• Thirty-eight years ago, Archbishop Lefebvre performed the heroic act of consecrating four bishops without papal mandate. Because of that act:
  • The movement of traditional Catholicism has been able to grow and thrive in the past four decades.
  • Countless souls have been able to receive the traditional and authentic teaching of the Church and worship at the Mass of all time.
  • Other traditional communities, like the FSSP and the ICK, have been allowed to exist.
  • Many, many souls have been saved.
• This past week, our Superior General, Fr. Davide Pagliarani, announced that the SSPX plans to repeat this act of its founder. New bishops will be consecrated this coming July 1, even though we have not received permission from Rome to do so.
• This is a huge event in the life of the Church, and will have enormous consequences.
• In this sermon, I want to explain two things: why this act is necessary, and why it is justified.

Why it is necessary

• These consecrations are necessary because first of all because we have a duty to Holy Mother Church, to her spirit and her traditions. We do not want to abandon our Mother in this time of her greatest trial. On the contrary, we want to do all that we can to support her and sustain her.
• By the Providence of God, the life of Tradition in the Church today lives and dies with the Society of St. Pius X. These consecrations are necessary for the continuation of Tradition.
• Secondly, we need to do these consecrations for your sake, my dear faithful, for you faithful who have come to us in the midst of this crisis, who have asked the SSPX, “Please, give me the traditional catechism, give me the traditional sacraments, give me a traditional Catholic community.” The SSPX takes care of hundreds of thousands of souls around the world and, if it does not consecrate bishops, it will not be able to continue this work.
• The SSPX was established for the formation of good Catholic priests. But priests cannot be ordained without bishops. Only bishops can make priests.
• Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops for the SSPX in 1988. Since then, two of the bishops have died and the other two are in their late 60s. The two bishops who remain are traveling around the world in order to administer the sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Orders. They have been keeping up this insane rate of travel for 38 years.
• It is clear that, if the SSPX does not provide new bishops for itself soon, its work will not be able to continue.
• Think about St. Isidore’s. We have been having this capital campaign and the faithful have been so generous contributing to it. For what purpose? So that our church can stand the test of time, so that this community can flourish. But without these consecrations, it would not be able to exist one day.
• Without these consecrations, all of the work of the SSPX around the world would ultimately have to cease. The SSPX currently has about 1500 members, between its priests, brothers, and nuns; it is located in 77 countries and it has almost 800 Mass locations. Between the SSPX and the religious communities associated with it, there are 140 schools in the world. All this would go away without bishops. The hundreds of thousands of faithful would have to find somewhere else to go.