Introduces Novus Ordo priests into SSPX sanctuaries…
Vatican issues cunning Document
on SSPX Marriages
[UPDATE 04-APR-17 18:00 UTC: Official SSPX Press Release concerning this document]
The Vatican has just added a bigger piece of cheese to the mousetrap it has set for the SSPX.
Today, April 4, the Modernist Vatican took another significant step towards fully “integrating” the Lefebvrist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) into that much-vaunted “full communion” with itself.
In a letter dated March 27 but not released until today, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei instructs local ordinaries (i.e. “bishops” of dioceses) that they are permitted to grant faculties for witnessing marriages to priests of the SSPX operating in their dioceses, given certain stipulations laid out in the document.
Here is the official English translation of the full text of the letter, which was signed by “Cardinal” Gerhard Ludwig Muller and “Archbishop” Guido Pozzo and has received the full approbation of “Pope” Francis:
Your Eminence,
Your Excellency,As you are aware, for some time various meetings and other initiatives have been ongoing in order to bring the Society of St. Pius X into full communion. Recently, the Holy Father decided, for example, to grant all priests of said Society the faculty to validly administer the Sacrament of Penance to the faithful (Letter Misericordia et misera, n.12), such as to ensure the validity and liceity of the Sacrament and allay any concerns on the part of the faithful.
Following the same pastoral outlook which seeks to reassure the conscience of the faithful, despite the objective persistence of the canonical irregularity in which for the time being the Society of St. Pius X finds itself, the Holy Father, following a proposal by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, has decided to authorize Local Ordinaries the possibility to grant faculties for the celebration of marriages of faithful who follow the pastoral activity of the Society, according to the following provisions.
Insofar as possible, the Local Ordinary is to grant the delegation to assist at the marriage to a priest of the Diocese (or in any event, to a fully regular priest), such that the priest may receive the consent of the parties during the marriage rite, followed, in keeping with the liturgy of the Vetus ordo, by the celebration of Mass, which may be celebrated by a priest of the Society.
Where the above is not possible, or if there are no priests in the Diocese able to receive the consent of the parties, the Ordinary may grant the necessary faculties to the priest of the Society who is also to celebrate the Holy Mass, reminding him of the duty to forward the relevant documents to the Diocesan Curia as soon as possible.
Certain that in this way any uneasiness of conscience on the part of the faithful who adhere to the Society of St. Pius X as well as any uncertainty regarding the validity of the sacrament of marriage may be alleviated, and at the same time that the process towards full institutional regularization may be facilitated, this Dicastery relies on Your cooperation.
The Sovereign Pontiff Francis, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei on 24 March 2017, confirmed his approval of the present letter and ordered its publication.
Rome, from the Offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 27 March 2017.
Gerhard Card. L. Müller
President+ Guido Pozzo
Secretary
Titular Archbishop of Bagnoregio(“Lettera della Pontificia Commissione «Ecclesia Dei» ai Presuli delle Conferenze Episcopali interessate circa la licenza per la Celebrazione di Matrimoni dei Fedeli della Fraternità San Pio X”, Vatican.va, Apr. 4, 2017; underlining added.)
Let’s examine what exactly is being said here. To analyze this properly, we must answer five questions: What is being given? To whom is it given? Who has given it? To what purpose is it given? What will be the practical implications?
What is being given? It is the authorization to grant faculties (basically, to grant the necessary jurisdiction) to officiate at weddings (i.e. to act as the official witness of the Church in a wedding, receiving the consent of the spouses and joining them in Holy Matrimony) to priests of the Society of St. Pius X under the condition that a Novus Ordo priest “cannot” do so. If a Novus Ordo priest can be found to do so, he is to officiate at the wedding, although the Mass itself may be celebrated by an SSPX priest in either case.
To whom is it given? The authorization is given to the local Modernist bishop of the diocese, not to the SSPX. Rome is permitting (not requiring!) diocesan “bishops” to delegate jurisdiction for officiating at weddings to SSPX priests. This is an important distinction because people are prone to misunderstand this. For example, the headline given by the semi-trad web site OnePeterFive, “Rome Grants SSPX Faculties to Celebrate Marriage”, is misleading. Unlike what they did back in 2015 for confessions (see also here), Rome did not grant the SSPX blanket faculties to witness marriages. Rather, the Vatican has merely instructed Novus Ordo bishops that they are now permitted to give such faculties to SSPX priests in restricted individual cases and only if they wish to do so.
Who has given it? None other than the Modernist Sect’s blaspheming apostate-in-chief himself, Mr. Jorge Bergoglio, commonly known by his stage name, “Pope Francis”. Although the letter was written and signed by Messrs. Muller and Pozzo, nevertheless the document makes clear that “the Holy Father … has decided” this and notes that Francis “confirmed his approval of the present letter and ordered its publication”.
To what purpose is it given? The document itself tells us the motives behind this concession favorable to the SSPX: (1) the easing of consciences on the part of SSPX adherents; (2) the alleviation of concerns about the validity of these marriages (because marriage, like confession, requires the priest who witnesses/hears them to have jurisdiction); (3) the facilitation of the process of “regularization”, i.e. helping further to incorporate the SSPX into the Modernist Church. You can bet your bottom dollar that it is for the sake of point (3) that all of this has been done, because SSPX adherents don’t give a flip about what Rome says about the validity of their sacraments anyway, and of course the Modernist Vatican is the last institution on earth to care about the validity/invalidity of sacraments, the very notion of which was even recently called into question by “Cardinal” Francesco Coccopalmerio.
What will be the practical implications? The answer to this question is the most explosive aspect of it all because this is where the rubber meets the road. How will this impact life for the SSPX and the local Modernist bishop? If you read the Ecclesia Dei letter closely, you probably noticed that what is being done here is that a door is being opened to allow Novus Ordo priests — almost all of them now without valid orders to begin with — to enter SSPX sanctuaries, basically “in exchange for” the Modernist promise of a valid and licit marriage. Let’s look at this a bit more closely.
Notice what the text says: “Insofar as possible, the Local Ordinary is to grant the delegation to assist at the marriage to a priest of the Diocese (or in any event, to a fully regular priest), such that the priest may receive the consent of the parties during the marriage rite, followed, in keeping with the liturgy of the Vetus ordo, by the celebration of Mass, which may be celebrated by a priest of the Society” (emphasis added). Did you catch that? If it is “possible” — which presumably means, “if the SSPX doesn’t have a problem with it”, for why else shouldn’t it be “possible”? — a Novus Ordo priest is to witness the exchange of consent of the spouses, although the Nuptial Mass itself “may be celebrated by a priest of the Society [of St. Pius X].”
Under what scenario could a wedding like this take place? Would an SSPX couple want to marry in an ugly Novus Ordo parish and then have an SSPX priest come in and set up for Mass on the Novus Ordo table? Hardly. No, what will happen is that the wedding will take place at an SSPX chapel, of course, and a Novus Ordo priest from the diocese, with full “faculties” from the “bishop”, will be present in the sanctuary and he — not the SSPX priest — will receive the consent of the parties, and then he will disappear into the background and the SSPX priest will start Mass. Thus you will have an SSPX priest with a brief appearance of a Novus Ordo cleric as the price to pay for a “regular” celebration of the marriage. So, be prepared: The door has now been opened for the introduction of Novus Ordo clerics into SSPX sanctuaries, similar to the way Novus Ordos “share sanctuaries” with Protestants. The SSPX is being treated as simply another guest at the great ecumenical table. As well they should be.
Only if the scenario just described is deemed “impossible” — which, again, can only mean that the SSPX in a particular diocese or parish is refuses to comply — is the local diocsean “bishop” even permitted to grant faculties to an SSPX priest to witness a particular celebration of marriage outright. In short: The ordinary way that Rome envisions this decree to be implemented is to see Novus Ordo priests show up at SSPX chapels to mess up witness their marriages.
After all, they want to be in “full communion” with the “Holy Father”, no?
Come on! Would these eyes deceive you?!
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The picture of the mouse trap for the SSPX inspires me an analogy…SSPX have their head and arms in the narrow whole of the mouse hole…. to enter the Novus Ordo Church….all they need to do now …is to pull the rest of the body….which is the easiest job….
I do not doubt that with the time the SSPX chapels become novusordonisze.
So much for Restistance. They might as well call themselves Indult. But why any one would want to be a part of Pope Balogne’s ecumenical protestant church is beyond me. I honestly think that man goes through history books looking for heretical things to do and say.
“Let’s see what can I pull over on my sheep today?” says Pope Francis in the Vatican Library.
“I am going to try Negotiating with those SSPX fools today. That sounds really fun. hmmm… I know I will mess with their marriages…”
Most SSPX attenders who are not willing to get married by an SSPX priest will go to an Ecclesia Dei group to get married.
IMO this is actually quite horrific. Why would the SSPX or any “traditional” VII Sectarian think otherwise?
This Document gives two opposite impressions. First that the SSPX marriages are valid when it says “reassure the conscience of the faithful”. However it later says faculties would be granted which implies a lack of validity.
I think what Bergoglio and Co. intend is a test of obedience. Will the SSPX District Superior instruct his priest to communicate to the local Bishop that a couple in his Chapel want to be married? And what if they only want an SSPX priest to perform the ceremony? And what if the local Bishop says no? Will the priest then say we didn’t need your permission anyway, we have supplied jurisdiction!
I think the meaning of the “reassure the consciences of the faithful” is with regard to those marriages performed going forward, under the conditions in this letter.
Yes, the whole thing no doubt is to make sure the SSPX and the local Novus Ordo hierarchy communicate and intermingle on a regular, ordinary basis. You hit the nail on the head when you point out: “And what if the local Bishop says no? Will the priest then say we didn’t need your permission anyway, we have supplied jurisdiction!”
This will probably separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, in the SSPX — which of the clergy are “obedient”, and which are recalcitrant?
I now pronounce you Novus Ordo and SSPX. Here comes the bride, all eceumenical and wide. SSPX, Indult, Institute of Christ the King what difference does it make. They are all on the same team with Francis in some way or another