Crisis looms for Pope Leo as splinter sect seeks to ordain far-right bishops
Conflict threatens to worsen mounting tensions between the Vatican and rightwing Catholics in the US and globally
TL;DR
- The Society of St Pius X (SSPX) plans to ordain its own bishops, potentially causing a schism with the Vatican.
- Pope Leo has appealed to the SSPX to avoid this action and remain in communion with the Church.
- Ordaining bishops without Vatican approval is grounds for excommunication under Catholic canon law.
- The SSPX rejects key doctrines of the Second Vatican Council, leading to fundamental disagreements with the modern Catholic Church.
- The sect has faced accusations of antisemitism and ties to the extreme right, including sheltering a Nazi collaborator and downplaying Holocaust death tolls.
- The planned ordinations are presented by the SSPX as a practical necessity, not an attempt to create parallel authority.
- Previous attempts at reconciliation between the Vatican and the SSPX have faced decades of standoffs.