(OSV News) — On July 1, the Society of St. Pius X, widely known as the SSPX, illicitly consecrated new four bishops without authorization from the Holy See, leading Pope Leo XIV to declare its bishops, clergy and formally affiliated laity to be in schism with the Catholic Church. Here’s a short primer on the SSPX, what happened and why it matters.
1. The SSPX formed in reaction to the Second Vatican Council. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991), a Frenchman who as a bishop had been a key Church leader in French Africa, founded the society of priests in 1970 in Fribourg, Switzerland. Its priests celebrate the sacraments according to the 1962 Roman Missal, which was issued prior to the Second Vatican Council, but which was replaced by revised liturgical texts in 1969. The society has now twice been excommunicated for consecrating bishops without the permission of the Holy See.
The society is based in Menzingen, Switzerland, with an international seminary in Écône, Switzerland, where the July 1 consecrations took place. In the United States, about 100 SSPX priests live in 20 houses, or “priories,” and are active around 120 locations, called “missions” or “chapels,” according to its website. Its U.S. headquarters are in Platte City, Missouri, about 30 miles north of Kansas City.
According to the SSPX, Archbishop Lefebvre chose St. Pius X, who had served as pope 1903-1914, as the society’s patron because of that pope’s commitment to the integrity of the priesthood.
2. Before the most recent schism, the SSPX had an irregular status with respect to the Catholic Church that first began decades ago. The society appears to have lost its ecclesiastical permission to exist by the competent ecclesiastical authority in 1975. A year later, Archbishop Lefebvre was suspended after ordaining priests against the express will of ecclesiastical authorities.
In 1988, St. John Paul II excommunicated Archbishop Lefebvre and four bishops he consecrated that year without papal mandate. Their episcopal ordinations were valid but illicit, or unauthorized.
All subsequent acts of orders by those bishops have been affected. Acts of jurisdiction are invalid — such as the witnessing of marriages and absolution of sins. Other sacramental actions are considered valid, though illicit.
In its July 2 decree issuing the excommunication, the Holy See explicitly stated that sacraments of penance and marriage proceeded within the society are invalid.
3. The SSPX should not be confused with other “TLM” communities. Many Catholic communities in communion with the Holy See celebrate Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal, commonly called the traditional Latin Mass.
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued “Summorum Pontificum,” which expanded permission to priests to celebrate the preconciliar Mass. In 2021, Pope Francis issued “Traditionis Custodes,” legislation that tightened use of the preconciliar form of the Mass. However, many bishops, including in the United States, have continued to make this form of the Mass available within the new parameters.
Priests who are members of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, for example, exclusively celebrate sacraments according to the 1962 missal and are in communion with the Holy See. (The society was formed in 1988 by priests who left the SSPX after Archbishop Lefebvre’s illicit bishop consecrations that year.) FSSP priests are active internationally and minister in 39 U.S. dioceses.
Other examples of religious orders dedicated exclusively to celebrating liturgy and sacraments in the form of the Roman rite celebrated prior to Vatican II that have regular status within the Catholic Church are the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest and the Institute of the Good Shepherd.
4. SSPX leaders say the society is not in schism, and they believe all sacraments and acts of jurisdiction are valid. However, Archbishop Lefebvre’s contentions with the Catholic Church included his refusal to adopt the post-conciliar reform of the order of the Mass, which the SSPX considers deficient or having “heretical elements.”
Archbishop Lefebvre and his followers also questioned, and in some cases publicly rejected, the very orthodoxy of teachings of the Second Vatican Council, especially the Declaration on Religious Freedom, “Dignitatis Humanae.” While some argued that this declaration amounted to a change in doctrine, the Church recognized it as a development of doctrine on the dignity of the human person.
In a statement that included a 28-page “Profession of Faith” published June 24, the SSPX said the Catholic Church is facing pressures from within and without “which push her in every possible direction, except — it seems to us — the right one.” Other Catholic teaching the SSPX dismissed in that statement included aspects of ecumenism, postconciliar liturgical reforms, synodality and religious freedom.
5. The Holy See has sought a path to full reconciliation. For decades, Vatican officials have sought ways to fully reintegrate SSPX members into the life of the Catholic Church. Talks between the Holy See and the society began under St. John Paul and continued during the pontificates of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications of the four bishops in 2009, opening the way for more regular talks. The Vatican made clear the society at that point was in an irregular canonical state, but not in schism.
During the 2015-2016 Year of Mercy, Pope Francis made special provisions to validate the absolution offered by SSPX priests through the sacrament of confession. After the Holy Year ended, he extended that provision “lest anyone ever be deprived of the sacramental sign of reconciliation through the Church’s pardon.”
In April 2017, the late pontiff continued pursuing initiatives aimed at a reconciliation with the SSPX by allowing their bishops to ensure the validity of marriages celebrated in their traditionalist communities.
St. John Paul’s 1988 apostolic letter “Ecclesia Dei,” issued in response to the illicit consecrations, established a pontifical commission by the same name with the “task of collaborating with the bishops, with the departments of the Roman Curia and with the circles concerned, for the purpose of facilitating full ecclesial communion of priests, seminarians, religious communities or individuals” who were associated with SSPX and “who may wish to remain united to the Successor Peter in the Catholic Church.”
In 2019, Pope Francis suppressed the “Ecclesia Dei” commission and moved its responsibilities to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
6. The Holy See told SSPX leaders not to consecrate new bishops. In February, Father Davide Pagliarani, superior general of the SSPX, announced the society would proceed with the consecration of new bishops July 1, following a breakdown in communication with the Vatican after requests for an audience with Pope Leo went unanswered.
Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, offered to continue dialogue with the SSPX on the condition that the society suspend its decision to consecrate new bishops. After the SSPX chose not to accept, Cardinal Fernandez said the consecration of bishops without a papal mandate would be considered “a schismatic act” and would incur excommunication.
The Church’s Code of Canon Law defines schism as “the refusal of submission to the Supreme Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him” (Canon 751).
7. Pope Leo publicly appealed for the SSPX not to proceed with the consecrations. Pope Leo issued a plea June 30 for the SSPX not to proceed with the consecrations. “I urge you to consider carefully the spiritual good of the faithful, because the schismatic act you are about to undertake would deprive them of the licit and, in some cases, even valid reception of the Sacraments, which they love and seek for their sanctification,” Pope Leo wrote. Father Pagliarani’s response indicated that the society planned to move ahead with the consecrations while insisting the group was “neither schismatic nor hostile to the Church.”
After the SSPX moved ahead with the illicit consecrations July 1, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, or DDF, declared July 2 that the SSPX’s six bishops were excommunicated, and warned clergy and laypeople not to “adhere to the schism” and thereby also incur excommunication.
8. One of the four illicitly consecrated bishops July 1 is from the United States. A native of North Dakota, Bishop Michael Goldade grew up in St. Marys, Kansas, an enclave of the SSPX community. He is the rector of the SSPX St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Dillwyn, Virginia.
9. The DDF has issued procedures for those who decide to leave the SSPX to reestablish communion with the Catholic Church. The instructions provide specific actions that must be taken by a priest ordained in the SSPX community or affiliated with the SSPX after his licit ordination. Procedures for laypeople are more nuanced, as their steps to regain communion depend on their level of attachment to the SSPX community and ideas.
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