It has 162 communities (or priories) in some 40 countries throughout the world and boasts of 675 priests. The SSPX also has more than 200 seminarians - some as young as 18 years old - that are trained at six seminaries located in the United States, France, Germany, Argentina and Australia.

Lefebvre opened the very first seminary on September 24, 1970 in Ecône, Switzerland. And on Thursday his traditionalist heirs will gather there to mark the priestly society's golden jubilee. Read more

Msgr. Patrick Descourtieux becomes head of the section within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith dealing with such communities.

He effectively takes over the responsibilities of Archbishop Guido Pozzo who was Secretary of the Pontifical Commission ‘Ecclesia Dei' which the Pope abolished through a motu proprio (papal decree) in January.

A distinguished expert in patristics at the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome, Msgr. Descourtieux worked for ten years as an official at the pontifical commission.

Pagliarani succeeds Bishop Bernard Fellay.

Jean-Marie Guénois, religion correspondent at French newspaper Le Figaro, said Bishop Fellay had been "ousted" in favour of a candidate who opposes further rapprochement with the Vatican.

"After accepting his office ... [Pagliarani] pronounced the profession of faith and took the anti-modernist oath at the seminary church," the statement said.

The swearing of the oath by all "clergy, pastors, confessors, preachers, religious superiors and professors in philosophical-theological seminaries" was a requirement in the Catholic Church from 1910 to 1967.

Those who take the oath promise to uphold church doctrine and declare their opposition to "the error of the modernists who hold that there is nothing divine in sacred tradition."

The Vatican and SSPX leaders have for decades been seeking a way to fully reintegrate members of the society into the life of the Catholic Church.

SSPX was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970 after he publicly contested key teachings of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).

In 1988, Pope John Paul II excommunicated Lefebvre for defying Vatican instructions after Lefebvre ordained four "bishops" without permission from the Holy See, as required by canon law.

This created the first formal schism in the Catholic Church since 1870. Lefebvre died in 1991.

Pope Benedict XVI said SSPX has no canonical status in the Catholic Church and the ministries undertaken by its ministers are not legitimate.

However, during the 2015-16 Year of Mercy, Pope Francis made special provisions to recognise the absolution SSPX priests offer through confession as valid.

Francis extended these provisions after the Year of Mercy in case "anyone ever be deprived of the sacramental sign of reconciliation through the church's pardon."

Last year Francis continued working on initiatives aimed at a reconciliation with the SSPX.

These allowed SSPX bishops to ensure the validity of marriages celebrated in the traditionalist communities.

Vatican talks with the society began under St John Paul II and continued throughout the papacy of now-retired Pope Benedict XVI.

The talks have focused on the Second Vatican Council's teachings, especially the Council's documents on religious liberty, ecumenism, liturgy and relations with other religions.

Source

• Catholic Herald
• The Tablet
• La Croix
• Catholic Philly
• Image: Return to Fatima

This is one of a number of the Pope's initiatives that aim to bring SSPX into full communion with the Church.

A letter from the Vatican to Catholic bishops said they will be allowed to appoint priests to assist at SSPX marriages.

These priests will formally receive the couples' consent. The nuptial Mass then would be celebrated by the SSPX priest.

Francis has also allowed bishops to enable an SSPX priest to officiate validly over the marriage rite.

However, this would only be "if there are no priests in the diocese" available to do so.

The letter also mentions Pope Francis's decision last December to grant all SSPX priests the faculty to validly administer the Sacrament of Penance to the faithful.

This was "to ensure the validity and liceity [i.e. lawfulness or legitimacy] of the Sacrament and allay any concerns on the part of the faithful."

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who wrote the letter on Francis's behalf, closes it by saying:

"In this way any uneasiness of conscience on the part of the faithful who adhere to [SSPX] as well as any uncertainty regarding the validity of the sacrament of marriage may be alleviated ...

" ...and at the same time that the process towards full institutional regularization may be facilitated"

Source

• Catholic Herald
• Vatican Radio
• Image: Catholicism without Compromise

Despite their constant attacks against him, the pope showed a remarkable restraint towards the traditionalists - and not just because this is good Church politics, but because he does not like conflict.

"I don't chop off heads," he said a couple of weeks ago in interview with the Argentinian newspaper La Nacion.

"That was never my style. I've never liked doing that," he insisted.

Indeed, we had become almost accustomed to the idea that Francis and the traditionalists were pretty much traveling on two separate and parallel paths in a "live and let live" sort of silent agreement.

But two recent developments indicate something important about the pope and the various forms of Catholic traditionalism.

The first took place on June 29 when the schismatic Priestly Society of St Pius X (SSPX) issued a communiqué that slammed the brakes on any hoped-for reconciliation with Rome. In a carefully worded text, Bishop Bernard Fellay - leader of the anti-Vatican II movement founded by the late-Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (195-1991) - did not close the door completely on future developments in the SSPX's relationship with Rome.

But he acknowledged that there was a great distance between the so-called Lefebvrists and the Church of Francis, while indirectly admitting there were also divisions inside their society.

End-of-June communiqués have become almost a tradition with the SSPX. After courting Benedict XVI for years, the three bishops of the SSPX (Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais and Alfonso de Gallareta) released a statement a several weeks after the former pope resigned pointing out the flaws in a famous speech he gave on the "two hermeneutics" of Vatican II. Continue reading

• Massimo Faggioli is a Church historian and Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia).

According to the statement, issued by SSPX superior general Bishop Bernard Fellay, the society "does not primarily seek recognition from the Vatican".

Bishop Fellay met Pope Francis for the first time in April.

For the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis granted faculties to SSPX priests to offer absolution of sins.

In the statement, Bishop Fellay said "a large number of pastors, including the Pope himself" have encouraged errors.

The bishop said a "painful confusion" currently reigns in the Church.

He affirmed that, in such times, the proclamation of Catholic doctrine requires the denunciation of such errors.

The statement did not specify the "errors" it was referring to.

And it didn't say how the the society believes Pope Francis is encouraging them.

The SSPX society "has a right" to full canonical recognition, Bishop Fellay stated.

But its primary aim is to teach the fullness of Catholic faith, "which shows the only route to follow in this age of darkness in which the cult of man replaces the worship of God, in society as in the Church".

"The 'restoration of all things in Christ' . . . cannot happen without the support of a pope who concretely favours the return to sacred tradition," the statement said.

"While waiting for that blessed day, the Society of St Pius X intends to redouble its efforts to establish and to spread, with the means that divine providence gives to it, the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ."

The statement added: "The Society of Saint Pius X prays and does penance for the Pope, that he might have the strength to proclaim Catholic faith and morals in their entirety."

The statement was issued after a meeting of the group's leaders from 25-28 June.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Catholic Herald
• The Tablet
• DICI (Statement from SSPX)
• Image: Inside the Vatican

Pope Francis told French newspaper La Croix that it is often a mistake to "clericalise" talented laity by turning them into deacons.

"In Buenos Aires, I have known many good priests who, seeing a capable lay person, immediately exclaimed ‘Let's make him a deacon'," Francis said.

"No, you must let the lay person be lay."

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An internal SSPX memo indicates the traditionalist society could be ready to accept if Pope Francis made an appropriate offer.

But that would be conditional on the provision of "an appropriate ecclesial structure" by the Pope.

The memo, titled "Considerations on the Church and the position of the Society of St Pius X in it", was written in February by Fr Franz Schmidberger, rector of the SSPX's seminary in Germany.

Fr Schmidberger asserted that the Vatican has been "gradually lowering its demands and recent proposals, no longer speak of recognising neither the Second Vatican Council nor the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae".

In an interview with a French Catholic paper on April 6, the secretary for the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Archbishop Guido Pozzo, stated that "Vatican II can be adequately understood only in the context of the full tradition of the Church and her constant Magisterium".

"Certain questions can remain 'subject to discussion and clarification'," Archbishop Pozzo added.

SSPX superior Bishop Bernard Fellay met Pope Francis and Archbishop Pozzo at the Vatican on April 1-2.

The SSPX memo stated that perhaps only Pope Francis is able to take this step [towards a regular canonical status for the society], given his unpredictability and improvisation".

"It seems the time to normalise the situation of the society has come," the memo reads.

Fr Schmidberger's memo asserts that whilst the group would like to "return from its 'exile'", further discussions would be expected: "We will not be silent, moreover, we will point out the errors by name. Before and after our normalisation."

It has been speculated that the normalisation of the SSPX would be accomplished by recognising the group as a "personal prelature", a canonical structure used for Opus Dei.

Among the reasons the SSPX wants normalisation are the fact it will need new bishops in the future and their consecrations should be licit.

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: SSPX.org.nz

Last September, Francis decreed that during the Holy Year of Mercy, anyone who confesses their sins to an SSPX priest will be considered validly forgiven.

Now, SSPX superior Bishop Bernard Fellay has said Francis told him during a recent meeting that he wants to extend this authorisation.

A private meeting took place between the Francis and Bishop Fellay on April 1 at the Pope's personal residence at the Vatican.

In a homily at a Mass in France, Bishop Fellay also shared that Francis had said he'd never condemn the society, and that in his eyes, they were "part of the Church".

In the April 10 homily, Bishop Fellay expressed "happiness" over his encounter with Francis.

"You are Catholics, you're not excommunicated, and we must continue to work towards full communion", is what the bishop claims the Pope told him.

The canonical status of the SSPX was not addressed during the meeting between Pope Francis and Bishop Fellay.

But both reportedly determined that the exchanges between them have to continue "without haste".

In the homily, Bishop Fellay also spoke of Francis's recent apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia.

The bishop says the document "makes us cry", adding that its stance on access to the sacraments for divorced and civilly remarried couples makes this a "terrible document which harms the Church".

Talks between the Vatican and the SSPX have been ongoing since 2000, so far with no success.

Last year, Cardinal Mario Poli, handpicked by Francis as his successor in Buenos Aires, helped the society earn recognition as a juridical person.

Sources

• Crux Now
• Image: Catholic Herald

Bishop Williamson, who was dismissed from the Society of St Pius X in 2012, told followers the ordination will happen in Brazil on March 19.

Last year, he presided at the ordination of a bishop, also in Brazil.

Bishop Williamson said the new bishops are needed to sustain "the resistance".

Canon law stipulates that anyone involved in the ordination of a bishop without approval from the Holy See incurs automatic excommunication.

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Deciding then to catch the schools out by visiting again when they were least expected, they found the children equally as good.

The Education Review Office has always given the schools good reviews, Principal Andrew Cranshaw said in the Wanganui Chronicle.

Cranshaw is also the superior of The Society of St Pius X in New Zealand.

Whanganui's St Anthony's Parish is made up of families from the Society of St Pius X.

It has two schools on its Alma Rd site. St Anthony Catholic Primary is for children in Years 1-6. St Dominic College is for girls in Years 7-13 and St Augustine College is for boys the same age. The two senior schools are together for convenience as St Dominic College.

There are 130 pupils in total.

Seventy of them are in the senior schools, including 10 girls from out of town who board with the traditionalist Dominican Sisters of Wanganui on the site.

The precise status of the SSPX is not clear. It isn't officially schismatic.

But on the other hand SSPX priests do not have faculties to exercise priestly ministry.

The Society of St. Pius X was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970 to form priests, as a response to what he described as errors that had crept into the Church following the Second Vatican Council.

In 1988 when Lefebvre consecrated four new bishops without papal mandate the four men and Lefebvre himself were excommunicated by John Paul II.

This excommunication applied only to these individual men, and not to the SSPX as a whole.

Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications of the four bishops.

But this did not bring with it a reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the whole institute of the SSPX, which remains a separate issue.

A distinction has to be made between the Pope's concern for the spiritual wellbeing of the four men who had been under excommunication, and who had respectfully petitioned the Pope to return to full communion with the Church; and the canonical status of the entire SSPX, which still has never been recognised by Rome.

Pope Benedict said "As long as the Society [of Saint Pius X] does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church…."

The Vatican and the SSPX have continued to talked to each other with a view to resolving dogmatic differences.

But the Vatican (most notably the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Archbishop Gerhard Mueller) has obliquely indicated that a reconciliation is not likely to come soon.

This stance has been echoed by some in the SSPX as well, who do not appear to be in a hurry to regularise their status in the Church.

In his letter for the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis established that those who approach the priests of the SSPX for the Sacrament of Reconciliation "shall validly and licitly receive the absolution of their sins" during the Holy Year.

Source

• Wanganui Chronicle
• canonlawmadeeasy.com
• radiovaticana.va
• Image: 3.bp.blogspot.com

This power is normally reserved to bishops, who frequently themselves grant priests permission to forgive the sin.

Procurement of an abortion incurs an automatic excommunication under Church law.

The Year of Mercy opens on December 8 and ends on November 20, 2016.

In another gesture emphasising mercy, the Pope has allowed priests of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X to offer absolution of sins "validly and licitly" to those who approach them for confession during the Holy Year.

These moves and an expansion of the indulgences available to Catholics during the jubilee year were announced in a letter by Francis to Archbishop Rino Fisichella.

The archbishop is president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation, which is organising the holy year on the Pope's behalf.

Regarding abortion, the Pope's letter calls it a "tragedy" and refers to "a widespread and insensitive mentality has led to the loss of the proper personal and social sensitivity to welcome new life".

The Pope also mentioned the pressures some women come under that can result in a decision to have an abortion, and the suffering and anguish that women can experience afterwards.

The papal decision is aimed at penitents seeking forgiveness with a "contrite heart".

Priests are asked to express a "genuine welcome" combined with a reflection that explains the gravity of the sin committed, besides indicating a path of authentic conversion.

Regarding the SSPX, Francis wrote that "This Jubilee Year of Mercy excludes no one."

"I trust that in the near future solutions may be found to recover full communion with the priests and superiors of the fraternity," the Pope stated.

Members of the SSPX are considered not to be in full communion with Rome, and, in normal circumstances, its priests and bishops cannot exercise Roman Catholic ministry.

Other acts of mercy during the jubilee year mentioned in the Pope's letter include an indulgence granted to prisoners who enter their prison chapels.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Reuters
• Image: The Guardian

The move by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was announced by SSPX superior-general Bishop Bernard Fellay during a homily.

The Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, Archbishop Guido Pozzo, said the appointment did not signal that "existing problems" between the SSPX and Rome had been resolved.

"But it is a sign of benevolence and magnanimity. I see no contradiction here, but rather, a step toward reconciliation," Archbishop Pozzo said.

This is not the first time the SSPX has made recourse to Rome regarding "delicta graviora" by priests and dispensations from priestly obligations.

The CDF is in charge of dealing with a number of "delicta graviora", and the one that occurs most frequently involves the sexual abuse of minors.

But what is new is that the CDF has decided to entrust a case, in the first instance trial, to the SSPX superior-general.

Bishop Fellay presented his appointment as an example of the "contradictions" in the Holy See's approach to the SSPX.

"We are labeled now as being irregular, at best. Irregular means you cannot do anything," he said.

"So I was appointed by Rome, by the Congregation of the Faith, to make judgements, canonical Church judgements on some of our priests who belong to a non-existent society for [Rome]."

Bishop Fellay contrasted his appointment with Rome's treatment of a pilgrimage involving 1500 faithful, from which came a request for a celebration of the old rite in St Peter's Basilica.

This request was rejected by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.

It was felt that the celebration of a Mass by a Lefebvrian priest before existing problems around canonical regularisation and full communion were resolved would have sent out the wrong signal.

Pope Francis gave his approval to a proposal for the requested Mass to be celebrated by an Ecclesia Dei priest in St Peter's Basilica.

But SSPX leaders rejected this offer.

Sources

• Vatican Insider
• Image: DICI

The Immaculate Conception Church from Ngongotaha near Rotorua was relocated to Avondale two years ago.

The building was rededicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Fr Robert MacPherson, SSPX, said the 100-year milestone would be celebrated in August.

"We don't know the exact date it was first put in use, we just know it [the centenary] is 2015, so we will plan to celebrate that on the feast of the Immaculate Heart," he said.

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According to Reuters, French Bishop Jean-Michel Faure said the new group rejected Pope Francis and what it called his "new religion".

Bishop Faure and Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson both incurred automatic excommunications last month after the latter consecrated the former without Rome's approval.

Bishop Faure also said the new group would not engage in dialogue with Rome until the Vatican turned back the clock.

"We follow the popes of the past, not the current one," Bishop Faure, 73, told reporters at Santa Cruz Monastery near Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

"It is likely that in maybe one or two years we will have more consecrations," he said, adding there were two candidates ready to become bishops.

Bishop Williamson and Fr Faure had both been expelled from the Society of St Pius X.

Bishop Williamson has said he does not wish to start a new movement.

Bishop Faure said the Resistance group would not engage in dialogue with Rome, as the SSPX has done.

"We resist capitulation, we resist conciliation of St Pius X with Rome," he said.

Bishop Faure said he was not sure what it would take for Rome to return to its old traditions but conflict could be a catalyst.

"If there is another World War . . . maybe the Church will go back to the way it was before," he said.

Bishop Faure told the Guardian the Vatican was smashing tradition, and going against the teachings of Pius X.

"We do not follow that revolution. The current pope is preaching doctrine denied by Pius X. He is less Catholic than us," Bishop Faure said.

The Vatican's response to the ordination was unequivocal.

"Excommunication is automatic," a spokesman said.

He added: "For the Holy See, the diocese of Santa Cruz in Nova Friburgo does not exist. Faure can say what he wants, but a Catholic, and even more so a bishop, obeys and respects the Pope."

Sources

• Reuters
• The Guardian
• Image: Dominicainsavrille

The Rorate Caeli blog reported the planned consecration this month of Fr Jean-Michel Faure at the monastery of Santa Cruz in Nova Friburgo in Brazil.

March 19 is the likely date.

Bishop Williamson was one of four bishops ordained by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988, against the orders of Pope John Paul II.

As such, Bishop Williamson and the other bishops involved incurred excommunications.

The excommunications of Bishop Williamson and three other traditionalist Society of St Pius X bishops were lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

A scandal erupted, however, when it emerged that Bishop Williamson had previously claimed in a Swedish television interview that the Nazis did not use gas chambers and killed no more than 300,000 Jews.

The Vatican claimed that it had not known about Bishop Williamson's extreme anti-semitic beliefs, despite the fact that evidence of this could easily be found on the Internet.

The affair turned into a major public relations disaster, attracting criticism from Jewish groups, Catholic leaders and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A month after the Swedish interview went to air, the SSPX partially sanctioned Bishop Williamson by removing him from his position as the head of a seminary near Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Bishop Williamson was suspended by Pope Benedict until he repudiated his denial of the Holocaust.

In 2012, Bishop Williamson was expelled from the SSPX, for distancing "himself from the leadership and the government of the Saint Pius X Society . . . and refusing to show respect and obedience deserved by his legitimate superiors".

Now, following this month's episcopal consecration, according to Rorate Caeli, a new penalty of excommunication will fall upon Bishop Williamson and those he consecrates.

A second episcopal consecration by Bishop Williamson in Brazil has also been rumoured.

Fr Faure, who was ordained a priest by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1977, left the SSPX in 2013.

Sources

• Rorate Caeli
• Jewish Daily Forward
• The Telegraph
• Image: BBC

The meeting between Cardinal Gerhard Müller and Bishop Bernard Fellay, SSPX, on September 21, has been labelled as "informal".

If it goes ahead, it will be Cardinal Müller's first meeting with Bishop Fellay since the former's appointment as prefect.

As head of the CDF, the German cardinal is also president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which is charged with helping to bring about reconciliation with the SSPX.

In a speech last year, Bishop Fellay called Pope Francis a "genuine modernist" who is making "a real disaster" for the Church "10,000 times worse".

Speaking at the time, Cardinal George Pell said Bishop Fellay's comments were "absolute rubbish" and a "gigantic misreading" of the Pope.

Cardinal Müller was reportedly opposed to the SSPX when he was bishop in Regensburg, Tradinews reports.

Talks between the Vatican and the SSPX were halted when the latter was unable accept the contents of a "doctrinal preamble" that outlined principles and criteria necessary to guarantee fidelity to the Church and its teaching.

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The controversy over the proposed funeral overshadowed ceremonies commemorating the 70th anniversary of the deportation of more than 1000 of the Rome's Jews to Nazi concentration camps.

Priebke died aged 100 while serving a life sentence of house arrest for carrying out a 1944 massacre of 335 Italian civilians.

The diocese of Rome refused his lawyer's request to allow a funeral to take place in a church or chapel.

"Considering all the circumstances of the case, the ecclesial authorities believed that prayer for the deceased and entrusting him to the mercy of God — the aims of a religious funeral — should take place in the strictest privacy," the diocese said.

Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, secretary of Pope Francis's Council of Cardinals, told a Rome newspaper that the Church would never prohibit prayers for someone, but canon law allowed a bishop to deny a public funeral to a "manifest sinner" when it would scandalise the faithful.

Then the traditionalist Society of St Pius X stepped in, offering a funeral Mass in its church in the small town of Albano Laziale, south of Rome.

But the SSPX did not take into account the anger of the townspeople, whose memory of the horrors of the Nazi occupation is still vivid.

Hundreds of people, young and old, came out to protest, kicking the hearse as it arrived. Clashes also broke out with Nazi sympathisers who had arrived in the town.

The funeral was suspended and the coffin put in an unmarked police van and taken to a military airport until it could be determined where Priebke's remains will be buried or cremated.

The city of Rome, Priebke's adopted home in Argentina (where he lived for nearly 50 years) and the town of his birth in Germany all refused his burial.

Sources:

NPR

AFP

Catholic News Service

Religion News Service

Image: The Australian

Bishop Bernard Fellay also said: "The situation of the Church is a real disaster, and the present Pope is making it 10,000 times worse."

Bishop Fellay was speaking to SSPX supporters in a lecture and a sermon during a conference in Kansas City.

Continue reading

According to an SSPX New Zealand newsletter, Bishop Fellay will also administer the sacrament of Confirmation in the SSPX's parish in Whanganui during his visit.

Bishop Fellay, whose excommunication was lifted by Pope Benedict XVI in 2009, sparked controversy late last year after calling Jews "enemies of the Church". He made the comments during a nearly two-hour talk at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy in New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada on 28 December.

At the time the US branch of the society attempted to clarify Bishop Fellay's remark in a statement on its website.

It said: "The word ‘enemies' used here by Bishop Fellay is of course a religious concept and refers to any group or religious sect which opposes the mission of the Catholic Church and her efforts to fulfil it: the salvation of souls".

Source

• NZ Catholic
• Catholic Herald
• Image: dici.org