Schism? Schism today?
Wow, I didn't have "catholic schism" on my 2026 bingo card
Schism today
Actually, let me add some context
There are several groups of traditionalist Catholics that have been pissed since something called Vatican 2, which updated a bunch of practices and official positions, and one group of those is called The Society of Saint Pius X. Their leader was excommunicated in 1988 for making bishops (?) without permission.
Those bishops are now hella old, so they decided to make some more, and the pope said that was automatic excommunication. (excommunication matters both as a matter of theology (sacraments performed aren't valid) and economics (the church stops giving them money, can take back property, etc))
Pope said don't, and they did, and now: schism?????
Apparently they claim not to be sedevacantists ("pope's not valid"), but idek what else you would call this.
Article from the Vatican press office (calling them Lefebvrians is apparently itself a diss, as that is the name of the founder and emphasizes the cult of personality aspect)
Excellent bluesky thread liveblogging the consecration (must be logged in, I think? Screenshots are highlights)
Tl;dr, from the replies to that thread
once again i have to say that the letter from the vatican makes it very clear that this is a christian hate group. they explicitly reject vatican 2, a series of doctrines meant to update the church's relationship with its body and the rest of the world. When the letter says that SSSX is disagreeing with the church's "understanding of and relationship to judaism", they mean that SSSX believes the antisemitic myth that jews killed jesus and ought to be held responsible for it.
in my opinion, the catholic church does not get credit for this change in policy, as it was only made in 1962 after literal CENTURIES of jewish persecution and oppression. However this is not a "root for the underdog" situation- the schismers are an extremist conservatives and should be called as such.
They also believe that women belong pregnant in the home, and wearing trousers is "an assault upon woman's womanhood and so they represent a deep-lying revolt against the order willed by God." Also, they practice Holocaust denial, funding far right extremist political groups, and many higher order members have been taken to court for sexual abuse against multiple women and children. So yeah. Not the scrappy underdogs stickin' it to the boring old pope, as I've seen some people here trying to pass them off.
They want to Make Catholicism Great Again.
