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Condemnation of SSPX consecrations uses the reasoning of the PhariseesLike the Pharisees, SSPX critics painstakingly uphold procedural law at the expense of the law’s underlying purpose, the salvation of souls.The condemnation of the SSPX consecrations is a Pharisaical error. This point might be inflammatory, but I want to make clear that I think most practicing Catholics who condemn the consecrations love Christ and totally desire to uphold the faith. I am not saying that they, as people, are like the Pharisees, only that their position unwittingly endorses the kind of reasoning used by the Pharisees. One of the clearest recurring...

Suicide is Canonized, Another Latin Mass is Banned, and an Openly “Gay” Priest Gives Lectures on “Living Queer.” Meanwhile the SSPX is in “Schism.”A suicide memorial, Lutheran worship in a Catholic sanctuary, a suppressed Latin Mass, and the boundaries of Leo XIV’s open-door ChurchChicago’s Pastoral CanonizationOn June 26, the Archdiocese of Chicago dedicated a memorial called At Peace near the main entrance of Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. The memorial offers families affected by suicide a place for prayer, remembrance, and mourning. Bishop Lawrence Sullivan described it as a visible sign that grieving families remain within God’s loving...

The SSPX Appeals to Rome: Will Pope Leo XIV Practice the Synodality He Preaches?The Society of St. Pius X has formally appealed Rome's excommunication decree, setting up one of the most consequential canonical disputes in decades. Attorney Robert Morrison examines why this legal challenge places Pope Leo XIV's own teachings on ecumenism, religious liberty, and synodality under unprecedented scrutiny—and why the Vatican's response may shape the future of the traditional Catholic movement.On July 13, 2026, the General House of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) announced that it had submitted a preliminary recourse to the Dicastery of the Doctrine...

SSPX community in Charlotte acquires 26 acres for church expansion projectThe world-famous architect James McCrery will be designing a church complex for the SSPX community of Charlotte, North Carolina.SSPX community of St. Anthony's, Mount Holly, North Carolina“This milestone was achieved as the result of a 3-year search over a 3,000 square-mile search area that included analysis of more than 1,300 properties,” said Jim De Piante, project manager for the new St. Anthony’s church. “We hope this first step in our master plan to build a beautiful and spacious church complex on the property will ensure that the Catholic faithful will...

SSPX Excommunications & the Vatican’s Plan to Cancel CatholicismForty years after Archbishop Lefebvre's consecrations, history is repeating itself—but the stakes are even higher. Michael Matt was there in 1988, and he believes the Vatican's latest excommunications are only one front in a wider campaign against Catholic Tradition. Before another generation of faithful Catholics is divided, hear what he says.he SSPX consecrated four new bishops on July 1, 2026. The next day, the Vatican declared the bishops excommunicated, reviving one of the most painful conflicts in modern Catholic history.Michael Matt lived through the first SSPX consecrations in 1988. There is no...

Episcopal Consecrations: What Fr. Pagliarani Told the Members of the Society of Saint Pius XPreparing Hearts for the Episcopal ConsecrationsA Message to the Faithful and Friends of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius XDear faithful and friends,As we prepare for the episcopal consecrations, scheduled for 1 July in Écône, we wish, exceptionally, to make available to you an editorial that the Superior General addressed to the members of the Society on 7 March.This text does not revisit the question of the consecrations themselves, but is devoted to recalling the spirit in which they must be prepared for and lived: a...

Leo Winks at Divorce While His Bishops Support Gay Blessings and Women “Co-Presiding” at the Altar. Meanwhile, the SSPX is in “Schism.”The Camera Saw ItCardinal Timothy Radcliffe now wants the London event to shrink.According to the reports, he told AdVaticanum that he gave no blessing, had no prior awareness that blessings would be given, and that the Eucharist at Holy Apostles was private. He also rejected the interpretation that the Mass celebrated a homosexual relationship.The camera says otherwise.The event marked fifty years of “friendship, partnership, and commitment” between Julian Filochowski and Martin Pendergast. The church was full enough for about...

A systematic dissection of the Vatican’s legal framework reveals what independent canonists and traditionalists view as a deep-seated crisis of consistency within modern Catholic governance. When the theological and legal arguments used against the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) are laid bare alongside the treatment of the Eastern Orthodox amd protestants, the structural defense provided by Rome (that it is merely maintaining public order and guarding the sacred nature of the sacramental contract) it effectively implodes under the weight of its own internal contradictions. What remains is a system that appears to onlookers not as a defense of immutable...

The SSPX Excommunication Reveals the Synodal Church’s Final Break with Catholic TraditionIf the Synodal Church is the future Rome now demands, what becomes of immutable Catholic truth? The Vatican's punishment of the Society of St. Pius X marks something far more significant than a canonical dispute over bishops. It reveals a Church increasingly unwilling to tolerate Catholics who simply hold fast to what the Church always taught.In her recent Substack article, A Textbook Case of the Displacement of Judgment: The Diocese of Cubao on the SSPX, an author writing by the name of Katharia evaluated a pastoral letter from the...

Bishop who warns against going to SSPX Masses took part in interfaith Hanukkah ceremonyThe bishop of the Diocese of San Angelo, Texas, warned Catholics not to attend Masses offered by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) after the announcement of its bishops’ excommunications even though the San Angelo prelate has himself participated in an interfaith Hanukkah ceremony, an objectively immoral act.Bishop Michael J. Sis issued a letter on Monday reiterating the Vatican’s claim regarding the SSPX: that priests of the SSPX “unlawfully administer the sacraments” and that “the sacrament of penance administered by them and marriages witnessed by them...

Écône: A Sign of Contradiction? - by Côme de Prévigny Écône: A Sign of Contradiction?by Côme de Prévigny*It has been repeated with evident satisfaction over the past few days: "The matter is settled. The schism is consummated. There is nothing more to expect from the SSPX." Very well. Granted. We should have turned the page by now. And yet the file stubbornly refuses to close and continues to occupy a prominent place in the news.The extraordinary shockwave that has shaken social media and Catholic circles reveals, on the contrary, an affair far from resolved. Episcopal consecrations without a pontifical mandate...

“Physician, Heal Thyself”: Why this Diocesan Priest Rejects the Vatican’s SSPX ExcommunicationsThe debate over the SSPX excommunications has largely centered on obedience and canon law. But one diocesan priest believes everyone is asking the wrong question. In this powerful essay, he argues that excommunication exists to heal souls—not to silence Catholics defending Tradition—and asks whether those imposing penalties should first examine themselves in light of Canon 1364. Whether readers agree or disagree, this essay offers one of the most provocative priestly responses yet to the Vatican's action against the Society of St. Pius X. What is Excommunication Actually For?Excommunication exists...

After the SSPX Excommunication: Which Catholic Truths Does Cardinal Tucho Want Catholics to Deny?The Vatican has punished the SSPX—but for what, exactly? If Catholics may not "formally adhere" to the Society's doctrine, then the obvious question follows: Which doctrines? This analysis walks through the most controversial points of the SSPX's 154-point Profession of Faith and asks whether Rome is now condemning truths Catholics have always been required to believe.Our Catholic Faith does not permit us to compromise revealed truth—no matter who commands us to do so.Tweet this quoteUnsurprisingly, even the secular press has reported on the punishments issued by Cardinal...

Diocesan Priest Explains SSPX State of Necessity and Pope Leo’s Missed OpportunityIn this edition of Ask Father, a diocesan priest examines the SSPX's "state of necessity" argument, reflects on the wider crisis in the Church, and imagines the pastoral address Pope Leo XIV could have given to unite Catholics instead of deepening division. Dear Father, the situation in the Church has gotten even more confusing since the consecration of the four bishops by the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). The four new bishops and the bishops consecrating them have been declared excommunicated; it seems the SSPX priests have been...

Leo Praises Liberty While He Puts Écône in ChainsAs Leo praised freedom of worship, Rome branded the SSPX, threatened the faithful, and tolerated a conciliar world where sanctuaries become playgrounds and Christendom becomes a punchline.Liberty for Everyone Except TraditionOn July 3, Leo XIV accepted the Liberty Medal from the National Constitution Center and spoke like a man defending freedom of conscience.He praised the American founders’ appeal to nature and nature’s God. He spoke of human dignity as something that precedes the State. He described authentic freedom as the capacity to know the truth and adhere to the good, even at...

The SSPX Crisis is not an AbstractionI have tried to stay out of the tribal warfare surrounding the SSPX because I do not belong to anyone’s faction. I just want to be left alone to practice the orthodox Faith. I am a convert, but I am not an uninformed one. Before entering the Catholic Church, I studied Catholic theology, Church history, papal authority, canon law, Vatican II, Tradition, and the Magisterium. I read the Summa cover to cover. I have continued studying ever since. I understand why the consecration of bishops without a papal mandate is treated as an extraordinarily...

Wow! I'm Excommunicated By My Papa...or Am I?This photo says it all. My mom always said, "Birds of a feather flock together." So here we have the scandalous porn-writing head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith sharing an intimate moment with the pope, il papa, my daddy in the spiritual life. I'm heartbroken and shaking my head after reading the explanatory note from Fernandez. [Published at the end.]Will I stop going to the SSPX? No. My conscience tells me that in order to be in "full Communion" with Rome these days, I must accept those things I...

On Wednesday, the largest traditional Catholic order of priests in the world, the Society of Saint Pius X, consecrated four bishops without a papal mandate. The Vatican’s response was swift and brutal. Today, it announced that not only have the four new bishops and the two consecrators been excommunicated but, shockingly, so will all the priests and faithful who continue to adhere to the Society’s work – an edict that will likely affect more than a million Catholics worldwide. This comes across as startlingly harsh, especially as the penalty of excommunication for consecrating bishops without a mandate has only existed...

Letter to the Holy Father regarding the Decree of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the FaithThe Superior GeneralTo His HolinessPope Leo XIVEcône, 3 July 2026Among yourselves, if a father is asked by his son for bread, will he give him a stone? Or for a fish, will he give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he is asked for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? Why then, if you, evil as you are, know well enough how to give your children what is good for them, is not your Father much more ready to...