Our Lady of Sorrows, Softener of Evil Hearts, pray for us sinners.
His Holiness Pope Leo has now commented explicitly on the SSPX situation with these words, translated from the Italian by CatholicSat:
Watching the video, the Roman Pontiff maintains his calm demeanor, and there does not seem to be any indication of more details. As we said about this Sacred Heart Month, I’m going to leave the commentary on the SSPX right now to the clerics who can discuss this clerical issue in order to encourage lay people to fast and pray for our clerics. So here we’ll just break down what was said and what was not said, and leave it at that.
- Pope Leo wants the SSPX to be in communion with the Church
- Pope Leo experiences pain about this division
- Pope Leo believes that the SSPX refuses to accept some fundamental elements of the Church
- These fundamental elements begin with some points from Vatican II
- Pope Leo states twice that the SSPX is making this choice.
Two sentences are not entirely clear in his statement: the sentence which begins “One must realize” and the sentence “If they make that decision.” Does the Holy Father merely mean that schism is the result of this decision on the part of the SSPX? What does it mean when he says “I’m sorry but we have to move on”?
The original statement from Cardinal Fernández back in February proposed a dialogue with the SSPX on Vatican II making the distinction between “differing degrees of adherence required by various texts of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and their interpretation.” So the original stance of the Holy See was in making distinctions about accepting Vatican II with varying degrees of assent. So it appears that the Holy Father is saying that the Holy See and the SSPX do not agree on the assent required for some specific propositions of Vatican II. What these are specifically, he does not say.
Let us fast and pray for our clerics to all be united in the truth and charity of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus.
VIVA CRISTO REY!
T. S. Flanders
Editor
Eucharistic Heart of Jesus
