INTERNATIONAL UNA VOCE FEDERATION
MEDIA RELEASE – IMMEDIATE – 4 November 2014
International Una Voce Federation: threatened
SSPX excommunications may be illegal
LONDON 4 November 2014 – The International Una
Voce Federation which seeks to promote the traditions, particularly the
liturgical traditions, of the Roman Catholic Church, within the official
structures of the Church, today questioned the legality of a “notification”
dated 14 October 2014 of the Roman See of Albano, Italy, claiming to
ex-communicate those who receive the sacraments from, or attend religious
services of, the Society of St Pius X (SSPX).
The Federation questions the legality of a
notification in similar terms of Bishop Óscar Sarlinga of Zárate-Campana in
Argentina, issued on 3 November 2014.
The Federation, which is a lay movement
independent of any priestly or religious community, believes that preservation
of doctrine, law and justice, as well as good pastoral practice, within the
Church, is important.
The Federation believes that these
“notifications” tend to imply that anyone who has ever attended services of the
SSPX is not welcome in parish churches in these dioceses.
This view is clearly in direct contrast with
the emphasis of the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Francis, upon mercy and forgiveness,
as well as the “openness of heart” requested by Pope Benedict XVI as a prelude
to a healing of divisions “in the heart of the Church”.
The Bishop of Albano is the Rt Rev Marcello
Semeraro, media spokesman of the Italian Bishops’ conference and secretary of
the Papal inner Council of 9 advisers.
The Federation is asking the Holy See to advise
that these notifications are defective and to require them to be modified so as
to comply with the law of the Church and the decisions of the Holy See.
BACKGROUND
On 14 October 2014, the Chancery of the Diocese
of Albano issued a notification to parish priests claiming that anyone who
attends SSPX services, even, apparently, children, thereby “break communion
with the Catholic Church” and can only be re-admitted to the Church after “an
adequate personal path of reconciliation”. The notification reads:
“The Catholic faithful cannot participate at
Mass, neither request and/or receive sacraments from or in the Society. Acting
otherwise would mean to break communion with the Catholic Church.
Therefore, any Catholic faithful who requests
and receives sacraments in the Society of Saint Pius X, will place himself de
facto in the condition of no longer being in communion with the Catholic
Church. A readmission to the Catholic Church must be preceded by an adequate
personal path of reconciliation, according to the ecclesiastical discipline
established by the Bishop.”
Bishop Óscar Sarlinga of Zárate-Campana in
Argentina, in a letter to his diocese dated 3 November 2014, states:
“It is not licit for the Catholic faithful to
take part in the celebration of Mass in these conditions, neither to request
nor to receive sacraments from the priests of the aforementioned "Society
of Saint Pius X", including in private places turned into places of
worship, without excluding, in case of obstinacy, also the ferendae sententiae
penalties that may apply, according to the ecclesial spirit and that of
protection of the faithful.
In the case of the rupture of ecclesiastical
communion by the above-mentioned founded motives, in order to be later
readmitted to the Catholic Church, a personal path of reconciliation (and
eventually of removal of the canonical censure) will be required, according to
the discipline advised by the Holy See and the [diocese's] own, established by
the diocesan bishop.”
CANONICAL BRIEF
The attitude of the Holy See has always been
that lay faithful who receive the sacraments from priests of the SSPX are not
excommunicated. Examples are as follows.
In 1991 Bishop Joseph Ferrario of Honolulu
declared six lay Catholics excommunicated on grounds of schism for having
procured the services of an SSPX bishop to administer confirmation. These
appealed to the Holy See which, through Cardinal Ratzinger as Prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, declared the decree invalid because
their action, though considered blameworthy, did not constitute schism.
On 5 September 2005, the Holy See, through the
Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, affirmed that “the faithful who attend the
masses of the aforesaid Fraternity are not excommunicate, and the priests who
celebrate them are not, either—the latter are, in fact, suspended.” (Protocol
n.55/2005, signed by the then Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia
Dei, Mgr Camille Perl).
On 27 September 2002, quoted and reaffirmed on
18 January 2003, the Holy See, through the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei,
stated that “In the strict sense you may fulfil your Sunday obligation by
attending a mass celebrated by a priest of the Society of St. Pius X.” (Letters
signed by Mgr Camille Perl).
“To break communion with the Catholic Church”,
i.e. excommunication, can only be incurred where there is both an “external
violation of a law or precept” and it is “gravely imputable by reason of malice
or culpability” (canon 1321) and only if the proper penalty is excommunication.
Excommunication is not the proper penalty for
“participating at mass” or “requesting or receiving the Sacraments” from SSPX
priests or in SSPX-administered places of worship. Thus:
It is accordingly not correct that
excommunication is thereby incurred.
In any event, those under the age of sixteen
cannot incur a penalty (canon 1323.1); this would apply to those under this age
who received baptism or confirmation.
Even when basing a canonical argument on the
assumption that the SSPX has no canonical status in the Church and that its
priests are suspended, following ordination without dimissorial letters, it
does not follow that to seek the sacraments at their hands is an illegal act on
the part of the lay faithful.
To say otherwise also conflicts with the
provision in canon law (canon 1335) for the suspension of any prohibition of
the celebration of the Sacraments or sacramental, or the exercise of a power of
governance, when one of the faithful requests it for “any just reason”.
Furthermore, the notifications appear to
challenge the Decree of the Congregation of Bishops dated 21 January 2009
lifting the excommunications of the SSPX bishops and instead seem to wish to re-impose
those excommunications, within each diocese, contrary to this decree of a
Congregation of the Holy See.
Moreover, it would be incongruous for the
legislator to lift the excommunication of the bishops while imposing or
maintaining it on the lay faithful to whom they minister.
CONCLUSION
The Federation is thus obliged to question the
notifications since they appear to undermine papal legislation and canon law.
** ends **
The International Una Voce Federation is a lay
movement, initially founded in Zurich in 1967.
The International Una Voce Federation aims to
foster the cultural heritage of the Latin rite of the Roman Catholic Church
upon which so much of European culture, music, art, literature and architecture
has been built and nourished. Beginning with the retention of the Jewish Temple
worship which, under Christian tutelage, developed into plainchant, sacred
music became the basis of all later classical and choral music. Similar
developments took place in art, architecture, literature and all the arts, in
which the Christian tradition built upon the ancient Classical world and upon
the Hebrew traditions that it inherited.
The Federation’s principal aims are to ensure
that the traditional Roman rite of the Church is maintained in the Church as
one of the forms of liturgical celebration, and to safeguard and promote the
use of Latin, Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony and all the sacred,
artistic, literary and musical traditions of the Roman Church in all their
beauty and integrity.
A General Assembly of the Federation is
convened every two years in Rome and elections are held for the Council and
Presidency.
The Federation is recognized by the Holy See,
its views are received with courtesy and respect by the relevant Roman
Congregations, and its representatives are received by them in the same manner.
Its first President, Dr Eric Vermehren de
Saventhem, was a German anti-Nazi diplomat who, together with his wife, born
Countess von Plettenberg, from a well-known anti-Nazi Catholic family, escaped
via the Embassy in Istanbul to Britain. Other Presidents have included the
author Michael Davies from Britain.
Over the years the Federation has made various
successful interventions. It was instrumental in persuading Pope John Paul II
in 1986 to convoke a special Commission of Cardinals which resulted in the
issue of the decree Ecclesia Dei Adflicta in 1988 and also played a part in
persuading Pope Benedict XVI to issue the motu proprio decree Summorum
Pontificum in 2007.
Mr James Bogle
