‘There is no intention from the leadership of the SSPX to separate themselves from Rome,’ Schneider said.(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Athanasius Schneider said that any excommunication imposed on the Society of Saint Pius X over its planned episcopal consecrations would not be valid under canon law.
Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan, and former Apostolic Visitor of the Holy See to the Society of Saint Pius X, stated on Monday that a possible excommunication of the Society following its planned episcopal consecrations on July 1 would be invalid because the SSPX leadership does not intend to perform a schismatic act.
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In his view, a papal approval could foster greater cooperation between the Society and the rest of the Church and facilitate theological discussions about doctrinal questions that have emerged in recent decades.
Schneider also commented on the participation of the faithful in SSPX liturgies. He noted that the Society’s Masses include prayers for the Pope and the local ordinary bishop, which he presented as evidence that the Society continues to recognize the Holy See’s authority.
“During the Mass, they pray for the Pope,” Schneider said. “If they would not pray for the Pope, then it should not be attended, but they always pray for the Pope, and even for the local bishop where the Mass is celebrated.”
In written comments sent by email to Haynes, Schneider also argued that some senior churchmen strongly oppose the integration of the Society within the broader life of the Church.
“It is not a secret that there are strongly influential high-ranking clergy in our day, who simply hate all that is authentic Catholic tradition in doctrine and liturgy,” he wrote, and these people “would be happy if the SSPX could be just excommunicated, whereas in the same time they show the greatest possible tolerance towards all what is ambiguous and heretic in doctrine and liturgy, as it is the case with the so-called German Synodal Path.”
Schneider emphasized that for the neo‑modernist cardinals and bishops currently in power—who, in his view, support “sacrileges and heresies”—even a “minimal ecclesial integration of the SSPX would be unacceptable,” since they are “cowardly collaborators with the agenda of the world’s ideological elites.” Any agreement with the Society, he argued, would “unmask their betrayal of Christ and increase a reconquest of true Catholicity within the life of the Church in our day.”
The SSPX has justified the planned consecrations by citing the ongoing state of emergency in the Church. Fr. Gerald Murray has recently challenged that argument, maintaining that the existence of other priestly communities celebrating Traditional Latin Mass means that such a state of emergency no longer exists.
Schneider rejected that assessment. “We are still in a situation of emergency and extraordinary crisis in the Church,” he said, “where even unfortunately, in Rome, Rome still promotes in some way this tendency of modernism, of relativism, and lack of clarity, and this is the situation.”
Schneider has had direct involvement with the Society in the past, having served as the Holy See’s official Apostolic Visitor to the two SSPX seminaries in Ecône (Switzerland) and Zaitzkofen (Germany) during the pontificate of Pope Francis in 2015. His experience in that role has made him one of the bishops most familiar with the internal life of the Society.