Doesn't one have the right -- under canon law -- to defend oneself?
To face his accuser?
To answer the charges?
The SSPX practically begged Prevost for an audience, but no, only those truly outside the Church are welcomed!
What rank hypocrisy!
From lifesitenews.com and written by LifeSiteNews staff Fri Jul 3, 2026 - 12:08 pm EDT: BREAKING: SSPX says Vatican excommunications ‘objectively unjust and invalid’ - LifeSite
"(LifeSiteNews) — The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has responded to the Vatican decree of excommunication over their July 1 episcopal consecrations without papal mandate, declaring the penalties “objectively unjust and invalid” while maintaining that, for the Society, “nothing has changed.”
On July 3, SSPX Superior General Father Davide Pagliarani sent a letter to Pope Leo XIV in response to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s July 2 decree and explanatory note declaring the Society’s four newly created bishops and two consecrating bishops “schismatic” and therefore excommunicated. The decree further identified all SSPX priests as schismatic, and thus subject to excommunication, while warning the lay faithful that “formal adherence” to the declared schism is an excommunicable offense.
“It appears to us that this decision once more brings to light the profoundly tragic context in which the universal Church finds herself,” Pagliarani began. “What the Society of Saint Pius X has done, and will continue to do, is nothing other than an extraordinary initiative for the salvation of souls, amidst the doctrinal and moral confusion into which the Church is plunged.” (Full text of the document below.)
Pagliarani, who heads the fraternity of traditionalist priests, made clear that the SSPX clergy “in no way claim to substitute ourselves for the Church, and we have no ambition other than to remain faithful to her,” adding that, consequently, the act of consecrating bishops without papal approval was one of “conscience.”
“We did not believe we could evade the moral duty we owe to souls, as we have already explained, both privately and publicly, to Your Holiness,” Pagliarani explained.
RELATED: SSPX superior general: ‘We belong to the Church because we have the same faith’
Basing his letter upon verses from St. Luke’s Gospel, the head of the Society lamented having made requests for “a measure of understanding for a sincere case of conscience,” only to have “received a stone.” Continuing, the letter states the Society’s petition to the Pontiff to have “the necessary means to continue forming good priests, so that they might pursue their mission of making Our Lord known to souls,” received in return “a serpent.”
“We had asked to be instructed and confirmed in the faith of all time; instead, we have been declared schismatic a second time,” Pagliarani writes.
Consequently, Pagliarani described the decree of schism and excommunication as “objectively unjust and invalid”; however, he added that “the Society of Saint Pius X promises You today that it will not receive these new sanctions … with bitterness or revolt.”
Instead, Pagliarani expressed the desire of the SSPX, “despite the sanctions” imposed upon them, to “devote all its energies to preserving Tradition and placing it at the service of the Church. In doing so, the Society of Saint Pius X does not merely maintain ancient customs; it fosters and preserves priestly vocations, religious vocations, and large, deeply Christian families – in a word, everything that manifests the vitality of the Church, of grace, and of the Catholic faith. Our intention is not to offer the Church a museum of antiquities, but rather the entirety of Tradition: fruitful, a source of spiritual life, embodied and lived out within souls."
Full text of the SSPX’s “Letter to the Holy Father regarding the Decree of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith” can be found below:
The Superior General
To His Holiness
Pope Leo XIV
Ecône, 3 July 2026
Among yourselves, if a father is asked by his son for bread, will he give him a stone? Or for a fish, will he give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he is asked for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? Why then, if you, evil as you are, know well enough how to give your children what is good for them, is not your Father much more ready to give, from heaven, his gracious Spirit to those who ask him? (Lk XI, 11-13)
Most Holy Father,
The notification of the decision taken by the Holy See regarding the Society of Saint Pius X, signed by His Eminence Cardinal Fernández, has reached us and is now a matter of public knowledge.
It appears to us that this decision once more brings to light the profoundly tragic context in which the universal Church finds herself. What the Society of Saint Pius X has done, and will continue to do, is nothing other than an extraordinary initiative for the salvation of souls, amidst the doctrinal and moral confusion into which the Church is plunged. We in no way claim to substitute ourselves for the Church, and we have no ambition other than to remain faithful to her.
In conscience, we did not believe we could evade the moral duty we owe to souls, as we have already explained, both privately and publicly, to Your Holiness.
We had asked for bread, that is to say, a measure of understanding for a sincere case of conscience – an act of fatherhood directed not so much toward the Society of Saint Pius X as toward souls, promising You to form them into true sons of the Roman Church; unfortunately, we received a stone.
We had asked for a fish, that is to say, the possibility of temporarily obtaining the necessary means to continue forming good priests, so that they might pursue their mission of making Our Lord known to souls; unfortunately, we received a serpent.
We had asked for an egg, promising to return it as soon as possible. Indeed, the holy Tradition that we preserve within souls belongs to the Church, our Mother – and not to the Society of Saint Pius X – and we are certain that one day a Pope will wish to employ it for the good of the universal Church; unfortunately, we received a scorpion.
We had asked to be instructed and confirmed in the faith of all time; instead, we have been declared schismatic a second time.
Despite the sanctions levelled against us, the Society of Saint Pius X sincerely renews the promise it has already expressed to Your Holiness. Allow me, in this regard, to freely reiterate what I have previously stated:
“The Society promises You […] to devote all its energies to preserving Tradition and placing it at the service of the Church. In doing so, the Society of Saint Pius X does not merely maintain ancient customs; it fosters and preserves priestly vocations, religious vocations, and large, deeply Christian families—in a word, everything that manifests the vitality of the Church, of grace, and of the Catholic faith. Our intention is not to offer the Church a museum of antiquities, but rather the entirety of Tradition: fruitful, a source of spiritual life, embodied and lived out within souls.
[…] I am certain that one day You yourself, or one of Your successors, will be able and willing to utilise this service, the offering of which, within the Church and for the Church, constitutes our sole reason for being.” (Personal letter addressed to His Holiness on 21 November 2025)
But above all, the Society of Saint Pius X promises You today that it will not receive these new sanctions – objectively unjust and invalid – with bitterness or revolt.
These recent condemnations, like those of the past, strike at what we hold most dear: our attachment to our Mother, the Roman Church. Yet, even in this trial, all things must work together for the good of souls and of the Church herself. Therefore, these condemnations compel us to love Holy Church even more, and to provide for her needs with all our strength, now more than ever. For this very reason, the Society of Saint Pius X willingly offers up the suffering caused by these new sanctions for the good of the universal Church and of Your Holiness.
We are certain that one day You yourself, or one of Your successors, will wish to adopt the program of Saint Pius X: “To restore all things in Christ,” Instaurare omnia in Christo. On that day, the
Holy Father will discover in the Society of Saint Pius X not a nest of serpents and scorpions, but a small army of loyal sons, ready to do anything to sustain Him in the restoration of all things in Our Lord, and to vindicate before all mankind the imprescriptible rights of Christ the King over all souls and over all nations.
On that day, the Holy Father will discover, with great joy and profound consolation, authentically Catholic souls whose bond with the Church was never founded upon the shifting sands of an ambiguous dialogue, but upon the rock of the faith of Peter.
We ask the Most Holy Virgin Mary to hasten the dawning of that day, and we pray, above all, that Your Holiness may experience this joy and consolation as soon as possible.
In the meantime, if You are able, despite Your recent decision, bless us as Your sons. For us, nothing has changed, and nothing ever will change.
Trusting in Divine Providence, from which nothing is hidden and which reads into the depths of every man’s heart,
I remain, Most Holy Father, your most devoted son in the Lord.
Don Davide Pagliarani"
End of article...
Pray for the SSPX and for us, too, because these tyrants in Rome will come after all the TLMs until they are relegated to the dustbin of history!
Pray for strength and honor!
Viva Cristo Rey! Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun, and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us...
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle...
St. Joseph, pray for us!!
Gene DeLalla
