The FSSPX schism and the Eastern Orthodox Schism are similar in the sense that the break with the pope did not affect Holy Orders and thus Apostolic Succession. The Eastern Orthodox don’t accept any Ecumenical Council since the Great Schism and it appears that the FSSPX won’t accept any council since Trent, although Vatican I they may accept, not sure. So like the Orthodox, who are ossified in the last council before the Great Schism, the FSSPX are ossified in Vatican I or perhaps Trent.
The FSSPX won’t grow or spread unlike the Eastern Schism which had the support of political leaders at the time and since their churches are nationalistic, they have governmental support. This is not the case today with the FSSPX—complete countries aren’t going to be FSSPX, not even France.
Now for the potential German Schism, brewing too since Vatican II.
It is much more like the Protestant Reformation. If it occurs, they will lose valid Holy Orders as they will ordain women (or whatever gender claimed). They will change the doctrine of Holy Matrimony too.
There will be no Apostolic Secession as their Holy Orders will become null and void.
They will become a neo-Protestant sect.
They will become a nationalistic German sect, though, but won’t spread due to political powers adopting them as the state religion as the Protestant Reformation benefited. Their growth will be small.
I need to know, though, as I don’t know—are Eastern Orthodox Marriages and Confessions valid or invalid? Has Rome ruled on that. This is a canonical question because prior to July 1, FSSPX marriages and Confessions were valid through a Roman decree but after July 1, that ended. Their marriages and Confessions are invalid.
6 comments:
I think your church sees all Orthodox sacraments as valid. If ByzRus is around, he’d know for sure.
I think the SSPX schism is quite different than the situation at the time of the Great Schism since they profess adherence to Rome yet refuse to submit to it. It’s a peculiar doctrinal situation. Maybe they’re more like the Old Catholic schism than the Great Schism.
Yes, perhaps, but the Old Catholics have gone off the rails with their own schisms, some sects ordained women deacons like some Orthodox sects and others ordained women priests unlike the Orthodox .
To elaborate, the SSPX profess belief that the pope has total authority over the Church. Yet they refuse to do what he tells them. This has now been dogmatized in many ways by Rome over the centuries. There’s no getting around it, if one professes to be Roman Catholic. Yet, both the SSPX and the Old Catholics attempt to get around that when it doesn’t suit their preferences — obviously, they do so for different reasons that lead to different results. But the foundation is the same.
That’s a very different situation from the Great Schism.
The Pope does not have total authority over the Church - he is a servant, not a dictator. Servus servorum Dei
Denzinger 1830:
“[Recourse to the Roman Pontiff as the supreme judge]. And since the Roman Pontiff is at the head of the universal Church by the divine right of apostolic primacy, We teach and declare also that he is the supreme judge of the faithful [cf. n.1500 ], and that in all cases pertaining to ecclesiastical examination recourse can be had to his judgment [cf. n. 466 ]; moreover, that the judgment of the Apostolic See, whose authority is not surpassed, is to be disclaimed by no one, nor is anyone permitted to pass judgment on its judgment [cf. n.330 ff.]. Therefore, they stray from the straight path of truth who affirm that it is permitted to appeal from the judgments of the Roman Pontiffs to an ecumenical Council, as to an authority higher than the Roman Pontiff.”
The Roman Catholic Church views Orthodox sacraments as valid and illicit.
Conversely, the Byzantine Catholic Churches, subject to a separate code of canon law which possesses no references to licit vs illicit, Orthodox sacraments are valid.
Marc, Slava Isuzu Christu! Slava Na Vi'ki!☦️
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