“A Sin of Extreme Gravity” — Pope Leo XIV Warns the SSPX Against Schism
The pope has addressed the breakaway society only twice, handing the talks to Cardinal Víctor Fernández rather than meeting its leaders. The morning he begged them to “turn back,” he named his second woman in a month to lead a Vatican office.
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On Tuesday, the Vatican released a letter Pope Leo XIV had signed the day before, on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, and addressed to a man most Catholics in the pews have never heard of: Father Davide Pagliarani, superior general of the Society of Saint Pius X.
The message ran short. “Please turn back,” Leo wrote to him.
On Wednesday morning in Écône, Switzerland, the breakaway traditionalist society plans to consecrate four new bishops without the pope’s permission — an act the Vatican has already named a schism, and one that would strip the sacraments these Catholics treasure of their standing in Rome’s eyes.
Confessions absolved by the new bishops’ priests and marriages witnessed before them would, the letter warns, be rendered illicit and in some cases invalid.
Pagliarani answered the same day. Within hours of the Vatican posting the appeal, the superior general sent back a long letter of his own — unbending — asking the pope to take more time and reconsider.
This is only the second time Leo has spoken publicly about the standoff, and the restraint is itself the message.
Here’s the backstory.
