In The Long Island Catholic, the newspaper of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, his Excellency Most Rev. Bishop William Murphy makes comments about the SSPX/Williamson/Holocaust controversy.
I have written of Bp. Murphy before. His comments are usually spot on!
However, in his recent offering there are some errors which in justice must be clarified. I respectfully off this, with my own emphases and comments.
We pick this up in medias res…
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A few remarks are in order at this point. First the lifting of the automatic excommunication these four bishops incurred by being ordained without the Holy Father’s permission does not mean they are rehabilitated in the Catholic Church and certainly it does not mean that they and their followers are no longer in schism. [While we can apply the "duck argument" to the question, the fact is that the Holy See’s reps in this matter say that the SSPX is not in schism. That would be for the members of the SSPX. It is much clearer that the followers of the SSPX priests are not formally in schism.] They are in schism [No, they don’t seem to be in the eyes of the Holy See.] and they remain in schism [again…] until the day comes that they accept the magisterium of the Church. All the teaching of the Second Vatican Council including the texts on religious freedom, on ecumenism and on the Jews, are part of that magisterium. The members of the Society of St. Pius X contest these to this day. To the person who wrote to me (and others) asking if it is now all right for Catholics to attend Mass at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Farmingville, the answer is NO. No Catholic is to attend Mass or fulfill one’s Sunday obligation or seek sacraments from priests of that Church because they remain in schism. [Notice that he didn’t say you can’t fulfill your obligation. He said don’t. You shouldn’t fulfill your obligation that way.]
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With respect…. this needs to be clarified.
Also, people in that diocese should listen to their bishop’s will in this matter.
