Society of St. Pius X says it will consecrate bishops without papal mandate despite Vatican warning

The Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) says it will proceed with plans to consecrate new bishops on July 1 without a pontifical mandate, despite a Vatican warning that the move would represent a “decisive rupture” of communion and bring “grave consequences” for the group.

In a letter dated Feb. 18 — Ash Wednesday — Father Davide Pagliarani, the SSPX superior general, told Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, that the traditionalist group could not accept either the Vatican’s proposed framework for renewed dialogue or a delay of the announced consecration date.

The SSPX, which exclusively celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass, maintains doctrinal differences with certain teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council, particularly with regard to religious freedom and the Church’s approach to other faiths.

“I cannot accept the perspective and objectives in the name of which the dicastery offers to resume dialogue in the present situation, nor indeed the postponement of the date of 1 July,” Pagliarani wrote.

The Vatican’s doctrinal office had recently proposed what it described as a “specifically theological” path of dialogue aimed at identifying the minimum conditions for full communion with the Catholic Church but made the opening of that process contingent on suspending the planned July 1 consecrations. The Holy See warned that “the ordination of bishops without a mandate from the Holy Father” would “imply a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism)” with “grave consequences” for the fraternity as a whole.

Under canon law, a bishop who consecrates another bishop without a papal mandate and the person who receives that consecration incur automatic (“latae sententiae”) excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See, a penalty that was publicly declared in the SSPX’s 1988 rupture with Rome.

SSPX argues consecrations would not be ‘schismatic’

Alongside Pagliarani’s letter, the SSPX circulated a doctrinal statement disputing the Vatican’s characterization of unauthorized consecrations as necessarily schismatic.

“The society defends itself against any accusation of schism and, relying on all traditional theology and the Church’s constant teaching, maintains that an episcopal consecration not authorized by the Holy See does not constitute a rupture of communion — provided it is not accompanied by schismatic intent or the conferral of jurisdiction,” the SSPX statement said.

In that statement, the society argued that schism consists in assuming jurisdiction independently of the pope’s will and insisted that bishops consecrated as SSPX auxiliaries would “assume no jurisdiction against the will of the pope and will in no way be schismatic.”

‘A genuine case of conscience’

In his letter, Pagliarani said the current context — marked by public warnings about sanctions — undermines the serenity he believes is required for meaningful dialogue.

He wrote that the SSPX and the Holy See “both know in advance” they cannot reach doctrinal agreement “particularly regarding the fundamental orientations adopted since the Second Vatican Council,” describing the disagreement as “a genuine case of conscience” rooted, in the SSPX’s view, in a “rupture with the tradition of the Church.”

Pagliarani also questioned the feasibility of a process intended to determine together “the minimum requirements for full communion,” arguing that such criteria are the Church’s to define and not something to be established jointly in dialogue.

The letter, published by the society, was signed by members of its general council, including bishops Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay.

A conflict stretching back to 1988

The Vatican warning revives memories of the 1988 crisis, when Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without a pontifical mandate in defiance of Pope John Paul II. The Holy See declared the bishops excommunicated at the time; Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the surviving bishops in 2009 as a gesture toward reconciliation.

In subsequent years, Pope Francis granted SSPX priests faculties to hear confessions validly and to witness marriages under certain conditions, while the society’s canonical status has remained irregular and short of full recognition in the Church.

The SSPX announced Feb. 2 that it intended to consecrate new bishops on July 1, a date that coincides with the anniversary of the 1988 decree declaring Lefebvre’s excommunication.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.