Following the illicit consecration of four bishops by the Society of St. Pius X, the Vatican secretary of state says he still hopes for a solution.
On Wednesday, July 1, 2026, in Écône, Switzerland, amidst pouring rain, the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) illicitly consecrated four bishops, despite repeated appeals. In the aftermath, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin expressed his “great sorrow” over this development, which is a “schismatic act.” The Vatican official nevertheless shared his hopes for a resumption of dialogue and a “solution.” He made these statements while speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting at the Italian Embassy to the Holy See,
“I want to express great sorrow, because [ ... ] an act of this kind deeply wounds the unity of the Church,” Cardinal Parolin said late Wednesday afternoon. The Italian prelate was speaking just hours after the highly publicized ordinations of the four SSPX bishops, which were carried out without a pontifical mandate. By participating in this gesture of dissidence, the celebrating bishop and the ordained bishops incur the penalty of excommunication.
A schismatic act
“Obviously, it is an act schismatic in itself, because we know that episcopal ordinations without a pontifical mandate break the unity of the Church and are also subject to sanctions,” the secretary of state confirmed. He noted that he did not know “the timeframe nor the modalities according to which the excommunication will be pronounced.” When the SSPX previously carried out episcopal ordinations without papal permission on June 30, 1988, Rome declared the excommunications the very next day on July 1.
The act itself incurs the excommunication. A Vatican declaration simply formalizes it.
[Update: In a decree published on July 2, 2026, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, declared the excommunication of six bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). There were two consecrating bishops, and four being ordained.]
Despite the “grave wound” caused by these new consecrations, Cardinal Parolin shared his hope that “dialogue can resume.” He said he wished “that a solution could truly still be found” and the Holy See and the SSPX could “find ways that would make it possible to resolve this problem.”
However, the Pope’s right-hand man pointed out that a “fundamental point” of disagreement between Rome and the SSPX is the traditionalist group's refusal to recognize the Second Vatican Council. This 20th-century ecclesial gathering, held from 1962 to 1965, introduced liturgical reforms and marked a turning point in the Catholic Church’s relationship with the modern world.
“One certainly cannot think that the history of the Church stops at a given moment,” the cardinal noted. He defended the council as “a cornerstone in the history of the Church” that must be “accepted.”
