The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published July 2 a document explaining a process for the reconciliation of priests and lay people wishing to leave the Society St. Pius X, just hours after the Holy See announced that the society had entered into schism following the illicit episcopal consecration of four of its priests on July 1.
The procedure requires priests to sign a declaration accepting the Second Vatican Council and the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae, while allowing them to “remain attached to” the extraordinary form of the Roman rite.
The protocol also outlines a process for reconciling laypeople who formally adhered to the schism and wish to return to full communion with the Church, as well as explaining that not every lay person attached to the SSPX’s ministry can be assumed to have adhered to its schism.
The decision by SSPX leaders to hold the illicit episcopal consecrations came despite many warnings from the Vatican that doing so would constitute an act of schism resulting in the excommunication of both the bishops conferring ordination, and those being ordained.
SSPX leadership argued that the step was a legitimate response to an “objective state of grave necessity.”
The Vatican has warned clergy and laypeople that they will also incur the penalty of excommunication if they “adhere to the schism of the Society of St. Pius X.”
In its most recent document, the DDF offers a pathway to reconciliation for both priests and laity affiliated with the SSPX who want to re-enter full communion with the Church.
The document says that a priest who leaves the SSPX should find a diocesan bishop or the superior of a religious congregation or society of apostolic life willing to receive him ad experimentum.
The priest must then write a letter to the pope requesting “the remission of the censures incurred by reason of having received ordination from an excommunicated or otherwise irregular bishop, or, although having been validly and lawfully ordained, having subsequently joined the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X.”
In addition, the priest must send the DDF his certificate of ordination, a signed profession of faith and formula of adherence – which are attached in the DDF document – and a letter from the ordinary willing to receive the priest.
After the dicastery receives these three documents, it will prepare a rescript remitting the censure and send it to the ordinary in question, along with a letter authorizing the ordinary to receive the priest for a trial period between one and three years.
When the trial period concludes, the priest can be incardinated in the diocese, congregation or society of apostolic life in question.
The profession of the faith that priests are required to sign includes the Nicene Creed, and three other assertions. The first one says: “With firm faith I also believe everything contained in the Word of God, whether written or handed down by tradition, which the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by its ordinary and universal Magisterium, proposes as divinely revealed and to be believed.”
The second assertion says: “I also firmly accept and hold each and every teaching definitively proposed by the Church concerning faith or morals.”
The final assertion says: “I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which the Roman Pontiff or the College of Bishops proclaim when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.”
The formula of adherence, which must be signed by both priests and laity, promises fidelity to the Church and the pope, “refraining from every public declaration contrary to his person or to his Magisterium.”
The formula also says the person wishing to be reconciled accepts No. 25 of the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, which states that “religious submission of mind and will must be shown in a special way to the authentic magisterium of the Roman Pontiff, even when he is not speaking ex cathedra; that is, it must be shown in such a way that his supreme magisterium is acknowledged with reverence, the judgments made by him are sincerely adhered to, according to his manifest mind and will.”
The section also adds that “when either the Roman Pontiff or the Body of Bishops together with him defines a judgment, they pronounce it in accordance with Revelation itself, which all are obliged to abide by and be in conformity with… and which under the guiding light of the Spirit of truth is religiously preserved and faithfully expounded in the Church.”
The formula of adherence also says that the person wishing to be reconciled, should “undertake to follow a positive approach in interpreting” certain doctrines taught by the Second Vatican Council, the liturgical reform, or the reform of canon law, even though they “may appear to some to be difficult to reconcile with previous declarations of the Magisterium,” and that these doctrines should be interpreted “under the guidance of the Magisterium, so that no one may separate them from the rest of the sacred patrimony of the Church’s doctrine.”
In addition, the formula says the person accepts “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 found in the typical editions of the Roman Missal and the Rituals promulgated by the Supreme Pontiffs Paul VI and John Paul II.”
Last, it adds that the person adheres to “the common discipline of the Church and to her laws, especially those contained in the Code of Canon Law promulgated by the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II.”
Laity seeking to return to full communion with the Church must submit the profession of faith and formula of adherence to their local bishop, who “shall receive the lay faithful at such time and in such manner as he judges most appropriate, making use, for example, of the Rite of Reception into the Full Communion of the Catholic Church of those already validly baptized, suitably adapted.”
However, the DDF document clarifies that it cannot be automatically assumed that laity affiliated with the SSPX are excommunicated, but rather this “must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.”
When the Vatican announced the schism and excommunication of the SSPX bishops, it also said that clergy and laypeople would incur excommunication if they were to “formally adhere” to the society’s schism.
An explanatory note from the Vatican said “formal adherence” to the schism for laypeople occurs under conditions set out by the 1996 Explanatory Note of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.
This note says that in laypeople’s case, “it is obvious that an occasional participation in liturgical acts or the activity of the Lefebvrian movement, done without making one’s own the attitude of doctrinal and disciplinary disunion of such a movement, does not suffice for one to be able to speak of formal adherence to the movement.”
“One must take account above all of the person’s intentions, and the putting into practice of this internal disposition. For this reason the various situations are going to be judged case by case, in the competent forums both internal and external.”
This week’s DDF document mentions examples of “demonstrable imputability,” such as adherence to the SSPX’s third order or habitual participation in liturgical celebrations “while formally sharing its doctrinal positions.”
In contrast, it says, “lay faithful who attended the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X solely for liturgical or spiritual reasons” and “lay faithful who, although aware of the tensions with the Holy See, do not reject the Magisterium or the authority of the Roman Pontiff,” are not to be regarded as schismatics and do not automatically incur excommunication.
For laypeople who attend SSPX liturgies without adhering to the formal schism, the document says, a signed profession of faith and formula of adherence are not necessary. Rather, “it is sufficient that they approach a priest in full communion with the Church, having resolved not to attend the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X in the future.”
A prayerful hope that many take advantage of this opportunity...
From Rose Lyddon's report in the Catholic Herald, sadly it seems that very many of the laity who attended not only adhere to but are positively celebrating schism
https://thecatholicherald.com/article/at-econe-schism-was-greeted-with-celebration