Traditionalist Catholics reject Pope Leo XVI and Vatican authority in a dramatic showdown

A section of traditional Catholics is turning against the authority of Pope Leo XVI. They are consecrating four bishops next week without papal consent. The group Society of St Pius X (SSPX) is seeking a schismatic outsider status instead of reconciliation with the papacy. They do not mind that their four bishops will not be in communion with Rome. The July 1 event marks nearly four decades since the group SSPX became a thorn in the Vatican's side. The SSPX superior, Fr Davide Pagliarani, has justified the consecrations as a “state of necessity” to save souls.

“The ceremony of July 1st will have no other purpose than to ensure the continued administration of the sacraments of Holy Orders and Confirmation, together with those sacramentals reserved to bishops, according to the traditional rite of the Holy Roman Church and the immemorial Faith,” said Pagliarani.

They have organised a large-scale, four-day, livestreamed event at their Swiss seminary, complete with booking accommodation, car pooling network and custom levelled festival wine for attendees.

Pope Leo has warned that any act of consecration will automatically result in excommunication. While Pope Leo tried to bring them back to the mainstream, they hit a brick wall over ideological contradictions.

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What is the Society of St Pius X (SSPX)?

"To me, they look really like Traditionalism 2.0," said Massimo Faggioli, professor of theology at Villanova University, Leo's alma mater. The group has embraced the digital branding of its anti-modern, traditional and religious identity. "Their game is not about getting back into the fold, but getting back into the monopoly of that ultra-traditionalist identity," said Faggioli.

The group split with the papacy over the modernising reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council. The group prefer their Masses in Latin and says that the post-Vatican II Church is awash in heresies and strayed from the core of Catholicism. It argues that its uncompromising traditionalism is the only shield against the peril of modernism. The group first broke with the Vatican in 1988, when its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without papal consent. The Vatican then excommunicated them; the group still has no legal status. It continues to grow parallel to the Vatican- with two bishops, 733 priests, 264 seminarians, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates and 250 religious sisters representing 50 nationalities.