Sacerdotal Fraternity Saint-Magpie X
The sacerdotal Fraternity Saint-Magpie X or FSSPX is a company of priests roman catholics, of which the goals are “to train priests and to create seminars”. Founded on November 1st, 1970, this company loses its official recognition on May 6th, 1975. In spite of this dissolution, Mgr Marcel Lefebvre, his founder, decides to continue his action without the agreement of Rome, which leads it to order bishops without the agreement of Rome in 1988 and to being excommunicated for schismatic act.
Goals, right and organization
; Goals The purpose of the FSSPX, as it comes out from its statutes, is “ priesthood and all that is referred to it and only what relates to it ”, principles which imply, inter alia, “ to direct and carry out the life of the priest towards what is primarily its raison d'être: Holy Sacrifice of the Mass of the Mass ” while avoiding “ carefully modern errors, in particular liberalism and all its substitutes. ” In practice, that underlies the maintenance of the Rite tridentin, a theology based on Saint Thomas d' Aquin and a virulent criticism of the “modern errors”.; Right She considers that the dissolution pronounced in 1975 ineffective because is sullied with irregularities.
- From the point of view of the canonical Droit of the Roman Catholic church, if the FFSPX were a work of Church between 1970 and 1975, it is not it today any more and does not receive from Rome any form of approval or recognition. Moreover, since the sacrings of bishops in 1988, Mgr Lefebvre, its Co-celebrating Mgr Antonio of Castro-Mayer, and the four new bishops are excommunicated.
; Organization The FSSPX counts 472 priest today S, 178 seminarists in six Séminaire S (whose most famous, with Écône, in 1971 was founded), 85 brothers, 250 nuns, and asserts some 150 000 faithful in 30 countries. The superior of the FSSPX is Mgr Bernard Fellay, which was crowned on June 30th, 1988 by MgrLefebvre with three other priests. Fraternity is organized in 13 “districts”, i.e. countries or groups of country where it has more than 3 formed priories and in 6 “autonomous houses”, which are districts in preparation
- In France, one of the most known establishments is the Saint Nicolas's Day church of the Hanging-post, in the V {{E}} district of Paris. The occupation by the force of this church was recognized by French justice. Under the mandature Delanoë, the group of the greens carried out new attempts, disapproved by the Mayor, to obtain that the FSSPX is expelled but without success: this decision not belonging in any event to the Town hall, but to the Archbishop's palace from Paris, to which falls the assignment of this church (See higher).
History of the relationships to the Roman authority
Beginnings
In 1970, Mgr Marcel Lefebvre founds with Écône (Suisse) the Sacerdotal Fraternité Saint-Magpie X at the request of several French seminarists. The goals of this sacerdotal fraternity are “priesthood and all that is referred to it and only what relates to it”. With the authorization of Paul VI, the institution is set up canonically by Mgr Cart-track, bishop of the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Freiburg as a “pious union” for one three years duration renewable AD experimentum . On his side, the bishop of Sion authorizes it to found a seminar with Écône.Thereafter, Mgr Lefebvre continues to stigmatize, more or less violently, the post-conciliar policy of opening, tackling in particular the dialog inter-monk to which the Catholic church is tested. The November 21st 1974, it publishes a proclamation summarizing its positions:
“We refuse on the other hand and always refused to follow néo-modernistic Rome of tendency and néo-Protestant woman who appeared clearly in the council the Vatican II and after the council in all the reforms which of it result. (…) No authority, even highest in the hierarchy, has been able to force us to give up or decrease our catholic faith clearly expressed and professed by the Magistère of the Church for nineteen centuries. (…) This Reform resulting from the Liberalism, of the modernism, very whole is poisoned; it leaves the heresy and leads to the heresy, even if all its acts are not formally heretics. It is thus impossible with any catholic conscious and faithful of adopting this Reform and of subjecting some manner to it that it is. (…) This is why without any rebellion, any bitterness, no resentment we continue our work of sacerdotal formation under star of magistère of always, persuaded which we cannot make more large a service to the Holy Catholic church, Sovereign pontiff and the future generations. ”
Consequently, in spring 1975, the bishop of Freiburg withdraws his authorization with sacerdotal Fraternity Saint-Magpie X. In spite of that Mgr Lefebvre decides to continue its education act of priests, and in June 1976, it orders thirteen priests without letters dimissoires .
The July 22nd 1976, Paul VI striking Marcel Lefebvre of a suspense has divinis for its opposition to the Concile Vatican II and its opposition to the reforms which are attached to it and Fraternity is dissolved. In answer, in an interview with the Barber, Mgr Lefebvre describes the Vatican II like “a schismatic council””. And on August 29th, Mgr Lefebvre celebrates the “mass of Lille”.
After this first crack in the union with Rome, Mgr Lefebvre and Fraternité Saint-Pie X choose to continue their action by training priests, opening places of worship (called “priories”) in everyone Christian with the will “to maintain and perpetuate the glorious and expiatory sacrifice of Christ in the Church”. Little by little, fraternity obtains a hierarchical structure distinct and separated from the Roman Church, with an aim “ of maintaining the Holy Catholic church and Roman, of wanting to continue it and of continuing it by Priesthood ”. October 3rd, 1984, Rome publishes the letter Quattuor abhinc annos liberalizing under certain conditions the celebration of the Rite tridentin, under the jurisdiction of the bishops. The FSSPX, all in amusing of this first step, remains very being wary towards the hierarchy diocésaine and requires a general liberalization of the books of 1962 as well as a legal status directly submitted to the pope.
Critical Mgr Lefebvre severely the visit of a Synagog by Jean-Paul II, or the meetings inter-nuns of Sitted in 1986. At the time of this meeting, giving place to prayers for world peace, all the religious representatives present had requested each one their God. For the catholic tradition, that can seem to say that “all the religions are worth”, which was always condemned by the Catholic church. Mgr Lefebvre then affirms, at the time of a spiritual conference with Écône, that the pope is inspired by the Diable and the freemasons.
Rupture
The reports/ratios are maintained with Rome, and an attempt at standardization of the situation of the FSSPX takes place on May 5th, 1988, by the signature of an agreement between the cardinal Ratzinger and Mgr Lefebvre. This agreement recognized the principle of the ordination of a bishop, the maintenance of “the special discipline conceded with Fraternity by a particular law”. But the following day, May 6th, Mgr Lefebvre returns on its signature.
Feeling to age, and wanting to guarantee the perenniality of its work, Mgr Lefebvre decides to proceed to sacrings of bishops, even without the agreement of Rome. What it does, in spite of the canonical warning statements, the June 30th 1988. M {{gr.}} Lefebvre, assisted Mgr Antonio of Castro-Mayer, highly skilled bishop of Campos, sacring four bishop S, Alfonso de Galarreta, Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais and Richard Williamson.
This sacring of bishops in spite of the prohibition of Rome concerns excommunication latæ sententiæ : the individual excommunicates itself, of the simple fact of his act, but excommunication must be the public statement object. It is what does the Gantin cardinal, on July 1st 1988 by the decree Dominus Marcellus Lefebvre : he informs any person of good will that Mgr Lefebvre “posed a schismatic act” by quoting the guns 1364-1 and 1382 of the canonical Code of right
“the apostate of the faith, the heretic or the schismatic incur an excommunication latæ sententiæ . ” “the Bishop who, without pontifical mandate, devotes Évêque somebody, and the same that which receives the dedication of this Bishop incur excommunication latæ sententiæ reserved for the Apostolic Seat. ” , Jean-Paul II reminds faithful that no one should not be unaware of that “formal adhesion with the schism constitutes a serious offense with God and comprises the excommunication envisaged by the right of the Church”.
From 1988 to our days
“Rejoined”, or “community Ecclesia Dei”
Certain communities of the mobility of the FSSPX, like the Benedictines of Barroux, do not accept the situation of schism caused by the sacrings of June 30th. They are canonically accommodated in the Catholic church in July 1988. Some priests of the FSSPX base the Sacerdotal Fraternité Saint-Pierre, on the model of the agreements of May 5th. A commission cardinalice it pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” - day before with the practical applications of the motu landlord.; The business of Campos Until 2000, there are no more official relations between Rome and Fraternity. This one attempts to develop its world establishment and to fustigate “rejoined”. In August 2000, Fraternité Saint-Pie X carries out a pilgrimage in Rome within the framework of the Jubilé. On this occasion, various important members whose Mgr Fellay, the general superior, meet the Castrillon-Hoyos cardinal, president of the commission Ecclesia Dei. During all this year 2000, the meetings multiply, but with semi-2001 the relations are at the dead point.
One of the communities of the mobility of fraternity Saint-Magpie X, the Union Saint-Jean-Marie-Vianney , of Campos to the Brazil, directed by Mgr Rangel, continuous as for it the talks with the Vatican, recognizes the council the Vatican II interpreted with the light of the tradition and the validity and admissibility of the rite of Paul VI and obtains on January 18th, 2002 the statute “of apostolic administration of personal nature” submitted directly to the pope. The Rite tridentin their is recognized like clean rite.
; New rallyings Within Fraternité Saint-Pie X, this kind of agreement appears satisfactory with certain. Thus, during the year 2003, the abbot Paul Aulagnier, former superior of the district of France, expresses his support for the “agreements of Campos”; he is excluded from the FSSPX in October 2003. In 2004, the abbot Philippe Laguérie, former priest of Saint-Nicolas-of-Hanging-post expresses his dissatisfaction as for operation with the seminars and with certain choices with Fraternity; he is the subject of a disciplinary change in Mexico, which he refuses. Mgr Bernard Fellay declares whereas the Laguérie abbot “did not make to any more part of sacerdotal Fraternity Saint-Magpie X”. The sanction is the same one for those which had expressed its support to him, the such abbot Guillaume de Tanoüarn. September 8th, 2006, the abbots Philippe Laguérie, Guillaume de Tanoüarn and Aulagnier join the full communion with the Roman Catholic church within the Institut of Good Pasteur, with the exclusive use of the books of 1962 and the right to a “constructive criticism” of the council the Vatican II.
The attraction of the FSSPX
July 30th, 2006, Pasteur Swedish Lutheran, Sten Sandmark, abjures the Luthéranisme and made catholic profession of faith in the Saint Nicolas's Day church of the Hanging-post in front of M {{gr.}} Tissier de Mallerais. The Fraternity Saint-Josaphat, founded in 2001, gathering priests of rites let us slavons in Ukraine, places itself in mobility FSSPX by asking this one professors for his seminar. Mgr Tissier de Mallerais orders a priest of this community in 2003. In 1995, Mgr Lazo, highly skilled bishop of the Union (Philippines), joined the FSSPX. He dies in 2000.
Continuation of the contacts
In September 2005, the contacts are joined again between Mgr Fellay and the Vatican, insofar as Benoît XVI enjoys a greater credit near the catholics traditionalists. The first point claimed by Mgr Fellay - extension of the right to celebrate the mass according to the rite old, known as “of Black and white saint V” - has succeeds ( Motu Propio for the release of the mass (be 2007). The second - lifting of excommunications concerning the four bishops ordered by Mgr Lefebvre in 1988 - should not pose problem, but Mgr Fellay indicates in February 2006 that he will refuse to ask it, regarding excommunication as invalid.So the rehabilitation of the “excommunicated bishops” and the almost 500 priests of Fraternity seems possible, but very difficult, according to the words of the cardinal Castrillón-Hoyos of the pontifical commission Ecclesia Dei . In January 2006, the FSSPX had however announced “progress” in the contacts with the pontifical commission Ecclesia Dei .
Motu Landlord Summorum Pontificum (July 7th, 2007)
By the Motu landlord Summorum Pontificum , published the July 7th 2007, the pope Benoît XVI, which as a prefect of the Congrégation for the doctrines of the faith was very sensitized with the “problem traditionalist”, wanted to give in value the Rite tridentin. In its letter with the bishops which accompanies the motu landlord the pope precise that one of the goals of this text is the “internal reconciliation within the Church”.These provisions were greeted by Mgr Fellay in the name of sacerdotal Fraternity Saint-Magpie X. For him, this “favorable climate founded” by Benoit XVI, and this “undeniable liturgical projection” must precede the withdrawal by excommunications and the opening of true doctrinal discussions.
Doctrines
The rupture between Rome and Fraternity were done in two times legally speaking. But separation is due to major problems resting on the expression of the Dogme of the Catholic church.
Significant points
Thus the FSSPX refuses the Aggiornamento and what it names liberal measurements Concile Vatican II, in particular:
- the Religious liberty which according to the FSSPX would be opposed to the doctrines social Royauté of the Christ,
- the Collégialité who would dilute and bind the pontifical authority by granting too many being able to the Episcopal conferences,
- the oecumenism and what would be her corollary, the abandonment of the Prosélytisme or the Mission,
- modifications in the Liturgie.
A Roman answer
The cardinal Castrillon-Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation of the clergy enumerates in a letter of April 5th, 2002 with Mgr Bernard Fellay several points of dispute, indicating: “I allow myself (…) to enumerate some of these attitudes and contradictory assertions in which your Fraternity seems to be ventured, which causes perplexity and is in contradiction with the Tradition of the Church” .
Being the situation of the Catholic church, the Castrillon-Hoyos cardinal denounces the claim which has, according to him, Fraternity to consider the hierarchy catholic, to the pope. In particular, he challenges like “fau () S and unacceptable” the charges of the Fraternity according to which the Church and papacy would have lost the faith.
On the doctrinal level, the Castrillon-Hoyos cardinal recalls the lesson of the first council of the Vatican, according to which papacy is free from any risk of error. For him, pontifical magistère of Jean-Paul II thus does not contradict the former teaching of the Church. He recalls that the “states of necessity” called upon by Fraternity to justify ordinations of 1988 are always subjected to the judgment of the pope and cannot be called upon against this one or apart from him. Lastly, it reproaches to the prelates Fraternity their “lacks of charity” and their readily polemical tone.
Liturgy
The FSSPX exclusively celebrates the Messe according to the Rite known as “of saint Pie V” or Rite tridentin, in Latin in its version of 1962 and rejects the rite of Paul VI ( Novus Ordo Missæ ), which, according to it, the expression of the doctrines weakens on the Sacrement of the Eucharistie. Thus, the disciples of Mgr Lefebvre denounce the character “ambiguity” of the new liturgy which would be, according to them, likely to allow a Protestant interpretation of the mass. They reproach in particular the liturgical reform for having weakened and for having darkened the traditional design of the mass (such as its propitiatory character for example) in order to facilitate the dialog with the Protestant communities. For the FSSPX, the modification of the traditional Liturgie is emblematic modifications made by the Concile Vatican II. Mgr Lefebvre writes thus in a declaration of the November 21st 1974:
“One cannot modify deeply the lex orandi without modifying the lex credendi . To new mass new Catéchisme corresponds, new priesthood, new seminars, new universities, charismatic Église, pentecotist, all things opposed to the orthodoxy and magistère of always. ”The publication of the motu landlord Summorum Pontificum raised most of the difficulties due to prohibition de facto of the rite tridentin.
Controversies as for the canonical situation
Roman point of view
Following a request for Mgr Norbert Brunner, bishop roman catholic of Sion (Swiss), Diocèse in which, in Écône, the seminar and Fraternité Saint-Pie X, Rome, via the Congregation of the Bishops and the pontifical Council for the interpretation of the legislative texts, emits this opinion is located:
- canon law re-examined in 1983 precise that the sacring of bishop without mandate of the Holy See causes an automatic excommunication ( latæ sententiæ ) of the prelate which orders and processing. It is in Rome that then returns to make public this sanction. By the letter Dominus Marcellus Lefebvre . Consequently, the fact of persevering in disobedience to the legitimate authority following the schismatic act of 1988, involves a scission between the FSSPX and Rome.
For the Catholic church, if all the priests and bishops members of the FSSPX are validly ordered, their legal status is not in conformity with the laws connected with the church. Consequently, Baptême, Eucharistie, Confirmation, Ordination and Sacrement of the patients completely valid, even if is carried out within an illicit framework. On the other hand, to be valid, the sacraments of Penitence and Mariage must be conferred by a minister having received jurisdiction to do it. For these two sacraments, there is thus doubt about the validity.
For as much, the Castrillon-Hoyos cardinal, prefect of the Congregation of the Clergy and president of the Commission Ecclesia Dei explain on November 13rd, 2003 “ We are not vis-a-vis a heresy. One cannot say in terms correct, exact, precis that there is a schism. There is, in the fact of devoting bishops without the pontifical mandate, a schismatic attitude. They are inside the Church. There is only this fact that it misses full, more perfect - as that was known as during the meeting with Mgr Fellay - a fuller communion, because the communion exists. ”
But on February 23rd, 2006, this same cardinal specifies in a mail about the departure of Indian seminarists of the FSSPX towards the diocese: “ the testimony of these seminarists gives reason to serious concerns as for the separatist mentality which surrounded them with the seminar of Goulburn ”. Thus, for him, the schism is not consumed but it can become it. It confirmed this opinion at the time of a interwiew on March 16th, 2007.
The position of Fraternité Saint-Pie X
Point of the sight of the French right, the authorities of Fraternity saint-Magpie X admitted themselves not belonging to the Roman Catholic church more to be able to receive the gifts and testamentary legacies blocked because of the refusal of the Catholic church to regard them as member of the aforesaid the Church .As of the sacrings of 1988, the FSSPX publishes several articles justifying its choices. At the end of the years 1990, the FSSPX launches an information campaign near its faithful. A leaflet is widely distributed, proclaiming on first page:
“sacerdotal Fraternity Saint-Magpie X is schismatic? excommunicated? Rome answers not! The faithful ones can they attend a Mass of Saint Pie V celebrated by a priest of Fraternité Saint-Pie X? Yes! ”The sales base rests on several points:
; The state of necessity: Indeed, when the extreme or quasi extreme spiritual need for the individual (danger of dead) or the serious spiritual need for a great number (for example the uncontested diffusion of a heresy) requires it, and that the help of the ordinary Pastors misses, all the limitations posed by the ecclesiastical right fall, and any minister of God (priest or Bishop) has the duty to make, therefore legally, even “without the authorization necessary”, all that it can validly do by divine right under the terms of his capacity of order. If it did not do it, it would sin mortally, because the natural and positive divine right obliges to help, each time it is possible, any person in a state of serious need. (See, inter alia, Holy Alphonse Teologia Moralis , I.3, leaflet. 3 N. 27 and I.6, leaflet. 4, N. 560; F. Suarez Of charitate disput. 9, sect. II, N. 4: Eloquent Billuart Of charitate. IV, Article 3; Saint Thomas S. Th. Suppli Q. 8 A. 6.3; Cappello Summa Iuris Canonici vol. I p. 258 N. 258 § 2.) ; Will of schism: So that there is schism, according to the gun n°1364, it is necessary that there is will to create a parallel church. However, for the FSSPX, this will forever existed, giving for arguments that at the time of the mass the priests request for the reigning pope, that the sedevantists are excluded from Fraternity, and that Fraternity adheres completely to the catholic doctrines. Moreover, for them, Rome forever defined in what the FSSPX was schismatic. ; The disability of excommunication: Quoting the gun n°1323 “ punishable of any sorrow the person who, when she violated a law or a precept, acted forced by a serious fear, or is not pushed by the need, or to avoid a serious disadvantage, made a violation… ” as well as the gun n°1324, which reduces the sorrow for that which was believed in state of necessity, the FSSPX defends the fact that if there were schismatic act, the extenuating circumstances of these two guns make that the term of excommunication should not have been marked and that this one is by là-même invalid.
The FSSPX and sedevacantism
The irregular situation of Fraternité Saint-Pie X involves a questioning of the tender to the pontifical capacity. If the official position of Fraternity is a clear refusal of the Sédévacantisme, some of its members could conclude at the vacancy from the the Holy See. The priests who, the such abbot Claude Barthe in 1980, or the abbot Daniel Dolan in 1983 expressed this opinion, were excluded from Fraternity.
Fraternity and the policy
Sacerdotal Fraternity Saint-Magpie X takes again the catholic doctrines as for engagement in policy: “ the political action, really political, concretely political, fact part of the duty of state, even if its practical methods can vary from one individual to another according to the capacities, from the situations and the urgencies ”. Mgr Tissier de Mallerais explains why, according to the words of Christ “Return in César what is in César, and to God what is with God (MT 22,21)”, the temporal field, that of the civil society, and the spiritual field, that of the Church are sovereign each one in its kind, without to have to be dissociated. For him, the Community property, goal of the civil society is related to the hello eternal, goal of the Church.
In this context, the members (clerks) of the FSSPX do not have political commitment in favor, because that would be likely to involve the confusion of the fields, and this even if certain spiritual activities could cause a certain disorder, like the pilgrimages in the island of Yeu, on the tomb of the Pétain marshal following the example that of September 22nd, 2007 during which, the abbot of Cacqueray “compares the combat of the Pétain marshal for France with that of Mgr Lefebvre for the Church. ”.
On the other hand, many laic near to this fraternity have a political commitment. In bond with the catholic doctrines, they are very opposite with Communism that the pope Pie XI firmly condemned in 1937, by the encyclical Divini Redemptoris. They are also faithful to the teaching of the last popes on the “right to the life” developed by the encyclical Evangelium vitae in 1992. These faithful generally refuses to militate in movements or parties which are not in agreement with the moral doctrines of the Church. This is why the abbot Laguérie, member of the FSSPX until 2004, had recognized in 1991 the National front like “the party least far away from the natural right”. In France and Belgium, a certain number of associations with goals policy, such Belgium & Chrétienté claim these social doctrines of the Church such as she is preached by the FSSPX.
Appendices
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