The SSPX District of the USA has posted the following clarification on its website regarding the Argentinian State's official recognition of the SSPX as part of the Catholic Church. The clarification is welcome in the light of the confusion over the matter, which has been widely misunderstood and prematurely celebrated as affording full canonical regularization to the SSPX. It has also been used by some to attack either Rome (supposedly for intentionally causing confusion) or the SSPX itself (for allegedly pulling through a stealth "reconciliation" with the Vatican authorities.)
Nevertheless we also reiterate that this event shows the willingness of Rome and of the Catholic Church in Argentina to recognize the SSPX as Catholic, despite important canonical and doctrinal issues. It is Catholic, not an independent church, not an institution in schism.
Argentina recognizes SSPX as Roman Catholic
April 13, 2015 District of the USA
A news report and clarification by DICI about Argentina's recognition of the Society of St. Pius X as an institution of the Roman Catholic Church.
The news was announced today that the country of Argentina has officially recognized the Society of St. Pius X as an institution of the Roman Catholic Church.
From the SSPX's international news site, DICI.ORG, we offer their news report which provides some important details and clarifications about this joyful development for our priestly society.
SSPX.ORG would like to thank the staff at the Rorate Caeli blog for providing a rapid translation of the announcement from the official bulletin of the Argentine government.
Argentina: the State of Argentina recognizes the SSPX administratively
On April 12, 2015, the Argentinian newspaper Clarin announced the decision of the Secretary of Religion, Guillermo R. Oliveri, published in the official bulletin of the Argentine Republic on April 9, 2015; according to this decision the Society of St. Pius X is recognized in Argentina as a juridical person and has been added to the Register of the Institutes of Consecrated Life in which are listed the Catholic orders and religious congregations present in Argentina.
This decision was made possible, among other formalities, by a letter from the archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Mario Aurelio Poli, addressed to the Secretary of Religion as a part of the procedures undertaken by the Society’s authorities in 2011. This letter, in which the archbishop of Buenos Aires “asked that ‘the Society of the Apostles of Jesus and Mary’ (Society of St. Pius X) be considered as an association with diocesan rights, until a definitive juridical framework is granted to it in the universal Church,” is a necessary condition for all religious congregations in Argentina.
Cardinal Poli’s document has no canonical authority, for he cannot substitute himself for the Roman authority that alone can settle the Society’s canonical status. It is simply a procedure that allows the State of Argentina to make an administrative decision until “a definitive juridical framework is granted (to the Society) in the universal Church.”
It is important to know that in Argentina, Catholic religious congregations can only exercise their apostolate within an administrative and juridical framework conditioned by their inscription in the register of the Institutes of Consecrated Life, on the ecclesiastical authority’s recommendation.
The fact that Cardinal Poli is Cardinal Bergoglio’s successor to the archiepiscopal see of Buenos Aires is a legitimate reason to believe that this decision was not taken without consulting Pope Francis. Nonetheless, it is nothing more than a strictly administrative procedure in the restricted context of the Republic of Argentina.
(Sources: FSSPX-MG/Clarin/BO Rep. Arg. DICI, 4-13-2015)
