Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has issued a sharp public response to Pope Leo XIV’s appeal urging the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) not to proceed with planned episcopal consecrations without papal approval, escalating tensions as the July 1 ceremony in Écône, Switzerland, approaches.
According to LifeSiteNews, Viganò published his comments Tuesday on X, where he criticized Pope Leo’s open letter to SSPX Superior General Father Davide Pagliarani and questioned the Pope’s warning that unauthorized episcopal consecrations would constitute a grave schismatic act.
Referring to the Pope’s use of the phrase “the seamless tunic of Christ,” Viganò wrote: “In the imminence of the episcopal Consecrations of Écône, when ‘omnia parata sunt ad nuptias,’ comes the pathetic communication with which Leo reminds the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X that ‘to tear the seamless tunic of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity.'”
He also drew a comparison between Pope Leo’s appeal to the SSPX and the Pope’s participation in liturgical events with representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. According to LifeSiteNews, Viganò argued that “On the same day he signed this letter, Leo communicated ‘in sacris’ with a schismatic, the patriarch of Constantinople, during the Pontifical Mass of Saints Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica.”
Viganò further questioned what he viewed as an inconsistency in the Pope’s position regarding the SSPX. Citing Pope Leo’s warning that unauthorized episcopal consecrations would be a schismatic act, he wrote: “So now it would be the episcopal consecrations without a mandate that constitute a ‘schismatic act,’ while everything else would pose no problem at all, including the rejection of Vatican II and the Montinian Mass. Good to know… But which Prevost should we believe?”
According to LifeSiteNews, Viganò also suggested that any future excommunication of those involved in the consecrations could ultimately have positive consequences. He wrote: “The excommunication and the loss of all the privileges granted by Bergoglio to the Fraternity… will bring about a providential and healthy ‘reset.'”
He concluded by framing the current conflict in spiritual and eschatological terms, writing, “Even this, with a supernatural gaze, is part of the unveiling of the [end] times. ‘For nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, nor is anything secret that will not be known to all.'”
Pope Leo XIV’s original appeal called on the SSPX to abandon its plans to consecrate four bishops without a pontifical mandate, warning that such an action would deepen division within the Church and risk placing those involved outside full ecclesial communion.
The SSPX has announced that it intends to proceed with the consecrations on July 1 despite the Pope’s appeal. The Vatican has warned that episcopal consecrations carried out without papal authorization constitute a schismatic act under canon law and carry serious canonical consequences.
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