Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Pope Francis drops a bombshell: Catholics can receive absolution from dissident SSPX priests

Pope Francis, unpredictable as ever, has just announced that during the forthcoming ‘Year of Mercy’, Catholics can receive absolution from priests of the ultra-traditionalist Society of St Pius X (SSPX), which has illicitly ordained its own bishops and doesn’t recognise the Second Vatican Council.

He’s also given all priests permission to absolve anyone who truly repents of the sin of having or procuring an abortion – which they could already, though they might need the permission of the local bishop since it incurs automatic excommunication. So this isn’t such big news.

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-91) was the arch-reactionary who, defying Pope John Paul II, ordained four bishops including the Holocaust-denying nutjob Richard Williamson, thus getting himself and them excommunicated. Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications on Williamson and the other three in 2009. This wasn’t a smart move, since it earned him shocking publicity and the Lefebvrists offered nothing in return. They’re like that.

Now Francis, out of the blue, has written the following to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation:

A final consideration concerns those faithful who for various reasons choose to attend churches officiated by priests of the Fraternity [Society] of St Pius X. This Jubilee Year of Mercy excludes no one. From various quarters, several Brother Bishops have told me of their good faith and sacramental practice, combined however with an uneasy situation from the pastoral standpoint. I trust that in the near future solutions may be found to recover full communion with the priests and superiors of the Fraternity. In the meantime, motivated by the need to respond to the good of these faithful, through my own disposition, I establish that those who during the Holy Year of Mercy approach these priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation shall validly and licitly receive the absolution of their sins.

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