Timeline: The SSPX episcopal consecrations of 2026

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.

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 In a note dated 13 August, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes had withdrawn the SSPX's authorisation to celebrate Mass, administer sacraments or hold public prayers within the sanctuary, citing the 1 July consecrations.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.

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 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.

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.

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.