The Society of Saint Pius X has announced the names of the priests who will be consecrated bishops at Écône on July 1.

In a communiqué issued from the SSPX General House in Menzingen on May 26, Father Davide Pagliarani, the Superior General of the society, said the names of the four priests had been presented to Pope Leo XIV “together with certain explanations necessary for a proper understanding of this step”.

The statement said the episcopal consecrations would take place “in a spirit of respect towards the supreme authority of the universal Church” and insisted that the move did not represent “a denial of, refusal of, or challenge to the supreme, full, and immediate power of jurisdiction of the Vicar of Christ over the universal Church”.

“The ceremony of July 1st will have no other purpose than to ensure the continued administration of the sacraments of Holy Orders and Confirmation, together with those sacramentals reserved to bishops, according to the traditional rite of the Holy Roman Church and the immemorial Faith,” the communiqué said.

It added: “The episcopacy to be received by these priests is therefore conceived solely as a service rendered to souls and to the Church during this unprecedented crisis of the Faith.”

The four priests named for consecration are Father Pascal Schreiber, rector of the SSPX seminary in Zaitzkofen, Germany; Father Michael Goldade, rector of St Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Dillwyn, Virginia; Father Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, Superior of the Benelux District; and Father Marc Hanappier, professor of theology at the society’s American seminary.

Father Schreiber, 53, was born in Switzerland and ordained in 1998 after studies at the seminaries of Zaitzkofen and Écône. After assignments in Germany and Switzerland, he spent more than a decade directing SSPX schools before becoming Swiss District Superior in 2016. Since 2020 he has served as rector of the German seminary.

Father Goldade, 45, comes from St Marys, Kansas, one of the principal centres of the SSPX in the United States. Ordained in 2004, he worked in Michigan and Connecticut before becoming prior of the large Kansas City apostolate. He was appointed rector of St Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Virginia in 2023.

Father Poinsinet de Sivry, 42, was ordained in 2008 and worked in schools and apostolates in France before being appointed head of the Benelux District in 2022. The communiqué noted his work at Saint Nicolas du Chardonnet in Paris, the church occupied by traditionalists since 1977.

The youngest of the four, Father Hanappier, 36, was ordained in 2013 and currently teaches metaphysics and dogmatic theology in Virginia. Before joining the seminary faculty he worked in schools in France and spent a year in Scotland improving his English while assisting in parish ministry.

The SSPX was founded in 1970 by Archbishop Lefebvre, the former Superior General of the Holy Ghost Fathers, after disputes over the reforms which followed the Second Vatican Council. Tensions with Rome escalated throughout the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in the consecration of four bishops at Écône on June 30, 1988.

Pope John Paul II declared at the time that the consecrations constituted “a schismatic act”, and Lefebvre and the four bishops incurred automatic excommunication. Archbishop Lefebvre defended his actions by arguing that extraordinary measures were necessary to preserve the traditional priesthood and sacraments.

Relations between Rome and the SSPX improved under Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who lifted the excommunications of the surviving bishops in 2009 and opened doctrinal talks with the society. Pope Francis later granted SSPX priests faculties to validly hear confessions and allowed local bishops to delegate them to witness marriages under certain conditions.

Image: The four priests to be ordained bishop by the Society of St Pius X. From left to right: Father Marc Hanappier, Father Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, Father Michael Goldade and Father Pascal Schreiber.

Image: The four priests to be consecrated bishops by the Society of Saint Pius X. From left to right: Father Marc Hanappier, Father Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, Father Michael Goldade and Father Pascal Schreiber.