VATICAN CITY (RNS) — After an organization of traditionalist Catholic priests announced plans earlier this month to appoint new bishops without the approval of the pope, the Vatican’s doctrine department met with the head of the group on Thursday (Feb. 12) and later issued a statement warning against schism.
The appointment of bishops has long been a point of friction between the Vatican and the Society of St. Pius X, which was founded in 1970 by the conservative Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a conservative French prelate who objected to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. In 1988, the society consecrated four bishops without the approval of the Vatican, which then declared them automatically excommunicated. Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications in 2009, and dialogue has been ongoing with the Vatican since then.
Today, the society, with nearly 1,500 members, is not in full communion with the church, but its priests’ ability to hear confessions and conduct marriages was recognized in 2017. According to the society, its following is growing, particularly in France, where most of its members live. But of the society’s 264 seminarians, 84 hail from the United States.
In an interview posted on the SSPX website, the group’s superior general, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, …