Timeline

After the Pentagon announced it would livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Hassan, convicted of the 2009 Fort Hood shooting and scheduled for 3 December 2026 at Fort Hood, Cardinal Pietro Parolin said it is "certainly unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle" and that "the Church's position is one of total opposition to the death penalty." Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the USCCB, called the decision "a barbaric promotion of a culture of death" that "must be reconsidered."

Leo XIV confirmed Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, 69, as dean of the College of Cardinals after his election by the cardinal bishops, succeeding Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re. Under canon 352 §2 the cardinal bishops elect the dean and the Pope approves; since a 2019 decree of Pope Francis the term is five years, renewable. America reports that Tagle is the first Asian to hold the office.

In an interview with the French Catholic outlet Tribune Chrétienne, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said: "It's very clear to me that there was more unity in the Church when we were living under Summorum Pontificum than we are now under Traditionis Custodes." He said he feared some Catholics might again feel alienated from the Church, as reported by Ad Vaticanum.

Pope Leo XIV opened the Vatican meeting marking ten years of Amoris laetitia with an address in the Paul VI Audience Hall. He placed the exhortation in a line running from Gaudium et Spes and Familiaris Consortio, said the Church should find "renewed ways of proclaiming the Gospel, offering sacramental graces, accompanying families", and asked participants to share what has "challenged us" and the questions that have emerged. The published address does not take up chapter VIII or footnote 351 on the sacraments for the divorced and civilly remarried.

The annual Catholic Identity Conference, organised by The Remnant, met near Pittsburgh from 2 to 4 October 2026. InfoVaticana described a programme bringing together Vaticanists, liturgists and several bishops, with a keynote by Bishop Athanasius Schneider under a title referring to a "hostile takeover" within the Church; The Remnant reported that co-founder Eric Frankovitch closed the event by urging traditional Catholics to stop attacking one another.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, declared excommunicated for schism in 2024, posted a critique on X of Leo XIV's 25 September address at the Élysée Palace, which LifeSiteNews republished. He objected to the speech's favourable references to Enlightenment-era thinkers in connection with human rights and to its treatment of France's motto liberté, égalité, fraternité.

On the feast of the Canadian Martyrs, the SSPX's national pilgrimage to the Martyrs' Shrine in Midland, Ontario, could not enter the shrine church or venerate the relics there, after the Archdiocese of Toronto under Cardinal Frank Leo barred SSPX groups from diocesan sites following the 1 July consecrations; Mass was celebrated in a nearby park. In an update dated 6 October, the society's Canadian district superior, Fr. Yves Le Roux, asked the faithful to accept the decision without bitterness, writing "we fully submit to this decision of the Cardinal." The society put attendance at about 300.

During a 25–28 September visit to France that took him to Paris, Lourdes and Metz, Leo XIV pressed for unity and dialogue with France's traditionalist Catholics, many of them attached to the older Latin liturgy, Religion News Service reported. The Vatican estimated about 800,000 people at his open-air Mass in Paris, according to Al Jazeera.

At Vespers with French clergy and religious in Notre-Dame Cathedral on the first day of his visit to France, Leo XIV urged that the liturgy be celebrated "with dignity and decorum" (InfoVaticana's rendering) and asked his listeners to place communion with the Successor of Peter and with the Church above personal preferences for the sake of unity. LifeSiteNews suggested the passage could be read as a reference to the SSPX and the traditional Latin Mass; an UnHerd column later argued that Leo treats the old rite as a personal preference rather than a source of renewal.

On the eve of Pope Leo XIV's visit to France, France 24 reported that SSPX gatherings at the Lourdes shrine had been ruled out for October 2026, including the society's annual Christ the King pilgrimage. In a note dated 13 August, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes had withdrawn the SSPX's authorisation to celebrate Mass, administer sacraments or hold public prayers within the sanctuary, citing the 1 July consecrations. The SSPX's French district said it would maintain its 24–26 October pilgrimage to Lourdes.

On the day the Vatican published A Journey of Hope, its note marking sixty years of Nostra Aetate, Bishop Joseph Strickland wrote on X that the statement "must be rejected and repudiated by all who hold Jesus Christ and His Church as the only way to the Father," objecting to a passage on proselytism. LifeSiteNews reported his view that the note "can give rise to grave confusion"; The Letters from Leo, a newsletter covering the pontificate, pointed out that the note says dialogue must avoid relativism and syncretism.

Three dicasteries jointly published a note on interreligious dialogue since 1965, approved by Leo XIV on 22 June. It presents Nostra Aetate as the Church's response to the Shoah and includes a section on dialogue with the Jewish people.

In a letter dated 12 September 2026 and republished by OnePeterFive, Strickland told supporters who feared he had changed sides that he continues to defend the traditional Roman liturgy and has not moved from his positions.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Catholic University theologian Chad Pecknold, a Postliberal Order co-founder, had joined it as Principal Director for Cultural Outreach; he took leave from teaching. The appointment drew coverage across Catholic media amid disputes between the U.S. bishops and the administration over immigration (OSV News, National Catholic Register, America).

In a statement first published by journalist Diane Montagna, Bishop Athanasius Schneider described the SSPX as having faced a "tragic" choice between the integrity of the faith and formal recognition by the Holy See, while not offering a definitive juridical judgment on the Vatican's measures. Before the consecrations he had argued that an excommunication would be invalid because the Society did not intend a schismatic act.

The letter, dated 29 June 2026 and sent for a conference at Mount Angel Abbey, Oregon (14–19 August), urged those preparing liturgies, especially priests, to respect the rites promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II. Commentators linked it to Cardinal Roche's July interview.

A Justice Department Weaponization Working Group report released on 28 August described the FBI's 2023 Richmond memo as a grave failure. According to The Daily Signal, it found the FBI had opened assessments on two Catholic priests, later concluding they posed no threat, and that work on the memo continued after headquarters ordered it removed. A 2024 review by the department's inspector general had found no evidence of religious bias.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán accepted Gladden Pappin's resignation as head of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs on 31 July 2026; on 3 August the ministry named Botond Feledy as director general and returned the institute to ministry supervision (Telex, Hungarian Conservative).

In an interview published by The Tablet on 29 July, the prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship was widely reported as saying Leo XIV would not change Traditionis custodes or return to Summorum Pontificum. Traditionalist outlets responded critically.

Earlier in 2026 the Transalpine Redemptorists had publicly declared support for sedevacantism and declined juridical recognition to Pope Leo XIV. On 25 July bishops described as sedevacantist, reportedly including Pierre Roy, consecrated the community's founder, Fr. Michael Mary (Sim), at its monastery on Papa Stronsay in Orkney. The same day the Diocese of Aberdeen said a canonical process had found him guilty of schism and declared him excommunicated.

The Society lodged a preliminary recourse with the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith under canons 1734 and following, asking for the 2 July decree to be revoked and corrected for alleged errors in procedure and law, and argued that the filing suspends the decree. Canonists disputed that a recourse can suspend penalties incurred automatically, and The Pillar judged the Society's canonical prospects poor.

In a letter to Leo XIV, the SSPX rejected the excommunications as objectively unjust and invalid, denied that it is in schism and said it has no intention of leaving the Catholic Church.

A decree of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, signed by Cardinal Fernández, declared that the consecrating bishop, Alfonso de Galarreta, the co-consecrator, Bernard Fellay, and the four new bishops had incurred latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See, and warned clerics and lay faithful not to adhere to the schism. An accompanying explanatory note said the Society's clergy are to be considered schismatic and treated confessions heard and marriages witnessed by SSPX priests as invalid, a point disputed by some canonists and by Cardinal Gerhard Müller. The dicastery also issued a procedure for priests and faithful wishing to return to full communion.

At Écône, Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, assisted by Bishop Bernard Fellay, consecrated Pascal Schreiber, Michael Goldade, Michel Poinsinet de Sivry and Marc Hanappier as bishops for the Society of Saint Pius X, in defiance of the Holy See's warnings. The ceremony, which the Society streamed live, came 38 years after Archbishop Lefebvre's consecrations at the same seminary. Superior general Davide Pagliarani preached the homily.

On the eve of the ceremony, Leo XIV appealed to the Society to turn back, warning that the consecrations would deprive its faithful of the licit, and in some cases even valid, reception of the sacraments. In the letter, dated 29 June and addressed to superior general Davide Pagliarani, he wrote that "to tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity"; Pagliarani replied within hours asking for time for discernment.

Cardinal Raymond Burke celebrated the closing Mass of the 44th Paris–Chartres pilgrimage; organisers had stressed unity with Leo XIV amid the SSPX crisis, and reports put attendance at a record of nearly or just over 20,000.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith said the planned consecrations would constitute a schismatic act carrying excommunication, with Cardinal Fernández warning that formal adherence to schism is a grave offence against God. The statement said the society lacked the requisite pontifical mandate.

After Pope Leo XIV criticised the war with Iran, President Trump attacked him on Truth Social, and in a Fox News interview reported on 14 April Vice President Vance said the Vatican should "stick to matters of morality." The U.S. bishops' doctrine committee chair defended the pope's use of just-war teaching. The dispute continued: on 5 May Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt that the pope was "endangering a lot of Catholics" (OSV News).

Guillaume de Thieulloy closed Riposte catholique in late March 2026 (reports give 24 or 25 March), saying in a statement on Le Salon Beige that he had failed to find the right balance in reporting on abuse in the Church. In May 2026 Après la Ciase reported that a collective acting independently of him had relaunched the title at a new address; Breizh-info later reported a further relaunch by a former contributor.

Leo XIV called the presidents of the world's bishops' conferences to Rome for a meeting marking ten years of Amoris laetitia, praising the exhortation; the Associated Press described the letter as an endorsement, though it did not explicitly address access to the sacraments. The meeting was scheduled for 7–14 October 2026 in the Vatican, closing with a papal Mass on 14 October.

Pope Leo XIV met privately with sociologists Stephen Cranney and Stephen Bullivant, authors of a forthcoming Oxford University Press study of U.S. Latin Mass Catholics. The Holy See confirmed the audience without describing its content.

In a message signed on his behalf by Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and sent to the French bishops' spring plenary assembly in Lourdes, Leo XIV asked them to seek concrete solutions to include Catholics attached to the traditional Latin Mass generously while preserving communion. The Catholic Herald read it as a signal of openness rather than a formal change in the law.

In a letter dated 18 February, SSPX Superior General Davide Pagliarani confirmed that the consecrations would go ahead on 1 July, citing unresolved disagreement over the Second Vatican Council; Catholic World News reported that the Society had rejected a Vatican offer.

Officials of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by its prefect, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, met the SSPX at the dicastery; America reported that the Vatican held firm against the planned consecrations. Meeting superior general Davide Pagliarani with the Pope's approval, Cardinal Fernández proposed a structured theological dialogue on the minimum requirements for full communion, conditional on suspending the consecrations.

Religion News Service reported that newly released Justice Department files include 2019 messages in which Steve Bannon discussed with Jeffrey Epstein a never-made documentary based on In the Closet of the Vatican, writing that it "will take down Francis." RNS noted that it is unclear how serious the plan was. The book's author, Frédéric Martel, said he never accepted Bannon's offer.

Una Voce International and the Latin Mass Society said the SSPX plan made its regularisation more remote and appealed to Leo XIV on behalf of Latin Mass Catholics. Their leader Joseph Shaw later said the SSPX had "thrown a hand grenade" into the debate.

Strickland published a statement on the Society of St. Pius X's announced episcopal consecrations, which the SSPX's news service presented as a plea for apostolic continuity. On 23 February he wrote that some had misrepresented his views and asked for prayers for Pope Leo and the SSPX's leaders.

On 2 February 2026, at the society's seminary in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, France, superior general Davide Pagliarani announced that the Society of Saint Pius X would consecrate new bishops without a papal mandate on 1 July 2026, citing a "grave necessity" of souls and the unanimous support of its General Council. The society later launched a dedicated website for the ceremony, and the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith responded by arranging a meeting with it.

Pope Leo XIV received the superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter in a private audience at the Fraternity's request, during the apostolic visitation begun in 2024; the Fraternity called the meeting cordial.

At his general audience, Leo XIV described the Second Vatican Council as a guiding star for the Church's journey, recalling John XXIII's image of its opening as the dawn of a day of light. His 2026 Wednesday catecheses then worked through the Council's documents, including Lumen gentium, Sacrosanctum Concilium and Gaudium et spes.