Vatican calls planned ordination of St. Pius X priests ‘illegitimate’ but does not specify penalties
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VATICAN CITY (CNS) — If the Society of St. Pius X ordains new priests at the end of June as planned, the ordinations would be illegitimate, the Vatican said.
However, responding to reporters’ questions about the planned ordinations, the Vatican spokesman June 17 did not mention the possibility of any penalties being imposed as a result of the ordinations.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Regensburg, Germany, had said in early June that if the ordinations occurred without Vatican permission the new priests and the ordaining bishop could be excommunicated.
The Society of St. Pius X has announced it will ordain three priests and three deacons at its seminary in Zaitzkofen, Germany, June 27, and that another 18 men will be ordained at its headquarters in Econe, Switzerland, and in Winona, Minn.
Bishop Gerhard Muller of Regensburg told Vatican Radio June 1 that he had warned the Zaitzkofen seminary the ordinations would violate canon law and create a “dangerous situation,” adding that he had asked the Vatican to “prescribe how to proceed.”
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