The Withdrawal of the 1988 Excommunications
The following pages contain the important documents that are related to the withdrawal of the excommunications the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X. The first document is the decree from the Congregation of Bishops, dated January 21, 2009. The next two documents are a press release and a letter from the Superior General of the SSPX, both dated January 24, 2009. The press release and letter of Bishop Fellay were both read from the pulpit in all SSPX chapels and churches on Sunday, January 25, 2009. Finally, there is a statement of Fr. Arnaud Rostand, District Superior of the SSPX in the US. His statement comes from a sermon of January 25, 2009 in St. Mary’s, Kansas. It concerns the press release and the letter of the Superior General of the SSPX.
Decree from the Sacred Congregation for Bishops
Congregation for Bishops
Decree
In a letter dated December 15, 2008, and addressed to His Eminence Cardinal Dario Castrillón Hoyos, President of the Ecclesia Dei Pontifical Commission, Bishop Bernard Fellay, on his behalf and that of the other three Bishops consecrated on June 30, 1988, requested again the lifting of the excommunication latæ sententiæ formally pronounced by a Decree from the Prefect of this same Congregation for Bishops dated July 1, 1988. In the above-mentioned letter, Bishop Fellay, among other things, stated: “We are still as steadfast in our determination to remain Catholic and to place all our strength at the service of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is the Roman Catholic Church. We filially accept her teaching. We firmly believe in the primacy of Peter and in its prerogatives, and this is the reason why the present situation makes us suffer all the more.”
His Holiness Benedict XVI–touched with fatherly compassion over the spiritual difficulty manifested by those concerned by the sanction of excommunication and confident that the commitment they expressed in the above-quoted letter of sparing no effort to go further in the necessary discussions with the Authorities of the Holy See concerning the issues still pending, and thus of being able to reach quickly a full and satisfactory solution of the problem raised at the origin–has decided to reconsider the canonical standing of the Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta with respect to their episcopal consecrations.
This act expresses the desire to consolidate reciprocal confidence in our dealings, to intensify and give stability to the relations of the Society of Saint Pius X with the Apostolic See. This gift of peace, at the end of the Christmas celebrations, is also intended to be a sign for the promotion of unity in charity in the universal Church, and to thereby remove the scandal of division.
Wishing that this step be followed without delay by the full communion with the Church of all the Society of Saint Pius X, in testimony of a true fidelity and genuine recognition of the Magisterium and of the authority of the Pope by the proof of visible unity.
According to the faculties expressly conceded to me by the Holy Father Benedict XVI, by virtue of the present Decree, I remit the censure of excommunication latæ sententiæ pronounced by this Congregation on July 1, 1988, from Bishops Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galaretta, and, as of this day, I likewise declare void of juridical effects the Decree published at the time.
Rome, from the Congregation for Bishops, this 21st day of January 2009.
Card. Giovanni Battista Re
Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops
Press Release from the Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X
The excommunication of the bishops consecrated by His Grace Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, on June 30, 1988, which had been declared by the Congregation for Bishops in a decree dated July 1, 1988, and which we had always contested, has been withdrawn by another decree mandated by Benedict XVI and issued by the same Congregation on January 21, 2009.
We express our filial gratitude to the Holy Father for this gesture which, beyond the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, will benefit the whole Church. Our Society wishes to be always more able to help the pope to remedy the unprecedented crisis which presently shakes the Catholic world, and which Pope John Paul II had designated as a state of “silent apostasy.”
Besides our gratitude towards the Holy Father and towards all those who helped him to make this courageous act, we are pleased that the decree of January 21 considers as “necessary” talks with the Holy See, talks which will enable the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X to explain the fundamental doctrinal reasons which it believes to be at the origin of the present difficulties of the Church.
In this new atmosphere, we have the firm hope to obtain soon the recognition of the rights of Catholic Tradition.
Menzingen, January 24, 2009
+Bernard Fellay
Letter of the Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X
Dear Faithful,
As I announce in the attached press release, “the excommunication of the bishops consecrated by His Grace Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, on June 30, 1988, which had been declared by the Congregation for Bishops in a decree dated July 1, 1988, and which we had always contested, has been withdrawn by another decree mandated by Benedict XVI and issued by the same Congregation on January 21, 2009.” It was the prayer intention I had entrusted to you in Lourdes, on the Feast of Christ the King 2008. Your response exceeded our expectations, since one million seven hundred and three thousand rosaries were said to obtain through the intercession of Our Lady that an end be put to the opprobrium which, beyond the persons of the bishops of the Society, rested upon all those who were more or less attached to Tradition. Let us not forget to thank the Most Blessed Virgin who has inspired the Holy Father with this unilateral, benevolent, and courageous act. Let us assure him of our fervent prayers.
Thanks to this gesture, Catholics attached to Tradition throughout the world will no longer be unjustly stigmatized and condemned for having kept the Faith of their fathers. Catholic Tradition is no longer excommunicated. Though it never was in itself, it was often excommunicated and cruelly so in day to day events. It is just as the Tridentine Mass had never been abrogated in itself, as the Holy Father has happily recalled in the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of July 7, 2007.
The decree of January 21 quotes the letter dated December 15, 2008, to Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos in which I expressed our attachment “to the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ which is the Catholic Church,” reaffirming there our acceptation of its two thousand year old teaching and our faith in the Primacy of Peter. I reminded him that we were suffering much from the present situation of the Church in which this teaching and this primacy were being held to scorn. And I added: “We are ready to write the Creed with our own blood, to sign the anti-modernist oath, the profession of faith of Pius IV, we accept and make our own all the councils up to the First Vatican Council. Yet we can but express reservations concerning the Second Vatican Council, which intended to be a council “different from the others (cf. Addresses by Popes John XXIII and Paul VI).” In all this, we are convinced that we remain faithful to the line of conduct indicated by our founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, whose reputation we hope to soon see restored.
Consequently, we wish to begin these “talks”–which the decree acknowledges to be “necessary”–about the doctrinal issues which are opposed to the Magisterium of all time. We cannot help noticing the unprecedented crisis which is shaking the Church today: crisis of vocations, crisis of religious practice, of catechism, of the reception of the sacraments… Before us, Paul VI went so far as to say that “from some fissure the smoke of Satan had entered the Church,” and he spoke of the “self-destruction of the Church.” John Paul II did not hesitate to say that Catholicism in Europe was, as it were, in a state of “silent apostasy.” Shortly before his election to the Throne of Peter, Benedict XVI compared the Church to a “boat taking in water on every side.” Thus, during these discussions with the Roman authorities we want to examine the deep causes of the present situation, and by bringing the appropriate remedy, achieve a lasting restoration of the Church.
Dear faithful, the Church is in the hands of her Mother, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. In her we place our confidence. We have asked from her the freedom of the Mass of all time everywhere and for all. We have asked from her the withdrawal of the decree of excommunications. In our prayers, we now ask from her the necessary doctrinal clarifications which confused souls so much need.
Menzingen, January 24, 2009
+Bernard Fellay
Address of Fr. Arnaud Rostand, US District Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X, on the Lifting of the Decree of Excommunication
First of all, I would like to thank all of you and all Americans who have prayed faithfully and diligently the Rosary Crusade that Bishop Bernard Fellay relaunched a few months ago.
It is over 400,000 rosaries which have been offered in the US for the intentions of the new crusade and the worldwide total is over one million seven hundred thousand. The intention of this crusade, as you know, was the withdrawal of the decree of the excommunication for the 1988 episcopal consecrations. Once again, thank you for your generosity.
Many of you must have already heard through the media that yesterday on January 24, 2009, the decree of excommunication was withdrawn by Rome.
You have just heard the reading of the statement by Bishop Fellay as well as his letter of explanation.
At the end of the Mass we will sing a Magnificat at the request of Bishop Fellay, in order to thank our Lady for granting us what we were asking in the Rosary Crusade.
Let me please give some explanations on the situation.
In the beginning of 2001, the Society of Saint Pius X made clear the three necessary steps to any real and durable/stable relations with Rome. These steps or preliminaries were seen by the Society of Saint Pius X as a necessity first to work at the restoration of the Traditional doctrine within the Church and, as a consequence, at the regularization of the canonical situation.
The first of these three steps was to free the Tridentine Mass, that every priest may celebrate freely the Traditional Latin Mass.
The second preliminary was the withdrawal of the excommunication.
And the third one was to hold doctrinal discussions, especially on the Second Vatican Council.
Many, at the time, saw these three steps as unreasonable, impractical, too difficult. Some even said that it was a way for the Society to refuse any solutions to the situation, a refusal of dealing with Rome.
Six years later the first step was granted by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. On July 7, 2007, the Tridentine Mass was reinstituted. “It was never abrogated,” admitted the Pope in the now famous Motu Proprio.
The Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, even though imperfect and not satisfactory in many ways, was a huge step. It was the first attempt to restore the Tridentine Mass in the Catholic Church. The full restoration of the Catholic Mass will only happen when the New Mass, which is full of Protestant spirit, the Mass of Luther, as Archbishop Lefebvre would call it, is discarded.
This Motu Proprio is and will remain a historical event in the crisis of the Church–and it was for us the completion of our first preliminary, requirement.
The second preliminary was the removal of the decree of excommunication.
It must be understood that in our minds it is in no way recognition of the validity of these excommunications. We have always held and we continue to believe firmly that these excommunications were unfounded and null. We have asked for their removal, surely as a sign of good will from Rome, but also and mostly because these excommunications are a true injustice: injustice against our founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, injustice against our four bishops.
Yesterday, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, according to the faculties expressly conceded to him by the Holy Father, has remitted the censure of excommunication.
As you just heard from Bishop Fellay, we the Society of Saint Pius X, are grateful to the Holy Father for this gesture.
The second step, second preliminary which only a few years ago seemed to be impractical, impossible, has been granted.
We therefore, now, hope that we may proceed with our third preliminary that is some discussions with Rome about the fundamental reasons of our positions.
We have always considered this third step as the most important one. It is the most important because we touch the roots of the problem, the grounds and causes of the crisis in the Church.
The reason for our position today is a defense of the Faith. What was and still is at risk is the Catholic Faith, the Tradition of the Catholic Church, the handing over of the Apostolic Faith and our faithfulness to believe in whatever has been taught by the Catholic Church throughout the centuries. This is the reason of our fight, of our resistance.
We refuse and have always refused to follow Rome’s neo-modernist and neo-protestant tendencies which were clearly evident in the Second Vatican Council and, after the Council, in all the reforms which issued from it.
This is what Archbishop Lefebvre wrote in his famous 1974 declaration, and we will remain faithful to it.
He also said:
No authority, not event the highest in the hierarchy, can force us to abandon or diminish our Catholic Faith.…That is why, without any spirit of rebellion, bitterness or resentment, we pursue our work of forming priests, with the timeless Magisterium as our guide. We are persuaded that we can render no greater service to the Holy Catholic Church, to the Sovereign Pontiff and to posterity.
We make this declaration of Archbishop Lefebvre ours, we renew it, and we remain faithful to it.
It is one of the most important differences between the Society of Saint Pius X and any so-called Ecclesia Dei fraternity. We believe that the crisis has its foundation in doctrine, the Catholic doctrine or Faith.
And it is not just a problem for priests or bishops, not just for the clerics. Anyone, even lay people, has the duty to keep the faith, the sound doctrine. It is a necessity for salvation.
If you want to save your soul, you must believe in what the Church has always believed. You must hold to Revelation, the unique and divine revelation that only the Catholic Church has received and will maintain until the end of time. It is not what I believe which is important; rather it is whether what I believe corresponds to the Divine Revelation. The only way to keep it is to be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church.
We wish therefore and pray that in the future we may be able to begin these “talks” with Rome about the doctrinal issues, and about the Second Vatican Council in particular.
The new decree is of course good news for every one of us. We are grateful to the Pope for the releasing of the Tridentine Mass, for the remitting of the excommunication. Nevertheless, this does not change much our situation and our positions.
It is now time to pray and sacrifice, asking the Blessed Virgin Mary to grant to the Catholic Church the necessary doctrinal clarifications.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary keep us all faithful.
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