From Vatican News:
Following the schismatic act of July 1, a return to Catholic communion will not require repeating the experience of special commissions, such as Ecclesia Dei in the past, because the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has already established a procedure for both priests and lay faithful, directly involving diocesan Ordinaries and the leaders of the fraternities that follow the ancient rite and are united with Rome.
The instructions are being transmitted in these days through Apostolic Nunciatures, as already announced in the Explanatory Note published by the Dicastery on July 2.
The procedure set out by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, beginning on July 1, 2026, provides that a priest who has decided to leave the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X — and who is willing to accept the Second Vatican Council and the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae, while remaining attached to the ancient rite — must “find an Ordinary — a diocesan Bishop, a Major Superior of clerical religious institutes of pontifical right or of clerical societies of apostolic life of pontifical right, etc. — willing to receive him ad experimentum.”
The priest must then “write by hand a letter to the Holy Father in which he presents himself and asks for the remission of the censures incurred because of the ordination he received from an excommunicated or irregular Bishop, or because, having been validly and legitimately ordained, he subsequently became a member of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X.”
RELATED: Vatican issues decree of excommunication regarding SSPX
The priest must also attach his certificate of priestly ordination and enclose, signed and dated, “the Professio fidei and the Formula adhaesionis.”
These are the Profession of Faith, which summarizes the content of the Catholic faith, and the Formula of Adherence, by which the priest promises fidelity to the Pope and commits himself not to attack him or his magisterium publicly.
He must accept the teaching of number 25 of the conciliar Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium on adherence to the Church’s magisterium. He must also declared that he considers the celebration of Mass according to the rites promulgated by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II to be valid, and that he adheres to the norms of the Code of Canon Law promulgated by Pope John Paul II.
The priest must have these documents — the letter with the certificate, the Profession, and the Formula of Adherence — sent by the Ordinary, “who will state in the accompanying letter his willingness to receive him ad experimentum in his Diocese or Institute.”
As soon as it receives the documents from the Ordinary, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will draw up a Rescript remitting the censures and authorizing the Ordinary to receive the priest making the request “for a probationary period of at least one year and no more than three, at the end of which his incardination may proceed.”
The procedure, the Dicastery explained, “concerns the question of imputability, or the degree of subjective responsibility, of lay faithful who have formally adhered to, or who attend, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X and who ask to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.”
It notes that the imposition of a penalty on lay people belonging to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, in fact, “cannot be presumed automatically, but must be assessed case by case.”
There’s more. Read it all.
