Vatican: Talks With SSPX Continue Amid Planned Bishop Consecrations
Vatican officials emphasize that ‘contacts between the Society of St. Pius X and the Holy See are ongoing’ ahead of planned episcopal consecrations.
The Vatican has responded to the Society of St. Pius X’s announcement Monday that it plans to consecrate bishops — so far without Rome’s approval — by saying that dialogue is continuing and is aimed at avoiding rupture or unilateral decisions.
In a brief statement sent to the Register Tuesday, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that “contacts between the Society of Saint Pius X and the Holy See are ongoing, with the aim of avoiding rifts or unilateral solutions to the issues that have arisen.”
The Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), which exists in a state of “institutional irregularity” or “imperfect communion” with the Holy See, announced Monday that it plans to consecrate new bishops on July 1, even without authorization from the Holy See.
The SSPX exclusively celebrates the traditional Latin Mass and maintains doctrinal differences with certain teachings and reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
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Abbé Claude Barthe, a French diocesan priest, formerly of the SSPX who now teaches at the international seminary of the traditional Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, is urging prudence in the face of the current developments.
“I think we need to be very careful when talking about this matter,” he told the Register on Tuesday. “It is clear that the highly publicized affair of the episcopal consecrations announced by the SSPX is one of the consequences of the wound opened in the Church by the last council and by the liturgical reform that followed. It would be reasonable for this affair to give rise to open and peaceful exchanges of views between the ‘two parties,’ the Holy See and the SSPX.”
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If SSPX is in schism, then so, it would seem, is China.
April 2025 China unilaterally "elected"/appointed two bishops—one auxiliary in Shanghai and one in Xinxiang (Henan). This occurred without papal involvement, a violation of Sino-Vatican agreement.
October 2025: Consecration of auxiliary Bishop Joseph Wu Jianlin in Shanghai without prior Vatican approval. Illicit under canon law and a direct violation.
December 2025: Consecration of Bishop François Li Jianlin (Francis Li Jianlin) as Bishop of Xinxiang on December 5, 2025, replacing the long-detained underground Bishop Joseph Zhang Weizhu. Another direct violation.
The Difference: Pope Leo XIV retroactively accepted China's bishops. If an accommodation is possible with atheistic Communism, then one would think something could be worked out with SSPX, with whom we have much more in common.
“It is clear that the highly publicized affair of the episcopal consecrations announced by the SSPX is one of the consequences of the wound opened in the Church by the last council and by the liturgical reform that followed. It would be reasonable for this affair to give rise to open and peaceful exchanges of views between the ‘two parties,’ the Holy See and the SSPX.”
This is the kind of arrogance I’ve come to expect, and reject, from the SSPX. It’s not the Church that must return to the SSPX, but the SSPX to the Church. I’m pleased people at the Vatican are much more patient than me, because I would’ve axed the SSPX long ago and let them wither in the vineyard.
I throw my support wholeheartedly to the FSSP, the true usus antiquor Catholic alternative. Because for them, communion with, and obedience to Peter is first.