Cardinal V\u00edctor Manuel Fern\u00e1ndez said Pope Leo XIV is praying for the leaders of the Society of St. Pius X to \u201creconsider the very grave decision they have made.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Vatican\u2019s doctrine chief warned Wednesday that the plan of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to consecrate new bishops without papal mandate will represent a schismatic act resulting in excommunication.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis act will constitute \u2018a schismatic act,\u2019 and \u2018formal adherence to schism constitutes a grave offense against God and entails the excommunication established by the law of the Church,\u2019\u201d said Cardinal V\u00edctor Manuel Fern\u00e1ndez, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.<\/p>\n
The cardinal\u2019s brief statement quoted from St. John Paul II\u2019s letter Ecclesia Dei, which the late pope wrote shortly after the society\u2019s unlawful ordination of four bishops conferred by SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in June 1988.<\/p>\n
Fern\u00e1ndez went on to say that the Holy Father “continues in his prayers to ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten the leaders of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X so that they may reconsider the very grave decision they have made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under canon law, a bishop who consecrates another bishop without a papal mandate and the person who receives that consecration incur automatic excommunication.<\/p>\n
The SSPX has declared it intends to proceed with illicit episcopal consecrations at its international seminary in \u00c9c\u00f4ne, Switzerland, on July 1, in defiance of the Vatican\u2019s warnings of schism.<\/p>\n
The decision to proceed with the consecrations without papal approval was confirmed in a Feb. 18 letter penned by SSPX superior general Father Davide Pagliarani a week after his Feb. 12 meeting with Fern\u00e1ndez, during which the Vatican proposed a structured theological dialogue in order to avoid ecclesial rupture.<\/p>\n
The SSPX, which exclusively celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass, maintains doctrinal differences with certain teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council, particularly with regard to religious freedom and the Church\u2019s approach to other faiths.<\/p>\n
Cardinals Gerhard M\u00fcller and Robert Sarah, prominent supporters of the Traditional Latin Mass, have spoken out against the SSPX\u2019s decision to defy the Vatican. Cardinal Joseph Zen, the retired archbishop of Hong Kong, has also urged the traditionalist group to avoid schism \u201cat all costs.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposed July 1 date for the episcopal consecrations coincides with the anniversary of the 1988 excommunication of SSPX founder Lefebvre for consecrating four bishops without the permission of Rome.<\/p>\n
The Society of St. Pius X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from EWTN News.<\/p>\n
Denne artikel blev oprindeligt udgivet af EWTN News English.<\/p>\n