The Holy See formally declared the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) and its adherents to be in schism and excommunicated them in 1988 following illicit consecrations of bishops. The SSPX considers itself never to have been excommunicated nor to be or have been in schism.
Discussions since then have been complex, stemming from the society's insistence that the teachings of the Second Vatican Council on ecumenism, religious liberty, and collegiality are inconsistent with Catholic teaching and doctrine, a claim that the Holy See views as unacceptable. Following an SSPX episcopal consecration in 2026, the Holy See again declared that the Society of St. Pius X was schismatic and decreed its excommunication.
Under Pope John Paul II
1988 excommunications Pope John Paul II established the pontifical commission Ecclesia Dei on 2 July 1988 for the care of those former followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who broke with him as a result of his consecration of four priests of his Society of St. Pius X as bishops on 30 June 1988, an act that the Holy See deemed illicit and a schismatic act.Apostolic Letter Ecclesia Dei, 3 Quote: "Such disobedience - which implies in practice the rejection of the Roman primacy - constitutes a schismatic act. ... The root of this schismatic act can be discerned in an incomplete and contradictory notion of Tradition" (emphases added)
In 1994, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity stated that "[t]he situation of the members of [the SSPX] is an internal matter of the Catholic Church".
Role of Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos and SSPX prerequisites Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, approached the SSPX bishops during the pilgrimage and, according to Bishop Fellay, told them that the pope was prepared to grant them either a personal prelature (a new juridical structure introduced by Vatican II; presently Opus Dei is the only personal prelature) or an apostolic administration (the status given to the traditionalist priests of Campos, Brazil).So I told all these things to the Cardinal.... He spoke about an arrangement like that of Opus Dei, that is, a personal prelature (talk given by Bishop Bernard Fellay in Kansas City, Missouri on 5 March 2002 ). On an earlier occasion Bishop Fellay said that what was under consideration was not a personal prelature but an apostolic administration (Communicantes: August 2001 ). The SSPX leadership responded with distrust,The Superior General expressed his point of view, his distrust, his apprehension (Statement of Bishop Fellay to SSPX Members & Friends January 22, 2001 ) saying that Castrillón was vague on how the new structure would be implemented and sustained, and criticising the Holy See's allegedly heavy-handed treatment of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. The SSPX requested two preliminary "signs" before continuing negotiations: that the Holy See grant permission for all priests to celebrate the Tridentine Mass, and that its statement that the 1988 consecrations had resulted in excommunication for the clerics involved be declared void.On January 16, there was another meeting with Cardinal Castrillon, during which the Superior General exposed the necessity of having guaranties from Rome before going ahead in the details of eventual discussions or an agreement: That the Tridentine Mass be granted to all priests of the entire world; That the censures against the Bishops be declared null (Statement of Bishop Fellay to SSPX Members & Friends January 22 2001 ); We thus did require these two signs, first the withdrawal of the decree of excommunication and, secondly, the permission for all the priests of the Latin rite, without distinction, to celebrate the traditional Mass. I believe these two steps would have been able to create a truly new climate in the universal Church ( Interview with Bishop Fellay, August 2001, Angelus magazine)
2002 letter Cardinal Castrillón refused to grant interviews on the subject, in order "to maintain the privacy of the details of our dialogue", though this silence was broken when his letter of 5 April 2002 to Bishop Bernard Fellay was later published. This contained the text of a protocol summarizing the meeting between the two men held on 29 December 2000. This envisaged a reconciliation on the basis of the protocol of 5 May 1988 between the Holy See and the SSPX, and the 1988 excommunications would be lifted rather than declared null.
From 2003 onwards, the annual reports of the Ecclesia Dei Commission began to report on dialogue between the Vatican authorities and the SSPX, beginning with "some high-level meetings and [...] an exchange of correspondence" in 2003,2003 edition of L'Attività della Santa Sede (), page 1097 continuing with "dialogue at various levels [...] [and] meetings, some at a high level" in 2004,2004 edition of L'Attività della Santa Sede (), page 1090 and leading to "somewhat improved" dialogue with "more concrete proposals" in 2005.2005 edition of L'Attività della Santa Sede (), page 1168.
Under Pope Benedict XVI The year 2005 was of great significance because it saw the accession to the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, who had participated in the 1988 negotiations and who was seen as being sympathetic to the use of the Tridentine liturgy. In August 2005, Benedict met with Bishop Fellay for 35 minutes, at the latter's request.Benedict and the Lefebvrites, John L. Allen Jr., Word From Rome, National Catholic Reporter, September 2, 2005. There was no breakthrough, but statements from both sides spoke of the atmosphere as positive. It was reported that the SSPX question was among the topics for discussion at meetings of the Pope with cardinals and Curia officials in early 2006.Pope, Curia to discuss reconciliation with SSPX, National Catholic Reporter, 24 March 2006
In an interview, Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos considered that the 1988 consecration was not a schismatic act, on the basis that Lefebvre was merely consecrating auxiliary bishops rather than attempting to establish a parallel church.
Prerequisites of the SSPX In 2005, Bishop Fellay, then Superior of the SSPX, said it had two prerequisites to enter into a doctrinal discussion with the Catholic Church: the free use of the Traditional Latin Mass (also called Tridentine Mass) throughout the whole Catholic Church, and the lifting of the 1988 excommunications.
Summorum Pontificum In July 2007, the Pope issued Summorum Pontificum, which liberalised the restrictions on the celebration of the Tridentine Mass. In an accompanying letter, he wrote that he wished to see "an interior reconciliation in the heart of the Church" and "to make every effort to enable for all those who truly desire unity to remain in that unity or to attain it anew".
Bishop Fellay, while welcoming the Pope's decision, referred to "the difficulties that still remain", and stated that the SSPX wished that the new "favourable climate" would "make it possible – after the decree of excommunication which still affects its bishops has been withdrawn – to consider more serenely the disputed doctrinal issues."
In April 2008, Bishop Fellay issued Letter to Friends and Benefactors No. 72, informing the SSPX faithful that, in spite of both Summorum Pontificum and the recent Vatican documents on the true meaning of Lumen gentium and evangelisation, the Society still could not sign an agreement with the Holy See, which was not going to deal with doctrinal errors.
Two months later, after a meeting held in Rome between the two, Cardinal Castrillòn Hoyos indicated five conditions that SSPX must comply with as a preparatory step for achieving full communion. The Cardinal did not ask in an explicit way for acceptance of the Second Vatican Council as a true Ecumenical Council or of the validity of the Mass of Paul VI, matters on which the Secretariat of State later made clear agreement is required for unity of doctrine.Note of the Secretariat of State, 4 February 2009 In the homily Fellay preached at Lourdes for the SSPX Pilgrimage, on 26 October 2008, he replied that the Vatican requests were ambiguous. He also launched a new Rosary Crusade for 1 November to Christmas 2008. The first such Crusade was undertaken to ask for liberalization of Tridentine Mass. The second was to pray that the 1988 excommunications be declared void.
Remission of the excommunication By a decree of 21 January 2009, which was issued in response to a renewed request dated 15 December 2008 that Bishop Fellay made on behalf of all four bishops whom Lefebvre had consecrated on 30 June 1988, the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, by the power expressly granted to him by Pope Benedict XVI, remitted the automatic excommunication that they had thereby incurred, and expressed the wish that this would be followed speedily by full communion of the whole of the Society of Saint Pius X with the Church, thus bearing witness, by the proof of visible unity, to true loyalty and true recognition of the Pope's Magisterium and authority.
A Note of the Secretariat of State issued on 4 February 2009 specified that, while the lifting of the excommunication freed the four bishops from a very grave canonical penalty, it made no change in the juridical situation of the Society of St. Pius X, which continued to lack canonical recognition in the Catholic Church, and that the four bishops remained without any canonical function in the Church and were not exercising legitimately any ministry within it. The note added that future recognition of the Society required full recognition of the Second Vatican Council and of the teaching of Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and repeated the assurance given in the decree of 21 January 2009 that the Holy See would study, along with those involved, the questions not yet settled, so as to reach a full satisfactory solution of the problems that had given rise to the split.Bulletin of the Press Office of the Holy See, 4 February 2009
Pope Benedict XVI confirmed this stance in his motu proprio Ecclesiae unitatem of 2 July 2009, in which he declared that by lifting the excommunication of the four bishops he "intended to remove an impediment that might have jeopardized the opening of a door to dialogue and thereby to invite the Bishops and the 'Society of St Pius X' to rediscover the path to full communion with the Church. [...] [T]he remission of the excommunication was a measure taken in the context of ecclesiastical discipline to free the individuals from the burden of conscience constituted by the most serious of ecclesiastical penalties. However, the doctrinal questions obviously remain and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry".
Fellay–Levada talks (2009–2011) In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI gave the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal William Levada the task of continuing the dialogue with the Society of St Pius X on theological issues in the hope of attaining reconciliation. The team responsible for the dialogue with the Society of St. Pius X on behalf of the Catholic Church included Charles Morerod, former Rector Magnificus and theology and philosophy professor of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum.
In February 2011, Bishop Bernard Fellay, said that reconciliation talks with the Vatican would soon be coming to an end, with little change in the views of either side. In addition to disputes over the changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council, new problems had been created by plans to beatify Pope John Paul II on 1 May 2011, which, he said, posed "a serious problem, the problem of a pontificate that caused things to proceed by leaps and bounds in the wrong direction, along 'progressive' lines, toward everything that they call 'the spirit of Vatican II.'"