6/13/2023 0 Comments Sspx singles![]() ![]() As I have written a zillion times on this blog about fulfilling Sunday and Holy Day obligations, in can. ![]() The Masses celebrated by SSPX priests are celebrated in a Catholic rite. If the SSPX priests can receive faculties, and they have, all over the place, then they are not suspended!Īnother point, and one that touches close to home with many lay people who love our Catholic tradition: attendance at SSPX Masses. We can’t just think of the SSPX priests and confession and marriages in the same way that we did before those grants.įurthermore – AND PAY ATTENTION because this is really important – suspended priests cannot receive faculties. ![]() Something important to note about this is that that letter of the CDF did NOT say that, “Up until now, the marriages witnessed by the SSPX priests were invalid.” The Apostolic Letter Misericordia et misera did NOT say that, “Until now, the absolutions given by priests of the SSPX were invalid.” That’s food for thought. Since then, I think most, not all, diocesan bishops have worked with local SSPX priests in this regard and simply given the SSPX priests the faculty. The priests can now have the faculty themselves and they can work with a local diocesan priest. There had been considerable debate about the validity of SSPX witnessed marriages. As in the case of hearing confessions, marriages require that a priest have the appropriate faculty. On 27 March 2017 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (which had absorbed my old office, the PCED) informed all the bishops of the world that they could give faculties to SSPX priests to witness marriages. You can go to confession to them not just because there are no other priests around. So, SSPX priests can validly absolve sins even when there is no danger of death. Popes can do that sort of thing, whereas other entities such as dicasteries of the Holy See (e.g., the Pontifical Commission “ Ecclesia Dei” (PCED) of old and now CDF, and diocesan bishops) have to use another procedure. In this case, Francis said that people can be absolved by SSPX priests and that, as they say, is that. It’s better when they do things in a way that make things clear, with all the i’s dotted. ![]() However, Popes can do what they want in this regard. In this case there is no document that I’m aware of that explicitly grants faculties to the priests of the SSPX to hear confessions and to absolve. Those faculties are demonstrable with a document saying that Fr. This is a little odd, because it was not really a formal grant of faculties in the usual and expected way to the priests of the SSPX, as when a bishop grants faculties to a priest to receive sacramental confessions. That provision was extended beyond the “Year of Mercy” in the 2016 Apostolic Letter Misericordia et misera. On 8 December 2015, Francis told the Catholic faithful that for the Holy Year of Mercy they could go to priests of the SSPX for the Sacrament of Penance and that they could be validly absolved. The SSPX is an association of the faithful. 298 §1, which are, for example, when clerics or laity want to strive with common effort for foster a more perfect life, promote public worship, etc. 299 §1 says that by private agreement among themselves, the faithful have the right to constitute associations for the purposes mentioned in can. Hopefully one day they will be set up and recognized formally as a, say, Personal Prelature or some variant. Their “association of the faithful” does not now have canonical recognition. The SSPX does not have formal canonical status other than they are exercising a canonical right to associate with each other.
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