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Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre was a French Catholic archbishop who greatly influenced modern traditionalist Catholicism. In 1970, five years after the close of the Second Vatican Council, he founded the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a community to train seminarians in the traditional manner, in the village of Écône, Switzerland. In 1988, Pope John Paul II declared that Archbishop Lefebvre had "incurred the grave penalty of excommunication envisaged by ecclesiastical law" for consecrating four bishops against the pope's express prohibition but, according to Lefebvre, in reliance on an "agreement given by the Holy See ... for the consecration of one bishop."
Traditionalist Catholicism is a movement that emphasizes beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions and presentations of teaching associated with the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). Traditionalist Catholics particularly emphasize the Tridentine Mass, the Roman Rite liturgy largely replaced in general use by the post-Second Vatican Council Mass of Paul VI.
The Society of Saint Pius X is a canonically irregular traditionalist Catholic priestly fraternity founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. Lefebvre was a leading traditionalist at the Second Vatican Council with the Coetus Internationalis Patrum and Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers until 1968. The society was established as a pious union of the Catholic Church with the permission of François Charrière, the Bishop of Lausanne, Geneva and Fribourg in Switzerland.
Richard Nelson Williamson is an English traditionalist Catholic bishop who opposes the changes in the church brought about by the Second Vatican Council.
Ecclesia Dei is the document Pope John Paul II issued on 2 July 1988 in reaction to the Ecône consecrations, in which four priests of the Society of Saint Pius X were ordained as bishops despite an express prohibition by the Holy See. The consecrating bishop and the four priests consecrated were excommunicated. John Paul called for unity and established the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei to foster a dialogue with those associated with the consecrations who hoped to maintain both loyalty to the papacy and their attachment to traditional liturgical forms.
Bernard Fellay is a Swiss bishop who opposes the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council. Fellay is the former superior general of the Traditionalist Catholic priestly fraternity Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). In 1988, Pope John Paul II announced that Fellay and three others were automatically excommunicated for being consecrated as bishops by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, an act that the Holy See described as "unlawful" and "schismatic". Archbishop Lefebvre, and Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer who co-consecrated these four bishops, were also said to be automatically excommunicated. At that time, he was the youngest bishop of the Roman Catholic Church at 30 years old.
Bernard Tissier de Mallerais was a French traditionalist Catholic prelate who served as a bishop of the Society of Saint Pius X from 1988 until his death in 2024.
Alfonso de Galarreta Genua,, is a Spanish-born Argentine traditionalist Catholic bishop of the Society of Saint Pius X. Bishop de Galarreta has served as the First Assistant of the Society of Saint Pius X, working under the direction of the Superior General Fr. Davide Pagliarani, since 2018. In addition to this, Bishop de Galaretta has been the President of the SSPX—Vatican Commission since 2009, which directs the Society's correspondence with the Holy See.
The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei was a commission of the Catholic Church established by Pope John Paul II's motu proprioEcclesia Dei of 2 July 1988 for the care of those former followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who broke with him as a result of his consecration of four priests of his Society of St. Pius X as bishops on 30 June 1988, an act that the Holy See deemed illicit and a schismatic act. It was also tasked with trying to return to full communion with the Holy See those traditionalist Catholics who are in a state of separation, of whom the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) is foremost, and of helping to satisfy just aspirations of people unconnected with these groups who want to keep alive the pre-1970 Roman Rite liturgy.
Josef Meinrad Bisig, FSSP is a Swiss traditionalist Catholic priest, and co-founder and first superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter. He was originally a member of the Society of Saint Pius X but left when founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre illicitly consecrated four bishops.
Basil Kovpak is a Ukrainian Traditionalist Catholic priest and the founder and current head of the Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat. Formerly a priest of the Archeparchy of Lviv of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), Kovpak was excommunicated by the UGCC in 2007.
The Écône consecrations were Catholic episcopal consecrations in Écône, Switzerland, on 30 June 1988 performed by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and Bishop Antônio de Castro Mayer. The bishops consecrated were four priests of Lefebvre's Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). The consecrations, performed against the explicit orders of Pope John Paul II, represented a milestone in the troubled relationship of Lefebvre and the SSPX with the Church leadership. The Holy See's Congregation for Bishops issued a decree signed by its Prefect Cardinal Bernardin Gantin declaring that Lefebvre and De Castro Mayer had incurred automatic excommunication by consecrating the bishops without papal consent, thus putting himself and his followers in schism.
The Priestly Society of Saint Josaphat Kuntsevych (SSJK) is a society of traditionalist priests and seminarians originating from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church which is led by the excommunicated priest Basil Kovpak. It is based in Riasne, Lviv, Western Ukraine. In Lviv, the society maintains a seminary, at which currently thirty students reside, and takes care of a small convent of Basilian sisters. The SSJK is affiliated with the Society of St. Pius X and Holy Orders are conferred by the latter society's bishops in the Roman Rite. The SSJK clergymen, however, exclusively follow a version of Slavonic Byzantine Rite in the Ruthenian recension.
There have been several controversies surrounding the Society of St. Pius X, many of which concern political support for non-democratic regimes, alleged antisemitism, and the occupation of church buildings. The Society of St. Pius X is an international organisation founded in 1970 by the French traditionalist Catholic archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
For a number of years after the controversial 1988 consecrations, there was little if any dialogue between the Society of St. Pius X and the Holy See. This state of affairs ended when the Society led a large pilgrimage to Rome for the Jubilee in the year 2000.
The canonical situation of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a group founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, is unresolved. The Society of Saint Pius X has been the subject of much controversy since 1988, when Bernard Fellay, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Richard Williamson and Alfonso de Galarreta were illicitly consecrated as bishops at Ecône, at the International Seminary of Saint Pius X, in violation of canon law. Lefebvre and the four other SSPX bishops individually incurred a disciplinary latae sententiae excommunication for this schismatic act. The excommunications of the four living SSPX bishops were remitted in 2009.
Vitus Huonder was a Swiss prelate of the Catholic Church. A Traditionalist Catholic, he served as Bishop of Chur from 2007 to 2019.
Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X is the title given to the head of the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970.
Paul Aulagnier was a French Traditionalist Catholic priest. Once a member of the Society of Saint Pius X, he then became one of the principal founders of the Institute of the Good Shepherd, an organisation in full communion with the Pope which upholds the Tridentine Mass.
The Fraternity of the Transfiguration is a Traditionalist Roman Catholic Order founded by Bernard Lecareux in France. The Fraternity of the Transfiguration has a close connection to the Society of Saint Pius X, specifically their French District.
References
- ↑ "Alla destra di Lefebvre, uno scisma tira l'altro". lanuovabq.it. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
- ↑ "St. Marcel Initiative" . Retrieved 2022-08-22.
- ↑ "Williamson ordains a new bishop". lastampa.it (in Italian). 2015-03-18. Retrieved 2022-08-22.
- ↑ "Mgr Williamson ordonne un évêque et est à nouveau excommunié". La Vie.fr (in French). 2015-03-20. Retrieved 2022-08-22.