As one of the leading experts on Lefebvrism sees it, reconciliation is impossible as long as the Society of St. Pius X\u02bcs rejection of certain parts of the Second Vatican Council persists.<\/p>\n
The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) went from full communion with Rome to formal rupture in less than two decades, a break that has never been fully healed.<\/p>\n
On May 13, Cardinal V\u00edctor Manuel Fern\u00e1ndez, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, warned that the episcopal consecrations without a papal mandate \u2014 which the society has announced will take place July 1 \u2014 will constitute a schismatic act entailing automatic excommunication, the very same scenario the SSPX bishops experienced in 1988.<\/p>\n
The SSPX fraternity was founded in Switzerland as a priestly society of diocesan right by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and canonically erected in 1970 within the Diocese of Fribourg, with the approval of the Ordinary; that is, in full communion with Rome. The SSPX celebrates exclusively the Traditional Latin Mass and maintains doctrinal differences regarding certain teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council.<\/p>\n
The first cracks in the relationship with the Catholic Church emerged just four years after its founding. In 1974, following an apostolic visitation to the seminary he had established in the Swiss town of \u00c9c\u00f4ne, Lefebvre publicly expressed his rejection of various teachings of the Second Vatican Council, not only regarding liturgical matters but also concerning broader doctrinal issues.<\/p>\n
In a statement to ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News, Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, one of the leading international experts on Lefebvrism, the \u201ctruly insurmountable\u201d stumbling block for the Lefebvrists was the document Dignitatis Humanae. Promulgated in 1965, this document represented one of the most audacious theological and pastoral shifts of the Second Vatican Council, in which the Church affirmed the principle of religious freedom for the first time.<\/p>\n
Dispute over religious freedom<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to Lefebvre, only the Catholic Church should be guaranteed the right to religious freedom; other religions may, at most, be tolerated,\u201d summarized the sociologist, who also explains that this entails a rejection by the Lefebvrists of any openness toward ecumenical and interreligious dialogue.<\/p>\n
The core of the disagreement regarding Dignitatis Humanae was the subject of intense correspondence with the then-prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who held that position between 1981 and 2005 before being elected pope as Benedict XVI.<\/p>\n
In a letter titled \u201cLibert\u00e9 religieuse. R\u00e9ponse aux \u2018dubia\u2019 pr\u00e9sent\u00e9s par S.E. Mgr. Lefebvre,\u201d (Religious Freedom. Response to the \u2018dubia\u2019 presented by H.E. Archbishop Lefebvre) dated March 9, 1987 \u2014 one year prior to Lefebvre\u02bcs excommunication \u2014 Ratzinger attempted to persuade Lefebvre that there was no rupture regarding religious liberty between the Magisterium preceding the Second Vatican Council and Dignitatis Humanae, and that the concept could be upheld on theological and philosophical grounds that exclude relativism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have preserved the correspondence exchanged between the two, which reveals how, in the end, Cardinal Ratzinger concluded that Archbishop Lefebvre\u2019s positions were diverging from orthodoxy and from communion with Rome,\u201d Introvigne explained.<\/p>\n
Introvigne, who interviewed Lefebvre on several occasions before his death in 1991, noted a little-known fact: the archbishop participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council as superior general of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit and even signed all the conciliar documents.<\/p>\n
However, Lefebvre\u02bcs views became more radicalized after the council when he \u201cbegan to be concerned about what he considered to be progressive drifts within the Church \u2014 drifts which, in his view, were moving away from tradition,\u201d the expert explained.<\/p>\n
In that context, in 1970, he founded a seminary in Switzerland with the aim of offering a traditional priestly formation. \u201cGradually, throughout the 1970s, he also began to formulate responses that led him toward positions of rupture,\u201d Introvigne noted.<\/p>\n
These responses led, in 1975, to the canonical suppression of the fraternity by the bishop of Fribourg, a decision that Lefebvre challenged unsuccessfully.<\/p>\n
A year later, the situation escalated with his suspension ab ordinum collatione (from the conferring of orders) and, subsequently, a divinis, which prohibited him from performing any sacred act, including the celebration of Mass.<\/p>\n
Although these categories belong to the 1917 Code of Canon Law then in force, their legal effect today is unequivocal: Lefebvre was deprived of the lawful exercise of his ministry.<\/p>\n
Despite this, he continued to ordain priests, and the fraternity continued to expand its activities, \u201call under objective conditions of canonical illegality;\u201d that is, outside of ecclesial norms, as explained to ACI Prensa by professor of Roman Law, Father Pierpaolo Dal Corso.<\/p>\n
1988: Episcopal consecrations and schism<\/p>\n
The definitive breaking point occurred on June 30, 1988, when Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the required pontifical mandate, openly defying the authority of the Roman pontiff, John Paul II. According to Dal Corso, that act constituted \u201ca wound of extreme gravity to the hierarchical communion of the Church\u201d and had a clear schismatic dimension.<\/p>\n
In the face of this new and grave act of insubordination, the then-Congregation for Bishops declared the Society of St. Pius X to be schismatic on July 1, 1988.<\/p>\n
Dal Corso rejects the thesis of the supposed \u201cstate of necessity\u201d invoked by the fraternity to justify the consecrations of 1988. Although the Code of Canon Law recognizes this concept as an exempting or mitigating circumstance, the Vatican clarified in 1994 that it was not applicable in this case, given the pope\u2019s explicit warning and the extreme gravity of the act.<\/p>\n
\u201cA state of necessity cannot be used to legitimize opposition to the authority of the Successor of Peter, nor to cast doubt upon the infallibility of the pope and the indefectibility of the Church,\u201d Dal Corso said.<\/p>\n
The following day, John Paul II promulgated the motu proprio Ecclesia Dei, in which he affirmed that Lefebvre, the bishop who consecrated with him, and the four men consecrated as bishops had incurred latae sententiae (automatically upon the commission of the offense) excommunication in accordance with Canon 1364 of the 1983 Code for the crime of schism. <\/p>\n
Lefebvre died in 1991 without having shown public signs of repentance, an indispensable condition for an eventual canonical reconciliation. <\/p>\n
Gestures of rapprochement without full regularization<\/p>\n
In subsequent pontificates, there were significant attempts at rapprochement. <\/p>\n
In 2007, Benedict XVI promulgated the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which recognized the legitimacy of using the 1962 Missal, otherwise known as the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, an act which the fraternity highly values. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an important step toward rapprochement, as it legitimized from a merely liturgical standpoint celebrations according to the 1962 Missal of John XXIII; they never accepted the missal resulting from the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council,\u201d Dal Corso explained.<\/p>\n
Two years later, in 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunication incurred for the specific offense of episcopal ordination without a pontifical mandate.<\/p>\n
However, as Dal Corso emphasized, this remission \u201cdid not affect the excommunication for schism,\u201d which remained legally in force. The canonical status of the fraternity therefore remained irregular.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis took further pastoral steps, granting SSPX priests the faculty to hear confessions and granting diocesan bishops or other local ordinaries the authority to give SSPX priests the ability to celebrate licitly and validly the marriages of the faithful who follow the Society\u02bcs pastoral activity. These measures, however, did not entail full juridical regularization.<\/p>\n
Now, under the leadership of the Italian priest Davide Pagliarani, the fraternity has announced new episcopal consecrations for July 1, 2026, a date chosen with seemingly deliberate intent. \u201cIt is the very same day as the consecrations of 1988. Beyond being a provocation, it symbolically signifies a reaffirmation of that stance,\u201d the expert explained.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the prefect of the Vatican\u2019s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal V\u00edctor Manuel Fern\u00e1ndez, has reiterated that lacking the requisite pontifical mandate, should they take place, these episcopal ordinations will constitute a schismatic act.<\/p>\n
Introvigne said the current scenario brings the situation back to the one that existed before the papacy of Benedict XVI. As long as the doctrinal rejection of certain parts of the Second Vatican Council persists, he said, \u201creconciliation is impossible. The future, as the saying goes, is in the hands of God.\u201d <\/p>\n
Canonical status of the faithful<\/p>\n
Regarding the faithful who adhere to the SSPX, Dal Corso said that the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts clarified in 1996 that excommunication for schism does not automatically apply to those who attend or participate in worship celebrated by the SSPX.<\/p>\n
In this regard, Monsignor William King, JCD, professor of canon law at The Catholic University of America, told ACI Prensa that \u201cif a person attends a Mass celebrated by a priest in schism, that individual is not excommunicated, unless he attends that Mass deliberately because he does not accept the authority of the pope or the authenticity of the Catholic Church.\u201d That is to say, for formal schism, it is necessary that the person freely and consciously embrace the essential core of schism: the denial of the pope\u2019s authority, outwardly manifested.<\/p>\n
This story\u00a0was first published\u00a0by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.<\/p>\n