This morning, the Holy See Press Centre published the text of an Apostolic Letter issued motu proprio by His Holiness, Pope Francis which concerns the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.
For more than thirty years, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which was instituted with the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei adflicta on 2 July 1988, has conducted with sincere solicitude and praiseworthy concern, the task of collaborating with the Bishops and Dicasteries of the Roman Curia in facilitating the full ecclesial communion of priests, seminarians, communities and individual male and female religious who are linked to the Fraternity founded by His Excellency, Marcel Lefebvre, who wish to remain united to the Successor of Peter in the Catholic Church, while preserving her spiritual and liturgical traditions (cf John Paul II, Apostolic Letter issued Motu proprio, Ecclesia Dei adflicta, 2 July 1988, AAS, LXXX, 1988, 12, 15 November 1988, 1495-1498, 6a).
In this way, the Commission was able to exercise its authority and competence in the name of the Holy See over these societies and associations, until otherwise provided for (cf Rescript from the Most Holy Audience dated 18 October 1988, AAS, LXXXII, 1990, 5, 3 May 1990, 533-534, 6).
Subsequently, under the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of 7 July 2007, the Pontifical Commission extended the authority of the Holy See over those Institutes and religious communities, which had adhered to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite and had assumed the previous traditions of religious life, overseeing the observance and application of the established provisions (cf Benedict XVI, Apostolic Letter issued Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, 7 July 2007, AAS, XCIX, 2007, 9, 7 Sept. 2007, 777-781, 12).
Two years later, my Venerable Predecessor Benedict XVI, with the Motu Proprio Ecclesiae Unitatem, of 2 July 2009, reorganized the structure of the Pontifical Commission, in order to make it more suitable for the new situation created with the remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated without a pontifical mandate. Moreover, considering that, after such an act of grace, the matters dealt with by the same Pontifical Commission were primarily doctrinal, he more organically linked it to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, while retaining its initial aims, but modifying its structure (cf Benedict XVI, Apostolic Letter issued Motu proprio Ecclesiae unitatem, 2 July 2009, AAS, CI, 2009).
Now, since the Feria IV of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued on 15 November 2017 made the request that the dialogue between the Holy See and the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X be conducted directly by the aforementioned Congregation, since the issues treated are of a doctrinal nature, to which request I gave my approval in Audientia to the Prefect on the following 24 November and this proposal received approval during the Plenary Session of the same Congregation celebrated from 23 to 26 January 2018, after ample reflection, I have come to the following Decision.
Considering today the conditions that had led the Holy Pontiff John Paul II to the establishment of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei;
noting that the Institutes and the religious communities that usually celebrate in extraordinary form have today found their own stability of number and life;
noting that the aims and issues dealt with by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei are of a predominantly doctrinal nature;
wishing that these aims are increasingly evident to the conscience of the ecclesial communities,
with the present Apostolic Letter issued Motu proprio,
I declare that
1. The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, instituted on 2 July 1988 with the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei adflicta, has been repressed.
2. The tasks of the Commission in question are assigned in full to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, within which a special Section will be set up to continue the work of supervision, promotion and protection thus far conducted by the suppressed Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.
3. The budget of the Pontifical Commission is part of the ordinary accounting of the aforementioned Congregation.
Moreover, I establish that the present Motu proprio, which is to be observed in spite of anything contrary, even if worthy of particular mention, should be promulgated by publication in the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano on 19 January 2019, entering into immediate effect, and subsequently inserted in the official Commentary of the Holy See, Acta Apostolicae Sedis.
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's on the 17 January 2019, the sixth of Our Pontificate.
Francis
(Original text in Italian)
Apostolic Letter of His Holiness, Pope Francis
issued Motu Proprio
concerning the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei
For more than thirty years, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which was instituted with the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei adflicta on 2 July 1988, has conducted with sincere solicitude and praiseworthy concern, the task of collaborating with the Bishops and Dicasteries of the Roman Curia in facilitating the full ecclesial communion of priests, seminarians, communities and individual male and female religious who are linked to the Fraternity founded by His Excellency, Marcel Lefebvre, who wish to remain united to the Successor of Peter in the Catholic Church, while preserving her spiritual and liturgical traditions (cf John Paul II, Apostolic Letter issued Motu proprio, Ecclesia Dei adflicta, 2 July 1988, AAS, LXXX, 1988, 12, 15 November 1988, 1495-1498, 6a).
In this way, the Commission was able to exercise its authority and competence in the name of the Holy See over these societies and associations, until otherwise provided for (cf Rescript from the Most Holy Audience dated 18 October 1988, AAS, LXXXII, 1990, 5, 3 May 1990, 533-534, 6).
Subsequently, under the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of 7 July 2007, the Pontifical Commission extended the authority of the Holy See over those Institutes and religious communities, which had adhered to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite and had assumed the previous traditions of religious life, overseeing the observance and application of the established provisions (cf Benedict XVI, Apostolic Letter issued Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, 7 July 2007, AAS, XCIX, 2007, 9, 7 Sept. 2007, 777-781, 12).
Two years later, my Venerable Predecessor Benedict XVI, with the Motu Proprio Ecclesiae Unitatem, of 2 July 2009, reorganized the structure of the Pontifical Commission, in order to make it more suitable for the new situation created with the remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated without a pontifical mandate. Moreover, considering that, after such an act of grace, the matters dealt with by the same Pontifical Commission were primarily doctrinal, he more organically linked it to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, while retaining its initial aims, but modifying its structure (cf Benedict XVI, Apostolic Letter issued Motu proprio Ecclesiae unitatem, 2 July 2009, AAS, CI, 2009).
Now, since the Feria IV of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued on 15 November 2017 made the request that the dialogue between the Holy See and the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X be conducted directly by the aforementioned Congregation, since the issues treated are of a doctrinal nature, to which request I gave my approval in Audientia to the Prefect on the following 24 November and this proposal received approval during the Plenary Session of the same Congregation celebrated from 23 to 26 January 2018, after ample reflection, I have come to the following Decision.
Considering today the conditions that had led the Holy Pontiff John Paul II to the establishment of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei;
noting that the Institutes and the religious communities that usually celebrate in extraordinary form have today found their own stability of number and life;
noting that the aims and issues dealt with by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei are of a predominantly doctrinal nature;
wishing that these aims are increasingly evident to the conscience of the ecclesial communities,
with the present Apostolic Letter issued Motu proprio,
I declare that
1. The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, instituted on 2 July 1988 with the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei adflicta, has been repressed.
2. The tasks of the Commission in question are assigned in full to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, within which a special Section will be set up to continue the work of supervision, promotion and protection thus far conducted by the suppressed Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.
3. The budget of the Pontifical Commission is part of the ordinary accounting of the aforementioned Congregation.
Moreover, I establish that the present Motu proprio, which is to be observed in spite of anything contrary, even if worthy of particular mention, should be promulgated by publication in the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano on 19 January 2019, entering into immediate effect, and subsequently inserted in the official Commentary of the Holy See, Acta Apostolicae Sedis.
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's on the 17 January 2019, the sixth of Our Pontificate.
Francis
(Original text in Italian)
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