TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - World Catholic leader Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday appealed to a group of ultra-traditionalist Catholics not to go ahead with its planned consecration of bishops on Wednesday, an act that could lead to a full schism with the Vatican.
The group, the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), was founded in 1970 by Catholics who opposed the liberal reforms to the church introduced by the 1960s Second Vatican Council.
What did the pope say about the planned consecration?
"I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: Please turn back!” Leo wrote in a letter to the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, the superior of the Society of St. Pius X, calling the plan a schismatic act and a "sin of extreme gravity."
In the letter, the pontiff repeated that the Vatican was prepared to enter into a dialogue and warned of negative impacts for those involved.
"I urge you to consider carefully the spiritual good of the faithful, because the schismatic act you are about to undertake would deprive them of the licit, and in some cases, even valid reception of the sacraments,” he wrote.
Under Catholic Church law, any consecration of bishops that is not authorized by the Vatican must result in the automatic excommunication of both the newly consecrated bishops and those who consecrated them.
In the church, being excommunicated excludes an individual from the sacraments, rites and spiritual fellowship of fellow Catholics.
A decades-long divide in the Catholic Church
The Society of Saint Pius X already celebrated the ordination of five new priests on Monday near its seminary in Econe, Switzerland.
However, the consecration of bishops without papal consent is seen as a much graver violation of church law.
In 1988, SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre of France consecrated four bishops and was immediately excommunicated along with the new bishops, a measure lifted in 2009.
SSPX boasts presence in more than 75 countries across six continents, claiming over 750 priests and nearly half a million faithful.
However, the group still has no legal status in the Catholic Church.
Lefebre himself died in 1991 aged 85.
The society adheres to a strict interpretation of doctrinal and liturgical tradition, including the celebration of the Latin Mass.
It also rejects the ecumenism—working for closer unity with other Christian traditions—imposed by the Second Vatican Council.
Read: War and Peace: Key Themes of Pope Leo's First Year in Office
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