SSPX: What's next?

[JReducation]

Wow, that’s a lot to answer in one short post, but I’ll try to do my best.

Greetings dear brother in Christ. I have some comments and some questions too if you are inclined to share your views.

JREducation
From what I have seen on these forums, the SSPX laity is often much more aggressive and much more hostile toward the mainstream Church than is the clergy of the SSPX.

Rory
I was interested to hear about your long flight with a Society priest.

In a nutshell, I found Father N. to be a very pleasant, intelligent and holy young man. I would say that he was socially awkward. But that may have nothing to do with the Society. Not everyone is socially adept. The fact that I was in a Franciscan habit may have surprised him.

As we traveled I did find that he shared the same concerns that many of us who love the Church also share. He wants to be regularized. He was very open about the fact that he is currently suspended and hopeful that the Lord would supply for what the Church says that he is lacking in his ministry. I found that to be very profound. It spoke to me of a man with a deep trust in God’s mercy and a trust in the Church to make right a situation that has gone on too long.

He and I did speak about the laity. I told him about he laity that I found on CAF and that this is my only contact with people who attend mass at the SSPX. He was a little concerned when I described many people as arrogant and defamatory toward popes, bishops and religious in the mainstream Church. What he told me was that there are some priests in the Society who are very bitter; but this group does not represent the majority. I can certainly understand that, because we have our own share of bitter priests and religious and they do not represent the majority.

I have a question for you JR, that follows from the title of the thread “What’s Next?”. You have expressed doubts about the validity of the SSPX sacraments of matrimony and confession due to jurisdictional questions.

Those are not my doubts. That is the law of the Church. A suspended priest cannot validly witness a marriage or absolve, except in case of emergency. See these link.

jimmyakin.org/2005/02/sspx_confession.html

If, and when regularization occurs, do you think we will be asked to repeat our marriage vows (if witnessed by a Society priest)

There are two possibilities. Those married by deacons or priests of the Society may be asked to co validate their marriages before a deacon or priest in good standing with the Church or the Church can choose to treat it as it does the marriage of persons who belong to a different faith and convert. Their marriage is valid, because they shared the same faith and were married within their faith. This is not an area where I am an expert. My area is Mystical Theology. This falls in the area of Canon Law. I would be lying if I pretended to know the answers to the marriage question.

and try to recall the mortal sins we have already confessed illicitly?

Your confession is not illicit. The absolution that the priest gave you is invalid. There is a difference. The priest had no right to assume that he could absolve you. That’s clarified in the link that I provided above. This being said, the Church can say that you make a good confession, remembering as much as you can and don’t worry about the rest. This is what we normally do for those who have been away from the sacrament of penance anyway. We don’t expect people to recall everything they have done in the last 20-years. They confess what they remember and they ask forgiveness for these and all their sins that they may have forgotten.

My best advice is that one go to confession to a priest who has faculties granted by a licit bishop. This removes all doubts and fears. Just tell the priest that you attend mass at the Society’s chapel.

Will confirmations be repeated conditionally, unconditionally, or not at all?

A bishop does not need faculties to confirm. Confirmation by an SSPX bishop is valid.

What happens now when someone who has been receiving the sacraments from a Society priest repents and begins to go to an indult, FSSP, or Novus Ordo community?

I believe the answer to this question is above.

If the Church is currently accepting the validity of SSPX marriages, confessions, and confirmations it seems to add to the arguments given by the Society in favor of the view that they are valid. Any thoughts?

The Church is not accepting the validity of marriage and absolution in the Society. The Holy Father was clear when he said that the priests of the society do not have any valid ministry in the Church.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF

 

[RoryMcKenzie56]

Hi again Br. JR,

Br. JR
The Church is not accepting the validity of marriage and absolution in the Society. The Holy Father was clear when he said that the priests of the society do not have any valid ministry in the Church.

Fraternally,

Rory
Thanks for your response. I appreciate your position. I am not sure that the words of His Holiness can be taken to exclude the Society from having valid confessions or marriages. You yourself said that confirmations are valid. Holy Orders are also valid. So is the Eucharist. There are clearly valid sacraments given by priests of the Society. Pope Benedict had to have meant something other than what you seem to have understood when he said the Society lacks “any valid ministry”.

I suggest he means that they are irregular. Their ministry is unapproved by the Church at this time. It seems to me you rely too heavily upon it. Those who avail themselves of the SSPX priests for confession are persuaded that the Church supplies jurisdiction. It seems impossible to us that the salvation of our souls is going to be lost because of a legal technicality. If the Church acts as though SSPX sacraments are valid, I take that as more of a sign of what the Church teaches, than this statement from the pope which, if I took your interpretation, cannot be reconciled with the fact that other sacraments are certainly valid.

This is why I am wondering if the Ecclesia Dei Commission has instructed FFSP priests (those most likely to receive repentant parishioners leaving the SSPX) to have those married or confessing to Society priests to repeat their vows, and their serious sins to the best of their ability. In other words, I am asking if the Church is acting upon the view that SSPX weddings and confessions are invalid? Do FSSP confessors require those who come to them from the SSPX to confess all of the mortal sins they can recall to have confessed to an SSPX priest, as though they believe that those sins are retained for lack of valid absolution? Even when the penitent thinks the confessions were valid? I will find the answer to this to these two questions to be instructive as to what the Church is teaching on this subject.

I will be content brother, if you should like to have the last word. If not that is fine too. I am pretty confident we won’t agree on this, but be assured in any event of my good will toward you and all who love our Catholic faith. Pray for me.

Yours Truly in Our Lord and Lady,

Rory

 

[JReducation]

Roy,

There are several things that have to be clarified here.

1. Ministry and sacraments are not the same. The ministry of the Society is not valid. In other words, they are out of communion with the Church.
2. There are certain sacraments that any ordained minister can effect without the permission of the Church. But there are two sacraments and preaching which must be approved by the local bishop. The two sacraments are marriage and penance. If a priest does not have the authorization of the local bishop, he cannot witness a marriage or absolve from sin. Then there is preaching at mass. You must have permission of the local bishop to preach at mass in any parish in his diocese. On this one, since the chapels belong to the Society and not the diocese, the Society is grandfathered in. Their sermons are valid, otherwise they would be invalid and constitute a grave sin on the part of the priest or deacon who preaches without faculties.
3. The Society has valid sacraments because the deacons, priests and bishops of the society are ordained by valid bishops. However, even when you are ordained by a valid bishop, the law regulating marriage and confession remains in place. I’ll give you an example. Our Brothers only ordain men to serve inside the community. We do not ordain men to serve the laity. We have very few priests. Therefore, our brother priests cannot validly hear the cconfessions of lay men, because they do not have faculties from the local bishop and they cannot witness marriages either. They can hear the confessions of the brothers and any layman who lives in the monastery, because they have faculties from our Brother Superior to do so. You must have someone with the power of an Ordinary grant you faculties to hear confessioins and witness marriages and preach to the public. If one of our brothers absolved the sins of someone who came to the door for confession, that absolution woult be invalid. The brother, even if he is ordainedd, does not have the bishop’s permission to hear the confessions of his (the bishop’s) people. Nor will the bishop grant it, unless Rome says that the brothers can have it.

In our case, Rome will never say that our ordained brothers can hear the confessions of the laity on a regular basis, because the constitutions of the community forbid any priestly ministry outside of the monastery. However, a local bishop can grant the faculties for a weekened or a day, if he is in desperate need of help for someone to hear confessions. That is done on a case by case basis. That’s the way that faculties work.

So as you can see, sacraments and ministries are not the same thing. You can have the power to celebrate certain sacraments, but not have the authority to use that power. Which is what the Holy Father is referring to when he said that the society had no valid ministry in the Church. It does not have permission from a bishop who is an ordinary or a religious superior who are the only people who can grant this permission. Even the Holy Father can only grant faculties in his diocese, Rome. He can strip faculties from anyone in the world. But to grant faculties, he goes through the local bishop or the local male religious superior.

If you read Summorum Pontificum very carefully, you will see a short sentence that speaks about religious priests celebrating the EF in the chapels and oratories of their religious orders. He says that these depends on the local norms and the major superiors. He does not grant religious priests permission to celebrate the EF in their religious houses. That authority is in the hands of the religious community by way of a vote or the majjor superior who may allow or forbid under holy obedience to himself.

Anything that you do without faculties, even if you have the sacramental power, it is invalid. It does not matter if you belong to the SSPX, the Franciscans, the Jesuits or other.

I hope this makes it clearer.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF