The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), whose members are known as “Lefebvrians,” rejected the recent excommunications decreed by the Vatican after consecrating four bishops without papal authorization on July 1 and asserted that the sanctions imposed are “objectively unjust and invalid.”
In a letter addressed to Pope Leo XIV, released on July 3, Father Davide Pagliarani, superior general of the SSPX, justified the episcopal consecrations that prompted the Vatican’s decree declaring the group to be in schism as “an extreme measure to save souls, amid the doctrinal and moral confusion in which the Church finds itself.”
“We in no way intend to replace the Church, and our sole purpose is to remain faithful to her,” wrote Pagliarani, who leads the group founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who died in 1991.
The group founded by Lefebvre aims to preserve the traditional liturgy as it existed prior to the reforms implemented after the Second Vatican Council while maintaining its opposition to aspects of the council’s teachings on ecumenism, religious freedom, and collegiality.
Lefebvre was excommunicated in 1988 after ordaining, without the permission of Pope John Paul II, four bishops: Alfonso de Galarreta of Spain, Bernard Fellay of Switzerland, Richard Williamson of England, and Bernard Tissier de Mallerais of France.
Amid attempts to build bridges of dialogue with the SSPX, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications in 2009 against the four bishops consecrated by Lefebvre.
Tissier de Mallerais and Williamson died in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Galarreta and Fellay, on the other hand, participated in the recent consecration of four new bishops on July 1, for which they were excommunicated once again.
2 Comments
airrow@hilariouschaos.com · 1 pts · 25d
imo this drama was set up intentionally, the SSPX is controlled opposition and kind of "fake resistance" to Vatican 2
reposting a comment of sorts:
SSPX imo is set up as false opposition (like Vigano)
The Vatican represents a false Catholicism currently [the Vatican 2 modernism]
The SSPX takes a halfway measure into a "schismatic no man's land", where they recognize the Vatican as Catholic and openly disobey the Vatican [usually a Catholic would either recognize and obey, or not recognize and "resist" - SSPX picks a middle contradictory position in our view]
If one by obeying the Vatican is led towards an "anti-Catholic way of life", then it seems our logical conclusion is "sedevacantism", or that the Vatican is not to be considered as Catholic or to be obeyed
Recap again:
Vatican leads people into an anti-Catholic modernism
SSPX leads people into an anti-Catholic "schismatic resistance to the Vatican"
I think the correct Catholic response to these therefore must be something else then (like "sedevacantism")
isekaihero@ani.social · 1 pts · 25d
The true resistance has always been Protestantism. There are like a billion denominations not under the authority of the Vatican. Pick any of them you like. This whole 5th column conspiracy only makes sense if there are no Protestants in the world. But since there is already an abundance of them, there's no point for the Vatican to try and engineer this.