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Offline Matthew

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Conciliar Prelates on the 2026 SSPX Consecrations
« on: March 06, 2026, 11:39:25 PM »
Cardinal Zen Urges Society of St. Pius X to Trust Pope Leo
The 94-year-old Chinese prelate weighed in on the ongoing discussions between the Holy See and the Society of St. Pius X in a post on X.
Cardinal Joseph Zen. title=Cardinal Joseph Zen.Cardinal Joseph Zen. (photo: Iris Tong via Wikimedia (Public Domain). / Wikimedia/Public Domain)
Ishmael Adibuah/EWTN NewsWorldMarch 6, 2026
Cardinal Joseph Zen, a prominent supporter of the Traditional Latin Mass, has urged the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to avoid schism by listening to Pope Leo XIV’s explanations of the Second Vatican Council.
In a comment posted to X in Italian on Friday, the 94-year-old Chinese prelate weighed in on the ongoing discussions between the Holy See and the society, which has said it will consecrate bishops without papal approval.
Cardinal Zen’s comment follows those of Cardinals Gerhard Müller and Robert Sarah, who criticized the society for moving forward with its plan to consecrate bishops in defiance of the Vatican.
“Pope Leo is one who listens! He understands and will make his children understand that certain things perpetrated in the name of the so-called ‘spirit of the council,’ but contrary to the Church’s tradition, are not of the council,” the cardinal wrote.

He noted that even traditionalists are divided over the SSPX consecrations. “A schism must be avoided at all costs, because it will cause serious and lasting damage to the Church; but on the other hand, we must also respect a major problem of conscience: ‘How can we force someone to follow teachings that clearly deny the holy tradition of the Church?’” Cardinal Zen said.
Cardinal Zen also accused the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, of wanting “to dismantle the Church’s traditions.”
“The SSPX has been sent to dialogue with the head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, but is there any hope to be gained from this dialogue?” he said.
He also compared the discussions between the SSPX and the DDF to the biblical story of Joseph and his brothers. He identified the SSPX as Joseph, Fernández as Joseph’s brothers, and Pope Leo XIV as Reuben, who saved Joseph from his brothers.

The SSPX — which exclusively celebrates the Traditional Latin Mass — published a statement in February defending its decision to consecrate bishops and the breakdown in discussions with the Vatican. Under canon law, a bishop who consecrates another bishop without a papal mandate incurs automatic excommunication along with the one who was consecrated.
Cardinal Zen slammed synodality at the consistory of cardinals in January. He is also an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the 2018 Vatican-China deal.


https://www.ncregister.com/cna/cardinal-zen-urges-society-of-st-pius-x-to-trust-pope-leo
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Offline Matthew

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Re: Conciliar Prelates on the 2026 SSPX Consecrations
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2026, 11:40:10 PM »
Cardinals Müller, Sarah urge SSPX to submit to papal authority

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Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah answers questions in Baltimore May 15, 2022, following his talk as part of the closing celebration for the 200th anniversary of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (OSV News/Catholic Review/Kevin J. Parks)
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Two prominent Catholic cardinals have expressed their profound concern and sorrow over a recently announced decision by the Society of St. Pius X — which rejects the authority of the Second Vatican Council — to ordain bishops this summer without papal approval.
"The only solution possible in conscience before God is for the Society of St. Pius X … to recognize our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV as the legitimate Pope not only in theory but also in practice, and to submit to his teaching authority and his primacy of jurisdiction without preconditions," wrote Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former prefect of what is now the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a Feb. 21 piece published by the independent Austrian Catholic newsmagazine Kath.net.
"Can one who abandons the Chair of Peter still claim to be within the Church of Christ?" asked Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in a statement published in part Feb. 22 in the French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.
Citing the cardinal's permission, Vatican journalist Diane Montagna provided the full text of Cardinal Sarah's plea, translated into English from the original French, in a Feb. 23 post on her Substack page.
The cardinals' statements followed a Feb. 18 letter from SSPX superior Fr. Davide Pagliarani declining further dialogue with the Vatican on terms proposed by the latter.
Read this next: Traditionalist Catholic group doubles down on illicit consecrations, setting course for potential schism
Pagliarani also advised the Vatican that his order — founded in 1969 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre — would proceed with planned episcopal ordinations on July 1.
"We both know in advance that we cannot agree doctrinally, particularly regarding the fundamental orientations adopted since the Second Vatican Council," Pagliarani wrote in the letter to Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The dicastery, which had sought to resume talks with SPPX, had warned that proceeding with the consecrations "would imply a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion (schism) with grave consequences for the Fraternity as a whole."
Along with the letter, made public Feb. 19, SSPX published a statement on its website arguing that it does not believe it is acting in schism.
The long-running strain between SSPX and the Vatican, which St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis sought to address, has left the society in "irregular" canonical status, while dampening Pope Leo XIV's efforts to further Christian unity.
In their respective statements, Cardinal Müller and Cardinal Sarah urged Church unity, even as they respectively acknowledged frustrations with certain liturgical abuses and deviations from Church teaching among some clergy.
However, both firmly asserted that SSPX's defiance of papal authority — while claiming to preserve Church tradition — was theologically untenable and schismatic.
"I know only too well how the Deposit of Faith is sometimes scorned even by those who have the mission to defend it," wrote Sarah. "But the surest protection against error and heresy remains our supernatural and canonical attachment to the Successor of Peter."
He added, "We are told that this decision to disobey the law of the Church is motivated by the supreme law of the salvation of souls. ... But salvation is Christ, and He gives Himself only within the Church. How can one claim to lead souls to salvation by paths other than those He Himself has indicated to us?"
"Rightly so, not only the Society of St. Pius X, but a large part of the Catholic population laments that under the guise of Church renewal — with the process of self-secularization — great uncertainties regarding dogmatic questions and even heresies have infiltrated the Church," wrote Müller, who also pointed to Germany's controversial Synodal Way, which he said "is indeed about introducing heretical doctrines."
"But," Müller said, "even in the 2000-year history of the Church, heresies from Arianism to Modernism were only overcome by those who remained in the Church and did not turn away from the Pope."
The cardinals both cited Scripture, the Second Vatican Council, Church history and the witness of several saints in their statements, urging the SSPX to reject schism and return to communion with Rome.
Both Müller and Sarah in particular referenced St. Catherine of Siena, a 14th-century Dominican tertiary and mystic who challenged Pope Gregory XI, Pope Urban VI and other papal officials to foster Church unity and reform.
Sarah observed that the saint, "who did not hesitate to rebuke cardinals and even the Pope, declares: 'Always obey the shepherd of the Church, for he is the guide whom Christ has established to lead souls to Himself.'"
"The good of souls can never be served by deliberate disobedience, for the good of souls is a supernatural reality," said Sarah. "Let us not reduce salvation to a worldly game of media pressure."
"If the Society of St. Pius X is to have a positive impact on church history, it cannot fight for the true faith from a distance, from the outside, against the Church united with the Pope, but only within the Church, with the Pope and all orthodox bishops, theologians, and faithful," said Müller. "Otherwise, its protest remains ineffective and is even mockingly misused by heretical groups to accuse orthodox Catholics of sterile traditionalism and narrow-minded fundamentalism."
"The best way to defend the faith, Tradition, and the authentic liturgy will always be to follow the obedient Christ," said Sarah. "Christ will never command us to break the unity of the Church. As Saint John Chrysostom says: 'The unity of the Church, preserved by the Holy Spirit, is more precious than all the riches of this world.'"

https://www.ncronline.org/news/cardinals-m-ller-sarah-urge-sspx-submit-papal-authority
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Offline Matthew

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Re: Conciliar Prelates on the 2026 SSPX Consecrations
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2026, 11:42:00 PM »
Bishop Schneider urges Pope Leo XIV: Grant ‘the episcopal consecrations of the SSPX’
Vatican correspondent Diane Montagna publishes Bishop Athanasius Schneider's ‘Fraternal Appeal’ to Pope Leo, urging permission for the planned SSPX consecrations for the unity of the Church.
Featured ImageBishop Athanasius Schneider, speaking at a conference in Rome, October 2023.Michael Haynes


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Tue Feb 24, 2026 - 9:09 am EST


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Editor’s note: The following text is the full Fraternal Appeal of Bishop Athanasius Schneider to Pope Leo XIV on Vatican relations with the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, originally published by Diane Montanga on February 24, 2026.
(LifeSiteNews) — The current situation regarding the episcopal consecrations in the Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has suddenly awakened the entire Church. Within an extraordinarily short time following the February 2 announcement that the SSPX will proceed with these consecrations, an intense and often emotionally charged debate has arisen throughout wide circles of the Catholic world.
The spectrum of voices in this debate ranges from understanding, benevolence, neutral observation, and common sense to irrational rejection, peremptory condemnation, and even open hatred. Although there is reason for hope – and it is by no means unrealistic – that Pope Leo XIV could indeed approve the episcopal consecrations, already now proposals for the text of a bull of excommunication of the SSPX are being put forward online.
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READ: John-Henry Westen: An open letter to Cardinal Sarah on the SSPX
The negative reactions, though often well-intentioned, reveal that the heart of the problem has not yet been grasped with sufficient honesty and clarity. There is a tendency to remain at the surface. Priorities within the life of the Church are reversed, elevating the canonical and legal dimension – that is, a certain juridical positivism – to the supreme criterion. Moreover, there is at times a lack of historical awareness concerning the Church’s practice with respect to episcopal ordinations. Disobedience is thus too readily equated with schism. The criteria for episcopal communion with the Pope, and consequently the understanding of what truly constitutes schism, are viewed in an overly one-sided manner when compared with the practice and self-understanding of the Church in the Patristic era, the age of the Church Fathers.
In this debate, new quasi-dogmas are being established that do not exist in the Depositum fidei. These quasi-dogmas maintain that the Pope’s consent to a bishop’s consecration is of divine right, and that a consecration carried out without this consent, or even against a papal prohibition, constitutes in itself a schismatic act. However, the Church’s practice and understanding during the time of the Church Fathers, and for a long period thereafter, argue against this view.
Furthermore, there is no unanimous opinion on this matter among the recognized theologians of the Church’s 2,000-year tradition. Centuries of ecclesial practice, as well as traditional canon law, also stand in opposition to such absolutizing assertions. According to the 1917 Code of Canon Law, an episcopal consecration carried out against the will of the Pope was punished not with excommunication, but only with suspension. By this, the Church clearly manifested that she did not consider such an act to be schismatic.
The acceptance of papal primacy as a revealed truth is often confused with the concrete forms – forms that have evolved throughout history – through which a bishop expresses his hierarchical unity with the Pope. To believe in the papal primacy, to acknowledge the actual Pope, to adhere with him to all that the Church has taught infallibly and definitively, and to observe the validity of the sacramental liturgy, is of divine right. Yet, a reductive view that equates disobedience to a papal command with schism – even in the case of a bishop’s consecration performed against his will – was foreign to the Church Fathers and to traditional canon law.
For example, in 357, St. Athanasius disobeyed the order of Pope Liberius, who instructed him to enter into hierarchical communion with the overwhelming majority of the episcopate, which was in fact Arian or semi-Arian. As a result, he was excommunicated. In this instance, St. Athanasius disobeyed out of love for the Church and for the honor of the Apostolic See, seeking precisely to safeguard the purity of doctrine from any suspicion of ambiguity.
In the first millennium of the Church’s life, episcopal consecrations were generally performed without formal papal permission, and candidates were not required to be approved by the Pope. The first canonical regulation on episcopal consecrations, issued by an Ecuмenical Council, was that of Nicaea in 325, which required that a new bishop be consecrated with the consent of a majority of the bishops of the province. Shortly before his death, during a period of doctrinal confusion, St. Athanasius personally selected and consecrated his successor – St. Peter of Alexandria – in order to ensure that no unsuitable or weak candidate would assume the episcopate. Similarly, in 1977, the Servant of God Cardinal Iosif Slipyj secretly consecrated three bishops in Rome without the approval of Pope Paul VI, fully aware that the Pope would not allow it because of the Vatican’s Ostpolitik at the time. When Rome learned of these secret consecrations, however, the penalty of excommunication was not applied.
READ: Bishop Strickland urges prayers for Pope Leo, SSPX amid consecrations dispute
To avoid misunderstanding, under normal circuмstances – and when there is neither doctrinal confusion nor a time of extraordinary persecution – one must, of course, do everything possible to observe the canonical norms of the Church and to obey the Pope in his just injunctions, in order to preserve ecclesiastical unity both more effectively and visibly.
But the situation in the life of the Church today can be illustrated with the following parable: A fire breaks out in a large house. The fire chief allows only the use of new firefighting equipment, even though it has been shown to be less effective than the old, proven tools. A group of firefighters defies this order and continues to use the tried-and-tested equipment – and indeed, the fire is contained in many places. Yet these firefighters are labelled disobedient and schismatic, and they are punished.
To extend the metaphor further: the fire chief permits only those firefighters who acknowledge the new equipment, follow the new firefighting rules, and obey the new firehouse regulations. But given the obvious scale of the fire, the desperate struggle against it, and the insufficiency of the official firefighting team, other helpers – despite the fire chief’s prohibition – selflessly intervene with skill, knowledge, and good intentions, ultimately contributing to the success of the fire chief’s efforts.
Faced with such rigid and incomprehensible behavior, two possible explanations present themselves: either the fire chief is denying the seriousness of the fire, much like in the French comedy Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise!; or, in fact, the fire chief desires that large parts of the house burn, so that it may later be rebuilt according to a new design.
The current crisis surrounding the announced – but as yet unapproved – episcopal consecrations in the SSPX exposes, before the eyes of the whole Church, a wound that has been smoldering for over 60 years. This wound can be figuratively described as ecclesial cancer – specifically, the ecclesial cancer of doctrinal and liturgical ambiguities.
Recently, an excellent article appeared on the Rorate Caeli blogspot, written with rare theological clarity and intellectual honesty, under the title: “The Long Shadow of Vatican II: Ambiguity as Ecclesial Cancer” (Canon of Shaftesbury: Rorate Caeli, February 10, 2026). The fundamental problem with some ambiguous statements of the Second Vatican Council is that the council chose to prioritize a pastoral tone over doctrinal precision. One can agree with the author when he says:
Quote
The problem isn’t that Vatican II was heretical. The problem is that it was ambiguous. And in that ambiguity, we’ve seen the seeds of confusion that have flowered into some of the most troubling theological developments in modern Church history. When the Church speaks in vague terms, even if unintentionally, then souls are at stake.
The author continues:
Quote
When a doctrinal “development” seems to contradict what came before, or when it requires decades of theological gymnastics to reconcile with previous magisterial teaching, we have to ask: Is this development, or is it rupture disguised as development? (Canon of Shaftesbury: Rorate Caeli, February 10, 2026).
One may reasonably assume that the SSPX desires nothing more than to help the Church emerge from this ambiguity in doctrine and liturgy and to rediscover her saving perennial clarity – just as the Church’s Magisterium, under the guidance of the popes, has done unequivocally throughout history after every crisis marked by doctrinal confusion and ambiguity.
In fact, the Holy See should be grateful to the SSPX, because it is currently almost the only major ecclesiastical reality that forthrightly and publicly points out the existence of ambiguous and misleading elements in certain statements of the council and the Novus Ordo Missae. In this endeavor, the SSPX is guided by a sincere love for the Church: if they did not love the Church, the Pope, and souls, they would not undertake this work, nor would they engage with the Roman authorities – and they would undoubtedly have an easier life.
The following words of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre are deeply moving and reflect the attitude of the current leadership and most members of the SSPX:
Quote
We believe in Peter, we believe in the successor of Peter! But as Pope Pius IX says well in his dogmatic constitution, the pope has received the Holy Ghost not to make new truths, but to maintain us in the faith of all time. This is the definition of the pope made at the time of the First Vatican Council by Pope Pius IX. And that is why we are persuaded that in maintaining these traditions we are manifesting our love, our docility, our obedience to the Successor of Peter. We cannot remain indifferent before the degradation of faith, morals, and the liturgy. That is out of the question! We do not want to separate ourselves from the Church; on the contrary, we want the Church to continue!
If someone considers having difficulties with the Pope to be among his greatest spiritual sufferings, that in itself is a telling proof that there is no schismatic intent. True schismatics even boast of their separation from the Apostolic See. True schismatics would never humbly implore the Pope to recognize their bishops.
How truly Catholic, then, are the following words of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre:
Quote
We regret infinitely, it is an immense pain for us, to think that we are in difficulty with Rome because of our faith! How is this possible? It is something that exceeds the imagination, that we should never have been able to imagine, that we should never have been able to believe, especially in our childhood – then when all was uniform, when the whole Church believed in her general unity and held the same Faith, the same Sacraments, the same sacrifice of the Mass, the same catechism.
READ: Pope Leo XIV appoints bishop who attended Masonic lodge opening in Italy
We must honestly examine the evident ambiguities regarding religious freedom, ecuмenism, and collegiality, as well as the doctrinal imprecisions of the Novus Ordo Missae. In this regard, one should read the recently published book by Archimandrite Boniface Luykx, a Council peritus and renowned liturgical scholar, with its eloquent title, A Wider View of Vatican II. Memories and Analysis of a Council Consultor.
As GK Chesterton once said: “Upon entering the church, we are asked to take off our hat, not our head.” It would be a tragedy if the SSPX were completely cut off, and the responsibility for such a division would rest primarily with the Holy See. The Holy See should bring the SSPX in, offering at least a minimum degree of Church integration, and then continue the doctrinal dialogue.
The Holy See has shown remarkable generosity toward the Communist Party of China, allowing them to select candidates for bishops – yet her own children, the thousands upon thousands of faithful of the SSPX, are treated as second-class citizens.
The SSPX should be allowed to make a theological contribution with a view to clarifying, supplementing, and, if necessary, amending those statements in the texts of the Second Vatican Council that raise doctrinal doubts and difficulties. This must also take into account that, in these texts, the Magisterium of the Church did not intend to pronounce itself with dogmatic definitions endowed with the note of infallibility (cf. Paul VI, General Audience, January 12, 1966).
The SSPX makes exactly the same Professio fidei as that made by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, known as the Tridentine-Vatican Professio fidei. If, according to the explicit words of Pope Paul VI, the Second Vatican Council did not present any definitive doctrines, nor intend to do so, and if the faith of the Church remains the same before, during, and after the council, why should the profession of faith that was valid in the Church until 1967 suddenly no longer be considered valid as a mark of true Catholic belief?
Yet the the Tridentine-Vatican Professio fidei is considered by the Holy See to be insufficient for the SSPX. Would not the Tridentine-Vatican Professio fidei in fact constitute “the minimum” for ecclesial communion? If that is not a minimum, then what, honestly, would qualify as a “minimum”? The SSPX is required, as a conditio sine qua non, to make a Professio fidei by which the teachings of a pastoral, and not definitive, nature from the last council and the subsequent Magisterium must be accepted. If this is truly the so-called “minimum requirement,” then Cardinal Victor Fernández appears to be playing games with words!
Pope Leo XIV said at the ecuмenical Vespers on January 25, 2026, at the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, that there is already unity between Catholics and non-Catholic Christians because they share the minimum of Christian faith: “We share the same faith in the one and only God, the Father of all people; we confess together the one Lord and true Son of God, Jesus Christ, and the one Holy Spirit, who inspires us and impels us towards full unity and the common witness to the Gospel” (Apostolic Letter In Unitate Fidei, 23 November 2025, 12). He further declared: “We are one! We already are! Let us recognize it, experience it, and make it visible!”
How can this statement be reconciled with the claim made by representatives of the Holy See and some high-ranking clergy that the SSPX is not doctrinally united with the Church, given that the SSPX professes the Professio fidei of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council – the Tridentine-Vatican Professio fidei?
Further provisional pastoral measures granted to the SSPX for the spiritual good of so many exemplary Catholic faithful would stand as a profound testimony to the pastoral charity of the Successor of Peter. In doing so, Pope Leo XIV would open his paternal heart to those Catholics who, in a certain way, live on an ecclesiastical periphery, allowing them to experience that the Apostolic See is truly a Mother also for the SSPX.
The words of Pope Benedict XVI should awaken the conscience of those in the Vatican who will decide on the permission of episcopal consecrations for the SSPX. He reminds us:
Quote
Looking back over the past, to the divisions which in the course of the centuries have rent the Body of Christ, one continually has the impression that, at critical moments when divisions were coming about, not enough was done by the Church’s leaders to maintain or regain reconciliation and unity. One has the impression that omissions on the part of the Church have had their share of blame for the fact that these divisions were able to harden. This glance at the past imposes an obligation on us today: to make every effort to unable for all those who truly desire unity to remain in that unity or to attain it anew. (Letter to the Bishops on the occasion of the publication of the Apostolic Letter “motu proprio data” Summorum Pontificuм on the use of the Roman Liturgy prior to the reform carried out in 1970, 7 July 2007)
Can we be totally indifferent about a community which has 491 priests, 215 seminarians, 6 seminaries, 88 schools, 2 university-level institutes, 117 religious brothers, 164 religious sisters and thousands of lay faithful? Should we casually let them drift farther from the Church? And should not the great Church also allow herself to be generous in the knowledge of her great breadth, in the knowledge of the promise made to her?” (Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church concerning the remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre, March 10, 2009).[1]
READ: Bishop Schneider says Cdl. Fernández is ‘completely wrong’ that Vatican II texts cannot be changed
Provisional and minimal pastoral measures for the SSPX, undertaken for the spiritual good of the thousands upon thousands of its faithful around the world – including a pontifical mandate for episcopal consecrations – would create the conditions necessary to calmly clarify misunderstandings, questions, and doubts of a doctrinal nature arising from certain statements in the docuмents of the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent Pontifical Magisterium. At the same time, such measures would provide the SSPX with the opportunity to make constructive contribution for the good of the entire Church, while maintaining a clear distinction between what belongs to divinely revealed faith and doctrine definitively proposed by the Magisterium, and what has a primarily pastoral character in particular historical circuмstances, and is therefore open to careful theological study, as has always been the practice throughout the life of the Church.
With sincere concern for the unity of the Church and the spiritual good of so many souls, I appeal with reverent and fraternal charity to our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV:
Most Holy Father, grant the Apostolic Mandate for the episcopal consecrations of the SSPX. You are also the father of your numerous sons and daughters – two generations of the faithful who have, for now, been cared for by the SSPX, who love the Pope, and who wish to be true sons and daughters of the Roman Church. Therefore, stand aside from the partisanship of others and, with a great paternal and truly Augustinian spirit, demonstrate that you are building bridges, as you promised to do before the whole world when you gave your first blessing after your election. Do not go down in the history of the Church as one who failed to build this bridge – a bridge that could be constructed at this truly providential moment with generous will – and who instead allowed a truly unnecessary and painful further division within the Church, while at the same time synodal processes that boast of the greatest possible pastoral breadth and ecclesial inclusivity were taking place. As your Holiness recently stressed: “Let us commit ourselves to further developing ecuмenical synodal practices and to sharing with one another who we are, what we do and what we teach (cf. Francis, For a Synodal Church, 24 November 2024)” (Homily of Pope Leo XIV, Ecuмenical Vespers for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, January 25, 2026).
Most Holy Father, if you grant the Apostolic Mandate for the episcopal consecrations of the SSPX, the Church in our day will lose nothing. You will be a true bridge-builder, and even more, an exemplary bridge-builder, for you are the Supreme Pontiff, Summus Pontifex.
+ Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Mary in Astana
24 February 2026


https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/bishop-schneider-urges-pope-leo-xiv-grant-the-episcopal-consecrations-of-the-sspx/
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Offline Matthew

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Re: Conciliar Prelates on the 2026 SSPX Consecrations
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2026, 11:43:43 PM »
Here are those 3 articles in PDF format, just in case we need it someday (for posterity).

If I do say so myself, CathInfo is more likely to be still up and hosting these files in 10 or 20 years, than any of the above sites. Just saying.
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Offline Twice dyed

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Fr. Ginoux SSPX, writes about Conciliar Sarah re:2026 Consecrations
« Reply #4 on: Today at 10:23:26 AM »
Abbé Ginoux: Conciliar Prelate Sarah on the 2026 Consecrations.

https://lesalonbeige.fr/reponse-au-cardinal-sarah-de-m-labbe-etienne-ginoux-fsspx/
AI Translation:non-official excerpt

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  In an op-ed published in Le Journal du Dimanche on 22 February 2026, Cardinal Sarah, who in recent years has been a strong source of encouragement for many faithful, is concerned about the announcement of the episcopal consecrations by the Society of St. Pius X.

  The cardinal writes: “How many souls are at risk of being lost because of this new tear?"

  We are entitled to wonder whether it is really the souls of the faithful attending the chapels of the Fraternity who are in danger, or whether we should not fear for the salvation of those who follow the “prelates who renounce to teach the deposit of the faith” or the “wolves disguised as lambs”, justly denounced by the prelate.

  The remedy proposed by His Eminence to those who want to “lead the fight for the faith, Catholic morality and liturgical Tradition” is the attachment to the Successor of Peter. Every Catholic should then accept what comes from the pope without ever disobeying.

  This is not, however, as simple as it seems, because is it not precisely Rome that opened the divorced and remarried to the Eucharistic communion, the blessing of irregular couples, the assertion that God wants the plurality of religions, the questioning of titles traditionally attributed to the Most Holy Virgin Mary and employed by many popes, or the attempt to suppress the long-term Traditional Missal? Cardinal Sarah himself opposed many of these novelties in the name of Tradition.

  On the one hand, he shows us the example of the good struggle for faith, Catholic morality and liturgical tradition; on the other, he invites us to obey those who are at the origin of the evils that we fight. How can we do this even when cardinals can spread heterodox opinions, reproved by the Guinean cardinal, without, however, ever being worried by the authorities of the Church? What else does it conclude, except that we have no choice but to distinguish between the faithful teachings of the faith of always and those who are the expression of a new thought, irreconcilable with the earlier magisterium? Although the current pope has only recently exercised the Supreme Pontificate, his appointments to the highest offices as well as his speeches and homilies do not allow us to augur for a significant change.

  Finally, Cardinal Sarah gives us to meditate on the beautiful example of the heroic obedience of Padre Pio. However, we will be allowed to notice the immense difference between the situation of the stigmatized of Pietrelcina and that of the Society of St. Pius X. He accepted in faith, humility and obedience a grave injustice concerning his person, but which had no external consequence as to the salvation of souls. The Fraternity rises against an injustice affecting the common good of the Church, wounded in her faith, her morals and her liturgy, as the cardinal acknowledges. How can we remain silent when faith and salvation of the faithful are threatened? Is it not necessary, out of charity for these souls, that some dare to oppose those who spread error?

  St. Paul publicly opposed St. Peter in Antioch, before the first pope recognized his mistake. St. Athanasius, while the majority of bishops are close to the heresy of Arius, is excommunicated by Pope Liberius but continues to preach (...). Padre Pio was therefore right to obey unjust sanctions concerning him, for nothing threatened the faith of the faithful. It is less known that he refused to celebrate the Mass according to the 1965 experimental missal in the vernacular and that he continued to celebrate the Mass of his ordination until his death in 1968, a few months before the entry into force of the liturgical reform. What would he have done then?

  Eminence, we beg you to use your authority, your notoriety and your pen to convince the Holy Father to put an end to the doctrinal, moral and liturgical crisis that the Holy Church is going through. Then the Society of St. Pius X will no longer be in the necessity of ordaining bishops without a pontifical mandate. Then there will be true unity and perfect communion in the Church of God: unity and communion in faith.

Abbé Étienne Ginoux | F.S.S.P.X.
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