Pope Leo has warned the Society of Saint Pius X against ordaining four new bishops at its seminary in Ecône on Wednesday, 1 July. In a letter to Rev Davide Pagliarani, he pleaded for the society to turn back before the ceremony that could trigger the church’s harshest penalties.
Leo called the planned ordinations a schismatic act and a sin of extreme gravity. He wrote that the move would deprive faithful Catholics of the licit and, in some cases, even valid reception of the sacraments.
Pagliarani receives papal plea
The letter was addressed to Pagliarani, the society’s superior general. Leo wrote: “I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!” He also said: “I urge you to consider carefully the spiritual good of the faithful, because the schismatic act you are about to undertake would deprive them of the licit and, in some cases, even valid reception of the sacraments, which they love and seek for their sanctification.”
Leo added: “I pray for you, because to tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity.”
Ecône, Kansas and the US
The Society of Saint Pius X was founded in Ecône in 1970 and has nearly 1,500 priests, seminarians and other vocational members. It also has a large operations base in Kansas and a significant following in the US, France and Argentina. The society rejects key reforms from the Second Vatican Council, including allowing mass to be celebrated in local languages.
The planned ordinations are not a routine internal step. Church law says such a move could provoke a schism and could lead to the automatic excommunication of the newly ordained bishops and the bishop who carries out the consecrations. Christopher White, an author and senior fellow at Georgetown University in Washington DC, said the consequences would be excommunication.
SSPX rejects a change in plans
Marc-André Mabillard said the Society of Saint Pius X was changing “absolutely nothing” in its plans. He also said the society felt “great sadness to not be understood by our leader,” and added, “We don’t fear it. It pains us immensely, but we believe that the good we seek is greater than the pain that will be inflicted upon us.”
The warning follows Leo’s earlier appeal not to proceed and his statement last week that if the society chose to continue “on the trajectory of schism,” then “I’m sorry, but we must move forward.” The 1 July ceremony now stands as the point at which the society’s decision becomes public in action, with the Vatican already on record that the step would carry severe sacramental and disciplinary consequences.
1988 and the Vatican line
The dispute also recalls 1988, when Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and four bishops he had ordained were involved in ordinations without Vatican approval. That history sits close to the present confrontation, because Leo has already framed the planned act as a rupture rather than an internal personnel matter.
