ROME (AP) — A breakaway Catholic traditionalist group on Thursday rejected the Vatican’s offer of talks, suggesting a collision course with Pope Leo XIV over its planned consecrations of new bishops without his consent.
In a letter to the Vatican’s doctrine chief, the Society of St. Pius X said the Holy See’s threat of sanctions and schism if it goes ahead with the July 1 ceremony “is hardly compatible with a genuine desire for fraternal exchanges and constructive dialogue.”
The SSPX, as the group is known, celebrates the old Latin Mass and was created in opposition to the Second Vatican Council, the 1960s meetings that modernized the Catholic Church and allowed for the celebration of Mass in the vernacular.
The SSPX broke with Rome in 1988, after its 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 church.
In the decades since that original schismatic act with Rome, the group has continued to grow, with schools, seminaries and parishes around the world. It counts 733 priests, 264 seminarians, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates and 250 religious sisters — a Catholic reality that poses a real threat to the Vatican because it represents a parallel church.
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Earlier this month, the SSPX announced it planned to consecrate four new bishops July 1, since there are only two left from the original group. The SSPX said it needs the new bishops as a matter of survival to minister to the SSPX faithful, whose numbers have grown around the world.
The threat of a new consecration ceremony has created the first tangibl …