Defying Pope Leo XIV and risking schism, traditionalists go ahead with Latin Mass consecrations

The consecrations amount to a major crisis for Leo, who has prioritized church unity and healing tensions with traditionalists that worsened during the Pope Francis pontificate.

The SSPX, as the society is known, is a threat to the Holy See since it represents a parallel, ultra-Catholic, pre-Vatican II church. It now has six bishops, 751 priests, 264 seminarians training in five seminaries, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates and 250 religious sisters representing 50 nationalities, according to SSPX statistics.

At the start of the Mass, a priest read aloud a statement justifying the consecrations as a necessary “sacred duty” and dismissing the resulting penalties. “We consider every punishment and censure brought to bear against this step will have no validity,” he said.

Midway through, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, who himself was consecrated without papal consent in 1988, placed his hands on the head of the four new bishops. The ritual laying of the hands confers the Holy Spirit from one bishop to another and recalls Christ’s gesture to his apostles.

According to church law, the mere act of consecrating a bishop without a papal mandate incurs the harshest penalty in the Catholic Church: automatic excommunication for the four new bishops and the bishop administering the rite. It also amounts to a schismatic act, or an intentional rupture of the unity of the Catholic Church.

A society founded in opposition to Vatican II

The French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre had founded the SSPX in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Among other things, the 1960s church meetings revolutionized the Catholic Church’s relations with other Christians, Jews and people of other faiths, and allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin.

In 1988, exactly 38 years ago Wednesday, Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal consent. The Vatican promptly excommunicated Lefebvre and the four bishops and declared the consecrations a “schismatic act.” Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 lifted the excommunications, but the SSPX today has no legal standing in the church.

The SSPX has accused the modern church of being rife with heresies and errors, including modernism, liberalism and ecumenism. The society insists that only the SSPX is upholding the true faith of Christ and has justified the consecrations, citing a “state of necessity” to minister to its faithful.

It identified the new bishops as Pascal Schreiber of Switzerland, Michael Goldade of the United States, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry of France and Marc Hanappier, also of France.

In his homily, SSPX superior the Rev. Davide Pagliarani defended the consecrations as necessary for the salvation of souls but also insisted they served Leo and the church.

“We are accused of not respecting the pope,” Pagliarani said. “But it is precisely because we love the pope as the vicar of Christ, as the head of the church, that we don’t want to see the pope humiliated anymore, on the side of false shepherds representing false religions.”

The Vatican didn’t immediately comment.

A rupture but a celebration nevertheless

And yet everything about Wednesday’s ceremony had the air of a joyous celebration, even though a downpour eventually doused the faithful in the field outside the tent. The website for its consecration has had a countdown clock running for days. Participants received a baseball cap with the “Econe2026” seal on it.

And in perhaps the most obvious sign of a celebration, registered participants were able to purchase a souvenir set of wine to commemorate the “historic” event. The 75 Swiss franc ($92.50) “Cuvee des Sacres” gift box features pinot noir, Syrah, Petit Arvine and Fendant, each bottle with a bishop-themed label: an image of a bishop’s pointed miter hat, his ring, cross or crozier staff.

The field, located under giant power lines, was awash in smiling nuns, priests posing for photos, Girl Scouts handing out water bottles, black-clad security guards with earpieces and orange-vested volunteer escorts keeping journalists on a short leash, occasionally cutting short interviews with faithful. Morning mist coated the nearby Rhone River that snakes through the Alpine valley as worshippers flocked in.

Arlina Onglao, a 71-year-old travel agent who trekked from her home in Manila, the Philippines, said she wanted to come to Econe for the “historic event” and didn’t care about the prospect of excommunications.

“For me, because the Vatican has lost — well, should I say this? — has lost credibility, I don’t think it’s going to scare any of us. Me, I’m not scared,” she said. “I feel like I’m on a safer road to heaven.”

Medical researcher Wulfran Lindzondzo, 42, a native of Gabon who today lives in France, said he wanted to “re-discover tradition” through the society, noting its presence in the African country.

“The Holy Father doesn’t really agree with it, but I hand over – I will pray to the Good Lord that the authorities in Rome can one day accept coming back to the church’s traditions,” he said before the Mass began.

Other traditionalists and conservatives oppose the consecrations

For the society itself, neither the threat of a declared schism nor an excommunication matters. “We don’t fear it. It pains us immensely, but we believe that the good we seek is greater than the pain that will be inflicted upon us,” said Marc-André Mabillard, SSPX media manager.

In a late response to Leo’s letter, the SSPX urged Leo to wait before declaring any penalty.

But many Catholics, including conservative and traditional ones, opposed the consecrations as an act of severe disobedience to the pope that hurts the church.

“You can’t serve tradition while disobeying the church and her authority,” said the Rev. Robert Gahl, an ethics expert at the Catholic University of America.

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Winfield contributed from Rome.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Jamey Keaten And Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

Defying Pope Leo XIV and risking schism, traditionalists go ahead with Latin Mass consecrations

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