Vatican City, Jul 5, 2011 / 11:03 am
The Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi, S.J., has dismissed the recent ordination of 20 priests by the Society of Saint Pius X as illegitimate.
“As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church - Benedict XVI underlines - its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church,” said Father Lombardi in response to a question from CNA at a July 5 media conference.
Fr. Lombardi said that the Society’s canonical status will not be resolved “until the doctrinal questions are clarified.”
The Society of Saint Pius X is a traditionalist group founded in 1970 by the Frenchman Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Their relationship with the Vatican soured in 1988 when Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops against the orders of Pope John Paul II. It was an act deemed to be schismatic by the Vatican.