February 13, 2003 

 

Editor’s Note: Several readers have written to disagree with our statements that the Society of St. Pius X is in schism and that it is a serious sin for a Catholic knowingly and deliberately to take part in an illicit SSPX Mass and receive Communion from a priest who has been validly ordained. To prove their point, these readers enclosed two letters from Msgr. Camille Perl, secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, one dated September 28, 1999 and the other September 27, 2002. While the letters do clarify one of the points we made, we don’t think that they prove the contention of these correspondents.
According to excerpts that were taken from the 2002 communication and sent to us, Msgr. Perl said that “in a strict sense” Catholics may fulfill their Sunday obligation “by attending a Mass celebrated by a priest of the Society of St. Pius X.” He said that “if the primary reason for attendance at such a Mass were to manifest your desire to separate yourself from communion with the Roman Pontiff [and] those in communion with him, it would be a sin. If your intention is simply to participate in Mass according to the 1962 Missal for the sake of devotion, this would not be a sin.”
We did not make this distinction in our earlier reply and are glad to clarify this point. We would hasten to point out, however, that in his 1999 letter, Msgr. Perl warned that the longer persons attend an SSPX chapel, even if they originally did so primarily because of an attraction to the older form of the Latin Mass, “the more likely it is that they will slowly imbibe the schismatic mentality which stands in judgment of the Church and refuses submission to the Roman Pontiff and communion with the members of the Church subject to him. If that becomes the case, then it would seem that they adhere to the schism and are consequently excommunicated. For these reasons, this Pontifical Commission cannot encourage you to frequent the chapels of the Society of St. Pius X.”
As to the status of what he calls “the schismatic Society of St. Pius X,” Msgr. Perl had this to say:

“The priests of the Society of St. Pius X are validly ordained, but suspended, that is, prohibited from exercising their priestly functions because they are not properly incardinated in a diocese or religious institute in full communion with the Holy See and also because those ordained after the episcopal ordinations [of 1988] were ordained by an excommunicated bishop. They are also excommunicated if they adhere to the schism.

“While up to now the Holy See has not defined what this adherence consists of, one could point to a wholesale condemnation of the Church since the Second Vatican Council and a refusal to be in communion with it. Further, it is likely that these priests, after 11 years in a society whose head is now an excommunicated bishop, effectively adhere to the schism.”

This means, the Monsignor continued, that “the Masses offered by the priests of the Society of St. Pius X are valid, but illicit, i.e., contrary to canon law. The sacraments of Penance and Matrimony, however, require that the priest enjoys the faculties of the diocese or has proper delegation. Since that is not the case with these priests, these sacraments are invalid. It remains true, however, that if the faithful are genuinely ignorant that the priests of the Society of St. Pius X do not have the proper faculty to absolve, the Church supplied these faculties so that the sacrament was valid (cf. Code of Canon Law, c. 144).”

 

 

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