Rome calls ordinations by SSPX illegitimate

BY CINDY WOODEN IN ROME
THE VATICAN has declared planned ordinations by the Society of St Pius X illegitimate.
The Society has announced that it will ordain three priests and three deacons at its seminary in Zaitzkofen, Germany, and that another 18 men will be ordained at its headquarters in Econe, Switzerland, and in Winona, Minnesota.
Bishop Gerhard Muller of Regensburg said he had warned the Zaitzkofen seminary that the ordinations would violate canon law and create a “dangerous situation”, adding that he had asked the Vatican to “prescribe how to proceed”.
But the rector of the Zaitzkofen seminary, Fr Stefan Frey, issued a statement saying the Society had “provisional legal status” in the Catholic Church pending a “definitive canonical ruling” on its future, and that it had not been told to “put a stop to ordinations”.
In January Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the Society’s four bishops, including British-born Bishop Richard Williamson. Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, quoted from a March letter Pope Benedict had written to the world’s bishops explaining his actions toward the traditionalist bishops and clarifying the current status of the Society.
Fr Lombardi quoted the portion of the Pope’s letter that said: “Until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the society has no canonical status in the church, and its ministers... do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church. Therefore, the ordinations are still to be considered illegitimate.” He also said he expected the publication soon of the document the Pope had promised to issue regulating how the pontifical commission Ecclesia Dei would work under the auspices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The commission had operated as a separate office to care for followers of the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the SSPX. The new configuration of the commission, Fr Lombardi said, would be an opportunity for “the beginning of a dialogue with the leaders of the Society”.