Wow. Simply wow!!
The Pope has granted universal faculties for confession for the SSPX during the year of Mercy while they try to resolve the situation.
Wow.
In the Pope’s letter on the Year of Mercy, the second to last paragraph includes this:
A final consideration concerns those faithful who for various reasons choose to attend churches officiated by priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X. This Jubilee Year of Mercy excludes no one. From various quarters, several Brother Bishops have told me of their good faith and sacramental practice, combined however with an uneasy situation from the pastoral standpoint. I trust that in the near future solutions may be found to recover full communion with the priests and superiors of the Fraternity. In the meantime, motivated by the need to respond to the good of these faithful, through my own disposition, I establish that those who during the Holy Year of Mercy approach these priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation shall validly and licitly receive the absolution of their sins.
I am very grateful to the Pope for his gesture toward the SSPX today and earnestly pray it is just the first step toward a more just, beneficial, and permanent situation for all.
