Canonist explains SSPX’s appeal of decree of excommunication

The preliminary recourse filed by the Lefebvrist leaders “is allowed by the law,” Chaffard-Luçon tells I.Media, noting that the SSPX claims to belong to the Catholic Church. Indeed, Canon 1353 provides a suspensive effect that can legitimately apply to the July 2 decree, as the SSPX claims.

However, the French canonist notes that in the present case, one must distinguish the decree from the announced penalty. The decree is a declarative act of a latae sententiae penalty, which is incurred by the very commission of the act.

The recourse therefore suspends the legal certainty brought by the decree, but not the reality of the facts or the canonical consequences that flow from them. Chaffard-Luçon cites jurisprudence affirming that “an appeal or recourse does not, however, have a suspensive effect on the obligation to observe the effects of a penalty previously incurred latae sententiae.”

He notes that the Vatican's actions are in continuity with the condemnations pronounced in 1988, after the first episcopal ordinations celebrated by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

“Some might consider this approach more as an instrumentalization of canon law than a genuine pursuit of truth,” the canonist notes. However, he says it is not up to a canonist to judge “the heart and the intention” of SSPX members. It is “therefore appropriate to fully carry through with their appeal.” For the procedure to move forward, the SSPX must formally file an appeal explicitly detailing the reasoning behind its request. The group has 30 days to do this.