NOT HAPPENING: SSPX Rejects Vatican Order to Cancel Episcopal Consecrations

Formal response to ‘Cardinal’ Fernandez…

NOT HAPPENING:
SSPX Rejects Vatican Order to Cancel Episcopal Consecrations

The Lefebvrist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has given its formal response to the Vatican’s conditions for theological dialogue, outlined on Feb. 12, 2026, by the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Destruction of the Faith and Vatican expert on kissing, ‘Cardinal’ Victor Manuel Fernandez.

SSPX Superior General Fr. Davide Pagliarani sent his formal response to Fernandez on Feb. 18, and it was made public today along with three appended documents and a press release:

• Communiqué from the General House: the Society’s response to Rome (Feb. 19, 2026)
• Letter from Father Pagliarani to Cardinal Fernández (Feb. 19, 2026)
• Appendix I: Letter from Father Pagliarani to Bishop Pozzo (Jan. 17, 2019)
• Appendix II: Order and Jurisdiction: The Futility of the Schism Accusation (Feb. 19, 2026)
• Appendix III: Letter from Cardinal Müller to Bishop Fellay (June 6, 2017)

The letter was signed by all members of the Society’s General Council: Fr. Pagliarani, Bp. Alfonso de Galarreta, Fr. Christian Bouchacourt, Bp. Bernard Fellay, and Fr. Franz Schmidberger. (Fr. Schmidberger was the SSPX Superior General in 1988, when Abp. Marcel Lefebvre consecrated bishops in defiance of ‘Pope’ John Paul II.)

In short, the Lefebvrists’ answer is no, they do not accept the Vatican conditions for dialogue, which included the suspension of the episcopal consecrations scheduled for July 1, for the lawful conferral of which ‘Pope’ Leo XIV’s explicit mandate would be necessary. Without it, an excommunication will be incurred automatically by the very fact of administering the sacrament (see Canon 1387 of the Novus Ordo Canon Law).

Having received Fr. Pagliarani’s reply yesterday (presumably sent by email), Fernandez met with Leo XIV in audience this morning. The concrete next steps remain to be seen, although it is easy to predict what will happen shortly after the July 1 consecrations are carried out, namely: The Vatican will issue a declaration that the SSPX bishops — both the consecrators and those consecrated — have excommunicated themselves, and they will furthermore declare that the SSPX is now in schism from the Pope and the Church because by this act of defiance they have definitively ruptured communion. The SSPX leadership and its apologists will, in turn, dispute the charges and proclaim that none of these Vatican judgments are valid, and a group of clerics in the SSPX will probably send a polemical letter to the Vatican in which they rejoice having been declared out of communion with the false religion of Vatican II. We’ve seen it all before (in 1988, that is).

In any case, once the news of the Society’s response to the ‘Holy See’ broke, news reports and commentaries began to come in. Here is a selection from sundry different sources and perspectives:

• SSPX Defies Vatican Warning, Confirms July 1 Episcopal Ordinations (Diane Montagna)
• BREAKING: SSPX rejects Holy See’s dialogue and will proceed with consecrations (Michael Haynes)
• There will be SCHISM: SSPX says ‘no’ to the VATICAN’S proposal. Here’s why (Rome Reports)
• BREAKING: SSPX will consecrate bishops on July 1 despite Vatican ‘threat’ (Life Site)
• Traditionalist Catholic group doubles down on illicit consecrations, setting course for potential schism (National Catholic Reporter)
• SSPX Confirms Consecrations Scheduled for July 1 (One Peter Five)
• SSPX Says Yes to Dialogue, but Herd of Elephants Remains in the Room (Radical Fidelity)
• The SSPX: Could It Have Gone Any Other Way? (Where Peter Is)
• Why the SSPX will not be in schism on July 1, 2026 (The Remnant)

Fr. Pagliarani’s rejection of the Vatican’s demand that the scheduled consecrations be called off does not come as a surprise to those who have been paying careful attention to these matters. Although the SSPX is willing to dialogue with the Vatican and in fact requested this very thing back in 2019, albeit to no avail, the Lefebvrists will not have dialogue at any cost, and the condition that they refrain from ordaining more bishops is too high a price for them.

We predicted as much on Feb. 13 in TRADCAST EXPRESS 222. The SSPX is in too much of a bind to ensure its own survival, so to speak. It simply does not have the time to dialogue endlessly with the Neo-Modernist cabal in the Vatican, and the prospects of them coming to any kind of realistic long-term agreement are practically nil anyway.

A week ago we wrote on this blog:

From the Lefebvrist side, it seems clear that attempting to negotiate their way to getting bishops that would be acceptable both to them and the Unholy See, would be a fool’s errand. Do they really think that ‘Smoochie’ Fernandez will be able to ‘clarify’ doctrinal matters in such a way that traditionalists will no longer find them objectionable, without the Vatican repudiating any of its obvious errors? Has it really all been merely a matter of misunderstanding of things that only need to be ‘clarified’? And do they really think that reconciliation with Club Prevost will happen fast enough for them to be able to keep going with only two elderly bishops for the time being? Do they really think that Leo XIV — or his successor — will give a mandate for the consecration of candidates they will find acceptable every time? Let’s not kid ourselves.

(“Vatican Proposal to SSPX: Call Off the Bishops’ Consecrations and We’ll Talk!”, Feb. 12, 2026)

And so it was clear that if the SSPX values its own survival more than communion with the post-Catholic Vatican, then it would have no choice but to reject Fernandez’ demands. At the same time, since it styles itself a Catholic organization defending Tradition, the Lefebvrists must ask themselves how they could possibly consider the survival of their own Society a higher good than communion with (the man they recognize as) the Roman Pontiff, only the latter of which is necessary for salvation (see Pope Boniface VIII, Bull Unam Sanctam).

When the Jesuits were suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, they did not defy the Holy See and go into schism. They understood that communion with the Roman Pontiff was more important than the survival of their own religious order.

Not so with the Society of St. Pius X. In response to Rome’s (expected) declaration of schism, they will simply respond that there is no schism, no actual rupture of communion. Interestingly enough, in the 19th century the Armenian schismatics brought up more or less the same argument to Pope Pius IX, and they even claimed that the salvation of souls made it necessary for them to continue:

They argue that the sentence of schism and excommunication pronounced against them by the Archbishop of Tyana, the Apostolic Delegate in Constantinople, was unjust, and consequently void of strength and influence. They have claimed also that they are unable to accept the sentence because the faithful might desert to the heretics if deprived of their ministration. These novel arguments were wholly unknown and unheard of by the ancient Fathers of the Church.

(Pope Pius IX, Encyclical Quartus Supra, n. 10)

Since nobody can judge his own case, it is obviously not for the SSPX to say whether or not they are in schism. It is up to the Pope to rule authoritatively who is and is not in communion with him, and from his judgment there is no appeal.

This should be clear to the Society, since it is part of the very traditional Catholic teaching of which they claim to be among the last defenders: “Most men feel that the Church’s supreme head and shepherd should decide who are Catholics and who are not” (Pope Pius IX, Encyclical Quartus Supra, n. 15). And further: “The sentence of the apostolic see (than which there is no higher authority) is not subject to revision by anyone, nor may anyone lawfully pass judgment thereupon” (First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution Pastor Aeternus, n. 3).

Another foreseeable consequence of the SSPX decision to defy the Vatican will be a split of sorts within the semi-traditionalist recognize-and-resist movement. Those attached to the indult organizations such as the Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) and the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP), as well as those who have been working to get more diocesan Traditional Latin Masses offered, will bitterly denounce and oppose the SSPX for their decision. In this way they would be making clear that they are not disobedient nor schismatic like the Lefebvrists but are loyal to ‘Pope’ Leo XIV, perhaps in the hopes of gaining some favor with Leo, without whose gracious permission their Traditional Mass will be no more.

Dr. Joseph Shaw, chairman of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, made that very point in a recent interview: “We’ve waited patiently for Pope Leo to consider relaxing Latin Mass restrictions — the SSPX has now thrown a hand grenade into this”, he said. Clearly, Michael Matt’s call to “unite the clans” will suffer a severe setback, as more people will realize that when push comes to shove, pragmatism must yield to Catholic principle. If Leo XIV is Pope, then there is no need to “unite the clans” anyway because then they are united under Leo — except for those, of course, who are (or will be) out of communion with him.

Such as the Society of St. Pius X.

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License: fair use