The Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has formally begun the canonical process to challenge the Vatican’s recent decree declaring its six bishops excommunicated, arguing that the Church’s own legal procedures suspend the decree while the appeal is under review.
According to LifeSiteNews, the Society announced on July 13 that it submitted a preliminary administrative recourse to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on July 11. The appeal challenges the Vatican decree issued on July 2, which declared the Society’s bishops to be “schismatic” and therefore excommunicated. The decree also warned that Society priests and lay faithful who “adhere to the schism” could likewise incur excommunication.
The SSPX stated that its appeal was filed under canons 1734 and following of the 1983 Code of Canon Law. According to the Society, Canon 1353 provides that the filing of such a recourse suspends the force of the administrative decree while the canonical process is pending.
In its public statement, the Society said, “By this recourse, the Society intends to exercise the right which the Church recognizes to any person who considers himself harmed by an administrative act to seek its correction, in a spirit of respect for ecclesiastical authority and of faithful attachment to justice, truth and the good of the Church.”
According to LifeSiteNews, canon law requires that a party first request the issuing authority to revoke or modify the decree before pursuing a higher appeal. In this case, the Society submitted its petition directly to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, which authored the July 2 decree.
The Society described this filing as the required preliminary step before a possible “hierarchical recourse” to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest administrative court for disputes involving acts of ecclesiastical authority.
According to LifeSiteNews, Canon 1353 provides that while such a recourse remains pending, a person challenging an administrative penal decree may continue to receive the sacraments and carry out actions that otherwise would have been prohibited by the sanction until the appeal is resolved.
If the Dicastery rejects the request or does not respond, the Society may then bring the matter before the Apostolic Signatura under the procedures outlined in the Code of Canon Law.
Questions also remain regarding the status of marriages and confessions celebrated by SSPX clergy. According to LifeSiteNews, several canon lawyers have argued that the revocation of the faculties granted by Pope Francis may be legally uncertain because it was announced in a Vatican note rather than through a formal legislative decree. They contend that, under Canon 144, the faculties granted by Pope Francis could remain in effect in cases of legal doubt unless explicitly revoked through the proper canonical process.
The canonical appeal now begins what could become a significant legal review within the Church’s judicial system as the Vatican considers the Society’s request and determines whether the July 2 decree should be upheld, modified, or revoked.
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