The canonical situation of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a group founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, is unresolved.
However, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a letter to the SSPX on 26 June 2017, stated conditions that would be required for full re-establishment of communion: making the 1998 profession of faith, accepting explicitly with due adhesion[a] the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and subsequent church teachings, and recognising the validity and legitimacy of the rite of Mass and the other sacraments celebrated according to the liturgical books promulgated after that council.
[7] In May 1988, prior to the Econe consecrations, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith negotiated a protocol intended to regularize the canonical status of SSPX, which had become increasingly dubious.
[10] Jus novum (c. 1140-1563) Jus novissimum (c. 1563-1918) Jus codicis (1918-present) Other Sacraments Sacramentals Sacred places Sacred times Supra-diocesan/eparchal structures Particular churches Juridic persons Philosophy, theology, and fundamental theory of Catholic canon law Clerics Office Juridic and physical persons Associations of the faithful Pars dynamica (trial procedure) Canonization Election of the Roman Pontiff Academic degrees Journals and Professional Societies Faculties of canon law Canonists Institute of consecrated life Society of apostolic life In June 1988, following the episcopal consecrations without a pontifical mandate, Pope John Paul II declared that the illicit consecrations were a schismatic act which "impli[ed] in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy" and that all six bishops involved in the ceremony had incurred automatic excommunication under the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
[1]: n3 John Paul II wrote, in Ecclesia Dei, that "the root of this schismatic act can be discerned in an incomplete and contradictory notion of Tradition".
[1]: n5 At the same time, John Paul II set up the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (PCED) to help SSPX members and adherents to enter "full ecclesial communion", those who wished "to remain united to the Successor of Peter in the Catholic Church while preserving their spiritual and liturgical traditions".
[1]: n6a [11] In 1996, the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts (PCILT) responded to an enquiry from Bishop Norbert Brunner of the Diocese of Sion, Switzerland, that "in the case of the Lefebvrian deacons and priests there seems no doubt that their ministerial activity in the ambit of the schismatic movement is a more than evident sign of the fact that the two requirements" for formal adherence to the schism "have been met".
However, the longer they frequented SSPX chapels, the greater their likelihood of imbibing a schismatic mentality that ultimately risked excommunication.
It is after all a service of charity, so that the Priestly Society gains full communion with the Holy Father by acknowledging the sanctity of the new Mass.In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed that: "Until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers – even though they have been freed of the ecclesiastical penalty – do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church.
[21] In a document from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, published on 4 April 2017, local ordinaries are authorized to grant SSPX priests faculties to assist at marriages validly.
[31] In a letter dated 23 May 2008, the PCED stated: The Sacraments of Penance and Matrimony, however, require that the priest enjoys the faculties of the diocese or has proper delegation.
In November 2016 in Misericordia et misera, Francis announced that he had "personally decided to extend this faculty beyond the Jubilee Year, until further provisions are made, lest anyone ever be deprived of the sacramental sign of reconciliation through the Church's pardon".
In their 2008 petition, the four surviving SSPX bishops "acknowledged the supreme authority of the Holy Father, and noted that 'the current situation causes us much suffering'".