The Validity of Confessions and Marriages
in the chapels of the Society of St. Pius X

A CANONICAL STUDY

by Rev. Ramón Anglés

7. NEW LEGISLATION CONCERNING THE RECEPTION OF CERTAIN SACRAMENTS FROM NON-CATHOLIC MINISTERS

7.1. THE CANON IN ENGLISH

* Whenever necessity requires or genuine spiritual advantage suggests, and provided that the danger of error or indifferentism is avoided, it is lawful for the faithful for whom it is physically or morally impossible to approach a Catholic minister, to receive the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick from non-Catholic ministers in whose churches these sacraments are valid. (New Code Canon 844, # 2)

7.2. A LITTLE HISTORY

The Second Vatican Council, in its Decree on Ecumenism, "De Oecumenismo, Unitatis Redintegratio," 21 November, 1964, presented the guidelines for the so-called ecumenical movement within the Catholic Church. Its immediate practical application was substantiated in the Directory "Ad Totam Ecclesiam," issued by the Secretariat for Christian Unity on 14 May, 1967, signed by Cardinal Bea, President, and Bishop Willebrands, Secretary. In it we find section 2, "Sharing in Liturgical Worship with Other Separated Brethren," with the ancestor of New Code Canon 844:

"Since the sacraments are both signs of unity and sources of grace, the Church can for adequate reasons allow access to these sacraments to a separated brother. This may be permitted in danger of death or in urgent need (during persecution, in prisons) if the separated brother has no access to a minister of his own communion, and spontaneously asks a Catholic priest for the sacraments so long as he declares a faith in these sacraments in harmony with that of the Church, and is rightly disposed . . . A Catholic in similar circumstances may not ask for these sacraments except from a minister who has validly received the sacrament of Order."

There was no surprise when, in 1983, we saw this ecumenical policy included in the New Code, codifying under specious pretexts the communicatio in sacris which the Church had always abhorred. How far we were already from the sane doctrine of the old Code!: "Haud licitum est fidelibus quovis modo active assistere seu partem habere in sacris acatholicorum." (Canon 1258)

7.3. NOTIONS

The new legislation is clear in its ecumenical discipline. According to the New Code of Canon Law, a Catholic may receive from a non-Catholic minister the Sacraments of Penance, Holy Communion and Extreme Unction, under the following conditions:

1) there is a NEED, or a TRUE SPIRITUAL ADVANTAGE to be obtained,

2) the danger of error and indifferentism is avoided,

3) there is a physical or moral impossibility to approach a Catholic minister,

4) the Sacraments to receive are valid in the church to which the minister belongs.

We already studied what Canon Law means by physical or moral impossibility to approach a priest when we considered the exemption from the ordinary canonical form for marriage. This does not present any problem: a persecution, a very long distance, onerous expenses, a scandal to avoid, a grave inconvenience, a spiritual harm to follow, all these are justifiable circumstances and valid arguments.

I confess that for a long time I wondered about the meaning of the fourth condition. What does it exactly mean "in quorum Ecclesia valida existunt praedicta Sacramenta?" There is no doubt that, for example, an Old Catholic who has been validly ordained and fulfils the required conditions of matter, form and intention, can celebrate a valid although illicit Mass. Any validly ordained priest can administer a valid Extreme Unction, and any validly ordained Bishop can validly confirm and ordain.

Nonetheless, the reference to the Sacrament of Penance as being valid in a non-Catholic church did puzzle me. It was only by rereading the directory Ad Totam Ecclesiam that I finally understood the precise meaning. For the Vatican innovators, this means that the non-Catholic priest who is validly ordained administers validly the Sacrament of Penance in his church.

There is no other way to explain the restriction of #55 in the aforementioned directory: "Catholicus autem, similibus in rerum adiunctis, haec sacramenta petere nequit, nisi A MINISTRO QUI ORDINIS SACRAMENTUM VALIDE SUSCEPIT."

This ecumenical measure has become an acceptable practice in the post-conciliar Church.   When one of the faithful who judges impossible to be able to approach morally a Catholic priest, and who sees in it a true spiritual advantage, can ask from a non-Catholic priest who is validly ordained to hear his confession. The absolution will be valid according to New Code Canon 844.

He may also attend Mass, receive Holy Communion and also fulfil the Sunday obligation. The directory is explicit in # 47, alluding to a Catholic who attends Sunday Mass "apud Fratres orientales seiunctos," in the Divine Liturgy of our separated brethren of the Oriental churches.

7.4. APPLICATION TO OUR CASE

We will proceed once more accepting ad hominem an absurd opinion, namely the one of those who consider the members of the Society of Saint Pius X outside the Church, schismatic and even "founders of a new church," as a certain American Bishop claims in grotesque personal letters written to concerned faithful and clergy.

IF the Society of Saint Pius X is a non-Catholic church, and its priests are validly ordained (point that nobody in his right mind discusses), New Code Canon 844, # 4 authorizes any of the Catholic faithful to ask from them the Sacraments of Penance and Extreme Unction, and also to attend their Masses, fulfilling as well the Sunday obligation.

The condition to take advantage of such permission is that there must be a true spiritual benefit for the person and that he avoids all danger for his faith. Any reasonable fear of spiritual harm arising from an approach to a Modernist priest in good standing will suffice to legitimate the recourse to the "Lefebvrites."

We are decidedly approaching the kingdom of lunacy. Unfortunately, such a miserable argument is the one which may convince and pacify our adversaries.