ROME: The Vatican warned a breakaway traditionalist Catholic group on Thursday that it risked going into schism if it goes ahead with plans to consecrate new bishops without papal consent, setting a hard line against a big doctrinal challenge facing Pope Leo XIV.
Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernandez, head of the Vatican’s doctrine office, issued the warning during a meeting Thursday with the superior general of the Society of St. Pius X, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, the Vatican said. The meeting was scheduled after the Swiss-based society, which celebrates the traditional Latin Mass but isn’t in communion with Rome, announced plans to consecrate new bishops July 1 without papal consent.
Fernandez offered a new round of theological talks to regularize the SSPX’s status, but only if it calls off the planned ceremony.
Pagliarani, for his part, defended the new consecrations but said he would take the Vatican proposal to his counselors for a final decision, which is expected in a few days, the SSPX said in a statement.
The SSPX has been a thorn in the side of the Holy See for four decades, founded in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, which among other things allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular.
