Controversial Bishops Appointed as Pope Warns of ‘Insurgency’ in Catholic Church

The division is not limited to the SSPX’s desire to conduct the Mass exclusively in Latin.

In the year Founded in 1970 by controversial French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the society seeks to preserve the medieval mystique in which priests, bishops, cardinals and the liturgy itself were seen as somehow close to God, and thus separate from ordinary people.

The SSPX opposes the Vatican on a number of policies designed to make the Church more accessible and balanced, including establishing relationships with other religions, recognizing the right to religious freedom, and engaging in larger social and political issues.

They even turned their backs on the faithful to face the medieval altar in defiance of the Vatican’s decision to allow priests to come into the congregation during mass.

SSPX Superior General David Pagliarani told the congregation in Aecon that the appointment is being made because “we love the Pope as the Vicar of Christ as the head of the Church… We no longer want to see the Pope humiliated by the side of false shepherds who represent false religions.”

The opposition is a challenge for the relatively new Pop Leo.

Although the association is small, with an estimated 600,000 followers compared to the Catholic Church’s more than 1.4 billion members, it is represented in many countries, including the United States, where it now has a devoted following in Kansas.

And the SSPX clearly has money. The inauguration was broadcast live on YouTube in seven languages.

Thousands of those in attendance were given baseball caps commemorating “Écône2026”. There were new gift packs of Swiss wines costing $92 (£80), each bottle featuring a metro image, with a cap shaped like a bishop’s crown.

So while Pope Leo has declared that he regards the new bishops as illegitimate and that their appointment is a clear attack on the Catholic Church, he may not want to do anything to make the feared schism worse.