Abp. Vigano: ‘True schism’ is with the ‘conciliar and synodal hierarchy,’ not the SSPX

Editor’s note: The following text is taken from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s X account, first published on February 12, 2026, and republished here in full.

(LifeSiteNews) — I cannot but note with sorrow and indignation the statement released February 12 by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, at the end of his meeting with Father Davide Pagliarani, Superior General of the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X.

After decades of humiliation, inconclusive dialogues, partial concessions revoked by Traditionis Custodes, deafening silences regarding doctrinal and liturgical deviations widespread throughout the Church, and even more serious doctrinal and moral errors promoted by the Supreme Throne, Rome now claims to make the suspension of the episcopal consecrations announced by the SSPX for next July 1 a preliminary condition for dialogue.

These consecrations are not acts of rebellion, but a supreme act of fidelity to the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church, which has been deprived for almost 60 years of bishops who preach integral doctrine and administer the sacraments without any compromise with error.

READ: Bishop of Charlotte orders pastors to play video about his ‘pastoral vision’ at all Sunday Masses

The dicastery’s statement subtly repeats the same modernist scheme seen in 1988: it offers a “theological dialogue” on issues the Holy See has always refused to seriously address – religious freedom, destructive episcopal “collegiality,” pan-heretical ecumenism, the Nostra Aetate declaration that equates false religions with the one true faith, and the Abu Dhabi Document – while threatening “schism” for the only gesture that is able to guarantee the certainty of apostolic succession.

But who wields “schism” as a weapon today?

Who excommunicated the bishops consecrated in 1988 for defending Tradition and its beating heart, the Catholic Mass?

Who excommunicated me and silenced me, while promoting declared heretics and covering up abuses of every kind?

Who forced the faithful to submit to an authority that has renounced immutable Catholic doctrine in the name of a “new humanism” and a “synodality” that is nothing other than the cancer of democracy applied to the Catholic Church in order to destroy from within its divine hierarchical constitution and Petrine primacy?

The true schism is not that of those who consecrate bishops to guard and transmit the Catholic faith in its entirety, but rather the schism of the conciliar and synodal hierarchy, which has denied apostolic Tradition, replacing sound doctrine with heretical ambiguities, true Catholic worship with a Protestantized liturgy, and legitimate authority with a totalitarian power exercised against the faithful who refuse to apostatize.

The Society of Saint Pius X does not need the permission of those who have renounced the faith to do what Providence asks of it: namely, to perpetuate the episcopal line faithful to Tradition. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre acted not out of schism, but out of necessity – that same state of necessity that persists today, aggravated by the systematic persecution of the Traditional Mass and the imposition of false doctrines that contradict the perennial Magisterium.

Therefore, with the clarity that the situation requires and with the responsibility that falls to those who have sworn to defend the faith even to the shedding of their blood:

• I urge the Society of Saint Pius X to categorically refuse to suspend the announced episcopal consecrations. They are non-negotiable: they are a sacred duty before God and souls;
• I urge the rejection of any “theological dialogue” that assumes that the Second Vatican Council is compatible with Tradition. The problem is not “interpreting” Vatican II, but recognizing that it introduced errors that undermine Catholic doctrine on essential points and jeopardize the salvation of souls;
• I declare that true ecclesial communion is not measured by canonical recognition by a hierarchy that has lost the faith, but by integral fidelity to Divine Revelation, to the two-thousand-year-old Magisterium, and to the Holy Sacraments transmitted without adulteration;
• I invite all Catholics of good will – clergy, religious, and faithful – to recognize that the state of necessity endures and that the salvation of souls requires pastors who do not compromise with error.

I am certain that the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X will continue to pray for the conversion of unfaithful pastors and for the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And that it will not trade the truth for a recognition that would mean accepting error and betraying the legacy of its founder, the venerated Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop

Viterbo, February 12, 2026