After SSPX excommunications, Oslo bishop offers wider Latin Mass access

One of the first concrete diocesan responses in Europe to the fallout from the recent Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) excommunications has come from Norway.

Bishop Fredrik Hansen of Oslo has moved to reassure Catholics attached to the Traditional Latin Mass while warning of the grave ecclesial consequences of the society’s latest schismatic act.

In a letter issued after the illicit episcopal consecrations, Hansen said the four bishops along with their two consecrating bishops “removed themselves from ecclesial communion and from unity with the pope” by taking part in the consecrations without a papal mandate, thereby incurring “the most grave ecclesiastical penalty: ‘latae sententiae’ excommunication.”

The Norwegian prelate then expressed willingness to expand access to the traditional liturgy within the Diocese of Oslo for Catholics who may now find themselves disoriented by the SSPX crisis.

Keeping the old Mass within the Church Hansen turned directly to Catholics in his diocese who have attended SSPX chapels because of their attachment to the preconciliar liturgy and spirituality. Acknowledging that “these are difficult and distressing days for you,” he urged them first of…