The following comes from a November 21 Catholic News Agency article:
Although the Jubilee of Mercy has ended, Pope Francis has decided that some of the novelties he applied to the Church during the Holy Year will continue.
He is allowing all priests to absolve the sin of abortion from here on out, while SSPX priests will be able to continue hearing confessions validly.
In addition, he has indefinitely extended the mandate of the Missionaries of Mercy and has decided to institute the World Day for the Poor, which will take place each year on the Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time.
The Pope announced his decision in his new Apostolic Letter “Misericordia et Misera,” meaning “Mercy with Misery.”
In the letter, Pope Francis said that “the Sacrament of Reconciliation must regain its central place in the Christian life.”
“Given this need, lest any obstacle arise between the request for reconciliation and God’s forgiveness, I henceforth grant to all priests, in virtue of their ministry, the faculty to absolve those who have committed the sin of procured abortion,” the letter read.
A woman who obtains an abortion automatically incurs a “latae sententiae” excommunication, along with those who assisted her in the process. Because of this excommunication, the sin of abortion can normally only be absolved by a bishop, or certain priests appointed by him.
For specific occasions such as Advent or Lent, some bishops extend this faculty to all priests within their diocese. In the U.S., the faculty to absolve abortion has already been delegated to all priests.
However, the Pope’s new provisions take it to a universal level.
In his new apostolic letter, Pope Francis also extended his decree allowing SSPX priests to hear valid confessions.
He noted how during the Jubilee, he allowed “that those faithful who, for various reasons, attend churches officiated by the priests of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, can validly and licitly receive the sacramental absolution of their sins.”
“For the pastoral benefit of these faithful, and trusting in the good will of their priests to strive with God’s help for the recovery of full communion in the Catholic Church, I have personally decided to extend this faculty beyond the Jubilee Year, until further provisions are made, lest anyone ever be deprived of the sacramental sign of reconciliation through the Church’s pardon.”
The Society of St. Pius X was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970 to form priests, as a response to what he described as errors that had crept into the Church following the Second Vatican Council. Its relations with the Holy See became strained in 1988 when Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the permission of Pope John Paul II.
The illicit consecration resulted in the excommunication of the five bishops; the excommunications were lifted in 2009 by Benedict XVI, and since then, negotiations between the Society and the Vatican to re-establish full communion have continued.
Pope Francis has taken several steps to move forward on the path of full unification with the SSPX Society, including the offer of a personal prelature, which is a Church jurisdiction without geographical boundaries designed to carry out particular pastoral initiatives. At present, the only personal prelature in the Church is Opus Dei. However, the SSPX Society has so far rejected this proposal.
Very good! I bet few kids raised by their parents in SSPX chapels, have ever committed the sin of abortion, nor other sexual sins! They also have a great many priests, now, and their seminaries are full! Catholics in need, also should receive from the Pope, to grant the SSPX faculties to say the old Latin Mass, perform Catholic weddings and funerals, give Extreme Unction (or, the Sacrament of the Sick), and all the Sacraments! The SSPX needs full communion with our Church!
People: Beware. The SSPX has no rightful, legitimate ministry in the Catholic Church. Other than the sacrament of reconciliation—and your beloved SSPX has Pope Francis to thank for this—all of their sacraments are illicit in the eyes of the Church, and therefore illicit as well in the eyes of God.
Jon is wrong!
Hey folks, you don’t have to take my word on this. Read Pope Benedict’s “Letter to Bishops Concerning the Remission of the Excommunication of the Four Bishops Consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre” dated March 10, 2009. Benedict wrote: “As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church.” The Holy Father put the reason for the beloved SSPX’s illegal status squarely on DOCTRINAL REASONS. Straight up!
Jon, I know it’s not easy to explain, but I think folks continue to be confused by the difference between the validity of a sacrament and its legality/licit-ness (is licitness even a word? but you know what I mean). Perhaps you can shed some light here. Some sacraments by some people can be illicit but valid, others can be both illicit and invalid, and some sacraments can be somewhere in between. Like, for example, if a llaicized priest hears a confession on a deathbed, it would have been both illicit and invalid, except that the Church Supplies the needed grace and faculties in extreme circumstances.
Perhaps a simple illustration which even a child could understand will help. Going to an illicit service is like transacting with money that’s been STOLEN. In the context of a Mass, Our Lord is being made present against His own Will because it is against the will of His Church (and how very wrong is that). Going to an invalid service is like transacting with money that is essentially counterfeit. Both offenses are objectively wrong. And if committed willfully and with full knowledge, the offense is even more grave.
“…A simple illustration which even a child can understand..” (jon)
Of course, wise, educated, sage, “adult” jon instructs us.
Get ye the plank out of your own eye, Frater, first, the better to instruct the child you deign to assist.
Additionally, if you wish to celebrate your wedding, a funeral, anointing of the sick in the Extraordinary Form, first go to a diocesan clergy who knows the EF; second go to the clergy in one of these traditional communities who are in union with Rome. There should be more and more of these clergy around, and therefore it is becoming more and more impossible to have no recourse to the EF offered licitly. The salvation of your soul is at stake. Why risk the salvation of your soul in a sacrament offered illegally/illicity!
So-o-o, it is either we listen to P Francis or “pope jon”.
pope jon sez “The SSPX has no rightful, legitimate ministry in the Catholic Church. Other than the sacrament of reconciliation—”
PF says he has extended the SSPX’s faculty (his word: canonical language) “until recovery of full communion”. Something to be hoped for by all charitable Catholics.
Incardination for confession = a legitimate ministry; the SSPX sacraments are valid at the very least; and all this sounds like legitimation of ministry to a rational person.
And so-o, pope jon is afraid, very, very afraid.
And again, ” the full recovery of communion” PF speaks of is something to be hoped for by all charitable Catholics.
,
By their fruits ye shall know them.
No, Angelo, not all SSPX Sacraments were valid. Before the Pope granted faculties for hearing confessions and granting absolution, SSPX confessions were NOT valid. Even now, SSPX marriages are still NOT valid (at least not as a Sacrament).
ecclesia suplet. Look it up.
Funny that a self-identified fellow believer who is cafeteria progressive Catholic on so many moral issues is a stickler on validity.
Hey, if the SSPX finally humbles itself and accepts ALL of the teachings of the Church and becomes regularized, I’d be very happy for them and for many here I daresay. So, you’re wrong that I am “afraid” (afraid of what anyway) which is preposterous.
All charitable Catholics long for the day of full official reconciliation with the SSPX and other trad groups.
By their fruits, ye shall know them.
Thanks, “Linda Maria,” many of us also hope for this reconciliation. Not sure what is holding this up, except for issues of final financial and legal (property) controls. A good number of commentators have warned that SSPX needs to come back into the Church sealed against any sort of control by the Vatican (efforts to do this are fully expected). The Pope and minions will not like anything much about the SSPX and will certainly try to insist on this or that type of influence or outright control. Will SSPX seminarians be made to learn the N.O. for example, and other sacramental “re-dos,” for example?
There is nothing wrong with the Ordinary Form. NOTHING. There is nothing wrong with any of the sacraments of the Church, both EF or OF. Denigrating any of the sacraments of the Church is heretical.
Ok all of you conservative” latinistas”…give “liberal” Pope Francis a break! Although the Holy Father is not a big fan of the EO form of the Mass, he has done more than any recent pope to bring the schismatic SSPXers back into the fold of the True Church.
Somehow I don’t think that our present Pope is a big fan of Catholicism, much less the SSPX. Witness his dalliance with the Lutherans and various other heretics. I think that his throwing of bones to SSPX is only a ploy to lure them back into the grasp of the Vatican for eventual suppression. It has been declared that they are not in schism, haters, get current.
Methinks the last thing loving and Christ-like Harold truly wants for the Church is a re-union with the “latinista SSPX’ers”
People, it remains a fact that even your beloved SSPX owes a debt of gratitude to the Holy Father, Pope Francis, for allowing the sacraments of reconciliation administered by said beloved SSPX to be legal and licit in the eyes of the Church, and therefore in the eyes of God as well. This is a mark of the pastoral benevolence of the legitimate clergy, headed by the Pope, to Catholics who are attached to the SSPX a society that does not merit this generous action of Francis. The ministry of these beloved SSPX is illegal and illegitimate. And it is for the good of Catholics to be told thus, before they dare step into any of their chapels. That is, illegal chapels.
They are legal and legit ignore the ponderous ramblings of the self appointed canon lawyer Jon….
Read my post above citing a Letter written by Pope Benedict in March 10, 2009. In fact let me quote from the Letter the pertinent sentence by Benedict: “As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church.”
Therefore, apart from the sacrament of reconciliation, the other sacraments offered by your beloved SSPX are illegal and illicit.
What one can be thankful for is that Jesus Christ in His Sacred Heart is overflowing with mercy and reconciliation toward the sincerely motivated members of the SSPX order and their lay people.
That is why to claim “their” sacraments are “invalid and non-efficacious” by the “Elder Brothers” (Luke 15:11ff) of our Church, in their Sanhedrin-like superiority, is an affront to Christ himself, who loves all who seek Him according to what we have always believed and always held.
Angelo, I agree!
I disagree. To say that the sacraments of the SSPX are illicitly offered is not an “affront to Christ” Himself because Our Lord has entrusted the governance of the Church to the Magisterium (the popes and the bishops) who have the final say over the administration and the discipline of the sacraments.
Lack of charity, unremitting hostility, and arrogance exemplify an affront to Christ, who is at work in healing the rift between these two groups.
Prideful Sanhedrin-like superiority is no use here, but prayer and humility could just work.
The argument that SSPX marriages are invalid when their confessions are now undeniably valid, even according to P Francis, let alone the undeniable validity of their other sacraments, is an argument that the Devil himself would happily assert.
WRONG! It is no other than Pope Benedict who has judged that the beloved SSPX’s ministry is illegal. Pope Francis, out of the goodness of his heart, has exempted from this the sacrament of reconciliation offered by the said beloved SSPX. Therefore Angelus, for you to say that all of the other sacraments of the SSPX are now legal puts words in the mouth of Pope Francis. You are plainly ascribing an intent in the Holy Father’s ruling on the sacrament of confession which he did NOT INTEND!