(LifeSiteNews) — Big news coming out of the SSPX today – historic news.
The Superior General of the traditionalist priestly order, Fr. Davide Pagliarani, has announced that they will be proceeding to consecrate new bishops on July 1 this year.
This comes after months of speculation – or really years – about when they would do just this.
Fr. Pagliarani announced it during the taking-of-the-cassock ceremony for the new seminarians, over in Flavigny, France.
Now, pretty much everyone knows that this is a big deal – because they are doing it without the permission of Leo XIV.
Fr. Pagliarani said that he had sought an audience with Leo XIV in August, letting him know the current situation of the SSPX and their need for more bishops.
Bishops and the SSPX are controversial, because in 1988 the Society’s founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without the permission of John Paul II. For that, he was told that he, the four bishops and the co-consecrator Bishop de Castro Mayer, had all incurred an automatic excommunication.
Since then, two of the bishops have died – one of whom had already been expelled in 2012. That’s Bishop Richard Williamson, by the way.
So right now, they have two bishops taking care of confirmations for around 600,000 of the faithful worldwide – and ordinations in five seminaries worldwide. And they’ve got over 700 priests, over 200 seminarians and nearly 500 religious that need to be looked after too.
And those two bishops are getting older, and the grueling schedule is just too much.
Bishop Schneider, after his visitation of the SSPX, said the following to me:
But the amount of work is not the only factor.
Earlier in the year, Fr. Pagliarani spoke about this issue, explaining that the “state of necessity” – the crisis in the Church, that is – which justified the consecrations in 1988 was even more intense today.
At a conference in Germany, he described the acts of Francis’ pontificate as “epochal, catastrophic … and which remain.”
Fr. Pagliarani said he had followed up with a letter to Leo XIV explicitly expressing the need for more bishops. The response to that letter, the SSPX statement said, “does not in any way respond to our requests.”
And so the whole governing body of the SSPX agreed, after months of prayer, to proceed to episcopal consecrations in July of this year, seemingly without the Vatican’s mandate.
Whatever happens, this is going to be a big deal. If the Vatican gives its mandate, this will be taken as giving approval to the SSPX, and many will consider them to have bowed to pressure.
If they don’t, then many will say that the bishops involved will again incur an automatic excommunication. There was never any suggestion before that this extended to the priests of the SSPX, still less the faithful who attend their Masses – but it will be a massive stigma for many.
The Vatican will also be in a strange position because of its deals with the “Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association” – which is the organization under the control of the Chinese Communist Party. But faithful Catholics rejected this arrangement, and had to become part of the “Underground Church” in China. The Chinese government persecuted Catholics to a greater or lesser degree, but in particular the Catholic clergy and bishops.
For years, the CCP had been appointing bishops for its schismatic “church” without papal mandate. That’s why Pope Pius XII gave even more clarity on the requirement for a papal mandate and increased the penalties on consecrations done without it. That’s where the automatic excommunication came from.
But under Francis’ pontificate, the Vatican recognized seven of the CCP’s bishops. One of those bishops, Joseph Shen Bin, said that this communist church’s theology uses “core socialist values as guidance to provide a creative interpretation of theological classics.”
So if actual schismatics in favor of communism are allowed to consecrate whoever they like, how can the Vatican take a stand against the SSPX? It makes no sense.
And that’s to say nothing of the existing bishops that are rampant heretics.
As usual, it’s “weaponized orthodoxy” – using canon law and Catholic principles against those who want to be faithful to the Catholic religion, while giving a free pass to modernists, heretics, schismatics and LGBTQ-promoters.
The statement doesn’t give any indication of who is going to be consecrated, or how many bishops they are going to consecrate, saying that this will be released in the coming days.
But it does make clear that the purpose here is not just about seeking the survival of the SSPX: it’s about continuing the mission of the Catholic Church, and seeking the good of the whole Church.
And when you have a situation where Leo XIV’s Vatican is trashing Catholic doctrine on Our Lady, talking about changing dogma when attitudes change, appointing homosexuals or LGBTQ allies to bishoprics throughout the world, and openly supporting the left-wing agenda on the climate and everything else… it’s hard to disagree.
For LifeSiteNews and Sign of the Cross Media, I’m John-Henry Westen. Pray for the Church – and for the SSPX.
