The president of Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio), joined by other staff members and 23 professors, urged the Society of Saint Pius X not to consecrate bishops without a pontifical mandate, and to “re-enter into dialogue with the Holy See and into full communion with the Church.”
“The treasures of Catholic Tradition do not belong outside communion with Peter; they belong at the heart of the Church,” the signatories wrote. “A new episcopal ordination outside the ecclesial hierarchy without the Apostolic mandate would create a new wound in the Body of Christ and place the gifts that God has entrusted to the Society, which belong to the Church and are ordered towards unity with her, outside of her maternal embrace.”