Schism is a word that make one think about the East-West Schism (1054), or Martin Luther, Ueli Zwingli, Calvin in the early 1500s. Not something one expects in a hot summer day in 2026.
But, this is what happened yesterday in Valais:
Nearly 40 years after the episcopal consecrations of 1988, which triggered the first break with the Vatican, the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X repeated this act, which it considered “schismatic,” by consecrating four bishops on Wednesday in its historic stronghold of Ecône, Switzerland.
This is the first time the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a traditionalist Catholic community founded by the French bishop Marcel Lefebvre and whose number of faithful worldwide is estimated at 600,000, has consecrated bishops since 1988.
This day is “historic,” declared Italian Abbot Davide Pagliarani, Superior General of the community, during his homily.
By ignoring the final appeal issued this week by Leo XIV, the four new bishops—French Abbots Michel Poinsinet de Sivry and Marc Hanappier, American Abbot Michael Goldade, and Swiss Abbot Pascal Schreiber—are de facto excommunicated, along with the last two bishops the fraternity had until now.
Religion is a private thing, but this is about money, properties and political power. Below this, there’s a web of land ownership, long-term leases (Baurecht), and who knows what else.
I had to look and the Society of Saint Pius X operates 28 chapels, 9 monasteries and 7 schools in Switzerland. Emphasis on “operates”, a big question on who owns all this. This article in French provides an introduction to the labyrinth of ownership and decision-making in Church-owned properties in Switzerland. This is not about God, it’s about legal personality, real estate management and speculation, internal controls for decision-making:
There’s also the labyrinth of religious taxes in each canton. Each canton has the sovereignty to recognize religious organizations with the purpose of collecting and distributing taxes. For example, 6 cantons (BS, FR, SG, BE, ZH, VD) recognize the Jewish. BS also recognizes 1 Muslim organization and other small Christian organizations.
THIS IS SWITZERLAND, so one can be sure that there was a popular vote about the issue in the past. So, in the canton of Valais (where the seminar where the schism took place) had a vote in 2024 where the people refused to recognize new religious organizations as legal personalities beyond the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformed Church.
Back to the Vatican, they don’t talk anymore about “wayward Catholics” but “Lefebvrites”. If I understood well, masses and marriages delivered by SSPX priests are invalid according to Catholic Church.
Who are he Lefebvrites? That’s quite a history:
The SSPX was founded in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in opposition to many of the liberal reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council, including the move to celebrate Mass in local languages rather than Latin.
During the war (WW2) Lefebvre lamented the Allied liberation of France, describing it as “the victory of Freemasonry against the Catholic order of Pétain”; an invasion, in his words, of “barbarians without faith or law”. He spoke approvingly of the “Catholic order of Pétain” and the society still organises pilgrimages to the Vichy leader’s tomb.
The group’s relationship with Rome fractured in 1988 after Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without papal approval, leading to excommunications. Benedict XVI subsequently lifted those excommunications in 2009 in an attempt to renew dialogue. That gesture caused an international outcry, since one of those rehabilitated was the UK bishop Richard Williamson, who had declared from a Canadian pulpit in 1989 that “there was not one Jew killed in the gas chambers.”
Right up to his death at age 84 from a brain haemorrhage in Margate last year (2025), Williamson was publishing weekly bulletins describing Jews as “God’s enemies,” characterising the Holocaust as a theological invention designed to suppress Catholicism, and recycling the full repertoire of Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theories.
Personally, I’ll put extra attention to avoid any issues with colleagues, suppliers, subcontractors, freelancers, etc. No idea about who can be hyper-sensitive in the following days.
) is not aimed at conversion.