"PLEASE TURN BACK": HOW THE SOCIETY OF SAINT PIUS X DEFIED POPE LEO XIV, CONSECRATED FOUR BISHOPS WITHOUT PAPAL APPROVAL, AND REOPENED ONE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S MOST PAINFUL WOUNDS
The four-hour Mass began in sunlight, with the crowd forming a sea of white caps printed with "Écône 2026" that were distributed at the entrance. Though the Mass began in sunlight, clouds slowly gathered and darkened overhead as the ceremony reached its focal point. Screens showing the Mass flashed a warning: "Beware of imminent thunderstorm." As the host was consecrated, a torrential downpour fell on the crowd and muddied the hillside while thunder roared and lightning flashed across the sky.
You could not have scripted it. On the grounds of the Society of Saint Pius X's international seminary in Écône, in the Swiss Alps, on July 1, 2026, in a meadow that was the same patch of earth where an almost identical act of defiance had taken place 38 years earlier, the most significant rupture in the Catholic Church in a generation was formalised in weather that seemed to have opinions about what was happening. By the time the downpour subsided and the sun returned, four new bishops had been consecrated without the approval of Pope Leo XIV. The Church had already begun the process of responding. And a decades-long conflict between Rome and the traditionalist society that refuses to fully accept the reforms of the Second Vatican Council had crossed a threshold from which there may be no return.
The following day, July 2, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a decree of excommunication and an explanatory note, the day after the consecrations of four new SSPX bishops, despite a last-minute appeal from Pope Leo XIV and a final warning that proceeding would be an act of schism.
What the SSPX Is — and Why Rome and Écône Have Never Made PeaceThe SSPX was founded in the 1970s by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in response to the liturgical and theological reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council. The society sought to preserve the Traditional Latin Mass and what it regards as the historic teachings of the Catholic Church.
Although initially established with Vatican approval, relations with Rome steadily deteriorated as the SSPX rejected key aspects of the Council, particularly its teachings on religious liberty, interdenominational unity and episcopal collegiality — the principle that bishops collectively share responsibility for Church governance.
The conflict has always been, at its deepest level, about authority. The Second Vatican Council, convened by Pope John XXIII and concluded under Paul VI between 1962 and 1965, produced a sweeping set of reforms — to the Mass, to the Church's relationship with other Christian denominations and with other religions, to the understanding of the Church's own governance, and to its engagement with the modern world. For the vast majority of Catholic bishops and theologians, these reforms were legitimate exercises of the Church's teaching authority, binding on Catholics precisely because they had been issued through the proper channels of an ecumenical council confirmed by the pope. For Lefebvre and his followers, the reforms were not merely mistaken in their content but suspect in their very origin — the product of a Church leadership that had been, in the SSPX's view, contaminated by the theological liberalism of the modern era.
The current schism echoes events from nearly four decades ago. In 1988, Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal approval, resulting in automatic excommunication. Pope Benedict XVI lifted the personal excommunications of the surviving bishops in 2009 as part of an effort to foster reconciliation, but the society's canonical status remained unresolved.
Benedict's gesture of lifting those excommunications was the most significant olive branch the modern papacy had extended toward the SSPX, and it did produce a period of genuine dialogue. But the fundamental theological disagreement — about whether the Second Vatican Council's teachings were binding, whether the Novus Ordo Mass introduced after the Council was a valid expression of the Roman Rite, and whether the pope's authority extended to requiring compliance with those reforms — was never resolved. An explanatory note accompanying the July 2 decree states that "multiple attempts" to bring the Society back into full communion "have proved fruitless" and that the situation has "worsened" with the new consecrations — justifying the formal use of the word schism, which the Society itself rejects.
The Road to July 1: Five Months of Escalating ConfrontationThe consecrations of July 1, 2026 did not arrive without warning. The SSPX had been signalling its intention for months, and Rome had been responding with equal clarity about what the consequences would be.
The SSPX first announced that it planned to consecrate new bishops on February 2, 2026, arguing the step was a legitimate response to an "objective state of grave necessity." The SSPX rejected on February 18 a Vatican request to postpone the consecrations and engage in a structured theological dialogue on Vatican Council II.
On March 16, 2026, the SSPX's Italian District donated to the bishops of Italy a volume titled "Al servizio della Chiesa" ("At the service of the Church"), setting out the society's reasons for the planned episcopal consecrations.
On May 13, 2026, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández issued a statement on behalf of the Holy Office warning that the planned consecrations would constitute "a schismatic act" and that "formal adherence to schism constitutes a grave offense against God and entails the excommunication established by the law of the Church."
The SSPX repeatedly sought a face-to-face meeting with Pope Leo XIV ahead of the ceremony. It sent an open letter to the pope and the world's cardinals on the eve of a June 26-27 extraordinary consistory of the College of Cardinals in Rome. The letter was accompanied by a 154-point "Profession of Catholic Faith."
Pope Leo XIV issued a letter to SSPX superior general Fr. Davide Pagliarani on June 29, making a last-ditch personal appeal for the consecrations to be cancelled. The language of that letter has been widely quoted since it was released. "I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!" wrote Leo, the first-ever U.S.-born pontiff. He also described proceeding with the consecrations as what he called "a sin of extreme gravity," adding: "I pray for you, because to tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity. May the Lord enlighten your consciences and awaken your hearts."
The appeal was not heeded. On July 1, the Society proceeded as planned.
The Ceremony Itself: Defiance, Latin, and a Commemorative WineOrganizers said some 16,600 adults attended the outdoor Mass outside the St. Pius X seminary. Many attendees brought young children, who were not included in that count. Those gathered came from nearly 70 countries.
For the occasion, the SSPX even sold commemorative items, including an exclusive 75 Swiss franc box of wine — about $92.50 — called "Cuvée des Sacres," featuring pinot noir, syrah, petit arvine, and fendant, with each bottle decorated with the image of one of the consecrated bishops.
De Galarreta whispered the liturgical formulas into the microphone, strictly in Latin, with his back to the faithful present. At the point in the liturgy when the papal mandate would normally have been read, an assisting priest instead pronounced a statement justifying the consecrations. "From the Second Vatican Council to the present day, the authorities of the church have been animated by a spirit that is contrary to that of the faith and have been acting against holy tradition," the assisting priest said.
The four men ordained as bishops were identified specifically in subsequent Vatican documentation. The four new SSPX bishops were the French nationals Fr. Marc Hanappier, 36, and Fr. Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, 42, the U.S. citizen Fr. Michael Goldade, 46, and the Swiss national Fr. Pascal Schreiber, 53. The Spanish-born Argentine Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta was the principal consecrator and Swiss Bishop Bernard Fellay was the co-consecrator at the July 1 ceremony at the SSPX's headquarters.
Bernard Fellay's participation carries its own layered significance. He was among the four bishops consecrated by Lefebvre in 1988, was excommunicated, had his excommunication lifted by Benedict XVI in 2009, and has now been excommunicated again — the only bishop in modern Catholic history to have been excommunicated twice for the same category of canonical offence.
After receiving their miters, the new bishops walked through the crowd to give their blessing, holding out their gloved hands for the kneeling faithful to kiss their rings. By the Mass' close, the sun had returned. The newly consecrated bishops processed uphill to the seminary courtyard, where they were met with applause by SSPX priests.
SSPX's Own Justification: "State of Necessity" and a Rejection of the Pope's FramingFr. Davide Pagliarani, superior general of the SSPX, said in his homily at the consecration Mass that the pope's appeal presented a "false dilemma" between the society's vision of the faith and its adherence to the church. "No one can choose between faith and the church," he said. "We want the faith of the church in order to remain in the church, and we want the church within the faith, even if those opposed to us refuse to understand this."
Pagliarani read a text justifying the consecrations by appealing to an alleged "state of necessity," an argument also used in 1988, though the Holy See has repeatedly said it does not apply — especially after an explicit warning from the pope. In his remarks, Pagliarani made clear his doctrinal break, saying that "from the Second Vatican Council to our own day, the authorities of the Church have been imbued with a spirit contrary to the faith and have acted against holy tradition."
Before the rite of consecration, Pagliarani even defended the need to canonize Lefebvre. The movement's founder died in 1991 without public signs of repentance, a necessary condition for full reconciliation with Rome.
This is the SSPX's self-understanding in concentrated form: that the crisis in the Church is so profound, the departure from tradition so severe, and the failure of Church leadership so complete, that consecrating bishops without papal approval is not an act of disobedience but an act of fidelity. The Society genuinely believes it is preserving the Church's authentic teaching against the institution's own apostasy. Rome's response is that no claimed "state of necessity" can justify an act of disobedience that directly undermines the pope's authority — the very authority through which any claim of necessity would need to be adjudicated.
The Vatican's Response: Six Excommunicated, 750 Priests Declared in Schism, Sacraments InvalidatedThe Vatican's decree, signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández as head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and published on July 2, was comprehensive in its reach — going considerably further than simply naming six bishops as excommunicated.
The Vatican decree, published in Italian and signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and DDF officials, declared that Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, "having committed an act of a schismatic nature through the episcopal consecration of four priests, without pontifical mandate and against the will of the Supreme Pontiff, has incurred ipso facto the penalties provided for in canon 1387 and canon 1364 § 1 CIC 2021."
Bernard Fellay — excommunicated once before in 1988 alongside three other bishops consecrated by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, an excommunication lifted by Benedict XVI in 2009 — has now, having "participated directly in the liturgical celebration as co-consecrator, thereby publicly adhering to the schismatic act," incurred automatic excommunication once more.
The day after the consecration, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith formally decreed the excommunication of the two bishop-consecrators, the newly ordained four bishops, 750 priests, and all lay Catholics with formal adherence to the SSPX.
The Holy See also revoked the faculties previously granted to SSPX priests to validly celebrate the sacraments of confession and marriage, meaning those sacraments are no longer recognized as valid when administered by SSPX clergy. This is one of the most practically significant elements of the decree, because it removes the pastoral bridge that Pope Francis had carefully constructed in 2015 and 2017 — a bridge that had allowed many ordinary Catholics who attended SSPX Masses to receive valid absolution and marry validly through SSPX clergy, even while the Society's canonical status remained unresolved. That bridge is now gone.
The decree closes with a direct warning to the Society's broader membership: "Clerics and lay faithful are cautioned not to adhere to the schism of the Society of Saint Pius X, as they would incur ipso facto the penalty of excommunication latae sententiae."
The decree is careful on one specific point that canon lawyers have noted: in principle, the faithful who attended the ceremony did not automatically incur excommunication. Father Pierpaolo Dal Corso, an expert in penal and sacramental canon law, told ACI Prensa that such a penalty would apply only if they rejected the authority of the pope or the legitimacy of the Catholic Church. In 1996, the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts clarified that excommunication for schism does not automatically apply to those who attend SSPX celebrations.
What the Decree Does Not Do — and the Pastoral Question for 600,000 PeopleUnder canon law, excommunication latae sententiae takes effect automatically at the moment the act is performed. Rome's intervention was confirmatory, not punitive. The decree did not create the excommunications — it simply declared and confirmed what canon law had already determined at the moment the illicit consecrations took place.
Over the past five decades, the SSPX has grown into a global movement with an estimated 600,000 adherents. It operates seminaries, schools, retreat centers and hundreds of chapels worldwide. The decree's extension of schism status to the Society's 750 priests — and its warning to lay faithful — raises an immediate pastoral question about what happens to those 600,000 people. Many of them are devout, sincere Catholics whose primary connection to the Church runs through SSPX chapels, whose children were baptised by SSPX priests, who make their confessions to SSPX clergy, and who have organised their entire sacramental and liturgical lives around the Society's structures. They did not vote on July 1's consecrations. They were not consulted. And many of them will now be navigating a situation in which their regular priest is officially in schism and the sacramental life they have known is no longer recognised as fully valid by Rome.
Despite the sanctions, the Holy See said it continues to pray that members of the SSPX will eventually return to full communion with the Catholic Church.
The Vatican and Catholic commentators characterised the consecrations as a renewed act of schism comparable to 1988. Commentators noted that the six bishops involved were excommunicated under the same provision applied then. The AP noted that the ceremony took place exactly 38 years after the Vatican had declared the 1988 consecrations schismatic, and reported that the SSPX had continued to grow despite that earlier rupture.
That last observation is the one that perhaps matters most for the Church's long-term response to this crisis. In 1988, Lefebvre's consecrations were excommunicated, condemned as schismatic, and treated as a defining rupture. The SSPX survived, continued, and grew — to 600,000 adherents, 750 priests, hundreds of chapels worldwide. The instrument of excommunication did not dissolve the Society or persuade its members to return. Benedict XVI's subsequent lifting of those excommunications in 2009 represented a recognition that excommunication alone had not worked. Whether the July 2026 decree — broader, more explicit, and applied in a moment when the Society is considerably larger and more globally established than it was in 1988 — will produce a different outcome is a question that the history of this particular conflict gives little reason to answer with optimism.
A Major Test of Leo XIV's PontificatePope Leo XIV is not even two years into his pontificate and he is already facing one of the most delicate episodes of his ministry: a new rupture within the Church.
Leo XIV — born Robert Francis Prevost, the first American pope, elected in May 2025 — inherited a relationship with the SSPX that his three predecessors had all managed with varying degrees of severity and conciliation. His response to the July 1 consecrations has been marked by two apparently contradictory qualities: genuine personal pleading ("I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!") and doctrinal clarity about the consequences of not heeding that plea. The combination — a pastor's voice and a canonist's instrument — reflects the impossible position any pope occupies in dealing with a body that simultaneously claims to love the Church and refuses to accept the authority through which the Church speaks.
Breaking months of public silence on the looming rupture, Pope Leo XIV said in the days before the consecrations that the Church must "move on" if the SSPX followed through on its threat. That phrase — "move on" — is worth holding in mind as the Vatican determines what comes next. The decree is clear. The excommunications are in force. The sacramental faculties are revoked. What moving on means in practice, for 600,000 people and 750 priests, for the chapels and schools and retreat centres that the SSPX operates across dozens of countries, and for the long-run project of reconciliation that every pope since Paul VI has ultimately said they desire — is the question that will define the next chapter of this centuries-long conflict between tradition and reform within the Catholic Church.
Sources- CBS News — "Catholic Church says 6 bishops from ultra-conservative SSPX society excommunicated as decades-old feud reopens" (July 2, 2026) — cbsnews.com
- The Pillar Catholic — "Vatican confirms six SSPX bishops excommunicated" (July 2, 2026) — pillarcatholic.com
- EWTN News — "Pope Leo XIV pleads with SSPX to halt episcopal consecrations" (June 30, 2026) — ewtnnews.com
- Tribune Online — "Vatican excommunicates six SSPX bishops over unauthorised consecration" (July 2, 2026) — tribuneonlineng.com
- National Catholic Register — "SSPX Consecrates Bishops in Defiance of Rome's Schism Warning" (July 1–2, 2026) — ncregister.com
- EWTN News — "SSPX consecrates bishops in defiance of Rome's schism warning" (July 1, 2026) — ewtnnews.com
- America Magazine — "Vatican declares excommunicated SSPX bishops, warns priests and lay faithful of schism" (July 2, 2026) — americamagazine.org
- Aleteia — "Rome confirms excommunication of six SSPX bishops" (July 2, 2026) — aleteia.org
- National Catholic Reporter — "Defying pope and facing excommunication, SSPX consecrates bishops at huge outdoor Mass" (July 1, 2026) — ncronline.org
- Wikipedia — "2026 SSPX excommunication" (updated July 2, 2026) — en.wikipedia.org
- Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith — Decree of Excommunication and Explanatory Note, July 2, 2026 (cited across all above sources)