Citing canon 1734 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the Society of Saint Pius X announced it filed a preliminary recourse against the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s July 2 decree declaring that six SSPX bishops had incurred automatic excommunication.
The Society stated that its request, submitted to the same dicastery, “constitutes the mandatory preliminary step before the possible introduction of a hierarchical recourse” and “has the effect of suspending the execution of the decree.”