This is interesting: The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has appointed the Superior of the Society of St. Pius X, to be the first-instance trial judge in the case against an SSPX priest who is accused of a serious crime.

Bishop Fellay

Obviously, the Society of St. Pius X is not schismatic then.

Contrary to what some priests online, such as Fr. Paul Nicholson have said.

The SSPX is definitely Catholic - but irregular?  That's Canon-ese language I suppose.

Bishop Fellay announced it himself during the course of a sermon at Our Lady of the Angels church in Arcadia, California, on May 10, 2015: the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has appointed the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Bishop Bernard Fellay, as first-instance judge in a case involving a Lefebvrian priest. The former Holy Office is in charge of dealing with a number of “delicta graviora”. The one that pops up most frequently, is the one involving the sexual abuse of minors. Fellay presented this as an example of the “contradictions” in the Holy See’s approach to the Fraternity.

“We are labeled now as being irregular, at best. “Irregular” means you cannot do anything, and so for example they have prohibited us from saying Mass in the churches in Rome, for the Dominican sisters who had their pilgrimage in Rome in February. They say, “No, you cannot, because you are irregular”. And these people [who] say that, were people of [Pontifical Commission] Ecclesia Dei.” 

“Now, sometimes, unfortunately,” Bishop Fellay said, “also priests do silly things, and they need to be punished. And when it is very, very serious, we have to make recourse to Rome. So we do. And what does the Congregation of the Faith do? Well, they did appoint me as the judge for this case. So I was appointed by Rome, by the Congregation of the Faith, to make judgements, canonical Church judgements on some of our priests who belong to a non-existent Society for them (for Rome,Ed.). And so, once again, a beautiful contradiction indeed.” - ANDREA TORNIELLI

Sounds good to me.

Today, there's more good news on liturgical reform from Cardinal Sarah:

Pope Francis asked leading African Cardinal Robert Sarah “to continue the good work in the liturgy begun by Pope Benedict XVI” when he became Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments last November, he has revealed.

In his message to the Sara Liturgia USA Conference in New York, which began on Monday, the Guinean Cardinal said: “When the Holy Father, Pope Francis, asked me to accept the ministry of Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, I asked: ‘Your Holiness, how do you want me to exercise this ministry? What do you want me to do as Prefect of this Congregation?’ The Holy Father’s reply was clear. ‘I want you to continue to implement the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council,’ he said, ‘and I want you to continue the good work in the liturgy begun by Pope Benedict XVI.’” - Catholic Herald

Works for me.

Hopefully this news will quiet some of the critics of Pope Francis.

I would like to see the liturgy restored.

Bonus:  I love this photo of ordinations for The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest:

2014 Sts. Michaele and Gaetano in Florence, Italy.