Planned ordination of St. Pius X priests 'illegitimate,' Vatican says

(June 18, 2009) If the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X ordains new priests at the end of June as planned, the ordinations would be illegitimate, the Vatican said. However, responding to reporters' questions about the planned ordinations, the Vatican spokesman on Wednesday, June 17 did not mention the possibility of any penalties being imposed as a result of the ordinations. A spokesman for the Diocese of Regensburg, Germany, had said in early June that if the ordinations occurred without Vatican permission the new priests and the ordaining bishop could be excommunicated. The Society of St. Pius X has announced it will ordain three priests and three deacons at its seminary in Zaitzkofen, Germany, June 27, and that another 18 men will be ordained at its headquarters in Econe, Switzerland. Bishop Gerhard Muller of Regensburg told Vatican Radio June 1^st that he had warned the Zaitzkofen seminary the ordinations would violate canon law and create a "dangerous situation," adding that he had asked the Vatican to "prescribe how to proceed." But the rector of the Zaitzkofen seminary, Father Stefan Frey, issued a statement saying the Society of St. Pius X had "provisional legal status" in the Catholic Church pending a "definitive canonical ruling" on its future, and that it had not been told to "put a stop to ordinations." Commenting on the possible ordination of new priests, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, quoted from a March letter of clarification, Pope Benedict had written to the world's bishops explaining his actions saying, "Until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the society has no canonical status in the church, and its ministers ... do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the church. Therefore, the ordinations are still to be considered illegitimate.”