The Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X has said he is “astonished” that Pope Leo XIV has yet to respond personally to the group’s request for talks ahead of planned episcopal consecrations next month.

In an interview with in-house SSPX News, Fr Davide Pagliarani said he still hoped to meet the Pope before four SSPX priests are consecrated bishops at Écône, Switzerland, on 1 July, but admitted he was struggling to understand the Vatican’s silence on the matter.

“Of course, that corresponds to my most sincere desire,” Fr Pagliarani said when asked whether he still hoped for a meeting with the Pontiff.

“I am nevertheless astonished that, from the Holy Father, there has been no response or personal reaction up to now.”

The remarks come days after the SSPX announced the names of the four priests who will be consecrated bishops. In a communiqué issued from the society’s General House in Menzingen, Fr Pagliarani said the names had been presented to Pope Leo “together with certain explanations necessary for a proper understanding of this step”.

The planned consecrations pose a significant challenge to the relatively new pontificate. In February, the Vatican warned that episcopal consecrations carried out without papal approval would constitute “a decisive rupture of ecclesial communion” and urged the SSPX to suspend its plans while theological discussions continued.

Despite that warning, Fr Pagliarani indicated that he believed direct engagement from the Pope was still possible. “Before perhaps declaring schismatic a society that counts more than a thousand members, and which constitutes a point of reference for hundreds of thousands of faithful around the world, it might be desirable to personally know those who are to be judged,” he said.

“The sanction envisaged does not only affect an institution, which, moreover, does not exist in the eyes of the Holy See; it affects people, and people deeply attached to the Pope and to the Church.”

He added: “I confess that I struggle to understand this silence, even as we are often reminded of the need to listen to the cry of the poor, that of the peripheries, and even that of the Earth.”

The interview also contained a striking assessment of the late Pope Francis, whose pontificate saw a number of practical concessions granted to the SSPX despite the society’s continued criticism of the post-conciliar Church.

“The programme that Pope Francis imposed on the universal Church is sufficiently well known and has been widely commented on by the FSSPX,” Fr Pagliarani said. “I believe that, unfortunately, the word ‘disaster’ is the most appropriate to sum up the legacy he has left.”

Yet the SSPX superior also spoke warmly of his personal dealings with Francis, saying the late Pope had recognised the good carried out by the society and had shown him considerable kindness. “Pope Francis knew how to recognise, in his own way, the good that the FSSPX does for souls,” he said. Furthermore, “when I asked to meet him at the Vatican, I obtained an audience with him within twenty-four hours, and he proved particularly affable.”

The 26 May communiqué which announced the names of the future bishops said the episcopal consecrations would take place “in a spirit of respect towards the supreme authority of the universal Church” and insisted that the move did not represent “a denial of, refusal of, or challenge to the supreme, full, and immediate power of jurisdiction of the Vicar of Christ over the universal Church”.

“The ceremony of 1 July will have no other purpose than to ensure the continued administration of the sacraments of Holy Orders and Confirmation, together with those sacramentals reserved to bishops, according to the traditional rite of the Holy Roman Church and the immemorial Faith,” the communiqué said.

The four priests named for consecration are Fr Pascal Schreiber, rector of the SSPX seminary in Zaitzkofen, Germany; Fr Michael Goldade, rector of St Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Dillwyn, Virginia; Fr Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, Superior of the Benelux District; and Fr Marc Hanappier, professor of theology at the society’s American seminary.

Photo credit: SSPX.org