Bishop Athanasius Schneider published on Diane Montagna’s Substack.com-Account
a “Fraternal Appeal” to Pope Leo XIV about the Priestly Fraternity of
St Pius X (FSSPX). He urges Leo XIV in this “truly Providential moment”
to grant the apostolic mandate for the episcopal consecrations. The
backbone of the appeal.
- In this debate, new quasi-dogmas are being established that do not exist in the Depositum fidei.
-
These quasi-dogmas maintain that the Pope’s consent to a bishop’s
consecration is of divine right, and that a consecration carried out
without this consent, or even against a papal prohibition, constitutes
in itself a schismatic act.
- Centuries of ecclesial practice, as well as traditional canon law, stand in opposition to such absolutizing assertions.
Canonical Argument
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In the first millennium of the Church’s life, episcopal consecrations
were generally performed without formal papal permission, and candidates
were not required to be approved by the Pope.
- According to the
1917 Code of Canon Law, an episcopal consecration carried out against
the will of the Pope was punished not with excommunication, but only
with suspension.
- In 357, St Athanasius disobeyed the order of
Pope Liberius, who instructed him to enter into hierarchical communion
with the overwhelming majority of the episcopate, which was in fact
Arian or semi-Arian. As a result, he was excommunicated.
Doctrinal Crisis
-
The current crisis surrounding the announced - but as yet unapproved -
episcopal consecrations in the FSSPX exposes, before the eyes of the
whole Church, a wound that has been smouldering for over sixty years.
- This wound can be figuratively described as the ecclesial cancer of doctrinal and liturgical ambiguities.
- The problem isn’t that Vatican II was heretical. The problem is that it was ambiguous.
-
When a doctrinal ‘development’ seems to contradict what came before, or
when it requires decades of theological gymnastics to reconcile with
previous magisterial teaching, we have to ask: Is this development, or
is it rupture disguised as development?
Defense of FSSPX
-
One may reasonably assume that the FSSPX desires nothing more than to
help the Church emerge from this ambiguity in doctrine and liturgy and
to rediscover her saving perennial clarity.
- The Holy See should be grateful to the FSSPX.
-
The FSSPX is currently almost the only major ecclesiastical reality
that forthrightly and publicly points out the existence of ambiguous and
misleading elements in certain statements of the Council and the Novus
Ordo Missae.
- If they did not love the Church, the Pope, and souls, they would not undertake this work.
Critique of Rome
-
It would be a tragedy if the FSSPX were completely cut off, and the
responsibility for such a division would rest primarily with the Holy
See.
- The Holy See should bring the FSSPX in, offering at least a
minimum degree of Church integration, and then continue the doctrinal
dialogue.
- The Holy See has shown remarkable generosity toward
the Communist Party of China, allowing them to select candidates for
bishops—yet her own children… are treated as second-class citizens.
- The FSSPX is required to make a Professio fidei
by which the teachings of a pastoral, and not definitive, nature from
the last Council and the subsequent Magisterium must be accepted. If
this is truly the so-called “minimum requirement,” then Cardinal Victor
Fernández appears to be playing games with words.
Direct Appeal to Pope Leo XIV
-
Provisional and minimal pastoral measures… including a pontifical
mandate for episcopal consecrations - would create the conditions
necessary to calmly clarify misunderstandings.
- “Most Holy Father, grant the Apostolic Mandate for the episcopal consecrations of the FSSPX.”
-
“Stand aside from the partisanship of others and, with a great paternal
and truly Augustinian spirit, demonstrate that you are building
bridges.”
- „Do not go down in the history of the Church as one
who failed to build this bridge… and who instead allowed a truly
unnecessary and painful further division within the Church.”
Picture: Vatican Media, #newsSmtrxlaymp