Society of St. Pius X

Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Roman Catholic priestly society founded in 1970 in Ecône, Switzerland, by Marcel Lefebvre, a conservative French archbishop who had dissented from the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65). Lefebvre was excommunicated in 1988 for consecrating new traditionalist bishops in the Society of St. Pius X without the approval of the Holy See. His act of defiance caused a schism and therefore made the SSPX canonically illegitimate. Although the Vatican has since made concessions to the society, its priests do not legitimately exercise priestly functions in the view of the church (that is, they are deemed canonically irregular).

History

Lefebvre opened a seminary in Fribourg, Switzerland, in 1969 that he named for Pope Pius X (reigned 1903–14), who had been a staunch conservative. In 1970 he established a seminary at Ecône, a villa near Riddes in Valais canton, to train priests according to his traditionalist model. Shortly afterward he founded the Society of St. Pius X, which received the approval of the local bishop.

Among other disagreements, Lefebvre had objected to changes to the mass ushered in with the Second Vatican Council, including the abandonment of Latin in favor of liturgies in the vernacular. He exchanged vigorous criticisms with the Vatican, declared the reforms of the council to be “poisoned through and through” and derived “from heresy,” and later called the modern form of mass a “bastard rite.” In 1975 the Vatican withdrew approval of the Society of St. Pius X.

In 1976 Pope Paul VI suspended Lefebvre, forbidding him to carry out priestly and episcopal functions. However, Lefebvre continued his priesthood and began establishing regional headquarters in various countries for his variety of Roman Catholicism. Several negotiating efforts to avoid a schism failed. On June 30, 1988, Lefebvre consecrated four bishops—Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson, and Alfonso de Galarreta—at Ecône in defiance of Pope John Paul II’s orders. Lefebvre and the four bishops were excommunicated. The SSPX, then numbering more than 60,000 followers, was deemed schismatic.

Lefebvre died in 1991, but the society remained active, despite not being legitimate in the eyes of the Vatican. After dialogue between the four SSPX bishops and the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree in January 2009 that lifted their excommunication. Two months later, however, Benedict clarified that the SSPX had no canonical status in the church and that its ministers’ ecclesiastical authority remained illegitimate.

In 2016, as part of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis made further concessions to the society, approving a special provision that allows SSPX priests to validly absolve sins heard during the sacrament of reconciliation. A year later Francis extended this provision beyond the Jubilee Year. In 2017 he approved another provision that guarantees the validity of marriages celebrated by SSPX priests in traditionalist churches, provided that a canonically regular bishop has authorized the SSPX priest with the ability to witness or officiate the ceremony.

The society remains loyal to the traditionalist form of Roman Catholicism and is committed to resisting what it calls (quoting Pope Paul VI) “the auto demolition of the [Roman Catholic] Church.” Its primary concerns are modernism, religious liberty, ecumenism, threats to the church’s hierarchical structure (collegiality), and changes to the liturgy of the traditional Latin mass.

Get Unlimited Access

Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.

Subscribe

Organization

The SSPX is governed by a superior general, who serves for 12 years and resides in the society’s General House in Menzingen, Switzerland. The superior general is advised in his governance by two assistants. The society is organized into 15 districts with religious houses established in more than 60 countries and six seminaries, the latter of which are located in Switzerland, France, Germany, Australia, Argentina, and the United States. The U.S.-based publishing house Angelus Press is also affiliated with the society.

Three of the original consecrated bishops remain in their positions. The British bishop Richard Williamson was expelled from the society in 2012 for disobedience after publicly criticizing the SSPX’s doctrinal discussions with the Vatican. He had also criticized the dialogue between the Vatican and the society leading up to the revoking of excommunication and had made statements denying the Holocaust.

In the early 21st century there were nearly 600 SSPX priests and nearly 200 seminarians. There were also more than 100 religious brothers and nearly 200 religious sisters, with about 80 oblate (lay) sisters. The number of adherents was estimated to be between 500,000 and 600,000 worldwide.