The SSPX and the Appeal to Epikeia: Fidelity or Ecclesial Disobedience? – Restoring Reason

By Dr. Rafael Xavier Gonzalez There is a dangerous temptation in times of crisis: to baptize resistance with theological language. Is epikeia being abused or incorrectly invoked by the SSPX (FSSPX, as they are known internationally)? The SSPX proposes to consecrate new bishops without the approval of Rome, an act that would ordinarily incur automatic excommunication (latae sententiae). Can such an act be justified? Can the notion of epikeia legitimately be applied in this case? St. Thomas instructs us regarding epikeia: “…if the law be applied to certain cases it will frustrate the equality of justice and be injurious to the common good, which the law has in view. Thus the law requires deposits to be restored, because in the majority of cases this is just. Yet it happens sometimes to be injurious—for instance, if a madman were to put his sword in deposit, and demand its delivery while in a state of madness, or if a man were to seek the return of his deposit in order to fight against …