VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV is facing his first major crisis with traditionalist Catholics, after a breakaway group attached to the traditional Latin Mass announced plans to consecrate new bishops without papal consent in a threatened revival of schism.
The Swiss-based Society of St. Pius X, which has schools, chapels and seminaries around the world, has been a thorn in the side of the Holy See for four decades, opposed to the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council.
In 1988, the group’s founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without papal consent, arguing that it was necessary for the survival of the church’s tradition. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four other bishops, and the group today still has no legal status in the Catholic Church.
But in the decades since that original break with Rome, the group has continued to grow, with branches of priests, nuns and lay Catholics who are attached to the pre-Vatican II traditional Latin Mass.
For the Vatican, papal consent for the consecration of bishops is a fundamental doctrine, guaranteeing the lineage of apostolic succession from the time of Christ’s original apostles. As a result, the consecration of bishops without papal consent is considered a grave threat to church unity and a cause of schism, since bishops can ordain new priests. Under church law, a consecration without papal consent incurs an automatic excommunication for the person who celebrates it and the purported new bishop.
The Vatican had tried for years to reconcile with the SSPX, as the group is known, fearing the growth of a parallel church. Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 lifted the excommunications of the surviving bishops and relaxed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass in a gesture of outreach to all Catholics still attached to the old rite.
But an uproar ensued after one of the SSPX bishops, Richard Williamson, publicly denied in a television interview that Jews were killed in gas chambers during World War II.
In the ensuing years and especially during the pontificate of Pope Francis, tensions with traditionalist Catholics only deepened. Francis reversed Benedict’s reform that allowed greater celebration of the old Latin Mass, arguing it had become a source of division in the church.
Leo has acknowledged the tensions and sought to pacify the debate, expressing an openness to dialogue and allowing exceptions to Francis’ crackdown.
But the SSPX said in a statement Monday that it had no choice but to proceed with the consecrations of new bishops July 1, to preserve the future of the society.
The Rev. Davide Pagliarani, the SSPX superior general, said he had written to Leo explaining the need for new bishops “to ensure the continuation of the ministry of its bishops, who have been travelling the world for nearly forty years to respond to the many faithful attached to the tradition of the church.”
The SSPX said that he had received a reply from the Vatican “which does not in any way respond to our requests,” and was preparing to proceed with the planned consecrations given the “objective state of grave necessity in which souls find themselves.”
The Vatican spokesman, Matto Bruni, suggested Tuesday that the Vatican was still open to negotiations.
“Contacts between the Society of Saint Pius X and the Holy See continue, with the aim of avoiding rifts or unilateral solutions to the issues that have arisen,” Bruni said in a statement.
The old Latin Mass features readings and hymns in Latin with the priest facing the altar, his back to the faithful in the pews. Vatican II allowed instead for Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular, with the priest facing the pews and a more active participation of the faithful. Aficionados of the ancient rite say it is a more prayerful and reverent form of worship.
Winfield writes for the Associated Press.
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