Source : Non Possumus
The imminent juridical act by which Rome recognizes the FSSPX, besides stating that the Lefebvrist clergy and faithful are in full communion, and the lifting of the suspension a divinis that supposedly hangs over its clerics, necessarily specifies the precise organizational form that the SSPX will adopt, among the possibilities offered by the Code of Canon Law of 1983 (which, from the recognition, will rule over the SSPX excluding every rule of the Code of 1917, even though the new Code is the legal expression of the "conciliar spirit" and something "worse than the New Mass," as Abp. Lefebvre said). Since 2013, we know that this form of organization is the personal prelature (see the draft of prelature for the Society published in Cor Unum 15, June 2013).
However, it is mistakenly believed that a personal prelature depends only upon the Pope, and therefore the future "Personal Prelature St. Pius X" will be safe from the harmful influence of diocesan bishops, being able to continue "as it is". Although to submit itself voluntarily to Pope Francis, excluding any other authority in the Church, to traditional Catholics is demented and suicidal, we’re not addressing this, but the supposed autonomy that the SSPX would have regarding the Bishops.
I
The personal prelature is an ecclesiastical circuмscription, delimited by personal criteria, which is erected for the accomplishment of special pastoral or missionary works. It is a legal entity envisaged in the law of the Catholic Church “to promote a suitable distribution of presbyters or to accomplish particular pastoral or missionary works for various regions or for different social groups” (canon 294). Its basic regulation is found in canons 294-297.
The form of the personal prelature has its close background in the Second Vatican Council. Indeed, the Decree Presbyterorum Ordine of this council requested to be established, along with other figures (“international seminaries, special personal dioceses or prelatures”), a peculiar type of prelature, “to carry out special pastoral tasks in different regions or among any race in any part of the world.” (n° 10).
The characteristics of personal prelatures, therefore, are:
a) It is an ecclesiastical circuмscription.
b) The faithful’s delimitation criteria is not territorial (as is common in the Church) but personal.?
THE PRELATURE AS ECCLESIASTICAL CIRcuмSCRIPTION
The personal prelature is an ecclesiastical circuмscription structured around the main office of a prelate with his own quasi-episcopal power. It is organized as a particular church, of which the diocese is the model.
The personal prelature is entrusted to a prelate, who governs it as Ordinary (c. 295 § 1), with his own quasiepiscopal jurisdiction, as we said before. The praxis of the Holy See regarding the only existing personal prelature so far –the prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei, erected in 1982- has been the episcopal ordination of the prelates who have succeeded in its government.
The prelate has as mission the attention of the faithful in the particular purpose for which the prelature has been established. At the same time, the faithful has the prelate as [his] own shepherd, always regarding the purposes of the prelature.
Within the Holy See, the prelatures depend on the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (cf. Const. Ap. Pastor Bonus, arts. 80 and 89).
As in dioceses and other particular Churches, the prelate has priests incardinated into the Prelature for the pastoral care of the faithful. To care for the formation of his own clergy, the bishop can erect his own national or international seminary, and call to orders the students for the service to his pastoral mission (cf. canon 295). However, it is not excluded that other clergy, secular or religious, could work in the pastoral mission without being incardinated on the personal prelature, according to the procedures prescribed by law.
LAY INVOLVEMENT IN A PERSONAL PRELATURE
As we will see later, the faithful having joined the prelature do not stop being faithful of their own diocese.
As for the relations of the prelature with the local Churches, this form is set up as an aid offered by the Roman Pontiff to the particular Churches through the special pastoral or missionary work, which is its goal. Therefore, it is a manifestation of the sollicitudo omnium Ecclesiarum (concern for all the Churches) of the Roman Pontiff.
To properly coordinate the relationship between the personal prelature and the dioceses and other particular Churches, two provisions are established: on one hand, the Episcopal Conferences interested will be consulted (cf. canon 294); and on the other hand, the personal prelature, before exercising its pastoral or missionary work in a place, must have the consent of the Ordinary (cf. canon 297).
THE PECULIAR AIM OF THE PRELATURES
What characterizes the personal prelature is its peculiar purpose. This may be the proper distribution of clergy or carrying on peculiar pastoral or missionary tasks.
The pastoral mission is qualified as peculiar regarding the common and ordinary way to organize the Church for its mission: this may be a peculiar aspect of the mission of the Church, a peculiar way of carrying it on, or a peculiar target group.
As an example, we can quote the aims of Opus Dei. According to art. 2 § 1 of its statutes, the aim of this personal prelature is: “the sanctification of its faithful through the exercise of the Christian virtues, in the peculiar state, profession, and condition of life of each person, according to its specific spirituality, which is completely secular.”
It is the aim which determines the relationship of hierarchical dependence of the faithful (clergy and laity) with the prelate. That is, the faithful are subjects of the prelate regarding the peculiar aim. Therefore, the hierarchical dependence with the local ordinary is not altered. A faithful that is incorporated into the prelature remains faithful to his bishop to the same extent as before, with the exception of the clergy regarding the incardination in the prelature.
CLASSES OF PRELATURES
The Code of Canon Law cites two types of prelatures:
a) Prelatures that aim [for] the better distribution of clergy. There currently are none, but such a prelature could be established to send priests to countries where there is lack of sufficient clerics or to take care of the migrants in their native language.
b) Prelatures that aim [for] the development of peculiar apostolic, pastoral or missionary tasks. Opus Dei, the only existing personal prelature, belongs to this kind of prelature.?
[Taken from: “Las Prelaturas Personales en el Derecho de la Iglesia”, por Pedro María Reyes Vizcaíno, publicado en
http://www.iuscanonicuм.org/index.p...as-personales-en-elderecho-de-la-iglesia.htm]
II
Here is a common misconception: Since the Opus Dei was transformed from secular institute to personal prelature (November 1982), it has acquired a very large autonomy within the Church regarding the diocesan bishops; even some journalists speak about a “church within the Church,” in the sense that, being a personal prelature, Opus Dei depends directly on the Pope, thus escaping the authority of diocesan bishops, since the legal form of a personal prelature becomes in practice as a real diocese without territorial limitation.
Well, I don’t agree totally with this statement. My partial disagreement limits itself to the description of what a personal prelature is and how it can act within the Church: depending directly and only on the Pope, and eluding authority and the intervention of the diocesan bishops. A personal prelature is not that exactly; if we read canon 294-297 of Code of Canon Law concerning personal prelatures, we realize that a personal prelature is not that.
In the legislation of the Catholic Church, there cannot be juridical entities that break the communion with the diocesan bishops; that would be an unacceptable aberration from all points of view. At the theological and ecclesiological level, all juridical entities are at the service of communion (i.e. ecclesial communion), which encompasses not only communion with the Pope, but also and necessarily with the bishops and faithful. On the legal plane, to create juridical entities without ecclesial communion would be like shooting themselves in the foot (i.e. it would be like consenting, in a civil state, for an army to be authorized by the Constitution to organize a coup d'état, or to have companies authorized to avoid taxes: ridiculous and absurd)! In short, all legal forms envisaged in the current Code of Canon Law are forms of full ecclesial communion, including personal prelature.
Proof of what I am saying is canon 297, which states: “The statutes (of a personal prelature) likewise are to define the relations of the personal prelature with the local ordinaries in whose particular churches the prelature itself exercises or desires to exercise its pastoral or missionary works, with the previous consent of the diocesan bishop”. A personal prelature is only authorized to work in a territorial diocese [with] prior consent of the local bishop; he will give his endorsement if he is in agreement with the statutes of the prelature.
Moreover, A personal prelature provides, essentially, a pastoral service to the territorial dioceses (and bishops) in which it works. The relationship between personal prelature and pastoral service for a particular church is essential in the constitution itself, and the reason for being of the prelature. This follows from what the canon 294 states: After the conferences of bishops involved have been heard, the Apostolic See can erect personal prelatures, which consist of presbyters and deacons of the secular clergy, to promote a suitable distribution of presbyters or to accomplish particular pastoral or missionary works for various regions or for different social groups.
According to the canons 294-297 of the Code of Canon Law, the personal prelatures are associations of clerics belonging to the secular clergy, which are erected by the Apostolic See in order to fulfill peculiar apostolic tasks, under the direction of the personal prelate, and with its own statutes. Therefore, a personal prelature is a team of specialized priests in the resolution of "peculiar" apostolic tasks, something like a team of priest specialists (like a fire patrol, to give an example from civil society). When the Code of Canon Law states that personal prelatures are aimed to accomplish particular pastoral or missionary works for various regions or for different social groups (canon 294), the Church’s lawmakers are thinking about pastoral problems charged with a peculiar difficulty, which often are not well covered by the normal diocesan clergy; then it could be advisable that some specialized priests with a peculiar task be incardinated into a personal prelature, to try to better address these difficult challenges. Here are some examples: the pastoral care of the deaf and dumb, gypsies, immigrants, sailors, prisoners, workers, etc.
This series of pastoral difficulties of various social groups (deaf, gypsies, immigrants, sailors, prisoners, etc.) tends to be covered at present by the formula of "episcopal delegation" or specific "chaplaincies" or "personal parishes"; that is, a diocesan bishop appoints one of his priests as "episcopal delegate for the pastoral [care] of Gypsies" or "episcopal delegate for immigrants", or “chaplain of a specific prison”, or “chaplain for deaf-mutes in a city or area”, etc. But, if it is decided by one or several episcopal conferences, they may [make] request to the Apostolic See of Rome for the erection of a personal prelature, national or international, for the incardination of priests that would cover some of these peculiar goals under the guidance of a personal prelate, knowing that the authority of that prelate, appointed by the Pope, would not be exempted from the authority of diocesan bishops, to whose service that personal prelature will work.
At the same time, the clergy of the personal prelature, even if they work under the government and authority of the personal prelate, are not exempted from the authority nor the jurisdiction of the local bishop; moreover, these clerics must be fully aware that their pastoral ministry is essentially a service to the territorial dioceses in which they work (i.e. a service to the diocesan bishops). And this is so for one simple reason, namely, the lay faithful to whom the priests of the prelature carry out their priestly service are lays of the territorial diocese. The personal prelate does not have any jurisdiction over the faithful, only the local bishop (The laity that I am referring to, are not the "cooperators" alluded to at canon 296, but the lay faithful of a territorial diocese to whom the priests of the personal prelature serve pastorally, always with the agreement and the permission of the local bishop required by canon 297). In order to clarify this statement, it must be remembered that a personal prelature, since it is only an association of priests and does not belong to the hierarchical structure of the Church, does not have its own people. The lay faithful served by the clerics of a personal prelature belong to the particular church where they live, which is its territorial diocese. The personal prelatures do not segregate its faithful from their territorial dioceses; they are a kind of “personal” aid that supplements the diocesan and parish work, which they serve.
According to the above description, it is clear that to claim that personal prelatures are exempt from the authority of diocesan bishops, and only obey the dictates of the pope, is exaggerated and erroneous. Quite the opposite! After the Pope erects a personal prelature, both the personal prelate and his priestly team pass into the service of diocesan bishops. These ones are those who actually must lead and supervise the work of evangelization that the specialized team of priests, under the government of his personal prelate, perform with a part of the lay faithful of his diocese, of which he is the shepherd and has entire jurisdiction over it.
I would dare to affirm that the diocesan bishop has jurisdiction even over those priests of a personal prelature working in his diocese. Instead, in my opinion, the prelate of a personal prelature does not have proper jurisdiction over the priests of the prelature, but only authority. Bienvenido, in his writing dated 02/11/2008, addresses in detail this dubious issue of whether or not the prelate of a personal prelature has authority or jurisdiction.
[Excerpts from the article "What is a personal prelature?" By Josef Knecht, published in
http://www.opuslibros.org/libros/josef_quees.htm]
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Source : Non Possumus
In this article, we make some comments (in red) about some points of the two docuмents published, as secret docuмents, in the Cor Unum No 105 (June 2013) and in Non Possumus on September 14 2013 (here): “Elements of Information with a view to a Canonical Solution For the Society of Saint Pius X”, and the project of “Apostolic Constitution on the Personal Prelature St. Pius X”.
Bp. de Galarreta revealed that Bp. Fellay has received a proposition of personal prelature and doctrinal declaration on past July. We think that this proposition cannot be essentially different of the previous one, alluded on the two aforementioned docuмents.
Therefore, it is necessary to consider the most important terms of the capitulation (*) of the SSPX, that is to say, the worst of the proposed prelature:
“The Ordinary of the Prelature of Saint Pius X is its Personal Prelate, chosen by the Roman Pontiff on the presentation of a shortlist of three candidates established by the governing Council of the Prelature. A special rule will determine how the shortlist of three candidates is to be established”. That is to say that the future superiors of the SSPX will please the modernist and antichrists occupying Rome. That simple and that terrible. Obviously the governing Council of the Prelature, to avoid causing an impasse with the liberal pope in turn, will not propose a cleric which could seem “politically incorrect”. Everything will be delivered to the political machinations and diplomatic arts typical of the world, enemy of God.
“In accordance with the law and with written permission – required ad validitatem – of the diocesan Bishop concerned, the Prelate could erect new churches and Mass centers for the pastoral care of the faithful of the Prelature”. In other words: The Prelature St. Pius X will not be able to erect any new church or other place of worship if it does not have the written authorization of the respective diocesan Bishop. This is a serious problem because the Prelature will not be popular. If Opus Dei (the only personal prelature that exists until now) has had great difficulties with this norm, what is left for the lefebvrist prelature? How will the SSPX convince the immense and crushing majority of liberal bishop to open the door? It must gain their favor through political maneuvers and diplomatic arts.
“Priests and deacons which to date belong to the Priestly Society of St. Pius X are incardinated in the Personal Prelature. The priests form the Presbytery of the Personal Prelature. They belong to the secular clergy in all aspects that is why they maintain relations of deep unity with the Presbytery of the respective Dioceses". Such “deep unity” between legions of liberal clerics and a handful of anti-liberal clerics will result in one of the groups gradually adopting the spirit of those of the other group. Guess which group will yield and which group will dominate.
"Each seminary of the Prelature has its own rules approved by the Prelate according to the norms of the Ratio fundamentalis institutionis sacerdotalis of the Congregation for Catholic Education, respecting their own specificity”. As a comment, it is enough to quote this praise (in the same text of this link): "The docuмent is totally impregnated with the spirit of the Second Vatican Council." Therefore, the "own-specificity" means absolutely nothing.
"Priests who, after consulting the diocesan Bishop, are appointed rectors of the churches of the Prelature (cf. CIC. can. 557 §1) receive from their own Prelate the missio canonica and all the necessary faculties to administer the sacraments to the faithful enrolled in the Prelature. In order to assist the marriage of other faithful, the Rector of a Prelature church must obtain a delegation of the Parish Priest or the Diocesan Ordinary". Another serious obstacle.
"In the churches of the Prelature, the jurisdiction of the Prelate is cuмulative with that of the respective diocesan Bishop, who will use his own jurisdiction only in a subsidiary manner, without overlooking what is established in Article III, and the other norms of the present Apostolic Constitution". Both the Prelate and the diocesan Bishop have jurisdiction in these churches, but that of the diocesan Bishop is exercised in default of that of the Prelate. This concurrence of jurisdictional powers is a sure source of friction between the Prelate and the diocesan bishops, unless the Prelate knows - as Bishop Fellay - to compromise before the modernists in order to avoid such clash.
"The autonomous houses and monasteries of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life (...) currently existing, are canonically received in the respective Dioceses. For the erection of new houses, the respective superiors or the authority of the Prelature must receive written permission from the diocesan Bishop”. Another serious obstacle. The SSPX will put a true straitjacket on when it accepts to be a Prelature in the official Church.
“Regarding the canonical discipline, the schools and study centers currently dependent on the Priestly Society of St. Pius X are under the authority of the Personal Prelature and are confirmed by the present Apostolic Constitution in their respective Dioceses. The mentioned places remain submitted to the common legislation of the Church, always being excepting the ecclesiastical authority of the place, with which the protocol that rules the mutual relations must be established". No comments needed.
"According to the norms of law and with the consent of the respective diocesan bishop (cf. CIC, can 801), the Prelature will be able to establish new schools and centers of study." Again, no comments needed.
"Priests who, after consulting the diocesan Bishop, will serve as chaplain of these centers, will receive the missio canónica from the Prelate." As it turns out, the claws of the modernists will be over the children of the Prelature faithful.
"The matrimonial causes of the faithful attached to the Prelature, fall within the competence of the Diocesan Tribunals”. Very serious danger for the marriages of the faithful of the Prelature. The bad shepherds of the SSPX will deliver the sheep to the wolves.
"In order to ensure the necessary coordination with the Ordinaries of the place, according to the terms of can. 297 of the Code of Canon Law, the Prelate and his Vicars will maintain, directly or through others Priests of the Prelature, regular contacts with the President and the Bishops' Conference bodies, as well as with the Bishops of the Dioceses in which the Prelature is located". And of those contacts nothing good is to be expected.
(*) The docuмent containing the terms of a surrender.
Topic: "PERSONAL PRELATURE SAINT PIUS X" (Read 1225 times)