Practice for the Reconciliation of Certain Lay Faithful and Priests Coming from the Prevostite Communion

The DDF’s terms for SSPX reconciliation turned back on the Vatican II regime: synodality, the new Mass, false ecumenism, and the errors of Robert Prevost.

Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office

Practice for the Reconciliation of Certain Lay Faithful Coming from the Prevostite Communion

This practice concerns the question of imputability, or the degree of subjective responsibility, of lay faithful who have formally adhered to, defended, promoted, or habitually participated in the Prevostite communion and who now ask to return to the unity of the Catholic Church.

The imposition of a penalty upon lay persons who have lived under the Prevostite regime is not presumed automatically. Each case must be evaluated according to knowledge, consent, public conduct, and the degree of formal adherence to the errors of Vatican II, the conciliar liturgy, synodality, false ecumenism, religious indifferentism, and the public acts of Robert Prevost insofar as they continue the conciliar rupture.

Since imputability requires full awareness and deliberate consent, examples of proven imputability may include:

1. Lay persons who formally belonged to associations, committees, institutes, movements, apostolates, or organized bodies dedicated to the promotion of the Prevostite, conciliar, or synodal program;

2. Lay persons who habitually participated in Prevostite liturgical celebrations, public events, synodal assemblies, ecumenical services, or official diocesan structures while formally sharing the doctrinal positions underlying them;

3. Lay persons who publicly defended the legitimacy of Vatican II as a safe and binding expression of Catholic doctrine where it contradicts or obscures the prior Magisterium;

4. Lay persons who publicly defended the Novus Ordo Missae as the ordinary, normative, and doctrinally sound expression of the Roman Rite;

5. Lay persons who promoted synodality as though the Church’s divine constitution could be subjected to consultative, managerial, democratic, or listening-process models foreign to Catholic tradition.

On the contrary, the following are not to be considered fully imputable without further proof:

6. Lay persons who attended Prevostite parishes or diocesan churches through ignorance, family obligation, social pressure, lack of access to Catholic worship, or confusion concerning the crisis in the Church;

7. Lay persons who received sacraments in the conciliar structure while retaining Catholic belief and without formal adherence to conciliar errors;

8. Lay persons who, while aware of tensions between the conciliar authorities and Catholic tradition, did not reject the perennial Magisterium, the traditional Roman Rite, or the divinely constituted authority of the Church;

9. Lay persons who were misled by clergy, family members, schools, or diocesan authorities and who now sincerely seek instruction and reconciliation.

The procedure to be followed for lay persons whose formal adherence to Prevostite error has been established, and who ask to return to Catholic unity, requires a formal act of abjuration and full adhesion to the Catholic faith, the perennial Magisterium, the traditional sacramental discipline of the Church, and the Roman Rite received and handed down before the conciliar rupture.

Therefore, a lay faithful person described in nos. 1–5, who has decided to leave the Prevostite communion, must:

• Present to the competent Catholic priest or Ordinary the Profession of Catholic Faith and the Formula of Abjuration and Adhesion, dated and signed. See Attachments A–B.

Once the documentation has been received, the competent authority shall receive the lay faithful person at the time and in the manner judged most appropriate, after suitable instruction, sacramental confession where required, and a clear renunciation of public cooperation with Prevostite doctrine, worship, and discipline.

As regards the lay faithful person described in nos. 6–9, it shall ordinarily suffice that he approach a Catholic priest, receive instruction as needed, make a sincere confession of faith, and resolve to avoid future participation in Prevostite worship, synodal structures, and conciliar doctrinal propaganda.

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Document II

Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office

Practice for the Reconciliation of Priests Coming from the Prevostite Communion

The practice followed for a priest who has decided to leave the Prevostite communion provides that the priest, being willing to abjure the errors of Vatican II, the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae as a Catholic rite, the conciliar doctrine of religious liberty, false ecumenism, collegialism, synodality, and the public doctrinal program associated with Robert Prevost, must:

1. Find a competent Catholic Ordinary, bishop, superior, or priestly authority willing to receive him ad experimentum, after examination of his faith, orders, formation, and public conduct.

2. Write by his own hand a letter in which he presents himself, recounts his formation and ministry, asks to be reconciled to the Catholic Church, and expressly abjures the errors he formerly professed, defended, tolerated, or publicly served.

3. Attach documentation concerning baptism, confirmation, seminary formation, diaconal ordination, priestly ordination, rite of ordination used, ordaining bishop, and subsequent ministerial assignments.

4. If ordination was received according to the post-conciliar rite, submit the case for examination. Where prudent doubt exists regarding matter, form, intention, minister, or rite, the priest must be willing to receive conditional ordination.

5. Attach the Profession of Catholic Faith and the Formula of Abjuration and Adhesion, dated and signed. See Attachments A–B.

6. Refrain from all public ministry until received by the competent Catholic authority and until any question concerning orders, jurisdiction, doctrine, or scandal has been resolved.

7. Publicly retract any writings, sermons, interviews, catecheses, online posts, or official acts by which he promoted Vatican II, the Novus Ordo, synodality, false ecumenism, religious liberty, the new sacramental discipline, or the legitimacy of Prevostite authority against Catholic tradition.

Once the documents have been received, the competent Catholic authority shall examine the case and, where appropriate, receive the priest for a probationary period of at least one year and no more than three.

During the period of probation, the priest shall receive doctrinal correction, liturgical formation, and instruction in the traditional sacramental and canonical discipline of the Church. He shall avoid all public defense of the Prevostite communion, all concelebration or participation in the Novus Ordo, all synodal assemblies, and all ecumenical or interreligious activities contrary to Catholic doctrine.

At the conclusion of the probationary period, the competent authority may proceed, according to the facts of the case, to assign him to ministry, regularize his status, require conditional ordination, extend the period of probation, or decline reception into public ministry.

If the probationary period does not go well, the competent authority shall prepare a written report stating the reasons: doctrinal instability, refusal to abjure conciliar errors, attachment to the Novus Ordo, defense of Prevostite authority, unresolved doubt concerning orders, scandal, disobedience, or other grave cause.

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Attachment A

Profession of Catholic Faith

I, __________________________,

with firm faith believe and profess each and every thing contained in the Symbol of Faith, namely:

I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages: God from God, light from light, true God from true God; begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and became man. He was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; he suffered and was buried; and he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven; he sits at the right hand of the Father; and he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who together with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified; who spoke through the prophets. And one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins, and I await the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith I believe everything contained in the Word of God, written or handed down, and proposed by the Catholic Church, whether by solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium, as divinely revealed and to be believed.

I firmly embrace and hold each and every doctrine concerning faith or morals definitively taught by the Catholic Church.

I profess that no council, bishop, pope, claimant to ecclesiastical office, dicastery, synod, episcopal conference, theological commission, or pastoral program possesses authority to overturn, corrupt, obscure, or place in practical suspension what the Church has already taught as true, holy, and binding.

I profess that the Magisterium of the Church is a servant of divine revelation, not its master; that authentic ecclesiastical authority preserves the deposit of faith; and that commands, doctrines, rites, or disciplines destructive of the faith cannot be received as acts of Catholic tradition.

I profess the doctrine of the Roman Primacy as handed down by the Church: the Roman Pontiff, when truly and lawfully possessing the office of Peter, has supreme authority in the Church for the preservation of the faith, the government of the faithful, and the unity of the Church. I reject every counterfeit appeal to papal authority by which Catholics are commanded to accept novelty, ambiguity, indifferentism, sacrilege, or rupture with the prior Magisterium.

I profess the Catholic doctrine on the Social Kingship of Christ; the necessity of the Catholic faith; the unity and exclusivity of the Church founded by Christ; the sacrificial nature of the Mass; the ministerial priesthood; the traditional doctrine of the sacraments; and the duty of all men and societies to recognize the true religion.

I reject every doctrine, interpretation, or pastoral practice by which Vatican II, the Novus Ordo Missae, synodality, false ecumenism, religious liberty, collegialism, interreligious fraternity, or the Prevostite program is used to weaken, replace, or reinterpret the perennial Catholic faith.

Place: ______________________
Date: _______________________

Signature: ___________________

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Attachment B

Formula of Abjuration and Adhesion

I, __________________________,

promise fidelity to the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church; to the deposit of faith received from the Apostles; to the perennial Magisterium; to the traditional Roman Rite; to the sacraments as instituted by Christ; and to the lawful authority of the Church as ordered to the preservation of Catholic truth.

I abjure the errors of the Prevostite communion, insofar as it continues the doctrinal, liturgical, canonical, and pastoral rupture introduced and institutionalized after the Second Vatican Council.

I reject the claim that Vatican II may be received as a safe and binding expression of Catholic doctrine where its teaching or authorized interpretations contradict, obscure, or invert the prior Magisterium of the Church.

I reject the doctrine of religious liberty as commonly taught from Dignitatis Humanae, insofar as it denies, weakens, or places in practical suspension the duty of men and societies to profess the true religion and submit to the Kingship of Christ.

I reject false ecumenism, interreligious fraternity, and all forms of religious indifferentism by which non-Catholic religions are treated as ordinary means of salvation, sister paths to God, or positive elements of a divinely willed plurality of religions.

I reject the conciliar and post-conciliar doctrine of collegiality and synodality insofar as it obscures the monarchical constitution of the Church, dissolves authority into processes of consultation, or places the voice of the world, the baptized, or listening assemblies above the received doctrine of Christ.

I reject the claim that Lumen Gentium no. 25, or any appeal to “religious submission of will and intellect,” can require Catholics to accept novelties contrary to the faith already taught by the Church.

I reject the “positive line” of interpretation by which contradictions are saved by command, rupture is baptized as development, and the sacred patrimony of doctrine is made subordinate to the latest occupant of an office, the latest dicastery document, or the latest synodal process.

I reject the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae as a faithful expression of the Roman Rite received and handed down by the Catholic Church. I acknowledge that sacramental validity must be judged according to the traditional principles of matter, form, minister, and intention, but I refuse to present the Novus Ordo as doctrinally sound, spiritually safe, or equal to the traditional Roman Mass.

I reject the post-conciliar sacramental rites insofar as they obscure Catholic doctrine, weaken sacramental form, introduce ambiguity concerning intention, or depart from the received rites of the Church.

I reject the post-conciliar canonical discipline insofar as it embodies the ecclesiology of Vatican II, false ecumenism, defective sacramental discipline, or a practical indifference toward heresy and schism.

I specifically abjure the errors associated with Robert Prevost insofar as he publicly advances, protects, ratifies, or embodies the conciliar system, including synodality, ecumenical accommodation, the normalization of the Novus Ordo, and submission to Vatican II as the controlling interpretive principle of Catholic life.

I promise to refrain from every public declaration, writing, sermon, interview, catechesis, social-media statement, or official act by which the errors of Prevost, Vatican II, the Novus Ordo, synodality, false ecumenism, religious liberty, or conciliar ecclesiology are defended or promoted.

I promise to adhere to the traditional doctrine, worship, morals, and discipline of the Catholic Church, receiving later laws, acts, and claims only insofar as they conform to the faith once delivered to the saints and the perennial Magisterium of the Church.

All these things I have signed with my own hand.

Place: ______________________
Date: _______________________

Signature: ___________________

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