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Posted on 02/19/2026 6:54:48 AM PST by ebb tide
The SSPX episcopal consecrations will go forward as planned.
Today, February 19, Father Davide Pagliarani, the Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), published a communique, as well as a letter to Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández – and several annexes – to announce that the SSPX has decided to go ahead with the episcopal consecrations on July 1.
After the SSPX first made known on February 2 its intention to consecrate more bishops, Fernández, the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) met with Pagliarani on February 12, insisting that he should halt these consecrations and first enter into a theological dialogue with the Vatican.
In response to Fernańdez’s proposal for dialogue, Pagliarani wrote, “[W]hile I certainly rejoice at a new opening of dialogue and the positive response to my proposal of 2019, I cannot accept the perspective and objectives in the name of which the Dicastery offers to resume dialogue in the present situation, nor indeed the postponement of the date of 1 July [for the episcopal consecrations].”
On February 2, the head of the SSPX argued for the consecrations on the grounds of a “state of grave necessity”: “After having long matured his reflection in prayer, and having received from the Holy See, in recent days, a letter which does not in any way respond to our requests, Father Pagliarani, in harmony with the unanimous advice of his Council, judges that the objective state of grave necessity in which souls find themselves requires such a decision,” the official statement reads.
In his now-published February 18 response to Fernández, Pagliarani welcomes such a theological dialogue and reveals for the first time that he had “proposed it exactly seven years ago,” in January of 2019, to the Vatican. Pagliarani had been elected into his office as superior general of the SSPX in July of 2018. As he now states in his letter to the head of the DDF, “the Dicastery did not truly express interest in such a discussion, on the grounds – presented orally – that a doctrinal agreement between the Holy See and the Society of Saint Pius X was impossible.”
That is to say, Pagliarani himself had offered to start such a doctrinal discussion with the Vatican in 2019, which was then rejected by officials in Rome. He goes on to explain to Fernández in his letter that the SSPX “always” welcomes a doctrinal discussion, calling it “desirable and useful.”
While in 2019 such a discussion could have taken place “during a calm and peaceful time, without the pressure or threat of possible excommunication, which would have undermined free dialogue,” Pagliarani points out that “unfortunately” this is now not the case.
And indeed, in a February 12 statement after the meeting with Pagliarani, Fernández had warned that, should the Society go ahead with the episcopal consecrations without approval from Rome, these consecrations would “constitute a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism), with serious consequences for the Fraternity [of St. Pius X] as a whole.” He thus not only threatened the soon-to-be bishops with canonical penalties, but also all the members of the SSPX.
Pagliarani, in his Ash Wednesday letter to Fernández, makes it clear that a true doctrinal (and liturgical) understanding between the SSPX and the Vatican prefect is at this point in history “impossible,” especially “since – as you yourself have recalled with frankness – the texts of the Council cannot be corrected, nor can the legitimacy of the liturgical reform be challenged.”
Yet, for the SSPX, the “rupture with the Tradition of the Church” since the Second Vatican Council poses a problem based on a “genuine case of conscience.” The new orientation in the Church, as Pagliarani lays it out, has been implemented in these last 60 years, not least in Pope Francis’ post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia admitting the divorced and “remarried” to Holy Communion, and his motu proprio Traditionis Custodes suppressing the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass.
In a 5 February interview with Pagliarani published by the SSPX on their website, the priest laid out in detail the Society’s numerous theological and liturgical objections to the current state of affairs in the Catholic Church. He explained that he had written two letters to Pope Leo XIV before publishing his decision to go ahead with the episcopal consecrations in the summer. The first letter had remained unanswered, while the second letter was answered by Fernández without taking into “account whatsoever of the proposal we put forward, and offers nothing that responds to our requests.”
In response to the accusations of schism and rupture of communion with the Catholic Church, the SSPX, as Pagliarani and his co-signers write in their letter to Fernandez, “defends itself against any accusation of schism and, relying on all traditional theology and the Church’s constant teaching, maintains that an episcopal consecration not authorised by the Holy See does not constitute a rupture of communion – provided it is not accompanied by schismatic intent or the conferral of jurisdiction.”
They also state that a dialogue has to be based on what the Church always has taught, which cannot be discerned “through dialogue,” nor can anything be “re-evaluated today so as not to correspond to what the Tradition of the Church has always taught – and which we desire to observe faithfully in our place.” Here, the letter also points out that there have been periods of time, such as between 2009 and 2011, when serious attempts at a theological debate between the SSPX and Rome were made, but which ended with the insistence that the SSPX needed to accept certain conditions, “including the entire [Second Vatican] Council and the post-Conciliar period.”
Finally, the letter expresses a plea to the cardinal to simply allow the SSPX continue its work as has been acknowledged by Pope Francis and his predecessors. The letter states:
As a cardinal and bishop, you are above all a pastor: allow me to address you in this capacity. The Society is an objective reality: it exists. That is why, over the years, the Sovereign Pontiffs have taken note of this existence and, through concrete and significant acts, have recognised the value of the good it can accomplish, despite its canonical situation. That is also why we are speaking today. This same Society asks you only to be allowed to continue to do this same good for the souls to whom it administers the holy Sacraments. It asks nothing else of you – no privileges, nor even canonical regularisation, which, in the current state of affairs, is impracticable due to doctrinal divergences. The Society cannot abandon souls. The need for the sacraments is a concrete, short-term need for the survival of Tradition, in service to the Holy Catholic Church.
In the Society’s attempt at entering into a serious dialogue with the Vatican regarding serious matters of faith and morals amid our current Church crisis, Pagliarani had proposed, in 2019, a discussion about the following important matters:
1. The ecclesiological foundations of ecumenism; 2. The practice of ecumenism by the hierarchy of the Church; 3. The foundations and goals of interreligious dialogue; 4. The salvation of the Jews according to the current Magisterium; 5. The new conception of the priesthood: its theological foundations and its liturgical consequences; 6. The Petrine ministry in the light of Apostolos Suos, Ut Unum Sint, and the other teachings of John Paul II; 7. Synodality in the framework of the current Magisterium; 8. The current doctrine on conjugal morality; 9. The primacy and role of conscience in the Conciliar and post-Conciliar Magisterium.
These topics are all of great importance and should be seriously discussed and re-assessed by the Church’s hierarchy. But is there a chance that this is possible today?
Under Pope Leo XIV, the Synod on Synodality continues in full swing, with its movements altering the Church’s hierarchy toward a democratic system and of loosening the Church’s teachings on sexual morality; the Pope has kept most of Francis’ appointments, including the highly controversial Cardinal Fernández himself who is the author of several scandalous books on sexual matters.
At the recent Consistory of Cardinals, Pope Leo invited Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, O.P., to address the College of Cardinals; this cardinal is known for his support of female ordination and the LGBT movement. The blessing of homosexual couples, as laid down in Fiducia Supplicans, has been kept by this new Pope, as well.
On top of it all, the Pope has himself endorsed Fernández’s November 2025 doctrinal note directly attacking the traditional titles of Our Lady as “Co-Redemptrix” and “Mediatrix of all Graces.” The latest scandal coming out of Rome these days is that Pope Leo has approved the beatification process for Monsignor Alejandro Labaka, a bishop who himself once described how he lay naked with indigenous youth – and worse. Meanwhile, the suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass continues.
Pagliarani concludes his communique with the following words: “The Superior General entrusts this situation to the prayers of the members of the Society and all the faithful. He asks that the Rosary, as well as the sacrifices of Lent, which is beginning, be offered especially for the Holy Father, for the good of the Holy Church, and to prepare souls worthily for the ceremony of 1 July.”
Bishop Joseph Strickland has recently come out with two statements in full support of the Society’s intention to consecrate more bishops, first pointing to the “salvation of souls” as the “supreme law of the Church.” He writes:
As the generation of bishops who first bore this responsibility [of preserving Tradition and ordaining traditional Catholic priests] has largely passed from the scene, the Society has repeatedly raised a concrete concern: without new bishops, the continuity of that priestly formation and sacramental life cannot be sustained. This is not a request for novelty, power, or exception. It is a question of whether something preserved at great cost for the good of the Church will now be allowed to disappear through inaction.
Later, on February 7, Strickland came out even stronger, declaring a “state of emergency” in the Church:
The Church is in an emergency. Not an emergency invented by commentators, not a mood manufactured by social media, not hysteria. A real emergency – measured not in feelings, but in facts. An emergency measured by silence where there must be answers. In tolerance where there must be correction. In shepherds who refuse to name wolves, while those who simply want to guard the flock are treated as a problem.
The retired bishop who was canceled by Pope Francis then goes on to strongly defend the SSPX’s decision to consecrate more bishops:
This is not about one group. It is not about one society. It is not about one bishop, or one letter, or one unanswered request. It is about a pattern – a pattern where orthodoxy is treated as dangerous, tradition is treated as suspect, and fidelity is portrayed as rigidity while error is praised as pastoral sensitivity.
It is about a moment when the things the Church once defended without apology must now justify their existence. When the preservation of the priesthood is treated as optional. When the formation of priests is obstructed. When the ordinary means of apostolic continuity are quietly denied.
Furthermore, Strickland makes it clear that we are facing a situation in the Church where heresy is promoted and Tradition suppressed. Speaking about the SSPX, he explains:
They are not asking for novelty. They are not asking for power. They are asking for bishops – because without bishops there are no priests, and without priests there are no sacraments, and without sacraments the Church does not survive in any meaningful way. They asked. They waited. They received no answer that addressed the reality. And I will say this plainly: when heresy is tolerated but Tradition is strangled, something has gone terribly wrong. When those who break with doctrine are welcomed, and those who cling to doctrine are treated as suspect, authority has turned against its own purpose.
On February 18, the head of the U.S. District of the SSPX, Father John Fullerton, similarly to Fr. Pagliarani called upon the faithful attending SSPX chapels to accompany these coming months leading up to the consecrations with prayers and sacrifices, especially during this season of Lent. He writes:
These are certainly difficult times, and our sadness at the crisis enveloping the Church is not to be mistaken for a kind of triumphalism. Instead, I insist that now, more than ever, we have recourse to prayer. This is why I am asking you, dear faithful, to join me and the Society’s clergy in a special prayer crusade beginning on Ash Wednesday and continuing through the episcopal consecrations. In addition to asking you to remember this holy act in your prayers at Holy Mass, I especially encourage you to pray the daily Rosary and to make your own sacrifices on for occasion [sic].
Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, a liturgical expert and prolific book author, pointed out the importance of the recent Vatican attacks on Our Lady as “Co-Redemptrix” and “Mediatrix of all Graces” as a reason for the SSPX’s decision to consecrate more bishops. He wrote on X soon after the news broke at the beginning of February and while referencing a beautiful homily of the Superior General of the SSPX on the important role of Our Lady:
Fr. Pagliarani’s homily today shows how much this decision to move ahead with consecrations was determined by the attack in “Mater Populi Fidelis” on Our Lady’s privileges, in particular her being the Co-Redemptrix. In my opinion, the commentariat had not paid sufficient attention to what the SSPX has already published in this regard; I believe that document was the decisive “nudge” that pushed the decision from potency to act. You can pooh-pooh that, if you really want to, and try to downplay Tucho’s [Cardinal Fernández’s] text; but I defy you to read the homily and not to see the depth of Marian devotion behind it, as well as the anguish of a son whose mother has been subjected to public disgrace.
LifeSiteNews reached out to a diocesan priest in the U.S. who celebrates both the Traditional Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo Mass. He commented on these consecrations as follows: “Before, Servant of God Father John Hardon, S.J., said that the Church had never been in such difficult times as at present. What would he say now? In these unprecedented times of threats to the very foundations of our Catholic faith, extreme measures must be taken.”
Finally, as of February 18, news broke that the much-respected Bishop Athanasius Schneider came to the defense of the SSPX: he challenged in an interview with Dr. Robert Moynihan the claim of Cardinal Fernández that one cannot modify statements of the Second Vatican Council, arguing that this surely is not the case. He continued by saying, according to Britain’s Catholic Herald: “We must honestly examine the evident, undeniable ambiguity of some expressions of the [Second Vatican] council.” Therefore, Fernández’s words here are “completely wrong.”
“Like other Ecumenical Councils, pastoral statements can be changed,” Schneider stated, adding: “So I hope that the issue with the Society of Pius X is helpful for the entire Church to give them the possibility, really, honestly, charitably, pastorally, synodally to give their contribution to clarify, to improve, to correct the ambiguity and this will be a service for us all.” Finally, Schneider also regretted this “harsh” and “uncompromising and imprudent” behavior of the Holy See” toward the SSPX.
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Ping
Thanks for posting.
[O]ur wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and power, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.
This is a Catholic Caucus thread. You are not Catholic are you?
And for your information, I was brought up Presbyterian, have read the Bible through many times, and converted because the Catholic interpretation of various Scripture verses is the only one that made sense.
This is a Catholic Caucus, sir.
Anti-Catholic posts not permitted. Read the rules.
“The latest scandal coming out of Rome these days is that Pope Leo has approved the beatification process for Monsignor Alejandro Labaka, a bishop who himself once described how he lay naked with indigenous youth – and worse. Meanwhile, the suppression of the Traditional Latin Mass continues.” Maybe Labaka should be excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
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