La remisión de la excomunión latae sententiae declarada a cuatro obipos de la Fraternidad Sacerdotal de San Pío X: análisis canónico y repercusiones

Abstract

On the 1 st July 1988, the Congregation for Bishops declared the penalty of excommunication latae sententiae on six bishops for the crimes of Episcopal consecration without pontifical mandate (c.1382) and schism (c.1364§1). Twenty years later, on the 21 st January 2009, the same Congregation remitted this penalty on the four bishops who are still alive; this caused great discussion in parts of the ecclesial community. In the first place, the author analyses the canonical configuration of the crime of Episcopal consecration without papal mandate in both the 1917 and the present Code, including the different interventions of the Holy See on this theme, in order to then describe the process which led to the excommunication of Mgr. Lefebvre and the other bishops; the constitution of the Pontifical Commission «Ecclesia Dei», which was in charge of everything related to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X; the steps taken by the Holy See to facilitate reconciliation; and, finally the Decree of Remission which lifted the declared excommunication; a canonical analysis is offered, along with a look at the repercussions which it has created within the ecclesial community.