The Decree, the Note, and a Growing Crisis of Canonical Credibility

Just as predicted, when the Holy See announced the excommunication of the bishops consecrated by the Society of Saint Pius X, the headlines were horrible. Attention immediately centred upon the gravity of the penalty and the implications for the Society’s future. Supporters and critics alike hurried to debate Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s legacy, the necessity claimed by the Society and the consequences for traditional Catholics throughout the world. Almost unnoticed, however, another conversation began among canon lawyers. Within hours of publication, experienced canonists were asking not whether the Holy See possessed the authority to impose penalties, for no serious Catholic disputes that principle, but whether the documents published by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith had actually achieved what many commentators assumed they had achieved. The distinction is not a technicality. It goes to the heart of whether the Church’s supreme doctrinal authority has exercised its judicial …