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Contents © 2000
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LETTERS
SEPTEMBER 2000

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FAITH ON THE BART

I was visiting the Bay Area yesterday, happened to be on BART on the way to the East Bay, and found on the seat of a BART train, a copy of the San Francisco Faith. It was entirely intact. I read it from cover to cover, and enjoyed (most) of the contents. Especially enjoyed the article on the West Coast Dominicans. I was a novice at St Albert's many, many years ago. I still hold a very special place in my heart for the Dominicans and their outreach.

Sincerely,
David L. Carpenter
Salt Lake City, UT


AMEN TO FATHER RYAN

In your July issue of news and letters, Father Ryan's letter to his parishioners of St. Elizabeth church in Guerneville was a forthright and revealing appraisal of what obviously has been a lack of consideration for both priests and parishioners within the dioceses. As Father Ryan's letter indicated, a bishop's or priest's appointment to a diocese is one of stewardship, not ownership. And people who pay the bills and therefore are entitled to be heard. We would like to shout a great "Amen" to Father Ryan's comments.

Very truly,
Vern Hunt
Lucerne,CA


YOU KNOW LITTLE OR NOTHING

In your last issue of the Faith, I noticed your brief article dealing with the late Archbishop Lefebvre and the Society of St. Pius X [See News, "Ecclesia Dei Tries To Bridge Chasm," July/August Faith]. You obviously know little or nothing of the situation of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X and his Excellency, the late Archbishop Lefebvre. In the history of the Church never, not once, has an illegal Episcopal consecration itself constituted a schismatic act. For one to fall under schism, that one must willingly separate himself from the Roman Primacy completely. To separate yourself from the Church, you have to do just that, separate yourself from the Church. Archbishop Lefebvre said himself, "I do not want to break with Rome. I will always be faithful to the Roman Pontiff. I have no intention whatsoever to reject the primacy of the Roman Pontiff." In your article, you said that there is a gap between the Society of St. Pius X and Rome. You are wrong. Rome has proved that there is no schism with the SSPX. I shall prove it.

Cardinal Castillo Lara, President of the Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of Canon Law explained that "the act of consecrating a bishop (without the Pope's permission) is not in itself a schismatic act," and so no excommunication applies (La Repubblica, Oct. 7, 1988). Count Neri Capponi, the retired Professor of Canon Law at the University of Florence, well-known in Vatican legal circles and accredited to argue cases before Rome's highest juridical body, the Apostolic Signatura, explains that for a schismatic act, it is not enough to merely consecrate a bishop without papal permission. "He must do something more. For instance, had he set up a hierarchy of his own, then it would have been a schismatic act. The fact that Monsignor Lefebvre simply said, "I am creating bishops in order that my priestly order can continue. They do not take the place of other bishops. I am not creating a parallel Church." Therefore, this act was not, per se, schismatic and so he is not ex-communicated. (Latin Mass Magazine May-June 1993).

Cardinal Edward Cassidy, President of the Pontifical Council for Christian unity, wrote this reply to an inquiry about the status of the SSPX, "Regarding your inquiry (March 25, 1994), I would point out at once that the Directory on Ecumenism is not concerned with the Society of St. Pius X. The situation of the members of this Society is an internal matter of the Catholic Church. The Society is not another Church or Ecclesial Community in the meaning used in the Directory. Of course the Mass and the Sacrament administered by the priests of the Society are valid. The Bishops are validly, but not lawfully, consecrated.... I hope that this answers your letter satisfactorily."

Father Gerald E. Murry of the Archdiocese of New York, student of canon law, received his license in Canon Law at Rome's Gregorian University, in June, 1995 wrote a thesis entitled, "The Canonical Status of the Lay Faithful Associated with the Late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the Society of St. Pius X: Are they Excommunicated as Schismatics?" In his interview with Latin Mass Magazine, he says: "They are not excommunicated as schismatics, as far as I can see, because the pope has never said they are... I come to the conclusion that, canonically speaking, he (A.B. Lefebvre) is not guilty of a schismatic act punishable by canon law. He's guilty of an act of disobedience to the pope, but he did it in such a way that he could avail himself of a provision of the law that would prevent him from being automatically excommunicated (latæ sententiæ) for this act." Therefore, neither Archbishop Lefebvre, nor any of his bishops he consecrated, is excommunicated.

"In the case of the Society of St. Pius X lay people or the priests, the Vatican never declared any priest or lay person to have become a schismatic." Therefore, the priests and faithful are not excommunicated. "As far as I can see, the Holy See has never stated that mere attendance at a Mass said by a priest in the Society of St. Pius X constitutes a schismatic act.... Let's say that you knew that a priest at your parish was teaching things contrary to the moral law or Catholic doctrine. Let's say he denied the existence of hell, or taught that divorced and remarried people could receive Holy Communion. Could you go to a Society of St. Pius X chapel and receive good doctrine? That seems better to me than hearing truly heretical sermons." (Latin Mass Magazine, Fall 1995).

Father Patrick Valdini, Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law at the Catholic Institute of Paris said that Archbishop Lefebvre did not commit a schismatic act by the consecration, for he didn't deny the Pope's primacy. "It is not the consecration of a bishop an apostolic mission." Which is something Archbishop Lefebvre never did (Question de Droit ou de confiance, L'Homme Nouveau, Feb. 17, 1988). This was recently the case when, in Hawaii, Bishop Ferrario decided to excommunicate on May 1, 1991, some followers of the Society of St. Pius X. Rome declared that the decision of Bishop Ferrario "lacks foundation and hence validity." Cardinal Ratzinger overturned Bishop Ferrario's attempted excommunication on June 28, 1993. "From the examination of the case, conducted on the basis of the law of the Church, it did not result that the facts referred to in the above-mentioned decree, are formal schismatic acts in the strict sense, as they do not constitute the offense of schism; and therefore the Congregation holds that the Decree of May 1, 1991 lacks foundation and hence validity." (Apostolic Nunciature, Washington D.C.)

As a follower of the Society, I can say I have never seen any remote sign or attitude of schism or disobedience to the Church or the Pope. We pray every day for the Holy Father, Pope John Paul II. To quote Archbishop Lefebvre, "We cleave, with all our hearts and with all our soul, to Catholic Rome, the guardian of the Catholic Faith ... and of traditions necessary for the maintenance of that faith."

In Christo Regis,
Michael Sellman
Oakland

Editor responds: The pope's apostolic letter, Ecclesia Dei, confirming the formal excommunication of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and of the organization which followed him into schism was given on July 2, 1988. This is the Church's definitive statement on the subject of the status of Lefebvre and his organization. The Code of Canon Law is not subject to a vote of the priests or academics cited in the above letter. Instead, Catholics believe that the pope has the right to determine the meaning of the code by virtue of his office as pope, and his rulings on canon law are unappealable. As the code states, "There is neither appeal nor recourse against a decision or decree of the Roman Pontiff" (CIC 333:3). In his apostolic letter, the Holy Father says, " In itself this act [the ordinations performed by Lefebvre] was one of disobedience to the Roman pontiff in a very grave matter and of supreme importance for the unity of the church, such as is the ordination of bishops whereby the apostolic succession is sacramentally perpetuated. Hence such disobedience -- which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy--constitutes a schismatic act. In performing such an act, notwithstanding the formal canonical warning sent to them by the cardinal prefect of the Congregation for Bishops last June 17, Archbishop Lefebvre and the priests Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta have incurred the grave penalty of excommunication envisaged by ecclesiastical law." Later in the letter the pope writes, "Everyone should be aware that formal adherence to the schism is a grave offense against God and carries the penalty of excommunication decreed by the Church's law."

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