SSPX

Pius X (SSPX) is an international society of Catholic priests administered by a Superior General and District Superiors in various countries. The official name of the organization is: Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Pii X or Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X.

SSPX is one of many organizations that promote Traditional Catholicism.

Inception of SSPX

The SSPX was founded by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre on November 1, 1970. Lefebvre was formerly Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, a Father of the Second Vatican Council, and perhaps one of the most celebrated modern prelates in Africa, where he spent much of his early career. He retired as head of the Holy Ghost Fathers in 1968 when the order began revisions of their constitutions, which Lefebvre considered Modernist.

Shortly after his resignation, Lefebvre was approached by seminarians from the French Seminary in Rome who, he said, were being persecuted for their adherence to traditional beliefs and doctrines. They sought advice on a conservative seminary to complete their studies. The Archbishop directed them to the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

In 1970, urged by the Abbot of Hauterive and the Dominican theologian, Fr. Philippe, to teach these Seminarians personally, Lefebvre approached the Bishop of Fribourg, who, three months before resigning the see, approved, with a document predated by six days to November 1, 1970, the founding of SSPX at the level of a "pia unio", the first stage towards becoming an officially recognized religious institute or society of apostolic life. Swiss laymen offered the seminary at Ecône, Switerland to the newly formed group.

In the normal evolution, within the Roman Catholic Church, of such an association, the diocesan bishop, after a period of concrete experience of the "pia unio", and after asking the advice of the Holy See, would raise it to official status at diocesan level. Lefebvre attempted to bypass that stage, contacting three different departments of the Holy See for the purpose of obtaining recognition at papal level. He succeeded in getting a letter of encouragement from Cardinal J. Wright, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Clergy, but no approval from the Congregation competent for raising the association to the level desired by Lefebvre. Even Cardinal Wright's letter,, dated February 18, 1971, was couched in sufficiently prudent terms, speaking of the association "as Your Excellency presents it", and saying, with regard to the field of competence of Cardinal Wright's own Congregation, that the association "will be able to contribute much to accomplishing the plan drawn up by this Congregation for worldwide sharing of clergy".

On 6 May 1974, the Bishop of Fribourg withdrew even the "pia unio" status of the Fraternity.

SSPX currently has chapters throughout the world. Its main seminary remains in Econe, Switzerland, but it has others in the United States, France, Germany, the Philippines, Australia, and Argentina.

The 1988 consecrations

The central controversy surrounding SSPX concerns the consecration of four SSPX priests as bishops, despite papal prohibition.

After over 15 years of heavy travelling to confer sacraments and ordain priests, Abp. Lefebvre, in 1987, declared his intention to consecrate a successor, to ensure seminarians could be ordained and the Sacrament of Confirmation could be conferred. The Holy See disapproved of the plan, but began discussions, which led to the signing on 5 May 1988 of a protocol in two parts.

In the first part, which is of doctrinal character, Archbishop Lefebvre, in his own name and on behalf of the Priestly Fraternity of St Pius X:

• promised fidelity to the Catholic Church and the Roman Pontiff, Head of the Episcopal Body
• accepted the doctrine contained in section 25 of the Second Vatican Council?s Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium on the Church?s magisterium and the adherence due to it
• pledged a completely non-polemical attitude of study and communication with the Apostolic See on the points of doctrine of the Second Vatican Council and the later reforms that he and the Fraternity considered difficult to reconcile with Tradition
• recognized the validity of the Mass and the sacraments celebrated with the required intention in accordance with the rites in the typical editions promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II
• promised to respect the common discipline of the Church and the ecclesiastical laws, in particular those contained in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, making allowance for special discipline granted by particular law to the Fraternity.

The second (juridical) part of the document envisaged, apart from the canonical reconciliation of the persons concerned, that:

• the Fraternity would become a society of apostolic life with special exemption regarding public worship, care of souls and apostolic activity, in line with canons 679-683
• the Fraternity would be granted the faculty to employ the liturgical books in use before the concilliar reform
• a special commission, including two members of the Fraternity, would be set up to facilitate contacts and resolve problems and conflicts
• it was proposed to the Holy Father that a member of the Fraternity be appointed a bishop.

This document was to be submitted to the Holy Father for his approval. Nevertheless, the very next day, Archbishop Lefebvre declared that he would feel obliged in conscience to proceed with the ordination of the bishop on 30 June, with or without papal approval.

On 24 May, Archbishop Lefebvre was promised that, on condition that he requested reconciliation on the basis of the protocol he had signed, the Holy Father would appoint a bishop from among the members of the Fraternity, chosen according to the normal procedures (which are not over-hasty), and that the consecration would then take place on 15 August, at the close of the Marian Year. Archbishop Lefebvre, on his part, made three demands:

• the consecration must take place on 30 June
• not one, but three bishops, must be consecrated (this he had been asking for before the discussions that led to the signing of the protocol)
• the majority of the members of the special commission must be from the Fraternity

These demands the Holy See found inacceptable and, in spite of a formal canonical warning, Archbishop Lefebvre proceeded, on June 30, 1988 to consecrate as bishops, not three, but four SSPX priests: Richard Williamson, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay. One of the normal conditions for a consecration is that a consecrating bishop must have two assistant consecrators; thus, four bishops ensured that, upon the death of one, three would remain to consecrate a replacement. Bishop Emeritus Antonio de Castro Mayer of Campos, Brazil, assisted Lefebvre in these 1988 consecrations.

Pope John Paul II issued a motu proprio, ??Ecclesia Dei Adflicta?? condemning the consecrations as schismatic and as entailing, in view of canon 1382)of the Code of Canon Law (the Code of laws of the Latin Church), automatic excommunication of all the bishops involved.

In his defense, Lefebvre said the consecrations were necessary. He cited canon 1323.4 and canon 1324.5, which states, in part, that no one can be penalized if acting ?by reason of necessity or grave inconvenience, unless the act is intrinsically evil or tends to the harm of souls." The law also seems to suggest that no penality can be applied even if the "necessity" is imagined. The SSPX continues to assert this claim of necessity.

The Holy See judges this claim to be unfounded. It views the four bishops as validly consecrated but automatically excommunicated. It regards ordinations of priests by them as valid, but illicit, with the result that the priests are by law suspended from exercising priestly functions. No excommunication decree has been issued against the priests or other religious of SSPX (which does not, properly, have lay members), nor has any been upheld against those who attend SSPX chapels. Though it has declared that the 1988 consecrations were a schismatic act, the Roman Catholic Church does not see SSPX as a schismatic Church (as yet), but only as an organization very many of whose members are schismatic in attitude. The department of the Roman Curia that has competence for relations with the Society is the Ecclesia Dei Commission, created by Pope John Paul II in his 1988 motu proprio. There has been no question of this commission issuing a general instruction or decree revoking or revising the 1988 decisions of the Holy See. Instead, as well as carrying out the main functions for which it was instituted, it has written to individual enquirers, explaining ?the Church's present evaluation of the situation of the Society of St. Pius X?, spelling out the consequences, and declaring that attendance at SSPX Masses, since they are celebrated by priests suspended from priestly functions and with schismatic views, is for Catholics morally illicit in normal circumstances.

SSPX considers itself faithful to the Catholic Church and all its infallible teachings (while rejecting some teachings of the Second Vatican Council that it considers fallible), and acknowledges Pope John Paul II as Pope. The four SSPX bishops do not claim ordinary jurisdiction over those who receive Sacraments from SSPX priests and bishops. An appeal is made to extraordinary circumstances in regard to the Sacraments of Penance and Matrimony, for whose validity jurisdiction is normally required.

SSPX Today

SSPX has more than 470 priests in its worldwide ranks as of August 2004. It collaborated for a number of years with the late Bishop Salvador Lazo of San Fernando de la Union, Philippines and then with Bishop John Bosco Manat Chuabsamai, who resigned from his see of Ratchaburi, Thailand on 24 July 2003. SSPX has been in limited on-and-off discussions with the Holy See (see below) about regularizing their relationship.

SSPX activities include the training of priests in seminaries, and establishing missions or chapels in different locations to provide the Mass, sacraments, schooling of children, and catechesis. Priest houses, or Priories, are set up through countries and usually include a chapel and a school. From here priests travel to different areas to offer Mass at more remote chapels. The SSPX's larger goal, however, has been to assemble people to live closer together to form Traditional Catholic communities and neighborhoods (where a fully Traditional Catholic lifestyle, from living arrangements to work, can be maintained). So far the main centers in the United States that have been developing include Saint Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Winona, Minnesota, Post Falls, Idaho, Dickinson, Texas and Saint Mary's, Kansas. The largest SSPX center has been in Africa where Archbishop Lefebvre once resided, in Gabon.

SSPX collaborates with many independent priests and religious, who share its Traditional Catholic philosophy and outlook. Recently it has been making large gains in popularity in Eastern Europe with its affiliates in non-Roman rites, specifically in the Ukraine.

Dealings with the Holy See

After the 1988 episcopal consecrations, the SSPX and the Holy See had little, if any, dialog or direct dealings. This ended after SSPX led a large pilgrimage to Rome for the Jubilee in the year 2000. Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, of the Ecclesia Dei Commission, then approached the SSPX bishops about regularizing relations. He said the Pope would grant them a personal prelature, essentially a worldwide diocese, like the Personal Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei created by Pope John Paul II in 1982 for an organization founded in 1928 by Saint José María Escrivá de Balaguer. Such an arrangement has since been made, at a local level only, for the Priestly Union of St. Jean-Marie Vianney, Traditional priests in Campos (formerly alied with the SSPX), Brazil. The SSPX leadership indicated their distrust, saying Castrillón was vague in how the prelature would be implemented and supported, and citing objectionable Vatican dealings with the Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) and on the SSPX episcopal consecrations. They demanded two preliminary acts of good faith before continuing negotiations: that the Holy See officially declare that every Catholic priest has always been able to celebrate the Tridentine Mass and cannot be forbidden from doing so; and, secondly, that it declare null the excommunication decree concerning the 1988 consecrations. Cardinal Hoyos answered that delcaring the excommunication null could be readily granted, but that making the statment concerning the Tridentine Mass would cause many of the world's bishops to rebel -- a situation Rome was not prepared or willing to handle. With that, the dialogues promptly ceased.

Controversies

While Traditional Catholicism, per se, is not a political position, Traditional Catholics consider that there are social teachings of the Church that have been discarded by many post-conciliar Catholics. These center around the principle of subidiarity, recognizing the evils of Communism, honoring the social Kingship of Christ, respecting Natural Law, eradicating the modern radical separation of Church and State, reversing false ideas of "religious freedom" while recognizing the goodness of tolerance and charity for all men, the use of the law to support the institution of the family, etc.

There is an ongoing controversy with respect to the Society of St Pius X occupying the church of St Nicolas du Chardonnet in Paris, from 1977 on. The owner of the church is the city of Paris, which, according to the 1905 French law of separation of Church and State, grants to the Catholic Church a free usage right. On June 22, 2002, the municipal council of Paris voted a wish that the Society of St Pius X be expelled from St Nicolas du Chardonnet, against the opinion of Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, who considered the matter internal to the Roman Catholic Church and remarked that the Archbishop of Paris had not asked for expulsion. Mass attendance at St Nicolas du Chardonnet continues to be very high.