VATICAN CITY (RNS) — A breakaway traditionalist Catholic group, the Society of St. Pius X, is defying Vatican orders by proceeding with its plan to ordain new bishops without papal consent on Wednesday (July 1) during a ceremony in Écône, Switzerland.
After repeated warnings that the episcopal consecrations would constitute a schismatic act and trigger automatic excommunication, Pope Leo XIV issued an open letter asking the group to desist.
“I implore you and ask you with all my heart: Turn back!” the pope wrote in a letter addressed to the superior general of the society, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, dated June 29.
The showdown could mark the end of nearly two decades of Vatican efforts to draw the SSPX back from the margins of Catholic life, where the society has remained staunchly opposed to Vatican II reforms, to synodality and to ecumenism. By moving ahead with new bishops despite Vatican warnings, the SSPX may force Leo to close that ambiguous chapter.
In his letter, Leo recognized the positive aspects of SSPX and its members, which he said justified the “benevolence” of his predecessors, and underlined the church’s intention to be open to “dialogue and understanding.” But he also warned that threatening the unity of the church “is a sin of extreme gravity,” adding that he feels “the duty to ask you to desist from your intention.”
In a response letter published on the society’s website, Pagliarani asked the pope to “consider the authenticity of this intention before making a decision concerning the …
