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Reports indicate regular or increased attendance at SSPX chapels worldwide

Snapshots of Mass attendance on Sunday indicate that the Vatican’s threat of excommunication to the faithful who ‘adhere’ to the SSPX ‘schism’ did not discourage attendance at its chapels.
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Emily
Mangiaracina
Emily Mangiaracina
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(LifeSiteNews) — Multiple reports indicate that since Cardinal Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández issued a decree of excommunication against the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) for their episcopal consecrations, attendance at SSPX chapels has remained steady or increased.

Re-posting pictures taken outside SSPX chapels this past Sunday as proof, the Mason-Dixon Latin Mass Society shared on Sunday that “SSPX chapels today are standing room only” and that there are lines of people trying to get into chapels that are extending down sidewalks. 

“People are kneeling in the streets outside the churches just so they can be present for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,” the X account noted.

Photos shared by the Catholic media group Restoring the Faith show faithful kneeling outside SSPX chapels in Rome and Barcelona due to lack of room in the sanctuary. 


A photo of the SSPX chapel in São Paulo, Brazil, shows a long line of people waiting to enter for the 9 a.m. Sunday Mass.


A similar line formed for an SSPX church in northern Idaho, which is a nine minute-drive from a Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) church.


The Catholic Esquire reported that the SSPX priory in Denver “was full” for Mass on Sunday despite the presence of an FSSP parish less than an hour’s drive away. 

The snapshots of Mass attendance at SSPX chapels indicate that the Vatican’s threat of excommunication to the faithful who “adhere” to the “schism” of the SSPX has not discouraged attendance at SSPX chapels. 

According to Jeff Cassman, one Catholic man said he had not been to Mass in 10 years but wished to come to an SSPX Mass after the consecrations and excommunications to “see what this was all about.”

A note issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) states that “the imposition of a canonical penalty upon lay persons belonging to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X is not to be presumed automatically but must instead be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.” It further states that 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 may be considered “imputable” with regard to schism.

The note has been declared penally ineffective with regard to laypeople by canon lawyers. One canon lawyer wrote to Dr. Peter Kwasniewski:

What is clear is that the excommunication cannot be automatically imputed to ordinary members of the faithful. First because the Note isn’t a penal instrument. Only the Decree (the one covering the six bishops) has actual penal effect. The explanatory note, where the claims about lay excommunication appear, is an expository/doctrinal document, not a law, precept, or declaratory sentence. It can’t independently impose or declare a censure. It seems like amateur hour at the DDF. 

Even on its own terms, the note requires individual judgment. It incorporates the 1996 Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts Note, which sets a two-part test for ‘formal adherence to schism’: namely an internal element (a genuinely schismatic will: choosing personal judgment over obedience to the Pope) and an external element (that will be translated into concrete acts). According to the same text, merely attending Mass or occasional participation, without embracing the disunifying stance itself, does not meet the bar. Each case has to be judged individually, in the appropriate forum — not declared wholesale for an entire group of faithful.

The DDF note is also problematic because lay people do not “belong” to the SSPX because it is a priestly society and only priests form its real membership.

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