OPEN LETTER TO MOST REVEREND MICHAEL BURBIDGE,
BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA
July 13, 2026
Your Excellency,
How grateful I am for your vocation to the priesthood and the privilege of calling you my spiritual Father. We met only once several years ago after Fr. Clarence Trinkle's funeral at St. John the Baptist. I left by the front door thinking to slip away quietly, but you were standing alone next to the hearse only a few feet away. I stopped, genuflected and kissed your ring, introduced myself, and thanked you. I considered our brief exchange providential and was delighted to receive a personal blessing. I recall that meeting today as I write in grief over the recent decree of excommunication of the SSPX bishops. Since my purpose is not to defend the Society consecrations, I will not address that topic.
What I want to address today is the decree and explanatory note with regard to the laity which imposed canonically invalid punishments on those of us who continue to attend SSPX services. Locally, a priest announced at Mass that those who stop going to the SSPX immediately need take no further action. Those of us who continue to attend are excommunicated and have two levels of action required to be readmitted to the Church depending on our status. His statements and instructions were erroneous and conflict with canon law which illustrates how a problem grows when it begins from error.
Fr. Gerald Murray, a highly respected canon lawyer, called the decree and explanatory note a "canonical mess." The Dicastery failed to follow the requirements of canon law:
“In the decree, there’s a warning. We call that a canonical warning not to adhere to the schism. That’s (just) a warning.”...“Now, the next question is, what specifically are you supposed to do so that you don’t adhere to a schism? That level of specificity is not given. It has to be an act. It can’t be a mental attitude because you don’t judge the mind of people unless it’s been expressed in words.”...
In other words, the decree did not excommunicate anyone except the six bishops involved. You can't declare an entire class of people excommunicated and schismatic in an explanatory note. You must judge their personal actions, not try to read their minds. Fr. Murray continues:
“The confessions of the priests of St. Pius X during the reign of Francis, they got faculties to hear confessions given by Pope Francis, and it was formalized in a decree or a document from the Pope. An act of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in an explanatory note cannot undo what Pope Francis did.”...
So the confessions and marriages conducted by the SSPX continue to be valid. Pope Francis' permissions must be expressly revoked and they have not been. Again, Fr. Murray continues:
“The document about the laity, it basically assumes that lay people who attend Mass at the St. Pius X society on a regular basis or belong to one of their organizations are out of full communion with the Church and need to be reconciled and brought back into full communion with the Church. But wait a minute. They haven’t been excommunicated. Therefore, they’re not under a canonical penalty that affects their full communion, and the idea that you lose full communion because you agree with some of the things that the society says, that’s not good enough.”
Fr. Murray is not the only canonist pointing out the errors and inconsistencies in the documents promulgated by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF). An anonymous canonist explained it clearly on the Rorate Caeli website which Fr. John Zuhlsdorf summarized on his popular blog read by many Catholic laity. Most of those attending SSPX chapels are well catechized and informed Catholics aware that the documents created a "canonical mess." The actions also seem in bad faith intended to expel all those associated with the SSPX as too troublesome to care about. I hope that's untrue.
In 1991, Bishop Joseph Anthony Ferrario of Honolulu excommunicated and declared schismatic six lay persons who arranged for the SSPX to celebrate the sacrament of confirmation for their children. They appealed to Rome and the bishop's abuse of his authority was overturned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith whose head was Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI. The letter to the bishop stated:
"From the examination of the case, conducted on the basis of the Law of the Church, it did not result that the facts referred to in the above-mentioned decree are formal schismatic acts in the strict sense, as they do not constitute the offense of schism; and therefore the Congregation holds that the Decree of May 1, 1991 lacks foundation and hence validity."
How can the laity possibly be excommunicated today for essentially doing the same thing the Hawaii six did in 1991? Attending the Masses and receiving the sacraments from the SSPX is not a schismatic act justifying a class action excommunication of the lay faithful.
What is happening at present in the Diocese of Arlington (and other places in the country) with respect to faithful sons and daughters of the Church is unjust, and uncharitable. Announcing that we are excommunicated and in schism is also untrue according to canon law. The decree and explanatory note remind me of Roe v. Wade, one of the most unjust court decisions in history. The justices found the right to murder the unborn in the "penumbra" of the Constitution. Apparently, Pope Leo and Cardinal Fernandez have found the right to abort the lay faithful in the penumbra of canon law.
Your Excellency, I beg you to reconsider the sledgehammer approach to the faithful. I have seen no reduction of the laity attending the chapel in the weeks since the release of the decree. The only result of promulgating this error-filled abuse of canon law can be further mistrust of our shepherds. Most of those who attend the Traditional Latin Mass are already evicted from churches we've supported with our time, talent, and treasure. Now, not only are we evicted physically, but we are spiritual outcasts whose canon law rights are ignored. And to whom can we appeal since the DDF is the perpetrator of the injustice?
We turn to you, Your Excellency, hoping and praying that you will be a voice of truth loving your sons and daughters enough to defend us against this unjust and cruel treatment. I pray for you every day when I say the rosary and when I go to the chapel holy hour for priests on Fridays. Our chapel prays for you and Pope Leo at every Mass. To whom else shall we turn for justice and mercy if not to our spiritual fathers? Please correct the errors and instruct all the priests of the diocese not to mislead the flock about the current situation. The laity have the right to be told the truth. We are neither excommunicated nor in schism and we may still receive the sacraments of Confession and Matrimony from SSPX priests. The situation is tragic enough without spreading error. Please correct the situation for the good of the souls for whom you are responsible.
Sincerely in Christ Jesus,
Mary Ann Kreitzer
