I see no good reason for a statement like this, without any details. My opinion is that they just did it to see how people react. Be it Leo, be it their faithful. If the reactions are very bad, they might just pretend it has never happened.

On February 2 Archbishop Lefebvre confirmed the news: “I am resolved to consecrate at least three bishops on June 30, and I hope to have the approval of John Paul II. But if he were not to give it to me, I would do without it for the good of the Church and for the continuance of Tradition.”

The decision of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X to consecrate new Bishops on July 1 demonstrates the impossibility of any dialogue with the Holy See. The Vatican’s refusal to comply with the Society’s requests confirms a double standard: On the one hand, synodality opens the way to schism without this constituting a problem either for those who impose it from above or for those who suffer it from below.

On the other hand, a Priestly Fraternity of assured orthodoxy is denied permission to consecrate new Bishops precisely because it has not compromised with the conciliar revolution, the highest expression of which is synodality.

When the Hierarchy becomes complicit in the demolition of the Church, the only solution is to appeal to the state of necessity and guarantee that Apostolic Succession continues for the good of souls. Nothing has changed since 1988, and we can even say that the situation has dramatically worsened. I therefore express my full support for the decision taken by the Society of Saint Pius X.

Cardinal Fernández told The Pillar Feb. 4 that the letter Pagliarani referred to was sent by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The DDF prefect said the letter “merely responded negatively to the possibility of proceeding now with new episcopal ordinations.”

“We have been exchanging letters in recent times. Next week I will meet with Fr. Pagliarani in the DDF to try and find a fruitful path of dialogue,” Fernández explained.

Several sources told The Pillar that past conversations also involved two other SSPX bishops, Bishop Bernard Fellay and Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, and on the Vatican side, Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, and Archbishop Guido Pozzo, the former secretary of the now-defunct Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.

Fernández told The Pillar, however, that the upcoming meeting would be limited to him and Pagliarani.

https://sspx.org/en/consecration-fr-jean-michel-faure

Curiously, this seems to have been taken down from the SSPX website. 

Strange.

https://sspx.org/en/news/no-comparison-1988-faures-consecration-5676

The Society of St. Pius X denounces this episcopal consecration of Fr. Faure, which, despite the assertions of both clerics concerned, is not at all comparable to the consecrations of 1988. All the declarations of Bishop Williamson and Fr. Faure prove abundantly that they no longer recognize the Roman authorities, except in a purely rhetorical manner."