The Priestly Society of St. Pius X, widely known as SSPX, has announced it will ordain bishops without papal permission on July 1, an act that would lead to the automatic excommunication of both the consecrating bishop and the bishop being consecrated. The move would likely complicate the already-murky canonical status of the traditionalist group.

The SSPX was founded in 1970 in response to the Second Vatican Council. Its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, had been present at the council and disagreed with a number of its teachings, including the reforms to the liturgy and the assertion that God is at work in other religions. In 1975, the Vatican ordered the society to disband, which it refused to do.

Archbishop Lefebvre was automatically excommunicated in 1988 after he ordained four bishops for the society without the pope’s permission. The group continued to operate its own seminaries and ordain its own priests in the subsequent decades. Pope Benedict XVI lifted the four bishops’ excommunications in 2009, but the group was never fully re-integrated into the church due to ongoing disagreements over the doctrinal validity of Vatican II. Its status remains unclear or “irregular.”

Pope Francis made further pastoral concessions to the group, allowing SSPX priests to hear Catholic confessions and absolve sins in 2015, and in 2017 allowing SSPX marriages to be recognized by the church so long as a diocesan or “fully regular” priest is present. (A bishop could also delegate an SSPX priest for a wedding if necessary.)

Today, two of the original four bishops ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre have died—one, Bishop Richard Williamson, was dismissed from the order in 2012 over differences with leadership concerning the society’s relationship with Rome; Bishop Williamson was also known for his public denials of the extent of the Holocaust. He died in 2025, and another of the original four bishops died in 2024. According to the society’s website, the group includes almost 600 priests and close to 200 seminarians worldwide.

According to a press release from the society issued today, the group’s superior general, the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, requested a meeting with Pope Leo XIV in August that appears not to have been granted, and sent a follow-up letter that “explicitly expressed the particular need of the society to ensure the continuation of the ministry of its bishops.”

Portraits of Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Society of St. Pius X, flank a crucifix in the community room at St. Michael the Archangel Chapel in Farmingville, N.Y., Feb. 1. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz)

The press release says Father Pagliarani received a letter from the Holy See “in recent days…which does not in any way respond to our requests.” So, it says, after prayer and consultation with his council, Father Pagliarani decided to move forward with the ordinations.

The move is widely seen as an attempt to force a decision from the Vatican on the group’s canonical status. In 2019, Pope Francis dissolved the pontifical commission that was tasked with resolving the group’s status, giving that responsibility to what is now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. A senior SSPX layman, speaking to EWTN, said that although dialogue had been ongoing since summer 2025, “Rome is dragging its feet and being obstructive.”

Today’s SSPX press release says, “In the coming days, the Superior General will provide further explanations regarding the present situation and his decision,” likely waiting to see if the Vatican will respond to the escalation in tensions.

So far, it has not.

Correction: An earlier version of this report stated incorrectly that Pope John Paul II ordered the SSPX to disband in 1975.

Colleen Dulle is the Vatican Correspondent at America and co-hosts the "Inside the Vatican" podcast. She is the author of Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter (Image, 2025).