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🇸🇪 Sweden /Culture & Society

Pope warns conservative group against consecrating bishops, threatens excommunication

From Svenska Dagbladet · () Swedish

Translated from Swedish, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources Ongoing story
  • Pope Francis has urged an ultra-conservative Catholic society (SSPX) to abandon plans to consecrate four new bishops, threatening excommunication.
  • The SSPX, founded in 1970, opposes reforms from the Second Vatican Council and has a history of conflict with the Vatican.
  • The current standoff risks creating a "parallel structure" within the church, which the Pope views with utmost seriousness.

Pope Francis has issued a stark warning and heartfelt plea to the ultra-conservative Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), urging them to halt their plans to consecrate four new bishops. In a letter sent Monday, the Pope implored the group, "I appeal to you and beg you with all my heart: turn back!" This marks a final attempt to prevent the consecrations, which the Vatican considers a "schismatic" act.

I appeal to you and beg you with all my heart: turn back!

— Pope Leo XIVA direct plea to the SSPX to abandon their plans for consecrating new bishops.

The conflict stems from a deep-seated disagreement rooted in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. The SSPX, founded in Switzerland in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, rejects several of the council's reforms, which modernized the church by allowing Mass in languages other than Latin, easing views on other religions, and condemning antisemitism. The SSPX views these changes as a sign the church is in a "state of emergency."

state of emergency

— SSPXTheir description of the Catholic Church's condition following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

This ideological divide led to a major schism in 1988 when four bishops were consecrated without papal approval, resulting in the excommunication of Lefebvre and the newly consecrated bishops. Although Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications in 2009, attempts at reconciliation have been fraught. One of the consecrated bishops, Richard Williamson, later gained notoriety for Holocaust denial, leading to a conviction and fine in Germany.

schismatic

— Pope Leo XIVDescribing the planned consecrations by the SSPX.

The current tension escalated as the SSPX proceeded with a four-day ceremony in Écône, Switzerland, to consecrate the new bishops. Pope Francis has threatened that both those performing the consecrations and the new bishops will face excommunication. Cardinal Blase Cupich, a close confidant of the Pope, told CNN that the Vatican fears the establishment of a "parallel structure" within the church, a development Pope Francis takes with "the utmost seriousness."

Leo takes the issue with the utmost seriousness and that is why he has had several interventions

— Cardinal Blase CupichExplaining the Pope's strong stance against the SSPX's actions due to fears of a parallel church structure.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Svenska Dagbladet in Swedish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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