Would It Be A Sin To Attend Mass

[ProVobis]

The SSPX are Catholics and in full communion with Rome. Their priestly functions, however, are currently suspended but valid as far as meeting your Sunday obligation.

 

[Seamus_L]

Don’t know where you’re trying to go with this Bpbasilphx. You list yourself as Orthodox, yet seem to be insinuating that we Traditional Catholics have got it all wrong regarding the multitude of abuses within our Church. I actually wish you were right and that former Archbishop Rembert Weakland was just a bad dream, but unfortunately he and others like him are not. As I said before, the need may well never arise for me to attend an SSPX chapel, particularly since I live in a diocese with several traditionally minded parishes, but if my only choice is ever between the SSPX and a number of ultra-liberal parishes (and I trust my own judgement rather than yours to make that determination) I will choose the SSPX with a clear conscience. You are right about one thing. Thanks to increased use of the Latin Mass, a great many people will not be faced with that choice. There are however places where that is not the case.

 

[Ignatius]

The Vatican has declared that one may attend an SSPX Mass without incurring a penalty and fulfill one’s Sunday obligation.

GTO

No, I don’t believe that the Holy See has made any such declaration and will not until such time as the SSPX come into full communion with the Holy See at which time the suspension of priestly faculties will be lifted. The faithful are not permitted to attend a Mass presided over by a priest with his faculties suspended.

 

[crm114]

…I’d like to ask the hypothetical question, would it be a sin to attend mass at a parish where you were already aware that the priest-priests openly support pro-abortion candidates, the ordination of women, homosexual marriage, and have made a number of highly questionable statements about core Catholic teachings such as the Real Presence, the Immaculate Conception, Sacrament of Reconcilliation, etc…

It’s not really a hypothetical question, given that most of us know such priests. The answer is simple: the validity of the sacrament does not depend upon the worthiness of the minister. As long as the priest intends to do as the Church does in confecting the Eucharist, then it does not matter how much acid he dropped in the 60s or how McBrienized his theology is.

That is quite a different situation from the SSPX, which has placed itself outside of Church discipline. Yes, their Mass is valid, but I would consider myself disobedient to and disrespectful of legitimate Church authority if I attended (except in an emergency).

I am sympathetic to those who argue that the LeFevbrists have performed a great service for the Church by preserving the ancient rite during its decades-long exile. But those days are over. The current pope and his predecessor have tried to reconcile with them, and yet they stubbornly refuse to return to full communion. I don’t understand that.

 

[ProVobis]

The current pope and his predecessor have tried to reconcile with them, and yet they stubbornly refuse to return to full communion. I don’t understand that.

I see it a different way. There’s a lot of opposition to the Pope granting any more reconciliation to the SSPX and most of it isn’t coming from Bishop Fellay. For those that say the SSPX needs the Church, they are right. If the bishops die, no more priests will be ordained, and the whole order will eventually die. So it behooves the SSPX to reconcile quickly.

 

[crm114]

Well then let us all pray for that reconciliation.

It is clear to me that Benedict wants the Church to benefit from, to be revived by, the TLM. He did an extraordinary thing in publishing Summorum Pontificum. And have you followed the recent news about Anglicanorum Coetibus? Benedict wants returning Anglicans to pollinate the Church with their beautiful traditions in the same way he wants the Latin Trads to do this.

I don’t know what the obstacle is to reunion. But I don’t think Benedict is worried about what our stingier shepherds think of his pastoral generosity.

 

[bpbasilphx]

The SSPX are Catholics and in full communion with Rome. Their priestly functions, however, are currently suspended but valid as far as meeting your Sunday obligation.

If ANY Priest, SSPX or otherwise, has his faculties suspended, yet celebrates Mass or another other sacrament on a regular basis, these masses are by definition at least irregular, and therefore assisting at one would not fulfill one’s obligation.

You list yourself as Orthodox, yet seem to be insinuating that we Traditional Catholics have got it all wrong regarding the multitude of abuses within our Church.

But SeamusL, since the Pope himself has said that the clergy of SSPX exercise no legitimate ministry in the Catholic church, then the masses they celebrate ARE in themselves abuses.

 

[KingAlfred]

Since people often speak very critically of those who would attend an SSPX mass, I’d like to ask the hypothetical question, would it be a sin to attend mass at a parish where you were already aware that the priest-priests openly support pro-abortion candidates, the ordination of women, homosexual marriage, and have made a number of highly questionable statements about core Catholic teachings such as the Real Presence, the Immaculate Conception, Sacrament of Reconcilliation, etc. And, let’s also say this parish is on good terms with the local bishop who has never once spoken critically of them. Would it be acceptable to attend mass here ?

While I’m mildly sympathetic to some of of these positions, I see their full implementation in Catholic theology as a grave threat to the faith, and the civilization that rests upon it. So, I’d say it’s best to avoid that priest. He’s leading the flock in the wrong direction.

 

[ProVobis]

I don’t know what the obstacle is to reunion. But I don’t think Benedict is worried about what our stingier shepherds think of his pastoral generosity.

You can think what you want but try to be realistic here. He had a lot of opposition before he was to release the 2007 S.P. Some bishops even threathened to break away from the Church. There is absolutely no question as to his pastoral generosity to those attached to the EF, but the Pope had to use whatever powers he had to quelch the would-be insurrection and try to find a happy medium. Let’s give the Pope a lot of credit for what he’s done so far. And from what I see, many (not all, however) of the SSPX Mass attendees are doing that, even though they haven’t reached full agreement on the issues involved.