Declaration of Catholic Faith addressed to Pope Leo XIV by the SSPX

Until now, I have not addressed the current matters concerning the Society of St. Pius X. I do not attend Holy Mass at their chapels, though in the past I have and participated in their choir and, in Toronto, served on their New Church Committee under the former Priory priest. I hold great admiration for their work and for the achievements of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. I have always regarded the original excommunications as an unfortunate response, and I welcomed the actions of our late Pope Benedict XVI. I was pleased when Pope Francis granted them faculties, though I believe they made a strategic error by not requesting the appointment of new bishops, as I suspect he would have agreed.

Fast forwarding to the current situation, it seems to me that on both sides, there is an extreme lack of charity and far too much pride. The Society has never changed its arguments, and whilst we can appreciate it, in many ways, they cannot tell the Pope to rewrite the documents of the Second Vatican Council, nor expect him to respond in such a short timeline, if at all. They are arrogant and prideful. On the other hand, Vatican authorities are bellicose and arrogant themselves and think that all is well in spite of the reality staring them in the face. 

Now, we stand at the cusp of the consecration of new bishops, which they need, but without a papal mandate and the inevitable excommunication. I have said to many, when asked, that the solution is not that hard, and it requires charity and faith.

To me, the answer is simple.

"Holy Father, we accept that the Second Vatican Council is a valid Council of the Holy Catholic Church. We have some concerns about specific wording, but more importantly, the interpretation of those wordings and the resultant actions. We accept the licity alidity of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass according to the Roman Missal of 1969 when it is offered in accord with the official rubrics licit and with the correct intention, and we deplore, as do you, the abuses. We hope and pray that in the fullness of time, clarity removes all doubt as to the faith we have all experienced over the last 60 years. We ask you for the good of the Church and the salvation of souls for a mandate to consecrate bishops."

Pope Leo responds:

"My dear Sons, I grant you the mandate to consecrate. I invite you to a commission with all your bishops to engage in a permanent structure for your worldwide apostolate and a continuing dialogue where the clarification you seek is discussed and resolved."

How do you excommunicate this? 

Declaration of Catholic Faith addressed to Pope Leo XIV | FSSPX News

Declaration of Catholic Faith addressed to Pope Leo XIV

 May 14, 2026                     Source: FSSPX News  

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 

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 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 Saint 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 Saint 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