming he has faculties for the same reasons they currently use, though I don’t know what those reasons are. (It probably has something to do with having validly ordained bishops as part of the SSPX.)
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A lot can happen within a year, and it could be enough time for a paradigm or status quo to have been set. But I could be wrong. Take advantage when you can is all I can say.
 
This is great news indeed!

This is a very generous move on the part of Pope Francis. Rather than negotiate and trade concessions, Pope Francis just grants them faculties during the Jubilee Year without any apparent requirement for something in return. He gives without expecting to receive. Well done Pope Francis!

And it does blow apart the position held by some that the SSPX are in schism. The Pope clearly (and rightly) sees the SSPX as part of the Roman Catholic Church (as indeed the SSPX do). The Pope would clearly not grant faculties to priests who were outside of the Church, he couldn’t do so even if he wanted to. It wouldn’t make sense.
 
Tim_D said:
But doesn’t this really pose a problem for the sspx? They have claimed all along that they have faculties to hear confessions (and marriages, too). If they accept this limited faculty, it implies that they haven’t had proper authority all along. What happens when the jubilee year is over and their faculties expire? Will they still hear confessions? If they do, won’t that be a thumping of their nose in the face of the local bishops?
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The SSPX hear Confessions as it is (which they regard as valid, even though canonically they don’t have faculties to do so) will most likely not make a big fuss (publicly) about this, but will see this as a positive step towards full recognition within the Church. The SSPX will carry on hearing Confessions, but now, at least during the Jubilee Year both the SSPX and the Vatican will be in agreement that their Confessions are valid.

After the Jubilee Year is over I think it would be very difficult for the Church to then turn round and say, “OK now all you people who went to Confession with the SSPX during the Jubilee Year, SSPX Confessions are no longer valid”. That points towards a positive development regarding the SSPX, don’t you think?

The SSPX will of course still keep on hearing Confessions after the Jubilee Year (as they have always done) but if faculties are withdrawn then what position would that put some Catholics who have never been to an SSPX Confession before the Jubilee Year, but who went during the Jubilee Year and very much benefited spiritually from SSPX confessors?
 
ProVobis said:
As I understand it, all faculties of hearing confessions originate with the Vatican.
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I’m not sure that supplied (emergency) jurisdiction originates with the Vatican. It might. The SSPX believe that they have supplied jurisdiction, not ordinary jurisdiction.

My understanding of it is that it is the faithful themselves who provide the jurisdiction by asking a validly ordained priest to hear their confession. Even if that priest is suspended, he is allowed, by way of his ordination, to hear confessions and absolve sins, if the faithful ask for it, even if he does not have (ordinary) jurisdiction from the bishop.

There is an article on the SSPX DICI website regarding this subject, written by Bp. Tissier de Mallerais, if anyone cares to take a look at it (a Google search can bring it up), in order to see it from the SSPX POV. I won’t provide a link to it, since it goes against forum rules, I think.

Another way to look at it is this:

Ordinary jurisdiction comes from the top down, by way of the Catholic hierarchy.
Supplied (emergency) jurisdiction comes from the bottom up, by way of the Catholic faithful themselves.
 
This is indeed HUGE news. Not only has the Pope given SSPX priests faculties to do this but he has also weighed in on some issues. 1 The language of the announcement seems to suggest that the Pope has NO PROBLEM with the attendees of SSPX chapels. For he does not tell them to go elsewhere, but rather quite the opposite. He tells them to receive a sacrament there at the blessing of the Vatican itself. He also says people who attend “for whatever reasons” Indicating that he sees that people have reasons to attend.

I think once this gets digested, it will be bigger than people can comprehend right now.

One would think marriage would soon follow since the Pope seems to have the needs of the attendees on his mind.

The question is… Will people accept this Pope’s Mercy, or will the anti traditionalists cry and scream over this…
 
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