Rorate Caeli

Lombardi: SSPX priestly ordinations remain "illegitimate"

Reported by Radio Vaticana:

notizia del 05/07/2011 12.04.21
Father Lombardi: the recent priestly ordinations celebrated by the Fraternity of Saint Pius X are illegitimate

The recent priestly ordinations celebrated by the Fraternity of Saint Pius X are to be considered "illegitimate": that is what the director of the Vatican Press Office, Father Federico Lombardi, affirmed, responding to certain questions on the matter. Father Lombardi repeated what was affirmed by the Pope in his Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church of March 10, 2009:

"As long as the Society [of Saint Pius X] does not have a canonical status in the Church - Benedict XVI underlines -, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church (...) 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."

[Tip: Papa Ratzinger blog. Image: ministers who do exercise legitimate ministry in the Church - diaconal ordinations by Archbishop of Toulouse (then Bishop of Mende) Robert Le Gall in the Cathedral of Mende, France, in 2004; source: Perepiscopus.]