tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4341737765953996104.post7067106026669207717..comments2023-06-09T01:44:10.811-07:00Comments on La honda de David: "Y se pusieron de pie" (Ap 11, 11)Lhdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09545626254076004399noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4341737765953996104.post-13889252068210328182015-09-04T17:04:27.908-07:002015-09-04T17:04:27.908-07:00Now, to be serious. Francis has just regularized t...Now, to be serious. Francis has just regularized the Society of Saint Pius X by unilateral decree. That’s right: regularized. Why? Because he has granted its clergy universal power to administer the Sacrament of Confession with no grant of faculties from any local ordinary. Does anyone seriously think that on the day before the Year of Mercy ends, Francis or any Vatican official will direct the SSPX clergy to cease absolving sins at 12:01 am on the next day? That isn’t going to happen. It would be the very sort of Pharisaical legalism Francis is constantly condemning. No, something else is going happen: at the very least, the arrangement for confessions will be made permanent. Any other outcome would be too absurd even for the continuously degenerating farce that is the governance of the Church since Vatican II.<br /><br />Moreover, the decree implicitly regularizes attendance at SSPX Masses, for it can hardly be the case that it will be licit for the faithful to go to Confession at an SSPX chapel but illicit to stay for the Mass, or that one could do both licitly, but only for a year. Are we supposed to believe that the same priests who, according to this decree, can validly and licitly absolve sins during the Year of Mercy can only validly, but not licitly, celebrate Mass at the same time and in the same place? That kind of hairsplitting would make even the Pharisees laugh.<br /><br />And what of the suspension a divinis that supposedly affects all of the SSPX priests? Are we to infer that Francis has lifted the suspension for one year, but only as to the Sacrament of Confession, not the administration of the other sacraments? And then the “full” suspension will kick in again at 12:01 am on December 8, 2016? When in the history of the Church has there even been a partial suspension of a priest’s suspension, but only for a year? Utter nonsense.<br /><br />And here’s another thing: the marriages performed by SSPX clergy are likewise implicitly recognized as valid by this decree. Or would the hounds of the Society now suggest that Francis has authorized the absolution of hundreds of thousands of people living continuously out of wedlock? A stealthy implementation of “the Kasper proposal,” perhaps? I don’t think so. Francis simply doesn’t believe the marriages are invalid. Neither does the Vatican, which has never said they are but rather treats them as presumptively valid in annulment proceedings coming to the Vatican on appeal by the party opposing annulment. They just can’t tell us that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com