The Vatican has published the detailed procedure for clergy and faithful to leave the Society of Saint Pius X.
As announced in the Explanatory Note accompanying the Decree of excommunication against certain members of the Society, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has prepared a process by which clergy and lay faithful may leave the SSPX and “reconcile” to the Holy See.
It differs slightly for priests and lay faithful in that the process for a cleric is more involved. A priest seeking to leave the SSPX must be “willing to accept the Second Vatican Council and the legitimacy of the novus ordo Missae, even while remaining attached to the usus antiquior”, DDF Prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández wrote.
The five-fold process for clergy involves:
- Finding an ordinary who is willing to accept the priest ad experiment.
- Writing a personal letter to the Pope, introducing himself and request the lifting of the “censures incurred because of his ordination by an excommunicated or irregular bishop, or because, having been validly and legitimately ordained, he subsequently joined the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X.”
- Sending the certificate of his ordination.
- Sign, date & send the Professio Fidei and the Formula adhaesionis.
- Have the ordinary send all the above documents to the DDF, and also write of his own willingness to take in the priest ad experimentum.
As for what the Profession of Faith and Declaration of Adherence entail, it is the Declaration which will likely prove to be the most objectionable since it deals directly with the Second Vatican Council. It reads in part:
“With regard to certain doctrines taught by the Second Vatican Council, or regarding subsequent reforms—whether of the Liturgy or of Canon Law—which some find difficult to reconcile with previous declarations of the Magisterium, I undertake the obligation to follow a positive approach to interpreting doctrine under the guidance of the Magisterium, so that no one may separate it from the rest of the Church’s sacred doctrinal heritage.”
The signatory must also accept “the validity of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments celebrated with the intention of doing what the Church does, and according to the rites found in the official editions of the Roman Missal and the Rituals published by the Supreme Pontiffs Paul VI and John Paul II.”
Once the DDF has received the full request from a cleric, the Dicastery will compile a document lifting the censure and have it signed by the Prefect and the Doctrinal Section secretary.
A probationary period for the priest thus begins, lasting between 1 and 3 years, after which he may be incardinated.
For the lay faithful the process is less detailed, especially as Fernández notes that “the imposition of a penalty on laypeople belonging to the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X cannot be presumed automatically, but must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.”
Individuals who he argues can be “proven” to have incurred the penalty of excommunication – as outlined in the Decree of 2 July – include:
“1. Laypeople who are members of the Third Order of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X; 2. Laypeople who habitually participate in the celebrations of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X, formally sharing its doctrinal positions.”
However the cardinal wrote that there was no need of “reconciliation”, and thus no penalties incurred, for those who “have attended the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X solely for liturgical or spiritual reasons”, or those laypeople who “while aware of the tensions with the Holy See, do not reject the Magisterium or the authority of the Roman Pontiff.”
This echoes the text of the Vatican 1996 Note which Fernández cited earlier today, a Note which outlined how “formal adherence” to the schism could not be presumed from simply attending an SSPX Mass, since the requirements needing to be met to constitute schism were more involved.
Presuming there are members of the laity who need to complete the process of “reconciliation”, they must also sign the Profession of Faith and Declaration of Adherence and submit them to the local Ordinary.
He must then “welcome the lay faithful member in the manner and within the timeframe he deems most appropriate, using, for example, the Rite of Admission to Full Communion with the Catholic Church for Those Who Have Already Been Validly Baptized, duly adapted.”
Somewhat contradictory is the rest of Fernández’s process of “reconciliation”, since it states that even individuals who do not need to reconcile must “approach a priest in full communion, with the decision not to attend the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X in the future.” This appears to contradict the possibility allowed for in the 1996 Note which did permit members of the faithful to attend SSPX Masses.
So far, the SSPX have not responded officially to any of the Vatican’s three documents issued today against them.
