Can the traditional priests absolve reserved censures, and if so how?
There are five excommunications reserved to the Holy See and the three reserved to the local Ordinary. What do the priests of the Society do in the case of reserved censures, that is of censures or punishments which are automatically applied by the Church (latae sententiae) and whose lifting is restricted either to the local Ordinary or to the pope (the Sacred Penitentiary). The difficulty, in having recourse, is that the local Ordinary generally will not accept the validity of our Confessions, because he will not admit the existence of reasons justifying the use of supplied jurisdiction for the hearing of Confessions by the priests of the Society. When it is possible to have recourse, then we do so. This possibility is admitted in the Ordonnances; for the alternate recourse to the District Superior, or Canonical Commission, is only counseled. Several of our priests have had recourse to the Sacred Penitentiary for such serious and sacrilegious matters as direct violation of the seal of
