Op-ed: SSPX ordinations were a ‘towering betrayal’ of Pope Benedict’s benevolence

A priest recently wrote in the National Catholic Register that, as evidenced by the Vatican’s strict response to the illicit July 1 episcopal ordinations, Pope Leo XIV has ended the unsuccessful outreach of Pope Benedict XVI to the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), which had aimed in 2009 to chart a course to unity and conversion through clemency. 

Now that the SSPX leadership has rejected this path to reconciliation, Pope Leo is returning to the approach of Pope St. John Paul II in 1988, when he excommunicated the SSPX bishops involved in illicit consecrations at the time, the commentary argued. 

“The path to reconciliation in 2026 runs now through the protocol of 1988, not the clemency of 2009,” Father Raymond de Souza, founding editor of Convivium magazine, wrote in the July 3 commentary. 

Pope John Paul II declared in 1988 that SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s ordination of four new bishops without the papal mandate was a schismatic act and that the involved clergy had incurred automatic excommunication. In the apostolic letter declaring this, Pope John Paul II also wrote that “formal adherence to the schism is a grave offence against God and carries the penalty of excommunication decreed by the Church's law.” 

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Father de Souza noted that Pope John Paul II never specified who was in “formal adherence,” and at the time the Vatican did not explicitly state that all priests in the SSPX were schismatics and subject to automatic excommunication. Father de Souza wrote that though not explicitly stated, this seemed to obviously apply to these priests, but because no explicit or formal declaration about any particular priest was given, “some ambiguity reigned” in the years that followed. 

Nearly four decades later, the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) issued a decree, accompanied by an explanatory note, stating that the involved SSPX clergy in the July 1 ordinations had incurred automatic excommunication and that all the society’s clergy members are in schism, which bears the penalty of excommunicationof and excommunicated.

Father de Souza argued that the ambiguity has been removed by the DDF’s July 2 explanatory note, and that through this note and the decree, “What John Paul left implied is now explicit — all the priests of the SSPX are ‘in schism and subject to the penalty of excommunication.’ That applies too to the lay faithful who ‘formally adhere’ to the schism, for example, by supporting the illicit ordination of bishops, or by exclusively frequenting the SSPX chapels.”

Father de Souza also posited that there is a “hint” contained in the July 2 decree that gives insight to how the Vatican has viewed the SSPX’s situation since 1988. The decree is marked by the protocol number “99/2009,” which is a file from 2009 when Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications on the four surviving SSPX bishops.  

“Protocol numbers are how Vatican departments organize their filing; a letter or submission is assigned a protocol number so that all the relevant documents are kept together in the right file,” Father de Souza explained. 

He wrote that given the 99/2009 marking on the July 2 decree, “The DDF understands its decree, therefore, to be part of the same dossier in which Benedict lifted the original penalties, which he did as an act of mercy at the request of the SSPX.”

“The meaning is subtle but clear,” he continued. “The leniency shown by Benedict did not achieve either conversion or communion with the SSPX; therefore, a return to the full impact of the 1988 penalties is now appropriate.”

Pope Benedict wrote in 2009 that the goal in lifting the excommunications was the same as the goal for the initial penalty: to encourage the wayward bishops to return. 

“Whether Benedict accurately judged the openness of hearts in the SSPX in 2009, it is manifest in 2026 that hearts are closed,” Father de Souza wrote. 

The same bishops who had asked to have their excommunications lifted in 2009 participated in the illicit ordinations this year, demonstrating “no firm purpose of amendment, no contrition, only contumacy,” he wrote. “The towering betrayal of Benedict’s benevolence is breathtaking.”

He noted that the SSPX has “persisted in schism” over the past several decades and encouraged people to join in their society. 

Now, Pope Leo “has returned to what John Paul clearly saw and wrote in 1988,” he continued. “For those who still refuse to listen, the DDF has made clear that John Paul was correct in his diagnosis then and now.”

Father de Souza noted that the Vatican will have to take formal canonical steps now that the DDF’s clarifications have been issued. Particularly, the DDF had noted that the SSPX priests cannot validly administer the sacrament of Confession or witness marriages; Pope Francis had granted SSPX priests this faculty several years ago, and thus a formal revoking of this faculty is now needed. He also observed that formally declaring that all SSPX priests have incurred the penalty of excommunication would help communicate with precision the situation, as the DDF decree states that the SSPX priests are in schism, which bears the penalty of excommunication.

“For admirers of Pope Benedict, the aftermath of lifting the excommunications in 2009 has been painful, culminating in the perfidy of 2026,” he concluded. “It is a grace — and perhaps a kindness of the SSPX — that he did not live to see it.”