At a February 12 meeting with Father Davide Pagliarani, the superior general of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Cardinal Victor Fernandez proposed a “theological dialogue” with the traditionalist group—but insisted that the SSPX must abandon its plan to proceed with the ordination of new bishops without a papal mandate.
In a brief statement released after the private meeting, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) warned that if the SSPX proceeded with the ordination of bishops—which has been scheduled for July 1—the act “would imply a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism), with grave consequences” for the SSPX.
Cardinal Fernandez suggested that further conversations between the DDF and the SSPX, if successful, could lead to a regularization of the canonical status of the SSPX. Father Pagliarani said that he would discuss the DDF proposal with the group’s governing council.
The DDF statement reported that the conversation between Cardinal Fernandez and Father Pagliarani was “cordial and sincere.” But the difficulties between the two parties remain serious, reflecting more than forty years of tense debate.
The DDF prefect clearly took a carrot-and-stick approach to the discussion: on one hand offering the prospect of giving the traditionalist group a secure canonical standing; on the other hand using the term “schism” to emphasize the gravity of a further break. Ordaining bishops without a papal mandate incurs the automatic penalty of excommunication, and the Vatican officially announced the excommunication of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and the four SPXX bishops he consecrated in 1988.
But Pope Benedict XVI lifted those excommunications (which had applied only to the bishops themselves), and Pope Francis followed up by granting SSPX priests the faculty to hear confessions. Today the canonical status of the SSPX is best described as “irregular.”