On the website of the SSPX we find a “Declaration of Catholic Faith addressed to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV by Fr. Davide Pagliarani Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X”
It was posted today, 14 May 2026, Feast of the Ascension of the Lord (the feast of up-rising humanity united in Christ).
Most Holy Father,
For more than fifty years, the Society of Saint Pius X has endeavoured to set before the Holy See a matter of conscience in the face of the errors that are destroying Catholic faith and morals. Regrettably, all the discussions entered into have remained without result, and none of the concerns expressed have received any truly satisfactory response.
For more than fifty years, the only solution truly considered by the Holy See has appeared to be that of canonical sanctions. To our great regret, it seems to us that canon law is thus being used, not to confirm in the Faith, but to lead away from it.
In the text that follows, the Society of Saint Pius X is glad to express to You, filially and sincerely, its devotion to the Catholic Faith, concealing nothing, either from Your Holiness or from the Universal Church.
The Society places this simple Declaration of Faith in Your hands. It seems to us to correspond to the minimum indispensable to be in communion with the Church, and to truly call ourselves Catholics and, consequently, your sons.
We have no other desire than that of living and being confirmed in the Roman Catholic Faith.
“Thus, remaining firmly rooted and established in the true Catholic Faith, strive always to be worthy ministers of the divine Sacrifice and of the Church of God, which is the Body of Christ.
For, as the Apostle says: ‘all that is not of faith is sin’,1 schismatic and outside the unity of the Church.”2
DECLARATION OF CATHOLIC FAITH
In the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, divine Wisdom, the Word Incarnate, Who willed one sole religion, Who rendered the Old Covenant definitively null and void, Who founded one sole Church, Who triumphed over Satan, Who conquered the world, Who remains with us until the end of time and Who shall come again to judge the living and the dead.
He, the perfect Image of the Father, the Son of God made man, was appointed the sole Redeemer and Saviour of the world through the Incarnation and the voluntary offering of the Sacrifice of the Cross. Our Lord satisfied divine justice by shedding His Most Precious Blood, and it is in that Blood that He established the New and Eternal Covenant, abolishing the Old. He is therefore the sole Mediator between God and men and the sole way to come to the Father. Only he who knows Him knows the Father.
By divine decree, the Most Holy Virgin Mary has been directly and intimately associated with the entire work of Redemption; to deny this association — in the terms received from Tradition — is therefore to alter the very notion of Redemption as willed by divine Providence.
There is only one Faith and one Church by which we may be saved. Outside the Roman Catholic Church, and without the profession of Faith that she has always taught, there is neither salvation nor remission of sins.
Consequently, every man must be a member of the Catholic Church in order to save his soul, and there is but one baptism as the means of being incorporated into her. This necessity concerns the whole of humanity without exception and embraces without distinction Christians, Jews, Muslims, pagans, and atheists.
The mandate received by the Apostles, to preach the Gospel to every man and to convert every man to the Catholic Faith, remains binding until the end of time and responds to the most absolute and most pressing necessity in the world. “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned.”3 Therefore, to renounce the fulfilment of this mandate constitutes the gravest of crimes against humanity.
The Roman Church alone possesses simultaneously the four marks that characterize the Church founded by Jesus Christ: Unity, Holiness, Catholicity, and Apostolicity.
Her unity flows essentially from the adherence of all her members to the one true Faith, faithfully preserved, taught, and handed down by the Catholic hierarchy throughout the centuries.
The denial of even a single truth of the Faith destroys faith itself and renders radically impossible all communion with the Catholic Church.
The only possible path to restoring unity among Christians of different confessions consists in the urgent and charitable appeal addressed to non-Catholics to profess the one true Faith within the one true Church.
The Catholic Church can in no way be regarded or treated on an equal footing with a false form of worship or a false church.
The Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ, is the sole possessor of supreme authority over the whole Church. He alone directly confers on the other members of the Catholic hierarchy jurisdiction over souls.
“The Holy Ghost was not promised to the successors of Peter that they might make known, by His revelation, a new doctrine, but that, by His assistance, they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the revelation transmitted by the Apostles, that is, the Deposit of the Faith.”4
To a unique Faith there corresponds a unique form of worship, the supreme, authentic, and perfect expression of that same Faith.
The Holy Mass is the perpetuation in time of the Sacrifice of the Cross, offered for many and renewed upon the altar. Although offered in an unbloody manner, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is essentially expiatory and propitiatory. No other form of worship offers perfect adoration. No other form of worship that is not ordered to it is pleasing to God. No other means is sufficient for the sanctification of souls.
Consequently, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass can in no way be reduced to a mere commemoration, to a spiritual meal, to a sacred assembly celebrated by the people, to the celebration of the Paschal mystery without sacrifice, without satisfaction of divine justice, without expiation of sins, without propitiation, and without the Cross.
The help afforded to souls by the Sacraments of the Catholic Church is sufficient in every circumstance and in every age to enable the faithful to live in a state of grace.
The moral law contained in the Decalogue and perfected in the Sermon on the Mount is the only one practicable for obtaining the salvation of souls. Every other moral code — founded, for example, on respect for creation or on the rights of the human person — is radically insufficient to sanctify and save souls. In no way can it replace the one true moral law.
Following the example of St. John the Baptist, true charity obliges us to warn sinners and never to renounce the means necessary to save their souls.
He who eats the Body of Our Lord and drinks His Blood whilst in a state of sin eats and drinks his own condemnation, and no authority can alter this law contained in the teaching of St. Paul and in Tradition.
Sins of impurity that are against nature are of such gravity that they always and in every circumstance cry to God for vengeance, and are radically incompatible with every form of authentic Christian love. Such a ‘lifestyle’ can therefore in no way be recognized as a gift from God. A couple practising this vice must be helped to free themselves from it, and can in no way be blessed — formally or informally — by ministers of the Church.
The submission of institutions and nations, as such, to the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ flows directly from the Incarnation and the Redemption. Therefore, secularism of institutions and nations constitutes an implicit denial of the divinity and universal kingship of Our Lord.
Christendom is not a mere historical phenomenon, but the only order willed by God among men.
It is not for the Church to conform herself to the world, but for the world to be transformed by the Church.
It is in this Faith and in these principles that we ask to be instructed and confirmed by Him Who has received the charism to do so. With the help of Our Lord, we would rather die than renounce them. It is in this immutable Faith that we desire to live and die, in the hope that it may give way to the direct vision of the immutable eternal Truth.
Menzingen, 14 May 2026,
on the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord
Davide Pagliarani
1 Rom. 14:23
2 Roman Pontifical, Admonition to ordinands to the subdiaconate
3 Mark 16:16
4 Pastor Aeternus, ch. 4
outstanding. and it makes the likely excommunications all the more tragic.
What beautiful Faith!
I’m very grateful to Society for writing this. Especially the part about the ‘lifestyle’. Can’t believe it needs to be clarified, but it does.
All the discussions of the last 50 years have remained without result? Come on. Pretty sure that would be easy to disprove. There’s a long list of concrete results, including issuance of doctrinal clarifications on the specific topics the SSPX requested.
In 1988 Archbishop Lefebvre argued a state of necessity because he didn’t think any bishops would ordain his seminarians. In 2026 there’s a long list of bishops and even Cardinals willing to do traditional ordinations. At the very least one must admit the argument is not the same at all.
In 2026 Fr Pagliarani says that ordinary parishes do not provide the means to assure one’s salvation. His remedy for this is to commit an act that will ghettoize his group to a point where they cannot possibly hope to help ordinary parishes. The argument does not make a lot of sense from a pragmatic standpoint.
Picture the face of a Modernist , scrunched up like a prune, as he read this. Ending with a spittle flecked nutty.
I would like to see Pope Leo and Tucho Fernandez sign this statement.
Nice statement. But the issue is still that they do not have a papal mandate to ordain bishops. Which is the higher … their appeal to conscience or Pope Leo’s role as sole representative to Christ on earth and keeper of the keys?
I can, from the society’s point of view, understand that they want to have this on the record. Their wish to be sons of the Church in the fullest sense possible is undoubtedly genuine.
At the same time, and they probably know this very well, the issue is not that they hold to the contents of this declaration. Yes, it is rather more strict than most would hold to (reads as a rather stringent application of extra ecclesiam nulla salus, for example) – but as has been remarked here before, positions like these – and this very one – didn’t prevent others to be reconciled without recanting. Sure, it will cause many a progressive bishop’s hair to stand on end, but at the end of the day those bishops could, for the most part, only claim this is pastorally insensitive, yabba-dabba and so on.
Which is again the point: their position is that they are not theologically deviant. Which is probably true enough, but not for me to decide.
But here’s the rub: neither is it for them to decide, and by implication to suggest that those who do disagree are causing “(…) errors that are destroying Catholic faith and morals”. The problem comes from that one word, ‘errors’, which passes judgement on positions – presumably all those not in line with their long list, though the text is not explicit in that sense. I regret to say that the root of protestantism was people thinking they should be their own pope, and it’s a sad irony that a society who wishes fidelity to the Church in all respects is struggling so much with that aspect.
We’ll see what comes out of it. I hope I’m not uncharitable, but I read this not just as “this is what we believe, can we please have our rightful place in the Church” (a praiseworthy plea, I’d say) but also as “this is what we believe, and until you believe it too, we’re going to sit in judgement over you and hammer your errors”. And the latter is not a proper way to deal with the Holy Father, regardless of the merits. Disagreement is one thing, and there’s plenty of scope for that, but it’s not for the society to declare what the bounds of the Catholic faith are, and I fear that is also part of the purpose of this statement.
I am stating the obvious when I say that we’re living in a disoriented time. A group like the SSPX that accepts and promotes what Church has always taught are anathematized as dangerous schismatics… while, simultaneously, heretical lay people such as the Arch Community Songstress are feted at the Vatican as top-shelf leaders of Christendom.
Credit to the SSPX for the careful crafting of their statement. We should hope for such care from the Roman curia. Curious allusions to the anti-semitism of some of their previous luminaries. Not quite sure what to make of what reads like a defense of some 15th century integralism. Heaven help us that their simple restatement of a moral principle unarguable in 1960 would draw shrieks from the lavender mafia (if they took the SSPX seriously.) I suspect it will go without a Vatican response, but the real audience was their adherents, not Leo, It became clear during the B16 years they were not serious about peace with the Church. still, it will be somewhat sad to see them go. It is weird that we may soon be on better terms with the Lutherans masquerading as the Synodal Weg than the SSPX. Kyrie eleison.
What a beautiful piece of writing. It will be a catechism for the ages.
The sad part is that things are in such a dysfunctional state within the Church right now, I’m sure some will use even this to bad mouth the SSPX and will rail against it. Yes, we’re at the point where a straightforward statement of the Catholic Faith will scandalize many within the Church. If that doesn’t support the understanding that there is an emergency within the Church, I don’t know what would.
Meanwhile, Tucho has failed to publicly state which doctrine taught by Vatican II the SSPX must unambiguously consent to in order to achieve “full communion.” His position has been almost entirely political and predicated on the sheer might of abused authority. The SSPX side has, quite literally, stated the Catholic Faith as their defense. And still, somehow, folks will side with Tucho.
These men are obviously Catholic. There is no intent to erect a “parallel hierarchy”, or effect a “schism”, at all.
Christendom? Interesting concept for me to think about.
I continue to pray that cooler heads will prevail and that Pope Leo XIV will meet with Fr. Pagliarani before these ordinations take place. The fate of 500,000 Catholic souls are at stake here. That is not such a small thing.
I had almost 8 years’ experience attending an SSPX chapel; I left because of a cult-like, completely in-bred environment, materialistic spirit, poor catechesis, bizarre personalities and near-total chaos.
Father’s letter, however, breathes a very different spirit. Would that his spirit trickles down to his laity.
The DOGMA Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus has been frequently misunderstood ever since its first promulgation in Antiquity, including the misunderstanding of exactly WHY it is Dogmatic and absolutely Infallible, and I actully think even Indefectible.
The Dogma was promulgated originally against a serious Heresy that the Salvation of the Faithful Jews (including those who lived prior to the Incarnation of the Lord) was somehow divergent from that of the Faithful Christians so that the Jews were saved into one Salvation and the Christians were saved into a different Salvation.
And then some people started to claim that each religion had its own “salvation” into multiple separate “heavens”.
Not so ; because ALL Salvation is through and in Christ.
The DOGMA states essentially that there is no Salvation except INTO the Church of our Christ, the Lord our God, and into what we call the Church Triumphant, the Church in Heaven, and that NO Salvation can possibly exist outside of Holy Church.
Outside of the Church of Jesus, there is no “salvation”.
But even so, to claim that the Sovereign Will and Power of God to Save whomsoever He may Decide to Save for His Reasons Alone might be subjected to some conditions established by this or that factionalist ideological bad theology is not Catholic, withstanding the reality that this is a VERY long-standing bad interpretation of the Dogma.
[St. Augustine taught that God can save whomever He chooses to save, and we cannot place limitations on what He can do. PERIOD.]
I’m sure the Maronite Catholics would be surprised to find there is no salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church. The SSPX have an unhealthily narrow vision of who is in the church, which I suspect doesn’t include me.
“The Holy Ghost was not promised to the successors of Peter that they might make known, by His revelation, a new doctrine, but that, by His assistance, they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the revelation transmitted by the Apostles, that is, the Deposit of the Faith.”
New doctrine is not the same as development to “faithfully expound” on revelation. What new doctines, or “paradigm shifts,” are now at issue for SSPX?
1) false religious liberty (aka indifferentism or dictatorship of relativism) promoted in Dignitatis Humanae
2) collegiality (aka synodality) promoted in Lumen Gentium
3) false ecumenism (e.g., protestant NO liturgy) promoted by Unitatis Redintegratio.
These errors are the same “liberty, equality, fraternity” mantra of the French Revolution’s religion of man and the smoke of Satan that led to modernist ecclesial errors (e.g., Mass is not a propitiatory Sacrifice) and the crisis of faith since the Council.
Vatican 1 was a proper response to the Revolution literally attacking the Church’s authority to claim infallible Truth and universal jurisdiction over bishops and faithful laity, but it left unresolved key issues regarding infallibility which produced a false spirit of Ultramontinism and Magisterial error. Vatican 2 unfortunately was theologically ambiguous and led to further false spirit on these same doctrinal issues that require first, clarity on the pope’s authority:
1) is it possible for the pope teach any error? (i.e., does infallibility extend beyond ex cathedra?)
2) is it possible for the pope to become a heretic?
4) can we ever disobey or resist the pope?
3) does the pope have absolute authority over the liturgy (excepting the form/matter of the Sacrament?)
SSPX will suffer martyrdom as a sacrifice that will, I pray, lead the Church to definitively resolve this crisis and declare what the Holy Ghost was promised to the successors of Peter — to inviolably keep and faithfully expound the revelation transmitted by the Apostles, that is, the Deposit of the Faith.
@B “Pope Leo’s role as sole representative to Christ on earth and keeper of the keys?”
The Pope is not Christ’s sole representative on earth. Common mistake. Each and every bishop is “vicar of Christ”. The Pope is the first amongst equals or the servant of the servants of God. cf. LG 27 and CCC 894, 1560.
One of the chief roles of the bishop is to teach the Faith. One of the chief roles of the Pope is to CONFIRM in the Faith that his episcopal brethren teach. The Pope isn’t to teach the Faith and the Bishops discriminate it, though practically that is what we have got since Vatican I, even though the texts of the documents don’t actually say that. Keep this in mind: there is a certain divergence between the current practice of the episcopal structure and what that structure looks like on paper.
The bishops are supposed to be ruling in the bonds of charity — that is not what is happening in the SSPX situation. The SSPX is arguing that they have a mandate to consecrate new bishops (conscience, evangelical mandate, emergency, etc.). The Vatican is arguing that the SSPX has to do what they say (without saying what it is that the Vatican actually precisely wants other than don’t consecrate new bishops).
We should expect spiritual fallout from this broken bond of charity should the consecrations go forth and result in excommunication. As not a member of the SSPX, I won’t speak to them, but I would suspect a spirit of legalism to grow stronger on the Vatican side of things — a legalistic Synodal Way is going to be real fun. As a form Prot., I know very well what this looks like, and I don’t want to be anywhere near it.
So Fr Pagliarani cites part of Pastor aeternus, but not the immediately preceding paragraph :-
So, then,
if anyone says that
the Roman pontiff has merely an office of supervision and guidance, and
not the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the whole church, and this
not only in matters of
faith and morals, but also in those which concern the
discipline and government of the church dispersed throughout the whole world; or that
he has only the principal part, but not the absolute fullness, of this supreme power; or that
this power of his is not ordinary and immediate both over all and each of the churches and over all and each of the pastors and faithful:
let him be anathema.