BREAKING: Cdl. Fernandez urges SSPX to drop plan to consecrate bishops

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Hopes for an agreement between the Vatican and the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) were dashed this morning after a meeting between the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and Father Davide Pagliarani.

Today, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and Pagliarani, the superior general of the SSPX, met in Rome for what the Vatican’s media chief, Matteo Bruni, had described on February 5 as “an opportunity for an informal and personal dialogue.” However, a communique released after the meeting revealed that Fernández threatened Pagliarani and the SSPX with the crime of “schism.”

The message noted that Fernández offered Pagliarani the initiation of a dialogue on several contentious issues, including whether God willed the plurality of religions, and the degree of the binding authority of the documents of the Second Vatican Council. However, this dialogue would presuppose the suspension of the SSPX’s intention to create bishops without papal sanction. If the consecrations go ahead, the Vatican will recognize “the crime of schism” on the part of the Society. According to the communique:

It has been reiterated by the Holy See that the consecration of bishops without the mandate of the Holy Father, who holds supreme ordinary power, which is full, universal, immediate, and direct (cf. CDC, can. 331; Dogmatic Constitution Pastor aeternus, chaps. I and III), would imply a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism) with grave consequences for the Fraternity as a whole (JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei, July 2, 1988, nos. 3 and 5c; PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR 1 LEGISLATIVE TEXTS, Explanatory Note, August 24, 1996, no. 1). Therefore, the possibility of carrying out this dialogue presupposes that the Fraternity suspend the decision of the announced episcopal consecrations.

This morning’s meeting, proposed by Fernández, followed the Society’s February 2 announcement that they would ordain new bishops this July 1. The late founder of the Society, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, famously ordained four bishops without the permission of Pope John Paul II on June 30, 1988. He took this step to ensure that Catholic Tradition, as he and the SSPX understood it, would survive in the post Vatican II-era Church.

Lefebvre, together with the new bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta, were subsequently declared excommunicated latae sententiae by the pope. The excommunications of the four bishops were lifted by Pope Benedict on January 21, 2009; Lefebvre had died on March 25, 1991. As of today, only two of those prelates are still living: Fellay and De Galaretta.

In its February 2 communique, the SSPX explained that Pagliarani had approached the Vatican on the subject of ordaining new bishops in August:

Last August, he sought the favour of an audience with the Holy Father, making known his desire to present to the Holy Father, in a filial manner, the current situation of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X. In a second letter, he explicitly expressed the particular need of the Society to ensure the continuation of the ministry of its bishops, who have been travelling the world for nearly 40 years to respond to the many faithful attached to the Tradition of the Church and desirous, for the good of their souls, that the sacraments of Holy Orders and Confirmation be conferred.

However, despite the support and encouragement the Society had been offered by his late predecessor Francis, who had explicitly permitted SSPX priests to hear confessions and officiate at weddings, Pope Leo apparently did not give the Society permission to ordain new bishops. As the communique continues, Pagliarani decided to plan new episcopal consecrations anyway:

After having long matured his reflection in prayer, and having received from the Holy See, in recent days, a letter which does not in any way respond to our requests, Father Pagliarani, in harmony with the unanimous advice of his Council, judges that the objective state of grave necessity in which souls find themselves requires such a decision.

This clearly follows Lefebvre’s precedent, and the SSPX quoted their late founder in explaining Pagliarani’s rationale:

The Society [of Saint Pius X] is not primarily seeking its own survival. It primarily seeks the good of the Universal Church and, for this reason, the Society is, par excellence, a work of the Church, which, with unique freedom and strength, responds adequately to the specific needs of an unprecedentedly tragic era. 

This single goal is still ours today, just as it was 50 years ago. “That is why, without any spirit of rebellion, bitterness, or resentment, we pursue our work of forming priests, with the timeless Magisterium as our guide. We are persuaded that we can render no greater service to the Holy Catholic Church, to the Sovereign Pontiff and to posterity (Abp. Lefebvre, Declaration of 21 November 1974).”

It is yet unknown who the candidates for the SSPX’s planned episcopal consecrations are.

Developing….