ROME (ChurchMilitant.com)
- The ill-timed publication of a Vatican decree abolishing a religious
fraternity of traditionalist priests has shocked Catholics who are
already distressed by the closure of churches in parts of Italy
plagued by the coronavirus.
The archdiocese of Ferrara-Comacchio announced in a press release Friday that the Society of Apostolic Life Familia Christi (Family of Christ) has been suppressed by the Holy See following the conclusion of a canonical procedure that lasted for two years.
The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) said
it found the organization "unfit to live and form a Priestly Fraternity
of consecrated life for serious religious, educational and
administrative reasons."
Distraught Catholics from the region told Church Militant they found
the language "highly ambiguous and even disingenuous" since the
statement did not clarify or elaborate what precisely made the society
"unfit" for religious life.
The Vatican decree applies Canon 701
of the Code of Canon Law, which releases religious from their vows and
prohibits a priest from exercising Holy Orders — that is,
celebrating Mass or solemnizing weddings, hearing confessions and so on,
"unless they have found a bishop who, after a probationary period in
his diocese following Canon 693, welcomes him or at least allows him to
exercise Holy Orders."
"A possible future welcome or incardination of the above-mentioned
priests can only take place through the consent of the Congregation for
the Doctrine of Faith, which is to be formally asked for and obtained in
written form by a Diocese or by an Institute of consecrated life," the
CDF decree stipulates.
Continued
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/leftist-italian-bishop-stamps-out-traditionalist-priestly-fraternity
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