Vatican Warns Traditionalist Group of Schism Over Planned Bishop Consecrations
SSPX told to halt July 1 consecrations or risk a “decisive break” with Rome. Vatican offers renewed theological talks contingent on papal approval.
The Vatican has warned the breakaway traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) that it risks schism if it proceeds with plans to consecrate new bishops without papal consent.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, head of the Vatican’s doctrine office, delivered the warning Thursday in a meeting with SSPX superior general Rev. Davide Pagliarani, after the Swiss-based group announced plans to consecrate bishops July 1 without papal approval. Fernández offered renewed theological talks to regularize the SSPX’s status, but only if it suspends the planned ceremony.
Founded in opposition to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the SSPX first broke with Rome in 1988, when Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal consent, arguing it was necessary for preserving church tradition. The Vatican excommunicated Lefebvre and the bishops, and the SSPX still has no legal status in the Catholic Church.
The Vatican considers episcopal consecrations without papal consent “a grave threat to church unity and a cause of schism,” since bishops can ordain priests. Church law holds that such consecrations incur automatic excommunication. Today, the SSPX counts hundreds of clergy and religious worldwide, raising Vatican concerns about the growth of a “parallel church.”
According to the Vatican, dialogue could resume to identify “the minimum points of agreement necessary to bring the SSPX back into communion with the Holy See,” but only if the consecrations are halted. Proceeding, it warned, “would imply a decisive break in the ecclesial communion (schism) with grave consequences for the Fraternity.”
Pagliarani has defended the consecrations as “realistic and reasonable,” citing the age of the society’s remaining bishops and the needs of its members. The SSPX has not issued a new response.
The Vatican has sought reconciliation for decades. Pope Benedict XVI lifted the bishops’ excommunications in 2009 and eased restrictions on the traditional Latin Mass, while Pope Francis later reversed those measures, arguing the old rite had become divisive. Traditionalists say this drove more Catholics toward the SSPX.