ROME — Pope Leo XIV sent a letter to the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, superior of the Society of St. Pius X, on July 1, 2026, urging the cancellation of planned episcopal consecrations. The Pope asked the society to call off its plan to consecrate four new bishops without his consent at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland, on July 2, 2026.

In the letter, Pope Leo XIV characterized the planned consecrations as a schismatic act and a "sin of extreme gravity." Under church law, such consecrations incur automatic excommunication for the four new bishops and the bishop administering the rite. The Pope stated that this action would deprive members of the society of the licit, and in some cases valid, reception of sacraments.

"I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!" Pope Leo XIV said. He also wrote, "I urge you to consider carefully the spiritual good of the faithful, because the schismatic act you are about to undertake would deprive them of the licit, and in some cases, even valid reception of the sacraments." The Society of St. Pius X has no legal status within the Catholic Church.

The society was founded in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council, which included allowing Mass to be celebrated in local languages instead of Latin. In 1988, SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without obtaining papal consent, resulting in the Vatican excommunicating Lefebvre and the four other bishops. The Vatican later lifted the original excommunications of the SSPX bishops in 2009.

The Society of St. Pius X has justified past consecrations by citing a "state of necessity" to minister to its faithful. According to statistics from the society, the organization includes two bishops, 751 priests, 264 seminarians, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates, and 250 religious sisters from 50 nationalities. Pope Leo XIV is American.