Its founder, French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, formerly Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, and a Father of the Second Vatican Council, had been approached by French seminarians whom he said were being persecuted for their adherence to pre-Vatican II Catholicism teaching and ritual in the era following Vatican II. They were critical of what they perceived as the liberalism being taught in their seminaries, and were looking for the guidance of a seminary where they believed they would receive the correct Catholic doctrines. The Society was setup as an international training ground for priests, to maintain the true doctrines of the Church which they believed were being ignored or surpressed in other seminaries (evident by priests who no longer believed in the teachings of the Church, and a mass exodus from the priesthood). It was approved by the Vatican on February 18, 1971.
The SSPX has chapters throughout the world. Its main seminary is in Econe in Switzerland, and has others in the United States, France, Germany, the Phillipines, Australia, and Argentina. Lefebvre in 1988, with the assistance of Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer of Campos, Brazil, consecrated (Richard Williamson, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais, Alfonso de Galarreta and Bernard Fellay) were consecrated as Bishops. Their consecration was viewed by the Vatican as "valid but unlawful" (ie, valid in so far as a bishop can consecrate people as bishops, unlawful in so far as only the Pope could give prior authorisation for the exercise of such a power. Under canon law, anyone consecrating a bishop in a valid but unlawful manner with the intent of establishing a parallel church earns automatic excommunication, as do those they consecrate. Cardinal Bernadin Gantin issued a decree which stated the Vatican considered the act "schismatic." Pope John Paul II issued a Moto Proprio letter Ecclesia Dei Adflicta concerning the consecrations. In recent letters from the Ecclesia Dei Commission, however, Rome has now officially recognized that the Masses of the SSPX may be attended by the Catholic faithful and that Sunday obligation is fulfilled there, provided there is no "schismatic attitude" or intent (to which the SSPX adherents would reply that they had never intended schism in the first place, because they never intended to establish a parallel church).
The SSPX considers itself faithful to the Catholic Church and professes that it recognises Pope John Paul II as Pope. Many within Roman Catholicism consider the SSPX a "schismatic and excomunicated" group, although several leading officials in the Apostolic Signatura, Rome's highest Canonical court, as well as the Cardinal Prefect for the Authentic Interpretation of Canon Law argue that this is not possible, and that the SSPX is totally in communion with Rome.
The SSPX has nearly 400 priests as of 2003 in its ranks and commonly associates with independent priests. It collaborated for a number of years with Bishop Salvador Lazo of San Fernando de La Union, Phillipines and currently is in collaboration with Bishop John Bosco Manat of Thailand. The SSPX has been in on-and-off discussions with the Vatican about regularizing their relationship. For more information as to the Canonical status of the SSPX, consult the SSPX website or read "Is Tradition Excommunicated?" Archbishop Lefebvre has authored a number of works regarding the Catholic Faith and his own apostolate, all available from Angelus Press (" class="external">http://www.angeluspress.org/).
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