SSPX marriages are not ‘invalid’
SSPX marriages are not ‘invalid’
No matter how many times I have read it, your editorial (“Mothers’ voices are still ignored”, 11 July) baffles me. Does The Tablet really believe that the condemnation of sex outside marriage dates only from the Council of Trent – in effect, in Britain, because the decrees of Trent had not been promulgated here, from 1908 and the decree Ne Temere?
Sexual activity except between married couples has, of course, always been regarded as sinful. As the editorial goes on to indicate, the Trent insistence on what came to be known as “canonical form” was intended to stop the scourge of clandestine marriages. But, obviously, before that date there were proper marriages, even without the intervention of the clergy, provided the parties were free to enter the partnership and had committed to it for life.
This has a bearing on the claim by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (“Six SSPX bishops excommunicated”, News, 11 July) that because the Society of St Pius X is now in schism, sacraments administered by its clergy are illicit – that I understand – and the sacraments of Marriage and Penance are invalid (whatever invalid means).
Ever since the end of the Donatist controversy in the fifth century it has been accepted that schismatic clergy can adminis ter valid, although illicit, sacraments. I can understand the problem with Penance because theoretically it is about re integrating the sinner into the Christian community and that needs the authority of the bishop as head of the community, represented by the “faculties” bestowed on a priest, usually by his bishop.
Marriage is different. As the intending bride and groom will have been told (I trust) during preparatory talks with their priest, they are administering the sacrament to each other. If they are members of the SSPX, they may be doing so illicitly, but I fail to see how such a union could be described as invalid.
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