Part III: The Powers of Holy Orders and of Jurisdiction
To argue against the episcopal consecrations of the Society of St. Pius X, Cardinal Gerhard Müller quoted St. Augustine: “Whoever does not love the unity of the Church is not in possession of the Holy Spirit…. Only in the Catholic Church is the Holy Spirit received.”1 This unique presence of the Holy Ghost in the Catholic Church was in fact a central concern of Archbishop Lefebvre himself, 2 whereas it was Pope John Paul II’s encyclical on the Holy Spirit which emphasized the action of the Holy Spirit both outside as well as inside the Catholic Church. Archbishop Lefebvre then decided to consecrate bishops in 1988 after Pope John Paul II’s action in Assisi occurred, gathering to pray with leaders of other world religions.
The statement of May 13 by Cardinal Fernandez regarding the episcopal consecrations refers to the Society of St. Pius X’s action as “not accompanied by the corresponding papal mandate.” This dispute about a proper hierarchical mandate is not something new in the Church’s history in the last hundred years. An analogous situation occurred within the lay apostolate of Catholic Action four decades before the episcopal consecrations of 1988. In his 1943 book In Defense of Catholic Action, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira analyzed an attempt in certain sectors of the Church to limit the Church’s apostolate of the laity to a specific mandate with precise canonical characteristics, to the exclusion of other apostolates that lacked the same canonical form. As a layman and civil lawyer the author described the distinction among these various apostolates by using the following analogy from civil law:
A simple comparison will demonstrate this better than any doctrinal digression. When the State convokes its citizens to a general mobilization, together with the mandatum to join the ranks, it gives them responsibilities characteristic of the State. The same responsibilities may, nevertheless, be granted to volunteers, whose enlistment in the army resulted not from a commanded act but from a free act. The mandatum, as can be seen, is not a necessary element for the granting of an official responsibility. 3
At the time of the 1988 episcopal consecrations, a priest of the Society of St. Pius X, Father François Pivert, used almost the same military analogy to explain those consecrations.4 As a mere example from civil law, and related to the lay apostolate directly rather than to the priestly apostolate, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira had used his analogy to defend the priestly apostolate as well. What he opposed was an attempt to use a newer canonical form of the apostolate to blur the distinction between priest and layman, by giving laymen a quasi-hierarchical status in the Church. In the controversy today about the nature of the papal mandate for episcopal consecrations, there is an analogous blurring of the distinction between the priestly power of Orders, which sets the priest apart from the laity, and the corresponding power of jurisdiction. The government of the Church through the power of jurisdiction exists to serve the higher of the two priestly powers – the power of Orders, instituted by Our Lord for the celebration of the Mass and the administration of the sacraments. Our Lord established the power of jurisdiction, on the other hand, to govern the common good of the Church, which by its very nature is oriented toward the exercise of the power of Orders, the sanctification of souls through the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments.
This primacy of the power of Orders over the power of Jurisdiction was explained by Canon J. M. Hervé in his Manuale Theologiae Dogmaticae by means of the following thesis:
“Assertion: The power of Orders holds preeminence among the other powers of the Church [Theologically certain].
“…by its intimate nature…the power of Orders simpliciter holds preeminence: for through it priests directly and immediately cooperate with God working supernaturally, and efficaciously and moreover ex opere operato produce graces in souls…. This immediate supernatural cooperation is lacking in the other powers.
“…The power of Orders immediately related to the worship of God and the sanctification of souls through the offering of the Sacrifice and the dispensing of the sacraments….The other powers per se and immediately relate to the governing of men….but they do not produce internal holiness from the work done, but from the work of those who cooperate….
“Therefore…in some way all the powers of the Church are ordered to the power of Orders itself: neither is truth preached nor is law or direction imposed except so that holiness and ultimately salvation may be obtained.” 5
The 1983 Code of Canon Law concludes, in its final canon, by stating the principle that the supreme law of the Church is the salvation of souls. Jurisdiction is not exercised licitly in the Church if it is used to prevent priests and bishops from fulfilling the duties of their office, the very purpose for which Our Lord instituted the Sacrament of Holy Orders. And moral theology teaches that priests cannot refuse to administer the sacraments to the faithful whenever the sacraments are being reasonably requested. Our Lord’s mandate to the Apostles and their successors was to baptize all nations. Whenever this mandate cannot be transferred through ordinary jurisdiction, such as in the case of an emergency, it is through supplied or extraordinary jurisdiction that the sacraments can be administered validly and licitly.
Returning therefore to the statement of Cardinal Müller, the argument that the Holy Spirit is found only in the Catholic Church is entirely true when understood in the sense taught by Pope Leo XIII and Pius XII: The Holy Spirit is the Soul of the Mystical Body, which is the Catholic Church alone. In contrast with this doctrine, it became the legacy of the Second Vatican Council and subsequent teaching that all forms of action of the Holy Spirit outside the one true Church were emphasized. From this the Society of St. Pius X has shown that even a novel recognition of various forms of jurisdiction outside the Catholic Church has come to be implied as well. Those Catholics who want to remain faithful to the traditional teaching (Magisterium) and practice (Jurisdiction) of the Church seek therefore to benefit from the mandate of Our Lord: to preach to, and to baptize, all nations, doing so through an ordinary canonical mandate, or through an extraordinary form of supplied jurisdiction, which like the former is equally a carrying out of the mandate given by Our Lord Jesus Christ to His Apostles.
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1 “Cardinal Müller says SSPX consecrations ‘cannot be justified,’ defends Vatican II” https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-muller-sspx-consecrations-cannot-be-justified-defends-vatican-ii/
2 See Part I of this series, “Vatican I and Vatican II”: https://pcpbooks.org/blogs/newsletter/popes-leo-xiii-and-leo-xiv
3 Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, In Defense of Catholic Action (Spring Grove, PA: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, 2006), p. 47.
4 “In the army, the essence of the power of command consists in leading troops into combat. It is usually a superior who determines an officer’s ability to lead troops, and who therefore gives the latter his stripes (jurisdiction). But in an emergency situation, law makes provisions for command being passed on to the highest ranking, most senior member….if higher authority is completely lacking, the troops themselves choose a commander…” Schism or Not? The Episcopal Consecrations of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Kansas City, MO: Angelus Press, 1995), pp. 43-44.
5 “Assertio: Potestas Ordinis praeeminet inter alias Ecclesiae potestates [Theol. certum].
“…Natura intima…potestas Ordinis simpliciter praeeminet: nam per eam sacerdotes directe et immediate Deo supernaturaliter operanti cooperantur, et afficaciter atque ex opere operato gratiam producunt in animas…. Haec cooperatio supernaturalis immediata deficit in aliis potestatibus.
“…Potestas Ordinis immediate respicit cultum Dei et sanctificationem animarum per oblationem Sacrificii et sacramentorum dispensationem….Ceterae potestates per se et immediate respiciunt gubernationem hominum….at internam sanctitatem non producunt ex opere operato, sed ex opere cooperantium….
“Ergo tandem aliqundo omnes Ecclesiae potestates ad ipsam potestatem Ordinis ordinantur: nec praedicatur veritas nec lex aut directio imponitur nisi ut proxime sanctitas et ultimo salus obteneatur.” Canonicus J. M. Hervé, Manuale Theologiae Dogmaticae, Vol. I De Revelatione Christiana–De Ecclesia Christi–De Fontibus Revelationis (Parisiis: Apud Berche et Pagis, 1952), pp. 459-460.