SSPX ORDINATIONS ILLIGITIMATE!

Pope St. Pius X never tolerated disobedience to the Pope

Vatican City, Jul 5, 2011 / 01:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).-
The Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., has dismissed the
recent ordination of 20 priests by the Society of Saint Pius X as
illegitimate. 

“As long as the Society does not have a canonical
status in the Church - Benedict XVI underlines - its ministers do not
exercise legitimate ministries in the Church,” said Father Lombardi in
response to a question from CNA at a July 5 media conference. 

Fr. Lombardi said that the Society’s canonical status will not be resolved “until the doctrinal questions are clarified.” 

The
Society of Saint Pius X is a traditionalist group founded in 1970 by
the Frenchman Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Their relationship with the
Vatican soured in 1988 when Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops
against the orders of Pope John Paul II. It was an act deemed to be
schismatic by the Vatican. 

While the excommunication of the four
bishops was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009, the Society still has
not fully resolved doctrinal disagreements with the Catholic Church,
which are mainly tied to the Second Vatican Council.

Over the
past two weeks, the Society has ordained priests in ceremonies in
Switzerland, Germany and the United States. The latter ordinations took
place on June 17 at the group’s seminary in Winona, Minn. and were
conducted by the St. Pius X’s Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay.
He used his homily to accuse the Vatican of lacking unity and
consistency in negotiations with the Society. 

“When I speak of
contradiction, my dear brethren, I mean that certain people in Rome
consider us as being outside the Church, excommunicated, and even as
having lost the Faith and being heretics. But there are others who very
clearly accept us as Catholics,” he told the congregation gathered for
the ordination of five priests. 

“When Bishop de Galarreta (a Pius
X bishop) and our priests go to Rome for the doctrinal discussions,
they say Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. How can you have both attitudes
at the same time? Do you see how strong this contradiction is?” 

Pope
Benedict has been eager to heal the rift between the Pius X Society and
the Church. In 2007 he made it easier to celebrate Mass according to
the older Tridentine rite, saying he hoped it would lead to “an interior
reconciliation in the heart of the Church.” But today’s developments
won’t make that reconciliation any easier to achieve.