The position of ChurchMilitant.TV concerning the SSPX is
that of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, as expressed in his motu proprio Ecclesiae Unitatem, issued July 2, 2009:
"In the same spirit and with the same
commitment to encouraging the resolution of all fractures and divisions in the
Church and to healing a wound in the ecclesial fabric that was more and more
painfully felt, I wished to remit the excommunication of the four Bishops
illicitly ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre. With this decision I intended to
remove an impediment that might have jeopardized the opening of a door to
dialogue and thereby to invite the Bishops and the "Society of St Pius
X" to rediscover the path to full communion with the Church. As I
explained in my Letter to the Catholic Bishops (http://bit.ly/uuQYU3) of last
10 March, the remission of the excommunication was a measure taken in the
context of ecclesiastical discipline to free the individuals from the burden of
conscience constituted by the most serious of ecclesiastical penalties.
However, the doctrinal questions obviously remain and until they are clarified
the Society has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot
legitimately exercise any ministry."
There are two important points here:
1) The SSPX are not in full
communion with the Church and are invited by the Church to rediscover this
path.
2) The SSPX has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry.
2) The SSPX has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry.
We are well aware of ongoing dialog between the SSPX and
Rome. It is to be fervently hoped that these dialogs result in a return of the
SSPX to full communion with the Church, granting their bishops and clergy
canonical status and the authority to exercise ministry. Until such time as
this occurs, our judgment must remain that of the Holy Father.
Terry Carroll
Executive Producer
ChurchMilitant.TV
Terry Carroll
Executive Producer
ChurchMilitant.TV
*********
Mr. Carroll added this comment on “Feel
the Pain”; I think he makes many good points (my emphases):
I could not be more sympathetic to the SSPX as a temptation
for those suffering through the insults to Our Lord at so many Novus Ordo
Masses. But it is terribly easy to rationalize
one's participation on a regular basis as if we were recusants during the
period of the English Reformation. The Church Herself has not declared a
"state of emergency" and it is hubris to assume that WE can.
SSPX priests are validly ordained, their Masses are valid, but they are in all cases acts of disobedience to the Church. SSPX priests do not have faculties to hear confessions. I, personally, do not wish to "gamble" on "Deus supplet" on a matter so urgent. I, personally, experience even MORE pain at the idea that a priest of God offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in persona Christi disobediently than I do at the worst excuses for Mass that I have experienced in Novus Ordo settings.
Suffer through Novus Ordo Masses, even refrain from receiving Holy Communion, rather than rationalize your participation in a Mass that quite likely is even more insulting to God than the Masses you now endure. The cry of Satan was "Non serviam," the penultimate act of disobedience. It is conceivable that SSPX Masses are as offensive to God as Black Masses. God is not mocked, and God does not bless disobedience. Stay with the Church and, in the best traditional sense, "offer it up" as an act of redemptive suffering within the divine chastisement that we all so painfully experience.
The SSPX are not formally in schism. But the consecration of bishops was declared by Pope John Paul II as "schismatic." This is just a case of hearing "quacks" before definitively concluding that it's a duck. SUFFER through the Novus Ordo Mass and fulfill your obligation to keep holy the Lord's day. Don't pamper your spiritual needs with rationalized disobedience. Pray that the SSPX responds to grace and enters into communion with the Church. This is what the Holy Father asks. As faithful Catholics, THIS is what we should be doing, not reinforcing disobedience.
SSPX priests are validly ordained, their Masses are valid, but they are in all cases acts of disobedience to the Church. SSPX priests do not have faculties to hear confessions. I, personally, do not wish to "gamble" on "Deus supplet" on a matter so urgent. I, personally, experience even MORE pain at the idea that a priest of God offers the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in persona Christi disobediently than I do at the worst excuses for Mass that I have experienced in Novus Ordo settings.
Suffer through Novus Ordo Masses, even refrain from receiving Holy Communion, rather than rationalize your participation in a Mass that quite likely is even more insulting to God than the Masses you now endure. The cry of Satan was "Non serviam," the penultimate act of disobedience. It is conceivable that SSPX Masses are as offensive to God as Black Masses. God is not mocked, and God does not bless disobedience. Stay with the Church and, in the best traditional sense, "offer it up" as an act of redemptive suffering within the divine chastisement that we all so painfully experience.
The SSPX are not formally in schism. But the consecration of bishops was declared by Pope John Paul II as "schismatic." This is just a case of hearing "quacks" before definitively concluding that it's a duck. SUFFER through the Novus Ordo Mass and fulfill your obligation to keep holy the Lord's day. Don't pamper your spiritual needs with rationalized disobedience. Pray that the SSPX responds to grace and enters into communion with the Church. This is what the Holy Father asks. As faithful Catholics, THIS is what we should be doing, not reinforcing disobedience.
