SSPX risks new schism by defying Pope Francis with bishop ordinations

The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is considering the ordination of new bishops without the approval of Pope Francis. This move would risk severing decades of reconciliation efforts with the Catholic Church. The group's potential action echoes a 1988 schism that followed similar unauthorised ordinations by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who opposed changes introduced by the Second Vatican Council. Pope St. John Paul II declared a formal schism in response to the unauthorised ordinations. Since then, successive popes, including Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis, have worked to bring the society back into full communion. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted excommunications on the SSPX bishops, and in 2015, Rome recognised the group's authority to hear confessions and witness marriages. These faculties were extended indefinitely by Pope Francis in 2017. Negotiations continued under the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, later absorbed into the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, focusing on doctrinal disputes over Vatican II's teachings on religious liberty and ecumenism. In 2017, Rome offered the SSPX a personal prelature status, provided they accepted papal primacy and the council's documents. The society rejected the proposal, citing unresolved differences. Canon law states that ordaining bishops without a papal mandate is illicit, though the sacrament remains valid. Those involved—both the ordaining bishop and the newly ordained—face automatic excommunication under Canon 1387. Such an act also constitutes schism, defined as the refusal of submission to the pope. If the SSPX proceeds, it would likely undo all progress made since 1988, returning the dialogue to its earliest, most fractured state. The society's potential move would carry severe canonical consequences, including automatic excommunication for all involved and the collapse of formal reconciliation efforts, mirroring the 1988 schism and leaving the SSPX fully separated from Rome.