Cardinal Müller calls SSPX bishop consecrations schismatic, says Latin Mass remains valid

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the Society of St. Pius X’s plan to consecrate four bishops on July 1 in Écône, Switzerland, constitutes a schismatic act. He emphasized that the dispute concerns authority, not the Traditional Latin Mass, which he affirmed remains valid.

Müller told EWTN News In Depth that episcopal ordinations performed without a papal mandate are "absolutely impossible, against the will of God" and that those who carry them out are "not Catholic or anti-Catholic," stressing that this judgment is based on objective criteria.

He noted that without a papal mandate the consecrations would be valid but illicit, triggering an automatic "latae sententiae" excommunication. The cardinal likened the society to the Donatists, a historic schism, and said St. Pius X, the society’s patron, would pray against those who misuse his name.

"They should learn from the way of the Donatists," Müller said.

He distinguished devotion to the traditional liturgy from rejection of papal authority, calling them "two absolutely different questions," and described bishops who forbid the Traditional Latin Mass as "authoritarian."

When asked what faithful who attend SSPX Masses should do if a schism arises, Müller advised that they "shouldn’t go, and cannot participate in the Masses of schismatic priests and bishops."

The Vatican’s current doctrinal chief, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, also warned that the consecrations would be a schismatic act. The SSPX rejects the charge, arguing that the ordinations alone do not break communion, and on June 24 sent a "Declaration of Catholic Faith" to Pope Leo and the College of Cardinals. Superior General Father Davide Pagliarani cited a "state of necessity" because only two aging SSPX bishops remain to ordain priests.

Müller added that the upcoming consistory on June 26–27 would likely address topics such as atheism and artificial intelligence, and reiterated his criticism of what he called the abuse of "synodality" to promote ideas contrary to Church teaching on the priesthood and marriage.