rome —
Pope Leo XIV has made a final request to a rebel group of traditionalist Catholics planning to ordain bishops without papal approval, saying they would commit a “very grave sin” if they proceeded.
Just over a year after taking office, Leo faces the first major challenge of his pontificate from the Society of St. Pius X, a group that rejects reforms made by the Catholic Church in recent decades, including allowing Mass to be celebrated in languages other than Latin, and is scheduled to ordain four bishops on Wednesday at a seminary in Econe, Switzerland.
The pope told them the ordination would be a “divisive” act. If this were to be enforced, the new bishop would be excommunicated or formally excluded from the sacraments of the church.
“Please turn back!” the pope said in an 11th-hour letter to the association known as the SSPX. “I pray for you, for it is a grave sin to tear the seamless garment of Christ. May the Lord illuminate your conscience and awaken your heart.”
In Catholic teaching, the connection, or communion, between bishops and pope is the basis of the unity of the Church. Since Pope Leo was elected, he has focused on promoting church unity, and the association’s decision to proceed with the consecration of bishops without the pope’s consent would be considered a serious violation of canon law.
SSPX is active in the United States, with headquarters in Missouri and a seminary for training priests in Dillwyn, Virginia. One of the bishops scheduled to be ordained Wednesday is Father Michael Goldade, who heads the seminary.
The group was founded in Switzerland in 1970 by French prelate Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, but was formally suppressed five years later by the Bishop of Fribourg. In 1988, the group appointed four bishops without papal approval, leading to their excommunication.
At the heart of the split from the mainstream church was Lefebvre and his supporters’ opposition to the church reforms introduced by Vatican II in the 1960s.
“Lefebrists” do not accept the council’s teachings on religious freedom, ecumenism (teachings about other Christian denominations and religions), and reform of Catholic worship. One of the major reforms in the council was to condemn all forms of anti-Semitism.
Lefebvrists and others argue that bishops need to be appointed without approval because the Catholic Church is in a “state of emergency” due to what they see as the introduction of liberal and “modernist” ideas. The group believes that “the salvation of souls” should be a priority, and recently published a 28-page “Catholic Confession” to “enlighten souls in the face of the errors of our time.”
The SSPX has a membership of around 700 priests and 600,000 laity worldwide, a relatively small group compared to the Roman Catholic Church’s 1.4 billion members and approximately 400,000 priests, but the Pope takes the threat to unity seriously.
Cardinal Blaise Cupich of Chicago, a close ally of Leo, told CNN that the “danger” is “the establishment of parallel structures within the ecclesiastical bodies of the Church.”
He said the pope had issued multiple invitations to the association to reconsider its plans.
“They are a small group, but they are abusing the rituals of the church in ordaining bishops,” the cardinal said. “He (Leo) takes this issue very seriously and that’s why he has intervened so many times.”
Various popes have sought reconciliation with the group in recent decades, and in 2009 Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of four bishops appointed in 1988. However, one of the bishops, Richard Williamson, was later found to have falsely claimed that the Nazis did not use gas chambers during the Holocaust, and was later indicted and convicted in a German court. He was then ostracized from society.
Although the Pope has appealed to society not to proceed with the process of ordination of bishops, the group is steadily making preparations. The website details the four-day event centered around the ordination ceremony, including the offer of a CHF 75 souvenir box containing four bottles of wine.
In remarks to journalists on June 16, the pope said he was ready for dialogue but recognized the limitations given his impending ordination. “If they made that choice, it’s unfortunate, but we have to move forward,” he said.
