Cardinal Müller strongly criticizes SSPX, defends Vatican II

March 23, 2026

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CWN Editor's Note: In an interview published in the theological journal Communio, Cardinal Gerhard Müller defended the Second Vatican Council and strongly criticized the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) and its arguments for ordaining new bishops without the Pope’s approval.

Cardinal Müller, who served as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 2012 to 2017, charged that the leaders of the SSPX wish to “convert the Church into their own conventicle.”

“Everyone brings schism upon themselves through the free decision not to recognize the Pope’s authority, either in theory or in practice,” he said. “Canonical disobedience is not made any better by asserting that one is not opposing the Pope, even if one claims one must consecrate bishops for the sake of the salvation of souls.”

Cardinal Müller added:

Jesus Christ promised the continuation of the Church until the end of history only to the universal Church, which he built upon the rock of Peter, to whom he also handed over the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and, together with the other Apostles, the power to bind and loose.

What God wants to say to the SSPX, in view of the advanced age of their two remaining bishops, is to turn away from the wrong path of distancing themselves from the Church and self-isolation amongst like-minded people, and to entrust themselves with confidence to the guidance of the Successor of Peter, to whom the Lord of the Church has personally entrusted the care of his flock.

Cardinal Müller also criticized bishops, priests, and theologians who “give the people stones of agnostic ideologies instead of giving the bread of the Word of God and the grace of the sacraments,” and who “dabble around in sociology and psychology and remain silent about Jesus as the only Savior of the world.”

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