Catholics insisting on attending SSPX Masses, etc. are at a crossroads.

 

Traditionalist Catholics face a difficult choice after Vatican cuts off breakaway group

By  HOLLY MEYER

Updated 6:23 AM CDT, July 17, 2026

For traditionalist Catholics who worship at churches affiliated with the breakaway Society of St. Pius X, Sunday Mass now comes with an extraordinary question.

Their priests and bishops have been excommunicated after the fringe movement on the Catholic right committed what the Vatican considers one of the faith’s gravest crimes: rupturing church unity by consecrating bishops without the pope’s consent. The Vatican says Catholics should stop going to the breakaway group’s worship services and activities, and that some sacraments administered by the society’s priests are illicit and invalid.

Yet inside the society’s churches, normal life has largely carried on. Service in the old Latin Mass is still being celebrated, baptisms performed, camps and pilgrimages are moving forward, and some faithful say they have no intention of leaving.

The consecrations two weeks ago posed a crisis for Pope Leo XIV because of his emphasis on church unity. The American pope has especially reached out to the conservative and traditionalist wing of the church, which in many ways were alienated during the Pope Francis pontificate.

Fallout from the excommunication remains uncertain

Several bishops in the U.S. are echoing the Holy See’s warning to the society’s faithful, urging them to switch to churches aligned with Rome.

“To embrace the unity called for by Christ is to remain attached to the vine and to be in communion with Pope Leo XIV and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church,” San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller wrote to his archdiocese.

His instruction echoes the schism declaration and excommunication decree issued July 2 by the Vatican’s doctrine office against the Society of St. Pius X, also known as SSPX, which has about 750 priests.

Will Catholics heed that call? It largely depends on where worshippers feel most connected, said R. Andrew Chesnut, the Catholic Studies chair at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“Longtime SSPX adherents often regard such statements through the lens of a decades-long conflict with Church authorities,” he said, “and are therefore less likely to be persuaded.”

The society was founded in opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council, which it considers rife with heresies and errors. The 1960s council revolutionized the church’s relations with Jews and other faiths, supported religious liberty for all, and allowed Mass to be celebrated in people’s everyday languages, rather than Latin.

SSPX leaders see the society as a defiant guardian of church tradition, and they have defended its July 1 consecrations as necessary for saving souls. The society has also questioned the soundness of the Vatican’s sanctions.

Chesnut said the response from society leaders was “remarkably consistent” with past flare-ups with Rome. Priests have been reassuring the faithful that there is no change in their mission to preserve traditional Catholic liturgy.

The society has appealed the Vatican decree, and U.S. district spokesperson James Vogel said it’s too early to judge its effect. For now, Masses and other activities haven’t stopped.

“I think a lot of people just continue to hold fast to what they’ve been doing,” he said.

That isn’t surprising, said Mike Lewis, managing editor of Where Peter Is, a Catholic commentary website supporting popes Francis and Leo.

“We’re talking about communities that have essentially been separate for 30 to 40 years. People’s families and social lives are wrapped up in this movement,” he said.

Some traditionalist faithful choose to double down

Jim De Piante’s ties to the Society of St. Pius X run deep. His parents helped bring the movement to North Carolina, and he belongs to St. Anthony of Padua, a society-affiliated church near Charlotte that bought land for a new campus the week after the excommunications.

If anything, the excommunications make him want to do “tradition even harder.”

“St. Anthony’s offers to me the traditional sacraments in the same faith that made every great saint throughout history,” De Piante said. He feels it’s his responsibility to preserve that faith for future generations.

While he’s not worried, De Piante knows others are, especially newer participants, and he has been offering guidance to SSPX faithful in his orbit. He’s noticed a small drop in attendance at St. Anthony’s, which draws a few hundred people to Sunday services, and knows families who are rattled and some who don’t plan to return. De Piante attended the new bishops’ consecrations in Switzerland and says he remains optimistic about the society’s future.

The Vatican urges Catholics to come ‘home’ or face consequences

When the Society of St. Pius X consecrated those bishops, the Vatican considered it a schismatic act, a disruption to church unity that resulted in the excommunication of SSPX bishops and priests. The society’s faithful were also warned that they, too, would face the church’s harshest sanctions if they “formally adhere” to the group.

Excommunication is a “medicinal” sanction or censure that can be lifted. Excommunicated people are not kicked out of the church but are barred from certain church activities.

Bishops such as Frank J. Caggiano of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, are inviting the society’s churchgoers to come “home.” In a letter to his diocese, he noted that excommunication doesn’t apply to people who accept the pope’s authority and attended SSPX churches simply to worship.

Still, going against the pope is no small transgression. Staying loyal to the society “would be to share in a separation from the Successor of Peter,” Caggiano warned.

Other SSPX faithful are facing a ‘crisis of conscience’

Ross McKnight is wrestling with what to do next.

Drawn to the society during the COVID-19 pandemic, he and his family enjoy the supportive, traditionalist community of a nearby SSPX church in Lacombe, Louisiana. He thinks a fair amount of people are, like him, having a “crisis of conscience.”

“We don’t want to abandon them in their dark hour,” he said. “At the same time, that’s not our first duty. The first duty isn’t to any particular person and/or group of priests. So, I think that’s the source of the conflict.”

García-Siller, the archbishop in Texas, has instructed Catholics not to attend the society’s local affiliate, and said he would no longer allow SSPX priests to preside at weddings or to minister in the archdiocese.

But livestreamed worship services show church life carries on at St. Joseph’s, as it does at other society churches.

During Mass on the first Sunday after the excommunications, the Rev. Stephen Zigrang ticked through more mundane announcements — building maintenance, a special collection, a baptism — before reassuring the congregation that there was no need to change course.

“The problem is, of course, family, friends,” said Zigrang, who declined The Associated Press’ request for an interview. “They’ll look at us crooked. But just smile, right? Say, ‘We like the old Mass. … You ought to come and try it.’”

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Associated Press writer Peter Smith contributed to this report.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Archbishop James Checchio statement on SSPX. Reminds faithful that the Archdiocese of New Orleans indeed has valid & licit Traditional Latin Masses

 

A Statement from Archbishop Checchio on the SSPX Excommunications

July 3, 2026

by Archbishop James Checchio

Having heard that the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X consecrated four new bishops this week against the explicit will of our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, and with disregard of his public cries for unity and his prior request for them to not proceed with the consecrations, I was truly disheartened. Whenever there is division in the Church, the entire body of Christ is affected. “If one part of the body suffers, all the parts suffer with it,” (1 Cor. 12:26)
 
In response, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has issued a very strong decree detailing the excommunication of all the bishops involved in the illicit consecrations. Moreover, the decree detailed that any clergy and lay faithful who continue to adhere to the schism of the SSPX also incur the penalty of excommunication. While this sounds like a strong penalty, we must always remember that excommunication is not intended to be permanent but is a charitable call to repentance and reconciliation.
 
This is particularly pertinent to the people of the Archdiocese of New Orleans given that there are two SSPX Chapels located within the archdiocese.  Of note, the decree stipulates that all clergy of the SSPX from this day forward are to be held as schismatics until they repent and are reconciled to the Body of Christ. Thus, the sacraments that they celebrate are henceforth illicit, and more significantly, the absolutions they offer in the Sacrament of Penance and the Marriages they witness are invalid. This is especially noteworthy because while Pope Francis had previously extended the faculties for these two sacraments to the priests of SSPX, the DDF has noted that they can no longer validly celebrate them. 
 
This is a significant moment in our Church’s history, and it is especially a time for us to unite in prayer for our brothers and sisters in the SSPX. Prayer and renewed unity are the only answers to division. I know there to be many faithful and sincere people in the archdiocese who attend liturgical celebrations in the SSPX. Their commitment to traditional values and their emphasis on strong family lives are very commendable. But now, more than ever, they need our prayers that they do not follow in the footsteps of those bishops who have placed themselves outside the Barque of Peter.
 
I want to offer a word of encouragement and invitation to those members of the SSPX who so dearly love the Traditional Latin Mass but who also wish to be in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church, both clergy and lay faithful. You most certainly have a place here in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. To the priests who serve in these chapels, my prayers and openness to you are united to the Sacred Heart of Jesus’ desire that we may be one. To the lay faithful who attend liturgies in these chapels, as well, I beg you to seek the counsel of priests of our Archdiocese as you discern the Lord’s call to abide in communion with Peter and the Church Christ founded.  We have several locations that offer the Usus Antiquior of the Roman Rite, and I am confident you can and will find a home if you wish. I have already visited one of these communities for Sunday Mass and will visit another in the coming weeks. The people are inspiring and I am sure you will find them so too. Please, come and be reconciled to God.
 
Our Holy Father Pope Leo, in his opening address to the cardinals at the most recent consistory said, “I need your support: strong, explicit, and public.” My brothers and sisters, this also applies to all of us as members of the Body of Christ. Our support of the Holy Father must be strong, explicit, and public. We've known this truth from the beginning of our Church:  Ubi Petrus ibi ecclesia—where Peter is, there is the Church.
 
Pray for those who are hurt or confused by these most recent occurrences, pray for the clergy and all lay faithful of the SSPX that they might seek to be reconciled to Christ and His Church, pray for unity among all Christians, pray for unity in our own Archdiocese, and especially, join me in praying for our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV. Please pray for me too, and know of my love, prayers and gratitude for you all!  

Should a Catholic go to Mass with the SSPX today; probably not a good idea

 

EWTN News explains: As a Catholic, can you attend an SSPX Mass?

 By Daniel Payne for EWTN News

The traditionalist group has been declared in schism with the Catholic Church after an illicit “ordination” of bishops.

The new illicitly ordained Catholic bishops — French Marc Hanappier, French Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, American Michael Goldade and Swiss Pascal Schreiber — stand next to Swiss traditionalist Catholic Bishop of the Society of Saint Pius X Bernard Fellay during a schismatic consecration in Econe, western Switzerland, on July 1, 2026. | Credit: Fabrice COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images

The Vatican this week issued a decree declaring that the bishops involved in the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X’s illicit consecrations have incurred automatic excommunication and that the group is in schism with the Church.

The illicit ordinations occurred in Écône, Switzerland, on July 2 after Pope Leo XIV had urged the group to “turn back” and refrain from carrying out the unauthorized rite.

The SSPX is a controversial fraternity of priests known for their strict traditional celebration of the Latin Mass and opposition to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

The group for years has enjoyed a canonically irregular status within the Church, and the faithful have generally been permitted to attend Masses held by SSPX priests. Yet the declaration of schism has raised questions about whether or not Catholics can still attend those liturgies without incurring canonical penalties.

The Vatican recognizes that the faithful may be able to attend an SSPX Mass without suffering excommunication, so long as there is no “formal adherence” to the SSPX.

Formal adherence was described in an important 1996 explanatory note from the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, on the “Excommunication for Schism Incurred by Members of Bishop Marcel Lefebvre’s Movement,” which was cited in the new decree’s own explanatory note.

It described two key components: an internal one of freely and consciously sharing the substance of the schism and an external one of making outward expression of that choice, such as the exclusive participation in SSPX Masses.

Notably, in the 1996 note, Vatican officials recognized “that occasional participation in liturgical acts or activities of the Lefebvrian movement — without adopting the movement’s attitude of doctrinal and disciplinary disunity — is not sufficient to constitute formal adherence to the movement.”

It added that in pastoral practice, it is necessary “to take into account the person’s intention and how that inner disposition is translated into action,” and such situations should “be judged on a case-by-case basis by the competent authorities.”

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on July 2 sent a letter to bishops worldwide outlining the means by which clergy and faithful who have taken part in the schism with the Church can return to full communion with the faith.

The letter stipulated that penalties for lay faithful who belong to SSPX “cannot be presumed automatically, but must be assessed case by case.”

The dicastery said that “imputably” in the matter “requires full awareness and deliberate consent.”

Some cases in which laypeople are not considered “imputable,” the dicastery said, include those who have attended SSPX Masses “only for liturgical or spiritual reasons,” along with those who “do not reject the magisterium or the authority of the Roman pontiff.”

‘Strongly discouraged’ for risk of schism, scandal

Nevertheless, the new decree’s explanatory note strongly admonishes the faithful “to remain firmly united with the Roman pontiff, with the bishops in communion with him, and with the entire Church … and to refrain from participating in the celebrations and activities organized by the aforementioned Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X.”

Ronald Bolster, an associate professor of theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and dean of the theology school there, said it would be “inappropriate and strongly discouraged to participate in the liturgies and activities” of the SSPX.

To do so, he argued, “would imply support for their schismatic act.”

“Participation could also be a cause of scandal, causing others to consider that such participation is appropriate, and more broadly, suggest that the laws of the Church and the authority of the vicar of Christ can be dismissed or disregarded without consequence,” he said.

William Newton, a theology professor and the chair of Franciscan University’s theology department, also argued that Catholics who attend SSPX Masses “collaborate” in the schism, though he noted that there are degrees of responsibility associated with it.

“Certainly, the culpability for this collaboration can vary as with any sin, because of ignorance or lack of freedom of will,” he said.

“However, the schismatic character of the SSPX has been confirmed by the Church, so ignorance, while still possible, cannot be assumed,” he added.

He noted that there are “alternative valid Masses available to the faithful,” which he said, “makes the choice to attend an SSPX Mass that much more likely to be willful collaboration with schism.”

The faithful “should not attend a Mass of the SSPX,” he argued.

Bolster described the schism event as a “most unfortunate situation.”

He urged Catholics to “join Pope Leo in praying that the concerns which have motivated this division can be addressed without further loss of unity. “

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was last month even firmer in saying Catholics should not attend SSPX Masses.

In his exclusive interview with EWTN News just days before the illicit consecrations, the cardinal was asked what faithful drawn to SSPX Masses should do if a schism follows. Müller said forcefully that they “shouldn’t go and cannot participate in the Masses of schismatic priests and bishops.”

Traditional Latin Mass successfully coexists with the Church remaining faithful to the Pope and Rome

 

As Pope Leo faces traditionalists’ schism, a Minnesota church merges old customs with fidelity

By:  GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO

July 3, 2026

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — With incense wafting to an elevated pulpit and 13 altar boys looking on, the priest at the Church of Saint Agnes preached about merging old Catholic customs with fidelity to the Vatican this week — as Pope Leo XIV tackled a major challenge from a traditionalist breakaway group.

“Our Catholic faith is a living tradition, and there is a difference between being rooted and being stuck,” the Rev. John Ubel said in homilies Sunday at English-language and Latin Masses.

Since the Second Vatican Council modernized the liturgy more than 60 years ago, celebrating Mass in the traditional Latin Rite that preceded those reforms has become a lightning rod of the theological, cultural and increasingly partisan divides among Catholics.

The conflict made global headlines when Leo declared Thursday that one traditionalist group — the Society of St. Pius X, founded to reject the Council’s reforms and celebrate exclusively the old Latin Mass — had formally broken with the Catholic Church.

The Vatican excommunicated the SSPX bishops and priests and warned its thousands of faithful after the society consecrated four men as bishops in defiance of Leo.

While the Latin Rite was not the cause of the rift, the acrimony and the lingering suspicion that all those who like it are ultraconservative rebels is an open wound at Saint Agnes, which isn’t affiliated with SSPX and has the church’s permission to celebrate Mass in Latin.

“For all who are attached to Tradition, I pray that they seek to maintain full ecclesial communion with our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV,” Ubel said Thursday.

A congregation continues to pray for unity

Saint Agnes, a historic church founded for German-speaking immigrants in what’s now a diverse, central neighborhood in Minnesota’s capital, offers one traditional Latin Mass per weekend, with the archbishop’s permission. It also has a modern version of the Mass in Latin and four in English.

“I believe that Saint Agnes is an example where the different forms of Latin Mass, and English, peacefully coexist, and, in many ways, I think it’s a model for how the church can respect various liturgical traditions and do so in full charity,” Ubel said in Sunday’s homilies.

Peter Draganowski, a 15-year-old incoming sophomore at Saint Agnes’ school, has been an altar boy at both English and Latin services for years. He prefers the latter despite the extra preparations and rituals.

“It’s really not hard, it just has a lot more moving parts,” he said in the parish hall as hot dogs and doughnuts were served after Sunday’s first English Mass. “The sacred mysteries deserve that beauty.”

The archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Bernard Hebda, expressed hope that local Catholics who had been attending SSPX chapels would now turn to approved services.

“We are blessed that the same traditional Eucharistic liturgy beloved by those who have worshiped with the SSPX in the past continues to be celebrated in six locations throughout the Archdiocese,” Hebda said in a statement. “I am confident that those who prefer the Traditional Latin Mass could find a home here.”

Latin Mass supporters are a small but vocal group

In addition to being celebrated in Latin, the old rite Mass diverges from standard services in other ways: The prayers are different and longer, the priest celebrates at the altar with his back to the congregation, and Communion is given out only on the recipient’s tongue, instead of in the hand, while kneeling at the altar rail. The priests also wear shorter “Roman-style” vestments and a black biretta hat.

Very few U.S. Catholics regularly attend Sunday Mass in the “extraordinary form” that predates the Vatican II reforms of the 1960s, according to Stephen Cranney, a lecturer at Catholic University of America in Washington, and co-author of an upcoming book on the Latin Mass in the United States.

He estimates that 510 such Masses are celebrated on Sundays in the United States, where there are more than 16,000 active parishes. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate said they don’t track the data.

Most American Catholics he surveyed who like this Mass say they do so because of the elaborate esthetics, the deeper sense of reverence, and the continuity with centuries of tradition, Cranney said. Only a small percentage said they oppose the Vatican II reforms, let alone support defying the pope, he added.

But the challenge has remained over the decades for popes that the threat of schism, or a rupture within the church, might lurk behind a preference for a more solemn liturgy.

“How do you … try to be accommodating to the people who might prefer the traditional Latin Mass while not giving fuel to the fire of people that want to split off?” Cranney said.

Two popes have taken different approaches

Leo’s two predecessors tried different approaches. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI upheld the validity of the Latin Rite and urged priests to offer such a Mass if their parishioners demanded it.

But Pope Francis cracked down on the practice in 2021-23, requiring individual bishops to give their approval for celebrating the traditional Mass and to determine if the faithful who wanted it had accepted the Vatican II reforms. He also restricted the use of parish churches for these services.

Francis said he acted because the old Mass had become a source of division in the church — although Vatican documents leaked last year after his death suggested most bishops actually had expressed general satisfaction with the practice.

Last fall, Leo allowed a U.S. cardinal to celebrate the old Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, which many traditionalists saw as an encouraging sign.

In the year since his election, Leo has spoken often of the need for unity. On Tuesday, before the SSPX consecrations, he again pleaded with the society not to proceed. Once they did, however, the Vatican warned the faithful to stop going to the society’s Masses, declaring “those who adhere formally” to the society are considered themselves schismatic and excommunicated.

“Not a competition” – Minnesota traditional Catholics hope to model a way forward

Parishioners at Saint Agnes said they were saddened by the schism and would continue to pray for a united church.

Nell O’Leary Alt, who grew up in the parish, said her family attends both Latin Masses, as well as English services.

As a mother of five children aged 5 to 16, she joked that she initially found the silent moments of the traditional Latin Mass intimidating, with nothing to cover the fussing and giggling of her growing family in the pews.

But they love the Latin worship: “It’s the same the saints knew all through the ages.”

Tom Graff, another “cradle Catholic” at the church who chants in the choir, said he’s drawn to the rites’ solemnity. But this week’s events highlight the importance of what he teaches his four children, about not falling into the trap of believing one form of worship is superior to another.

“I can appreciate both the ordinary and the extraordinary forms of Latin Mass, and Schubert’s Tantum Ergo as well as On Eagle’s Wings,” Graff said, referring to a centuries-old and a modern Christian hymn. “It’s about the holy sacrifice of Mass, regardless of the parish or the type of liturgy.”

Ubel believes having multiple Mass options is about inclusion rather than division.

“It’s not a competition to see who’s more Catholic,” he said.

Vatican sends instructions to Bishops on how to welcome back SSPX members who want to return to Catholic Church

 

Facade of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith 

Vatican

• catholic church
• dicastery
• faith

Lefebvrite priests and lay faithful: Procedure to return to Catholic communion

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has sent a communication to bishops around the world outlining what must be done to welcome back those who decide to leave the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X following the schismatic act that led to excommunication.

Vatican News

Following the schismatic act of July 1, a return to Catholic communion will not require repeating the experience of special commissions, such as Ecclesia Dei in the past, because the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has already established a procedure for both priests and lay faithful, directly involving diocesan Ordinaries and the leaders of the fraternities that follow the ancient rite and are united with Rome.

The instructions are being transmitted in these days through Apostolic Nunciatures, as already announced in the Explanatory Note published by the Dicastery on July 2.

Reconciliation for priests

The procedure set out by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, beginning on July 1, 2026, provides that a priest who has decided to leave the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X — and who is willing to accept the Second Vatican Council and the legitimacy of the Novus Ordo Missae, while remaining attached to the ancient rite — must “find an Ordinary — a diocesan Bishop, a Major Superior of clerical religious institutes of pontifical right or of clerical societies of apostolic life of pontifical right, etc. — willing to receive him ad experimentum.”

The priest must then “write by hand a letter to the Holy Father in which he presents himself and asks for the remission of the censures incurred because of the ordination he received from an excommunicated or irregular Bishop, or because, having been validly and legitimately ordained, he subsequently became a member of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X.”

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Profession of faith and Formula of adherence

The priest must also attach his certificate of priestly ordination and enclose, signed and dated, “the Professio fidei and the Formula adhaesionis.”

These are the Profession of Faith, which summarizes the content of the Catholic faith, and the Formula of Adherence, by which the priest promises fidelity to the Pope and commits himself not to attack him or his magisterium publicly.

He must accept the teaching of number 25 of the conciliar Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium on adherence to the Church’s magisterium. He must also declared that he considers the celebration of Mass according to the rites promulgated by Popes Paul VI and John Paul II to be valid, and that he adheres to the norms of the Code of Canon Law promulgated by Pope John Paul II.

The priest must have these documents — the letter with the certificate, the Profession, and the Formula of Adherence — sent by the Ordinary, “who will state in the accompanying letter his willingness to receive him ad experimentum in his Diocese or Institute.”

As soon as it receives the documents from the Ordinary, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith will draw up a Rescript remitting the censures and authorizing the Ordinary to receive the priest making the request “for a probationary period of at least one year and no more than three, at the end of which his incardination may proceed.”

Reconciliation for lay faithful

The procedure, the Dicastery explained, “concerns the question of imputability, or the degree of subjective responsibility, of lay faithful who have formally adhered to, or who attend, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X and who ask to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.”

It notes that the imposition of a penalty on lay people belonging to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, in fact, “cannot be presumed automatically, but must be assessed case by case.”

“Since imputability requires full awareness and deliberate consent,” the document of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith states, examples of proven imputability may include “lay people who belong to the Third Order of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X; lay people who habitually participate in celebrations of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X and formally share its doctrinal positions.”

The procedure to be followed

The procedure to be followed for lay people belonging to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X on whom a penalty has been imposed, and who ask to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, “implies a formal act of full adherence to Catholic doctrine and obedience to the Catholic hierarchy, under the jurisdiction of the local Ordinary, who is the guarantor of the unity of the particular Church.”

Therefore, a lay member of the faithful who has decided to leave the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X must present to his or her bishop the Professio fidei and the Formula adhaesionis, dated and signed.

“Once the documentation has been obtained, the local Ordinary will see to welcoming the lay member of the faithful at the times and in the manner, he deems most appropriate.”

Lay faithful who are not imputable

The document specifies that the following “are not to be considered imputable: lay people who have attended the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X only for liturgical or spiritual reasons; lay people who, while aware of the tensions with the Holy See, do not reject the Magisterium or the authority of the Roman Pontiff.”

As regards these latter cases, it will be sufficient for them to approach “a priest in full communion, with the decision not to attend the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X in the future.”