A few days ago, French website Renaissance Catholique published a text (translation below) stating that a "response" from the Dicastery for Legislative Texts existed implying the documents of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding the canonical status of marriages celebrated and confessions heard by priests of the Society of Saint Pius X were not applicable.
What we can say so far is that this is the only source we have seen mentioning this so far, and no one seems to have this letter. We are not saying that the document is not true or does not exist, but, unlike basically all such letters in the past, we have not seen a single image of the document, and all our sources affirm they have not seen it either. If such a document exists, we will publish it here immediately.
Severe but Imprecise Condemnations of the Society of Saint Pius X
By Guy LapierreRenaissance CatholiqueOctober 15, 2026
A response from the Dicastery for Legislative Texts dated August 7, 2026 has shed light on those who have been asking questions about the canonical standing of the Society of Saint Pius X, and has given pause to those clerics and laypeople who had somewhat hastily denounced the existence of a schism and cast anathema upon the alleged schismatics.
To retrace the sequence of events: on July 2, 2026, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith published a decree characterizing as a "schismatic act" the episcopal consecrations of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X conferred without a pontifical mandate, and declared that Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta had incurred the penalties provided under canon 1387 and canon 1364 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law. The consecrators and the consecrated incurred ipso facto the latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See. The decree further specified that clerics and lay faithful were warned not to adhere to the schism of the SSPX, on pain of incurring ipso facto the penalty of latae sententiae excommunication.
An explanatory note accompanied the decree, in which the Dicastery specified that the act had constituted the crime of schism, with the canonical consequences flowing from it for the sacred ministers and lay faithful involved. This goes beyond the mere absence of a pontifical mandate for the consecration of bishops. What is being alleged is no longer merely an act with schismatic tendencies but a schism properly so called.
Are Confessions and Marriages Valid?
Marriage
These developments must be examined carefully in order to respond to questions regarding the validity of confessions and marriages celebrated by SSPX priests.
From 1986 to 2017, according to the decisions of the Roman tribunal competent for assessing the validity of marriages — the Roman Rota — a marriage of baptized Catholics who exchanged consent before an SSPX priest without the territorial jurisdictional delegation of the local pastor was judged invalid. This was one of the reasons why Pope Francis had approved the publication, on March 27, 2017, of a letter from the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei concerning permissions for marriages of the faithful celebrated by SSPX priests. Bishops were given the faculty to receive the consent with inscription in the parish registers.
This gesture followed that of the apostolic letter Misericordia et Misera of November 20, 2016. During the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the faithful who, for various reasons, frequented places of worship served by SSPX priests were able to receive the sacramental absolution of their sins validly and licitly. For the pastoral good of these faithful and counting on the goodwill of their priests toward the recovery of full communion in the Catholic Church with God's assistance, Pope Francis extended this faculty beyond the Jubilee period, so that the sacramental sign of reconciliation through the Church's forgiveness would never be lacking to anyone.
According to the note of July 2, 2026, however, the sacred ministers of the SSPX now administer the sacraments illicitly; the sacrament of penance they administer and the marriages they celebrate would be invalid.
It must be noted, however, that the decree and the note have not received the public juridical approval of Pope Leo XIV.
The Conditions for a Revocation
In order to revoke the faculty to hear confessions, an act of the same nature as the one that granted it would be required. This was affirmed by Archbishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, canonist and former Secretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, in an exclusive interview granted to AdVaticanum in July 2026.
As regards marriages, the response of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts of August 7, 2026 takes up this same reasoning, stating:
"The Explanatory Note published on July 2, 2026 by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith affirms that marriages assisted by sacred ministers of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X are invalid. However, it does not appear, from the published text, that such a declaration was approved by the Roman Pontiff with the intention of revoking or derogating from the provisions contained in the Letter of the Pontifical Commission 'Ecclesia Dei' of March 27, 2017."
It does not therefore appear possible to affirm, as matters currently stand, that the 2017 discipline has certainly ceased to produce its effects. Confessions and marriages remain validated until a decision by Leo XIV.
Furthermore, canon 14 provides that in cases of doubt of law, even invalidating or incapacitating laws do not bind. An invalidating law renders an act null; an incapacitating law renders a person juridically incapable of performing it. A doubt of law concerns the existence, scope, or juridical applicability of the norm — as distinct from a doubt of fact, which concerns whether the circumstances to which a certain law attaches its effects have been realized, independently of ignorance or good-faith error.
Canon 144 provides for supplied jurisdiction for the faculties referred to in canon 966 — governing absolution — and canon 1111 § 1, governing assistance at marriage.
Moreover, in cases of doubt regarding the validity of a marriage already celebrated, canon 1060 requires that the marriage be held valid until the contrary is proven. This is the law's favor in accordance with the well-known maxim: "Marriage enjoys the favor of the law."
Regarding the excommunications, the most rigorous canonists recall that there is a text concerning the pontifical mandate: the two consecrators and the four consecrated are accordingly excommunicated — this is strict penal law — even if the latter may subsequently invoke the state of necessity, contest the finding, or appeal.
A Difficult Decision
By contrast, to excommunicate all priests, religious men and women, third-order members of the SSPX, and all those who would formally adhere to the acts of worship of the Society of Saint Pius X, an individual trial for each person would be required. Only the Pope can decree a global schism of this kind in a manner that avoids a multitude of individual proceedings.
This will be difficult, because the SSPX recognizes the Magisterium and the ordinary authority of the Pope over dioceses — an attitude that does not correspond to a schismatic posture. The absence of a pontifical mandate is not, in itself, sufficient to characterize a body of doctrine as schismatic. It falls to theologians to define what this alleged schism actually consists in.
Furthermore, if persons enrolled in the SSPX by baptismal register or formal adhesion were to be treated on the same footing as the Orthodox, their marriages would become ipso facto valid.
Only Pope Leo XIV has the authority to act so as to resolve the uncertainty.
