I do not know this group, so it would be uncharitable and unfair on my part to say that they are wrong or they are heretics or call them any other name. It is uncharitable to call anyone a name, period.
That being said, there are very specific ways that a priest can have a place in the Church. This is found in canon law. He must be in one of these situations:
- Incardinated into a diocese as a secular priest
- A professed religious in a religious community that is publicly accepted by either the local bishop or the Sacred Congregation for Religious Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life.
- A professed religious in a religious community of diocesan right where the bishop is the major superior
- A secular priest in a secular institute or a member of one of the approved secular orders
- A priest beloging to a priestly fraternity that is approved by Rome, such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
- A priest who is a member of a prelature, such as Opus Dei
- A priest who is a member of any of the above, while serving the Church outside of his jurisdiction with the permission of the Holy See AND the local bishop where he is serving
Any priest who is not in one of these situations is not in communion with the Church, even if he does good. While the good that he does cannot be denied, the Church will not acknoledge the validity of certain sacraments: marriage and absolution. All other sacraments that such a priest celebrates are valid, but illicit (illegal). Therefore the priest who celebrates them and those who knowingly receive them are in a state of disobedience, except in cases where there is reason to believe that the person is in danger of immediate death and cannot wait for another priest.
We go back to the same question. Which of the above situations apply to the Servants of the Holy Family?
I have read that they are a congregation. But I have not read from where they get their communion, the bishop or the Congregation for Religious? They do not say in their literature. In addition, I have heard that the founder of the congregation celebrates mass in a private chapel belonging either to him or to the congregation.
It is Church law that religious may have private chapels and that bishops may not interfere in the celebration of the sacraments in those chapels. However, the permission of the local bishop is needed before the religious open a house in any diocese. Once the house is open, it is outside of the jurisdiction of the bishop. In addition, religious cannot regularly hear the confessions of the laity without permission from an Ordinary. Their Ordinary must be the local bishop or their Provincial Superior who is canonically elected and approved by the hierarchy. You cannot celebrate marriages in private chapels. Marriages must be celebrated in a parish church, unless there is grave reason to do otherwise. In that case, only the bishop can authorize it.
On the other hand, the laity is still under the jurisdiction of the bishop, even though the religious may not be, because they are of Pontifical Right. Therefore, the bishop can, for no reason at all, forbid the laity’s attendance at mass at the chapel of the religious. He continues to have full authority over the laity in his diocese.
This is not usually done, unless the bishop feels that the religious are not in communion with him. Because if the religious are not in communion with the bishop, they cannot be in communion with the pope. Communion with the pope comes through the local bishop. It’s a chain with links on it.
I’ll give you an example. My community runs Respect Life Ministry. We do not get funds from the local diocese. We run it out of our friary. However, we had to get the bishop’s permission in writing, to move into his diocese and we had to explain why we wanted to move into his diocese. He had to approve the move and the ministry. Because we use lay people and we serve lay people who come under his jurisdiction, we have to follow his rules regarding anything that we do with the laity. We can do whatever we want in our house and our chapel. We can sing Kumbaya all day and night and he cannot intervene. The moment we come into contact with a lay person under his jurisdiction, obedience requires that we follow his rules of engagement.
It sounds, from an article that I found on the Internet, that the problem is that the bishop feels that the Servants of the Holy Family do not follow his rules of engagement.
There is nothing to appeal to the Pope if the Servants are not in one of the categories that I mentioned above. Also, as I said before, the last time that the Holy Father became directly involved in a matter between a bishop and a religious community was so long ago that no one remembers. We would have to look for it in a history book. The popes have surrendered this authority to the bishops, under canon laws regarding religious and dioceses.
The pope can stretch over the bishop’s head. Will he do so? I don’t know. Not knowing the canonical status of the Servants, it’s impossible to say if he’ll even be interested. Again, usually he sends these cases off to the Congregation for Religious or the Congregation for the Faith. Pope Benedict has already told religious that he will not become involved in their relations with the bishops, that it is not his job. He continues to tell religious to remember the principle of subsidiarity and the importance of reason and faith working together to solve a problem.
Even the case of the SSPX was handed over to the Congregation of the Faith and to Archbishop Levada. The SSPX will not have direct access to the Holy Father. I don’t think that the Servants will either, considering that their impact is much smaller than the SSPX. This last statement is just my thoughts.
Again, what is the canonical status of the Servants?
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF
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