By Alfie Cooper, Nottingham High School
“Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.” – JOHN MILTON, Paradise Lost
On July 2nd 2026, in the Borgo district of Rome at the Palace of the Dicastery, the Vatican declared to the public that the Auxiliary Bishop of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), Bishop Alfonso de Galarreta, alongside five other high profile SSPX members, had ‘ipso facto incurred’ the penalty of excommunication, a penalty specified by Cardinal Fernández to extend to all of the society’s sacred ministers. This historical decree concluded with a warning to all Catholic laity and clergy that they are ‘not to adhere to the schism of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X, lest they themselves incur ipso facto the penalty of latae sententiae excommunication’. Thus, due to ‘the schismatic act’ of performing an episcopal consecration of four priests without a pontifical mandate and against the expressed will of Pope Leo XIV, the SSPX severed the last remaining thread connecting their society to the Roman Catholic communion.
The day after his excommunication, from Écône in the canton of Valais in Switzerland, the Superior General of the SSPX, Don Davide Pagliarani, published an open letter to Pope Leo. Pagliarani described the society’s members as ‘a small army of loyal sons’ dedicated to sustaining the Church despite believing their excommunications to be ‘objectively unjust and invalid’. Furthermore, Pagliarani asserted that the society’s mission of evangelism was ‘nothing other than an extraordinary initiative for the salvation of souls’ and that their activities are something they ‘will continue to do’ in defiance of Pope Leo, whom Pagliarani repeatedly paralleled to the cruel allegorical father depicted in Luke 11:11-13.
Despite their conservative commitment to tradition, the actions of the SSPX seem more revolutionary than loyal, demonstrating Edmund Burke’s hypothesis concerning overly ambitious movements as having ‘some change in the church or state, or both, constantly in their view… For, considering their speculative designs as of infinite value, and the actual arrangement of the state as of no estimation, they are at best indifferent about it’. In line with Burke’s theory, it is evident from Pagliarani’s response that the SSPX are, at best, indifferent to the actual arrangement of the Church and Her Magisterium, holding the Apostolic authority over them with very little esteem. Rather than acting in the imitation of the Corinthians, whom Clement of Rome commended for ‘deferring in correctness to those who were set over you’, the SSPX leaned so heavily into their spiritual devotions that they fled Rome on the back of religious ecstasy rather than remaining in the divine chariot led by Faith, Hope, and Charity.
Regardless of whether an individual is sincerely committed to actualising the religious life, if they wish to be grounded in Christian soil, they must imitate Christ’s humility and act in deference to His authority, a normative authority that dwells within the Church when the sacred marriage between Christ and His Church is honoured by the Magisterium. This then raises the question of how one ought to act if they believe the Church has been unfaithful in this marriage, acting ultra vires, as can be identified during the Arian crisis of the 4th century. The answer to this was considered by Clement as he continued to praise the Corinthians who, in all their flaws, ‘harboured no resentments; any kind of faction or schism was an abomination to you’. Thus, Clement identified the significance of avoiding factionalism within the Church since, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the peacemakers reap joy, while those who neglect to plan unity devise evil. Such dedication to unity was neglected by the SSPX who knowingly followed the path leading to schism, in turn increasing the distance between their views and the popular positions held within the Church. Even according to their own theology, the active decision to trigger their departure from the body of Christ is deemed erroneous, for if they hold that the Holy Spirit guides the Church towards the establishment of Heaven on Earth, the gradual adoption of true doctrine will prevail over errors made by a distracted Magisterium since, through Christ, virtue will inevitably conquer vice.
To ground this evaluation in empiricism, it seems that in previous attempts led by the SSPX to find unity between the greater Magisterium and themselves, such discussions, according to Cardinal Fernández, had ‘proven futile’. Whilst a variety of factors triggered the failure of consensus, a major problem for both the SSPX and the Magisterium was their shared inability to bridge their divisions with mutual compromise since neither side would accept any meaningful concessions. When analysing these disputes, the words of St. Teresa of Ávila seem to echo throughout the argument of the SSPX that ‘friars or nuns who begin truly to follow their calling have more to fear from members of their own communities than from all the devils’, and whilst it may be true that the ‘calling’ St. Teresa describes cannot be attributed to the activities of the SSPX, it is clear that a spirit of disunity must linger within the Church to produce this recent schism. However, a forgotten Church teaching that can justify optimism amongst the youth for the future of the Church is the tradition that, despite all recent disagreements or schisms, the power of cohesion within the Church has in the past proven stronger than the spirit of disunity. Historically, the power of cohesion was emphasised in early Christian writings, as evidenced by the late sixth-century Life of Benedict. Its author, Gregory the Great, tells of two religious women who viewed others around them as inferior because they themselves had been born into noble families. When St. Benedict was told of their behaviour, he threatened to excommunicate them unless they repented; however, a short while after, the two women died without changing their sinful habits. During subsequent masses, as the deacon called out ‘If anyone is not in communion, let him withdraw’, the two women were seen leaving their tombs, being unable to remain within the church. Believing this to be a sign that they had been barred from communion, the women’s nurse appealed to St. Benedict who gave the nurse an offering to be presented to God on behalf of the two women so that ‘afterwards they will no longer be excommunicated’. From then on, the women were no longer seen leaving the church, having returned to communion with God.
From such fantastical stories expressing the gravity of the Church’s unique power to unify its believers, a clear tradition of fraternity and petition has emerged, establishing the teaching that the communion of saints enables the Church to prevail over internal discord. A week before I began writing this essay, I travelled into Nottingham and, passing them on the street, I overheard two young men discussing the excommunication of the SSPX (a surprising happenstance when considering that less than 10% of England is Catholic), both with a pessimistic tone of voice, as if they were melancholy for the Church’s future. Perhaps it is appropriate to mourn the current relevance of the Church in this predominantly secular world, where Sunday Mass attendance remains largely stagnated in most countries, the Pope’s calls for peace are rejected by Catholic politicians, and religiosity within the Western worldview appears increasingly absurd in the shadow of humanism. It is certainly true that in our postlapsarian world, the road to Heaven is strewn with obstacles, and, although I have taken comfort in the strong tradition of unity which the Church teaches, I cannot help but picture Milton’s imagery depicting Satan’s delightful boast in cultivating the fall of Paradise,
Th’ infernal empire, that so near Heav’n’s door
Triumphal with triumphal act have met,
Mine with this glorious work, and made one realm
Hell and this world, one realm, one continent
Of easy thoroughfare.
Milton’s devil asserts that through the introduction of sin into God’s creation, the descent into Hell seems smooth, as if Hell had conquered territory closer to Heaven by annexing the Earth. Although Milton’s epic was written some 360 years ago, the sense in which the transition from virtue into vice is an ‘easy thoroughfare’ strikes all the more true for Christians in the 21st century as it did for Milton living in Restoration England. However, according to Church teaching, future generations of Christians can be optimistic that human flourishing will increase regardless of how slow and regressive the process may seem. The Christian faith dictates that the easy thoroughfare into sin will be abolished by God, who works through the Church to grant sanctity to those within the Ark of Salvation, and although the sad circumstances of schism grasp our attention, the familiar examples of unity within each parish establish a steady incline for the future prosperity of the Church. Although the young Christian would be wise to recognise the relevance of this teaching in cultivating hope for the future prosperity of the Church, it is also their duty to take heed of the words of St. John Henry Newman that ‘we are bound to pray for our brethren that they and we may be led together into the pure light of the gospel, and be one as we once were one’.
13th July 2026
Bibliography
Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France. Edited by Conor Cruise O’Brien. Penguin Classics, 1986.
Clement of Rome. “The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians.” In Early Christian Writings. Translated by Maxwell Staniforth. Penguin Group, 1987.
Drozdziak, Andy. “UK Mass attendance jumps significantly; numbers still not quite pre-pandemic.” OSV News, February 14, 2025. Accessed July 11, 2026: https://www.osvnews.com/uk-mass-attendance-jumps-significantly-numbers-still-not-quite-pre-pandemic/.
Fernández, Víctor Manuel., and Kennedy, John J., and Matteo, Armando. Prot. No. 99/2009 (Decree). Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, 2026. Accessed July 8, 2026: https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Decree-of-the-Dicastery-for-the-Doctrine-of-the-Faith.pdf.
Fernández, Víctor Manuel., and Kennedy, John J., and Matteo, Armando. Prot. No. 99/2009 (Explanatory Note). Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, 2026. Accessed July 11, 2026: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20260702_nota-esplicativa-fsspx_it.html.
Gregory the Great. “Life of Benedict by Gregory the Great.” In Early Christian Lives. Translated by Carolinne White. Penguin Group, 1998.
Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Edited by John Leonard. Penguin Group, 2000.
Newman, John Henry. Apologia Pro Vita Sua. Edited by Ian Ker. Penguin Group, 1994.
Pagliarani, Don Davide. 3rd July 2026 Letter to the Holy Father. Society of Saint Pius X, 2026. Accessed July 8, 2026: https://fsspx.news/sites/default/files/documents/2026-07-03_letter_to_the_holy_father_en.pdf.
Teresa of Ávila. The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself. Translated by J. M. Cohen. Penguin Group, 1957.