The reckoning the SSPX requires

If the Vatican recognizes a crisis of faith, there may be a solution

FEB 26, 2026

As I explained here, I deeply regret that decision by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) to proceed with episcopal ordinations without a papal mandate. Nevertheless I must say that in the exchange of messages between the Vatican and the traditionalist group following a February 12 meeting in Rome, the SSPX has the better of the argument.

In a February 18 letter to Cardinal Victor Fernandez, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), SSPX leaders made several telling points:

Father Davide Pagliarani, the SSPX superior general, had sought long sought a meeting with Pope Leo (and before him with Pope Francis), to no avail. The invitation to a meeting— not with the Pontiff, but with the unsympathetic DDF prefect— came only after the SSPX had announced its plans to proceed with the ordination of bishops. When that meeting took place, what Cardinal Fernandez offered— “dialogue”— was no more than what Father Pagliarani had originally requested in 2019. So while SSPX created the current crisis by announcing the ordination plans, the Vatican might have avoided it by re-starting quiet talks long ago.
Cardinal Fernandez warned that if the unauthorized episcopal ordinations take place, the SSPX will be guilty of schism. But the Vatican has repeatedly allowed the ordination of Chinese bishops without a papal mandate, and even welcomed those bishops into full communion. As Father Pagliarani put it, “Frankly, I do not see how the Pope could fear a greater danger to souls coming from the Society than from the government in Beijing.” He might have added, too, that the German bishops are proceeding down their radical “Synodal Path” in spite of warnings from Rome, without being accused of breaking communion with the universal Church.
For all the talk of “listening” that has been proclaimed as a mark of the “synodal” Church, the Vatican has shown little interest recently in listening to the complaints of the SSPX. (True, years of talks have produced no agreement. But the same is true of Vatican talks with Anglicans, with the Orthodox, and for that matter with China. Yet those talks continue.)

The heart of the disagreement, however, lies in the Vatican’s insistence that the SSPX accept the authority of Vatican II. On that point the SSPX leaders are adamant, telling Cardinal Fernandez: “We both know in advance that we cannot agree doctrinally, particularly regarding the fundamental orientations adopted since the Second Vatican Council.”

More: https://pflawler.substack.com/p/the-reckoning-the-sspx-requires