Pope Suppresses Ecclesia Dei, SSPX Holds Its Ground

We knew it would happen sooner or later. This just in fromVaticanNews.com: "With a new Apostolic Letter issued "motu proprio", Pope Francis has suppressed the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which was established thirty years ago by Pope St. John Paul II.

…The Pontifical Commission had also exercised the authority of the Holy See "over various institutes and religious communities which it has erected which have as their ‘proper Rite’ the ‘extraordinary form’ of the Roman Rite and observe the previous traditions of the religious life." It was also tasked with looking after and promoting "the pastoral care of the faithful attached to the antecedent Latin liturgical tradition, present in various parts of the world."

In the motu proprio suppressing the Ecclesia Dei Commission, Pope Francis notes that "the Institutes and Religious Communities which habitually celebrate in the extraordinary form have today found their own stability of number and life."

"With the Apostolic Letter, the Holy Father assigns the duties of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei in their entirety to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "within which a specific Section will be set up in order to continue the work of vigilance, promotion, and protection" of the suppressed Commission."

Remnant Comment: So according to this report, "dialogue" with the SSPX is part of the reason the commission has become redundant. Trouble is, a «deal» with the SSPX seems far from a done deal. So, what are we talking about here? Has the purge of all things Traditional begun?

The good news? The SSPX is holding its ground. In their January 19, 2019 statement we read the following vintage position of the Society of St. Pius X: One conclusion is evident: as the so-called Ecclesia Dei communities have preserved "their spiritual and liturgical traditions", they clearly do not count in this discussion. If they remain attached to a section of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, it is incidental. They can have the Mass, the "spiritual and liturgical traditions", but not the whole doctrine that goes along with them.

That has always been the Society of St. Pius X’s great reproach against Dom Gérard [founder of the Benedictine monastery at Le Barroux who worked with Archbishop Lefebvre until 1988] and all those who thought they should break the unity of Tradition in order to negotiate a purely practical agreement. The crisis of the Church cannot be reduced to a spiritual or liturgical question alone.

It is deeper, for it touches the very heart of the Faith and the doctrine of Revelation, Christ the King’s right to reign here below over men and over societies.