Fr. Gerald Murray, a canon lawyer and pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church in New York City explained to CNA this week that the current discussions between the Holy See and the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) “hold great promise for progress.”In the latest submission to CNA’s video commentary project, Fr. Murray addressed the origins of the traditionalist society, which was founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in opposition to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. Then, in 1988, the archbishop ordained four bishops without the requisite permission of the Holy Father.
Following the ordinations, the bishops were excommunicated by then-Pope John Paul II. However, in January 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication of the SSPX bishops in a decision he hoped would lead to “real and final unity.” “As you know,” noted Fr. Murray, “the Pope remitted the penalty of excommunication which the four ordained bishops had received by automatic censure penalty...which had been declared by the Holy See at the time they were ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988.”
“Pope Benedict XVI, in his goodness, decided to remit those penalties,” the canon lawyer observed, “but the bishops were not restored to full communion with the Holy See.” This is because, “to receive ordination without the requisite permission is a canonical offense, and the penalty is suspension,” said Fr. Murray. Thus, the bishops, who are no longer excommunicated, are still under the penalty of suspension.
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2 comments:
The Second Vatican Council defined no new Dogma, or Doctrine.
The Holy Father himself has said this.
Therefore we are NOT obliged to believe or place creedence [same thing] in any novel ideas that were written into any of the documents of that Council.
We are, however, bound to believe everything that the Church has always defined and taught dogmatically.
God bless you all!
very well said!
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