Vatican says SSPX faces excommunications for 'schismatic' bishop consecrations

The Vatican’s doctrine chief warned Wednesday that the plan of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to consecrate new bishops without papal mandate will represent a schismatic act resulting in excommunication.

“This act will constitute ‘a schismatic act,’ and ‘formal adherence to schism constitutes a grave offense against God and entails the excommunication established by the law of the Church,’” said Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The cardinal’s brief statement quoted from St. John Paul II’s letter Ecclesia Dei, which the late pope wrote shortly after the society’s unlawful ordination of four bishops conferred by SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in June 1988.

Fernández went on to say that the Holy Father "continues in his prayers to ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten the leaders of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X so that they may reconsider the very grave decision they have made.”

Under canon law, a bishop who consecrates another bishop without a papal mandate and the person who receives that consecration incur automatic excommunication.

The SSPX has declared it intends to proceed with illicit episcopal consecrations at its international seminary in Écône, Switzerland, on July 1, in defiance of the Vatican’s warnings of schism.

The decision to proceed with the consecrations without papal approval was confirmed in a Feb. 18 letter penned by SSPX superior general Father Davide Pagliarani a week after his Feb. 12 meeting with Fernández, during which the Vatican proposed a structured theological dialogue in order to avoid ecclesial rupture.

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.

Cardinals Gerhard Müller and Robert Sarah, prominent supporters of the Traditional Latin Mass, have spoken out against the SSPX’s decision to defy the Vatican. Cardinal Joseph Zen, the retired archbishop of Hong Kong, has also urged the traditionalist group to avoid schism “at all costs.”

The proposed July 1 date for the episcopal consecrations coincides with the anniversary of the 1988 excommunication of SSPX founder Lefebvre for consecrating four bishops without the permission of Rome.

The Society of St. Pius X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from EWTN News.