EWTN News explains: As a Catholic, can you attend an SSPX Mass?

The Vatican this week issued a decree declaring that the bishops involved in the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X’s illicit consecrations have incurred automatic excommunication and that the group is in schism with the Church.

The illicit ordinations occurred in Écône, Switzerland, on July 2 after Pope Leo XIV had urged the group to “turn back” and refrain from carrying out the unauthorized rite.

The SSPX is a controversial fraternity of priests known for their strict traditional celebration of the Latin Mass and opposition to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

The group for years has enjoyed a canonically irregular status within the Church, and the faithful have generally been permitted to attend Masses held by SSPX priests. Yet the declaration of schism has raised questions about whether or not Catholics can still attend those liturgies without incurring canonical penalties.

The Vatican recognizes that the faithful may be able to attend an SSPX Mass without suffering excommunication, so long as there is no “formal adherence” to the SSPX.

Formal adherence was described in an important 1996 explanatory note from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts,…