On July 2, 1988, Pope St. John Paul II wrote that the illicit ordination of bishops by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) constituted a schismatic act, not only for the six bishops involved then, but for all those who “formally adhere” to it.
Thirty-eight years later to the day, the SSPX again having ordained bishops without a pontifical mandate, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) clarified what John Paul meant, by means of a decree and an explanatory note.
What John Paul left implied is now explicit — all the priests of the SSPX are “in schism and subject to the penalty of excommunication.” That applies too to the lay faithful who “formally adhere” to the schism, for example, by supporting the illicit ordination of bishops, or by exclusively frequenting the SSPX chapels.
The July 2 decree from the DDF — issued the day after the SSPX episcopal ordinations in Switzerland — contained a hint as to the Vatican’s understanding of the past 38 years. The decree carried the protocol number “99/2009.”
Protocol numbers are how Vatican departments organize their filing; a letter or submission is assigned a protocol number so that all the
