ROME — Yesterday, the ultraconservative Catholic society called the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (SSPX) consecrated four bishops, despite warnings from the Vatican and Pope Leo XIV.
The ordination in Switzerland represented a major act of defiance by the group in the growing divide between it and the church. SSPX teachings deny the central tenets of the Second Vatican Council, known as Vatican II, which implemented a series of important modern reforms for Catholics, among them allowing for Mass to be read not just in Latin but in local languages.
One of the four priests consecrated against the will of the pope was Father Michael Goldade, who was born in Williston, North Dakota, in 1980, and ordained in Winona, Minnesota, in 2004. His ordination, along with the three other priests, who were from Switzerland and France, by SSPX
appears to have been the final straw
for the pope.
On Thursday, July 2,
that the bishops had incurred excommunication “for having carried out ‘an act of a schismatic nature.'”
Because bishops are considered to be the successors of Jesus’ 12 apostles, one of the church’s steadfast and strict rules has long been that only the pope can authorize the consecration of new bishops, in order to maintain that ancient tie.
Excommunication is a “grave canonical sanction,” according to the Vatican, which called the act a “painful epilogue” and a consequence for going “against the will repeatedly expressed by Pope Leo XIV.”
In addition to excommunicating the bishops, the Vatican’s decree also excommunicates any “lay faithful” who formally adhere to SSPX, and invalidates any sacrament administered by ministers of SSPX, including marriages and penance.
“The Church, as a caring mother, will welcome with sincere affection and lively solicitude all those who wish to return to the full communion,” the decree read.
While he was born in North Dakota, Goldade was raised in Kansas, according to his biography on the website for the St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Virginia, where he was serving as rector up until his consecration on July 1. He entered seminary and was first ordained at the Immaculate Heart of Mary college in Winona.
In its story about Thursday’s announcement, Reuters called SSPX an “ultra-traditionalist group, which denies key Church teachings,” and said the Vatican’s use of the word “schism” in its decree gave the move additional weight.
“A schism is a term to indicate a severe, formal rupture inside the Catholic community,” the Reuters story said.
SSPX followers are sometimes known as Lefebvrists after their founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who was excommunicated in 1988 after a similar unauthorized ordination of bishops. According to Reuters, SSPX has 733 priests among its ranks around the globe.
Goldade was unsparing in his comments following Wednesday’s ceremony about what he deemed “the modernist church,” which he likened to a disease. Many SSPX followers believe the outcomes of Vatican II were an attempt to embrace modernism, which Pope Pius X, for whom SSPX is named, wrote a famous oath denouncing.
“Today, we see such wreckage. If the Catholic Church in her tradition brings forth life, the modernist church is a desert. It kills. It kills everything that it touches,” Goldade said. “It kills the supernatural life. It kills the sources of grace. It dries up everything. It has placed man in the place of God and therefore turned away from the sources of life.”
In its conclusion, Thursday’s Vatican decree encouraged Catholics to steer clear of SSPX.
“Finally, all the faithful are urged to remain steadfast in communion with the Roman Pontiff, with the Bishops in communion with him, and with the whole Church … and to refrain from taking part in celebrations and activities promoted by the aforementioned Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X.”