Paix liturgique

The Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X has announced that new episcopal consecrations will take place within its ranks on July 1st, 2026. May the new bishops truly be bishops for the whole Church, joining in the struggle alongside those among the Successors of the Apostles who long to restore the faith and worship, and not remain the bishops of a preserved pastoral enclave. However, our purpose here is not to deal with this matter in depth, but rather to consider one particular aspect which it reveals: that of episcopal jurisdiction (the power of bishops to govern) within the Church.

A new category of bishops

In 1988, Archbishop Lefebvre, with the intention of continuing his work while avoiding the formation of a parallel ecclesiastical hierarchy, had in a sense created a special category of bishops who, consecrated by him without a mandate, would claim no jurisdiction and would continue to do what he himself had done sacramentally without an explicit mandate, for the good of souls. He created second-generation Lefebvrists, if we may use this expression, who will now be followed by third-generation Lefebvrists, but without the charisma of Marcel Lefebvre, since a charisma by its very nature cannot be transmitted, at least not in this manner. For he himself integrated his sacramental action, as a bishop without a canonical mandate, into that for which he would one day be acknowledged in Church history: his prophetic anti-Vatican II protest against the new lex orandi (the liturgical reform) and against the new lex credendi (a series of innovations contained in Vatican II).

It can be said that, from the point of view of jurisdiction, alongside the “standard” bishops, a new category of “autonomous” bishops was thus created, bishops consecrated without a mandate from the pope and claiming no jurisdiction, but also distributing, without a mandate, for reasons of necessity, the sacraments proper to bishops. (It should be added that, in addition to the two existing bishops and the four future bishops of the Fraternity of Saint Pius X, there are six bishops, known as the Resistance bishops, who were consecrated by Bishop Richard Williamson and are in fact of the same episcopal type).

Yet from the point of view of jurisdiction, are the other bishops of the Church, the “standard” bishops, still bishops according to traditional standards?

“Collegial” bishops

While Archbishop Lefebvre had ruled out any jurisdiction with regard to his own bishops, Vatican II, on the contrary, infused the “standard” bishops with additional jurisdiction in order to establish episcopal collegiality:

by giving to every bishop, by the mere fact of his episcopal consecration, a genuine jurisdiction, albeit without a proper form;

and by teaching that episcopal jurisdiction is directly and immediately conferred by Christ, and not indirectly and mediately by the pope.

To understand this situation, we must return to the Second Vatican Council and, in particular, to the constitution Lumen Gentium, as well as to the very clear teaching of Pius XII, reiterated three times, on the jurisdiction of bishops. Let us return to our two points:

1. A formless jurisdiction.

Instead of simply saying, according to traditional theology, that episcopal consecration gives the capacity to receive jurisdiction over a specific part of the Christian people (generally a diocese), Lumen Gentium in n° 21 affirms that “Episcopal consecration,together with the office of sanctifying, also confers the office of teaching and of governing, which, however, of its very nature, can be exercised only in hierarchical communion with the head and the members of the college.” [emphasis added]

In other words, the sole episcopal consecration confers an “office of governing”, that is, for a bishop, a jurisdiction, the concrete exercise of which will be determined by the eventual appointment of this new bishop to the head of a diocese (he may also become an auxiliary bishop, bishop of the Curia, apostolic nuncio, etc.).

This slight doctrinal shift was intended to make of the episcopate united with the pope, including non-residential (non-diocesan) bishops, a subject, an instance of plenary power over the whole Church, as is also the case with the pope alone: “The order of bishops, which succeeds to the college of apostles and gives this apostolic body continued existence, is also the subject of supreme and full power over the universal Church, provided we understand this body together with its head the Roman Pontiff and never without this head.” (Lumen Gentium n° 22) [emphasis added]. Plenary power in the Church emanates either from the pope alone or from the pope together with all the bishops from the very moment of their consecration.

2. An immediate power.

In line with this emphasis on the native jurisdiction possessed by every bishop, n° 27 of Lumen Gentium gives an even clearer boost to the bishops of particular Churches (essentially dioceses): their power, potestas, is “proper, ordinary, and immediate” [emphasis added].

The term potestas is less precise and, above all, less technical than juridictio, but it is indeed the jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop that is designated here, given the usage of the first two adjectives traditionally employed to describe episcopal jurisdiction, which is in fact “proper” (exercised by the holder, in this case the bishop, in his own name and not by delegation) and “ordinary” (inherent to the office, in this case his diocesan episcopal office).

The considerable novelty lies in the third qualification: the power of jurisdiction of the diocesan bishop is “immediate”, which is in no way invalidated by the clarification given in n° 27: “although its exercise is ultimately regulated by the supreme authority of the Church.”

For his part, Pius XII had taught precisely the contrary on three occasions: the divine right jurisdiction of the Successors of the Apostles, emanating from Christ (as does all jurisdiction, for that matter), is received through the intermediary of the Successor of Peter, through his mediation. In Mystici Corporis, dated June 29, 1943, he wrote: “Yet in exercising this office they are not altogether independent, but are subordinate to the lawful authority of the Roman Pontiff, although enjoying the ordinary power of jurisdiction which they receive directly from the same Supreme Pontiff.” [emphasis added]

In the context of the schism of the Patriotic Church of China, Pius XII also reaffirmed in Ad sinarum gentem, dated October 7, 1954, that: “the power of jurisdiction, which is conferred upon the Supreme Pontiff directly by divine rights, flows to the Bishops by the same right, but only through the Successor of St. Peter.” Similarly, in Ad Apostolorum Principis, dated June 29, 1958, Pope Pacelli clearly reiterated that “jurisdiction passes to bishops only through the Roman Pontiff.”

Bishops in a state of “weightlessness” regarding jurisdiction

There is no doubt that the episcopal consecrations conferred without a mandate by Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop de Castro Mayer in 1988, as well as those that are to take place on July 1st in Ecône, will give rise to bishops who are, in a sense, in a state of “weightlessness” with regard to the power of jurisdiction. This is undoubtedly a de facto novelty that is justified by invoking the necessity of the salvation of souls, the supreme law.

It is no less debatable that the configuration attributed by Lumen Gentium to episcopal jurisdiction represents another novelty, this one intrinsic. The first goes against the letter of canon law, the second against the letter and the spirit of the previous magisterium.

Fr. Claude Barthe