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Posted on 02/19/2026 5:54:57 PM PST by ebb tide
The Society defends itself against any accusation of schism and, relying on all traditional theology and the Church's constant teaching, maintains that an episcopal consecration not authorised by the Holy See does not constitute a rupture of communion—provided it is not accompanied by schismatic intent or the conferral of jurisdiction.
The Constitution Lumen gentium on the Church states in chapter III, no. 21, that the power of jurisdiction is conferred by episcopal consecration simultaneously with the power of order. The Decree Christus Dominus on the pastoral charge of bishops affirms the same in its Preface, no. 3. And this affirmation is reiterated in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, c. 375 § 2. In the Church, the reception of the episcopal power of jurisdiction depends by divine right on the will of the Pope, and schism is precisely defined as the act of one who assumes jurisdiction independently and without regard for the Pope’s will. Therefore, according to these documents, an episcopal consecration carried out against the Pope’s will would necessarily be an act of schism.
This argument, which would conclude that the upcoming episcopal consecrations within the Society would be schismatic, rests entirely on the premise of the Second Vatican Council that episcopal consecration confers both the power of order and the power of jurisdiction.
However, according to pastors and theologians whose authority was recognised at the time of the Second Vatican Council, this premise is not traditional and lacks any solid foundation. At the Council, Cardinal Browne and Bishop Luigi Carli demonstrated this in their written remarks on the draft of the future Constitution Lumen gentium. Bishop Dino Staffa likewise affirmed it, relying on the most firmly established data from Tradition.
Pius XII stated three times—in Mystici Corporis (1943), in Ad Sinarum gentem (1954), and in Ad apostolorum principis (1958)—that the ordinary episcopal power of governance enjoyed by bishops, and exercised under the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff, is communicated to them immediately—i.e. without the intermediary of episcopal consecration—by the same Sovereign Pontiff: “immediate sibi ab eodem Pontifice Summo impertita”. If this power is conferred immediately by the sole act of the Pope’s will, we do not see how it could derive from the consecration.
Still less so, since the vast majority of theologians and canonists deny absolutely that episcopal consecration confers the power of jurisdiction.
And the discipline of the Church contradicts this thesis. Indeed, if the power of jurisdiction is conferred by consecration, how is it that an elected Sovereign Pontiff who has not yet been consecrated bishop still possesses by divine right the fullness of jurisdiction, as well as infallibility, from the moment he accepts his election? By the same logic, if it is the consecration that confers jurisdiction, then residential bishops who have been appointed but not yet consecrated, although already established at the head of their diocese as true pastors, would have no power of jurisdiction and no right to sit in council, whereas in reality they clearly possess both prerogatives before their episcopal consecration. As for titular bishops, who do not hold any authority over any diocese, they would have been deprived for centuries of exercising a power of jurisdiction that, according to Lumen gentium, they would have received through their consecration.
If one objects that the consecration already grants a power of jurisdiction properly speaking, but one which requires the Pope’s intervention to be exercised concretely, we respond that this distinction is contrived, since Pius XII clearly states that it is the power of jurisdiction in its essence which is immediately communicated by the Pope, who therefore does not merely satisfy a condition required for the proper exercise of this power.
The bishops who will be consecrated on 1 July as auxiliaries of the Society will therefore assume no jurisdiction against the will of the Pope, and will in no way be schismatic.
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The bishops who will be consecrated on 1 July as auxiliaries of the Society will therefore assume no jurisdiction against the will of the Pope, and will in no way be schismatic.
Ping
No thanks. Not interested.
I did open the link and saw it was Nazi Niles.
I should have figured.
“The Society defends itself against any accusation of schism and, relying on all traditional theology and the Church’s constant teaching, maintains that an episcopal consecration not authorised by the Holy See does not constitute a rupture of communion—provided it is not accompanied by schismatic intent or the conferral of jurisdiction.” Ebb, it’s going to take me awhile to even understand what that might mean.
Is Nazi Niles the best you've got. Who's your next "example", the homo Michael Voris?
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