Cardinal Tucho Fernández, Head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith, just published a new statement warning the SSPX not to consecrate bishops on July 1, 2026 since this will “constitute ‘a schismatic act’ (John Paulo II, Ecclesia Dei, n. 3) and ‘formal adherence to the schism constitutes a serious offense to God and involves excommunion provided for by the law of the Church’ (ibid. , 5c; cf. Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Explanatory Note, August 24, 1996). ”
This photo was taken back in May of 2008. It is His Eminence Dario Cardinal Hoyos, then-head of the Vatican’s Ecclesia Dei Commission. His Eminence was the prefect responsible for everything having to do with Ecclesia Dei and the Vatican’s Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) reunification efforts.
We know it. The Vatican knows it. And God knows it. So, fire away Cardinal Tucho. We have all been here before. We got the tee-shirt back in 1988. Y’all have cried wolf way too many times to be taken seriously on this question.
We were at a press conference hosted by the FSSP, when I asked His Eminence the following question, which is still up at EWTN. In the excerpt below, I am the “journalist” asking the question of Cardinal Hoyos:
“Journalist: There is a lot of confusion about this word ‘schism,’ though. We, as Catholic journalists, should we be using the word ‘schism’ with respect to the Society? Is that the correct word to use?
“His Eminence: It is not exactly correct, because there was a schismatical action, which is different. It was a schismatical action from Archbishop Lefebvre in the ordination [of the bishops], but they keep the obedience to the Holy See. They have not (the) exercise of power [of governance]. They are the bishops, they are auxiliaries of the Society. The Society was, the juridical personality of the Society, was cancelled by the Church, but they are, in their language, auxiliary bishops. We hope that they will come to the full communion with the Church. But some people are going too fast to schism and to the heresy, because if they begin to be teachers of the Pope, this is not schism, this is heresy. And if it is confirmed, people going with that kind of movement will be excommunicated, too, because of the heresy. But now, they are not really in schism or heresy.
“Journalist: So ‘irregular standing,’ what word should we use?
“His Eminence: This is ‘irregular standing.’ This is the way we speak about them.”
The takeaway? Even at that time — twenty years after the 1988 Consecrations — the Vatican hierarchs could not quite bring themselves to lie about what was obviously nothing more than an “irregular canonical status” of the SSPX. Because of the State of Emergency provision in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, the SSPX was not in schism then and will not be in schism after July 1, 2026.
We know it. The Vatican knows it. And God knows it. So, fire away Cardinal Tucho. We have all been here before. We got the tee-shirt back in 1988. Y’all have cried wolf way too many times to be taken seriously on this question.
