SSPX defies Pope, consecrates 4 new bishops

July 01, 2026

Defying a plea from Pope Leo XIV, the Society of Saint Pius X proceeded today with its planned consecration of four bishops without a pontifical mandate.

Pope Leo’s plea followed a Vatican warning of excommunication issued by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Society was founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (1905-1991). Archbishop Lefebvre’s ordination of four bishops in 1988 without a pontifical mandate led to the automatic excommunications of the prelate and the four bishops (Canon 1387). In 2009, the Congregation for Bishops issued a decree remitting the excommunications, a decision that Pope Benedict XVI explained in a subsequent letter.

Two of the four bishops ordained in 1988—Bishop Bernard Fellay and Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta—are still alive. Bishop Bernard Tissier de Mallerais died in 2024; Bishop Richard Williamson, expelled from the Society in 2012, died last year. Following his expulsion, Bishop Williams ordained additional bishops without a pontifical mandate; the SSPX issued a statement in 2015 denouncing the first of these episcopal consecrations.

CWN founding editor Phil Lawler will publish an analysis of the consecrations later today.

 

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Further information:

• Defying Pope Leo XIV and risking schism, traditionalists go ahead with Latin Mass consecrations (AP, 7/1/26)
• Pope Leo pleads with SSPX not to proceed with episcopal consecrations (CWN, 6/30/26)