When a schism is once spread, there grows at length a dispute which are the schismaticks: in the sense of the law the schism lies on that side which opposes itself to the religion of the state.
-- Jonathan Swift
June 30th:
... “I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!” Leo
wrote in a letter to the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, the superior of the
Society of St. Pius X. ... “Far be it from us to separate ourselves from the Roman Church. We
desire, on the contrary, to serve her by means that are extraordinary,
as one would assist a mother in distress who requires particular help,
even if such help is not understood by everyone,” Pagliarani wrote. ...
July 2nd:
... By declaring a schism and extending excommunications to potentially
thousands of Catholics, the Vatican’s doctrine office went above and
beyond the minimum sanctions foreseen by the church’s canon law to
respond to the consecrations Wednesday of four new bishops.
The society, known by its acronym SSPX, celebrates the ancient Latin
Mass and opposes the modernizing reforms of the Catholic Church, which
it considers to be rife with heresies and errors. While a fringe
movement on the Catholic right, the SSPX has been a thorn in the
Vatican’s side for five decades because it claims to be even more
Catholic than the Holy See.
... The SSPX doesn’t have an exact count but estimates around
400,000-600,000 people attend its Masses, meaning Thursday’s decree
could potentially involve the excommunications of thousands of
rank-and-file SSPX faithful.
... The Vatican responded so aggressively in part because the group poses
something of a threat by representing a parallel, ultra-Catholic,
pre-Vatican II church that has grown in the decades since its original
break from Rome. While representing a fraction of the 1.4-billion strong
Catholic faithful, the SSPX now has six bishops, 751 priests, 264
seminarians, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates and 250 religious
sisters representing 50 nationalities, according to SSPX statistics.
... “He’s brought the hammer down,” said Joseph Shaw, head of the Latin Mass
Society of England and Wales, which is in communion. Shaw expressed
sympathy with the plight of ordinary SSPX faithful, saying the
invalidation of marriages especially is going to cause “massive”
pastoral problems. “It’s a sad day.” ...
