Episcopal Consecrations in the Society

The communiqué from Menzingen dated February 2, the feast of the Purification of Our Lady, announces new episcopal consecrations for July 1.

After contact with Rome and after having received a letter that “in no way responds to our requests,” Fr. Pagliarani, Superior General of the SSPX, supported by the unanimous opinion of his Council, judges that “the objective state of grave necessity” in which souls find themselves requires such a decision.

We can only rejoice at this news, and we accompany with interest and prayers the unfolding of this courageous decision, fully in keeping with the example left by Archbishop Lefebvre.

It remains to be seen what the Society will do regarding other decisions taken in the past which, in our view, do not appear to be fully in line with Archbishop Lefebvre, such as the juridical situation of marriages celebrated within the Society in agreement and under the direction of local bishops, as well as the expulsion of Bishop Williamson, who opposed a dangerous rapprochement with Rome in 2012.

Be that as it may, we rejoice in this decision and already pray for those who will receive the episcopate on July 1 and who will likely have to endure new excommunications.

The affirmation of an “objective state of grave necessity” shows that the Society makes the same judgment as Archbishop Lefebvre concerning the very root of so many decisions taken by him in the past, and by Tradition in general, in the present and in the future.

May Our Lord protect the Society and the entire Church.

+Thomas Aquinas, O.S.B.