Members of rebel Catholic group are excommunicated, Vatican says
Vatican Excommunication of Society of St. Pius X
By Joshua McElwee
Vatican Decree and Immediate Reactions
VATICAN CITY, July 2 (Reuters) - The Vatican said on Thursday that priests and lay Catholics who are part of a breakaway right-wing Catholic group that ordained bishops without Pope Leo's approval were in schism with the wider Church and now excommunicated.
In a strong decree, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, the top watchdog authority for the 1.4-billion-member Church, also warned Catholics globally that the Swiss-based Society of St. Pius X now celebrated the sacraments illicitly.
The ultra-traditionalist group, which denies key Church teachings, cannot officiate marriages or hear confessions validly, the decree said.
It is a strict teaching of the Church that only the pope can authorize the consecration of new bishops, in order to maintain the Church's ties to Jesus' 12 apostles, who are considered the first priests and bishops.
The Society was not available for immediate comment on the Vatican decree. One member of the group, who said he was not authorized to speak but identified himself as Father Benedict, told Reuters after a Mass in Econe, Switzerland he expected the group would just continue on as before.
"We (will) just keep going," he said. "We do respect the pope. We will keep praying for him."
He also criticised the Vatican's response.
"This sanction shows that, I mean, we did not close the door to the Holy Father, to the Holy See," Benedict added. "They shut it in our face. So that's the sad reality."
Details of the Vatican Decree
VATICAN DECREE GOES FURTHER THAN EXPECTED
The Church considers unauthorized ordination of bishops as so serious that it causes those taking part in the ceremony to be automatically excommunicated, or "out of communion" with the wider Church, and unable to receive sacraments until they repent and ask for forgiveness.
Thursday's decree said the two bishops leading the unauthorized ordination, held in Switzerland on Wednesday, had been excommunicated, along with the four priests who had become new bishops, which was widely expected.
However, the Vatican went further than expected and said that all priests of the Society of St. Pius X and all Catholics who "adhere formally" to the group were now in schism and excommunicated.
Definition and Path to Reconciliation
A schism is a term to indicate a severe, formal rupture inside the Catholic community.
The Vatican said later on Thursday that lay Catholics affected by the excommunication could reenter full communion with the Church by meeting with their bishop and signing two documents, a profession of faith and adherence to official Church teaching.
Priests of the Society wishing to repent have to take similar steps, but also have to write a letter to the pope asking for forgiveness and declaring their belief in the validity of Church reforms since the 1960s.
Background: The Society of St. Pius X and Church Reforms
Opposition to Vatican II
POPE FIRMLY BACKS CHURCH REFORMS OF 1960s
The Society of St. Pius X denies the central teachings of the Second Vatican Council, a landmark Vatican gathering of bishops in the 1960s that pursued a range of reforms for the global Church and sought to repair its relations with Jews and other Christian denominations.
The Council also allowed for the Mass, until then said only in Latin, to be celebrated in local languages. The society rejected that change, citing a desire for the Latin rite's sense of mystery and formality.
Papal Support for Vatican II
Massimo Faggioli, an expert on the papacy, told Reuters that Leo believed very firmly in the reforms of the Council, often referred to by Catholics as "Vatican II".
"He has no regrets, no doubts about the fact that this is the Church of Vatican II," said Faggioli, a professor at Villanova University, outside Philadelphia. "He has shown that he doesn't want to compromise on that."
Leo told journalists in June that the divisions with the Society of St. Pius X were "painful" but called the reforms of Vatican II "fundamental elements" of Church teaching. "We must move forward," the pope said.
History and Previous Excommunications
The Society, whose followers are sometimes known as Lefebvrists after their founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, says it counts 733 priests worldwide. Its leadership, which has long had tense relations with the Vatican, says it needed to ordain new bishops to have enough prelates to lead the group.
Lefebvre was excommunicated in 1988 after ordaining four bishops without permission from then-Pope John Paul II. Benedict XVI, John Paul's successor, sought to renew dialogue with the society and lifted four remaining excommunications.
Reporting Credits
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee, Additional reporting by Dave Graham in Zurich and Emma Farge in Econe, Switzerland; Editing by Crispian Balmer, Alex Richardson and Andrew Heavens)