More than three months after the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued its decree declaring the excommunication of the leadership of the Society of St. Pius X, questions remain about the full effects of the society’s schism.
The four bishops illicitly consecrated for the Society of St. Pius X. Credit: SSPX.
Specifically, it remains an open question whether sacramental confession and absolution imparted by the society’s priests is valid, and whether those priests can validly receive the consent of Catholics contracting marriages.
Canonical questions were raised in July, without clear answers emerging from the Vatican, after a document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith stated that both sacraments were invalidly performed by SSPX clergy.
However, reports of a new canonical opinion from a different Vatican department suggest the DDF statement on the subject may not be accurate — and that Vatican faces another issue in which departments will offer dueling interpretations of the Church’s law-in-force.
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The Vatican declared in July the excommunication of five SSPX bishops for participation in an illicit episcopal consecration; one was the bishop who performed the consecration, and the other four
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