Traditional Catholic ☩ (@_BattleForTruth) / X
CV NEWS FEED // A Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) bishop passed away this week after suffering a bad fall and fracturing his skull.
Earlier this month, the SSPX had informed online that Bishop Tissier de Mallerais was still unconscious after suffering a fall, and requested prayers. On October 8, the Society announced that he had passed away.
Bishop de Mallerais, 79, was one of the four bishops consecrated illicitly by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who founded the SSPX, and Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer. Because the consecration was done without the permission of St. Pope John Paul II, the bishops and Lefebvre incurred automatic excommunication, according to a 2017 Catholic News Agency (CNA) report:
The excommunications of the surviving bishops were lifted in 2009 by Benedict XVI, and since then negotiations “to rediscover full communion with the Church” have continued between the Society and the Vatican.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issued a letter that states: “As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church. … until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers — even though they have been freed of the ecclesiastical penalty — do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church.”
In 2016, CNA reported that Pope Francis extended his decree giving SSPX priests the faculty to hear valid confessions.
However, the SSPX remains in “canonical irregularity.”
According to a 1995 statement from Commission Ecclesia Dei Secretary Msgr. Camille Perl, the SSPX priests celebrate valid Masses, “but it is considered morally illicit for the faithful to participate in these Masses unless they are physically or morally impeded from participating in a Mass celebrated by a Catholic priest in good standing (cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 844.2).”
“The fact of not being able to assist at the celebration of the so-called ‘Tridentine’ Mass is not considered a sufficient motive for attending such Masses,” the statement adds.
In 2017, CNA reported that Cardinal Gerhard Muller signed a letter, approved by Pope Francis, that opened the way for SSPX priests to validly witness the sacrament of marriage in exceptional cases determined by the local bishop.
“Francis approved this authorization out of a ‘pastoral outlook,’ following a proposal by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei,” CNA reported at the time:
It was done “to reassure the conscience of the faithful, despite the objective persistence of the canonical irregularity in which for the time being the Society of St. Pius X finds itself.”
The decision is placed in the context of the Church’s ongoing initiatives “to bring the Society of St. Pius X into full communion.”
The full integration of the SSPX into the Catholic Church has been conditioned to some requirements. Among them is the acceptance of the Second Vatican Council as a legitimate Catholic council, something they have so far refused to do.
