had the authority to accept divorced and remarried Catholics as full members of the church. During the conference, Burke expressed the belief that a "public correction" of a pope in error can take place after a private one has been ignored or rejected. "As a matter of duty, the pope can be disobeyed," Burke said. He added that "the Roman pontiff can dispense with the law only for the purpose of preserving its purpose, and never for subverting it." In an interview on September 6, Burke said that he shared fellow dubia signatory Caffarra's "profound sadness" that the dubia never received a response, and wondered whether such sadness contributed to his death. "The dubia must have a response sooner or later," Burke said. "It’s a simple response: Yes or no. That’s all. It's not complicated." Palliative care and euthanasia At a July 23, 2011, conference on end-of-life care sponsored by the St. Gianna Physician's Guild, Burke said that suffering does not cause a person to have less meaning in his life, nor does it give the government the right to decide if that person should live or die: "No matter how much a life is diminished, no matter what suffering the person is undergoing, that life demands the greatest respect and care. It's never right to snuff out a life because it's in some way under heavy burden." SSPX reintegration In 2012, during negotiations between the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which is in a canonically irregular status with the Holy See, Burke expressed optimism that the Society's members would reconcile themselves with the Vatican. He referred to the Society's members as people who "have the Catholic faith and the love of the sacred liturgy." The talks eventually failed. In July 2017, Burke said that SSPX was "in schism" and that it was "not legitimate to attend Mass or to receive the sacraments in a church" of theirs, and that faithful Catholics should avoid SSPX liturgies. He criticized Pope Francis's openness towards SSPX, stating that "There is no canonical explanation for it, and it is simply an anomaly", because while they were not excommunicated, they also were not in full communion with the Catholic Church. Comments on the Mass In a July 2007 apostolic letter, Summorum Pontificum, Pope Benedict XVI authorized wider use of the traditional Mass, which had largely fallen out of use with the reforms of