SSPX: The True Catholic Bishops of the True Catholic Church?

"Among the documents published in the Letter is an older declaration, which had remained secret, written by Archbishop Lefebvre five years earlier, on October 19, 1983, amplifying that of November 21, 1974, and animated by the same spirit of rupture. This declaration shows that he had long since made the decision to consecrate bishops."

To safeguard the Catholic priesthood, which carries on the Catholic Church and not an adulterated Church, Catholic bishops are needed. We therefore see ourselves compelled, because of the invasion of the modernist spirit into the present clergy, even to the highest levels within the Church, to proceed to the consecration of bishops, the fact of this consecration having been admitted by the pope in Cardinal Ratzinger’s letter of May 30. These episcopal consecrations will be not only valid but, in view of the historical circumstances, probably licit. Whatever may be said of their liceity, it is sometimes necessary to abandon legality in order to remain within right.
† Marcel Lefebvre
Archbishop of the one Church of Jesus Christ, holy, catholic, apostolic, and Roman, by the grace of God and the election of His Holiness Pope Pius XII.

Marcel Lefebvre, “Déclaration publique à l’occasion de la consécration épiscopale à plusieurs prêtres de la Fraternité Saint-Pie-X,” October 13, 1983 [May 30, 1988], in La Lettre aux Anciens, June 1988, no. 5.

https://www.editionsducerf.fr/librairie/le-choix-de-la-rupture/

Lefebvre: Marks of the Church only with SSPX, not with others

Lefebvre: Marks of the Church only with SSPX, not with others "Where is the visible Church? The visible Church is recognized by the signs that she has always given for her visibility: she is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. (…) where are the true marks of the Church? Are they more in the official Church (it is not the visible Church, it is the official Church) or with us, in what we represent, what we are? If there is still any visibility of the Church today, it is thanks to you. These signs are no longer found in others. There is no longer any unity of faith among them, yet it is faith that is the basis of all visibility of the Church. Catholicity is one faith in space. Apostolicity is one faith in time and holiness is the fruit of faith, which materializes in souls by the grace of God, by the grace of the sacraments. It is quite wrong to consider ourselves as if we were not part of the visible Church. […] is to make a mistake in equating the official Church with th...

Fr. Brian Harrison, OS, MA, STD on the Status of the SSPX

Father Brian Harrison, OS, MA, STD on The Journey Home (EWTN) Editor, L. Gonzaga: With permission, I publish here a private group message written by Fr. Brian Harrison, OS, MA, STD addressed to two SSPX priests, whom I am not naming as their emails have not been approved for publication. This message was in support of an initial case made by Dr. Robert Sungenis on the status of the SSPX. On Fri, Sep 12, 2025, 5:55 PM Brian Harrison wrote: If I may be permitted to weigh in here: Dr. Sungenis is right. Pope Benedict XVI, even when lifting the 1988 excommunications on the SSPX bishops in 2009, said (via the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops), that the Society was not "in full communion" with the Catholic Church, and that he hoped this gesture would be a step towards bringing them back into full communion. As is well known, "not in full communion" with the Catholic Church is just the polite, ecumenically-oriented post-Vatican II term for being in schism ...

SSPX Masses and the Sunday Obligation by John Salza

In the span of just a few days, two well-known Catholics publicly gave what I maintain are erroneous conclusions regarding whether or not SSPX Masses fulfill the Sunday obligation. On September 18, 2024, in an interview with Gene Zannetti, Fr. Chad Ripperger stated that SSPX Masses fulfill the obligation. And on September 21, 2024, in an article by Daniel Payne for Catholic News Agency (about the Carmelite nuns who defected to the SSPX), Jimmy Akin of Catholic Answers is also quoted as suggesting that SSPX Masses fulfill the obligation (because he says Catholics can attend their Masses and receive Holy Communion). As I will demonstrate in this article, both statements fall short of a proper understanding of canon law, which lead to the erroneous conclusion. Note that I already addressed this issue at length in my November 2021 article “Do SSPX Masses Fulfill the Sunday Obligation?” (this previous article also analyzes all the negative judgments by the Holy See regarding SS...

SSPX Schism

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