(LifeSiteNews) — The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) under Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández has issued a document “Procedure for the Reconciliation of Priests of the Society of Saint Pius X,” and another for the lay faithful which includes a Profession of Faith and Formula of Adherence.
The move follows Thursday’s excommunication of the Society after their episcopal consecrations without a papal mandate.
The procedure, effective July 1 and translated in full by Rorate Caeli, requires priests belonging to the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) who have decided to leave the order to:
- find a bishop, a major superior of a clerical pontifical institute or another ordinary who is willing to accept him ad experimentum,
- write a letter to Pope Leo XIV requesting the remission of the censures incurred by receiving priestly ordination from an excommunicated or canonically irregular bishop, and
- attach documentation of his priestly ordination and a Profession of Faith and a Formula of Adherence, as well as a letter signed by the ordinary explaining their willingness to accept the priest.
Should the clerics request be accepted, they will enter into a 1-3 year probationary period under their ordinary after which the priest may finally be incardinated.
Laity who frequently assist at SSPX liturgical celebrations and formally share its doctrinal positions, as well as those who are third-order members of the Society, are considered to have also incurred a canonical penalty and will be required to sign the Profession of Faith and Formula of Adherence.
READ: Vatican rules SSPX confessions, marriages invalid after schism declaration
The Profession of Faith begins with affirming that the cleric or layman believes every article in the Nicene Creed then states:
With firm faith, I also believe everything contained in the word of God, whether written or handed down in Tradition, which the Church proposes as divinely revealed, whether by solemn judgment or by her ordinary and universal Magisterium.
I likewise firmly accept and hold each and every teaching definitively proposed by the Church regarding faith and morals.
Moreover, with religious submission of will and intellect, I adhere to the teachings which either the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops proclaim when exercising their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim them by a definitive act.
The Formula of Adherence states in part:
I accept the doctrine taught in No. 25 of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium of the Second Vatican Council concerning the Magisterium of the Church and the adherence owed to it.
With regard to certain doctrines taught by the Second Vatican Council, or subsequent reforms in either the Sacred Liturgy or Canon Law, which may appear to some to be difficult to reconcile with previous declarations of the Magisterium, I undertake to follow a positive approach to their interpretation under the guidance of the Church’s Magisterium, so that none of these teachings may be separated from the remainder of the Church’s sacred doctrinal patrimony.
I further declare that I accept the validity of the Sacrifice of the Mass and of the Sacraments celebrated with the intention of doing what the Church does, and according to the rites contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal and the ritual books promulgated by the Supreme Pontiffs Paul VI and John Paul II.
Finally, I promise to adhere to the common discipline of the Church and to her laws, especially those contained in the Code of Canon Law promulgated by Pope John Paul II.
The question of accepting each document of the Second Vatican Council, including Lumen Gentium No. 25, was a sticking point between the SSPX and the Vatican prior to Wednesday’s consecrations.
A February communiqué from the SSPX General House published after Superior General Fr. Davide Pagliarani’s meeting with Fernández claimed that the cardinal proposed dialogue with the SSPX to clarify the “minimum necessary” for the SSPX’s canonical status. The cardinal had already made clear that the Second Vatican Council documents must be accepted in full by the SSPX to reach such “regular” status.
READ: Cardinal Fernández tells SSPX superior that Vatican II documents ‘cannot be corrected’
“The Cardinal stated orally that, while it would be possible to engage in dialogue about the Council, its texts could not be corrected,” the communiqué said.
Fernández proposed exchanges with the SSPX that would seek agreement on “the different degrees of adherence required by the various texts of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and their interpretation.”
Several prominent Catholic prelates, including Bishop Athanasius Schneider, have argued that, as the Second Vatican Council was a pastoral council, the documents can indeed be corrected and the Society, along with all the faithful, is therefore not obliged to accept each of the Council’s documents in order to maintain communion with the Church, as the Vatican has claimed.
“Why is the unconditional acceptance of the texts of Vatican II presented as a conditio sine qua non for full communion with the Holy See, while no comparable requirement exists with respect to the pastoral, disciplinary, or non-definitive teachings of the preceding 20 Ecumenical Councils?” Schneider pondered in a recent article.
“Among the non-definitive teachings of Vatican II, there are several — particularly those concerning religious liberty, ecumenism, interreligious dialogue, and collegiality — whose formulations are ambiguous and difficult to reconcile with doctrines taught consistently by the Magisterium from the era of the Church Fathers through the period immediately preceding the Council,” His Excellency added.
Others, such as Bishop Marian Eleganti, have said the SSPX’s plans to consecrate bishops without a papal mandate show the order’s “schismatic mindset,” which he said they demonstrate by acting independently from the authority of the Church.
“Firstly, acting with full autonomy without papal mandate or confirmed mission; secondly, operating with bishops not in union with the Pope and the episcopal college; thirdly, maintaining hundreds of priests who are not incardinated; and finally, existing in a kind of jurisdictional nirvana through self-authorization, considering themselves the only true Catholics, with the only true sacraments, at least without defects, and the only true doctrine,” Eleganti stated.
“They claim not to want a Church beside the Church while creating one and behaving in a way that corresponds exactly to that,” he added.