Vatican Scrambles To Prevent New Schism As SSPX Plans Rogue Bishop Consecrations

The Vatican will meet next week with the leader of a traditionalist group that announced plans to consecrate new bishops without papal approval — a move that risks deepening a decades-long schism.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández told The Pillar he plans “to try and find a fruitful path of dialogue” with Fr. Davide Pagliarani, superior general of the Society of St. Pius X, or SSPX. The fraternity announced its ordination plans Monday. (RELATED: Pope Calls For Unity On Controversial Policy As Latin Mass Remains Under Threat)

The SSPX exists in “imperfect communion” with Rome and exclusively celebrates the traditional Latin Mass while rejecting core teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council, according to the National Catholic Register.

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre founded the group in Switzerland and was excommunicated in 1988 after consecrating four bishops without Vatican approval. The organization has maintained an uneasy relationship with the Church even as its numbers have grown. Pope Benedict XVI lifted those excommunications in 2009, and Pope Francis later granted SSPX priests faculties to absolve sins and witness marriages, the outlet reported.

New priests and deacons pose for a picture after the ordination mass of the breakaway Traditionalist Catholic Roman Society of St Pius X in Econe, western Switzerland on June 29, 2009. (Photo credit FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

Pagliarani said he reached out to Pope Leo XIV in August seeking an audience but felt ignored. He decided to proceed with the consecrations after receiving what he called an inadequate response from the Holy See that “does not in any way respond to our requests.”

The SSPX represents the most extreme case of dissent over Vatican II, but the group isn’t isolated. Other traditionalist movements have embraced the Latin Mass and questioned the council’s reforms, even as Leo has moved to enforce its teachings more aggressively.

Two such groups — Una Voce International and the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales — issued a joint statement distancing themselves from the SSPX. While they share the goal of preserving the Church’s ancient liturgy, they “do not share the SSPX’s analysis of the crisis of the Church in all its details.”

Still, the groups warned that Rome’s hostility toward the Traditional Latin Mass creates conditions “in which the SSPX argument of a ‘state of emergency’ gains sympathy.” They urged church leaders to consider “these pastoral realities.”