The Saint Pius-X fraternity engages in standoff with Pope Leo XIV

Will Rome and Écône* get along? A meeting between Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, prefect of the dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, and the superiors of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX) is scheduled for February 12. Objective: to avoid a rupture, following the announcement ten days earlier by the community of its intention to ordain bishops on July 1, including without papal approval.

“Such an act would demonstrate a lack of communion with the pope and would result in latæ sentiæ, that is to say automatic, excommunication,” recalls Thibault Joubert, lecturer in canon law at the University of Strasbourg. If they were to take place, these new episcopal consecrations would therefore plunge the SSPX back into the situation of 1988: Mgr Marcel Lefebvre had then ordained four bishops without authorization.

The excommunications were finally lifted in 2009 by Benedict XVI. But the question of the canonical status of the Fraternity, which runs 184 “houses” in France and claims more than half a million faithful in 77 countries around the world, remained unresolved due to insoluble doctrinal disagreements.

If the SSPX is ready to cross the Rubicon again by taking this clearly schismatic act, it is because it finds itself in an “objective state of serious necessity”, she argues.

“The Brotherhood argues for an imperative need. However, the emergency is not immediate: it still has two bishops,” notes Yves Chiron, historian specializing in the traditionalist world. Relatively young, they can, in theory, continue to ordain priests according to the ancient rite in one of the five seminaries of the SSPX, and to celebrate the confirmations of the faithful.

The Vatican procrastinates

Surprised that the conflict took place “so soon after the election of Leo For the historian, this confrontation was inevitable: “Recent doctrinal developments – particularly towards people in homosexual couples, or divorced and remarried – have shown that Rome continues to interpret the Second Vatican Council in a sense opposite to that claimed by the SSPX. In response, she strengthened her resistance. »

The Superior of the Fraternity, Father Davide Pagliarani, recently described these same developments as “catastrophic decisions.” It is therefore difficult to imagine reintegrating into the Catholic Church this community which has always rejected the reforms which have been deeply anchored there since Vatican II, in particular on liturgical questions and religious freedom.

On the Vatican side, on the other hand, we are procrastinating. “Contacts are continuing, with the aim of avoiding disagreements or unilateral solutions,” assures the press office of the Holy See. But above all, confides a well-informed source, “July is still a long time away”. Way of saying that there is still time for discussions, depending on the path taken after the first meeting. Provided you have interlocutors who are really looking for dialogue.

*First FSSPX seminar, located in Swiss Valais.