MENZINGEN, Switzerland (LifeSiteNews) — The Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has filed a preliminary canonical appeal against the Vatican decree of excommunication issued on July 2, suspending its force under canon law.
On July 13, the SSPX announced that it filed a preliminary administrative appeal with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on July 11 against the decree published by the same Vatican department declaring its six bishops “schismatic” and thus excommunicated. The decree also warned Society priests and lay faithful “not to adhere to the schism” or they, too, will be considered excommunicated.
According to the Society, the appeal was submitted in accordance with canons 1734 and following of the 1983 Code of Canon Law and, under canon 1353, has the effect of suspending the force of the decree while the canonical process proceeds.
“By this recourse, the Society intends to exercise the right which the Church recognizes to any person who considers himself harmed by an administrative act to seek its correction, in a spirit of respect for ecclesiastical authority and of faithful attachment to justice, truth and the good of the Church,” the statement reads.
READ: Fr. Murray: ‘I think Pope Leo would be well advised to put Traditionis Custodes in the shredder’
According to the statement, the Society submitted the preliminary recourse directly to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Before appealing to the competent superior (which in this case would be the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura), it is necessary to submit in writing a request for revocation or modification (petitio revocationis) to the author of the decree, namely the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The Society explains that the filing constitutes the preliminary procedural step required before the possible submission of a “hierarchical recourse” under the norms of canon law.
Hierarchical recourse is the means by which a member of the Church challenges administrative acts deemed unlawful, including those that declare penalties. In the meantime, as expressed by Canon 1353, while the recourse is pending, the purportedly excommunicated person may attend the sacraments and perform all the actions that would have been forbidden by the sanction.
If the preliminary recourse were to be rejected or no response given, the Society may then turn to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, which acts as the administrative court of justice for disputes concerning acts of administrative authority (cc. 1739 and 1445).
On the validity of Society marriages and confessions, the matter appears less clear. According to numerous canon lawyers, the revocation of Francis’s concessions appears legally doubtful, since it was announced through a note rather than through a decree. In the absence of an explicit pontifical legislative act, therefore, as expressed in Canon 144, Pope Francis’s faculty remains in force by reason of doubt.