Society of St. Pius X

[Pregustator]

If I read the news reports about a year ago, correctly, my understanding is that the Society of St. Pius X was, at last, reconciled with the Holy See. In fact, there was a great brouhaha over Bishop Richard Williamson being welcomed back in light of his public denials of the Jewish Holocaust during the Second World War.

Today, however, a seminarian friend of mine and I happened to touch upon the subject of the SSPX and he asserted that, while the excommunications of the four bishops had been lifted, the Society of St. Pius X is still not in communion with Rome.

This left me baffled and I asked, “what do you mean? If they aren’t excommunicated any longer, they’re in communion.” My friend responded, “no, they aren’t.”

“Well, what is this odd third state I’ve never heard of before that you’re telling me exists between excommunication and communion with Rome?” was my rejoinder.

He just laughed and said, “I’m not sure; but they’re not in communion with Rome yet.”

Can anybody clarify this for me?

 

[MarkThompson]

If I read the news reports about a year ago, correctly, my understanding is that the Society of St. Pius X was, at last, reconciled with the Holy See. In fact, there was a great brouhaha over Bishop Richard Williamson being welcomed back in light of his public denials of the Jewish Holocaust during the Second World War.

Today, however, a seminarian friend of mine and I happened to touch upon the subject of the SSPX and he asserted that, while the excommunications of the four bishops had been lifted, the Society of St. Pius X is still not in communion with Rome.

This left me baffled and I asked, “what do you mean? If they aren’t excommunicated any longer, they’re in communion.” My friend responded, “no, they aren’t.”

“Well, what is this odd third state I’ve never heard of before that you’re telling me exists between excommunication and communion with Rome?” was my rejoinder.

He just laughed and said, “I’m not sure; but they’re not in communion with Rome yet.”

Can anybody clarify this for me?

The third state would be “imperfect communion.” But instead of relying on the press reports, take a look at the Holy Father’s letter concerning the remission of the excommunications (and the decree itself linked in the first sentence). As he makes clear, the remissions do not constitute “full communion with the Church,” and at present the SSPX “does not have a canonical status in the Church” and “its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church.”