"2. We have already told you that we cannot recommend your attendance at such a Mass and have explained the reason why. If your primary reason for attending were to manifest your desire to separate yourself from communion with the Roman Pontiff and those in communion with him, it would be a sin. If your intention is simply to participate in a Mass according to the 1962 Missal for the sake of devotion, this would not be a sin."Interesting statement. There are many attending Society Masses for whom the latter intention seems predominant, simply attending the 1962 Missal. There are unfortunately also many who seem to want to separate themselves from communion with the Bishops and laity in communion with the Pope. Most folks seem to have both intentions to some degree, and if so this would indicate their attendance would be sinful due to the desire to separate themselves from those in communion with the Pope, whom they regard as awful modernists.
As to attending for devotion to the 1962 missal, I also note the commission previously said:
PONTIFICIA COMMISSIO ECCLESIA DEI
N. 117/95Rome
29 September 1995
Dear .... . .
. . .
2. The Masses they [the SSPX] celebrate are also valid, but it is considered morally illicit for the faithful to participate in these Masses unless they are physically or morally impeded from participating in a Mass celebrated by a Catholic priest in good standing (cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 844.2). The fact of not being able to assist at the celebration of the so-called "Tridentine" Mass is not considered a sufficient motive for attending such Masses.
3. While it is true that the participation in the Mass and sacraments at the chapels of the Society of St. Pius X does not of itself constitute "formal adherence to the schism", such adherence can come about over a period of time as one slowly imbibes a mentality which separates itself from the magisterium of the Supreme Pontiff. Father Peter R. Scott, District Superior of the Society in the United States, has publicaly stated that he deplores the "liberalism" of "those who refuse to condemn the New Mass as absolutely offensive to God, or the religious liberty and ecumenism of the postconcilliar church." With such an attitude the society of St. Pius X is effectively tending to establish its own canons of orthodoxy and hence to separate itself from the magisterium of the Supreme Pontiff. According to canon 751 such "refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or the communion of the members of the Church subject to him" constitute schism. Hence we cannot encourage your participation in the Masses, the sacraments or other services conducted under the aegis of the Society of St. Pius X.
Dominus Vobiscum
patent +AMDG
Do you have evidence to support this assertion?
If your primary reason for attending were to manifest your desire to separate yourself from communion with the Roman Pontiff and those in communion with him, it would be a sin.
Very few of the good people I have met at SSPX services desire to seperate themselves from BOTH His Holiness and all in communion with him. Rather they object to the modernisms and other heretical practices that abound in many places that claim to be in communnion with Rome but who ignore directives from Rome on such critical areas as confession, EEM's, the General Instruction and such. Moreover, even if that IS an intention, but not the primary intention, the letter seems to leave plenty of room to wriggle. I smell a softening of Rome's attitude.