By More U.S. bishops are instructing Catholics to avoid attending Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) events in light of the recent excommunications of SSPX leadership.
U.S. bishops continue to instruct Catholics to separate themselves from the schismatic Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) while urging the society’s members to return to full communion with the Catholic Church.
The Vatican declared July 2 that six prelates involved in the SSPX’s unauthorized July 1 episcopal consecrations incurred automatic excommunication. Despite repeated warnings, SSPX bishops consecrated four new bishops without a pontifical mandate — an act of open disobedience to the authority of the pope that carries automatic excommunication for the six bishops involved.
Lay faithful who formally adhere to SSPX are also considered schismatic and can incur excommunication by continuing to attend SSPX services after the Church’s formal pronouncement of a schism.
Various Catholic bishops with SSPX locations in their dioceses are explicitly forbidding Catholics from attending SSPX Masses, instructing them to avoid the now-illicit sacraments and to withdraw their children from SSPX-affiliated schools while also urging frequent attendees and SSPX priests to seek spiritual guidance and return to the Catholic Church.
Abuse of the Eucharist
Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, instructed Catholics to “avoid participating in the activities of the SSPX.”
Burbidge emphasized in a July 8 letter to his flock that “as a result of the SSPXʼs schismatic act, any celebrations of the sacraments of confession and matrimony by the SSPX are invalid, and the administration of other sacraments is illicit.”
Bishop John Iffert of Covington, Kentucky, explained what it means for these sacraments to be “illicit.”
“This means that the celebrations are not permitted by the law of the Church and the cleric offering the sacrament commits the canonical and moral fault of disobedience in each instance,” Iffert said.
“The Masses these priests celebrate are an abuse of the Eucharist, insofar as they make the sacrament of unity into an occasion of division within the Church, and so they should be firmly rejected and avoided by all the Catholic faithful,” Iffert said.
“Together with the priests of the diocese, I invite all Catholics who have been attending the SSPX liturgy to practice their faith in one of the parishes, missions, or chapels of the diocese,” Iffert said. “You will find the Catholic Mass and the sacramental life celebrated faithfully and respectfully throughout the Diocese of Covington.”
Who is in schism?
Burbidge clarified that not all attendees of SSPX are necessarily in schism but must simply return to sacraments and ministries in union with the Church.
“I encourage any persons locally who have been attached to the SSPX and who desire the spiritual nourishment of the Church and the extraordinary form of the Mass to become active in any one of the eight locations in our diocese where this is currently possible,” Burbidge said.
“Although lay faithful who formally adhere to the SSPX are considered schismatic and excommunicated, this does not apply to lay faithful ‘who do not reject the magisterium of the authority of the Roman pontiff’ and have engaged with the SSPX for solely liturgical or spiritual reasons,” Burbidge said. “Such persons must simply resolve not to continue to participate in future SSPX sacramental worship or pastoral ministries.”
“The Holy See, in the spirit of conciliation, has outlined the procedure necessary for SSPX priests and lay faithful to return to Catholic communion,” Burbidge explained.
Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez of Palm Beach, Florida, issued a decree reiterating the Holy See’s excommunication and instructing the faithful to separate from SSPX in any “ecclesiastical ministry” or “diocesan entity.”
Rodríguez also provided instructions for any Catholics who wish to leave SSPX “and enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.”
How SSPX’s schism affects education
The schismatic acts of SSPX have a trickle-down effect, even affecting the education of children.
In Covington, Kentucky, two schools are affiliated with SSPX. Iffert has instructed Catholics to withdraw their children from the schools due to the schismatic nature of the group.
“Because Assumption Academy and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Academy are associated with the SSPX, Catholic parents should not enroll their children in these schools,” Iffert said in a letter. “To do so is to entrust the religious formation of children to those who participate in schism against the Roman Catholic Church.”
He encouraged parents to reach out to the diocesan Catholic schools office for “appropriate placement in a local Catholic school.”
Praying for return
The bishops prayed for union and for society members to return to the Church.
“I pledge to pray for the bishops and priests of the SSPX and for their faithful return to regular order in the Catholic Church,” Iffert said. “I also assure the lay faithful who have been attached to the SSPX of my prayer for their good and for the restoration of unity in the Church.”
Burbidge prayed especially for SSPX priests.
“To my brother priests in the SSPX, please know of my prayers for you and my heartfelt desire for your return to full communion with the Church,” Burbidge said. “I invite all the faithful to join me in prayer for the end of all division and schism and for the unity of the Church, so that she may better fulfill the divine commission to make disciples of all nations.”
“I ask all faithful Catholics to pray for restored unity and order in the Church and in our diocese,” Iffert said. “Please beg the intercession of Pope St. Pius X, that his name may always give glory to God and never be a sign of division in the Eucharistic community that he cherished.”
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Do they urge people not to attend “pride” Masses? Jimmy Martin events.
The selective indignity here is palpable.
Seriously, quoting Iffert? The Bishop who celebrated an LGBTQ Mass calls this an abuse?
The present Pope has made it clear that matters of sexual sin are not as important as other matters, such as social justice, equality, etc., all collectivist social issues dear to the Marxist Liberation Theology, which originated in South America (after the Vatican II, of course). Perhaps that bishop is all for social justice, equality, more immigration, etc. This is the Pope speaking:
“We tend to think that when the church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual,” said the pope during the in-flight press conference. “And in reality, I believe THERE ARE MUCH GREATER, MORE IMPORTANT ISSUES, SUCH AS JUSTICE, EQUALITY,,,THAT WOULD ALL TAKE PRIORITY BEFORE THAT PARTICULAR ISSUE.” His views go against Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, of course. Saint Paul and the Church Fathers would be horrified to hear him.
There is a traditional ordering of grave sins according to how bad they are. Generally those pertaining to bodily appetites (gluttony, lust, greed, anger) are the less bad way to spiritually become a corpse than the ones using the higher faculties (sloth, envy, pride).
Of course, there is also the gravity of the specific act, e.g., a prideful statement is venial, while fornication is grave.
Then there is the question of which destroy the most souls, which according to Our Lady of Fatima, is sins of the flesh, which might mean lust, or the broader category of those pertaining to bodily appetites. Even narrowing the field to religion, there are probably far fewer people committing mortal sins involving the suppression of religion, then there are people committing less serious mortal sins involving not practicing even the minimum requirements of their religion.
There are multiple ways to order them.
Saying justice is more important than lust makes little sense to me, not due to ordering, but because they are overlepping categories. Justice includes many things that are not lust, but it also includes sins within lust. Rape and sexual abuse, and also adultery, are unjust. Fornication is always an abuse, it takes rights over the other’s body without any intention of lifelong faithfulness, and it is unjust to the children who are not given a stable home with mother and father *as is their right*. Pornography makes a mockery of the idea of equal dignity.
Amanda, I think you’ve done an admirable job of summing it all up. I would add only that all sins are injustices against God and against His image within us.
“Because Assumption Academy and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Academy are associated with the SSPX, Catholic parents should not enroll their children in these schools,” Iffert said in a letter. “To do so is to entrust the religious formation of children to those who participate in schism against the Roman Catholic Church.”
Got it.
Send them to the Modernist Catholic parish school where kids were taught that “some people think abortion is wrong, and other people think it is okay.” (This, from a 5th grader’s essay in a KOC contest on “Pro-Life.” I was a judge.)
A 4th grade teacher at that same Modernist Catholic parish school: “The Rosary is a method of counting.”
As I have predicted: As long as Leo refuses to lead the Church in teaching the full deposit of faith by:
1. Not dealing with the heretical practices and teaching by the German bishops
2. Entertaining pro-abortion and pro-homosexuals at the Vatican
3. Tolerating Rupnick’s raping nuns
4. Homosexual liturgies all over the USA, Canada and Europe then we will continue to see growing numbers of Catholics in the ranks of SSPX Church communities.
“Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus”
– bishop St. Cyprian of Carthage 3rd century
The most traditional of Catholic dogmas. Not subject to personal interpretation or prudential judgement.