STOP PRESS: SSPX Superior General responds to excommunications
Fr Davide Pagliarani has responded to the sanctions levelled against the SSPX.
Fr Davide Pagliarani has responded to the sanctions levelled against the SSPX.
(WM Round-Up) – Just after publishing our article ‘Heretics REALLY can’t excommunicate: More clarifications in light of SSPX excommunications’, Fr Davide Pagliarani’s responseto the sanctions levelled against the SSPX was published.
Niwa Limbu of Ad Vaticanum has broken the SSPX Superior General’s response to the decree of excommunication, 2 July 2026.
Fr Pagliarani describes the sanctions as “objectively unjust and invalid”, although he does not explain the grounds for this conclusion. He maintains the “filial” tone which has characterised his interventions with regard to the consecrations.
We present the text here, followed by the response of the SSPX District Superiors in 1988 for historical interest.
See also:
Letter to Leo XIV
From Fr Davide Pagliarani, Superior General of the SSPX
3 July 2026
Society of Saint Pius X
The Superior General
To His Holiness
Pope Leo XIV
Ecône, 3 July 2026
Among yourselves, if a father is asked by his son for bread, will he give him a stone? Or for a fish, will he give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he is asked for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? Why then, if you, evil as you are, know well enough how to give your children what is good for them, is not your Father much more ready to give, from heaven, his gracious Spirit to those who ask him? (Lk XI, 11-13)
Most Holy Father,
The notification of the decision taken by the Holy See regarding the Society of Saint Pius X, signed by His Eminence Cardinal Fernández, has reached us and is now a matter of public knowledge.
It appears to us that this decision once more brings to light the profoundly tragic context in which the universal Church finds herself. What the Society of Saint Pius X has done, and will continue to do, is nothing other than an extraordinary initiative for the salvation of souls, amidst the doctrinal and moral confusion into which the Church is plunged. We in no way claim to substitute ourselves for the Church, and we have no ambition other than to remain faithful to her.
In conscience, we did not believe we could evade the moral duty we owe to souls, as we have already explained, both privately and publicly, to Your Holiness.
We had asked for bread, that is to say, a measure of understanding for a sincere case of conscience—an act of fatherhood directed not so much toward the Society of Saint Pius X as toward souls, promising You to form them into true sons of the Roman Church; unfortunately, we received a stone.
We had asked for a fish, that is to say, the possibility of temporarily obtaining the necessary means to continue forming good priests, so that they might pursue their mission of making Our Lord known to souls; unfortunately, we received a serpent.
We had asked for an egg, promising to return it as soon as possible. Indeed, the holy Tradition that we preserve within souls belongs to the Church, our Mother—and not to the Society of Saint Pius X—and we are certain that one day a Pope will wish to employ it for the good of the universal Church; unfortunately, we received a scorpion.
We had asked to be instructed and confirmed in the faith of all time; instead, we have been declared schismatic a second time.
Despite the sanctions levelled against us, the Society of Saint Pius X sincerely renews the promise it has already expressed to Your Holiness. Allow me, in this regard, to freely reiterate what I have previously stated:
“The Society promises You […] to devote all its energies to preserving Tradition and placing it at the service of the Church. In doing so, the Society of Saint Pius X does not merely maintain ancient customs; it fosters and preserves priestly vocations, religious vocations, and large, deeply Christian families—in a word, everything that manifests the vitality of the Church, of grace, and of the Catholic faith. Our intention is not to offer the Church a museum of antiquities, but rather the entirety of Tradition: fruitful, a source of spiritual life, embodied and lived out within souls.
[...] I am certain that one day You yourself, or one of Your successors, will be able and willing to utilise this service, the offering of which, within the Church and for the Church, constitutes our sole reason for being.” (Personal letter addressed to His Holiness on 21 November 2025)
But above all, the Society of Saint Pius X promises You today that it will not receive these new sanctions—objectively unjust and invalid—with bitterness or revolt.
These recent condemnations, like those of the past, strike at what we hold most dear: our attachment to our Mother, the Roman Church. Yet, even in this trial, all things must work together for the good of souls and of the Church herself. Therefore, these condemnations compel us to love Holy Church even more, and to provide for her needs with all our strength, now more than ever. For this very reason, the Society of Saint Pius X willingly offers up the suffering caused by these new sanctions for the good of the universal Church and of Your Holiness.
We are certain that one day You yourself, or one of Your successors, will wish to adopt the program of Saint Pius X: “To restore all things in Christ,” Instaurare omnia in Christo. On that day, the Holy Father will discover in the Society of Saint Pius X not a nest of serpents and scorpions, but a small army of loyal sons, ready to do anything to sustain Him in the restoration of all things in Our Lord, and to vindicate before all mankind the imprescriptible rights of Christ the King over all souls and over all nations.
On that day, the Holy Father will discover, with great joy and profound consolation, authentically Catholic souls whose bond with the Church was never founded upon the shifting sands of an ambiguous dialogue, but upon the rock of the faith of Peter.
We ask the Most Holy Virgin Mary to hasten the dawning of that day, and we pray, above all, that Your Holiness may experience this joy and consolation as soon as possible.
In the meantime, if You are able, despite Your recent decision, bless us as Your sons. For us, nothing has changed, and nothing ever will change.
Trusting in Divine Providence, from which nothing is hidden and which reads into the depths of every man’s heart,
I remain, Most Holy Father, your most devoted son in the Lord.
D. Pagliarani
Don Davide Pagliarani
Historical: Open letter from the Superiors of the SSPX (1988)
To Cardinal Gantin, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops,
6 July 1988
Published in Fideliter N° 64 July-August 1988, pp. 11-12.
Translated by The WM Review
Your Eminence,
United around their Superior General, the Superiors of the districts, seminaries, and autonomous houses of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X deem it right to express respectfully to you the following reflections.
You have thought it necessary, by your letter of the past 1 July, to make known to His Excellency Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, to His Excellency Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer, and to the four bishops whom they consecrated on 30 June last at Écône, their excommunication latæ sententiæ. Judge for yourselves, therefore, the worth of such a declaration coming from an authority which, in its exercise, breaks with that of all its predecessors up to Pope Pius XII, in the worship, the teaching, and the government of the Church.
For our part, we are in full communion with all the popes and all the bishops who preceded the Second Vatican Council, celebrating exactly the Mass which they codified and celebrated, teaching the catechism which they composed, and standing firm against the errors which they many times condemned in their encyclicals and pastoral letters. Judge, therefore, on which side the rupture lies. We are deeply grieved by the blindness of mind and the hardness of heart of the Roman authorities.
On the other hand, we have never wished to belong to that system which styles itself the “Conciliar Church,” and which defines itself by the Novus Ordo Missæ, by indifferentist ecumenism, and by the secularisation of the whole of society. Yes, we have no part — nullam partem habemus — with the pantheon of religions of Assisi; our own excommunication by a decree of your Eminence or of another dicastery would be only the irrefutable proof of this.
We would ask for nothing better than to be declared ex communione from the adulterous spirit which has blown through the Church for twenty-five years, excluded from the impious communion with unbelievers. We believe in the one God, our Lord Jesus Christ, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, and we shall ever remain faithful to his one Spouse, the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church.
To be therefore publicly associated with the sanction which strikes the six Catholic bishops, defenders of the faith in its integrity and totality, would be for us a mark of honour and a sign of orthodoxy before the faithful. For these faithful indeed have a strict right to know that the priests to whom they turn do not belong to the communion of a counterfeit Church – evolving, Pentecostal, and syncretist. United with these faithful, we make our own the words of the prophet (1 Kings vii, 3):
Preparate corda vestra Domino et servite Illi Soli: et liberabit vos de manibus inimicorum vestrorum. Convertimini ad Eum in toto corde vestro, et auferte deos alienos de medio vestri.
“Attach your heart firmly to the Lord and serve him alone: and he will deliver you from the hands of your enemies. It is with all your heart that you must return to God; put away from among you the strange gods.”
Confident in the protection of her, she who has crushed all heresies throughout the whole world, we beg you, Eminence, to accept the assurance of our devotion to him who is the only way of salvation.
At Écône, 6 July 1988.
There then follows the signatures of the Superior General and of all the Superiors of the districts, seminaries, and autonomous houses of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X throughout the whole world:
Fr. Franz Schmidberger, Superior General
Fr. Paul Aulagnier, District Superior, France
Fr. Franz-Josef Maessen, District Superior, Germany
Fr. Edward Black, District Superior, Great Britain
Fr. Anthony Esposito, District Superior of Italy
Fr. François Laisney, District Superior, United States
Fr. Jacques Emily, District Superior of Canada
Fr. Jean Michel Faure, District Superior of Mexico
Fr. Gerard Hogan, District Superior of Australasia
Fr. Alain Lorans, Superior, Seminary of Ecône
Fr. Jean Paul André, Superior, Seminary of France
Fr. Paul Natterer, Superior, Seminary of Germany
Fr. Andrès Morello, Superior, Seminary of Argentina
Fr. William Welsh, Superior, Seminary of Australia
Fr. Michel Simoulin, Rector, St. Pius X University
Fr. Patrice Laroche, Vice-Rector, Seminary of Ecône
Fr. Philippe François, Superior, Belgium
Fr. Roland de Mérode, Superior, Netherlands
Fr. Georg Pflüger, Superior, Austria
Fr. Guillaume Devillers, Superior, Spain
Fr. Philippe Pazat, Superior, Portugal
Fr. Daniel Couture, Superior, Ireland
Fr. Patrick Groche, Superior, Gabon
Fr. Frank Peek, Superior, Southern Africa
Taken from de Fideliter N° 64 July-August 1988, pp. 11-12.
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See also:
Can heretics excommunicate? Foundational canonical text says they cannot
‘Audivimus’, ‘Achatius’ and Causa XXIV: Heretics Excommunicating Catholics
Church teaching says you can’t be excommunicated by a heretic
History repeating itself? A closer look at the Vatican’s SSPX excommunications
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Speaking of the Dicastery for the Destruction of the Faith (a crucial term coined by Louie Verrecchio) and its censure:
"This is an excommunication of Roman Catholicism." Bp Sanborn.
I hope the SSPX can understand this.
The letter is severely disappointing, and far from the old fighting spirit of Abp. Lefebvre's SSPX, as demonstrated by the comparison to the 1988 letter. Thank you to Mr. Wright for this important comparison of the two.
While the 1988 letter took the fight to the Modernists, accusing them, condemning their crimes and proclaiming the truth boldly, evincing a spirit of strength and conviction, the 2026 letter is weak, soft, nauseatingly deferential to a destroyer of the Church, omitting what it should say and avoiding saying anything that would accuse the heretics or make them squirm. It conveys primarily sadness, and offers nothing in its defense. It is telling that Fr. Pagliarani now repeatedly disavows any reaction of "bitterness and revolt" - is that how he views the previous (1988) reaction?
The 2026 letter is an expression of the liberal Fellayite SSPX, which was and is rightly opposed by the Resistance, and which probably never wanted to go through with the consecrations but was forced by biological imperatives, and now regrets this bad blood between themselves and the Modernist heretics and enemies of the Reign of Christ, instead of rejoicing to be declared out of communion with the Conciliar Church (but the Fellayite SSPX no longer makes the distinction between the Conciliar Church and the Catholic Church, as is evident also by comparing the two letters).
We hope for an end to this liberal orientation, and that the SSPX will return to its roots, not so much for the sake of the SSPX itself, but for the sake of souls depending on it. The words of Bp. Goldade give hope. Unfortunately, this letter and the recent sermon of Bp. Schreiber (which is also not characterized by a fighting spirit, and in which he criticizes "bitter zeal", and when mentioning the Mass and the formation of priests doesn't include combatting errors in the principal tasks of the Society) take some of that hope away.