catholic.com/thisrock/2006/0604ltrs.asp
Schism, Heresy, and the SSPX
If a lie is repeated enough times, people will believe it. This seems to be your approach to the Society of St. Pius X (Kenneth Whitehead, “They Just Won’t Go Away,” February 2006). There has not been any attempt in the SSPX to establish a separate church. Where is the schism? The SSPX acknowledges the primacy of the pope and teaches everything the Church taught for the last two millennia. Where is the heresy? The SSPX practices far more charity toward its opponents than Rome practices toward the SSPX.
Weston J. Zach
Silverton, Oregon
Kenneth Whitehead replies: The SSPX may acknowledge the primacy of the pope in words, but it rejects the pope’s jurisdiction in practice. Pope John Paul II was prepared to give the SSPX legitimacy and to allow the Tridentine Mass as, in effect, another Roman “rite,” if Archbishop Lefebvre would only refrain from ordaining any new bishops and acknowledge the legitimacy and decisions of the Second Vatican Council. The archbishop refused and was excommunicated after he ordained four bishops. The SSPX continues to reject Vatican II; thus it is not true that it “teaches everything the Church taught for the last two millennia.” One of the things the Church has taught during that long period is that the formal acts and decisions of an ecumenical council of the Catholic Church are guaranteed by the Holy Spirit and are binding upon the faithful. The ancient Arians made evident their schism and heresy when they refused to accept the decisions of the Council of Nicaea. SSPXers today make evident the same thing when they reject the teachings and decisions of the twenty-first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church, Vatican II.
catholic.com/thisrock/quickquestions/keyword/SSPX
According to the Code of Canon Law, Catholic marriages ordinarily must be witnessed by the local ordinary or the parish priest, or by a minister—usually a priest or deacon—delegated by them to do so (canon 1108 §1). Because SSPX priests do not have faculties from the Church to witness Catholic marriages, Catholics may not have their marriage witnessed by an SSPX priest.
Check Catholic Answers on this site under Faith for other than ad hominem arguments concerning SSPX and their denial of the Holy Spirit and Vatican II.