SSPX Excommunications Lifted

This is huge.

The excommunications against the SSPX bishops have been removed. Read about it on Rorate Caeli here.

This is not the annulment that was rumored and hoped for. In other words, Rome is still insisting that the excommunications happened, while the SSPX is still insisting they did not. (The excommunications were latae senentiae, meaning that they happened automatically. Rome's declaration in 1988 was not a formal excommunication but a statement that the excommunications had been automatically incurred by Archbishop Lefebrvre's actions. The SSPX says they never occurred because of provisions in canon law for times of crisis.) But the point is now moot. No one can any longer accuse the SSPX of schism. This means that the points the SSPX has been trying to make about a crisis of faith within the Church since Vatican II will not receive the automatic dismissal from Catholics that they have in the past.

It looks to me like the relations between the SSPX and Rome are finally coming to a point of mututal understanding. Since Summorum Pontificum, the motu proprio liberating the old Mass, the SSPX has been able to see a genuine movement towards acceptance of tradition from Rome, and hence has lost some of its old reservations about the possibility of understanding between the two sides. Bishop Bernad Fellay's letter of December 18 expressed the SSPX's full allegiance to the successor of Peter and adherence to all Catholic doctrine, and to every council until Vatican II, about which Fellay said the SSPX has "reservations." This seems to have been enough for the Holy Father to decide that the SSPX is not out to wreak havoc. That Rome wishes a reconcilation is undoubtable. According to the decree released by the Congregation of Bishops, the removal of the excommmunications is intended "to consolidate the reciprocal relations of confidence and to intensify and grant stability to the relationship of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X with this Apostolic See." While this is not the end of the story, it does give great hope that the SSPX and Rome may soon be able to discuss the problems that have arisen from Vatican II in an environment of mutual trust and a manner conducive to actually getting those problems addressed.

The credit for this happy turn of affairs goes, most of all, to Our Lady. Can it be any coincidence that the Latin Mass was liberated shortly after the Rosary Crusade for that intention, and the excommunications were lifted after a second Rosary Crusade specifically for that grace? Of course not. Thank you, Holy Mother of God. Thank you, thank you!